It was wonderful to catch up with Prof Bronwyn Hemsley yesterday while she was visiting Bathurst. I was able to show her The Treehouse, talk about the Children's Voices Centre, and her new job as Head of the School of Health Sciences, University of Newcastle - starting in March.
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| Lorraine Bennett, Sharynne McLeod, Bronwyn Hemsley at the Children's Voices Centre |
I was invited to be a guest on the "What’s Got Us Talking: The UTS Speech Pathology Podcast"
Discover the latest research and insights in Speech Pathology from the University of Technology Sydney. Join Professor Bronwyn Hemsley, Head of Speech Pathology at UTS, as she starts the conversations shaping the field. A must-listen for speechies, students, and their curious friends.
https://omny.fm/shows/whats-got-us-talking-the-uts-speech-pathology-pod
Here are the shownotes:
Understanding each other: Multilingual speech pathology practice
Description
As multilingual speech pathology is an emerging field of research and practice, we explore how and why speech pathologists support multilingual clients, and several new developments. it.
Resources:
Multilingual Children’s Speech YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRXcSAl_dA7arRMrE0qdxLuzGChY1LgY2
Multilingual Children’s Speech website: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech
Key paper:
McLeod, S., & Crowe, K. (2018). Children’s consonant acquisition in 27 languages: A cross-linguistic review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 27(4), 1546–1571. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_AJSLP-17-0100
Free posters: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-acquisition/learning-english-consonants
Host: Prof Bronwyn Hemsley
Guests: Dr Denise Ng, Prof Sharynne McLeod, Emily Chan, and Lily.
Produced by Laura Corrigan, thanks to 2SER
I have been invited to extend my role as Honorary Professor in the Graduate School of Health, Faculty of Health at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). I began this role in 2019 and this is the second time the appointment has been extended. I enjoy collaborating with Prof Bronwyn Hemsley and her team at UTS.
I acknowledge the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation, upon whose ancestral lands UTS stands. I pay my respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for this land.
Today I visited University of Technology Sydney. I am an Adjunct Associate Professor at UTS, and was able to catch up with colleagues and students as well as hold a meeting with CSU colleagues to progress some of our current research. I was thrilled to learn that Prof Bronwyn Hemsley has just received the UTS Vice Chancellor's UTS Medal for Research Impact 2023.
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| Prof Emma Power, Kate Margetson (CSU), Prof Sharynne McLeod (CSU), Prof Bronwyn Hemsley (UTS), Dr Helen Blake (UTS and CSU) |
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| Congratulations Prof Bronwyn Hemsley! |
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| I enjoyed meeting year 2 UTS students: Annushka and Suruthi |
I had the wonderful opportunity to teach first year Masters' students from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) this week, presenting 3.5 hours of lectures on the topic of assessment of children's speech. I enjoyed meeting the students and am grateful for the chance to discuss for quality assessments when considering children's speech.
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| These UTS students consented to have their photographs taken to appear on my blog |
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| I was delighted to receive this thank you card! |
I am honoured that my appointment as Honorary Professor (Adjunct) at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) will be extended. I look forward to future collaborations with the UTS team. Here is my blogpost from when this position began in 2019 https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2019/03/adjunct-professor-at-university-of.html
Today I presented an invited speech at the 2020 UTS Speech Pathology Online SEER Research Symposium. My topic was "Children’s Communication Competence Prior to School Entry: Insights from Three Cross-Linguistic "
Here is the official description of the event:
The Inaugural UTS Speech Pathology Research Symposium features 25 short papers about our current research and practice program in the UTS Discipline of Speech Pathology, Master of Speech Pathology course, and PhD Speech and Language Sciences at the Graduate School of Health at UTS, including talks from our clinical industry partners in private practice. This open, online event is free to attend. It's our way of saying "thankyou" to our community of clinicians and research partners, and helping to disseminate the findings of research and practice to the wider community. The program really does provide something for everyone. Come along for as much or as little of the day as you like, but you will need to register to get the link!
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| The moment of Helen's thesis submission - surrounded by colleagues from UTS and CSU |
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| Sharynne and Helen's celebratory dinner |
Proficiency in Spoken English has implications for the ability of multilingual speakers to participate in vocational, educational, and social activities in English-dominant countries. A key component of spoken language proficiency is intelligibility, a relative measure of how much of an individual’s speech is understood by their listener. This doctoral research aimed to investigate the relationship between multilingual speakers’ English proficiency, intelligibility, and participation in Australian society and provide insight into whether intelligibility enhancement is an effective intervention to improve English intelligibility in multilingual speakers. This doctoral research contains four parts presented as a series of eight publications; one encyclopaedia entry and seven journal articles. Part One provides an orientation to the thesis and includes a literature review (Paper 1) describing the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and its application to speech, language, and hearing. The ICF provided the theoretical framework for this research and ensured a holistic focus on participation.
