Grants - submissions and outcomes

It is hard to get research grants - there is limited funding and lots of amazing ideas being generated across the world. We have been working hard to submit a number of grants over the past year - including in the past two weeks. I hope that some of our grants that are currently in submission are funded - we have capacity to change practices that impact children across the world.

Four grants submitted in Nov/Dec by Kathy, Tamara and myself

Today I learned that one large collaborative grant that I submitted with colleagues at universities across Australia was not funded in the ARC Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities 2026 announcement yesterday. https://www.arc.gov.au/news-publications/media/network-messages/announcement-grants-linkage-infrastructure-equipment-and-facilities-2026 What a shame it was a good project bringing amazing minds together to do good work. Congratulations to the teams working on the important projects that were funded.  

Peer review - ARC Discovery Program Fellowships grants

I have just had the pleasure to read Discovery Program Fellowships grant applications and submit my reviews. What excellent research is being proposed.

Congratulations Lucia

It has been a privilege to mentor and support Dr Lucia Wursch in the submission of her grant to the Australian Research Council which was submitted yesterday. We had a chance to celebrate at the Vice Chancellor's morning tea this morning. Congratulations Lucia and best wishes for a successful outcome.

Australian Research Council LIEF assessors' reports

Today we received very encouraging assessors' reports for our Australian Research Council Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) grant submission. We hope this translates to a positive outcome in a few months' time. 

https://www.arc.gov.au/funding-research/funding-schemes/linkage-program/linkage-infrastructure-equipment-and-facilities

CONGRATULATIONS KATE M - PhD submission today

Congratulations to Kate Margetson who submitted her PhD today. 

Her PhD is titled: "Moving Beyond Monolingual Practices with Multilingual Children: Learning from Vietnamese-English–Speaking Children, Families, and Professionals"

Congratulations Kate!

A/Prof Sarah Verdon and I have been very honoured to be Kate's supervisors for her PhD. Kate started working with us when she joined our VietSpeech (ARC Discovery Grant https://www.csu.edu.au/research/vietspeech/overview) research team as our Project Office. Once the grant finished, Kate re-analysed some of the very rich VietSpeech data to answer new questions for her PhD. 

Kate's family and our Speech-Language-Multilingualism team joined to support Kate from across Australia and Ben joined from Viet Nam!

 

Here is Kate's PhD abstract:

Multilingual children’s speech assessment and differential diagnosis of speech sound disorders can be challenging for speech-language pathologists (SLPs), especially if they do not speak the same language as the children they are working with. While best practice recommendations include assessing children in all the languages that they speak, in many English-dominant contexts SLPs often rely on English assessments for diagnostic decision-making. There are few guidelines for how SLPs can assess, transcribe, and analyse speech in children’s home languages. This doctoral research aimed to explore assessment, transcription, speech analysis, and diagnosis of speech sound disorders in multilingual children involving direct speech assessment of children’s home languages. Vietnamese-English–speaking children and their families were the focus of this research.

The thesis contained four parts, which included five publications. Part One, Monolingual Speech-Language Pathologists in Multilingual Contexts (Chapter 1), included an orientation to the thesis, situated the researcher, presented a literature review, and outlined methodology. Linguistic multicompetence (Cook, 2016) and the emergence approach (Davis & Bedore, 2013) were presented as the theoretical frameworks underpinning the research.

Part Two, Vietnamese-English–speaking Children’s Speech described similarities and differences between Vietnamese and English phonology, Vietnamese-English–speaking children’s speech acquisition, and current resources available to SLPs for assessment and intervention with Vietnamese-English–speaking children (Chapter 2). The interaction between Vietnamese and English phonology was explored in a cross-sectional study (n = 149) of Vietnamese-English–speaking children’s and adult family members’ speech in Vietnamese and English (Chapter 3) and found that direction of cross-linguistic transfer in children’s speech was significantly associated with children’s age and language proficiency. 

