Exploring the Relationship between Native Language Skills and Foreign Language Learning in Children with Developmental Language Disorders.

Exploring the Relationship between Native Language Skills and Foreign Language Learning in Children with Developmental Language Disorders. Clin Linguist Phon. 2019 Feb 16;:1-13 Authors: Zoutenbier I, Zwitserlood R Abstract Learning English as a foreign language (FL) is mandatory for children with developmental language disorders (DLD) in elementary education in the Netherlands. Because of their difficulties in acquiring their first language, learning an FL at school can be challenging. To date, almost no literature on children with DLD and FL learning exists. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between language proficiency in Dutch of monolingual and multilingual children with DLD and learning English as an FL. A cross-sectional study was conducted in four special education schools for children with DLD. Thirty-five sixth graders (mean age 12;3 years) participated in this study. Twenty-two children were monolingual, and 13 children were multilingual. Correlation analyses between scores on standardised Dutch language tests and a standardised test for English proficiency were performed. Because the English proficiency test partly relies on reading skills, scores on a Dutch word decoding test were included in the analyses. Results show that the children with DLD performed poorly on the FL proficiency test when compared to typically developing children. Significant positive relationships were found between Dutch and...
Source: Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Tags: Clin Linguist Phon Source Type: research