Language in Multilingual and Multicultural Settings
Code: 104140Credits: 6
| Degree programme | Type | Course |
|---|---|---|
| Speech therapy | OB | 4 |
Contact lecturer
- Name :
- Alondra Camus Torres
- Email :
- alondra.camus@uab.cat
Teaching staff
- Alondra Camus Torres
- Melina Aparici Aznar
Group languages
You can consult this information at the end of the document.
Prerequisites
Prerequirements
It is recommended that students have passed the courses "Linguistics", "Linguistics applied to language disorders", "Language acquisition and processing" and "Introduction to scientific methods and cognitive processes".
Revision of the following content from the course "Language acquisition and processing" is strongly recommended: theoretical perspectives on language acquisition, developmental stages and characterization of development at the phonological, lexical, morphosyntactic and pragmatic level.
Objectives
We live in a bilingual and, increasingly, multilingual environment. Many children and young people come from families in which different languages are spoken, sometimes languages other than those of the surrounding community. The languages used in the social environment and at school may not coincide with those spoken at home. The challenge in this context is to ensure the acquisition of the country's languages (together with at least one international language of communication) while preserving the heritage languages of individuals.
Future speech and language therapists will also face this challenge by addressing the needs of individuals who grow up with two or more languages or who, after acquiring one language, learn one or more additional languages in this context, often while coming from different cultural backgrounds or socioeconomically disadvantaged environments. Furthermore, when providing speech and language therapy in multilingual and multicultural settings, conventional assessment and intervention procedures may not always be appropriate. Instead, it is necessary to develop approaches that acknowledge and even capitalize on linguistic diversity. This requires an understanding of the influence of multilingual environments on both typical and atypical language development, as well as the impact of culture and socioeconomic status (SES) on language acquisition.
This course examines a range of psycholinguistic aspects of bilingualism and multilingualism, primarily from the perspective of language acquisition, but also considering cognitive processes and language use in multilingual settings. Its overall aim is to prepare students to develop innovative strategies for communicative interaction and to adopt approaches to the assessment and intervention of developmental language disorders that move beyond traditional proposals, which have largely been based on descriptions of language acquisition in monolingual contexts.
To achieve this general objective, the course specifically aims to provide students with the theoretical and practical foundations needed to:
- Understand the linguistic and psychological characteristics of multilingual contexts, particularly those resulting from migration.
- Understand multilingual language learning processes and appreciate the influence of individual and social factors on their development.
- Recognize the structural differences between languages and their potential impact on language acquisition and second language learning.
- Develop awareness of the influence of multilingual and multicultural environments on both typical and atypical language development.
- Design assessment and intervention tools that take into account the characteristics of different multilingual developmental trajectories across the lifespan, enabling effective communication as well as appropriate assessment and intervention in speech and language therapy practice with multilingual individuals and those from diverse cultural backgrounds.
To meet these objectives, the course explores the characteristics of multilingual development within the broader framework of language development, together with key aspects of second language acquisition, taking into account the factors that influence different learning contexts. It also presents the stages of language development in the phonological, lexical, morphosyntactic, and discourse domains, which are analysed and illustrated from multilingual perspectives. These descriptive aspects are examined within the context of major theoretical approaches to language development and language learning. The course also discusses the potential cognitive effects of multilingualism, an area that continues to attract extensive research attention. Finally, it examines the documented effects of family socioeconomic status on language development and academic achievement.
Learning outcomes
- CM15 (Assess the contributions of scientific works on the cognitive processes of people in multilingual environments, language acquisition, and on second language learning.) Assess the contributions of scientific works on the cognitive processes of people in multilingual environments, language acquisition, and on second language learning.
- KM33 (Explain the different phases of language acquisition in a multilingual context.) Explain the different phases of language acquisition in a multilingual context.
- KM34 (Describe the different phenomena that occur in contact between languages.) Describe the different phenomena that occur in contact between languages.
- KM35 (Compare the different theoretical proposals in relation to mental representations in multilingual people.) Compare the different theoretical proposals in relation to mental representations in multilingual people.
