ACQ Vol 13 no 3 2011

Cultural diversity

Around the journals

same words included in the standardised assessment). The results from this rating were compared to the child’s results on a standardised assessment of vocabulary knowledge. The study found that both adult groups reported children’s performance with satisfactory accuracy when compared with the performance on the standardised assessment of vocabulary knowledge. The study also looked to see if there were any factors that would influence the accuracy of reports. They found that the mother’s education level, occupation, and socioeconomic status and the teacher’s teaching experience were not significant factors in the accuracy of the ratings provided. The study raised issues regarding the lack of validated language tests available in the Chinese community and the lack of evidence in relation to using parent reporting as a tool for assessing the language skills of the Chinese speaking population. The MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI; Fenson et al., 1996) was used as an example of a parent reporting tool in measuring word knowledge. The authors emphasised that given the particular population they examined (children with profound hearing impairment from Cantonese speaking backgrounds), it is essential to be cautious about generalising these results to other populations. However, the study showed that adult reporting can be a valuable tool that can assist in determining individual therapy goals and therapy progress and provide information about the vocabulary knowledge of an individual. Use of parental and teacher reporting can assist in assessing the vocabulary knowledge in the Cantonese speaking population and can be added to the tools we can use when working with children from CALD backgrounds. Monolingual versus multilingual acquisition of English morphology Nicholls, R.J., Eadie, P.A., & Reilly, S. (2011). Monolingual versus multilingual acquisition of English morphology: What can we expect at age 3? International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders , 46 (4), 449–463. Anneliese Hastings I consider that the authors should be praised for their ground-breaking study. Nicholls, Eadie, and Reilly have provided us with a study that is beautifully structured and truly significant in its sampling of English plus one of 31 different languages. The sample size was also large – 74 bilingual children matched with 74 monolingual children. The clinical implications to be drawn from this were of course more complicated than the nutshell that the bilingual children’s morphological skill levels were generally at a lower level of development in English compared to their monolingual peers. The study also showed a great diversity in mastery rates of English morphemes for both groups – the bilingual children and the monolingual children. Further, Nicholls et al.’s work suggests that the morphemes of progressive, locative, third person singular,

Speech perception in noise by mono-, bi-, and trilingual listeners Tabri, D., Chacra, K. M. S. A., & Pring, T. (2011). Speech perception in noise by monolingual, bilingual and trilingual

listeners. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders , 46 (4), 411–422.

Carren Mitchell

Previous research has revealed that bilingual speakers perform differently to monolingual speakers in perceiving speech in noisy environments. However, monolingual and bilingual speakers perceive speech similarly in quiet conditions. The authors of this article investigated speech perception in noise of monolingual, bilingual, and trilingual adults. All participants had normal hearing on audiological evaluation and were required to be highly proficient in reading and writing English. All bilingual participants’ native language was Arabic and second language was English. All trilingual participants spoke Arabic, French, and English fluently. Participants were administered the Speech Perception in Noise (SPIN) test at five different noise levels. The results obtained confirmed the results of other studies, that is, monolingual listeners performed better in noise than bilingual listeners, and they both performed similarly in quiet conditions. The trilingual speakers had more difficulty in noise than bilingual speakers, although these results were not significant. These results indicate that noise levels of learning and working environments should be considered when they include children or adults who speak two or more languages, regardless of levels of language proficiency. Parent and teacher reports of the vocabulary of Chinese children with hearing impairment Lee, K., Nok Chiu, S., van Hasselt, C.A., & Tong, M. (2009). The accuracy of parent and teacher reports in assessing the vocabulary knowledge of Chinese children with hearing impairment. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools , 40 , 31–45. Joanna Chalkley Accurate assessment of a child’s language skills is an ongoing issue when working with children from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. The use of parental reporting usually forms a part of any speech and language assessment. In this article evidence is provided on the efficacy of using parental report as part of an assessment with children from a Cantonese speaking background. This study aimed to investigate the accuracy of parent and teacher report of the vocabulary knowledge of Cantonese speaking children with profound hearing impairment. There were two groups of 47 children in the study; one group provided reports from the children’s mothers and the other group provided reports from 21 teachers. The adults were given a background questionnaire and were asked to rate their child’s knowledge of a list of words (the

159

ACQ Volume 13, Number 3 2011

www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au