Today Suzanne Hopf successfully presented her PhD proposal at her endorsement session. Her proposal was titled: Supporting Fijian children’s speech, language, and literacy. A summary of her 102 page proposal document is below. The endorsement session was conducted via Adobe connect across 2 countries and 5 sites (in typical CSU fashion). Suzanne presented from Fiji, the session was chaired by Brian Hemmings in Wagga Wagga, with panel members in Sydney, Bathurst, and Melbourne, and audience members on computers in other sites. Her proposal was heralded as "very impressive" and will benefit children of Fiji. We all wish Suzanne well with the next phases of her PhD.
Children in
Fiji are much like children elsewhere in the world, in that, they contribute to,
and have obligations to, the communities in which they live; and, when given
the opportunity to, they have potential to learn and participate in a diverse
range of activities in their everyday lives. However, as a consequence of being
born in Fiji, a Majority World Country, much of Fijian
children’s opportunities and experiences are unique to the context in which
they live. Unfortunately, we know little about these children or their context.
What we do know is that Fijian children are a heterogeneous group. They are
multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-lingual. How these
factors, and others, interact to influence development and create the daily
experience of Fijian children, including participation in school life, remains
much of a mystery. How disability influences these experiences even more so.
This study,
through the use of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability
and Health - Child and Youth version (ICF-CY, World Health Organization, 2007)
as an overarching conceptual framework,
aims to demystify one critical area of Fijian children’s development;
namely, the language factors that may influence a Fijian child’s educational
outcomes. Through, firstly describing
Fijian children’s multilingual oral language and literacy usage and proficiency
in a range of contexts (home, school, community) at two critical junctures of
their primary school journey (year 1 entry and after 3 years of English
instruction); and, secondly describing the availability and accessibility of
supportive services to help Fijian children on that journey, the author will
work to achieve 8 aims.
Aim 1. To describe multilingual Fijian children’s spoken and
written language use at school; and,
to determine whether there are differences in language usage between children’s
school year, geographic location, and home language.
Aim 2. To describe multilingual Fijian children’s spoken and
written language proficiency at school
as reported by children and teachers; and, to determine whether there are differences
in language proficiency between children’s school year, geographic location,
and home language.
Aim 3. To describe multilingual Fijian children’s speech,
language and literacy proficiency during
direct assessment in English; and,
to determine whether there are differences in that proficiency between
children’s school year, geographic location, and home language.
Aim 4. To determine the correspondence between direct assessment
and reported (child, caregiver, teacher) measures of Fijian children’s speech,
language and literacy proficiency in English.
Aim 5. To determine risk and protective factors for speech,
language and literacy difficulties.
Aim 6. To determine the current and historical services available
to support Fijian children’s multilingual oral language and early literacy
development.
Aim 7. To determine facilitators and barriers to service
development for people with speech, language, and communication needs in Fiji.
Aim 8. To describe the beliefs, attitudes and support for Fijian
children with speech language and literacy needs as identified by members of
the Fijian community.
To achieve
these aims, two studies will be undertaken (each will generate a number of
papers as outlined in tables 9 and 11). The studies will focus on recording
four perspectives (children, caregivers, teachers, and community members) using
mixed methods of investigation (quantitative and qualitative). Together both
studies will create a more complete picture of the speech, language and
literacy skills of Fijian children from the home context, gained within the
classroom context, and applied within the broader community context. Study 1
(papers 1 to 4) will seek information from students, caregivers and educators
about children’s multilingual speech, language and literacy skills in the
educational context, in addition to, quantifying these skills, through direct
assessment, upon school entry (year 1, age 6) and after three years of
classroom-based English language instruction (year 4, age 9). Outcomes of study
1 will provide an overview of how Fijian children’s context influences their
speech, language and literacy performance.
Study 2 (papers 5 to 7) will look outside the educational context to
provide a record of societal expectations of, and beliefs about, speech,
language and literacy proficiency in Fiji. Investigations performed within
study 2 will inform our understanding of current and historical Fijian
practices concerning the community supports provided to Fijian children with a
range of speech, language and literacy skills and outline the preferred methods
for intervention with this population.
In achieving these aims, a profile of Fijian
children’s speech, language and literacy skills will emerge, based on the
framework of the ICF-CY (WHO, 2007). This profile will create a picture of
Fijian children’s typical speech, language and literacy development expected at
two critical points of entry into Fijian education: upon school entry, and
three years later, when English language instruction changes from “second
language instruction” to the “language of classroom instruction”. Additional
data collection from the Fijian community, will inform how contextual factors
influence these children’s skills and their subsequent educational outcomes.
New data gained in these studies will add to the historical information on
Fiji, its many languages and how the teaching of these is approached within the
education system, as outlined in the following literature review of this
proposal. Such an understanding will help to inform future teaching and
clinical practices and Fijian education policy development.
