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The Effect of Teaching Formulaic Expressions Through Contrastive Lexical Approach on Iranian Pre-intermediate EFL Learners' Writing Skill

Ebrahimi F, Namaziandost E, Ziafar M, Ibna Seraj PM

J Psycholinguist Res, 2021 Oct;50(5):1087-1105.
PMID: 33830415 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-021-09778-z

This study aimed to investigate the effect of the contrastive lexical approach on Iranian EFL learners' writing skills. For this study, forty pre-intermediate students from a private English language institutes in Ahvaz, Iran were selected. Then, they were randomly divided into two equal groups of 20; one experimental and one control group. To have two groups of equal numbers, we used a block randomization sampling method. All of these students were female, ranging in age from 18 to 30. Their level of English language proficiency had already been determined by the Institute to be pre-intermediate. First, they were given a pre-test to determine their writing ability. Afterward, the experimental group received writing practices through the Contrastive Lexical Approach (CLA), during 14 sessions. Each session lasted for an hour and a half. The teacher sensitized learners in the experimental group towards the presence of L2 equivalents for L1 formulaic expressions, while the control group received an ordinary, traditional instruction, during which learners read texts containing the same formulaic expressions as for the experimental group without receiving any translation and were then asked to write about the same topics. At the end of the course, a post-test was administered to the two groups. Data were analyzed through independent and paired samples t tests after ensuring the normality of the data. Finally, to discover the power of the statistical tests, the effect size was also calculated. The study showed that using a contrastive lexical approach has a significant positive effect on Iranian EFL learners' writing skills. As the findings in this study propose, the writing skill can be improved through the use of a contrastive lexical approach. Teaching through a contrastive lexical approach, hopefully, gives the learners the chance to fathom their skillful writing competence, which requires the proper use of varied forms of structures and expressions and this, in turn, may sensitize them to know more about what language features to work on to increase their writing proficiency.

Matched MeSH terms: Multilingualism*
Translation norms for Malay and English words: The effects of word class, semantic variability, lexical characteristics, and language proficiency on translation

Lee ST, van Heuven WJB, Price JM, Leong CXR

Behav Res Methods, 2023 Oct;55(7):3585-3601.
PMID: 36219309 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-022-01977-3

Translation equivalents are widely used in bilingual research concerning word processing (e.g., Eddington & Tokowicz, 2013; Jouravlev & Jared, 2020) and second-language vocabulary learning (e.g., Bracken et al., 2017; Degani et al., 2014). Although translation norms exist in several languages, to date there are no Malay-English translation norms. This study presents the first Malay-English translation norms collected with highly proficient Malay-English bilinguals. Furthermore, the study investigates the impact of lexical characteristics on translation ambiguity. The forward translation (FT) task (N = 30) collected English translations for 1004 Malay words selected from the Malay Lexicon Project (Yap et al., 2010), and subsequently the backward translation (BT) task (N = 30) gathered Malay translations for 845 English words obtained from the FT phase. The data revealed a high prevalence of translation ambiguity in both translation directions. Specifically, verbs, adjectives, and class-ambiguous words were more translation-ambiguous than nouns. Furthermore, within-language semantic variability and word length were positively correlated with translation ambiguity, whereas word frequency only correlated with translation ambiguity in FT. Word length and word frequency of the source words and their translations were positively correlated. Intriguingly, only in FT were bilinguals with higher Malay proficiency more likely to provide accurate and dominant translations for the Malay words. These findings contrast with those reported in translation norming studies involving other language pairs. The translation norms provide a useful resource for bilingual language studies involving Malay-English bilinguals.

