Purpose
Atypical duration of speech segments can signal a speech disorder. This study examined variation in vowel duration in African American English (AAE) relative to White American English (WAE) speakers living in the same dialect region in the South in order to characterize the nature of systematic variation between the two groups. The goal was to establish whether segmental durations in minority populations differ from the well-established patterns in mainstream populations.
Method
Participants were 32 AAE and 32 WAE speakers differing in age who, in their childhood, attended either segregated (older speakers) or integrated (younger speakers) public schools. Speech materials consisted of 14 vowels produced in hVd-frame.
Results
AAE vowels were significantly longer than WAE vowels. Vowel duration did not differ as a function of age. The temporal tense-lax contrast was minimized for AAE relative to WAE. Female vowels were significantly longer than male vowels for both AAE and WAE.
Conclusions
African Americans should be expected to produce longer vowels relative to White speakers in a common geographic area. These longer durations are not deviant but represent a typical feature of AAE. This finding has clinical importance in guiding assessments of speech disorders in AAE speakers.
Purpose
This work describes community-based participatory research (CBPR) to support language and literacy development with Pre-K and kindergarten African American boys.
Method
The aim and goals of the project were designed using the CBPR model. Interventionists were trained with researcher-designed videos. Interventionist fidelity to training was assessed. Pre- and posttests of child language were completed after the 12 weeks of dialogic reading intervention.
Results
The CBPR team learned the dialogic reading protocol from the video trainings and provided the lessons with fidelity. Children's postintervention scores of sound-matching and nonword repetition increased significantly. Postintervention changes in lexical diversity and productive syntax were age graded, such that younger children's scores increased over time whereas older children's scores decreased.
Conclusions
CBPR is a viable method for speech-language pathologists seeking to develop language and literacy lessons for low resource communities. Self-paced videos can effectively train interventionists to provide dialogic reading lessons with fidelity. Young children's sound-matching and nonword repetition skills can improve significantly with 12 weeks of dialogic reading lessons.
This is the first study to report normative values for Mandarin-English speakers using the Nasometer II. Values reported can be used for objective assessment of bilingual speakers.
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