Running head: EFFECT OF SPANISH ENGLISH CLUSTER REDUCTION
EFFECT OF SPANISH ON ENGLISH CLUSTER REDUCTION IN SPANISH-ENGLISH
BILINGUAL CHILDREN
A Research Proposal
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Master of Science
In
The Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders
by
Melissa L. Gutierrez, B.A.
Caroline H. Johnson, B.A.
Haley E. Schmitt, B.A.
Lori N. Tyler, B.A., M.A.
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center
Communication Disorders Department
1900 Gravier St., New Orleans, LA 70112
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EFFECT OF SPANISH ON ENGLISH CLUSTER REDUCTION
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Abstract
Between 1980 and 2010, there has been an influx of Hispanics in the population of the
Greater New Orleans metropolitan area of Louisiana (U.S. Department of Commerce, United
States Census Bureau, 2013). As a result, more children of Hispanic descent are learning English
at school. According to the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition (2011),
“Spanish-speakers constitute more than 80% of [English Learner] students.” Due to the large
number of Spanish-English bilingual speakers in the population, more research is needed to aid
speech-language pathologists in treating speech-language disorders. Although there have been
some studies evaluating the language development of bilingual Spanish-English children, most
focus on syntactic or lexical development. However, there are few studies on the phonological
process of cluster reduction in bilinguals (Goldstein, 2004). The purpose of this study is to
analyze cluster reduction in Spanish-English bilinguals. Researchers expect to find that the lack of
clusters in Spanish will increase cluster reduction in English in bilingual children. Using a mixedmethods quasi-experimental and qualitative design, researchers will assess the language skills of
twenty typically developing second grade students in both English and Spanish by administering
the Contextual Probes of Articulation Competence Spanish (CPAC-S), Secord Contextual
Articulation Test (S-CAT), and parental questionnaires. Researchers will collect data through
assessment and language samples for five categories (word initial, word final, word medial,
sentence level, and spontaneous speech). The results of the assessments will be displayed in a
graph to identify trends in data collection.
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Table of Contents
Title Page……………………………………………………………………………...…………….i
Abstract ……………………..……………………………………………………………….….…ii
Biographical Sketches…………………………………..…...……….…………………………….4
Research Protocol……………………………………………………………………..………..…..6
Background and Significance………….………….……………………………....……….6
Specific Aim ……………………………...…..……………………………………….......9
Methods...………… …………..………………………………….……………...……….11
Participants ………...…………………………..…………………………….…...11
Procedures..………………...……………………………………………..………12
Data Analysis……………………………………………………………………..14
Instruments …………………..………………………………….……………..…15
Reliability and Validity ………………………………………………………..…16
References…………………………………………………………..…………....…………….…18
EFFECT OF SPANISH ON ENGLISH CLUSTER REDUCTION
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Biographical Sketches
Melissa Lorena Gutierrez is a Speech-Language Pathology Masters student at Louisiana
State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. She received a Bachelor of
Arts from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge in December 2012. In the fall of 2012, she
assisted Dr. Janet Norris with a language study at a local elementary school. She is a member of
the National Society of Leadership and Success and the National Student Speech-Language
Hearing Association. Melissa is a bilingual Spanish-English speaker with interest in bilingual
speech therapy.
Caroline Haddox Johnson earned a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics and French at Tulane
University. She worked as an assistant teacher at a French immersion school in New Orleans and
as a teacher at French immersion camps. After obtaining a TESOL (Teaching English as a Second
Language) certificate from Oxford Seminars, she taught English as a Second Language (ESL) to
Hispanic adults in New Orleans, to Russian children and adults in Russia, and then returned to the
United States. to pursue a degree in Speech-Language Pathology. She is currently a graduate
student at Louisiana State University-Health Sciences Center pursuing a Masters in
Communication Disorders with an emphasis in Speech-Language Pathology.
Haley Elizabeth Schmitt obtained a Bachelor of Arts from Louisiana State University in
Baton Rouge in May 2012. Haley was a member of Chi Omega and Rho Lambda Leadership
Society. She is working with school-age children on various subjects including Spanish and
English in the Greater New Orleans metropolitan area. She is an active member of National
Student Speech Language Hearing Association. She is currently attending Louisiana State
University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, Louisiana where she is studying to become a
certified speech-language pathologist.
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Lori N. Tyler is currently a graduate student at Louisiana State University Health Sciences
Center in New Orleans, Louisiana where she is pursuing a Masters in Communication Disorders
in Speech Language Pathology. She received a Masters of Arts in Spanish Philology from St.
Louis University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish from Loyola University New Orleans.
She is a former teacher who has worked with the Hispanic community in the Greater New
Orleans area for six years in translation and interpretation, research assistance, social justice, and
journalism.
