Phonological development in Korean-English bilingual children
Creators: name: Kim, Jae-Hyun
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: 170204 Linguistic Processes (incl. Speech Production and Comprehension)
subject: FOS: Psychology
subject: FOS: Psychology

description: Speech-language therapists are encountering an increasing number of bilingual children<br>with suspected speech sound disorder of unknown origin (SSD). Accurate identification of<br>bilingual children with SSD is a significant challenge because there is a lack of information<br>about the characteristics that constitute typical phonological development in bilingual<br>children. This doctoral thesis aims to provide clinically relevant information about<br>phonological development in Korean-English bilingual (KEB) children.<br>Using a cross-sectional design, single word speech samples were collected from 52<br>KEB children aged between 3;0 and 7;11 and analysed for phonetic inventories, segmental<br>accuracy and the type of errors produced. The phonetic inventories, segmental accuracy<br>and error productions in KEB children were compared to the available studies in<br>monolingual English-speaking (ME) and monolingual Korean-speaking (MK) children.<br>Twenty-three KEB children of these KEB children were followed up to supplement the<br>findings of the cross-sectional study. Using a correlation study design, this doctoral thesis<br>also examined the potential use of parental report as a tool for a universal speech screen to<br>identify KEB children who require a full clinical assessment by a speech-language<br>therapist.<br>Phonological development in KEB children was qualitatively different from their<br>monolingual counterparts. KEB children produced the type of errors that would be<br>indicative of SSD in monolingual children. The qualitative differences in KEB children<br>could be attributed to cross-linguistic interactions between two phonological systems.<br>Cross-linguistic interactions reflect reorganisation of the two phonological systems<br>wherein a dynamic process of re-specifying learned phonemes and their realisation rules<br>for each language takes place. One manifestation of reorganisation was suggested to be<br>prominent regressions during the course of phonological development. Clinically relevant<br>information could not be obtained by comparing phonological skills and error productions<br>of bilingual children to their monolingual counterparts. The findings in the correlational<br>study mirrored the studies in phonological development in KEB children. A parent-rated<br>measure based on monolingual children identified over 40% of the KEB children as<br>needing a comprehensive clinical assessment by a speech-language therapist. What is<br>considered the appropriate approach for monolingual children may not be applicable for<br>bilingual children. This doctoral thesis suggests specific future research directions to build<br>further evidence for how a universal speech screen may be implemented.<br>iii<br>This doctoral thesis presents a strong case against the use of available monolingual<br>normative data to identify KEB children with SSD in clinical practice. Bilingual children<br>should be considered fundamentally different from monolingual children in the use and<br>development of their languages. Clinical implications for speech-language therapists<br>working with KEB children with suspected SSD and directions for future research are<br>further discussed.