Part Three, Diagnosis of Speech Sound Disorders in Vietnamese-English–speaking Children presented in-depth case studies of Vietnamese-English–speaking children’s speech. Case studies of four children considered the impact of assessing both languages on differential diagnosis (Chapter 4). All four children appeared to have speech sound disorder based on English assessment only, but analysis of children’s speech in both languages revealed that only two children had a speech sound disorder. A longitudinal case study explored four influences on a Vietnamese-English–speaking child’s speech over time (Chapter 5) and found that most speech mismatches could be explained by development, dialect, cross-linguistic transfer, and ambient phonology, and that cross-linguistic transfer reduced over time.

Part Four, Moving Beyond Monolingual Speech-Language Pathology Practices with Multilingual Children presented an evidence-based research protocol, the VietSpeech Multilingual Transcription Protocol, for assessing and transcribing multilingual children’s and adults’ speech, that ensured consistent and reliable transcription (Chapter 6). A clinical protocol, the Speech Assessment of Children’s Home Languages, was proposed, for SLPs to assess, transcribe, and analyse multilingual children’s speech, to account for the idiolects of children, their families, and their SLPs (Chapter 7). The Speech Assessment of Children’s Home Languages will enable SLPs to collaborate with family members and interpreters to assess speech in children’s home languages, providing opportunities to consider children’s entire phonological repertoires during diagnostic decision-making. Finally, conclusions, contributions of the doctoral research, limitations, and future directions were presented (Chapter 8).

This doctoral research sought to bridge a gap between research and practice in multilingual children’s speech assessment by demonstrating the importance of speech assessment of home languages, describing ways of analysing multilingual children’s speech to identify four potential mismatches (development, dialect, cross-linguistic transfer, ambient phonology), and outlining how SLPs move beyond monolingual practices in the way they assess, transcribe, and analyse multilingual children’s speech using the VietSpeech Multilingual Transcription Protocol and the Speech Assessment of Children’s Home Languages.

 

Congratulations Kate on your important work - and the huge impact that it is already having on professional practice. We are excited that you will continue working with us to translate this work for rural speech pathology practice during your postdoc.

Here are Kate's PhD publications to date (more to come):

1. Margetson, K., McLeod, S., Verdon, S., Tran, V. H., & Phạm, B. (in press). English + Vietnamese speech development. In S. McLeod (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of speech development in languages of the world. Oxford University Press. 
2. Margetson, K., McLeod, S., Verdon, S. (in press). Diagnosing speech sound disorder in bilingual Vietnamese-English–speaking children: Are English-only assessments sufficient? In E. Babatsouli (Ed.), Multilingual acquisition and learning: An ecosystemic view to diversity. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
3. Margetson, K., McLeod, S., & Verdon, S. (2023). Cross-linguistic transfer and ambient phonology: Impact on diagnosis of speech sound disorders in a longitudinal bilingual case study. Journal of Monolingual and Bilingual Speech, 4(3), 311-339. https://doi.org/10.1558/jmbs.23672 
4.  Margetson, K., McLeod, S., Verdon, S. & Tran, V. H. (2023). Transcribing multilingual children’s and adults’ speech. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 37 (4-6), 415-435. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2022.2051073

ARC Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) scheme

Today I met with colleagues across Australia to discuss the potential development of an application for the ARC Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) scheme.

The LIEF scheme enables higher education researchers to participate in cooperative initiatives so that expensive infrastructure, equipment and facilities can be shared between higher education organisations and also with industry. The scheme also fosters collaboration through its support of the cooperative use of international or national research facilities. The LIEF scheme objectives are to: support excellent basic and applied research and research training through the acquisition of research equipment and infrastructure and access to national and international research facilities; and encourage Eligible Organisations to develop collaborative arrangements with other Eligible Organisations and/or Partner Organisations for the acquisition and use of research equipment and infrastructure or access to national and international facilities. The intended outcomes of the LIEF scheme are: enhanced scale and focus of research in areas of existing and/or emerging research strength; and research infrastructure for the broader research community. (from ARC website)

DECRA Fellow in Bathurst researching connections between people who are homeless and libraries

Today I had the opportunity to show Dr Jane Garner, Charles Sturt University's ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow, around Bathurst and CSU. We also had lunch with Dr Emmaline Lear from the Research Office.