- KM37 (Explain the linguistic characteristics of different language disorders, as well as the influence of multilingual environments on typical and atypical language characteristics.) Explain the linguistic characteristics of different language disorders, as well as the influence of multilingual environments on typical and atypical language characteristics.
Contents
1. Introduction to multilingual development and learning.
1.1. monolingual development, multilingual development, and second language learning.
1.2. Defining multilingualism.
1.3. Critical features of multilingual development. Interaction between linguistic systems.
1.4. Factors affecting multilingual development.
2. Theoretical perspectives.
2.1. Learning by instruction, selection or construction. Different approaches to language development.
2.2. The role of context and interaction strategies.
2.3. The role of metalinguistic procedures.
2.4. Multilingual brains.
3. Features of multilingual development.
3.1. General features in the process of acquiring languages.
3.2. Speech perception: an early differentiation between languages.
3.3. Features of phonological development.
3.4. Features of early lexicon and lexical development; hypothesis on the multilingual lexicon.
3.5. Early morphosyntactic development; features of morphosyntactic development.
3.6. Features of discourse development.
4. Cognitive consequences of multilingualism.
4.1. Positive & negative consequences, and indifferent aspects.
4.2. Recent findings on attention, cognition and metalinguistic abilities.
5. Orientations for speech and language therapy in multilingual contexts.
5.1. The assessment of the bilingual profile.
5.2. Orientations for language assessment in multilingual people.
5.3. Orientations for language intervention in multilingual people: languages of intervention?
6. The influence of culture and socioeconomic status (SES)
6.1. The cultural competence of the speech and language therapist; multilingual contexts.
6.2. The influence of SES in language acquisition.
6.3. The influence of SES in school performance.
Learning activities and methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consultations on online self-assessment activities proposed | 3 | 0.12 | KM33, KM34, KM35, KM37 |
| Seminars in small groups for analyzing and discussing specialized papers and cases | 24 | 0.96 | CM15, KM37 |
| Lectures with support of ICT and group discussion | 21 | 0.84 | KM33, KM34, KM35, KM37 |
| Reading specialized papers and documents (reports, cases, and specific documents for the course) | 28 | 1.12 | CM15, KM33, KM34, KM35, KM37 |
| Preparation and elaboration of coursework due | 27 | 1.08 | CM15, KM37 |
| Study: elaboration of outlines and summaries | 36 | 1.44 | CM15, KM33, KM34, KM35, KM37 |
| Tutoring of coursework due | 7 | 0.28 | KM33, KM34, KM35, KM37 |
DIRECTED ACTIVITIES
- Lectures with support of ICT.
- Seminars in small groups for analyzing and discussing specialized papers and cases. Students will discuss methodological, theoretical and applied implications. They include flipped classroom sessions.**
SUPERVISED ACTIVITIES
- Tutoring of coursework due.
- Consultations on online self-assessment activities proposed.
AUTONOMOUS ACTIVITIES
- Reading specialized papers and documents (reports, cases, and specific documents for the course*).
- Preparation and elaboration of coursework due.
- Searching information and documentation.
- Study: elaboration of outlines and summaries.
*The materials needed to learn the basic contents of the course are available on moodle
**Some students will be able to do the seminars in an alternative way by working with the Service-Learning (SL) methodology, through which students are trained by participating in a project aimed at solving a real need of a community and thus improving people's living conditions. This methodology starts from the identification of a real need and involves three factors: the provision of a service to solve it, meaningful learning for the student and a reflective process. Therefore, it requires a collaboration with a social entity or a public institution, which in the case of this subject is a high-complexity school. More information on SL at: https://www.uab.cat/en/service-learning
Assessment
Continuous assessment activities
| Title | Weight | Hours | ECTS | Learning outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EV3. Written exam 2 | 40% | 1 | 0.04 | KM33, KM34, KM35, KM37 |
| EV2. Written exam 1 | 40% | 1 | 0.04 | KM33, KM34, KM35, KM37 |
| EV1. Presentation of reports and coursework (small group) | 20% | 2 | 0.08 | CM15, KM37 |
The following learning evidences (with the following weight in the course final grade) must be presented:
- LE1: Presentation of reports and coursework, and participation in seminar discussions (weight: 20%). This evidence will be considered as presented if a minimum of 60% of reports/coursework have been presented. (From week 3 to 15). There are both individual and group reports.
