DOCUMENT RESUME ED 250 926 FL 014 6',4 AUTHOR Proctor, Adele; And Others TITLE From English to Creole: Assessing Language Difference and Language Disorder. PUB DATE Jul 84 NOTE 30p., er presented at the International Congress for tiro Study of Child Language (3rd, Austin, TX, July 8-33, 1984). PUB TYPE Reports Evaluative/Feasibility (142) EDVi PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Child Language; *Creoles; Elementary Secondary Education; *English (Second Language); *Immigrants; *Language Handicaps; *Language Proficiency; Measurement Techniques; Portuguese; Public Schools; Screening Tests; *Testing Problems IDENTIFIERS *Cape Verdeans; Massachusetts (Boston); Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language ABSTRACT A study was undertaken in an effort to develop techniques for monolingual speech pathologists in the Boston public schools to assess whether language behavior of Cape Verdean immigrants is due to language learning disabilities or simply to language differences. The following three questions were addressed: (1) What are some of the differences between Cape Verdean Creole and English? (2) Are these differences reflected in traditional speech and language tests? and (3) Will presentation of tests in English and Creole enhance the child's performance? A native speaker of Creole provided information about the Cape Verdean culture and translated the Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language, which was then administered to a small group of native Creole-speaking immigrant children, some of whom were language-disabled, and the results were compared with a series of predictions. The findings suggest that this test is a viable clinical procedure for monolingual examiners assessing language performance of nonnative English speaking children, and are being used to establish more appropriate levels of expectation for the performance of Cape Verdean Creole speaking children on the test. The specific language differences between English and Creole that were identified are generalized to other types of tests in the educational setting. (MSE) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** From English to Creole: Assessing Language Differenceand Language Disorder. Adele Proctor and Ann Mc Laughlin, NortheasternUniversity, Boston, MA02115 eNj and John Hutchinson, BostonUniversity. U.S.A. CT` linPresented at The Third International Congress forthe Study of ChildLanguage, an July 8-13, 1984,Austin, Texas. LAJ Introduction: There are 10 islands and 5 islets that constitutethe independent country of Cape Verde (Republica Cabo de Verde). Cape Verde is located inthe Atlantic ocean about 400 miles west of Senegal,Africa. Figure1 displays the country and its geographical location relative to theAfrican continent. Figure 1About Here Immigration of Cape Verdeans to the U.S. is reported to haveoccurred as early as the 1850s and, under current economic conditions in thecountry, itis estimated that asmany as 1200 Cape Verdeansper year may legally emigrate to the U.S. (The Boston Globe, 1983). Because of strong family ties,the majority of Cape Verdean people tend to emigrateto the New Englandarea, predominantly greaterBoston and Rhode Island. The official language of the country is Portuguese,but most of the t's people speak Creole (Crioulo). Creole is an oral languageand reportedly has no accompanying written 0 symbol system. This orallanguage appears to be be derived from Portuguese and a combination of Africanlanguages, however, im414- U.S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION -PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE 11)i It A I IONAk i4k!tOt)kliS iNF-ORMA1 THIS ION MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED I IN 1414 4 81(1 BY ."I .u-. 1, ..,,,,,O ,,ha.tr4,4 S frptfOluf 0.1 AS ". ,,10',1,, 0,,Ili,(P.,100, Of UfgdflilellgOt M.,,,I,,..1,,,p,,f,.10 in4q1noti Tv, mpotme. Adele odur .10,41i41440,40411Tie f.' .1.1.. ,1 vroA , /I141IfIPM..stfitef)mIlltS <IOC II TO THE EDUCATIONAL ry..,1If, fli.too.4 tSsiiiiv f11011.5.1,111ottuail Nil RESOURCES it,"lift.,1 'It 01,k y INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) . r ti -2- It is unclear which African languages. Macedo (1979)states: Although the Capeverdean language has been inexistence for at least four centuries, ithas been the subject of little and sporadicscientific research. The lack of interest in the Capeverdeanlanguage is obviously a reflection of the social stigma attached to it. By and large, Portuguese and Capeverdean scholars have treated theCapeverdean tongueas a dialect of Portuguese not worthy of scientific study (p.84). In the Cape Verdean islands, children initiallylearn Creole at home and are taughtto read and write in Portuguese upon enteringschool. When families