Speech Disfluencies of a Fourth-Grade Spanish-Speaking Dual Language Learner During English Academic Vocabulary Instruction

• In Event: Heritage and Native Language in Multilingual Contexts

Abstract

Individuals with low proficiency in a second-language tend to produce more typical disfluent speech patterns in the second language (Bergmann et al., 2015). Prior research indicates that some speech disfluencies patterns may be specific to Spanish-English bilingual children, who tend to produce more mazes and syllable repetitions than their monolingual peers. The current case study explores the quantity and frequency of speech disfluencies produced by a 4th grade Spanish-speaking DLL during academic vocabulary instruction. Speech samples were collected and transcribed. The total amount of disfluencies was calculated and analyzed using CLAN. The results indicate that different patterns of disfluency production were associated with each language and that disfluencies were more common in the participant’s English speech.

Authors

• Ester García Plaza, University of South Florida
  Presenting Author

• carla zayas santiago
  Presenting Author

• Sara A. Smith, University of South Florida
  Non-Presenting Author

• Maria S. Carlo, University of South Florida
  Non-Presenting Author