Evaluation of multisyllabic word production in Canadian English- or French-speaking children within a non-linear phonological framework

Abstract

Currently, there is no theoretically justified, evidence-based metric for evaluating segmental and prosodic components of multisyllabic words (MSWs). A pilot study evaluated a MSW metric embedded in non-linear phonological- and language-processing frameworks. Six MSWs were analyzed in 10 Canadian English-speaking 5-year-olds with typically developing speech, and eight French-speaking children, ages 3–4 years, with protracted phonological development (PPD). Mismatches were tallied (with and without vowels), with totals ranked by word and participant, then compared with ranks from Phonological Mean Length of Utterance (PMLU) and Percent Consonants Correct (PCC) tallies. For both groups, the number of different ranks was significant in comparisons of MSW metrics with PMLU and PCC. Rank orderings were systematically higher for English-speaking children using the MSW metric, with/without vowels, and for French-speaking children using the MSW metric with vowels. Overall, the MSW metric was particularly suitable for fine-grained differentiation of phonological accuracy in MSW production.

• Canadian English
• Canadian French
• child speech
• multisyllabic words
• non-linear phonology

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the many children, parents, teachers, speech-language pathologists and school professionals, and research assistants for their support of the project.

Declaration of interest

The authors report that they have no conflicts of interest. The authors also wish to thank the funding agencies, The University of British Columbia Hampton Fund and SSHRC (410-2009-0348).