Browsing by Subject "Bilingual"
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Item An evidence-based practice assessment of efficacious diagnostics for bilingual children with suspected autism spectrum disorders(2016-05) Jauregui, Linda Beatriz; Bedore, Lisa M.; Sundarrajan, MadhuThe purpose of this study was to determine the best type of diagnostics to use in kindergarten aged bilingual children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) using evidence-based practices. The Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) and American Speech Language and Hearing Association’s (ASHA) journal databases were used to find citations. The following outcome terms were used: diagnosis, assessment, screener, standard, Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, CAST, Pervasive Developmental Disorders Screening Test-II, Primary Care Screener, Asperger Syndrome Diagnostic Scale, Autism Behavior Checklist, Autism Quotient- Adolescent Version, Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire, Childhood Autism Rating Scale, Gilliam Asperger’s Disorder Scale, Krug Asperger’s Disorder Index, Pervasive Developmental Disorders Screening Test-II, Screening Tool for Autism in Two-Year-Olds, Social Communication Questionnaire. The Autism Diagnostics Interview-Revised was found to be the most efficacious screener for bilingual English-Spanish children.Item An analysis of the relationship between English non-word repetition and morphosyntax in bilingual children(2016-05) Gutierrez, Analea Patricia; Bedore, Lisa M.; Peña, Elizabeth PThis study evaluates the relationship of between phonological short-term memory, as measured by a non-word repetition task (NWR), and the performance on morphosyntax language tasks, as assessed by grammatical priming and the Bilingual Spanish Assessment (BESA)/Bilingual English Spanish Assessment Middle Extension (BESAME) morphosyntax subtest in English. Sixty-nine Spanish-English first graders were selected from a previous study. A correlational analysis indicated there was no relationship between phonological short-term memory and performance on the BESA or the priming task. A moderate significant relationship occurred between the two morphosyntax tasks. The results imply that children may require a foundation of grammatical knowledge before they are able to benefit from grammatical priming. Performance on the BESA suggests that children’s ability to learn new grammatical forms was not dependent on their phonological short-term memory.Item The art of saving a language : heritage language learning in America(2013-12) Matis, Anna Flora; Pulido, Diana C.The term heritage language (HL), which only emerged in the context of language policy during the 1990’s, refers to immigrant, refugee, and indigenous languages whose target group of learners have either previously learned the language as a first language (L1) or home language, or have some form of heritage connection to the language (Cummins, 2005). The bilingual nature of these individuals is ambiguous, as variables related to literacy and oral proficiency in the first language are significantly influenced by geographical, cultural, academic, and sociolinguistic factors prevalent to the context in which the speaker is situated. The topic of HL is the subject of a growing number of studies in second language acquisition as well as bilingual education. Given that an increasing number of immigrants from around the world continue to make the United States their place of permanent residence, the country’s educational focus needs to take into account the needs of heritage language learners (HLL), especially as that focus shifts from the exclusive teaching of foreign languages to incorporating the maintenance and linguistic competence of our multilingual inhabitants.Item Assessment and treatment for the Spanish-English bilingual client who stutters : a clinician's guide(2015-05) Berry, Tiffany Nayeli; Byrd, Courtney T.; Hampton, ElizabethIn the United States, there is a growing prevalence of individuals who use two or more languages in their everyday lives. A small number of those bilingual individuals may present with stuttering, a disorder of speech fluency characterized by various speech and non-speech behaviors that interfere with the forward flow of speech. Although there is a large body of research in bilingualism, there is limited literature on stuttering in bilingual speakers. Furthermore, recent resources for speech-language pathologists (SLPs) lack the latest information about assessing and treating bilingual clients who stutter. My goal is to create a clinical handbook which incorporates the most current research to provide appropriate assessment and treatment guidelines for Spanish-English (SE) clients, as it is the fastest growing population in the U.S., takes into account cultural considerations and offers activities for SLPs and graduate students seeking to complete their master's degree in this field. This handbook will include research and techniques on how to implement the Lidcombe program along with the demands capacity theory for pre-school bilingual children who stutter. In addition, this handbook will include information on motivation, education, identification, modification which consists of fluency shaping and stuttering modification techniques, and desensitization for the bilingual school-age and adult client.Item Audience and the writing development of young bilingual children(2015-05) Durán, Leah Gordon; Martínez, Ramón Antonio; Toribio, Almeida Jacqueline; Bomer, Randy; Worthy, Jo; Palmer, DeborahThe purpose of this dissertation was to explore how young Latina/o bilingual children’s skill at codeswitching might be leveraged in service of their (bi)literacy learning. This study drew on a cultural modeling framework, guided by sociocultural and translingual theories