Browsing by Author "Van Dulm, Ondene"

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    The challenge of linguistic and cultural diversity : does length of experience affect South African speech-language therapists’ management of children with language impairment
    (AOSIS Publishing, 2015-02) Southwood, Frenette; Van Dulm, Ondene
    Background: South African speech-language therapists (SLTs) currently do not reflect the country’s linguistic and cultural diversity. The question arises as to who might be better equipped currently to provide services to multilingual populations: SLTs with more clinical experience in such contexts, or recently trained SLTs who are themselves linguistically and culturally diverse and whose training programmes deliberately focused on multilingualism and multiculturalism? Aims: To investigate whether length of clinical experience influenced: number of bilingual children treated, languages spoken by these children, languages in which assessment and remediation can be offered, assessment instrument(s) favoured, and languages in which therapy material is required. Method: From questionnaires completed by 243 Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA)-registered SLTs who treat children with language problems, two groups were drawn:71 more experienced (ME) respondents (20+ years of experience) and 79 less experienced (LE) respondents (maximum 5 years of experience). Results: The groups did not differ significantly with regard to (1) number of children(monolingual or bilingual) with language difficulties seen, (2) number of respondents seeing child clients who have Afrikaans or an African language as home language, (3) number of respondents who can offer intervention in Afrikaans or English and (4) number of respondents who reported needing therapy material in Afrikaans or English. However, significantly more ME than LE respondents reported seeing first language child speakers of English, whereas significantly more LE than ME respondents could provide services, and required therapymaterial, in African languages. Conclusion: More LE than ME SLTs could offer remediation in an African language, but there were few other significant differences between the two groups. There is still an absence of appropriate assessment and remediation material for Afrikaans and African languages, but the increased number of African language speakers entering the profession may contribute to better service delivery to the diverse South African population.
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    Child language assessment and intervention in multilingual and multicultural South Africa : findings of a national survey
    (Stellenbosch University, Department of General Linguistics, 2013) Van Dulm, Ondene; Southwood, Frenette
    Research world-wide suggests that service delivery by speech-language therapists (SLTs) to bilingual children is problematic and largely unsatisfactory. In multicultural South Africa, the majority of SLTs speak either only English or only Afrikaans and English. The current state of service delivery to bilingual children, including those with first languages other than English or Afrikaans, is not known. This study was undertaken to ascertain how SLTs in South Africa adapt their assessment and intervention practices to cope with the multilingual and multicultural nature of the local child population. A questionnaire was completed by 243 practising SLTs who had children on their caseloads. 71% of respondents reported treating children with English as first language, 51% Afrikaans, and 53% an indigenous African language. Less than 2% reported not treating bilingual children. Almost all respondents could assess clients in English, three-quarters in Afrikaans, and 15% in an African language. A quarter could treat clients in one language only; 11% could do so in more than two languages. Only 7% reported that 90-100% of their bilingual clients receive intervention in their first language. 70% of respondents needed intervention material in English, 57% in Afrikaans, and 33% in an African language. 78% considered the underlying linguistic base when selecting a language assessment instrument; only 6% considered its linguistic and cultural appropriateness for use locally. The use of translations of English-medium instruments when assessing Afrikaans-speaking children was widely reported, as was dissatisfaction with standardised English- and Afrikaans-medium instruments. The findings supply essential information on the state of service delivery to bilingual children: After almost two decades of official multilingualism in South Africa, SLTs’ practices remain a poor reflection of the multilingual and multicultural realities of the population. Steps toward improving the situation would include training more multilingual SLTs, specifically speakers of African languages, and expanding research leading to linguistically and culturally appropriate assessment and intervention material.
