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Language in Multilingual and Multicultural Settings

Code: 104140 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2500893 Speech therapy OB 4

Contact

Name:
Melina Aparici Aznar
Email:
melina.aparici@uab.cat

Teachers

Alondra Elisa Camus Torres

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

It is recommended that students have passed the courses "Linguistics", "Linguistics applied to language disorders", "Language acquisition and processing" and "Introduction to scientific methods and cognitive processes".

 

Revision of the following content from the course "Language acquisition and processing" is strongly recommended: theoretical perspectives on language acquisition, developmental stages and characterization of development at the phonological, lexical, morphosyntactic and pragmatic level.


Objectives and Contextualisation

The objective of this course is to gain knowledge of the influence of multilingual contexts in the features of typical and atypical language development and processing, as well as of the influence of culture and socioeconomic status (SES) in language development.
At the end of the course students will be able to:
- Understand the linguistic and psycholinguistic characteristics of multilingualism situations, especially those derived from migration.
- Understand multilingual learning processes and appreciate the incidence of different individual and social factors in these processes.
- Recognize the differing features of languages and their potential influence on bilingual language acquisition and second language learning processes.
- Be sensitive to the effects of multilingual and multicultural contexts in typical and pathological language features.
- Develop tools for language assessment and intervention that consider the specific features of the diverse situations of multilingual development in different developmental stages, in order to offer a correct approach to communication processes as well as assessment and intervention procedures in speech and language therapy with multilingual and/or multicultural clients.


Competences

  • Act with ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights and duties, diversity and democratic values.
  • Analyse and synthesise information.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of disorders in communication, language, speech, hearing, voice and non-verbal oral functions.
  • Ethically commit oneself to quality of performance.
  • Evaluate the scientific production that supports speech therapists' professional development.
  • Innovate in the methods and processes of this area of knowledge in response to the needs and wishes of society.
  • Integrate the foundations of biology (anatomy and physiology), psychology (evolutionary processes and development), language and teaching as these relate to speech-therapy intervention in communication, language, speech, hearing, voice and non-verbal oral functions.
  • Managing communication and information technologies.
  • Master the terminology that facilitates effective interaction with other professionals.
  • Organise and plan with the aim of establishing a plan for development within a set period.
  • Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • Take account of social, economic and environmental impacts when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
  • Understand, integrate and relate new knowledge deriving from autonomous learning.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analyse a situation and identify points for improvement.
  2. Analyse and synthesise.
  3. Correctly use the terminology of linguistics, psycholinguistics and speech therapy, as well as other professions with which speech therapists often create multidisciplinary teams (doctors, physiotherapists, etc).
  4. Describe the main contributions from scientific productions linked to the cognitive processes of people in multilingual environments.
  5. Ethically commit oneself to quality of performance.
  6. Explain and compare distinct theoretical proposals regarding mental representations in multilingual people.
  7. Explain and interrelate the main contributions of research on language acquisition and second language learning.
  8. Explain the influence of multilingual environments on the normal and pathological characteristics of language.
  9. Identify the social, economic and/or environmental implications of academic and professional activities within one's own area of knowledge.
  10. Identify, describe and relate the different phases of language acquisition in a multilingual context.
  11. List and describe the different phenomena that occur in language contact.
  12. Managing communication and information technologies.
  13. Organise and plan with the aim of establishing a plan for development within a set period.
  14. Propose new experience-based methods or alternative solutions.
  15. Propose projects and actions that are in accordance with the principles of ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights and obligations, diversity and democratic values.
  16. Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
  17. Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  18. Understand, integrate and relate new knowledge deriving from autonomous learning.
  19. Weigh up the impact of any long- or short-term difficulty, harm or discrimination that could be caused to certain persons or groups by the actions or projects.

Content

1. Introduction to multilingual development and learning.

1.1. monolingual development, multilingual development, and second language learning.

