by Carla Wood Jackson on September 3, 2010
Carla Wood Jackson, Ph.D. CCC-SLP, Assistant Professor, School of Communication Science & Disorders at Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
Carla Wood Jackson, Ph.D. CCC-SLP is an assistant professor in the School of Communication Science & Disorders at Florida State University. Dr. Jackson’s teaching and research focuses on child language development and disorders. She has been a certified speech-language pathologist for over 16 years including service in public elementary schools. Dr. Jackson developed a multicultural/multilingual clinical program at Florida State University which provides outreach services to ELLs in surrounding communities. Her research has focused on facilitating early language and literacy skills of English language learners. She has presented on the topic at national conferences and published in professional journals such as Language Speech and Hearing Services in the Schools, Communication Disorders Quarterly, and Early Childhood Services: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Effectiveness. Jackson is in her fourth year as the principle investigator on a 4-year training grant focusing on serving culturally and linguistically diverse populations.
Dr. Carla Wood Jackson’s research lab, BLOOM, has focused on developing and examining language learning supports for young English language learners (ELLs). A series of language learning intervention studies have been conducted with the assistance of colleagues and graduate students in partnership with the Panhandle Area Educational Consortium on Migrant Education. Speech-language pathologists, teachers, and special educators continue to report challenges and obstacles in providing high quality intervention and instructional support for ELLs (Jackson, Leacox, & Callender, 2010). In response, the primary aim of BLOOM (Bridging for Language Outcomes in the Classroom) is to develop language and literacy interventions for young English language learners and refine and test implementation in authentic classrooms.
The use of native language expansions, referred to as “Spanish bridging”, during shared reading serves as a catalyst of English word learning by providing engaging, comprehensible input utilizing children’s stronger language. Spanish bridging shows promise as a transitional venue for facilitating English language learning, particularly in rich shared reading instruction. The use of children’s native language as instructional support during acquisition of English is controversial; however, burgeoning research supports the benefits of Spanish bridging for early English language and literacy development in some ELLs. The use of Spanish bridging demonstrated promising outcomes in the master’s thesis of Mirza Lugo-Neris (Lugo-Neris, Jackson, & Goldstein, 2010).
This project investigated word learning of ELLs in response to repeated shared reading with embedded instruction of word definitions in either Spanish or English. Children demonstrated growth in their word labeling in English, receptive understanding of targeted words, and expressive definitions in both English and Spanish intervention conditions; however, additional benefits were observed when the word definitions were provided in Spanish. Subsequent studies have examined supplemental Tier 2 and Tier 3 level supports for vocabulary learning including bridging with accompanying manipulatives (Jackson, Bancayan & Quiles, in preparation), voice-output pre-recorded definitions for preview and review, and bridging implemented through computer-mediated e-book instruction (Leacox & Jackson, in preparation).
Currently, doctoral student Lindsey Leacox and Jackson are extending the BLOOM project for broader implementation in preschool – 1st grade classrooms. Children practice and rehearse targeted English word labels by selecting the electronic links to hear a model of the English label and embedded expansion of the word definition provided in Spanish. Preliminary results support the use of Spanish-bridging during computer mediated instruction to facilitate English word learning. On-going longitudinal study of ELL’s vocabulary skill acquisition in English and Spanish is underway in the BLOOM lab at Florida State University.
by François Grosjean on August 2, 2010
François Grosjean, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
François Grosjean is Emeritus Professor of Psycholinguistics, Neuchâtel University, Switzerland. His specialty is psycholinguistics and his domains of interest are the perception, comprehension and production of language, be it speech or sign language, in monolinguals and bilinguals. He also has interests in biculturalism, applied linguistics, aphasia, sign language, and natural language processing. He is better known for his work on bilingualism in which he has investigated the holistic view of bilingualism, language mode, the complementarity principle, the processing of code-switching and borrowing, as well as the bilingualism of the Deaf. He is the author of numerous articles and of five books, the latest of which is Bilingual: Life and Reality (Harvard University Press, 2010).
Greetings! My name is Nate Cornish. I am a bilingual speech-language pathologist, the clinical director for Bilingual Therapies and moderator of the ¡Adelante! blog. It is my pleasure to introduce as well as to participate in this month’s article, which will be presented in a different format than we are accustomed to. I had the opportunity to engage our contributor, renowned psycholinguist Dr. François Grosjean, in an interview on biculturalism. Our discussion was based on a chapter of his book, “Studying Bilinguals” (Oxford University Press, 2008). Chapter Twelve, titled, “The Bicultural Person: A Short Introduction,” raises some interesting points that are pertinent to our work with culturally and linguistically diverse individuals. Clearly, language and culture are closely linked. However, we as communication professionals may not always consider the dynamic of biculturalism as readily as we consider bilingualism, even though its impact on our clients’ participation in academics and life may be just as profound. [click to continue…]
by Tim Starling on July 6, 2010
Tim Starling, Division Director, Bilingual Therapies
Tim Starling is currently the Division Director of Bilingual Therapies. Tim received his introduction to healthcare in 2000 as a recruiter who placed neurological, orthopedic, and general surgeons in some of the country’s leading hospital systems. He later joined Soliant Health where he pioneered the schools division that places speech, physical, and occupational therapist in school districts across the country. In August of 2006, Tim had the opportunity to join Bilingual Therapies where he continues to assist the team in being the profession’s leading source for bilingual speech-language pathology services in the country.