Here is Jane's research blog: https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/librariesandhomelessness/about-the-project/research-blog/

Jane's DECRA is investigating policy and practice connections between people who are homeless, libraries, and organisations that support people who are homeless. She is undertaking six case studies, and Bathurst is her first one. I know that she will learn a lot from Bathurst Uniting Support Services (BUSS) and Bathurst City Library. Welcome Jane!

The Begonia House in Machattie Park

Dr Emmaline Lear, Dr Jane Garner and Sharynne at CSU Library

Training session for ERA 2023 Field of Research (FoR) Champions

Today I attended the CSU training session for ERA 2023 Field of Research (FoR) Champions. This year I am a research champion for FoR3903 - "Education systems". Here are all of the FoR codes for Education:

DIVISION 39 EDUCATION 

• 3901 Curriculum and pedagogy 
• 3902 Education policy, sociology and philosophy 
• 3903 Education systems 
• 3904 Specialist studies in education 
•  3999 Other education

Here is some information from the Australian Research Council: https://online.flippingbook.com/view/52483419/8/

Australian Research Council (ARC) College of Experts

Today I was nominated by CSU to attend a session providing information about the Australian Research Council College of Experts. This is a very important body overseeing funding decisions for Australian research.

Sound Effects Study and Sound Start Study teams

Our ARC Discovery Sound Effects Study and Sound Start Study teams met today to consider re-contacting the participants to learn from them about their lives and experiences. It was such a pleasure to see Kate Crowe, Sarah Masso and Jane McCormack together on the same zoom session again after so many years.

Kate Crowe, Sharynne, Sarah Masso, Jane McCormack

VietSpeech data management

Today Evelyn Sowter and Katherine White worked together on systems for filing and digitising the VietSpeech data. It is an important part of research, especially since our team works from many different locations.

Evelyn Sowter in the CSU Bathurst office

Our hardworking VietSpeech team

Our ARC Discovery Grant, VietSpeech (https://www.csu.edu.au/research/vietspeech), is in its final year. We have a team of really hardworking people who are entering data (Katherine White, Lily To), analysing data (Audrey Wang, Van Tran), providing consultation (Ben Pham) and writing papers (Van Tran, Audrey Wang). Sarah Verdon and I are very involved in all of the steps, but are focusing on analysing data and writing papers. Kate Margetson is on maternity leave - but has managed to find time to prepare conference papers to be presented later in the year. It is a joy to see all of this hard work coming together in a form that will be able to be shared with the academic and professional communities as well as the general public.

Sharynne and Katherine White discussing VietSpeech data entry

Dr Van Tran's PhD meeting with supervisors Sharynne and Sarah.
Van is finalising her second PhD!

Dr Cen (Audrey) analysing data using SPSS

Profiles of linguistic multi-competence in Vietnamese-English speakers

The following manuscript has just been accepted for publication. It presents work from Study 1 undertaken by our VietSpeech team:

Wang, C., Verdon, S., McLeod, S., & Tran, V. T. (2021, in press). Profiles of linguistic multi-competence in Vietnamese-English speakers. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. 

