The Grammatical Morpheme Deficit in Moderate Hearing Impairment

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The Grammatical Morpheme Deficit in Moderate
Hearing Impairment

• Maria McGuckian and
• Alison Henry
• University of Ulster

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Aims

• To investigate how moderate hearing impairment
  (HI) impacts on the use of grammatical morphemes
  in speech.
• To provide an explanation for the pattern of
  findings.

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MethodologyParticipants
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Grammatical morphemes studied

• 3rd singular s
• Past tense ed
• Irregular past tense
• Contractible auxiliary be
• Contractible copula be
• Possessive s
• Plural s
• Progressive ing
• Articles a/the
• Prepositions in/on

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ResultsCorrect productionSignificant
differences
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Errors

• Errors of substitution or addition very rare.
• Errors of omission most common errors made.

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Order of accuracy

• HI group
• Progressive ing 97.0
• Prepositions 94.1
• Articles 92.7
• Plural s 88.3
• Contractible copula 88.0
• Irregular past tense 76.1
• Contractible auxiliary 75.1
• 3rd person singular s 63.5
• Past tense ed 53.6
• Possessive s 32.3

• Control group
• Possessive s 97.1
• Plural s 96.0
• Prepositions 94.3
• Progressive ing 90.3
• Contractible copula 89.4
• Articles 79.5
• Contractible auxiliary 77.1
• 3rd person singular s 69.3
• Past tense ed 55.0
• Irregular past tense 42.2
• rs 0.236, p 0.511

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Order of accuracy

• HI group
• Progressive ing 97.0
• Prepositions 94.1
• Articles 92.7
• Plural s 88.3
• Contractible copula 88.0
• Irregular past tense 76.1
• Contractible auxiliary 75.1
• 3rd person singular s 63.5
• Past tense ed 53.6
• Possessive s 32.3

• Control group
• Possessive s 97.1
• Plural s 96.0
• Prepositions 94.3
• Progressive ing 90.3
• Contractible copula 89.4
• Articles 79.5
• Contractible auxiliary 77.1
• 3rd person singular s 69.3
• Past tense ed 55.0
• Irregular past tense 42.2
• rs 0.236, p 0.511

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Towards an explanation for the HI groups order
of grammatical morpheme accuracy
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• Frequency in input
• (Brown 1973)
• Articles
• Contractible copula
• Progressive ing
• Plural s
• Irregular past tense
• Contractible auxiliary
• Prepositions
• Possessive s
• 3rd person singular s
• Past tense -ed

• HI order
• Progressive ing
• Prepositions
• Articles
• Plural s
• Contractible copula
• Irregular past tense
• Contractible auxiliary
• 3rd person singular s
• Past tense ed
• Possessive s
• rs 0.721, p 0.019

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• Frequency in input
• (Brown 1973)
• Articles
• Contractible copula
• Progressive ing
• Plural s
• Irregular past tense
• Contractible auxiliary
• Prepositions
• Possessive s
• 3rd person singular s
• Past tense -ed

• HI order
• Progressive ing
• Prepositions
• Articles
• Plural s
• Contractible copula
• Irregular past tense
• Contractible auxiliary
• 3rd person singular s
• Past tense ed
• Possessive s
• rs 0.721, p 0.019

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• Frequency in input
• (Brown 1973)
• Articles
• Contractible copula
• Progressive ing
• Plural s
• Irregular past tense
• Contractible auxiliary
• Prepositions
• Possessive s
• 3rd person singular s
• Past tense -ed

• HI order
• Progressive ing
• Prepositions
• Articles
• Plural s
• Contractible copula
• Irregular past tense
• Contractible auxiliary
• 3rd person singular s
• Past tense ed
• Possessive s
• rs 0.721, p 0.019

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HI groups order of accuracy and second language
acquisition
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HI pattern and second language acquisition
(adapted from Dulay and Burt 1973, p.255)
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Explaining the findings

• Limited access to spoken English during the
  period when grammatical morphemes are typically
  acquired.
• Input speech directed to or spoken in the
  environment of the child.
• Intake what the child has perceived/processed
  from input.
  (Kumaravadivelu 1994)

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Explaining the findings

• There is a threshold for spoken language intake.
• Due to hearing factors, the children with HI are
  below this threshold.
• Thus, the children with HI are input-dependent at
  the point in grammatical morpheme development
  analysed. This is illustrated by the significant
  correlation between order of grammatical morpheme
  accuracy for the HI group and order of frequency
  of grammatical morphemes in input.

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Clinical implications

• Optimising auditory input of grammatical
  morphemes OR increasing amount of auditory
  exposure to such elements, may have a positive
  impact on the development of grammatical
  morphemes in the speech of children with moderate
  HI.

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Questions?

• For a handout please contact
• McGuckian-M3_at_ulster.ac.uk