Does the Use of Complex Sentences Differentiate Between Bilinguals With and Without DLD? Evidence From Conversation and Narrative Tasks

Over-identification of language disorder among bilingual children with typical development (TD) is a risk factor in assessment. One strategy for improving assessment accuracy with bilingual children is to determine which linguistic sub-domains differentiate bilingual children with TD from bilingual children with developmental language disorder (DLD). To date, little research on sequential bilinguals with TD and DLD has focussed on complex (multi-clausal) sentences in naturalistic production, even though this is a noted domain of weakness for school-age monolinguals with DLD. Accordingly, we sought to determine if there were differences in the use of complex sentences in conversational and narrative tasks between school-age sequential bilinguals with TD and with DLD at the early stages of L2 acquisition. We administered a conversation and a narrative task to 63 English L2 children with TD and DLD, aged 5–7 years with 2 years of exposure to the L2. Children had diverse first language backgrounds. The L2-TD and L2-DLD groups were matched for age, length of L2 exposure and general L2 proficiency (receptive vocabulary size). Language samples from both tasks were coded and analyzed for the use of complex versus simple sentences, for the distribution of complex sentence types, for clausal density and mean length of utterance (MLU). Complex sentences included coordinated clauses, sentential complement clauses, adverbial clauses and relative clauses. Using regression modelling and PERMANOVA, we found that the L2-TD group produced more complex sentences than the L2-DLD group, with coordinated clauses, adverbial clauses and relative clauses differing the most between the groups. Furthermore, the two groups differed for mean clausal density, but not for MLU, indicating that clausal density and MLU did not estimate identical morphosyntactic abilities. Individual variation in complex sentence production for L2-TD was predicted by longer L2 exposure and task; by contrast, for L2-DLD, it was predicted by older age. This study indicates that complex sentence production is an area of weakness for bilingual children with DLD, as it is for monolinguals with DLD. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Is Bilingual Receptive Vocabulary Assessment via Telepractice Comparable to Face-to-Face?

Purpose: This study investigated the effect of delivery method (face-to-face or telepractice), time, home language, and language ability on bilingual children's receptive vocabulary scores in Spanish and English. Method: Participants included bilingual children with ( n = 32) and without ( n = 57) developmental language disorders (DLD) that were assessed at 2 time points about 1 year apart. All children participated in face-to-face assessment at Time 1. At Time 2, 41 children were assessed face-to-face and 48 children were assessed using telepractice. Results: Delivery method was not a significant predictor of receptive scores in either Spanish or English. Spanish and English receptive vocabulary increased over time in both children with and without DLD. Children with DLD had lower receptive vocabulary raw scores than children with typical development. Children who spoke English-only at home had significantly higher English receptive scores than children who spoke Spanish-only or both Spanish and English at home. Conclusions: Face-to-face and telepractice assessments seem to be comparable methods for the assessments of Spanish and English receptive skills. Spanish and English receptive skills increased over time in children with and without DLD. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.17912297

Literacy Development in L1 in Bilingual Education

This chapter explores literacy development in the mother tongue (L1) in bilingual education programs. To explore the impact of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) on literacy development in L1, a large-scale study was conducted in a monolingual autonomous community (Castilla-La Mancha) located in central Spain. Scores obtained by CLIL and non-CLIL (n=4,231) learners aged 9-10 in a writing task and in a reading comprehension test were compared. Results showed CLIL was not detrimental for literacy development in L1, since no significant differences were detected between both groups in their overall proficiency in written production and reading comprehension. However, a differential achievement was observed depending on the type of instruction CLIL/non-CLIL in some areas. Significant differences were observed in favour of CLIL students in receptive vocabulary, expressive richness and spelling, whereas the non-CLIL group was ahead in critical reading, planning strategies, and use of text typologies.

Exploring the Korean Hangul Word Decoding Properties of Children with Reading Disabilities: Implication for Reading Intervention and Reading Related Language Factors

Objectives: This study analyzed the Korean Hangul word decoding properties of children with reading disabilities by considering reading intervention and reading related language factors.Methods: A corresponding sample t-test, correlation analysis, and repeated measurement were examined for the relevance of Hangul and reading difficulties, predictors of Hangul reading difficulties, and the effects of Korean word meaningfulness (word/non-word) and spelling regularity (regular/irregular) variables.Results: 1) After reading intervention, children with reading disabilities improved in their Hangul decoding, listening comprehension, phonological awareness, and word writing scores. 2) Before and after reading interventions, variables related to decoding were receptive vocabulary, phonological awareness, word writing, and rapid naming. 3) The variables of children’s ability that predicted decoding were word writing, listening comprehension, receptive vocabulary, and rapid naming; and the variable that predicted non-word decoding was word writing. Phonological awareness, which showed significant correlation with decoding scores, did not act as a significant predictor of decoding scores. 4) Reading interventions and decoding-level variables (word meaning and spelling regularity) both showed significant effects in the decoding of Korean Hangul, especially after reading interventions.Conclusion: The reading disability of Hangul is acting on both the characteristics of the ideogram and phonogram system, and the characteristics of Hangul’s unique spelling system.

