ACQ Vol 13 No1 2011

Table 3. The original procedure and the participant’s retell for familiar and unfamiliar topics Procedure provided Participant procedural retell Familiar topic: going grocery shopping First you should make a list of items you want to buy. When you get to the shop look for the aisle where the food would be kept. Find the items you need put them into your trolley or basket. Then go to the checkout and pay for your shopping. Your food will be put into plastic or recyclable bags if you have them. Then take your shopping home.

The discourse measures that were significantly different in this study were not included in the Williams et al. (1994) and Li et al. (1995) studies. The measures that reflect the speed of language processing (WPM and % pausing) and overall communicative efficiency (CIU/min, %mazes, and utterance level errors) were influenced by topic familiarity, with the least familiar topics having a detrimental impact of discourse production. This result highlights the importance of analysing discourse beyond the utterance level to include measures that examine the discourse sample as a whole. Clinical application of results This study demonstrated the benefit of using discourse tasks to examine language. In assessing multiple discourse samples one variable was manipulated and the impact of the manipulation examined across the range of measures assessed. These measures provided an overview of the participant’s oral narrative abilities while offering insight into the interrelationships between language processes (Sherratt, 2007). When assessing discourse, varying the level of familiarity in discourse topics provides a feasible method of adjusting task difficulty. By incorporating personally familiar or unfamiliar topics, the clinician is able to assess the individual’s language system in optimal and suboptimal contexts (Murray et al., 1998). The potential impact of topic familiarity should be also be considered to ensure reliable and valid representations of a client’s language abilities and the accurate interpretation of results (Chen & Whittington, 2006; Williams et al., 1994). Controlling the familiarity of discourse topics within discourse-based treatment tasks allows one aspect of task difficulty to be controlled (Li et al., 1995). Within a treatment Then go and um rent rent s a suit water suit not watersuit um wetsuit. With some um a s a snorkel and might be some fins but I don’t think he said that but I’m just thinking. Um and a tank Um find a platinum a platford platform um to put up a and then put up a flag So that people know that you’re in the water. Stay somebody in the boat. Um and uh tenor the ah sit oh or fall backwards into the water. Well first of all go to your doctor and make sure that you’ve got a medical certificate that your fine that the doctor’s said ok y* medically you’re fine to go. You’re fit and ok. Ok before you start um to go shopping make a list. Um and then ah go to the um Coles or Woolworths or wherever you like to go. Um go down the aisles and find the items that are on your list. When you have everything then go and buy some chocolate. To say yes I’ve gone do the groceries now I can have some chocolate before going to the um checkout and paying. Put all your items in a um carrier bag. Plastic or recyclable And go home.

Unfamiliar topic: Going scuba diving First you should see your doctor for a health check. Then you need to buy or hire your diving gear including wetsuit, tanks and snorkel. Choose a suitable diving location with good water conditions. Dive with a friend or have someone waiting in the boat. Put up your diver’s flag to let others know you are in the water. Enter off a boat by stepping into the water feet first.

procedural samples on unfamiliar topics. In the present study the difference in MLU between familiar and unfamiliar topics was not significant. The difference between the results of two studies may be due to the different elicitation contexts. In the Williams et al. (1994) study the procedural discourse samples were produced spontaneously while in the current study they were produced in a retell format. The nature of the retell means the words used and the length of the utterances were controlled across both experimental conditions. Table 4. Mean discourse measures for familiar and unfamiliar topics Familiar topics Unfamiliar topics M SD M SD p

MLU a TTR b WPM b

9.7 .64

.20 .06

8.1 .71

1.8 .06

.10 .22

114.9 12.3

86.3 19.0 43.5 28.0

17.7 11.6

.03* .02*

3.7

5.7

%Pauses a CIU/min b %Mazes b Wd errs b

88.9 18.9 17.4 9.2

8.6 3.0 1.0 .54

.008*

.04*

.00 .00

.00 .00

.80 .60

.13

.05*

Utt errs b

55.6 43.7 66.6 31.1

55.4 27.0

17.7 21.3

.99

%MI a %OI b

.04*

Note. a Statistical comparison paired samples t- test. b Statistical comparison through Mann Whitney U. %MI = percentage of main ideas included. %OI = percentage of optional ideas included. * p < 0.05.

10

ACQ Volume 13, Number 1 2011

ACQ uiring knowledge in speech, language and hearing