Sentence imitation as a tool in identifying expressive morphosyntactic difficulties in children with severe speech difficulties

Preschoolers’ earliest productions of sentential complement sentences have matrix clauses that are limited in form. Diessel proposed that matrix clauses in these early productions are propositionally empty fixed phrases that lack semantic and syntactic integration with the clausal complement. By 4 years of age, however, preschoolers produce sentential complement sentences with matrix clauses that are more varied. Diessel proposed that the matrix clauses in these later productions semantically and syntactically embed the complement clause. We refer to these matrix clauses as formulaic and true, respectively. Diessel’s hypothesis about the development of sentential complement sentences was based on an analysis of spontaneous language. The purpose of this study was to evaluate Diessel’s hypothesis with an experimental sentence imitation task wherein stimuli varied in the nature of the matrix clause. Thirty children with typical language development participated; 10 children in each age group (3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds) imitated 50 sentential complement sentences that included either a true or a formulaic matrix clause; the structure of the dependent clauses did not vary. Dependent variables were percent sentence imitation and percent matrix clause imitation. There was a significant main effect for matrix clause type on imitation of sentences and matrix clauses. There was also a significant main effect for age on imitation of sentences and matrix clauses. Significant matrix clause type-by-age interactions were such that percent sentence imitation and percent matrix clause imitation varied by age. Three- and 4-year-olds were less proficient than 5-year-olds on imitation of sentences with true matrix clauses and on imitations of true matrix clauses. Only 3- and 4-year-olds were less proficient imitating true matrix clauses than formulaic matrix clauses. Experimental findings support Diessel’s hypothesis that there is a developmental progression in the nature of preschoolers’ production of sentential complement sentences.

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Open class and closed class: Sentence-imitation experiments on intrasentential code-switching

Applied Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1017/s014271640001047x ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 18 (3) ◽

pp. 257-276 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Shoji Azuma ◽

Richard P. Meier

Keyword(s):

Response Times ◽

Code Switching ◽

The Other ◽

Speech Errors ◽

Sentence Repetition ◽

Closed Class ◽

Sentence Imitation ◽

Open Class ◽

Japanese English

ABSTRACTOne of the most striking facts about exchange errors in speech is that open class items are exchanged, but closed class items are not. This article argues that a pattern analogous to that in speech errors also appears in intrasentential code-switching. Intrasentential code-switching is the alternating use of two languages in a sentence by bilinguals. Studies of the spontaneous conversation of bilinguals have supported the claim that open class items may be codeswitched, but closed class items may not. This claim was tested by two sentence repetition experiments, one with Japanese/English bilinguals and the other with Spanish/English bilinguals. The results show that the switching of closed class items caused significantly longer response times and more errors than the switching of open class items.

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Nonword Repetition and Sentence Imitation as Clinical Markers for Primary Language Impairment in bilingual French-English- and English-French-speaking children in Northern Ontario

Diversity of Research in Health Journal ◽

10.28984/drhj.v1i0.19 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 1 ◽

pp. 61-69

Author(s):

Sara Dubreuil-Piché ◽

Jenna Lachance ◽

Chantal Mayer-Crittenden

Keyword(s):

Language Impairment ◽

Theoretical Background ◽

Target Language ◽

Nonword Repetition ◽

Bilingual Children ◽

Primary Language ◽

Clinical Markers ◽

Language Exposure ◽

Sentence Imitation ◽

Primary Language Impairment

Studies indicate that nonword repetition and sentence imitation are useful tools when assessing bilingual children. Bilingual children with primary language impairment (PLI) typically score lower on these two tasks than their typically developing counterparts. Studies show that bilingual children are not disadvantaged during nonword repetition if they have limited language exposure. However, since sentence imitation tasks are constructed with words from the target language, it is expected that it would be more influenced by previous language exposure. The goal of this article will be to review the influence of bilingual exposure on both tasks. This review provides the theoretical background for future studies that will compare the accuracy of both tasks when identifying PLI in bilingual children.