of literacy. Using a design-based research methodology, I worked with a first grade teacher to implement a pedagogical innovation in her ESL classroom. This innovation involved a curricular focus on audience awareness, including interaction between writers and bilingual audiences. Students’ writing and writing-related talk was ethnographically documented and analyzed in order to see how such an emphasis on audience mediated children’s (bi)literacy development. Such analysis suggested that children’s language choices in speech and writing were influenced by their experiences with the curriculum, as they moved towards using more Spanish, codeswitching and codemeshing. Students articulated metapragmatic awareness that built on their interactions with readers. Students’ awareness of their audience also mediated their rhetorical astuteness, guiding them in choosing between a range of languages and modalities in response to their intended readers. Together, these suggest that writing instruction for young bilingual children should include opportunities to write for real purposes and readers.Item Audience design and code-switching in Bayside, Texas(2009-12) Dahl, Kimberly Lynn; Crowhurst, Megan Jane; Hinrichs, LarsThis study casts the code-switching patterns observed among Spanish-English bilinguals in Bayside, Texas within the framework of Bell’s (1984) theory of audience design, which is claimed to apply to both monolingual style-shifting as well as bilingual code-switching. The latter part of this claim has been little explored. The intent of this study, then, is to determine if the explanatory power of audience design, as demon¬strated in studies on style-shifting, does indeed hold when applied to cases of language alternation. Analysis of the data from Bayside generally supports Bell’s theory as it shows speakers adjusting their use of Spanish and/or English to suit their audience. The study will highlight a less frequently analyzed aspect of Bell’s model, i.e., the role of the auditor, and will call for the auditor to be classified as a primary influencer of lin¬guistic choice in bilingual contexts, alongside the addressee. The code selection patterns exhibited by a pair of Bayside residents in a series of interviews and in conversations videotaped at the local general store will be com¬pared to illustrate the effects of addressee and auditor. A qualitative analysis will dem¬onstrate that differing determinations regarding the linguistic repertoires of the auditors led to contrasting linguistic choices on the part of the study’s subjects. The data collected will show that, when selecting a language of communication, as opposed to a register, style, or dialect, a speaker may be more greatly affected by an auditor than by the addressee. The methods used in collecting the data will also support an expan¬sion of Bell’s model to include an additional participant category suitable for capturing the effect of the recording device, as per Wertheim (2006).Item Bilingual teachers reflecting on mathematics teaching : what they notice about engaging children in problem solving(2013-05) Maldonado, Luz Angélica; Empson, Susan B.Teachers are being asked to engage in ambitious mathematics teaching in order to reform children's mathematics learning, and it has proven to be challenging. Unraveling the challenges requires understanding the in-the-moment decisions that teachers make while teaching mathematics. The focus of this study is to understand teacher noticing, the ways in which teachers identify, reason about and make decisions in the situations that occur when engaging English language learners in problem solving. Specifically, I used the construct of professional noticing of children's mathematical thinking (Jacobs, Lamb, & Philipp, 2010) to investigate what three bilingual teachers notice as they participate in a teacher study group to analyze and reflect on their experiences in weekly problem solving small groups. What teachers noticed reflected attention to situations in which they struggled to understand children's mathematical thinking and attempts to direct students towards correct problem solving. Teachers' decisions and struggles in engaging children in problem solving also revealed a focus on the role of preparing English language learners be successful for standardized testing. However, looking at student's work in the teacher study group began to help teachers focus on children's mathematical thinking. Implications on continued understanding of teacher noticing, effective mathematics professional development and developing understanding of mathematics teaching to English Language learners are discussed.Item Category, letter and emotional verbal fluency in Spanish-English bilingual individuals with and without traumatic brain injury(2016-05) Wauters, Lisa Dianne; Marquardt, Thomas P.; Henry, MayaTwelve verbal fluency tasks (6 in English and 6 in Spanish) were administered to 21 healthy Spanish-English bilingual individuals and 4 Spanish-English bilingual individuals with a history of traumatic brain injury. The performance of healthy participants was examined to determine significant differences between type of verbal fluency (category, letter and emotional) and languages (English and Spanish). A two-way repeated measures analysis of variance revealed significant effects for task types and languages, but not the interaction of task types and languages. Performance of brain-injured participants was compared to healthy participants to examine patterns of impairment. Analysis of z-score profiles revealed decreased sensitivity of the letter fluency task to brain injury deficits and greater impairment in the pre-morbid non-dominant language. Implications of the results for clinical practice and future research are discussed.Item Category-generation performance in Mandarin-English bilingual