Here is the abstract 

Purpose: Speech-language pathologists work with increasing numbers of multilingual speakers; however, even when the same languages are spoken, multilingual speakers are not homogenous. Linguistic multi-competence considers competency across all languages and is associated with multiple demographic, migration, linguistic, and cultural factors.
Method: This paper examines the linguistic multi-competence of adults with Vietnamese heritage living in Australia (n = 271) and factors associated with varying profiles of multilingualism. Participants completed a self-report questionnaire (available in English and Vietnamese) regarding their language proficiency and associated factors.
Results: Participants were largely (76.6%) first generation migrants to Australia. Three distinct profiles of linguistic multi-competence were statistically identified using a cluster analysis: (1) Vietnamese Proficient (n = 81, 31%), (2) Shared Proficiency (n = 135, 52%), and (3) English Proficient (n = 43, 17%); that is, half were proficient in both languages. Multinomial logistic regression analyses compared participants profiled as Shared Proficiency with those who were more dominant in one language. Factors associated with the Vietnamese Proficient group (compared with the Shared Proficiency group): used Vietnamese much more than English with different people across different situations, were more likely to believe that maintaining Vietnamese helped them communicate in English, and earned less. Participants in the English Proficient group: used English more than Vietnamese with different people across different situations, were more likely to have lived in English-speaking countries longer, were younger in age, and were less likely to believe that maintaining Vietnamese helped improve academic study than those with Shared Proficiency.
Conclusion: Undertaking a comprehensive language profile is an important component of any multilingual assessment to enable speech-language pathologists to develop an understanding of different presentations of linguistic multi-competence, engage in culturally responsive practice, and to acknowledge that high levels of competence can be achieved across multiple languages. 

Here is the plain English summary: 

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) work with increasing numbers of multilingual speakers. Each multilingual speaker is different, even if they speak the same language. Linguistic multi-competence considers competency across all languages and is associated with demographic, migration, linguistic, and cultural factors. This paper examined linguistic multi-competence of 271 adults with Vietnamese heritage living in Australia and factors associated with varying profiles of multilingualism. Participants completed a self-report questionnaire (available in English and Vietnamese). Participants were statistically sorted into three distinct profiles of linguistic multi-competence: (1) English Proficient (17%), (2) Vietnamese Proficient (31%), (3) Shared Proficiency (52%). Participants in the English Proficient group: used English more than Vietnamese, were more likely to have lived in English-speaking countries longer, were younger in age, and were less likely to believe that maintaining Vietnamese helped improve academic study than those in the Shared Proficiency group. This study demonstrates the importance of undertaking a comprehensive language profile during a multilingual assessment to enable speech-language pathologists to develop an understanding of different presentations of linguistic multi-competence, engage in culturally responsive practice, and to acknowledge that high levels of competence can be achieved across multiple languages.

VietSpeech team retreat in Bathurst

This week the VietSpeech team are meeting in Bathurst. We are writing a paper from Study 4, finalising revisions of three papers from Study 1, analysing data, reviewing the goals we proposed in our ARC Discovery grant, and planning and prioritising tasks for 2021. We have really enjoyed spending time together, are so proud of all we have achieved to date, and will be on track to finalise the grant this year.

VietSpeech team: Kate Margetson, Dr Sarah Verdon, Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Cen (Audrey) Wang, Dr Van H. Tran

Others currently working on the VietSpeech grant as casual research assistants are Katherine White and Lily To - and Dr. Ben Pham is our consultant in VietNam.

 

Our final VietSpeech SuperSpeech session

This evening was our eighth and final VietSpeech SuperSpeech session with the Australian Vietnamese children and families. This week we learned about friendly sounds (consonant clusters) and also about goal setting to support home language maintenance. Each family talked about what they had learned from the program. It was a very special session. We will miss seeing these families each week. They have learned so much - and taught us a lot as well.

FINISHED!

VietSpeech SuperSpeech Group - Week 5

This evening was week 5 of our 8-week VietSpeech SuperSpeech Group. Our wonderful families were ready for their photo and agreed that we could share it on social media. We are having such a great time encouraging home language maintenance - and the superhero skills of speaking two languages.