Part Two (Papers 2 to 5) examines the participation of multilingual speakers in Australia from the perspective of their English proficiency and intelligibility. Paper 2 analysed data from over 19 million people in the 2006 and 2011 censuses to explore the relationship between spoken English proficiency and education, employment, and income. Multilingual residents who spoke English very well were more likely to have postgraduate qualifications, full-time employment and high income than monolingual English-speaking Australians. Paper 3 analysed data from Building a New Life in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Humanitarian Migrants to examine 2,399 refugees’ English proficiency and how it facilitated or hindered self-sufficiency (e.g., knowing how to look for a job) and successful settlement in Australia. Oral English proficiency proved a statistically significant predictor of self-sufficiency, explaining 21% of the variance while controlling for confounding variables such as age and education. Paper 4 analysed survey data from 137 multilingual students enrolled at 14 Australian universities regarding perceptions of the impact of spoken English proficiency and intelligibility on participation, not only at university, but in society. While participants reported spoken English proficiency impacted participation, they indicated a lack of awareness of intelligibility influencing spoken language proficiency. The amount of time multilingual students had spent studying English had less effect on outcomes than the amount of time they had spent speaking English in conversations with native speakers. Paper 5 further explored university students’ perspectives of English intelligibility through qualitative analysis. Data included open-ended comments from the survey in Paper 4, as well as semi-structured interviews with six students and one faculty member from one university. Motivations for improving intelligibility were career aspirations and meeting their own and others’ expectations. Barriers to intelligible speech included lack of self-awareness of intelligibility and use of ineffective strategies (e.g., fast speech rate to disguise pronunciation difficulties). Facilitators of intelligible speech were support from others, beneficial strategies (e.g., confirming listener understanding), and opportunities to practice.
Part Three (Papers 6, 7, and 8) examines intelligibility enhancement, an intervention designed to improve English intelligibility in multilingual speakers. Paper 6 presented an overview of intelligibility enhancement. Paper 7 used a retrospective record review of 175 client records from a university clinic providing intelligibility enhancement to describe characteristics of multilingual speakers who sought support for English intelligibility. The results highlighted the broad range of factors contributing to multilingual speakers’ intelligibility in English (e.g., substitutions/deletions, speaking volume, and time spent using English in conversations). Paper 8 used a multiple-baseline single-case experimental design with two multilingual university students and demonstrated the effectiveness of the Intelligibility Enhancement Assessment and Intervention Protocols. Following intervention, both participants displayed increased performance across the speech/intelligibility instruments in the protocol.
Part Four of the thesis presents conclusions and contributions of this research. This research has shown that multilingual speakers: were successfully participating in Australian society, while also contributing to Australia’s economic and social prosperity; perceived a strong relationship between their English proficiency and their successful participation in society; lacked awareness of their intelligibility and its importance to their spoken language proficiency; valued intervention to support their intelligibility in English; and achieved positive outcomes after participating in intervention with an SLP using the Intelligibility Enhancement Assessment and Intervention Protocols (Blake, 2019a, 2019b). This doctoral research provides a new and significant contribution to knowledge of English proficiency, intelligibility, and participation in multilingual speakers in Australia. The findings provide insights for communities, universities, and individuals, as well as for SLPs who support multilingual speakers in intelligibility enhancement or other contexts of speech-language pathology in Australia and other language-dominant countries. .
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| Joan Rosenthal and Sharynne |
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| Prof Mark Onslow and Sharynne at the Australian Stuttering Research Centre, University of Technology Sydney |
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| UTS Speech Pathology Staff Back: Helen Blake, Melissa Brunner, Catherine Gregory, Harmony Turnbull Front: Lucy Bryant, Ben, Sharynne McLeod, Bronwyn Hemsley |
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| Bronwyn Hemsley, Cate Madill, Gaenor Dixon, Alastair McEwan, Megan, Gail Mulcair, Jane McCormack |
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| Sharynne presenting via video |
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| There was a lot of Twitter activity during the event |
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| Helen at The University of Newcastle |
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| Helen at the University of Technology |