children(2014-05) Song, Min-An; Sheng, Li, Ph. D.Research has shown that children categorize words in terms of taxonomic and slot-filler strategies. Monolingual children were thought to shift from a slot-filler to taxonomic strategy between the age of five and eight. The aim of this study is to analyze the way Mandarin-English bilingual children organize their lexical-semantic system through the use of a category-generation task that investigate taxonomic and slot-filler organizational strategies in each language. There were 53 Mandarin-English bilingual participants (between 4 and 7 years of age) included in this study. Participants were asked to name as many items as they could think of in slot-filler and taxonomic conditions in English and Mandarin. The results indicate greater performance in English than Mandarin in children who were five years or older. Four-year-old bilingual children produced comparable number of items in both slot-fill and taxonomic condition, but the five-, six-, and seven-year-old bilingual children showed greater performance in the taxonomic condition. Children performed better for the animal than the clothes category, and better for the clothes than the food category. These findings, while largely consistent with existing literature, suggest that the slot-filler to taxonomic shift may take place at an earlier age compared to monolingual children.Item Children’s willingness to accept labels in two languages: the role of exposure(2015-12) Rojo, Dolly P.; Echols, Catharine H.; Booth, Amy E; Bannard, ColinDespite the increasing number of bilingual education programs in the US, the topic of children’s willingness to accept and learn new vocabulary from non-native speakers has been understudied. The present study focuses on the role of exposure to a non-English language, by investigating how varying amounts and sources of exposure play a role in children’s openness to accepting labels in Spanish. Ninety-eight 4- to 6-year old participants of varying language backgrounds were presented with novel object labels in Spanish and English, and were asked to endorse either or both labels. Children with large amounts of exposure to, but not fluent in, Spanish were more likely than minimally exposed monolingual children to endorse both the English and Spanish label, and importantly, did not differ from bilingual children. Monolingual children with minimal exposure to Spanish were the least likely of these three groups to endorse non-native labels. Language Awareness is also considered as a factor that may contribute to children’s willingness to endorse native and non-native labels.Item Developing a naming test for Urdu-English bilinguals : a preliminary study(2012-05) Panjwani, Sarah; Sheng, Li, Ph. D.; Bedore, Lisa M.The purpose of this study was to develop and pilot a naming test for Urdu-English bilinguals, a population that is growing quickly in the United States. Eighty-five target items were selected from the International Picture Naming Project Database and arranged in the order of least to most familiar. Familiarity ratings were used as estimates of item difficulty to develop the naming task because word frequency information was not available in the Urdu language. Thirty-one young adult bilinguals named black-and-white drawing of these targets in both Urdu and English. Self-rating of proficiency, examiner rating of proficiency and a standardized English receptive vocabulary test were used to cross-validate the naming test. The participants' current and cumulative language use were measured to investigate the relationships among language use, naming performance, and other measures of proficiency. The results indicate that performance on the naming test was correlated with convergent measures of language proficiency, including self-rating, examiner rating, and standardized test performance. Naming performance was related to cumulative reading experience in participants' first language. Familiarity ratings were related to naming performance in Urdu. These findings suggest that the naming task developed in the current study is a valid measure of language proficiency, and that familiarity ratings can be used as estimation of item difficulty in test development when word frequency data are unavailable. The naming test should be refined and further piloted with participants of various ages and those who are Urdu-dominant or balanced bilingual.Item Developing effective communications messages to the Hispanic market : language and the bilingual market(2010-05) Kalaswad, Anita Maria; Williams, Jerome D., 1947-; Henderson, GeraldineOnce considered a minority, Hispanics today are becoming a growing majority of the U.S. population. In fact, Hispanics have become the nation's largest minority group. The growth of the Hispanic market has numerous implications for marketing and communication decisions. Hispanics residing in the U.S. consume products and services on a daily basis. They buy groceries, appliances, event tickets and interact constantly with companies and their messages. Not only is it crucial for U.S. marketers to recognize how valuable this market is to them, but Hispanics are a multifaceted market that must be well understood to ensure a good foundation is built prior to developing communications strategies. More specifically, marketers need to be aware of how Hispanics, often bilingual, process language and how this impacts the effectiveness of communications messages. This report will take you through an analysis of why the U.S. Hispanic market is valuable and how this particular segment should be approached when it comes to the language factor.Item Developmental patterns of English grammar at various levels of language experience in bilingual children(2013-05) Lopez, Amanda Adelina; Penã, Elizabeth D.The largest group of English language learners in