The effect of dialect on the phonological analysis of Chinese-influenced Malaysian English speaking children

Fijian school students' Fiji English speech sound acquisition

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate Fijian students' acquisition of Fiji English speech sounds.Method: Participants were 72 multilingual students (5-10 years) living in Fiji who spoke the Fijian or Fiji Hindi dialects of Fiji English. The students' productions of single words from the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (DEAP) were analysed according to dialect using the Children's Independent and Relational Phonological Analysis (CHIRPA).Result: Most English consonants were acquired by 6;0. English consonants that were not in the inventories of Fijian or Fiji Hindi were the last acquired, while those that were common between English and the two languages were some of the earlier acquired consonants. Percentage of consonants correct (PCC) for Fiji English was significantly lower for Grade 1 students (M = 93.01, SD = 0.07) in comparison to Grade 4 students (M = 99.03, SD = 0.01). Plosive and nasal sounds were acquired by 90% of the students earlier than fricative, approximant and affricate sounds, though acquisition of some plosive and fricative sounds varied between Fiji English dialects. All word-initial consonant clusters were acquired by 90% of the students by 9;6, with r-clusters tending to be the latest acquired. The acquisition of word-final consonant clusters was highly variable as students often produced appropriate dialectal variants.Conclusion: Multilingual Fijian children may acquire English specific sounds later than their monolingual English-speaking peers. Consideration of the language environment and analysis of the speech sample with reference to the child's dominant English dialect is imperative for valid identification of speech sound disorder (SSD) in children who speak different dialects of English.

Normophonic Breathiness in Czech and Danish: Are Females Breathier Than Males?

The present study compares the voice quality of female and male speech in two languages: Czech, a Slavic language, and Danish, a Germanic language. For both languages, the results based on a total of 120 vocally healthy speakers are in line with the claim that females are universally breathier than males. This was supported by the Cepstral Peak Prominence (CPP) and H1*-H2* measures, which are generally known as the most robust correlates of breathiness, and also by the H1*-A3* measure. However, the sex distinction was unsupported or even contradictory when using some other measures suggested to reflect breathiness, which provides an incentive to insist on employing a number of acoustic measures in future voice research. The perceptual component of the study nevertheless suggests that these contradictory findings are due to differences in perceived roughness rather than breathiness, and that CPP and H1*-H2* do reflect breathiness differences, and CPP in particular. We therefore conclude that it is indeed the case that female speakers are breathier than male speakers. Finally, in terms of the two robust measures (CPP and H1*-H2*), no language-specific differences in the magnitude of the effect of sex on breathiness were found.

Effect of dialect on phonological analysis

It is important to understand a child's language background, to ensure appropriate assessment, diagnosis and treatment of speech sound disorders. Singapore is home to various cultures and languages, and local speech norms are needed to provide an accurate reference for assessing phonological disorders in the local population. This study aims to establish normative data and better understand the English phonological development of English-Mandarin bilingual preschoolers in Singapore, aged 3; 6-4; 5 years. The Articulation and Phonology subtests of the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology - UK were used to collect speech data from 146 preschoolers. Responses were scored against two standards - British Standard English (BSE) and Singapore English (SGE), in terms of speech sound accuracy, and the frequency and type of error patterns present. The effect of language dominance on the children's English phonological abilities was explored. Results showed that the preschoolers' speech sound accuracy increased significantly when scored against SGE versus BSE targets. The number of children identified to be using several error patterns was reduced when SGE targets were used instead of BSE targets. English-dominant children scored significantly higher than their Mandarin-dominant peers on measures of speech sound accuracy. The identification of error patterns also differed between the two groups. These results show that it is important to take dialectal variation and language dominance into account in assessment, to determine if speech characteristics are due to a speech sound disorder or just normal dialectal variations.

Acquisition of Consonant Clusters and Acceptable Variants in Chinese-Influenced Malaysian English-Speaking Children

PURPOSE

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

METHOD

This cross-sectional study involved 262 typically developing ChME-speaking children (138 girls, 124 boys) ages 3 to 7 years old. A single-word picture-naming task, which contained 66 words and targeted 32 syllable-initial (SI) and 14 syllable-final (SF) consonant clusters, was administered.

RESULTS

Older children produced more correct productions than younger children, and there was no sex effect for consonant cluster production. SF consonant clusters were more accurate than SI consonant clusters among the younger children. The overall sequence of SI consonant cluster accuracy based on cluster categories from most to least accurate was /s/ + C, C + /w/, C + /j/, C + /l/, and C + /r/, whereas for SF consonant clusters, the order was C + stop, C + /s/, nasal + C, and /l/ + C. Two-element clusters consistently had higher accuracy in comparison to three-element clusters across the age groups. The overall consonant cluster accuracy of the present study showed similar patterns to those found in previous studies of Standard English.

CONCLUSION

The findings of the study will be useful in the assessment of consonant cluster production of ChME-speaking children.

Consonant acquisition in the Malay language: a cross-sectional study of preschool aged Malay children

To date, there has been little research done on phonological acquisition in the Malay language of typically developing Malay-speaking children. This study serves to fill this gap by providing a systematic description of Malay consonant acquisition in a large cohort of preschool-aged children between 4- and 6-years-old. In the study, 326 Malay-dominant speaking children were assessed using a picture naming task that elicited 53 single words containing all the primary consonants in Malay. Two main analyses were conducted to study their consonant acquisition: (1) age of customary and mastery production of consonants; and (2) consonant accuracy. Results revealed that Malay children acquired all the syllable-initial and syllable-final consonants before 4;06-years-old, with the exception of syllable-final /s/, /h/ and /l/ which were acquired after 5;06-years-old. The development of Malay consonants increased gradually from 4- to 6 years old, with female children performing better than male children. The accuracy of consonants based on manner of articulation showed that glides, affricates, nasals, and stops were higher than fricatives and liquids. In general, syllable-initial consonants were more accurate than syllable-final consonants while consonants in monosyllabic and disyllabic words were more accurate than polysyllabic words. These findings will provide significant information for speech-language pathologists for assessing Malay-speaking children and designing treatment objectives that reflect the course of phonological development in Malay.