EFFECT OF SPANISH ON ENGLISH CLUSTER REDUCTION
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Background and Significance
Over the past thirty years, America’s language diversity has changed drastically (U.S.
Department of Commerce, United States Census Bureau, 2013). The population of people five
years and older speaking a language other than English has increased from 26,785 to 126,136
between 1980 and 2010, a change of 40%. The number of Spanish-speakers increased 60% from
1980 to 2010 respectively from 19,135 to 84,138. The prevalence of bilingual homes in the
United States as of 2010 is 13.5 million (U.S. Department of Commerce, United States Census
Bureau, 2013). “The use of a language other than English used at home increased by 148%
between 1980 and 2009 and this increase was not evenly distributed among languages” (Ortman
& Shin, 2011, p. 1).
Given the results presented by Ortman and Shin (2011), the growth of multiple languages
being spoken in the United States has caused an increase in the number of bilinguals. According
to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, bilingualism is defined as “the ability to speak two different
languages” (Dictionary and Thesaurus-Merriam-Webster, 2013). However, one must consider the
amount of exposure and age of acquisition of each language (Barlow & Enriquez, 2007). The
term bilingualism is ambiguous as there is no consensus on its definition amongst well-known
researchers. For the purposes of this study, researchers define bilingualism as proficiency in two
languages.
Even though there is a great increase in bilinguals in the United States, there is not much
research about bilingual language development. Most of the research on bilingual children
focuses on syntactic or lexical development; however, there is a dearth of information about the
phonological development and disorders of bilingual children (Goldstein, 2004). According to
current research (Barlow & Enriquez, 2007; Goldstein & Gildersleeve-Neumann, 2007), there are
EFFECT OF SPANISH ON ENGLISH CLUSTER REDUCTION
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three models of phonological development in children who are bilingual. The Unitary Systems
Model (USM) states that children have one phonological system for both languages. With
increasing use of each language, bilingual children gradually separate their systems into two
distinct languages around age two (Barlow & Enriquez, 2007). The Dual Systems Model (DSM)
says that children have a separate system for each language at the beginning stages of acquisition
which interact with each other (Barlow & Enriquez, 2007; Goldstein & Gildersleeve-Neumann,
2007). In the studies of Genesee (1989) and Paradis (1987, 2001), it is maintained that children
have separate sets of phonemes, phonological rules, and lexicons (as cited in Goldstein, 2004).
The Interactional Dual Systems Model (IDSM) asserts that there are two separate systems present
at birth which mutually influence each other (Goldstein & Gildersleeve-Neumann, 2007).
Researchers will adhere to the IDSM in this study.
Barlow and Enriquez (2007) clarify that certain phonological errors may exist only for
bilinguals and may not be used by monolinguals. For this reason, it is not appropriate to use
assessment tests or data normed on monolingual speakers (Goldstein, 2004). A bilingual child
acquires each language differently. If the bilingual child has a phonological disorder, s/he will
exhibit phonological processes in both languages; although they will not necessarily be the same
errors (Barlow & Enriquez, 2007; Fabiano, 2007). Goldstein (2004) agrees, stating that for
bilingual children to be diagnosed with a phonological disorder, processes of both languages must
be analyzed. A deficit must exist in both languages to diagnose a phonological disorder in
bilingual speakers (Roseberry-McKibbin, 2001).
A phonological disorder is an impaired comprehension of the sound system of language,
and the rules that govern the sound combinations (ASHA, 1993). A person is considered to have a
phonological disorder if s/he experiences difficulties acquiring a target sound system in language
EFFECT OF SPANISH ON ENGLISH CLUSTER REDUCTION
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(Barlow & Enriquez, 2007). “There is some evidence that the phonological system of bilingual
speakers develops somewhat differently from that of monolingual speakers of either language”
(Goldstein & Washington, 2001, p. 153). Therefore, limited phonological proficiency in one of
the two languages should not be considered a disorder. “If a child has a fundamental languagelearning problem, delay, or disorder, it will be apparent across both languages” (Fabiano, 2007, p.
23). Research shows that a similar rate of achievement of developmental milestones exists in
language acquisition for bilinguals and monolinguals. A person who has a lower level of
competency in one of the two languages might be perceived as having disordered speech;
however, it might be a reflection of language dominance rather than phonological development
(Barlow & Enriquez, 2007). “The skills of bilinguals are commensurate with, although not
identical to, those of their monolingual peers.” This continues to be true of children with language
disorders (Goldstein & Gildersleeve-Neumann, 2007, p. 14).
