Accounting for linguistic and cultural diversity
Merle Mahon
Developmental Science Research Department UCL
Working Together to Support Families of Young Children with Cochlear Implants Symposium
9 November 2011
Today’s focus: linguistic diversity in spoken languages
for children with CI from hearing families
Cultural diversity:
In this context, about attitudes, beliefs, aspirations, practices about childrearing; disability; language choice etc
- interwoven with linguistic diversity issues
General bilingualism comments
Research evidence
Numbers
Research challenges
References on website
Deaf children from linguistically diverse families can be thought of as:
Minority bi/multilinguals
Bi/multilingual in languages which are not well documented
e.g. Somali, Sylheti, Mirpuri Punjabi
+ little information about child language acquisition in L1
+ where the ‘majority language’ is an additional language
e.g. in UK - English - EAL
+ timing of acquisition of different languages is usually sequential
Different from Elite bilinguals: bilingual in well-documented languages
e.g. English, French, German, Spanish, BSL
+ availability of good information about child language acquisition
includes Official bilinguals: Wales; Switzerland; Canada;
+ timing of acquisition either simultaneous or sequential
Points about typical children acquiring 2 or more languages
Bilingualism is an advantage
Bilingualism does not lead to speech language and communication needs
Trajectory of language development may be different from monolinguals
Silent periods are ‘normal’
‘Delay’ is usually temporary
Vocabulary – same words for same things in L1 and L2
words for some things in L1 and other things in L2
Grammar – can mix grammars,
especially if hear ‘code mixed’ languages from family
but will separate grammars – hear good models from teachers & peers
Garcia & Baker 2007; Baker 2000
Child’s best language may not be the family language
Child may lose motivation to use the family language
depends on support & input from within & outside family, peer pressure
Family can’t control child’s choice of language use
Advice to families:
There is no ‘right’ way
Use language with which you are most comfortable
Talk to your child!
What about advice to families with deaf children?
Previously, advice erred on side of caution –
speak only one language to deaf children
Waltzman et al 2003
But now generally same as for all bilingual children
Including ‘use all communication modes’
What is “success”? Bilingual? Multilingual? Monolingual?
What’s the research evidence for this advice?
Research variables:
Pre-existing & audiological
age at onset of deafness;
level of hearing loss
age at implantation & ‘hearing age’
pre-implant hearing aids
age at testing; gender
additional difficulties
cognition - working memory etc
Family
parents hearing status
family’s race/ethnicity (culture implied)
family structure
parents educational status
family SES
Language
Communication mode
Language environment
(language/s used at home;
quality & quantity of language input
– culture implied)
Classroom /intervention
mainstream or special education,
oral or total communication environment
type and amount of individual therapy,
therapist training experience
parent participation in therapy
Complex interaction between ethnicity/race, language & SES
Stacey et al 2006
Ethnicity usually an exclusion criterion in research studies
e.g. In a review of 57 research reports 2000-2007,
12 included race/ethnicity variable
2 included language (Spanish )
Belzner & Seal 2009
but ‘ethnicity’ misses the most important confound which is about language/s
Mitchell & Karchmer 2011; Blackorby et al 2007
Many who are ethnically and/or racially diverse speak English
e.g. DfE figures for number of pupils in primary schools in England
26.5% are from minority ethnic backgrounds
16.8% have a first language known or believed to be other than English
DfE 2011 http://tinyurl.com/6yd8uu7 Main national tables:Table 5
Of the 16.8% pupils with first language known or believed to be other than English,
22.3% have a hearing impairment
DfE 2011 http://tinyurl.com/3tg7frk Tables for Hearing Impairment +First Language: Table 5
Other figures are available e.g. BATOD survey
However, this survey, up until recently, only reported ethnicity data
The survey has been revamped – now called the CRIDE survey
Consortium for Research into Deaf Education
BATOD, NDCS & UCL set up in 2007
First full national survey completed in August 2011 (analysis in progress)
Includes questions about language/s used at home
CRIDE figures for Language/s used by deaf children at home (preschool included)
Of 22,177 deaf children in total,
English only 73%
Sign language only 1%
English and sign language 8%
Other 3%
English and other spoken language 15%
CRIDE Survey 2011 preliminary data Report to be published on BATOD and NDCS websites
How many deaf children with languages other than English have cochlear implants?