the United States is comprised individuals who speak Spanish as a first language. There is a growing need for speech-language pathologists to better understand the language development of children learning two languages in order to distinguish between typical and disordered communication with this population. For monolingual English speakers, rate of grammatical morpheme acquisition is typically predicted based on MLU. In bilingual children, current language use has been determined to be a potentially more useful predictor of language performance. The purpose of this study was to determine English grammatical morpheme performance for English-Spanish bilingual preschool-age children based on their language exposure. Data was drawn from two existing data sets that included a total of 314 children. Their performance on the BESA was analyzed for grammatical morphemes in English. Interviews were conducted to determine language use and exposure. We present patterns of English grammatical morpheme acquisition in bilingual children as related to current language use.Item Differentiation of the presence and severity of apraxia of speech in English and Spanish speakers(2016-05) Santibanez, Jesus; Marquardt, Thomas P.; Sussman, Harvey MAs the Spanish speaking population in the U.S. increases, the number of individuals with AOS presenting with symptoms of AOS will increase. Assessment and treatment of AOS in Spanish is critical to allow individuals with AOS to receive appropriate speech and language services. A current assessment tool, the Apraxia of Speech Rating Scale (ASRS-V1), was developed for use with English-speaking individuals (Strand, Duffy, Clark, & Josephs, 2014). No clinical assessment exists that quantifies the presence or absence, relative frequency, and severity of characteristics associated with AOS in Spanish speaking individuals. The purpose of this report is to explore the linguistic differences between English and Spanish as they relate to the presence and severity of characteristics associated with AOS in English and Spanish monolingual and English-Spanish bilingual speakers.Item Do you hear what I hear? An analysis of the relationship between phonological processing and grammar(2016-05) Akolkar, Ryann Elizabeth; Bedore, Lisa M.; Pena, ElizabethThis study evaluated how phonological working memory, as measured by a nonword repetition task, relates to children's ability to produce grammatical structures after hearing a model in a grammatical priming experimental paradigm. Secondary questions examined the relationship between the ability to be primed for modeled grammatical structures and performance on measures of morphosyntax knowledge, as well as the relationship between phonological working memory and grammatical production. Sixty-nine bilingual Spanish-English children with and without language impairment were included in the bi-variate correlation analyses. Results indicated a very weak and non-significant correlation between grammatical priming and nonword repetition, a moderate and significant positive correlation between morphosyntax and grammatical priming, and a small and significant positive correlation between morphosyntax and nonword repetition.Item Error analysis of expressive analogy task in Spanish-English bilingual school age children with and without specific language impairment(2015-05) Moreno, Beverly; Peña, Elizabeth D.; Sheng, LiPurpose: The relational shift hypothesis (RSH) states that, as children age, the way in which they interpret analogies shifts from a focus on object similarities to relational aspects of objects. This study investigated the validity of the RSH by describing the error patterns of typically developing (TD), low normal (LN), and language impaired (LI) bilingual school-age children when completing an expressive analogy task in A:B::C:D format (e.g. good:bad::happy:_____) in English and Spanish. Method: Participants included a total of 49 Spanish-English bilingual children between the ages of 7;4 and 8; 9 (mean = 8; 1). Ten children were identified as LI, ten scored in the LN range, and 29 were TD. Children were administered English and Spanish versions of the item twice, initially during the second grade and once again approximately one year later. Responses were recorded verbatim and coded as correct (C), thematic/category error (THEM/CAT), wrong object, correct relationship error (WO-CR), unrelated error (UNREL), or repetition/no response (REP/NR). Results: A repeated measures ANOVA was used to compare children’s analogy scores by time, ability, and language. Results demonstrated significant differences for ability. Four chi square tests investigated the error patterns of TD, LN, and LI bilingual children in English and Spanish. We compared responses provided children by response type (C, THEM/CAT, WO-CR, UNREL, or REP/NR). Results from the Spanish analogical reasoning task indicated a decrease in THEM/CAT with age for the LN and TD children. Results from the English analogical reasoning task were inconsistent. Conclusions: Results provide partial support for the RSH in LN and TD children, but not in children with LI. This difference in error patterns may provide insight into the validity of the RSH in bilingual children with specific language impairment and typically developing second language learners.Item ESL writing strategies for art instruction(2014-08) Treviño, Cynthia Jane; Bolin, Paul Erik, 1954-; Bain, ChristinaThe purpose of this study was to investigate English as a second language (ESL) strategies and modify them for use in the art classroom. The goal of this research was to help improve writing skills for English language learners (ELLs). This study utilized collaborative action research to understand teaching practices and develop curriculum for 4th grade students at Texas Elementary School in the Lejana Independent