Since there has been such a great influx of Spanish speakers in the United States, there is
an increasingly large Spanish-English bilingual population. As previously stated, research on
bilingual development and disorders is lacking, specifically on phonological disorders in SpanishEnglish bilingual children (Goldstein, 2004). The prevalence of phonological disorders in these
bilingual children is approximately 10% in the preschool and school-age population (Gierut,
1998). Some examples of phonological processes that affect Spanish-English bilinguals are
cluster reduction, final consonant deletion, gliding, initial consonant deletion, and fronting
(Fabiano, Goldstein, & Washington, 2005). In this study, researchers will focus on cluster
reductions in Spanish-English bilingual children.
According to the Manual of Articulation and Phonological Disorders, cluster reduction is
an error pattern in which a consonant or consonants in a consonant cluster are deleted (Bleile,
EFFECT OF SPANISH ON ENGLISH CLUSTER REDUCTION
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2004, p. 212). Consonant clusters are rare in Spanish, yet common in English (Gillam & Gorman,
2003). The results of research (Chávez-Peón et. al., 2012) showed that two Spanish-English
bilingual children exhibited few or no consonant clusters; that is, most consonant clusters were
deleted. For example, Spanish speakers that display cluster reduction may produce /fío/ for /frío/
or /kuato/ for /kuatro/; while English speakers may produce /pun/ for /spun/ or /tʊk/ for /trʊk/.
The research of Davis, Gildersleeve-Neumann, Kaster, and Pena (2008) explains that this occurs
due to a low rate of closed syllables and clusters, as well as more constrained cluster types in
Spanish. Therefore, the gaps in research on cluster reduction are increasingly important to
consider because of the expansion of the Spanish-English population in the United States.
Over the past three decades, the population of Spanish-English speakers has rapidly
increased (U.S. Department of Commerce, United States Census Bureau, 2013). There has been
significant research addressing the syntactic and lexical development of this population; however,
there is a lack of information about language development and phonological processes (Goldstein,
2004). While final consonant deletion, initial consonant deletion, gliding, and fronting have been
investigated, research of the phonological process of cluster reduction remains underdeveloped
(Goldstein, 2004). Furthermore, most research focuses on monolingual Spanish and English
speakers.
The purpose of this study is to focus on bilingual phonological disorders, specifically
cluster reduction in bilingual Spanish-English speakers. To determine the effect of the Spanish
language on the English language in cluster reduction, a mixed-methods quasi-experimental and
qualitative design will be implemented in a Spanish-English immersion program at an elementary
school. The following question will be addressed:
EFFECT OF SPANISH ON ENGLISH CLUSTER REDUCTION
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Do Spanish-English bilingual children have difficulty producing clusters in English due to
limited clusters in the Spanish lexicon?
EFFECT OF SPANISH ON ENGLISH CLUSTER REDUCTION
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Method
The researchers will be four graduate students who will receive their Masters in
Communication Disorders with a focus in Speech-Language Pathology with completed
coursework in phonetics and articulation. Two of the graduate student researchers will be
bilingual Spanish-English speakers. These researchers will administer the Spanish assessment;
whereas the other two researchers will administer the English equivalent. Additionally, a clinical
supervisor from the department of Communication Disorders will oversee the project.
Participants
Researchers will survey the Greater New Orleans area for an ideal bilingual school
campus. Researchers anticipate that J.C. Ellis, a local elementary school which offers a track in
Spanish immersion, will meet the qualifying criteria for the study. The inclusion/exclusion
criteria will be that the student must be a first generation native Spanish speaker who has been
proficient in English for at least a year and experiences 40-60% English-Spanish input and output.
According to Pearson, Fernandez, Lewedeg and Oller (as cited in Barron-Hauwaert, 1997), a
balanced bilingual needs 40-60% exposure in each language. Researchers will look for a
minimum of 20 participants for the study.
The school will be contacted to obtain permission to conduct research. Following
administrative approval, information packets will be sent to sixty families of second graders. The
packets will include a description of the study and a request for consent form to be completed
should they agree to let their children participate in the study. A questionnaire (inquiring the date
of birth, age, languages spoken both in the household and otherwise, percentage of time of input
and output in each language, how well the child is understood in Spanish by different audiences
EFFECT OF SPANISH ON ENGLISH CLUSTER REDUCTION
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[e.g. caregivers, friends, strangers], whether the child has exhibited errors in Spanish or English
and in what contexts, whether there are a greater number of errors since the child began learning
English, country of origin, as well as a checklist of developmental milestones and medical
history) will be included in the package. Additionally, homeroom teachers will receive a
questionnaire requesting information about English and Spanish language usage at school.
