A Contextual Analysis of Bilingual Communication Dynamics and Code Switching across Different Neurotypes

Presenter

Rudolph Emery Lucier

Group Members

Arianna Marie Dumenigo

Campus

UMass Amherst

Sponsor

Megan C. Gross, Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, UMass Amherst

Schedule

Session 5, 3:30 PM - 4:15 PM [Schedule by Time][Poster Grid for Time/Location]

Location

Poster Board A98, Campus Center Auditorium, Row 5 (A81-A100) [Poster Location Map]

Abstract

Characterizing the language practices of bilingual children across different neurotypes (autistic, developmental language disorder [DLD], neurotypical) demonstrates the variability that exists at the intersection of these identities, rather than comparing to monolinguals as has been done in past work. Code switching (CS) is a unique feature of bilingualism that incorporates aspects of multiple languages into the same conversation. The purpose of this study is to observe the nuances of bilingual communication, particularly CS, in structured versus unstructured contexts. In the structured context, children describe images to three pre-recorded speakers who respectively use English, Spanish, or CS. The unstructured context consists of play-based breaks between tasks, where the child interacts with a live bilingual partner as they watch a story unfold through background images.

To understand how these contexts affect bilingual communication, we will analyze CS frequency and language choices among preschool children from three groups (autistic, DLD, neurotypical). We will also examine measures of language complexity (e.g., mean utterance length, vocabulary diversity, number of conversational turns) using the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) software. Based on past work, mostly with neurotypical children, we expect to see individual variability in whether children show more CS and more complex language in the structured or unstructured context. Such findings would demonstrate how examining both contexts provides complementary information about children's language skills. We aim to more accurately depict how conversational context influences bilingual communication across neurodiversity, and inform clinicians’ language assessment practices with bilingual children.

Keywords

Bilingualism, Child Language Development, Neurodiversity, Speech Language Pathology, Code Switching, English, and Spanish

Research Area

Psychology and Behavioral Sciences

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