Language Use and Development in Third-Person Singular Contexts: Assessment Implications
Publication: Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools
Volume 52, Number 1
Pages 16-30
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this assessment-focused clinical focus article is to increase familiarity with African American English (AAE)–speaking children's pattern of language use in third-person singular contexts and to discuss implications for speech-language assessments of developing AAE-speaking children.
Method
The clinical focus draws on descriptive case study data from four typically developing child speakers of AAE who are between the ages of 3 and 5 years. The children's data from three different sources—sentence imitation, story retell, and play-based language samples—were subjected to linguistic analyses.
Results
The three sources of linguistic data offered different insights into the children's production of –s and other linguistic patterns in third-person singular contexts.
Conclusions
This study underscores the importance of exploring developing child AAE from a descriptive approach to reveal different types of information about patterns of morphological marking in different linguistic contexts, which is crucial in assessing developing AAE. Implications for language assessment are discussed.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools
Volume 52 • Number 1 • January 2021
Pages: 16-30
PubMed: 33464987
Copyright
Copyright © 2021 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
History
- Received: Nov 14, 2019
- Revised: Apr 8, 2020
- Accepted: Jun 16, 2020
- Published online: Jan 19, 2021
- Published in issue: Jan 19, 2021
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