Language and LinguisticallyCulturally Diverse Children

1
Language and Linguistically-Culturally Diverse
Children

• Lupita Moreno

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• Multiculturalism
• Umbrella term for racial, linguistic, and
  cultural variation in society
• Race
• Biological attributes
• Language
• All behaviors by which individuals communicate
• In multiculturalism, look at phonology,
  morphology, and semantic differences between
  languages
• Varieties of language (american english, new
  zealand english)
• Culture
• Behaviors shared by a group of individuals
• Table 9.1

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Dialects

• Subset of a language
• Speakers of different dialects should be able to
  understand one another
• Differences in dialects correlates with
  educational levels
• Table 9.2
• Code Switching
• Adjust use of features to meet the expectations
  of a conversational partner

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Learning a Second Language

• Bilingual speakers are usually
• Fluent with both written and spoken forms of
  their first language and have less proficiency
  with a second language or
• Have equivalent but different areas of competence
  in two languages and therefore prefer to us one
  or the other in particular circumstances
• Pg 308-320- language characteristics

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Poverty and Ethnic Cultures

• Lack of prenatal care and substance abuse from
  poor mothers (eg FAS)
• Even healthy babies lack stimulating environment
  and more dangerous
• SLI may be inherited

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Assessment

• VERY important to make sure that language
  variation or dialect does not interfere with
  assessment
• May be categorized
• Typically developing and speaking SAE
• Typically developing and speaking a nonstandard
  dialect or form influenced by another language
• Atypically developing and speaking SAE
• Atypically developing and speaking a nonstandard
  dialect or form influenced by another language

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Intervention

• Intervention not recommended for children who are
  competent users of SAE and who may also be
  competent users of another language or English
  dialect
• Therapeutic language intervention is recommended
  for children who fail to show competence in an
  language or dialect
• Elective language intervention is recommended for
  children who are not competent users of SAE but
  who are competent in a nonstandard dialect or a
  language other than English