1.2. Defining multilingualism.

1.3. Critical features of multilingual development. Interaction between linguistic systems.

1.4. Factors affecting multilingual development.

 

2. Theoretical perspectives.

2.1. Learning by instruction, selection or construction. Different approaches to language development.

2.2. The role of context and interaction strategies.

2.3. The role of metalinguistic procedures.

2.4. Multilingual brains.

 

3. Features of multilingual development.

3.1. General features in the process of acquiring languages.

3.2. Speech perception: an early differentiation between languages.

3.3. Features of phonological development.

3.4. Features of early lexicon and lexical development; hypothesis on the multilingual lexicon.

3.5. Early morphosyntactic development; features of morphosyntactic development.

3.6. Features of discourse development.

 

4. Cognitive consequences of multilingualism.

4.1. Positive & negative consequences, and indifferent aspects.

4.2. Recent findings on attention, cognition and metalinguistic abilities.

 

5. Orientations for speech and language therapy in multilingual contexts.

5.1. The assessment of the bilingual profile.

5.2. Orientations for language assessment in multilingual people.

5.3. Orientations for language intervention in multilingual people: languages of intervention?

 

6. The influence of culture and socioeconomic status (SES)

6.1. The cultural competence of the speech and language therapist; multilingual contexts.

6.2. The influence of SES in language acquisition.

6.3. The influence of SES in school performance.


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Lectures with support of ICT and group discussion 21 0.84 5, 4, 11, 6, 7, 8, 10, 17, 3
Seminarios en grupo partido de análisis y discusión de artículos y casos 24 0.96 2, 5, 11, 8, 13, 16, 3
Type: Supervised      
Consultations on online self-assessment activities proposed 3 0.12 4, 11, 6, 7, 10
Tutoring of coursework due 7 0.28 5, 11, 8, 13, 3
Type: Autonomous      
Preparation and elaboration of coursework due 27 1.08 2, 5, 11, 8, 13, 16, 3, 12
Reading specialized papers and documents (reports, cases, and specific documents for the course) 28 1.12 18, 4, 11, 6, 7, 8, 10, 17
Study: elaboration of outlines and summaries 36 1.44 2, 18, 4, 11, 6, 7, 10

- Directed activities

Lectures with support of ICT.

Seminars in small groups for analyzing and discussing specialized papers and cases. Students will discuss methodological, theoretical and applied implications. They include flipped classroom sessions.**

 

- Supervised activities

Tutoring of coursework due.

Consultations on online self-assessment activities proposed.

 

- Autonomous activities

Reading specialized papers and documents (reports, cases, and specific documents for the course*).

Preparation and elaboration of coursework due.

Searching information and documentation.

Study: elaboration of outlines and summaries.

 

*The materials needed to learn the basic contents of the course are available on moodle

**Some students will be able to do the seminars in an alternative way by working with the Service-Learning (ApS) methodology, through which students are trained by participating in a project aimed at solving a real need of a community and thus improving people's living conditions. This methodology starts from the identification of a real need and involves three factors: the provision of a service to solve it, meaningful learning for the student and a reflective process. Therefore, it requires a collaboration with a social entity or a public institution, which in the case of this subject is a high-complexity school. More information on ApS at: https://www.uab.cat/ca/aprenentatge-servei

 

 

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
EV1. Presentation of reports and coursework (small group) 20% 2 0.08 2, 1, 5, 11, 8, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 3, 12
EV2. Written exam 1 40% 1 0.04 2, 18, 4, 11, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 3, 19
EV3. Written exam 2 40% 1 0.04 2, 18, 4, 11, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 3, 19

The following learning evidences (with the following weight in the course final grade) must be presented:

LE1: Presentation of reports and coursework, and participation in seminar discussions (weight: 20%). This evidence will be considered as presented if a minimum of 60% of reports/coursework have been presented. (from week 3 to 15). There are both individual and group reports.

LE2: written exam 1 (weight: 40%) (first assessment period). Individual assessment. On-site.

