Williams Corinne J, McLeod Sharynne
School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Curtin University of Technology, GPO Box U1987 Perth Western Australia 6845, Australia.
Int J Speech Lang Pathol. 2012 Jun;14(3):292-305. doi: 10.3109/17549507.2011.636071. Epub 2012 Apr 4.
Within predominantly English-speaking countries such as the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, there are a significant number of people who speak languages other than English. This study aimed to examine Australian speech-language pathologists' (SLPs) perspectives and experiences of multilingualism, including their assessment and intervention practices, and service delivery methods when working with children who speak languages other than English. A questionnaire was completed by 128 SLPs who attended an SLP seminar about cultural and linguistic diversity. Approximately one half of the SLPs (48.4%) reported that they had at least minimal competence in a language(s) other than English; but only 12 (9.4%) reported that they were proficient in another language. The SLPs spoke a total of 28 languages other than English, the most common being French, Italian, German, Spanish, Mandarin, and Auslan (Australian sign language). Participants reported that they had, in the past 12 months, worked with a mean of 59.2 (range 1-100) children from multilingual backgrounds. These children were reported to speak between two and five languages each; the most common being: Vietnamese, Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Australian Indigenous languages, Tagalog, Greek, and other Chinese languages. There was limited overlap between the languages spoken by the SLPs and the children on the SLPs' caseloads. Many of the SLPs assessed children's speech (50.5%) and/or language (34.2%) without assistance from others (including interpreters). English was the primary language used during assessments and intervention. The majority of SLPs always used informal speech (76.7%) and language (78.2%) assessments and, if standardized tests were used, typically they were in English. The SLPs sought additional information about the children's languages and cultural backgrounds, but indicated that they had limited resources to discriminate between speech and language difference vs disorder.
在美国、英国、加拿大、新西兰和澳大利亚等以英语为主的国家，有相当数量的人说英语以外的语言。本研究旨在考察澳大利亚言语病理学家（SLP）对多语言现象的看法和经验，包括他们在为说英语以外语言的儿童提供服务时的评估和干预做法以及服务提供方式。128名参加了关于文化和语言多样性的言语病理学家研讨会的SLP完成了一份调查问卷。大约一半的SLP（48.4%）报告称他们至少具备英语以外一种语言的最低能力；但只有12人（9.4%）报告称他们精通另一种语言。这些SLP总共会说28种英语以外的语言，最常见的是法语、意大利语、德语、西班牙语、普通话和澳大利亚手语（Auslan）。参与者报告称，在过去12个月里，他们平均为59.2名（范围为1至100名）来自多语言背景的儿童提供过服务。据报告，这些儿童每人会说两种到五种语言；最常见的是：越南语、阿拉伯语、粤语、普通话、澳大利亚原住民语言、他加禄语、希腊语和其他汉语方言。SLP所使用的语言与他们所负责病例中的儿童所使用的语言之间重叠有限。许多SLP在没有他人（包括口译员）协助的情况下评估儿童的言语（50.5%）和/或语言（34.2%）。英语是评估和干预期间使用的主要语言。大多数SLP总是使用非正式的言语（76.7%）和语言（78.2%）评估，如果使用标准化测试，通常也是英语的。SLP会寻求关于儿童语言和文化背景的更多信息，但表示他们区分言语和语言差异与障碍的资源有限。