A Longitudinal Study of Language Use During Early Mother–Child Interactions in Spanish-Speaking Families Experiencing Low Income

Purpose: This longitudinal study assessed continuity and stability of productive language (vocabulary and grammar) and discourse features (turn-taking; asking and responding to questions) during mother–child play. Method: Parent–child language use in 119 Spanish-speaking, Mexican immigrant mothers and their children at two ages ( M = 2.5 and 3.6 years) was evaluated from transcriptions of interactions. Results: Child productive language significantly increased over the year, whereas mothers showed commensurate increases in vocabulary diversity but very little change in grammatical complexity. Mother–child discourse was characterized by discontinuity: Mothers decreased their turn length and asked fewer questions while children increased on both measures. Rates of responding to questions remained high for both mothers and children even as children increased and mothers decreased over time. Mothers and children showed significant rank-order stability in productive language and measures of discourse. Mothers' rate of asking questions and children's responses to questions during the first interaction predicted children's receptive vocabulary a year later. Conclusions: As children become more sophisticated communicators, language input remains important, with discourse features growing in relevance. Children's early opportunities to respond to parents' questions in the context of play benefit their language skills. This work extends the evidence base from monolingual English-speaking families and is interpreted in the context of prior research on parenting practices in U.S. families of Mexican origin.

Vocabulary Abilities and Parents’ Emotional Regulation Predict Emotional Regulation in School-Age Children but Not Adolescents With and Without Developmental Language Disorder

A comprehensive approach, including social and emotional affectations, has been recently proposed as an important framework to understand Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). There is an increasing considerable interest in knowing how language and emotion are related, and as far as we know, the role of the emotional regulation (ER) of parents of children with and without DLD, and their impact on their children’s ER is still unknown. The main aims of this study are to advance our knowledge of ER in school-age children and adolescents with and without DLD, to analyze the predictive value of expressive and receptive vocabulary on ER in school-age children and adolescents, and to explore parental ER and their effect on their children’s and adolescents’ ER. To cover all objectives, we carried out three studies. In the first and second study, expressive and receptive vocabulary were assessed in wave 1, and ER (Emotional Regulation Checklist -ERC- for children and Emotion Regulation Scale -DERS- for adolescents) was assessed in wave 2, 4 years later. Participants in the first study consisted of two groups of school-aged children (13 had DLD and 20 were typically developing children -TD). Participants in the second study consisted of two groups of adolescents (16 had DLD and 16 were TD adolescents). In the third study, the ER of 65 of the parents of the children and adolescents from study 1 were assessed during wave 2 via self-reporting the DERS questionnaire. Results showed no significant differences in ER between DLD and TD groups neither in middle childhood nor in adolescence. Concerning vocabulary and ER, expressive language predicted ER in school-age children but not in adolescents. Finally, parental ER explained their school-age children’s ER, but this was not the case in adolescents. In conclusion, the present data indicated that expressive vocabulary has a fundamental role in ER, at least during primary school years, and adds new evidence of the impact of parents’ ER upon their children’s ER, encouraging educators and speech language pathologists to include parents’ assessments in holistic evaluations and interventions for children with language and ER difficulties.

Technology as a Source of Language Input and Practice and its Influence on the Vocabulary Development of University EFL Students

This paper addresses the extent to which technology-based language resources and tools influence the vocabulary development among University students learning English as a foreign language (EFL). The vocabulary development of 184 undergraduate students at the University of xxxxxxxx (xxxxxxx) is studied in terms of the growth of their receptive vocabulary size as well as their use of vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) across three years, and any possible correlation between this development and the use of technology is analysed. Findings reveal that for the majority of the population, the highly frequent use of multimedia tools was largely confirmed; however, for most students there was no significant correlation between the use of such resources and the growth pattern of their vocabulary knowledge. Only the low-intermediate students who had just joined the university were the exception, as their use of Internet to search for information or to communicate with others seemed to be significantly correlated to their vocabulary development. These findings have interesting implications for the classroom as they show the high potential of technology-based resources in developing vocabulary especially in environments in which English is taught as a foreign language (FL), and used only in classroom contexts. Learners appear to be "connected" enough and avid of technology based tools; however, they seem to need assistance from instructors to maximize the positive support of such tools on their language learning in general and vocabulary development in particular.

Internal and external factors contributing to variability in consonant accuracy of Arabic–French simultaneous bilingual children

This study aims to describe the relationships between child-internal and child-external factors and the consonant accuracy of bilingual children. More specifically, the study looks at internal factors: expressive and receptive vocabulary, and external factors: language exposure and language status, of a group of 4-year-old bilingual Arabic–French children. We measured the consonant accuracy of the children by the percentage of correct consonants in a Picture-Naming Task and a Non-Word Repetition Task in each language. The results suggest a significant relationship between vocabulary and consonant accuracy. A cross-language correlation was observed between the expressive vocabulary level of the majority language (French) and the consonant accuracy of the minority language (Arabic). Also, a significant correlation was found between Arabic language exposure and Arabic consonant accuracy. Finally, consonant accuracy was significantly higher in French tasks than in Arabic, despite the individual differences of the children.