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    Constraints on South African English-Afrikaans intrasentential code switching : a Minimalist approach
    (Stellenbosch University, Department of General Linguistics, 2002) Van Dulm, Ondene
    Since the 1970s, the phenomenon of code switching has been studied from a variety of theoretical perspectives. From a structuralist perspective, the most important question arising from this extensive study of code switching concerns the nature of the grammatical constraints on code switching. Many such constraints have been proposed, some of the more prominent of which will be discussed below. The main aim of this paper, however, is to provide the reader with an exposition of the Minimalist approach to code switching. Following the exposition of the Minimalist approach to code switching, a study in which the Minimalist assumption concerning the constraints on code switching is empirically evaluated with the aid of South African English-Afrikaans code switching data will be described. Finally, conclusions will be drawn regarding the theoretical and empirical validity of the Minimalist account of the constraints on code switching. As a starting point, however, it is essential to provide both a definition of the term "code switching" as it will be used in this paper, as well as a brief exposition of the differences between code switching and related phenomena such as borrowing, code mixing and interference.
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    Does socioeconomic level have an effect on school-age language skills in a developed country?
    (Stellenbosch University, Department of General Linguistics, 2016) Van Dulm, Ondene; Southwood, Frenette
    Socioeconomic status (SES) has been reported in several contexts as a predictor of child language skills. This study questions whether this holds true for New Zealand, a developed country in which government provides funding for additional academic support to low-SES schoolchildren. The language of 67 typically-developing, English-speaking 5- to 7-year-olds (40 high SES, 27 low SES) was assessed using two normed instruments (the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (Australian) (Dunn and Dunn 2007) and the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (Australian) (Semel, Wiig and Secord 2006)) and one unnormed instrument (the Receptive and Expressive Activities for Language Therapy; Southwood and Van Dulm 2012). Although the low-SES group had significantly lower scores than the high-SES group on the two normed instruments, all participants’ scores were within the expected age norms on these instruments. The low-SES group had significantly lower scores on the Receptive and Expressive Activities for Language Therapy for comprehension of articles, binding relations, passive constructions and wh questions, and for production of passives and conjunctions. The language of young New Zealand schoolchildren thus appears similarly vulnerable to SES effects as those of children elsewhere. The question arises as to what can be done to allow these children to develop the language skills that will allow them to function optimally in the school context.
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    Experimental techniques in code switching research
    (Stellenbosch University, 2005) Van Dulm, Ondene
    This article discusses various experimental techniques which may be used to elicit data on code switching. A brief overview of the literature is followed by a description of the techniques used in a small-scale study of the structural aspects of intrasentential code switching between South African English (SAE) and Afrikaans. The aim of the small-scale study was to gather preliminary data which could be used to evaluate the empirical merit of a number of predictions for the structure of SAE-Afrikaans intrasentential code switching. In addition to the techniques used in the small-scale study, a number of adaptations and additions to be applied in the larger-scale study to follow are discussed. These improvements to the techniques are proposed on the basis of the results of the small-scale study, and take the relevant literature into account. The various techniques are discussed in terms of their ability to provide valid and reliable data which can be subjected to statistical analysis and which can fruitfully inform questions regarding the structure of intrasentential code switching. The benefits of research of this nature to language practitioners and to the field of linguistics are highlighted.
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    Unlocking later-developing language skills in older children by means of focused language stimulation
    (Stellenbosch University, 2016) Southwood, Frenette; Van Dulm, Ondene
    Certain language structures and skills continue to develop after the age of school entry. The present study sought to establish whether directly targeting the development of such complex language structures and skills in comprehension and production can be successful among older, school-going children. The data for the present study comprise four case studies of children with language learning problems, including language comprehension problems: one 5, one 6, and two 7 years of age. Relevant parts of the Receptive and Expressive Activities for Language Therapy (Southwood & Van Dulm, 2012) were used during six to eight language stimulation sessions. Substantial gains were seen when comparing pre- and post-stimulation language assessment results on the Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation (Seymour, Roeper, & De Villiers, 2005). The implication is that direct targeting of specific later developing language structures and skills can render the desired results, well after their usual age of acquisition, even among children with language comprehension problems and within a limited number of sessions. Given the relationship between language skills and the development of reading skills, the findings have implications for the literacy development of Foundation Phase learners who enter school with underdeveloped language skills.