- LE2: written exam 1 (weight: 40%). (First assessment period). Individual assessment. On-site.
- LE3: written exam 2 (weight: 40%). (Second assessment period, after the end of the guided sessions). Individual assessment. On-site.
FEEDBACK. For EV1, feedback will be oral and in group, and will be given in the classroom or by a digital tool (depending on the case), between one and two weeks after each session. For EV2, feedback will be oral and in group in the classroom after the publication of grades, and oral and individual tutoring sessions if specifically requested. For EV3, it will be offered, if requested, orally and individually in tutoring sessions, once the grades have been published.
Students will pass the course if both of the following conditions apply: (1) they have obtained at least 5,0 points (0-10 scale) as a result of the weighted mean of learning evidences, and (2) having obtained a score equal to or higher than 4,0 points in each evidence (LE1, LE2 and LE3). If these requirements are not met, the maximum mark to be recorded in the academic transcript will be 4,5 points.
A student who has presented learning evidences representing a weight below 4 points (40%), will be qualified as Non Assessable (NA).
If the criteria to pass the course specified above are not met, students will have the opportunity to resit exam/s in the following cases: (a) the final grade is equal to or greater than 3,5 and is below 5,0 (0-10 scale), and (b) have been previously assessed on a set of learning activities with a minimum weight of 66.6% of the final grade of the course.
LE1 cannot be retaken.
The maximum course final grade possible in case the student passes the resit exam is ‘Pass’ (5,0 points; 0-10 scale).
This subject does not consider single assessment.
General assessment guidelines: https://www.uab.cat/web/estudiar/graus/graus/avaluacions-1345722525858.html
No unique final synthesis test for students who enrole for the second time or more is anticipated.
IMPORTANT. The examination forms will be in Catalan. Any student that wishes to take the exam in Spanish and meets the requirements established in article 263 must apply through an e-form. You will find all the information in the School of Psychology web. Applications in other cases or periods will not be accepted.
Use of AI is prohibited. In this course, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies is not allowed at any stage. Any work containing AI-generated content will be considered a breach of academic integrity and may result in partial or total penalties in the grade for the activity, or more severe disciplinary actions in serious cases.
Bibliography
Basic references:
Aparici, M.(2011). Hi ha proves que les per sones que han adquirit un bon domini de dues llengües de maner a precoç tenen avantatges cognitius, comparades amb les persones monolingües? A Strubell, M., Andreu, Ll. & Sintes, E. (coord.) (2011). Resultats del model lingüístic escolar català. L'evidència empírica. Linguamón-UOC.
Aparici, M. (2019). Desarrollo multilingüe. En M. Aparici & A. Igualada (2019). El desarrollo del lenguaje y la comunicación en la infancia. Editorial UOC.
Aparici, M., Rosado, E. & Tolchinsky, L (2006). Perspectives psicològiques i educatives del multilingüisme: desenvolupament plurilingüe. A J. Perera (Coord.), Materials docents del Curs de Postgrau en Educació Plurilingüe. IL3- Institut de Formació Continuada de la Universitat de Barcelona.
Nieva, S. (2016). Orientaciones para la intervención logopédica con niños bilingües. Revista de Investigación en Logopedia, 5(2), 77-111.
Nieva, S., Conboy, B., Aguilar-Mediavilla, E., & Rodríguez, L. (2020). Prácticas en logopedia infantil en entornos bilingües y multilingües. Recomendaciones basadas en la evidencia. Revista de Logopedia, Foniatría y Audiología, 40(4), 194-213.
Further readings:
Abdelilah-Bauer, B. (2007). El desafío del bilingüismo. Crecer y vivir hablando varios idiomas. Morata.
Aparici, M. (2012). L'adquisició del llenguatge. En Ll. Barrachina, Ll. (coord.), M. Aparici & E. Noguera, Desenvolupament i Avaluació del llenguatge oral. Editorial UOC.
Armon-Lotem, S., de Jong, J. & Meir, N. (2016). Assessing Multilingual Children: Disentangling Bilingualism from Language Impairment. Multilingual Matters.