LE3: written exam 2 (weight: 40%) (second assessment period). Individual assessment. On-site.

 

Students will pass the course if both of the following conditions apply: (1) they have obtained at least 5,0 points (0-10 scale) as a result of the weighted mean of learning evidences, and (2) they have passed at least two out of the three evidences. If these requirements are not met, the maximum mark to be recorded in the academic transcript will be 4.5 points.

A student who has presented learning evidences representing a weight below 4 points (40%), will be qualified as Non Assessable (NA).

 

If the criteria to pass the course specified above are not met, students will have the opportunity to resit exam/s in the following cases: (a) the final grade is equal to or greater than 3,5 and is below 5,0 (0-10 scale), and (b) have been previously assessed on a set of learning activities with a minimum weight of 66.6% of the final grade of the course.

LE1 cannot be retaken.

The maximum course final grade possible in case the student passes the resit exam is ‘Pass’ (5,0 points; 0-10 scale).

This subject does not consider single assessment.

 

General assessment guidelines: https://www.uab.cat/web/estudiar/graus/graus/avaluacions-1345722525858.html

 

No unique final synthesis test for students who enrole for the second time or more is anticipated.

 

IMPORTANT: The examination forms will be in Catalan. Any student that wishes to take the exam in Spanish and meets the requirements established in article 263 must apply for it during week 4 through an e-form (more information in the School of Psychology web). Applications in other cases or periods will not be accepted.


Bibliography

Basic references:

Aparici, M.(2011). Hi ha proves que les per sones que han adquirit un bon domini de dues llengües de maner a precoç tenen avantatges cognitius, comparades amb les persones monolingües? A Strubell, M., Andreu, Ll. & Sintes, E. (coord.) (2011). Resultats del model lingüístic escolar català. L'evidència empírica. Barcelona: Linguamón-UOC.

Aparici, M.  (2019). Desarrollo multilingüe. En M. Aparici & A. Igualada (2019). El desarrollo del lenguaje y la comunicación en la infancia. Barcelona: Editorial UOC.

Aparici, M., Rosado, E. & Tolchinsky, L (2006). Perspectives psicològiques i educatives del multilingüisme: desenvolupament  plurilingüe. A J. Perera (Coord.), Materials docents del Curs de Postgrau en Educació Plurilingüe. Barcelona: IL3- Institut de Formació Continuada de la Universitat de Barcelona.

Nieva, S. (2016). Orientaciones para la intervención logopédica con niños bilingües. Revista de Investigación en Logopedia, 5(2), 77-111.

Nieva, S., Conboy, B., Aguilar-Mediavilla, E., & Rodríguez, L. (2020). Prácticas en logopedia infantil en entornos bilingües y multilingües. Recomendaciones basadas en la evidencia. Revista de Logopedia, Foniatría y Audiología, 40(4), 194-213.

 

Further readings:

Abdelilah-Bauer, B. (2007). El desafío del bilingüismo. Crecer y vivir hablando varios idiomas. Madrid: Morata.

Aparici, M. (2012). L'adquisició del llenguatge. En Ll. Barrachina, Ll. (coord.), M. Aparici &E. Noguera, Desenvolupament i Avaluació del llenguatge oral. Barcelona: Editorial UOC.

Armon-Lotem, S., de Jong, J. & Meir, N. (2016). Assessing Multilingual Children: Disentangling Bilingualism from Language Impairment. Multilingual Matters.

Auer, P. & Wei, L. (Eds.) (2007). Handbook of Multilingualism and Multilingual Communication. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Baker, C. (1993). Fundamentos de educación bilingüe y bilingüismo (caps. 5 a 9). Barcelona: Cátedra.

Bathia, T. K. & Richtie, W.C. (1999). The Bilingual Child. En T.K. Bhatia & W.C. Richtie, Handbook of Language Acquisition (pp. 569-643). NY: Academic Press.