Matched MeSH terms: Multilingualism*
LexCHI: A quick lexical test for estimating language proficiency in Chinese

Wen Y, Qiu Y, Leong CXR, van Heuven WJB

Behav Res Methods, 2024 Mar;56(3):2333-2352.
PMID: 37407785 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-023-02151-z

A prominent methodological issue in cognitive research on bilingualism is the lack of consistency in measuring second language (L2) proficiency. To reduce the inconsistency in L2 proficiency measurements, brief and valid vocabulary tests have been developed as an objective measure of proficiency in a variety of languages (e.g., English, French, Spanish). Here, we present LexCHI, a valid lexical test to measure Chinese proficiency. This freely available short test consists of 60 two-character items presented in simplified Chinese. Although it only takes a few minutes to complete LexCHI, the LexCHI scores in two studies correlated significantly with L2 participants' performance in a translation task and a cloze test. We believe that LexCHI is a useful tool for researchers who need to objectively measure Chinese proficiency as part of their investigations.

Matched MeSH terms: Multilingualism*
Rate of multilingual phonological acquisition: Evidence from a cross-sectional study of English-Mandarin-Malay

Lim HW, Wells B, Howard S

Clin Linguist Phon, 2015;29(11):793-811.
PMID: 26237032

Early child multilingual acquisition is under-explored. Using a cross-sectional study approach, the present research investigates the rate of multilingual phonological acquisition of English-Mandarin-Malay by 64 ethnic Chinese children aged 2;06-4;05 in Malaysia--a multiracial-multilingual country of Asia. The aims of the study are to provide clinical norms for speech development in the multilingual children and to compare multilingual acquisition with monolingual and bilingual acquisition. An innovative multilingual phonological test which adopts well-defined scoring criteria drawing upon local accents of English, Mandarin and Malay is proposed and described in this article. This procedure has been neglected in the few existing Chinese bilingual phonological acquisition studies resulting in peculiar findings. The multilingual children show comparable phonological acquisition milestones to that of monolingual and bilingual peers acquiring the same languages. The implications of the present results are discussed. The present findings contribute to the development of models and theories of child multilingual acquisition.

Matched MeSH terms: Multilingualism*
Case study of an Iranian-American neuropsychological assessment in the surgical setting: role of language and tests

Ramezani A, Alvani SR, Lashai M, Rad H, Houshiarnejad A, Razani J, et al.

Appl Neuropsychol Adult, 2019 12 27;29(1):53-58.
PMID: 31880955 DOI: 10.1080/23279095.2019.1706517

There is a growing need to conduct a neuropsychological assessment with bilingual Middle Eastern populations, particularly those who speak the Persian language (Farsi). Although validated neuropsychological and language tests have emerged in Iran, there remains a shortage of appropriate psychometric tests in the U.S. that have been validated for use with the Iranian-American population. This often leads to an assortment of using U.S. tests in English, U.S. tests translated into Farsi, and Iranian tests in Farsi, which can complicate the clinical assessment. To better understand common testing issues when working with bilingual Iranian-American patients, we review the first report of a 62-year-old, bilingual (English-Farsi) Iranian-American male with 18-years of education who was tested using U.S.-developed and Iranian-developed tests in both English and Farsi language. Pre-surgical, 6 months post-surgical, and 1.5 years of post-surgical assessment data are discussed. We highlight the strengths and limitations of naming tests, test used in the native country versus U.S. language tests, the importance of baseline testing, general bilingual Persian-English assessment considerations, and case-based learning points.

Matched MeSH terms: Multilingualism*
Fulltext What second-language speakers can tell us about pragmatic processing

Khorsheed A, Md Rashid S, Nimehchisalem V, Geok Imm L, Price J, Ronderos CR

PLoS One, 2022;17(2):e0263724.
PMID: 35180247 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263724