Auer, P. & Wei, L. (Eds.) (2007). Handbook of Multilingualism and Multilingual Communication. Mouton de Gruyter.
Baker, C. (1993). Fundamentos de educación bilingüe y bilingüismo (caps. 5 a 9). Cátedra.
Bathia, T. K. & Richtie, W.C. (1999). The Bilingual Child. En T.K. Bhatia & W.C. Richtie, Handbook of Language Acquisition (pp. 569-643). Academic Press.
Bellón, P. & Nieva, S. (2024). Perspectives about home-language maintenance in multilingual families with and without language and communication disorders: A scoping review. Revista de Logopedia, Foniatría y Audiología, 44(3), 100496.
Bialystok, E. (2001). Language and cognitive effects in preschool children. En C. Muñoz, M.L. Celaya, M. Fernández Villanueva, T. Navés, O. Strunk & E. Tragant (eds.), Trabajos en Lingüística Aplicada (pp. 3-9). Univerbook.
Bialystok, E. (2009). Bilingualism: The good, the bad, and the indifferent. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12(1), 3-11.
Bohnacker, U., & Gagarina, N. (Eds.) (2020). Developing narrative comprehension: Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives. John Benjamins
Bornstein , M. H. , & Bradley , R. H. (Eds.) (2003). Socioeconomic status, parenting, and child development. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Camus, A. y Aparici, M. (2023). Macroestructura y microestructura narrativa en población infantil bilingüe con TDL: una revisión sistemática. Revista de Investigación en Logopedia 13(1), e82548.
Centeno, J.G. (2007). Bilingual Development and Communication: Implications for ClinicalLanguage Studies. En J.G., Centeno, R.T. Anderson & L.K. Obler (eds.), Communication disorders in Spanish speakers: theoretical, research and clinical aspects(pp. 47-56). Multilingual Matters.
Costa, A. (2017). El cerebro bilingüe. La neurociencia del lenguaje. Debate.
Costa, A.& Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2014). How does the bilingual experience sculpt the brain? Nature Neuroscience Reviews, 15, 336-345.
De Cat, C. (2022). Opportunities and challenges in the analysis of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN). First Language,42(2), 321-329.
De Houwer, A. (2021). Bilingual Development in Childhood. Cambridge University Press.
Engel de Abreu, P. M. J., Cruz-Santos, A., Tourinho, C. J., Martin, R. & Bialystok, E. (2012). Bilingualism enriches the poor: enhanced cognitivecontrol inlow-income minority children. Psychological Science, 23, 1364–1371.
García, O., Lin, A. M. Y., & May, S. (2017). Bilingual and multilingual education. Springer International Publishing.
Ginsborg, J. (2006). The effects of Socioeconomic Statuson Children’s Language Acquisition and Use. En J. Clegg and J. Ginsborg(eds.), Language and Social Disadvantage: Theory into Practice. John Wiley & Sons.
Goldstein, B. (2000). Cultural and linguistic diversity resource guide for speech language pathologists. Singular.
Goldstein, B. (ed.) (2004). Bilingual Language Development & Disorders in Spanish-English Speakers. Brookes Publishing Company.
Gràcia, L. (2010). Llengua i immigració. La influència de la primera llengua en l'adquisició del català com a segona llengua. Barcelona: Vic: Eumo Editorial.
Grosjean, F. & Li, P. (Eds.) (2012). The Psycholinguistics of Bilingualism. Wiley-Blackwell.
Guo, X. (2022). A Bibliometric Analysis of Child Language During1900–2021. Frontiers in Psychology, 13.
Hoff, E. & Core, C. (2015). What Clinicians Need to Know about Bilingual Development. Seminars in Speech and Language, 36(2), 89–99.
Hoff, E., Laursen, B., & Bridges, K. (2012). Measurement and Model Building in Studying the Influence of Socioeconomic Status on Child Development. En M. Lewis & L. Mayes (eds.), A Developmental Environmental Measurement Handbook. Cambridge University Press, pp.590–606.
Luk, G., Anderson, J. A. E., & Grundy, J. G. (Eds.). (2023). Understanding Language and Cognition through Bilingualism (Vol. 64). John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Mallart, J. (2006). Multilingüisme i educació. Publicacions i Edicions UB.
