A SEMANTIC STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF MEANING CHANGE IN YORUBA-ENGLISH SPEAKERS

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the frequency and type of speech disfluencies (stuttering-like and nonstuttering-like) in bilingual Spanish–English (SE) children who stutter (CWS) to SE children who do not stutter (CWNS) during narrative samples elicited in Spanish and English to provide further diagnostic information for this population and preliminary data toward an expansion of this study. Method Participants included six bilingual SE children (three CWS, three CWNS) ranging in age from 5 years to 7;5 (years;months) and recruited from the surrounding Houston, Texas area. Participants provided a narrative sample in English and Spanish. The frequency of speech disfluencies was tabulated, and mean length of utterance was measured for each sample. Results Results indicate that both talker groups exceed the diagnostic criteria typically used for developmental stuttering. Regardless of the language being spoken, CWS participants had a frequency of stuttering-like speech disfluencies that met or exceeded the diagnostic criteria for developmental stuttering that is based on monolingual English speakers. The CWNS participants varied in meeting the criteria depending on the language being spoken, with one of the three CWNS exceeding the criteria in both languages and one exceeding the criteria for percentage of stuttering-like speech disfluencies in one language. Conclusion Findings from this study contribute to the development of more appropriate diagnostic criteria for bilingual SE-speaking children to aid in the reduction of misdiagnoses of stuttering in this population.

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Dynamic Assessment With Bilinguals: A Focus on Increasing Clinicians' Confidence

Perspectives on Communication Disorders and Sciences in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Populations ◽

10.1044/cds22.3.112 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 22 (3) ◽

pp. 112-121 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Brenda K. Gorman

Keyword(s):

Standardized Tests ◽

Dynamic Assessment ◽

English Speakers ◽

Bilingual Children ◽

Assessment Practices ◽

Speech Language Pathologists ◽

Idea 2004 ◽

Disabilities Education Act ◽

Effective Dynamic ◽

Education Act

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are obligated to judiciously select and administer appropriate assessments without inherent cultural or linguistic bias (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act [IDEA], 2004). Nevertheless, clinicians continue to struggle with appropriate assessment practices for bilingual children, and diagnostic decisions are too often based on standardized tests that were normed predominately on monolingual English speakers (Caesar & Kohler, 2007). Dynamic assessment is intended to be a valid and unbiased approach for ascertaining what a child knows and can do, yet many speech-language pathologists (SLPs) struggle in knowing what and how to assess within this paradigm. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to present a clinical scenario and summarize extant research on effective dynamic language assessment practices, with a focus on specific language tasks and procedures, in order to foster SLPs' confidence in their use of dynamic assessment with bilingual children.

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Production of Subject-Verb Agreement in Spanish as a Second Language

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1026//1617-3169.50.3.196 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 50 (3) ◽

pp. 196-203 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Janet Nicol ◽

Delia Greth

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Spanish Speakers ◽

English Speakers ◽

Error Patterns ◽

Verb Agreement ◽

Different Types ◽

Semantic Variables ◽

Advanced Proficiency

Abstract. In this paper, we report the results of a study of English speakers who have learned Spanish as a second language. All were late learners who have achieved near- advanced proficiency in Spanish. The focus of the research is on the production of subject-verb agreement errors and the factors that influence the incidence of such errors. There is some evidence that English and Spanish subject-verb agreement differ in susceptibility to interference from different types of variables; specifically, it has been reported that Spanish speakers show a greater influence of semantic factors in their implementation of subject-verb agreement ( Vigliocco, Butterworth, & Garrett, 1996 ). In our study, all participants were tested in English (L1) and Spanish (L2). Results indicate nearly identical error patterns: these speakers show no greater influence of semantic variables in the computation of agreement when they are speaking Spanish than when they are speaking English.

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Is the Future the Right Time?

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000036 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 57 (4) ◽

pp. 308-314 ◽

Cited By ~ 96

Author(s):

Marc Ouellet ◽

Julio Santiago ◽

Ziv Israeli ◽

Shai Gabay

Keyword(s):

Auditory Task ◽

English Speakers ◽

Visual Modality ◽

Opposite Pattern ◽

Time Line ◽

Temporal Reference ◽

Left Hand ◽

Reading Direction ◽

Mental Time Line ◽

The Right

Spanish and English speakers tend to conceptualize time as running from left to right along a mental line. Previous research suggests that this representational strategy arises from the participants’ exposure to a left-to-right writing system. However, direct evidence supporting this assertion suffers from several limitations and relies only on the visual modality. This study subjected to a direct test the reading hypothesis using an auditory task. Participants from two groups (Spanish and Hebrew) differing in the directionality of their orthographic system had to discriminate temporal reference (past or future) of verbs and adverbs (referring to either past or future) auditorily presented to either the left or right ear by pressing a left or a right key. Spanish participants were faster responding to past words with the left hand and to future words with the right hand, whereas Hebrew participants showed the opposite pattern. Our results demonstrate that the left-right mapping of time is not restricted to the visual modality and that the direction of reading accounts for the preferred directionality of the mental time line. These results are discussed in the context of a possible mechanism underlying the effects of reading direction on highly abstract conceptual representations.

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