Upon hearing the phrase Some cats meow, a listener might pragmatically infer that 'Some but not all cats meow'. This is known as a scalar implicature and it often arises when a speaker produces a weak linguistic expression instead of a stronger one. Several L2 studies claim that pragmatic inferences are generated by default and their comprehension presents no challenges to L2 learners. However, the evidence obtained from these studies largely stems from offline-based tasks that provide limited information about how scalar implicatures are processed. This study investigated scalar implicature processing among L2 speakers of English and the degree to which differences in L2 proficiency and Theory of Mind abilities would modulate pragmatic responding. The experiment used an online sentence verification paradigm that required participants to judge, among multiple control items, the veracity of under-informative sentences, such as Some cats are mammals, and to respond as quickly as possible. A true response to this item is indicative of a logical some and perhaps all reading and a false response to a pragmatic some but not all reading. Our results showed evidence that scalar inferences are not generated by default. The answer linked to the pragmatic reading some but not all took significantly longer to make relative to the answer that relies on the logical interpretation some and perhaps all. This processing slowdown was also significantly larger among participants with lower English proficiency. Further exploratory analyses of participants' Theory of Mind, as measured by the Social Skill subscale in the Autism Spectrum Quotient, revealed that socially inclined participants are more likely than the socially disinclined to derive a scalar inference. These results together provide new empirical insights into how L2 learners process scalar implicatures and thus implications for processing theories in experimental pragmatics and second language acquisition.

Matched MeSH terms: Multilingualism*
Multilingual English-Mandarin-Malay phonological error patterns: An initial cross-sectional study of 2 to 4 years old Malaysian Chinese children

Lim HW

Clin Linguist Phon, 2018;32(10):889-912.
PMID: 29993293 DOI: 10.1080/02699206.2018.1459852

Child multilingual phonological errors are under-explored. Cross-linguistic studies suggest monolingual children make phonological errors that are subject to effects of language universality and ambient language characteristics. Bilingual Chinese children were observed to use not only typical, but also atypical phonological errors compared to monolingual peers acquiring similar languages. Atypical errors are a result of specific bilingual pair effects. Close-language-relatedness (Cantonese-Mandarin) is claimed to be responsible for the nonexistence of atypical errors in both languages, whilst distant-language-relatedness (Cantonese-English) is observed to cause atypical errors in both languages. The present novel cross-sectional study investigated phonological acquisition in three typologically distant languages: English-Mandarin-Malay by 64 multilingual Chinese children aged 2½-4½. The present research aimed to explore if multilingual Chinese children exhibit phonological errors which commensurate to that of monolingual and bilingual Chinese children acquiring similar languages as described in the literature. The single-word phonological test results revealed that the multilinguals exhibited typical and atypical phonological patterns which largely commensurate with the monolinguals and bilinguals. Similar to bilingual children, the multilingual children showed more atypical errors in English than in Mandarin, demonstrating effects of individual language irrespective of potential interaction with additional languages. The present result did not fully support the link between closeness in typology of languages and the absence of atypical errors. Rare atypical errors were found in Mandarin and Malay, two typologically different languages, and both were also interacting with English, another typologically different language. The present findings provided useful preliminary multilingual speech norms for the use of speech therapists.

Matched MeSH terms: Multilingualism*
Fulltext My-VRBQ: translation and preliminary validation of the vestibular rehabilitation benefit questionnaire (VRBQ)

Nurul Nabila Binti Mohtar, Wan Ahmad Wan Aslynn, Mohd Normani Zakaria, Nor Haniza Abdul Wahat, Nurul Syarida Bt Mohd Sakeri

International Journal of Allied Health Sciences, 2019;3(2):595-604.
MyJurnal

The purpose of this study was to translate and adapt the Vestibular Rehabilitation Benefit Questionnaire (VRBQ) into Malay (My-VRBQ). This is to add on to the limited number of
vestibular questionnaire available in Malay version. After the permission from the original
author was obtained, the process of adaptation began with forward-translation by the author with
audiological background and a linguistic expert. Then, the process of backward translation into
English were completed by three bilinguals who were proficient in both Malay and English. The final version of the draft was evaluated for its content validity, which was conducted by five professionals with audiological or speech pathology backgrounds. Additionally, its face validity was determine amongst 32 respondents with diverse backgrounds. Ten participants diagnosed with vestibular problems were recruited in the My-VRBQ for internal consistency validation process. They were enlisted from two hospitals in the East Coast of Malaysia. Based on the comments and
suggestions made by the validators; some changes in terms of the appropriateness of the instructions, items and the sentence structure were made. In the consistency analysis, the My-VRBQ revealed good internal consistency based on Cronbach alpha values (0.77 to 0.96). A translated and validated My-VRBQ has the potential to be used clinically to document vestibular rehabilitation benefits. Nevertheless, future studies are encouraged to further support the present study findings.

