Today, School of Education PhD student Kate Margetson presented her PhD research proposal at an Endorsement of Candidature session.
Kate’s thesis title is: Supporting English-Speaking Professionals to Work with Bilingual Vietnamese-English-Speaking Children. Her study is supervised by Professor Sharynne McLeod and Associate Professor Sarah Verdon
Proposal Abstract: Culturally responsive practice that values multilingualism is needed for education and health professionals to provide equitable service to multilingual children and their families. Extensive studies have identified that professionals lack knowledge and skills for assessing multilingual children’s speech, especially when they do not speak the same languages. While assessing children in all the languages that they speak is recommended, often professionals rely on English assessments. There are no guidelines for how professionals can transcribe multilingual children’s speech, which likely contributes to speech sound disorders being under- or over-diagnosed in multilingual children. The proposed research aims to investigate how English-speaking professionals can assess and diagnose speech sound disorders in bilingual Vietnamese-English-speaking children, using a mixed methods research design. A research protocol for multilingual speech transcription will be designed and tested with Vietnamese-English-speaking children and adults. Speech profiles of bilingual Vietnamese-English-speaking children will be used to explore the interaction between Vietnamese and English, the impact of ambient phonology on acquisition, characteristics of typical acquisition versus speech sound disorder, and the subsequent importance of assessing both Vietnamese and English. An implementation science approach will be adopted to develop and test an online tool for professionals to learn how to assess and transcribe children’s speech in Vietnamese. This body of work seeks to bridge the gap between research and practice by equipping professionals with practical guidelines and transcription skills so that they can provide a culturally responsive, equitable service when assessing multilingual children’s speech.
Congratulations Kate!