Bellón, P. & Nieva, S. (2024). Perspectives about home-language maintenance in multilingual families with and without language and communication disorders: A scoping review. Revista de Logopedia, Foniatría y Audiología, 44(3), 100496.

Bialystok, E. (2001). Language and cognitive effects in preschool children. En C. Muñoz, M.L. Celaya, M. Fernández Villanueva, T. Navés, O. Strunk & E. Tragant (eds.), Trabajos en Lingüística Aplicada (pp. 3-9). Barcelona: Univerbook.

Bialystok, E. (2009). Bilingualism: The good, the bad, and the indifferent. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12 (1), 3-11.

Bohnacker, U., & Gagarina, N. (Eds.) (2020). Developing narrative comprehension: Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives. John Benjamins

Bornstein , M. H. , & Bradley , R. H. (Eds.) (2003). Socioeconomic status, parenting, and child development. Mahwah, NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Camus, A. y Aparici, M. (2023). Macroestructura y microestructura narrativa en población infantil bilingüe con TDL: una revisión sistemática. Revista de Investigación en Logopedia 13(1), e82548. 

Centeno, J.G. (2007).Bilingual Development and Communication: Implications for ClinicalLanguage Studies. En J.G., Centeno, R.T. Anderson & L.K. Obler (eds.), Communication disorders in Spanish speakers: theoretical, research and clinical aspects(pp. 47-56). UK: Multilingual Matters.

Costa, A. (2017). El cerebro bilingüe. La neurociencia del lenguaje. Barcelona: Debate.

Costa, A.& Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2014). How does the bilingual experience sculpt the brain? Nature Neuroscience Reviews, 15, 336-345.

De Cat, C. (2022). Opportunities and challenges in the analysis of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN). First Language,42(2), 321-329. 

De Houwer, A. (2021). Bilingual Development in Childhood. Cambridge University Press.

Engel de Abreu, P. M. J., Cruz-Santos, A., Tourinho, C. J., Martin, R. & Bialystok, E. (2012). Bilingualism enriches the poor: enhanced cognitivecontrol inlow-income minority children. Psychological Science, 23, 1364–1371.

García, O., Lin, A. M. Y., & May, S. (2017). Bilingual and multilingual education. Springer International Publishing.

Ginsborg, J. (2006). The effects of Socioeconomic Statuson Children’s Language Acquisition and Use. En J. Clegg and J. Ginsborg(eds.), Language and Social Disadvantage: Theory into Practice. John Wiley & Sons.

Goldstein, B. (2000). Cultural and linguistic diversity resource guide for speech language pathologists. San Diego: Singular.

Goldstein, B. (ed.) (2004). Bilingual Language Development & Disorders in Spanish-English Speakers. Baltimore: Brookes Publishing Company.

Gràcia, L. (2010). Llengua i immigració. La influència de la primera llengua en l'adquisició del català com a segona llengua. Barcelona: Vic: Eumo Editorial.

Grosjean, F. & Li, P. (Eds.) (2012). The Psycholinguistics of Bilingualism. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Guo, X. (2022). A Bibliometric Analysis of Child Language During1900–2021. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. 

Hoff, E. & Core, C. (2015). What Clinicians Need to Know about Bilingual Development. Seminars in Speech and Language, 36(2), 89–99.

Hoff, E., Laursen, B., & Bridges, K. (2012). Measurement and Model Building in Studying the Influence of Socioeconomic Status on Child Development. En M. Lewis & L. Mayes (eds.), A Developmental Environmental Measurement Handbook. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, pp.590–606.

Luk, G., Anderson, J. A. E., & Grundy, J. G. (Eds.). (2023). Understanding Language and Cognition through Bilingualism (Vol. 64). John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Mallart, J. (2006). Multilingüisme i educació. Barcelona: Publicacions i Edicions UB.

McLeod, S., Verdon, S., Bowen, C. (2013). International aspirations for speech language pathologists’ practice with multilingual children with speech sound disorders: Development of a position paper. Journal of Communication Disorders, 46(4),375-387.