Matched MeSH terms: Multilingualism
Using Cognitive Interviewing and Behavioral Coding to Determine Measurement Equivalence across Linguistic and Cultural Groups: An Example from the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project

Thrasher J, Quah ACK, Dominick G, Borland R, Driezen P, Awang R, et al.

Field methods, 2011;23(4):439-460.
PMID: 30867657 DOI: 10.1177/1525822X11418176

The present study aimed to examine and compare results from two questionnaire pretesting methods (i.e., behavioral coding and cognitive interviewing) in order to assess systematic measurement bias in survey questions for adult smokers across six countries (USA, Australia, Uruguay, Mexico, Malaysia and Thailand). Protocol development and translation involved multiple bilingual partners in each linguistic/cultural group. The study was conducted with convenience samples of 20 adult smokers in each country. Behavioral coding and cognitive interviewing methods produced similar conclusions regarding measurement bias for some questions; however, cognitive interviewing was more likely to identify potential response errors than behavioral coding. Coordinated survey qualitative pretesting (or post-survey evaluation) is feasible across cultural groups, and can provide important information on comprehension and comparability. Cognitive interviewing appears a more robust technique than behavioral coding, although combinations of the two might be even better.

Matched MeSH terms: Multilingualism
Fulltext Constraints on Tone Sensitivity in Novel Word Learning by Monolingual and Bilingual Infants: Tone Properties Are More Influential than Tone Familiarity

Burnham D, Singh L, Mattock K, Woo PJ, Kalashnikova M

Front Psychol, 2017;8:2190.
PMID: 29354077 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02190

This study compared tone sensitivity in monolingual and bilingual infants in a novel word learning task. Tone language learning infants (Experiment 1, Mandarin monolingual; Experiment 2, Mandarin-English bilingual) were tested with Mandarin (native) or Thai (non-native) lexical tone pairs which contrasted static vs. dynamic (high vs. rising) tones or dynamic vs. dynamic (rising vs. falling) tones. Non-tone language, English-learning infants (Experiment 3) were tested on English intonational contrasts or the Mandarin or Thai tone contrasts. Monolingual Mandarin language infants were able to bind tones to novel words for the Mandarin High-Rising contrast, but not for the Mandarin Rising-Falling contrast; and they were insensitive to both the High-Rising and the Rising-Falling tone contrasts in Thai. Bilingual English-Mandarin infants were similar to the Mandarin monolinguals in that they were sensitive to the Mandarin High-Rising contrast and not to the Mandarin Rising-Falling contrast. However, unlike the Mandarin monolinguals, they were also sensitive to the High Rising contrast in Thai. Monolingual English learning infants were insensitive to all three types of contrasts (Mandarin, Thai, English), although they did respond differentially to tone-bearing vs. intonation-marked words. Findings suggest that infants' sensitivity to tones in word learning contexts depends heavily on tone properties, and that this influence is, in some cases, stronger than effects of language familiarity. Moreover, bilingual infants demonstrated greater phonological flexibility in tone interpretation.

Matched MeSH terms: Multilingualism
Cross-linguistic transfer of phonological skills: a Malaysian perspective

Gomez C, Reason R

Dyslexia, 2002 Jan-Mar;8(1):22-33.
PMID: 11990222

This study examined the phonological and reading performance in English of Malaysian children whose home language was Bahasa Malaysia (BM). A sample of 69 Malaysian Standard Two pupils (aged 7-8 years) was selected for the study. Since commencing school at the age of 6 years, the children had been learning to read in BM and had subsequently also been learning to read in English for some 12 months. The study was part of a larger scale research programme that fully recognized the limitations of tests that had not been developed and standardized in Malaysia. Nevertheless, as a first step to developing such tests, a comparison with existing norms for the Phonological Assessment Battery (PhAB) and the Wechsler Objective Reading Dimension (WORD) was undertaken in relation to information about the children's L1 and L2 language competencies. Results showed that the children's performance on PhAB was at least comparable to the UK norms while, not surprisingly, they fared less well on WORD. The results are discussed in terms of L1 and L2 transfer, whereby the transparency of written BM and the structured way in which reading is taught in BM facilitates performance on phonological tasks in English. This has implications for identifying children with phonologically based reading difficulties.

