Bilingualism and Language Impairment

Dear Colleagues,

We are publishing a call for papers for a Special Issue of Languages dedicated to bilingualism and language impairment. Both topics have been studied in their own right for decades, and the intersection of these fields is particularly relevant for several reasons.

Specific Language Impairment (SLI, more recently also called Developmental Language Disorder, or DLD, Bishop et al. 2017) occurs in about 7% of all 5-6-year-olds (Tomblin et al. 1997) so that such an incidence is to be expected in bilingual populations as well. Given that about 30% of school-children in many regions of the world speak a language other than the majority language at home, investigation of the interaction of SLI and bilingualism is not only theoretically relevant but will influence educational and therapeutic decisions. One of the first questions asked by theoretical linguists as well as educational and clinical practitioners concerned the possibility that SLI is aggravated by bilingualism (Paradis 2007, Paradis et al. 2003). First results indicated that this is not the case (Paradis et al. 2003), though the question is still in the center of investigation (see the discussion in Paradis 2010) and factors such as Executive Function, exposure patterns, language dominance, and attrition have to be discussed in this context (Blom et al. 2019). Shifting perspective, it can be asked whether there may be differential effects on L1 or L2, which might be particularly relevant for long term outcomes in each of the languages (Conti-Ramsden et al. 2012, Law et al. 2008). These questions are interesting in light of the early findings that SLI manifests differently in different languages (Leonard 2014a, 2014b).

As to Working Memory and EF, it has been shown that children with SLI have deficits in these areas, while bilinguals may have an advantage in EF, a result which is not uncontested (Valian, 2015 for an overview). Task effects (Lukács et al. 2016) and controversial findings on the interaction of EF/WM, and SLI (Engel de Abreu et al. 2014, Delage & Frauenfelder 2020, Marshall 2020, Meir & Novogrodsky 2020, Talli & Stavrakaki 2020) make it hard to establish causal relationships and call for more research, especially in the context of bilingualism.

Another early observation is that phenomena of language difficulty often are the same in bilinguals and children with SLI (see the many studies addressing the acquisition of accusative pronoun clitics in French) and differentiating these phenomena qualitatively or quantitatively is an active area of research (Paradis 2010).

This overlap in phenomena also makes language assessment and diagnosis in bilingual populations very difficult, so that new assessment tools have been developed specifically for this purpose (Armon-Lotem et al. 2015) and are being explored by many research groups (Grohmann & Armon-Lotem in press). Best practice for diagnosis in bilinguals requires assessing both languages, which is often not practical. A number of recent studies examined appropriate tools for bilingual assessment, such as narrative tools like the MAIN, sentence repetition, and nonword repetition (Boerma & Blom 2017, Bohnacker & Gagarina 2020 and publications therein, dos Santos and Ferré 2018, Meir & Armon-Lotem 2016, Tuller et al. 2018), developed either as quasi-universal tests or as tests for L2, but are often also available for L1-assessment.

For some of these tools, assessment in the majority language (L2) has been shown to be reliable in heritage but less so in refugee situations (Hamann et al. 2020), whereas L1-assessment may be compromised in heritage speakers due to attrition effects (Blom et al. 2019). The comparison of groups of heritage speakers and children learning a majority language after the age of 5 has only just begun. Clearly, factors such as minimal amount of exposure, age of onset, input and cognitive skills (Paradis et al. 2021) have to be investigated. Longitudinal studies are few in this area, but are sorely needed. Dynamic assessment methods have also been found to be promising and more research is welcome (Patterson et al. 2012).

Whereas in a first phase of research on language impairment in the context of bilingualism, SLI was the focus of investigation, more recently, other developmental impairments with effects on language performance, such as ASD or dyslexia, have been studied in bilingual populations (Durrleman et al. 2017, Meir & Novogrodsky 2019, Peristeri et al. 2020, Stanford & Delage 2020). Comparative studies of the effects of different impairments on bilingual language development will be able to shed light on the nature of the impairments as well as on the mechanisms of bilingual acquisition.