VietSpeech team: Kate Margetson, Sharynne McLeod, Audrey Wang, Sarah Verdon, Van Tran

https://www.csu.edu.au/research/vietspeech/overview

Feeedback about VietSpeech SuperSpeech (after week 2)

Only 2 weeks after our VietSpeech's SuperSpeech program started, we received lots of positive feedback and queries on how to enrol in the program. Below are some of them:

• Right after the 1st session, I noticed my son got more interested in Vietnamese, he asked me more questions like What is it in Vietnamese, what does it mean, etc...
• My kid asked more about things around him, commenting on the Vietnamese and English meaning of the words.
• My son likes the activities and homework in the children's workbook and he can't wait to join the program every Thursday afternoon. I have also learnt so many useful information on how to teach and help children learn Vietnamese. I really like the resources that the program offers.
• I have learnt how to help my children learn and use Vietnamese. More importantly, I have chance to spend more time with my boys, which I didn't notice could be so meaningful. I feel warm when reading books with them every evening, explaining to them the meaning of the words or answering their questions. The program is not just about maintaining Vietnamese but also about strengthening the bond between parents and children.
• I now spend more time with my daughter, I have learnt simple ways of how to make Vietnamese learning fun, you can teach your children Vietnamese in everyday activities.
• This is a very meaningful program. My kids enjoy the book reading activities every night. It's fantastic to read books to them and hear their responses in Vietnamese. Thank you SuperSpeech.
• Thank you for the great effort you guys put in. These lessons are both helpful for both myself and my daughter especially because Vietnamese is not my first language.

"We are so delighted to hear this wonderful feedback from VietSpeech SuperSpeech families. Thank you all and we hope we will together have more fun exploring ways to maintain Vietnamese and develop bilingualism for your children.

As there are many queries about how to enrol in the program, we do hope we can run this program or similar programs in the future again.

Viet Speech

's SuperSpeech program is part of an ARC-funded project on Vietnamese-Australian children's speech and language competence. The program is led by Prof Sharynne McLeod and Dr Sarah Verdon with contributions from linguists, speech pathologists, and psychologists." (written and translated by Dr Van Tran) 

VietSpeech SuperSpeech SuperHeros
who have given permission to have their photos on social media

__________

Muốn con giữ tiếng Việt và giúp con phát triển song ngữ cần 2 yếu tố cơ bản: 1) Thái độ tích cực với ngôn ngữ và văn hóa Việt, 2) Bản thân bố mẹ cần phải tham gia và đồng hành với con!

Với phương châm này, dự án nghiên cứu về năng lực ngôn ngữ của trẻ nói tiếng Việt ở Úc mang tên VietSpeech đã thực hiện chương trình SuperSpeech để giúp bố mẹ biết các cách để hỗ trợ con giữ tiếng Việt và phát triển song ngữ. Dự án do GS Sharynne McLeod và TS Sarah Verdon chủ nhiệm đề tài và có đội ngũ nghiên cứu viên gồm các chuyên gia ngôn ngữ, chuyên gia âm ngữ trị liệu và chuyên gia tâm lý.

Chương trình đã bước vào tuần thứ 3 trong lịch trình dài 8 tuần và đã nhận được phản hồi rất tích cực của các gia đình tham gia chương trình.

Trong số các bố mẹ tham gia chương trình, có những người mong muốn giúp con giữ tiếng Việt nhưng chưa biết làm thế nào hiệu quả, có những người đã làm tốt rồi nhưng muốn học hỏi và chia sẻ thêm kinh nghiệm. Một số phản hồi sau 2 tuần đầu chương trình nhận được như sau:

• Sau ngay tuần đầu tham gia tôi nhận thấy con tôi quan tâm đến tiếng Việt hơn, luôn hỏi: Cái này tiếng Việt là gì?
• Con tôi hỏi nhiều câu hỏi về các đồ vật xung quanh, nhận xét về tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt của các từ đó
• Con tôi tích cực làm bài tập về nhà và mong đến thứ 5 hàng tuần
• Tham gia chương trình, tôi không chỉ biết các cách hỗ trợ con phát triển cả hai ngôn ngữ Việt-Anh mà còn dành nhiều thời gian đọc truyện với con hơn, điều mà trước đây tôi không nghĩ quan trọng đến như vậy. Tôi thấy một sự ấm áp mỗi tối 2 bố con ngồi đọc truyện với nhau, tôi thích việc giải thích cho con, hay giúp con làm các hoạt động về ngôn ngữ.
• Tôi dành nhiều thời gian với con hơn và biết cách làm thế nào để giúp con học tiếng Việt tự nhiên, vui vẻ trong các sinh hoạt hàng ngày.
• Cám ơn sự nhiệt tình và nỗ lực của nhóm nghiên cứu VietSpeech đã để thực hiện chương trình này. Tôi không nói tiếng Việt nhiều với con ở nhà, tôi không biết bắt đầu từ đâu. Sau 2 tuần tham gia chương trình, giờ tôi đã dần thấy các cách giúp con nói tiếng Việt và làm quen với cách viết từ ngữ tiếng Việt.
• Cám ơn những nỗ lực tuyệt vời của nhóm nghiên cứu để tổ chức chương trình. Cả tôi và con gái tôi đều học được rất nhiều, đặc biệt vì tiếng Việt không phải là tiếng mẹ đẻ của tôi.

Không gì vui bằng được nghe những phản hồi chân thành và tích cực như vậy. Mong là các bố mẹ và các con sẽ tiếp tục thấy thích thú trong các tuần tiếp theo của chương trình!!!!

Dưới đây là một số hình ảnh về chương trình được phép đăng trên phương tiện thông tin xã hội.

__________

Kate Margetson, Sharynne McLeod, Sarah Verdon, Van Tran

Conversations and collaborations

I have enjoyed collaborating with Dr Beena Ahmed and Prof Kirrie Ballard on our recent publication:

McLeod, S., Ballard, K. J., Ahmed, B., McGill, N., & Brown, M. I. (2020). Supporting children with speech sound disorders during COVID-19 restrictions: Technological solutions. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/doi:10.1044/2020_PERSP-20-00128 

Now we are continuing to discuss future collaborations regarding our shared interest in children's speech. I look forward to working with them and their team.

Dr Beena Ahmed (UNSW), Prof Sharynne McLeod, Mustafa Shahin (UNSW), Prof Kirrie Ballard (USyd)

Our VietSpeech SuperSpeech program began today

14 excited 4- to 6-year-old children and their parents joined 4 excited VietSpeech researchers online for week 1 of our VietSpeech SuperSpeech program today. The children had received their capes and Vietnamese books in the mail, and were eager to begin. Our team has worked so hard to be ready for today. Thank you so much to Dr Van Tran, Kate Margetson, Sarah Verdon and Katherine White. Week 1 went really well. One father wrote: 

Thank you for the great effort you guys put in. These lessons are both helpful for both myself and my daughter especially because Vietnamese is not my first language.

VietSpeech SuperSpeech Group planning

Next week our VietSpeech SuperSpeech Group will commence. This program is Study 4 in our Australian Research Council Discovery Grant. We have a superhero theme, encouraging the young children to see themselves as having a superpowers if they can speak both English AND Vietnamese. The VietSpeech team who have been working hard to prepare the resources and undertake pre-intervention assessments include: Kate Margetson, Dr Van Tran, Katherine White, Dr Sarah Verdon, (with assistance from Dr Ben Pham and Dr Audrey Wang, Lily To, Cassandra Dray, etc...). Thanks everyone - it's going to be great.

Dr Van Tran wearing her SuperSpeech cape
with some of the children's resources

Cassandra Dray from CSU is our creative graphic designer for our VietSpeech SuperSpeech workbooks and resources