Language Learning Under Varied Conditions: Neural Indices of Speech Perception in Bilingual Turkish-German Children and in Monolingual Children With Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)

Lateral temporal measures of the auditory evoked potential (AEP) including the T-complex (positive Ta and negative Tb), as well as an earlier negative peak (Na) index maturation of auditory/speech processing. Previous studies have shown that these measures distinguish neural processing in children with typical language development (TD) from those with disorders and monolingual from bilingual children. In this study, bilingual children with Turkish as L1 and German as L2 were compared with monolingual German-speaking children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and monolingual German-speaking children with TD in order to disentangle effects of limited language input vs. reduced perceptual abilities in the processing of speech and non-speech stimuli. Sensory processing reflected by the T-complex (or from lateral temporal electrode sites) was compared in response to a German vowel and a sine-wave tone in the three groups of children, ages 5 through 6 years. Stimuli were presented while children watched a muted video. Auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) were time-locked to the vowels and tones. AEPs to the frequent (standard) stimuli within an oddball paradigm were analyzed at the left (T7) and right (T8) temporal electrode sites.The results revealed language status (monolingual, bilingual, and DLD), stimulus (vowel and tone), and language test measures (receptive and expressive) all influenced the T-complex amplitudes. Particularly, the peak amplitude of Ta was modulated by language status and stimulus type. Bilingual children had significantly more negative Ta responses than the monolingual children with TD for both vowels and tones while DLD children differed from TD children only for the vowel stimulus. The amplitude of the T-complex was overall more negative at the left than at the right site. The Na peak latency was longer for the bilingual group than that observed for the two monolingual groups. The Tb latency was shorter for DLD and bilingual groups than that for TD children in the vowel condition, but no such latency difference between DLD and bilingual children was found. We suggest that the attenuated T-complex for bilingual children indicates continued plasticity of the auditory cortex to allow for learning of novel, second-language speech sounds.

The Role of Literature in Achieving Proficiency in Language Use: The Case of ESL

It has been observed that many users of English in Nigeria do not possess the required level of competence in the language despite its second language status, with its attendant high functional load. This paper seeks to discover the role of literature in achieving proficiency in the use of the English language. To this end, it is targeted at exploring literature in English as a veritable resource in achieving the required proficiency among Nigerian users of English as a second language. The study population consists of final year students of the Department of English language and Literature of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka in Nigeria. Questionnaires and participant observations were adopted as the instruments for data collection. It was discovered that students who have more exposure to literary works are more proficient in using the English language. It, therefore, concluded that making students read literary works, listen, dramatize, and recite them will acquaint them with the comprehensible input they need to achieve the requisite competence in the language.

Subtitling and the promotion of multilingualism: the case of marginalised languages in South Africa

This article investigates the role that subtitling may play in the promotion of multilingualism in South Africa. After a reflection on the current language-political situation in the country, in particular as it pertains to the public broadcaster, the findings of a pilot study focusing on the role of subtitling in promoting multilingualism and language rights in South Africa are presented. The research involves aspects such as language status, attitudes and acquisition, focusing on two of the more marginalised languages in the country, namely Tshivenda and Xitsonga. It also touches on the impact of subtitling on comprehension.

Grunt Vocalizations in Children With Disabilities: Relationships With Assessed Cognition and Language

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of the grunt vocalizations to cognitive and expressive language status in children with disabilities. Children with typical development produce communicative grunts at the onset of referential word production and comprehension at 14–16 months of age and continue to use this vocalization for communication as they develop language. Method All grunt vocalizations produced by 26 children with disabilities (mental age: 3–56 months; communicative age: 47–69 months) were identified from video-recorded seminaturalistic play sessions. Grunts were identified as accompanying effort or attention or as communicative bids. Participants were grouped as prelinguistic, emergent, language delay, and language competent based on standardized assessments of cognitive and language level. The Mann–Whitney U test (1947) compared groups to determine the relationships between grunt production and cognitive and language status. Results As hypothesized, participants in the language delay group produced significantly more communicative grunts than those in the language competent group ( W = 39, p = .028 < .05). The children with a cognitive and language level lower than 9 months (prelinguistic group) failed to produce communicative grunts. Conclusions The results document grunt production in children with disabilities in the same contexts as typical children and support the hypothesized relationship between assessed cognition and language and communicative grunt production. These results require replication. This vocalization, if recognized in treatment, may unlock verbal communication in many nonverbal children with disabilities. Future longitudinal research should include controlled intervention to determine the potential effectiveness of building broader communicative skills on this simple vocalization.

The Contribution of Socioeconomic Status to Children's Performance on Three Grammatical Measures in the Edmonton Narrative Norms Instrument

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relative contribution of socioeconomic status (SES) on three grammatical measures—finite verb morphology composite (FVMC), percent grammatical utterances (PGU), and clausal density—in children between the ages of 4 and 9 years. Method Data for this study were from the normative sample in the Edmonton Narrative Norms Instrument. For 359 children, hierarchical linear regression was performed to evaluate the amount of variance in FVMC, PGU, and clausal density that was uniquely explained by SES after accounting for child chronological age and language status (typical, impaired). Results After child age and language status were controlled, SES was a significant predictor of PGU and clausal density scores, but not of FVMC scores. SES uniquely accounted for 0.5% of variance in PGU scores and 0.8% of variance in clausal density scores. Conclusions Consistent with maturational accounts of children's development of tense markers, results of this study offer evidence that, among grammatical measures, FVMC is uniquely robust to variation in SES. Although significant, the variance of PGU and clausal density scores uniquely accounted for by SES was close to minimum. Clinicians can therefore include these three grammatical measures for assessing children of different socioeconomic backgrounds. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14810484