Did I get your attention yet?
For the past two or three years, the US economy has really been on a roller coaster that has seen more shrills than thrills. The job market has been bleak, schools are cutting jobs and mandating furlough days, and our leaders in Washington can’t get on the same page. So what does it mean for us? Here comes the answer that you have been waiting for: WE JUST DON’T KNOW! That is the honest truth when it comes to our job of providing much needed services to our clients in schools, hospitals, clinics, and other medical facilities across the country. Our clients, which are both the healthcare providers and the facilities they work in, are all operating in very unique markets right now. Let’s look at our nation’s school districts and see what is truly happening. [click to continue…]
by Marlene Salas-Provance on June 2, 2010
Marlene B. Salas-Provance, Ph.D., F-CCC-SLP, Director of the Program in Communication Disorders, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico
Dr. Salas-Provance currently serves as Director of the Program in Communication Disorders at New Mexico State University. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from New Mexico State University, her doctorate in speech-language pathology from the University of Illinois and a second master’s in Healthcare Administration from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Dr. Salas-Provance joined the faculty at New Mexico State University in 2009 having served as a faculty member at the U. of Montevallo, U. of the Pacific, Southern Illinois University, St. Louis University and Fontbonne College. She is an ASHA Fellow and 2009 recipient of ASHA’s Certificate of Recognition for Special Contributions to Multicultural Affairs. Her clinical and research interests are in the areas cleft lip and palate, bilingual medical interpreter training, multicultural issues and speech production of young children with cleft palate and of deaf children following cochlear implantation.
The ASHA Board of Directors and Special Interest Division Board of Division Coordinators announced the creation of a new division to focus on international topics of interest to ASHA members. Division 17, Global Issues in Communication Sciences and Related Disorders will be the primary resource for advancing the exchange of clinical, research, and educational information about communication and related disorders in the international and global market arena. The Division’s mission is to provide international leadership related to audiology and speech-language pathology services by promoting research, networking, collaboration, education, and mentoring for its affiliates and NSSLHA students in the global marketplace. [click to continue…]
by Elizabeth Kay-Raining Bird on May 3, 2010
Elizabeth Kay-Raining Bird, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, Professor, School of Human Communication Disorders, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Dr. Elizabeth Kay-Raining Bird (Ph.D. Madison, Wisconsin) is a Professor in the School of Human Communication Disorders at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Her research and teaching is in the area of child language development and disorders, with a particular focus on children and adolescents with Down syndrome. Her publications and presentations have focused upon a variety of topics including: cultural and linguistic diversity, language and literacy development, and the effectiveness of speech, language and literacy interventions. Elizabeth is a speech-language pathologist, certified with both the Canadian Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists (CASLPA) and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). She is currently the President of the Speech and Hearing Association of Nova Scotia (SHANS).
As Annick DeHouwer stated in 1999, “Bilingualism is most often a necessity, not a choice”. What this means is that many children live in environments that require them to speak and understand two languages. This is true whether or not a child has a language, or cognitive impairment. The need to be bilingual cuts across disability boundaries.
Unlike children with typical development, however, parents of children with language and/or cognitive disabilities are often told by professionals to expose their children to only one language, even when their child needs to learn two languages to communicate fully and effectively in their everyday lives (e.g., Paradis, 2007; Thordardottir, 2002). I believe that this is not an appropriate recommendation, for two reasons. First, it will isolate the child from important communicative contexts and deny the child the social benefits of being bilingual. Second, bilingual parents may find speaking the chosen language, or only one language, uncomfortable and unnatural. This, in turn, may negatively affect the quality parents’ ability to facilitate language development in their children through their interactions. Instead, I feel it is critical to help families optimize bilingual development for their children with disabilities who need to learn two languages.
The research base
Most developmental research on bilingualism involves typical children. While recent bilingual research has begun to focus upon individuals with language and/or cognitive disorders, most involves children with either language, but not cognitive, difficulties–children who are often referred to as Specifically Language Impaired (SLI), or children with Down syndrome. Other populations such as autism or Williams syndrome have been largely ignored. Therefore, when we seek to understand bilingualism in children with disabilities, we must often infer from related bodies of literature. In this article I will first provide a brief overview of how variable bilingual individuals are, followed by a discussion of bilingual development for typical learners, children with SLI, and children with Down syndrome. In each section I will discuss implications for children with language and/or cognitive disabilities in general, and will end with tentative clinical conclusions. [click to continue…]
