Effect of dialect on phonological analysis

ABSTRACT

It is important to understand a child’s language background, to ensure appropriate assessment, diagnosis and treatment of speech sound disorders. Singapore is home to various cultures and languages, and local speech norms are needed to provide an accurate reference for assessing phonological disorders in the local population. This study aims to establish normative data and better understand the English phonological development of English–Mandarin bilingual preschoolers in Singapore, aged 3; 6–4; 5 years. The Articulation and Phonology subtests of the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology – UK were used to collect speech data from 146 preschoolers. Responses were scored against two standards – British Standard English (BSE) and Singapore English (SGE), in terms of speech sound accuracy, and the frequency and type of error patterns present. The effect of language dominance on the children’s English phonological abilities was explored. Results showed that the preschoolers’ speech sound accuracy increased significantly when scored against SGE versus BSE targets. The number of children identified to be using several error patterns was reduced when SGE targets were used instead of BSE targets. English-dominant children scored significantly higher than their Mandarin-dominant peers on measures of speech sound accuracy. The identification of error patterns also differed between the two groups. These results show that it is important to take dialectal variation and language dominance into account in assessment, to determine if speech characteristics are due to a speech sound disorder or just normal dialectal variations.

KEYWORDS:

• Child
• bilingual
• dialect
• phonology
• speech sound disorder

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Delia Yeo, Tan Seok Hui and Susan Rickard Liow for their invaluable advice and contributions to this paper.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.