Cross-linguistic transfer in Vietnamese-English speech

Congratulations to Dr Kate Margetson who has just had this paper accepted for publication

Margetson, K., McLeod, S., & Verdon, S. (2025). Cross-linguistic transfer in Vietnamese-English speech. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools.

Here is the abstract

Purpose
Typically developing multilingual children’s speech may include mismatches and phonological patterns that are atypical in monolingual peers. One possible reason for mismatches is cross-linguistic transfer, when structures unique to one language are used while speaking another language. This study explored cross-linguistic transfer in Vietnamese-English–speaking children’s and adults’ speech at phoneme and syllable levels. 
Method
Children (n = 66) aged between 2;0 and 8;10 and adult family members (n = 83) completed single word speech assessments in Vietnamese and English. Cross-linguistic transfer of non-shared consonants was analyzed in terms of frequency, patterns and direction of transfer. Syllable structure patterns in English consonant clusters (cluster reduction, cluster simplification, epenthesis) were identified, as consonant clusters do not occur in Vietnamese. 
Results 
Cross-linguistic transfer of non-shared consonants occurred in most children’s speech at least twice (75.76%; n = 66), tended to happen when the target was non-shared and occurred at a low frequency. During Vietnamese speech assessment, 21.82% of children’s and 26.30% of adults’ mismatches were due to cross-linguistic transfer of English consonants. During English speech assessment, 2.84% of children’s and 24.33% of adults’ mismatches were due to cross-linguistic transfer of Vietnamese consonants. Direction of cross-linguistic transfer was significantly associated with children’s age and language proficiency. Bi-directional cross-linguistic transfer only occurred in the youngest children (2;6 - 4;5 years). English consonant clusters were impacted by syllable structure patterns for both children (35.76%) and adults (22.95%), indicating these mismatches in Vietnamese-English-speaking children’s speech may be due to development, cross-linguistic transfer of Vietnamese syllable structure to English and/or ambient phonology. 
Conclusions
Cross-linguistic transfer occurred in Vietnamese-English–speaking children’s and adults’ speech. These findings highlight the importance of assessing multilingual children’s speech in each language, considering interaction between languages,  and identifying reasons for mismatches to ensure accurate diagnosis.

A multilingual world

Over the past month I have visited Stockholm (Sweden), Reykjavik (Iceland), Helsinki (Finland), and stopped over in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) and Singapore. I am constantly amazed by the multilingual dexterity of the people I interact with in each country. The people I have talked with have switched to converse with me in English as soon as I have opened my mouth (and sometimes before I do). In contrast, I have only learned a few simple words:

• Swedish: hej (hello), tack (thank you)
• Icelandic: halló (hello), takk (thank you), Þetta reddast (she'll be right mate)
• Finnish: hei (hello), kiitos (thank you)

A sign in downtown Reykjavik

 Code switching is such a regular part of life for the Nordic countries. Children learn other Nordic languages in school, as well as English. For example, children in Iceland learn Danish and English. Children in Finland learn Swedish and English. Russian is also seen in the streets of Finland.

Herkullissia marjoja (the delicious berries) of Suomi (Finland)

It is said that one of the reasons these Nordic languages have survived and remained distinct was due to the translation of the Bible. For example, in Iceland, the New Testament was translated in 1540 and the entire Bible in 1584. The first Finnish translation was in 1548. I also learned about the importance of the translation of the Bible for the Irish people when I saw the Book of Kells earlier this year.

Helsingin tuomiokirkko, Suurkirkko in Helsinki

A review of 30 speech assessments in 19 languages other than English

The following manuscript has been accepted for publication:
McLeod, S. & Verdon, S. (in press, March 2014). A review of 30 speech assessments in 19 languages other than English. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.
Here is the abstract:

Purpose. To evaluate instruments designed to assess children’s speech production in languages other than English.

Method. Ninety-eight speech assessments in languages other than English were identified: 62 were commercially published, 17 published within journal articles, and 19 informal assessments. A review was undertaken of 30 commercially published assessments that could be obtained.

Results. The 30 instruments assessed 19 languages: Cantonese, Danish, Finnish, German, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Maltese-English, Norwegian, Pakistani-heritage languages (Mirpuri, Punjabi, Urdu), Portuguese, Putonghua (Mandarin), Romanian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish. The majority (70.0%) assessed speech sound production in monolingual speakers, 20.0% assessed one language of bilingual speakers, and 10.0% assessed both languages of bilingual speakers. All used single word picture elicitation. Approximately half (53.3%) were norm-referenced and the number of children in the normative samples ranged between 145 and 2,568. The remaining assessments were criterion-referenced (50.0%) (one fitted both categories). The assessments with English manuals met many of the psychometric criteria for operationalization; however, only two provided sensitivity and specificity data.

Conclusions. Despite the varying countries of origin, there were many similarities between speech assessments in languages other than English. Few were designed for use with multilingual children so validation is required for use in English-speaking contexts.