emigrate to the U.S., childrenare then exposed to variations of English. This means that the CapeVerdean childmay be expected, by family and community, to begin communicating in the majoritylanguage, English. For the child with a speech, language and/or learningdisability, thiscan be a traumatic experience. The language learningdisabled child will clearly encounter difficulty in the native language, Crioulo, andattempts to learn and use English result in additional educationalproblems for the child, for the family and for educators. Acquiring proficiency in English may be less difficultfor the Cape Verdean child who has no language learning disability. However, cultural patterns governing wh,.r., children speak, how childrenspeak and to whom strongly influence tne normal child's frequency oflanguage use. It is reported that parents of Cape Verdean children expect the child to listen,to be quiet and to be obedient in school. So, regardless of Englishproficiency, Cap.. Verdean children may be reluctant to address authority figures.e.g., teachers. Becauie of the child's reluctance to speak, despite the factthat their teachersmay be Cape Verdean, there are problems in obtainingrepresentative language samples for assessinglinguistic performance. Currently, the Boston public schools enrolla significant number of children whose primary language is not English. These children haveas their primary languages,among others, Vietnamese, Laotian, Chinese, Greek,Italian, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Spanish andCape Verdean Creole. Figure 2 shows the range of different languages spoken byfamilies of children inthe Boston public schools. Figure 2 About Here Since the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association(1983) estimates that 1 out of every 20 people experiences a communicationdisorder, it is reasonable toassume that, with the number of bilingual childrenpresent in the public schools,there are children with unidentified problems Intheir primary language. As such, there is a need for the monolingualspeech-language pathologist (speech therapist) to develop methods ofassessing these children to distinguish language difference from languagedisorder. To determine whether or not the Cape Verdean childis acquiring language(s) normally, the monolingual speech-language pathologistis expected toassess and recommend, in cooperationwith other educators, appropriate educationalplacement and/or languagetreatment programs. Although aware professionalsrecognize the need to evaluatethe child in the native language, we are confrontedwith many questions in addition to not speaking the child's nativetongue. Some of the questionsare: (1) do we assess only in Creole: (2) dowe assess in Portuguese only; (3) do we assess a combinationof Creole and Portuguese: (4) how dowe draw associations between oral and written language;(5) dowe assess a combination of Creole, Portuguese and English; (6) which is thebetter approach to assess proficiency in English; (7) what shouldour expectations be for performance in the primarylanguage, in English; (8)what should our expectations be for writtenversus oral language; (9) considering cultural differences in child rearing practices, can we apply similarperformance guidelines as used with otherbilingual children,e.g., the Hispanic child; (10) shouldwe apply performance guidelines thatare used with children who speak variations of English; (11)what are the most appropriateways of using interpreters; (12) should we train interpreters on objectives of speechand language tests to avoid literalinterpretations; (13) shouldwe use literal interpretations to gain maximuminformation about language differencesrepre- sented on speech and languagetests; (14) how do we verify theaccuracy of what interpreters provide us; (15) how do we obtain a sufficientnumber of reliable interpreters duringschool time to meet the needs ofall the children? Our list of questions is more extensive, because the CapeVerdean child is enro!led in school systems that must meet the needs of children whoare native speakers ofmany other languages. To begin to addressa very small part of this massive educational problem,we deci-ed to ask three specific questions to initiatean exploratory study of howwe might plan more effectively for differentiating languagedisorder and language difference. Specific Questions: The questionswere:(1) whatare some of the differences between Cape Verdean Creole and English; (2)are these differences reflected in traditional speech and language tests and; (3) will presentation oftests in English and Creole enhance the child's performance? _5_ To begin toanswer the questions, we asked an adult informant,a native speaker of Creole and an educator, Maria Macedo,to provide us information