Mehler, J. i Dupoux, E. (1992). Nacer sabiendo. Madrid: Alianza Psicología minor.

Meisel, J.M. (2011). First and second language acquisition: parallels and differences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Montrul, S. (2013). El bilingüismo en el mundo hispanohablante. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

Nieva, S. (2016). Competencia cultural del logopeda con familias lingüística y culturalmente diversas. En M.T. Martín-Aragoneses & R. López-Higues (Eds.), Claves de la logopediaen el siglo XXI (pp. 55-71). Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia.

Nieva, S., Aguilar-Mediavilla, E., Rodríguez, L., & Conboy,B. T. (2020). Competencias profesionales para el trabajo con población multilingüe y multicultural en España: creencias, prácticas y necesidades de los/las logopedas. Revista de Logopedia, Foniatría y Audiología, 40(4), 152-167.

Oller D.K. & Eilers R.E., (eds.) (2002). Language and literacy in bilingual children. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
 
Planckaert, N., Duyck, W., & Woumans, E. (2023). Is there a cognitive advantage in inhibition and switching for bilingual children? A systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1191816.

Sebastián-Gallés, N. & Bosch, L. (2001) On becoming and being bilingual. En E. Dupoux; & S. Franck (comps.) Language, Brain, and Cognitive Development: Essays in Honor of Jacques Mehler. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

Sanz-Torrent, M., Badia, I. & Serra, M. (2008). Contributions from Bilingual Specific Language Impairment in Catalan and Spanish to the Understanding of Typical and Pathological Language Acquisition En C. Perez-Vidal, M. Juan-Garau, & A. Bel (eds.), Portrait of the Young in the New Multilingual Spain (pp. 135-158). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Serra, M., Solé, M.R., Serrat, E., Bel, A. & Aparici, M. (2000). La adquisición del lenguaje. Barcelona: Ariel.

Serrat, E., Gràcia, L. & Perpiñà, L. (2008).First Language Influence on Second Language Acquisition: The Case of Immigrant L1Soninke, Tagalog and ChineseChildren Learning Catalan. En C. Perez-Vidal, M. Juan-Garau, & A. Bel (eds.), A Portrait of the Young in the New Multilingual Spain (pp. 200-220). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Siguan Soler, M. (2001). Bilingüismo y lenguas en contacto. Madrid: Alianza editorial.

Stavans, A., & Jessner, U. (Eds.). (2022). The Cambridge Handbook of Childhood Multilingualism (Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Strubell, M., Andreu, Ll. & Sintes, E. (coord.) (2011). Resultats del model lingüístic escolar català. L'evidència empírica. Barcelona: Linguamón-UOC.

Thordardottir, E. (2006). Language intervention from a bilingual mindset. The ASHA Leader, vol. 11, 6-21

Thordardottir, E. (2010). Towards evidence-based practice in language intervention for bilingual children. Journal of Communication Disorders, 43, 523-537.

 

http://www.asha.org/Practice-Portal/Professional-Issues/Bilingual-Service-Delivery/

http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/data/

http://faculty.washington.edu/ezent/imdt.htm

http://www.multilingualchildren.org/

http://www.ethnologue.com/ethno_docs/distribution.asp

http://www.bibiloni.net/llengues/

http://xtec.gencat.cat/ca/projectes/alumnat-origen-estranger/alumnatnou/avaluacio/inicial2/

http://treballiaferssocials.gencat.cat/ca/el_departament/publicacions/immigracio/col_leccio_llengua_immigracio_i_ensenyament_del_catala/

bilingualism-matters.org
 
https://main.leibniz-zas.de/ 
 
https://www.thatsunheardof.org/quiz/ 
 

Software

No specific software needed


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(SEM) Seminars 111 Catalan/Spanish first semester morning-mixed
(SEM) Seminars 112 Catalan/Spanish first semester morning-mixed
(SEM) Seminars 113 Catalan/Spanish first semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan first semester morning-mixed