A Quasi-Universal Nonword Repetition Task as a Diagnostic Tool for Bilingual Children Learning Dutch as a Second Language

Abstract

This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link AbstractPurpose This study evaluated a newly developed quasi-universal nonword repetition task (Q-U NWRT) as a diagnostic tool for bilingual children with language impairment (LI) who have Dutch as a second language. The Q-U NWRT was designed to be minimally influenced by knowledge of one specific language, in contrast to a language-specific (L-S) NWRT to which it was compared.Methods 120 monolingual and bilingual children with and without LI participated (30 per group). A mixed-design ANOVA was used to investigate the effects of LI and bilingualism on the NWRTs. Receiver Operating Characteristic analyses were conducted to evaluate the instruments' diagnostic value.Results Large negative effects of LI were found on both NWRTs, whereas negative effects of bilingualism only occurred on the L-S NWRT. Both instruments had high clinical accuracy in the monolingual group, but only the Q-U NWRT had high clinical accuracy in the bilingual group.Conclusions This study indicates that the Q-U NWRT is a promising diagnostic tool to help identify LI in bilingual children learning Dutch as a second language. The instrument was clinically accurate in both a monolingual and bilingual group of children and seems better able to disentangle language impairment from language disadvantage than more languagespecific measures.3

Expressive Morphological Skills of Dual Language Learning and Monolingual German Children: Exploring Links to Duration of Preschool Attendance, Classroom Quality, and Classroom Composition

“…Thus, our results concur with the current state of research, by indicating that performance in NWR is fairly independent of the language(s) spoken at home (Boerma et al, 2015). Further, children’s phonological processing abilities were not contingent on our examined child level and classroom level variables.…”

“…We expected a negative relation, at least for DLLs (Niklas et al, 2011; Weiland and Yoshikawa, 2014). Beyond our five focal research questions, we examined children’s phonological processing abilities as a control measure which has been found to be unrelated to many external environmental factors (Bishop et al, 1996; Dubowy et al, 2008; Caspar and Leyendecker, 2011; Boerma et al, 2015). Here, we expected that preschool experiences are unrelated to children’s phonological processing abilities, but specifically related to children’s expressive morphological skills.…”

Diagnostic accuracy of repetition tasks for the identification of specific language impairment (SLI) in bilingual children: evidence from Russian and Hebrew

“…Two studies (Girbau and Schwartz , Boerma et al . ) report acceptable levels of sensitivity and specificity, while most studies show that NWR repetition tasks in bilingual children lead to either over‐diagnosis (i.e., low specificity) or under‐diagnosis (i.e., low sensitivity).…”

Methods for Identifying Specific Language Impairment in Bilingual Populations in Germany

“…Note that Armon-Lotem and Meir (2016) use L1 and L2 tests with global scores, but additionally rely on parental or teacher concern. Boerma et al (2015) and Boerma and Blom (2017) rely on clinical referral, i.e., on L2 testing exclusively. Thordardottir (2015) recommends including measures from samples of spontaneous production in addition to norm-referenced L1 and L2 tests.…”

“…Quite recently, LITMUS NWRTs and SRTs have been studied as to their diagnostic accuracy in bilingual populations. Boerma et al (2015) use a quasi-universal LITMUS NWRT and report excellent accuracy for their population of bilingual children with Dutch as L2. Armon-Lotem and Meir (2016) find good accuracy for their Hebrew LITMUS SRT in Russian-Hebrew bilingual children, whereas the accuracy for their NWRT, with word-like items incorporated, is described as fair.…”