Recently, there have been several journal issues or edited volumes dedicated to bilingualism or language impairment, and some Special Issues have addressed language impairment in bilinguals as outlined above., e.g. Special Issue of Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 7:3/4 (2017); Journal of Communication Disorders, Volume 63; Language Acquisition, Volume 25, Issue 1, (2018). Very recent publications such as the Special Issues in Applied Psycholinguistics, Volumes 41 (2020) & 42 (2021) focus on typical bilingual development. However, more and more research groups are obtaining results on language impairment in bilinguals, also for less researched languages, so that the present Special Issue is in a unique position to take up the newly raised questions which emerged from recent studies or the longstanding unresolved questions outlined here. Concentrating on bilinguals with language impairment, we hope to complement existing research by soliciting papers covering the areas we described and list again below. Studies focusing on less widely researched languages (particularly including minority languages), longitudinal studies, or studies on long term outcomes in adolescents with language impairments (comparing SLI and ASD, etc.) will be given preference in order to complement existing research. This Special Issue will also be timely in that assumptions, predictions, methods, and tools derived from results on bilinguals or language impairment will be applied and verified in these bilingual populations with developmental impairments such as SLI or ASD, preferably comparatively. As a particular example, the LITMUS-assessment tools have been investigated in bilingual populations but could not always be applied to bilinguals with language impairment, or only in small groups or for a few language combinations. 

We warmly welcome researchers to submit proposals concerning bilingual language impaired populations addressing, but not limited to, the following topics:

• Bilinguals with SLI, ASD, Down’s Syndrome, and Dyslexia, etc.
• Effects of bilingualism on language impairments
• Differential effects of impairment on L1 and L2
• Interactions of EF/WM, bilingualism, and language impairments
• Language assessment and diagnosis in bilingual contexts
• Developmental paths in heritage vs. refugee contexts
• Factors influencing (a)typical bilingual language development
• Dynamic assessment
• Development over time: longitudinal perspectives and long-term outcomes

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400-600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest editors ([email protected]/[email protected]) or to Languages editorial office ([email protected]). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the special issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

Tentative completion schedule:

Abstract submission deadline: 2 August 2021

Notification of abstract acceptance: 31 August 2021

Full manuscript deadline: 31 March 2022

References:

Armon-Lotem, Sharon, Jan de Jong and Natalia Meir (Eds.). 2015. Assessing Multilingual Children. Disentangling Bilingualism from Language Impairment. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Bishop, Dorothy. V., Margaret J. Snowling, Paul A. Thompson, Trisha Greenhalgh and CATALISE-2 consortium. 2017. Phase 2 of CATALISE: a multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study of problems with language development: Terminology. Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 58(10): 1068–1080. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12721

Blom, Elma, Tessel Boerma and Jan De Jong. 2019. First Language Attrition and Developmental Language Disorder. In Oxford Handbook of Language Attrition. Edited by Monika S. Schmid and Barbara Köpke. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 108–120. 

Bohnacker, Ute and Natalia Gagarina (Eds.). 2020. Developing narrative comprehension: Multilingual assessment instrument for narratives. Amsterdam: Benjamins

Conti-Ramsden, Gina, Michelle C. St Clair, Andrew Pickles and Kevin Durkin. 2012. Developmental trajectories of verbal and nonverbal skills in individuals with a history of specific language impairment: from childhood to adolescence. Journal of Speech Language, and Hearing Research, 55: 1716–1735. doi: 10.1044/1092-4388(2012/10- 0182)

Delage, Hélène and Ulrich H. Frauenfelder. 2020. Relationship between working memory and complex syntax in children Developmental Language Disorder. Journal of child language, 47(3): 600–632. doi:10.1017/S0305000919000722

dos Santos, Christophe and Sandrine Ferré. 2018. A nonword repetition task to assess bilingual children’s phonology. Language Acquisition, 25: 58–71.doi: 10.1080/10489223.2016.1243692

Durrleman, Stefanie, Morgane Burnel and Anne Reboul. 2017. Theory of mind in SLI revisited: links with syntax, comparisons with ASD. International journal of language & communication disorders, 52: 816–830. doi: 10.1111/1460-6984.12317

Engel de Abreu, Pascale M. J., Anabela Cruz‐Santos and Marina L. Puglisi. 2014. Specific language impairment in language minority children from low‐income families. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 49: 736–747.

