The following manuscript from our ARC Discovery Grant has just been accepted for publication
McLeod, S., Verdon, S., Tran, V. H., Margetson, K., & Wang, C. (2021, in press). SuperSpeech: Multilingual speech and language maintenance intervention for Vietnamese-Australian children and families via telepractice. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools.
Here is the abstract
Purpose. To evaluate the effectiveness of the group VietSpeech SuperSpeech program targeting speech skills and home language maintenance via telepractice.
Method. In Stage 1 of this pilot feasibility study using a case-controlled design, 30 Vietnamese-English-speaking children were assessed in English and Vietnamese and parents completed questionnaires about speech and language competency and practices. During Stage 2, children were allocated to Intervention (n=14) or Control (n=16) conditions. COVID-19 restrictions resulted in changes including non-random allocation. Online group intervention was delivered 1-hour/week for 8 weeks encouraging multilingualism as a superpower. For Stage 3, assessments were undertaken approximately 10 weeks after the pre-intervention assessment.
Results. Parents in the Intervention group significantly increased encouragement of their children to speak Vietnamese. The Intervention group significantly increased intelligibility in English. Growth of Vietnamese vocabulary was faster for the Control group. There was a moderate effect of intervention for children’s perception of being happy talking in Vietnamese and English. There was no significant mean change from pre- to post-intervention compared with the Control group for measures of speech sound accuracy in Vietnamese or English, Vietnamese intelligibility, English vocabulary, or hours of Vietnamese spoken each week.
Conclusions. This study presents preliminary evidence that this 8-hour online group program targeting speech skills and home language maintenance had some impact on Vietnamese-Australian children’s speech and home language maintenance. Further research involving a randomized trial is warranted.