Matched MeSH terms: Multilingualism*
Evaluation of a bilingual questionnaire-based assessment on hearing in children with speech delay

Goh LC, Azman A, Ng BHK, Chew LC, Hufaidah K, Kulasegarah J

Med J Malaysia, 2020 03;75(2):136-140.
PMID: 32281594

INTRODUCTION: To correlate the score obtained using a bilingual (Malay and English) 14 points questionnaire in the detection of hearing loss at the University of Malaya, Medical Centre (UMMC), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia over a 9 month period.
METHODS: This is a prospective instrument correlation study done on 93 children aged 1-4 years of age with speech and language delay for at least 3 months. Hearing status was confirmed using otoacoustic emissions, pure tone audiometry and brainstem evoked response (BSER). Hearing status was then compared to the 14-point questionnaire final scores and is statistically correlated.
RESULTS: There were 26 patients, 15 males (58%) and 11(42%) females who were diagnosed to have hearing loss. The average age of presentation was 2.49 and conductive hearing loss accounted for about 74% of cases of hearing loss. The mean questionnaire score obtained through our patients was 3.83±1.987. Discriminant analysis suggests that a questionnaire score of above 4 was indicative that the child was suffering from hearing loss.
CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that the low-cost bilingual (Malay and English) questionnaire can be used to detect hearing loss in the Malaysian population and could potentially be useful in rural health centres to help detect hearing loss and to determine the urgency of referral to a tertiary health centre.

Matched MeSH terms: Multilingualism*
The effect of non-native and non-regional speech testing on a multi-lingual population

Quar TK, Soli SD, Chan YF, Ishak WS, Abdul Wahat NH

Int J Audiol, 2017 02;56(2):92-98.
PMID: 27686009 DOI: 10.1080/14992027.2016.1210828

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to evaluate the speech perception of Malaysian Chinese adults using the Taiwanese Mandarin HINT (MHINT-T) and the Malay HINT (MyHINT).
DESIGN: The MHINT-T and the MyHINT were presented in quiet and noise (front, right and left) conditions under headphones. Results for the two tests were compared with each other and with the norms for each test.
STUDY SAMPLE: Malaysian Chinese native speakers of Mandarin (N = 58), 18-31 years of age with normal hearing.
RESULTS: On average, subjects demonstrated poorer speech perception ability than the normative samples for these tests. Repeated measures ANOVA showed that speech reception thresholds (SRTs) were slightly poorer on the MHINT-T than on the MyHINT for all test conditions. However, normalized SRTs were poorer by 0.6 standard deviations for MyHINT as compared with MHINT-T.
CONCLUSIONS: MyHINT and MHINT-T can be used as norm-referenced speech perception measures for Mandarin-speaking Chinese in Malaysia.

Matched MeSH terms: Multilingualism*
Acquisition of Consonant Clusters and Acceptable Variants in Chinese-Influenced Malaysian English-Speaking Children

Phoon HS, Maclagan M, Abdullah AC

Am J Speech Lang Pathol, 2015 Aug;24(3):517-32.
PMID: 26125520 DOI: 10.1044/2015_AJSLP-14-0037

This study investigated consonant cluster acquisition in Chinese-influenced Malaysian English (ChME)-speaking children.