McLeod, S., Verdon, S., Bowen, C. (2013). International aspirations for speech language pathologists’ practice with multilingual children with speech sound disorders: Development of a position paper. Journal of Communication Disorders, 46(4),375-387.
Mehler, J. i Dupoux, E. (1992). Nacer sabiendo. Alianza Psicología minor.
Meisel, J.M. (2011). First and second language acquisition: parallels and differences. Cambridge University Press.
Montrul, S. (2013). El bilingüismo en el mundo hispanohablante. Wiley-Blackwell.
Nieva, S. (2016). Competencia cultural dellogopeda con familias lingüística y culturalmente diversas. En M.T. Martín-Aragoneses & R. López-Higues (Eds.), Claves de la logopediaen el siglo XXI (pp. 55-71). Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia.
Nieva, S., Aguilar-Mediavilla, E., Rodríguez, L., & Conboy,B. T. (2020). Competencias profesionales para el trabajo con población multilingüe y multicultural en España: creencias, prácticas y necesidades de los/las logopedas. Revista de Logopedia, Foniatría y Audiología, 40(4), 152-167.
Oller D.K. & Eilers R.E., (eds.) (2002). Language and literacy in bilingual children. Multilingual Matters.
Planckaert, N., Duyck, W., & Woumans, E. (2023). Is there a cognitive advantage in inhibition and switching for bilingual children? A systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1191816.
Sebastián-Gallés, N. & Bosch, L. (2001) On becoming and being bilingual. En E. Dupoux; & S. Franck (comps.) Language, Brain, and Cognitive Development: Essays in Honor of Jacques Mehler. MIT Press.
Sanz-Torrent, M., Badia, I. & Serra, M. (2008). Contributions from Bilingual Specific Language Impairment in Catalan and Spanish to the Understanding of Typical and Pathological Language Acquisition En C. Perez-Vidal, M. Juan-Garau, & A. Bel (eds.), Portrait of the Young in the New Multilingual Spain (pp. 135-158). Multilingual Matters.
Serra, M., Solé, M.R., Serrat, E., Bel, A. & Aparici, M. (2000). La adquisición del lenguaje. Ariel.
Serrat, E., Gràcia, L. & Perpiñà, L. (2008).First Language Influence on Second Language Acquisition: The Case of Immigrant L1Soninke, Tagalog and Chinese Children Learning Catalan. En C. Perez-Vidal, M. Juan-Garau, & A. Bel (eds.), A Portrait of the Young in the New Multilingual Spain (pp. 200-220). Multilingual Matters.
Siguan Soler, M. (2001). Bilingüismo y lenguas en contacto. Madrid: Alianza editorial.
Stavans, A., & Jessner, U. (Eds.). (2022). The Cambridge Handbook of Childhood Multilingualism (Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics). Cambridge University Press.
Strubell, M., Andreu, Ll. & Sintes, E. (coord.) (2011). Resultats del model lingüístic escolar català. L'evidència empírica. Linguamón-UOC.
Thordardottir, E. (2006). Language intervention from a bilingual mindset. The ASHA Leader, vol. 11, 6-21
Thordardottir, E. (2010). Towards evidence-based practice in language intervention for bilingual children. Journal of Communication Disorders, 43, 523-537.
http://www.asha.org/Practice-Portal/Professional-Issues/Bilingual-Service-Delivery/
http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/data/
http://faculty.washington.edu/ezent/imdt.htm
http://www.multilingualchildren.org/
http://www.ethnologue.com/ethno_docs/distribution.asp
http://www.bibiloni.net/llengues/
http://xtec.gencat.cat/ca/projectes/alumnat-origen-estranger/alumnatnou/avaluacio/inicial2/
https://www.bilingualism-matters.org
https://www.thatsunheardof.org/quiz/
Software
No specific software needed.
Course groups and languages
The information provided is provisional until November 30. After this date, you will be able to consult the language of each group through this link. To access the information, you will need to enter the course CODE
| Type of teaching | Group | Language | Semester | Shift |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (TE) Theory | 1 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 111 | Spanish | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 112 | Spanish | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 113 | Spanish | first semester | morning-mixed |