A Quasi-Universal Nonword Repetition Task as a Diagnostic Tool for Bilingual Children Learning Dutch as a Second Language

Purpose: This study evaluated a newly developed quasi-universal nonword repetition task (Q-U NWRT) as a diagnostic tool for bilingual children with language impairment (LI) who have Dutch as a 2nd language. The Q-U NWRT was designed to be minimally influenced by knowledge of 1 specific language in c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of speech, language, and hearing research language, and hearing research, 2015-12, Vol.58 (6), p.1747-1760
Main Authors: Boerma, Tessel, Chiat, Shula, Leseman, Paul, Timmermeister, Mona, Wijnen, Frank, Blom, Elma
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accuracy
Bilingual Students
Bilingualism
Child
Child Language
Child, Preschool
Children
Diagnostic Tests
Dutch language
Educational aspects
Female
Humans
Indo European Languages
Language Development Disorders - diagnosis
Language Tests
Learning
Male
Measurement
Multilingualism
Repetition
ROC Curve
Second Language Learning
Speech production
Task Analysis
Validity
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Summary:Purpose: This study evaluated a newly developed quasi-universal nonword repetition task (Q-U NWRT) as a diagnostic tool for bilingual children with language impairment (LI) who have Dutch as a 2nd language. The Q-U NWRT was designed to be minimally influenced by knowledge of 1 specific language in contrast to a language-specific NWRT with which it was compared. Method: One hundred twenty monolingual and bilingual children with and without LI participated (30 per group). A mixed-design analysis of variance was used to investigate the effects of LI and bilingualism on the NWRTs. Receiver operating characteristic analyses were conducted to evaluate the instruments' diagnostic value. Results: Large negative effects of LI were found on both NWRTs, whereas negative effects of bilingualism only occurred on the language-specific NWRT. Both instruments had high clinical accuracy in the monolingual group, but only the Q-U NWRT had high clinical accuracy in the bilingual group. Conclusions: This study indicates that the Q-U NWRT is a promising diagnostic tool to help identify LI in bilingual children learning Dutch as a 2nd language. The instrument was clinically accurate in both a monolingual and bilingual group of children and seems better able to disentangle LI from language disadvantage than more language-specific measures.
ISSN:1092-4388
1558-9102
DOI:10.1044/2015_JSLHR-L-15-0058