Contextual influences on sentence repetition as a tool for the identification of language impairment in Grade 3 Sepedi-English bilinguals: A case against bilingual norms

BACKGROUND: Specific language impairment (SLI) is difficult to identify because it is a subtle linguistic difficulty, and there are a few measures available to differentiate between typical and atypical language development in bilinguals. Sentence repetition (SR) has strong theoretical foundations a...

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Autores principales: Jordaan, Heila, Ngwanduli, Monene H.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: AOSIS 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7479431/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32896134
http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajcd.v67i1.762
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author Jordaan, Heila
Ngwanduli, Monene H.
author_facet Jordaan, Heila
Ngwanduli, Monene H.
author_sort Jordaan, Heila
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Specific language impairment (SLI) is difficult to identify because it is a subtle linguistic difficulty, and there are a few measures available to differentiate between typical and atypical language development in bilinguals. Sentence repetition (SR) has strong theoretical foundations and research evidence as a valid tool for the identification of SLI in bilinguals. OBJECTIVE: This study assessed the value of SR using peer group comparisons to identify Sepedi-English bilingual children at the risk of SLI. METHOD: One hundred and two Grade 3 learners in three different contexts of education were assessed on equivalent English and Sepedi SR measures. RESULTS: Eleven participants who scored between 1 and 2 standard deviations (SD) below the peer group means on both the English and Sepedi SR tests were identified with possible SLI. Learners in the English language of learning and teaching (LoLT) – Sepedi additional language (SAL) context obtained similar scores in both languages, a higher score in English than the English LoLT group and a higher score in Sepedi than the Sepedi LoLT – EAL group. The English LoLT group obtained a significantly higher score in English than in Sepedi and a significantly lower score than the other two groups in Sepedi. The Sepedi LoLT group obtained a significantly higher score in Sepedi than in English, their additional language, in which they obtained a significantly lower score than the other two groups. CONCLUSION: Sentence repetition tasks are valid screening tools to identify bilingual children with SLI by comparing them to peer groups. The SR tests were sensitive to language practices in different educational contexts. It was observed that a bilingual approach that uses both English and the home language as academic languages leads to better language outcomes.
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spelling pubmed-74794312020-09-14 Contextual influences on sentence repetition as a tool for the identification of language impairment in Grade 3 Sepedi-English bilinguals: A case against bilingual norms Jordaan, Heila Ngwanduli, Monene H. S Afr J Commun Disord Original Research BACKGROUND: Specific language impairment (SLI) is difficult to identify because it is a subtle linguistic difficulty, and there are a few measures available to differentiate between typical and atypical language development in bilinguals. Sentence repetition (SR) has strong theoretical foundations and research evidence as a valid tool for the identification of SLI in bilinguals. OBJECTIVE: This study assessed the value of SR using peer group comparisons to identify Sepedi-English bilingual children at the risk of SLI. METHOD: One hundred and two Grade 3 learners in three different contexts of education were assessed on equivalent English and Sepedi SR measures. RESULTS: Eleven participants who scored between 1 and 2 standard deviations (SD) below the peer group means on both the English and Sepedi SR tests were identified with possible SLI. Learners in the English language of learning and teaching (LoLT) – Sepedi additional language (SAL) context obtained similar scores in both languages, a higher score in English than the English LoLT group and a higher score in Sepedi than the Sepedi LoLT – EAL group. The English LoLT group obtained a significantly higher score in English than in Sepedi and a significantly lower score than the other two groups in Sepedi. The Sepedi LoLT group obtained a significantly higher score in Sepedi than in English, their additional language, in which they obtained a significantly lower score than the other two groups. CONCLUSION: Sentence repetition tasks are valid screening tools to identify bilingual children with SLI by comparing them to peer groups. The SR tests were sensitive to language practices in different educational contexts. It was observed that a bilingual approach that uses both English and the home language as academic languages leads to better language outcomes. AOSIS 2020-09-04 /pmc/articles/PMC7479431/ /pubmed/32896134 http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajcd.v67i1.762 Text en © 2020. The Authors https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Licensee: AOSIS. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.
spellingShingle Original Research
Jordaan, Heila
Ngwanduli, Monene H.
Contextual influences on sentence repetition as a tool for the identification of language impairment in Grade 3 Sepedi-English bilinguals: A case against bilingual norms
title Contextual influences on sentence repetition as a tool for the identification of language impairment in Grade 3 Sepedi-English bilinguals: A case against bilingual norms
title_full Contextual influences on sentence repetition as a tool for the identification of language impairment in Grade 3 Sepedi-English bilinguals: A case against bilingual norms
title_fullStr Contextual influences on sentence repetition as a tool for the identification of language impairment in Grade 3 Sepedi-English bilinguals: A case against bilingual norms
title_full_unstemmed Contextual influences on sentence repetition as a tool for the identification of language impairment in Grade 3 Sepedi-English bilinguals: A case against bilingual norms
title_short Contextual influences on sentence repetition as a tool for the identification of language impairment in Grade 3 Sepedi-English bilinguals: A case against bilingual norms
title_sort contextual influences on sentence repetition as a tool for the identification of language impairment in grade 3 sepedi-english bilinguals: a case against bilingual norms
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7479431/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32896134
http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajcd.v67i1.762
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