Matched MeSH terms: Multilingualism*
Fulltext Translation, adaptation and validation of two versions of the Chronic Liver Disease Questionnaire in Malaysian patients for speakers of both English and Malay languages: a cross-sectional study

Khairullah S, Mahadeva S

BMJ Open, 2017 05 25;7(5):e013873.
PMID: 28550020 DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-013873

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to adapt, translate and validate the Chronic Liver Disease Questionnaire (CLDQ) in Malaysian patients with chronic liver diseases of various aetiologies.
SETTING: Tertiary level teaching institution in Malaysia.
PARTICIPANTS: The validation process involved 211 adult patients (English language n=101, Malay language n=110) with chronic liver disease. Characteristics of the study subjects were as follows: mean (SD) age was 56 (12.8) years, 58.3% were male and 41.7% female. The inclusion criteria were patients 18 years or older with chronic hepatitis and/or liver cirrhosis of any aetiology. The exclusion criteria were as follows: presence of hepatic encephalopathy, ongoing treatment with interferon and presence of other chronic conditions that have an impact on health-related quality of life (HRQOL).
METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted. Cultural adaptation of the English version of the CLDQ was performed, and a Malay version was developed following standard forward-backward translation by independent native speakers. Psychometric properties of both versions were determined by assessing their internal consistency, test-retest reliability and discriminant and convergent validity.
RESULTS: Cronbach's alpha for internal consistency across the various domains of the CLDQ was 0.95 for the English version and 0.92 for the Malay version. Test-retest analysis showed excellent reliability with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.89 for the English version and 0.93 for the Malay version. The average scores of both the English and Malay versions of the CLDQ demonstrated adequate discriminant validity by differentiating between non-cirrhosis (English 6.3, Malay 6.1), compensated cirrhosis (English 5.6, Malay 6.0) and decompensated cirrhosis (English 5.1, Malay 4.9) (p<0.001). Convergent validity showed that correlation was fair between the English (ρ=0.59) and Malay (p=0.47) CLDQ versions with the EQ-5D, a generic HRQOL instrument.
CONCLUSION: The English and Malay versions of the CLDQ are reliable and valid disease-specific instruments for assessing HRQOL in Malaysian patients with chronic liver disease.

Matched MeSH terms: Multilingualism*
Fulltext The structure of clinical consultation: a case of non-native speakers of English as participants

Bagheri H, Ibrahim NA, Habil H

Glob J Health Sci, 2015;7(1):249-60.
PMID: 25560336 DOI: 10.5539/gjhs.v7n1p249

In many parts of the world, patients may find it difficult to visit doctors who share the same language and culture due to the intermingling of people and international recruitment of doctors among many other reasons. In these multilingual multicultural settings (MMSs), doctor-patient interactions face new communication challenges. This study aims to identify the structure of clinical consultation and its phases in an MMS where both doctors and patients are non-native speakers (NNSs) of English.

Matched MeSH terms: Multilingualism
Fulltext An Early Reading Assessment Battery for Multilingual Learners in Malaysia

Lee JAC, Lee S, Yusoff NFM, Ong PH, Nordin ZS, Winskel H

Front Psychol, 2020;11:1700.
PMID: 32754104 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01700

The aim of the study was to develop a new comprehensive reading assessment battery for multi-ethnic and multilingual learners in Malaysia. Using this assessment battery, we examined the reliability, validity, and dimensionality of the factors associated with reading difficulties/disabilities in the Malay language, a highly transparent alphabetic orthography. In order to further evaluate the reading assessment battery, we compared results from the assessment battery with those obtained from the Malaysian national screening instrument. In the study, 866 Grade 1 children from multi-ethnic and multilingual backgrounds from 11 government primary schools participated. The reading assessment battery comprised 13 assessments, namely, reading comprehension, spelling, listening comprehension, letter name knowledge, letter name fluency, rapid automatized naming, word reading accuracy, word reading efficiency, oral reading fluency, expressive vocabulary, receptive vocabulary, elision, and phonological memory. High reliability and validity were found for the assessments. An exploratory factor analysis yielded three main constructs: phonological-decoding, sublexical-fluency, and vocabulary-memory. Phonological-decoding was found to be the most reliable construct that distinguished between at-risk and non-at-risk children. Identifying these underlying factors will be useful for detecting children at-risk for developing reading difficulties in the Malay language. In addition, these results highlight the importance of including a range of reading and reading-related measures for the early diagnosis of reading difficulties in this highly transparent orthography.

