Strategies for Working with English Language Learners as Monolingual and Bilingual First Semester Speech-Language Pathology Graduate Students
Location
Hager-Lubbers Exhibition Hall
Description
PURPOSE: This poster reports on the first-semester clinical experience by two speech-language pathology graduate students, one non-fluent bilingual and one monolingual, working with a three-year-old Spanish-English dual language learner (DLL). Many SLPs feel inadequately prepared to work with DLLs. The number of DLLs is growing in the United States, and it is important for SLPs to competently assess and provide appropriate services to this population. This experience provided the opportunity to gain competency in this critical area of the field. CHALLENGE: Differentiating language differences, which are the result of different linguistic experiences, from language disorders is challenging when working with individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds. This is particularly challenging for monolingual SLPs who have limited experience with a client’s culture. OUTCOME: The two first-semester graduate students successfully provided early literacy activities to a three-year-old DLL, using her mother as an interpreter, and found appropriate materials to use in Spanish and English. The child herself expressed appreciation for hearing the clinicians use her native Spanish. IMPACT: This clinical rotation provided valuable experience working with a child from a CLD background and demonstrated that monolingual and non-fluent bilingual clinicians can successfully work with DLLs. This has been shared at the Michigan Speech-Language-Hearing Association Annual Conference in order to help other SLPs understand how to work with DLLs.
Strategies for Working with English Language Learners as Monolingual and Bilingual First Semester Speech-Language Pathology Graduate Students
Hager-Lubbers Exhibition Hall
PURPOSE: This poster reports on the first-semester clinical experience by two speech-language pathology graduate students, one non-fluent bilingual and one monolingual, working with a three-year-old Spanish-English dual language learner (DLL). Many SLPs feel inadequately prepared to work with DLLs. The number of DLLs is growing in the United States, and it is important for SLPs to competently assess and provide appropriate services to this population. This experience provided the opportunity to gain competency in this critical area of the field. CHALLENGE: Differentiating language differences, which are the result of different linguistic experiences, from language disorders is challenging when working with individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds. This is particularly challenging for monolingual SLPs who have limited experience with a client’s culture. OUTCOME: The two first-semester graduate students successfully provided early literacy activities to a three-year-old DLL, using her mother as an interpreter, and found appropriate materials to use in Spanish and English. The child herself expressed appreciation for hearing the clinicians use her native Spanish. IMPACT: This clinical rotation provided valuable experience working with a child from a CLD background and demonstrated that monolingual and non-fluent bilingual clinicians can successfully work with DLLs. This has been shared at the Michigan Speech-Language-Hearing Association Annual Conference in order to help other SLPs understand how to work with DLLs.