All participating children will be of Hispanic descent, with most students specifically of
Mexican, Puerto Rican, and/or Cuban origin due to the demographics of the Hispanic population
in the Greater New Orleans metropolitan area (U.S. Department of Commerce, United States
Census Bureau, 2013). Additionally, researchers will perform an audiology screening on each
child. Children must pass the screening within normal hearing range to be accepted. Children who
meet the aforementioned criteria will be included in our study.
Procedures
This study will utilize a mixed-methods quasi-experimental and qualitative design to
measure the amount of cluster reduction exhibited in English by bilingual Spanish-English
speakers. Researchers will obtain a comparison of cluster reduction errors in both English and
Spanish using the Contextual Probes of Articulation Competence (CPAC) in both languages to
describe this phonological process as it exists within their individual language skills.
Researchers will administer the CPAC portion of the Secord Contextual Articulation Test
(S-CAT) to the participants to evaluate the production of clusters in English. The S-CAT,
published in 1997, analyzed the production of English language phonemes across phonetic and
phonological contexts, examine performance across different speech production levels, and plan
intervention. It will consist of three probes: The Contextual Probes of Articulation Competence
EFFECT OF SPANISH ON ENGLISH CLUSTER REDUCTION
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(CPAC), Storytelling Probes of Articulation Competence (SPAC), and Target Words for
Contextual Training (TWCT). For the purposes of this investigation, researchers will only
employ the use of CPAC which tested persons aged 4;0 into adulthood.
The CPAC cluster reduction probe elicited 96 responses. There will be 72 word-level (28
initial clusters, 28 medial clusters, and 16 final clusters) and 24 sentence-level instances of cluster
reduction. The probe elicited majority of phoneme combinations across sounds using different
manner of articulation. . It includes several types of clusters that sample prevocalic and
postvocalic clusters as well as clusters with varying prevocalic and postvocalic syllable junctures.
Researchers will provide a visual (e.g. picture card of spoon) and verbal (e.g. spoon)
model of probe items. The participant will repeat the model. Responses will be recorded on the
test protocol. A “1” will be recorded for correct responses and a “0” for incorrect responses.
Incorrect responses will be noted if a participant receives a “0.”
After completion of the Contextual Probes of Articulation Competence, the researchers
will administer the Spanish equivalent, the Contextual Probes of Articulation CompetenceSpanish (CPAC-S) to the participants. This will be done to evaluate their articulation skills and
phonological patterns in Spanish. The CPAC-S, a norm-referenced test designed for ages 3;08;11, probed the production of all Spanish phonemes in a variety of phonetic and phonological
contexts. Similarly to the S-CAT, the researchers will administer only the cluster reduction probe
of the CPAC-S. The administration and scoring procedures of the CPAC-S will correspond to that
of the CPAC.
Additionally, researchers will obtain brief language samples from each participant in
English. The samples will be analyzed for Percentage of Consonants Correct (PCC) and Type
Token Ratio (TTR). The PCC will measure the number of correct consonants in a sample. It will
EFFECT OF SPANISH ON ENGLISH CLUSTER REDUCTION
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be calculated by dividing the number of correct consonants by the number of total consonants and
multiplying by 100. Type Token Ratio will measure the variety of words in a person’s language.
Researchers will extract the TTR by dividing the number of different words by the number of
total words. The TTR will verify that the student’s speech includes a variety of consonant
clusters, and the PCC will measure the accuracy of the consonant cluster production.
Data analysis
Researchers will organize data from language samples and assessments into categories
labeled by phonemic context to determine the frequency of cluster reduction. Standard scores
from both the CPAC and CPAC-S will be compared. The data will be organized in bar graphs
comparing both standard scores for each consonant cluster position. The data will be organized in
a bar graph demonstrating the average standard scores for each of the following consonant cluster
positions: initial, medial, and final at the word level, as well as sentence level. Investigators will
create a comprehensive bar graph that will summarize the data of all participants by comparing
standard score means across positions in each language. The comprehensive graph will be
formatted as follows:
EFFECT OF SPANISH ON ENGLISH CLUSTER REDUCTION
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Additionally, the researchers will note cluster reductions observed in all positions across
the language sample.
Instruments
Data will be obtained by researchers during administration of both the CPAC and CPAC-S
in order to determine in which contexts students will present cluster reduction errors. The record
form for the CPAC will be as follows:
EFFECT OF SPANISH ON ENGLISH CLUSTER REDUCTION
Reliability and Validity
The evaluations and language samples will be videotaped. The clinical supervisor will
compare twenty percent of the tests to ensure inter-rater reliability of 99% for English and
Spanish assessments. Validity will be established by compiling a verbatim transcription of the
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EFFECT OF SPANISH ON ENGLISH CLUSTER REDUCTION
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language sample from a video recording. Researchers will archive questionnaires which will be
completed by parents and teachers.
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