Arabic phoneme-grapheme correspondence by non-native, deaf children with cochlear implants and normal hearing children

Abstract

Objective:

This study aimed to compare the error patterns of Arabic phoneme-grapheme correspondence by a group of Malay children with cochlear implants (CIs) and normal hearing (NH) and the effects of the visual graphical features of Arabic graphemes (no-dot, single-dot, and multiple-dots) on the phoneme-grapheme correspondence.

Methods:

Participants were matched for hearing age (Mean, M = 7 ± 1.03 years) and duration of exposure to Arabic sounds (M = 2.7 ± 1.2 years). All 28 Arabic phonemes were presented through a loudspeaker and participants pointed to the graphemes associated with the presented phonemes.

Results:

A total of 336 and 616 tokens were collected for six children with CI and 11 NH children for each task, i.e., phonemes repetition and phoneme-grapheme correspondence. Both groups found it easier to repeat phonemes than the phoneme-grapheme correspondence. The children with CIs showed more confusion ([ظ, ز, ذ, ض, خ, ب, ه, س, ع, & ث] >10% correct scores) in phoneme-grapheme correspondence than the NH children ([ظ:14%] and [ث: 27%]). There was a significant interaction (p = 0.001) among the three visual graphical features and hearing status (CI and NH).

Conclusion:

Our results infer that non-native Malay children with CIs and NH use different strategies to process the Arabic graphemes' visual features for phoneme-grapheme correspondence.

Keywords:

• Arabic
• Non-native children
• Cochlear implant
• Phoneme-grapheme correspondence
• Deaf

Disclaimer statements

Contributors None.

Conflicts of interest The authors report no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the UKM Human Ethics Committee (IRB Ref. No: UKM 1.5.3.5/244/NN- 073 – 2014 dated 1st Oct 2014).

Notes

1 The age of a person is measured from birth to the date the test was conducted.

2 Time since the activation of the cochlear implant (i.e., when the child started to receive auditory input through the cochlear implant) until the time of testing in this study.

Additional information

Funding

The UKM Research Grant KOMUNITI - 2012 - 010 partly supported this work.

Notes on contributors

Farheen Naz Anis

Farheen Naz Anis, MSc, is a PhD candidate under the postgraduate (Hearing and Speech) doctorate research program at the Center for Rehabilitation & Special Needs Studies, Faculty of Health Sciences., Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Cila Umat

Cila Umat, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Audiology at the Audiology Program, Center for Rehabilitation & Special Needs Studies, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Her research interest has been in the area of cochlear implants especially in paediatrics since completing her PhD in 2005 from the University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.

Kartini Ahmad

Kartini Ahmad, MBBCh, PhD, is a medical practitioner and Professor in Speech Sciences at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She is one of the founders of the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Cochlear Implant Program in 1995, the first such program in Malaysia and in the Southeast Asia. Her research centered around hearing, voice and clinical education.

Badrulzaman Abdul Hamid

Badrulzaman Abdul Hamid, PhD, is a senior lecturer in Speech Sciences, specializing in Phonetics and Child Language Development at the Speech Sciences Program, Center for Rehabilitation & Special Needs Studies, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.