Only published data is from audit at Great Ormond Street Hospital
8
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7
42 children with additional languages
105 children from monolingual English speaking families
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Number of Children
28% of children implanted between 2005-2008 came from EAL families
Mahon et al 2011
Interestingly, figures from USA indicate differential rate of implantation
for ethnically diverse children - e.g. fewer Hispanic children implanted
Hyde & Power 2006; Stern et al 2005; Geers & Brenner 2003; Steinberg et al 2003
No indication of this in UK
A substantial number of deaf children with CI come from EAL families
Important to have reliable numbers in order to design research studies with sufficient
power
But there are some challenges :
•Numbers can be difficult to find
•Moving target - numbers quickly out of date
•Local or anecdotal information
•Categories used by agencies collecting data are not always the same
•Derived or adjusted figures may be presented
•Missing data can make numbers look misleading
•Publication of numbers not centralised (yet)
What about Deaf families & different Sign languages?
Difficult to find information about deaf children of deaf families within
linguistic minority communities who use their own sign languages
Mitchell et al., 2006
Some evidence to indicate the benefits of using sign languages in these
settings
Breivik 2005; Ladd 2005
Children of deaf parents who have learned their own sign languages in
other countries will face similar challenges in relation to BSL within the
deaf community in the UK to those experienced by hearing children who
are learning English as an additional language.
Cline & Mahon 2010
Returning to the research evidence for deaf children with CIs from
hearing families:
Language variables:
Communication mode
Language environment
language/s used at home
quality & quantity of language input
Many studies on Communication Mode (Sign and spoken language)
Not covering these today
Some studies on bilingual spoken language development
Study about language environment (variety, quality & quantity of input)
Evidence is sparse...
1. Studies asking the question:
Can deaf children with CIs from bilingual families become proficient
in their two languages?
Reference
Country
Language/s
N
Age at Span of
implant study
Outcome
measure
Result
Waltzman et al
2003
Otology and
Neurotology
Australia
English +
18
<5
years
English tests:
Australian tests;
RDLS; OWLS
Age appropriate
development in English
irrespective of L1;
L1: SOLOM
Dev of L1 appropriate
English tests:
RDLS; OWLS
Age appropriate
development in English
irrespective of L1
L1: SOLOM
Dev of L1 appropriate
Robbins et al
USA /
2004
Australia
Archives
Otolaryngology:
head and neck
surgery
Thomas et al
2008
Otology and
Neurotology
USA
Yiddush 30%
Hebrew 30%
French
Spanish German
Armenian
English +
12
<3
years
Hebrew 48%
Yiddush
French Armenian
German
English +
Arabic 50%
Spanish, French,
Marathi, Gugerati,
Cantonese
24
Pre-op vs
post-op
Tests at 1
year
intervals for
2 years
< 6 years Tests at 6, 12, English:
IT-MAIS; CDI,
24, and 36
PPVT III; OWLS
month
intervals
L1: SOLOM
No significant difference
between bilingual &
monolingual matched pairs
SOLOM Student Oral Language Observation Matrix (Rating scale for command of oral language)
IT-MAIS Infant-Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scales
CDI Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Gestures
PPVT III Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test
OWLS Oral and Written Language Scales
RDLS Reynell Developmental Language Scales
Case studies on bilingual development
Francis & Ho 2003 Cantonese, English and Mandarin
6-year-old early-deafened child with CI
Results show that deaf child is acquiring Cantonese, English and Mandarin
to a degree comparable to 2 normal hearing peers with
similar educational and social backgrounds
Moore et al (2006) Spanish/English child implanted at 20 months:
Good bilingual development;
evidence of Spanish influence on learning of English consonants
Guiberson (2005) Spanish/English child implanted at 5 years
evidence of bilingual skills developing over 3 years
All these studies indicate that deaf children with CIs
can become bilingual in spoken languages
Recent study showing less positive outcome
Reference
Country
Language/s
N
Age at
implant
Span of
study
Outcome
measure
Result
Teschendorf
et al
2011
Otology and
Neurotology
Germany
German +
93
52 bilingual
41 monolingual
< 6years
Tests
Pre-op;
6, 12, 24,
and 36
month
intervals
German tests
Bilingual children worse
than monolingual on all
German measures
L1: SOLOM
Limited use of L1
Parent interview
about language
environment at
home
NB variables:
Level of proficiency of
German used in the
home;
Compliance with rehab
programme
Turkish 59%,
Polish; Arabic,
Kurdish
Italian,
Portugese,
Berber, SerboCroatian,
Albanian
SOLOM Student Oral Language Observation Matrix (Rating scale for command of oral language)
NB Home language environment taken into account
Not the case in previous studies
2. Study addressing the question:
What is the effect of language input on spoken language development in
deaf children with CI from bi/multilingual families?