Matched MeSH terms: Multilingualism
The effect of dialect on the phonological analysis of Chinese-influenced Malaysian English speaking children

Phoon HS, Abdullah AC, Maclagan M

Int J Speech Lang Pathol, 2012 Dec;14(6):487-98.
PMID: 23039125 DOI: 10.3109/17549507.2012.719549

This study investigates the effect of dialect on phonological analyses in Chinese-influenced Malaysian English (ChME) speaking children. A total of 264 typically-developing ChME speaking children aged 3-7 years participated in this cross-sectional study. A single word naming task consisting of 195 words was used to elicit speech from the children. The samples obtained were transcribed phonetically and analysed descriptively and statistically. Phonological analyses were completed for speech sound accuracy, age of consonant acquisition, percentage of phonological process occurrence, and age of suppression for phonological processes. All these measurements differed based on whether or not ChME dialectal features were considered correct, with children gaining higher scores when ChME dialect features were considered correct. The findings of the present study provide guidelines for Malaysian speech-language pathologists and stress the need to appropriately consider ChME dialectal features in the phonological analysis of ChME speaking children. They also highlight the issues in accurate differential diagnosis of speech impairment for speech-language pathologists working with children from any linguistically diverse background.

Matched MeSH terms: Multilingualism*
Assessing bilingual Chinese-English young children in Malaysia using language sample measures

Ooi CC, Wong AM

Int J Speech Lang Pathol, 2012 Dec;14(6):499-508.
PMID: 23039126 DOI: 10.3109/17549507.2012.712159

One reason why specific language impairment (SLI) is grossly under-identified in Malaysia is the absence of locally- developed norm-referenced language assessment tools for its multilingual and multicultural population. Spontaneous language samples provide quantitative information for language assessment, and useful descriptive information on child language development in complex language and cultural environments. This research consisted of two studies and investigated the use of measures obtained from English conversational samples among bilingual Chinese-English Malaysian preschoolers. The research found that the language sample measures were sensitive to developmental changes in this population and could identify SLI. The first study examined the relationship between age and mean length of utterance (MLU(w)), lexical diversity (D), and the index of productive syntax (IPSyn) among 52 typically-developing (TD) children aged between 3;4-6;9. Analyses showed a significant linear relationship between age and D (r = .450), the IPsyn (r = .441), and MLU(w) (r = .318). The second study compared the same measures obtained from 10 children with SLI, aged between 3;8-5;11, and their age-matched controls. The children with SLI had significantly shorter MLU(w) and lower IPSyn scores than the TD children. These findings suggest that utterance length and syntax production can be potential clinical markers of SLI in Chinese-English Malaysian children.

Matched MeSH terms: Multilingualism*
The effects of linguistic modification on ESL students' comprehension of nursing course test items

Bosher S, Bowles M

Nurs Educ Perspect, 2008 May-Jun;29(3):165-72.
PMID: 18575241

Recent research has indicated that language may be a source of construct-irrelevant variance for non-native speakers of English, or English as a second language (ESL) students, when they take exams. As a result, exams may not accurately measure knowledge of nursing content. One accommodation often used to level the playing field for ESL students is linguistic modification, a process by which the reading load of test items is reduced while the content and integrity of the item are maintained. Research on the effects of linguistic modification has been conducted on examinees in the K-12 population, but is just beginning in other areas. This study describes the collaborative process by which items from a pathophysiology exam were linguistically modified and subsequently evaluated for comprehensibility by ESL students. Findings indicate that in a majority of cases, modification improved examinees' comprehension of test items. Implications for test item writing and future research are discussed.

Matched MeSH terms: Multilingualism*

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