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How Sensorimotor Interactions Enable Sentence Imitation

Minds and Machines ◽

10.1007/s11023-015-9384-8 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 25 (4) ◽

pp. 321-338 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Tzu-Wei Hung

Keyword(s):

Sensorimotor Interactions ◽

Sentence Imitation

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Children’s and adults’ initial phonological acquisition of a foreign language

Journal of Second Language Pronunciation ◽

10.1075/jslp.18033.kop ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 5 (3) ◽

pp. 374-401

Author(s):

Romana Kopečková ◽

Christine Dimroth ◽

Ulrike Gut

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Adult Learners ◽

Foreign Language ◽

Discrimination Task ◽

Phonological Acquisition ◽

Phoneme Discrimination ◽

Sentence Imitation ◽

German Children ◽

L2 Perception

Abstract This study compared children’s and adults’ L2 perception and production in the first hours of exposure to a foreign language. A total of 10 German children and 19 German adults performed a phoneme discrimination task and a sentence imitation task in Polish at two testing times. Exposed to a comparable input, the adult learners were found to perceive Polish sibilant contrasts more accurately than their child counterparts and to maintain this advantage over a two-week-long instruction. However, the two groups did not differ in their developing ability to produce the tested sibilants. A great deal of inter- and intra-individual differences in both learner groups was also attested. Our findings suggest that young L2 instructed learners are not necessarily better and/or faster perceivers and producers of novel language sounds than adult L2 instructed learners, who are able to discriminate a range of novel sibilant pairs even after very limited L2 exposure.

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On the Optimization of Sentence Imitation in Primary School English Teaching from the Perspective of Strong Memes

English Language Teaching ◽

10.5539/elt.v10n5p11 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 10 (5) ◽

pp. 11

Author(s):

Wang Lin

Keyword(s):

Primary School ◽

Crucial Role ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

English Language ◽

Language Teaching ◽

English Teaching ◽

Sentence Imitation ◽

Language Teaching And Learning

A sentence is an important unit in English language, and plays a crucial role in language teaching and learning as well. For many years, sentence teaching is always worth discussion in English teaching, because sentence imitation is very important for students’ construction of logical discourse. This paper, based on memetics, proposes some certain optimization strategies of sentence imitation in primary school English teaching from the perspective of strong memes, and points out that efficient sentence imitation is of great importance in primary school English teaching.

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Syntactic Complexity, Fluency, and Accuracy of Sentence Imitation in Adolescents

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/jslhr.4001.95 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

pp. 95-106 ◽

Cited By ~ 54

Author(s):

Stacy W. Silverman ◽

Nan Bernstein Ratner

Keyword(s):

Language Acquisition ◽

Young Children ◽

Syntactic Complexity ◽

Linguistic Structure ◽

Complexity Results ◽

Grammatical Complexity ◽

Sentence Imitation

The majority of work that suggests a relationship between syntactic complexity and the frequency of stuttering has been carried out with young children. In this paper, we investigate whether or not syntactic complexity exerts an influence on the frequency of stuttering in adolescent speech. Fourteen adolescents, 7 of whom stuttered, and 7 of whom were normally fluent, ages 10–18 years, participated in a sentence imitation task in which stimuli were divided into three classes of grammatical complexity. Results indicated that for both groups of speakers, normal disfluencies and errors in repetition accuracy increased as syntactic complexity increased. However, stuttering frequency did not appear to be affected by changes in the syntactic complexity of the target stimuli. Such findings suggest either a diminution of the effects of syntactic complexity on stuttering over the course of language acquisition or changes in the mix of chronic and nonchronic stuttering speakers from those used in earlier studies of the effects of linguistic structure on stuttering in children.

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An Objective and Time-Efficient Method for Determining Severity of Childhood Speech Delay

American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology ◽

10.1044/1058-0360(2004/007) ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 55-65 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Carol A. Johnson ◽

Audrey D. Weston ◽

Barbara A. Bain

Keyword(s):

Efficient Method ◽

Speech Delay ◽

Individual Child ◽

Child Characteristics ◽

Efficient Alternative ◽

Sentence Imitation ◽

Sampling Procedures

To address the need for an efficient and valid approach to determining the severity of a child’s speech delay, this study compared 2 types of sampling procedures to derive a measure of percentage of consonants correct (PCC; L. D. Shriberg & J. Kwiatkowski, 1982). PCC scores of twenty-one 4- to 6-year-old children with speech delay derived from both an imitative sentence task and a conversational task were compared. Scores did not differ significantly and corresponded favorably with a reference criterion (S. M. Benner, 1992) for determining clinical equivalence. The imitative approach required considerably less time to complete. Thus, the sentence imitation procedure offers a valid and efficient alternative to conversational sampling. However, clinicians should consider individual child characteristics when choosing an imitative approach.

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