School District. During this study I collaborated with Ana Rivera, the art teacher at Texas Elementary School. Through a semi-structured interview and informal discussions, we developed an art lesson, Creating a Comic Book, which combined writing and drawing activities. Several lesson resources were also created as a result of our collaboration. Data was collected from the semi-structured interview, teacher and student reflections, field notes, and photos of students’ writing and artwork. By identifying academic areas that need support, I was able to draw conclusions and provide suggestions for ESL strategies. The findings of this study indicate that art educators can help improve writing skills for ELLs by utilizing vocabulary development, physical gestures, body language, visuals, and demonstrations. After reviewing a final lesson evaluation and analyzing data, I was able to provide recommendations for other art educators. These recommendations include support for native languages, create connections between home and school, encourage rigorous thinking, and edit student writing. It is my purpose that my research be shared with educators and administrators in the Lejana Independent School District and other professional venues of research dissemination.Item An examination of the differences among native bilinguals, late bilinguals, and monolinguals in vocabulary knowledge, verbal fluency, and executive control(2011-08) Smith, Caroline Anne, active 21st century; Cawthon, Stephanie W.; Allen, GregThe present study seeks to explore if the bilingual advantage and disadvantage of children who are natively bilingual in English and Spanish extends to children who gain exposure to and eventually become bilingual in these languages beginning at ages 5 and 6. Specifically, the study compares executive control, vocabulary, and verbal fluency for three groups of children: a) native Spanish-English bilinguals, b) late bilinguals that have completed at least 5 years of a 50-50 dual language immersion program in English and Spanish in school, and c) English monolinguals that have not had second language instruction. The proposed study seeks a better understanding of the unique cognitive skill sets of native and late bilingual and monolingual children, and to inform educational policy related to bilingual students.Item Examining language patterns and growth of "at risk" bilingual children(2014-05) Koebert, Taylor Morgan; Bedore, Lisa M.The goal of this report was to explore ways to differentiate the performance of early school-aged Spanish-English bilingual children in U.S. public schools, who appear “at-risk” for language impairment versus those who have true risk. We compared the patterns of performance reported for children with typical development and language impairment reported in the literature to those for children with risk described by Bedore et al., (2013) and Perez et al., (in preparation). Children with risk seem quite different than their peers with true language problems on formal measures such as the Bilingual English Spanish Assessment (BESA). However these children presented fewer errors or weaknesses in spontaneous speech than did their peers with true language impairment. Language variability and errors are expected in the language of young bilingual children, so it is of utmost importance that language professionals closely assess each of the child’s languages with formal and functional measures prior to making a diagnosis of language impairment.Item Four Korean bilingual children's out-of-school literacy practices in the United States(2012-05) Song, Kwangok; Worthy, Jo; Bomer, Randy; Maloch, Beth; Schallert, Diane; Wetzel, MelissaThe purpose of this study was to understand the nature of Korean bilingual children’s out-of-school literacy practices. Four Korean-English speaking bilingual children and their parents were participants in this qualitative multi-case study. The children were between seven and nine years old and attended public schools. The families lived in and around a large city in the Southwestern of the United States. In the city, there was a well-established Korean community. Data collection was conducted through multiple methods. The duration of the study was approximately four and a half months per child, staggered across eight months of data collection. Parents were interviewed twice regarding literacy activities with their child, the focal child’s experience of schooling, their perspectives of family’s language use, and their expectations for the child. Participant observation was also conducted at each child’s home to examine her/his literacy activities and interactions with family members. The children and parents were also informally interviewed throughout the data collection. Children’s writing, drawing, and crafts were collected. The children and family members were also invited to participate in a video project in which they video-recorded and took pictures of their activities for two months. Data were analyzed through constant comparative approach, activitysetting analyses, and grounded theory approach. The findings suggest that the focal children engaged in parent-guided literacy activities and self-chosen literacy activities. The parents provided extensive support for children’s academic achievement and learning to read and write in Korean. These activities were derived from parents’ experiences, beliefs, parenting practices familiar to Korean parents, and expectations for their children’s future. Children’s self-chosen literacy activities varied widely. The children drew on various resources from their social and cultural worlds to participate in an imaginative world and imagined future. Therefore, Korean bilingual children’s literacy activities situated in the current moment and space were always globally connected to other times and spaces.