Mahon 2003
7 deaf children of Bangladeshi heritage (age 6;3 - 7) (not CI)
little evidence of properties which promote language development in mothers’ turns
e.g. expansions of specific grammatical structures and their subsequent
use in child’s speech
Mothers spoke Sylheti; deaf children spoke English ; both use some signs;
Older siblings spoke some English to deaf child
What do we get from this small body of work?
Substantial number of EAL families with deaf children
This in itself has implications for education, employment etc
As well as cost implications to family, individual & services
Some encouraging findings about deaf children with CI becoming bilingual
Some sobering findings
More research is needed
Researchers face a number of challenges:
Research funding is in short supply
Prioritising research questions – so many unknowns
Obstacles to designing research
A notable obstacle to designing research:
the lack of assessments & tests in minority languages – why?
Many minority languages, dialects, varieties,
+ changing patterns of migration
Inadequate linguistic knowledge of these languages
influence of languages on each other
accounting for code-mixing
stress points e.g substantial grammatical differences
Trajectory of hearing children’s typical development in minority
languages is not known
Work in Progress
Lots of work in this area - some examples:
European groups working on this e.g. COST-Action ISO804 (SLI)
ESRC Bilingualism group (Newcastle, Reading, UCL & several others)
UCL PhD projects ( Kathleen McCarthy - Sylheti;
Maryam Bahakeem - Saudi-Arabic)
Resources
London SIG Bilingualism website
Pert & Stow website
NALDIC website
MM UCL research projects
What is the influence of the language environment
(variety, quality and quantity of input) on development of spoken English?
Work in progress
With Debi Vickers UCL Ear Institute
and Roz Barker & Kaukab Rajput GOSH CI
Refining questionnaires/interview schedules re home language environment
Choosing relevant outcome measures
Designing study to account for many variables
MM UCL research projects
What is the quality of language directed to deaf children in school, and
what is the effect on the child’s spoken English development?
Work in progress
Ongoing analysis of longitudinal data set
(Mahon corpus: deaf children aged 3 – 11 years, with their teachers
10 English; 11 EAL (Sylheti, Somali, Turkish, French, Arabic, Gugerati)
With Theo Marinis (Reading) & Juliette Corrin (UCL)
Using CHILDES and Conversation Analysis
Interesting findings with respect to use of gesture by both child and teacher
This data available for other researchers
Mahon 2009; Mahon Marinis & Corrin 2010
UCL research projects
Intervention research
What works for monolingual deaf children?
Does this work for EAL children & their families?
Work in progress
UCL/City initiative (Rachel’s talk)
PhD project (Erin Crafton at River School Washington DC )
Reading
Sas-Lehrer 2011; Gascon-Ramos et al 2010; Young et al 2009;
Archbold et al 2006; Zaidman-Zaid 2007;
Steinberg et al 2003; Ahmad et al 1998;
I’ll let the children have the last word!
Dina: Iraqi-Arabic, aged 8
Talking to teacher
About younger hearing brother
And older hearing sister
Omar: Turkish, age 11
Talking to teacher about
younger brother aged 7