Grohman, Kleanthes and Sharon Armon-Lotem (Eds.) in press. LITMUS in action: Comparative studies across Europe, TILAR. Amsterdam: Benjamins

Hamann, Cornelia, Solveig Chilla, Lina Abed Ibrahim and István Fekete.  2020. Language assessment tools for Arabic-speaking heritage and refugee children in Germany. Applied Psycholinguistics, 41(6): 1375–1414. doi:10.1017/S0142716420000399

Law, James, J. Bruce Tomblin and Xuyang Zhang. 2008. Characterizing the growth trajectories of language-impaired children between 7 and 11 years of age. Journal of Speech Language, and Hearing Research, 51: 739–749. doi: 10.1044/1092-4388(2008/052)

Leonard, Laurence. 2014a. Children with Specific Language Impairment, 2nd Edn. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Leonard, Laurence. 2014b. Specific language impairment across languages. Child Development Perspectives, 8: 1–5.

Lukács, Ágnes, Eniko Ladányi, Kata Fazekas and Ferenc Kemény. 2016. Executive functions and the contribution of short-term memory span in children with specific language impairment. Neuropsychology, 30: 296–303.

Marshall, Chloë. 2020. Investigating the relationship between syntactic and short-term/working memory impairments in children with developmental disorders is not a straightforward endeavour. First Language, 40: 491–499.

Meir, Natalia and Rama Novogrodsky. 2020. Syntactic abilities and verbal memory in monolingual and bilingual children with High Functioning Autism (HFA). First Language 40.4: 341–366.

Paradis, Johanne. 2007. Bilingual children with specific language impairment: Theoretical and applied issues. Applied Psycholinguistics, 28: 551–564

Paradis, Johanne. 2010. The interface between bilingual development and specific language impairment. Applied Psycholinguistics, 31: 227–252.

Paradis, Johanne, Martha Crago, Fred Genesee and Mabel Rice. 2003. French-English bilingual children with SLI: how do they compare with their monolingual peers? Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 46: 113-27. PMID 12647892 DOI: 10.1044/1092-4388(2003/009) 

Paradis, Johanne, Adriana Soto-Corominas, Xi Chen and Alexandra Gottardo. 2020. How language environment, age, and cognitive capacity support the bilingual development of Syrian refugee children recently arrived in Canada. Applied Psycholinguistics, 41(6): 1255–1281. doi:10.1017/S014271642000017X

Patterson, Janet L., Barbara L. Rodríguez and Philip S. Dale. 2013. Response to dynamic language tasks among typically developing Latino preschool children with bilingual experience. American Journal of Speech Language Pathology, 22: 103-112. doi: 10.1044/1058-0360(2012/11-0129)

Peristeri, Eleni, Eleni Baldimtsi, Maria Andreou and Ianthi Tsimpli. 2020. The impact of bilingualism on the narrative ability and the executive functions of children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of communication disorders, 85: 105999.

Stanford, Emily and Hélène Delage. 2020. Complex syntax and working memory in children with specific learning difficulties. First Language, 40: 411–436.

Talli, Ionna, and Stavroula Stavrakaki. 2020. Short term memory, working memory, and linguistic abilities in bilingual children with developmental language disorder. First Language, 40: 437–460.

Tomblin, J. Bruce, Nancy L. Records, Paula Buckwalter, Xuyang Zhang, Elaine Smith and Marlea O’Brien. 1997. Prevalence of Specific Language Impairment in kindergarten children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 40: 1245–1260.

Tuller, Laurice, Cornelia Hamann, Solveig Chilla, Sandrine Ferré, Eleonore Morin, Philippe Prévost, Phillipe, Christope dos Santos, Lina Abed Ibrahim, Racha Zebib. 2018. Identifying language impairment in bilingual children in France and in Germany. International Journal Language Communication Disorders, 53: 888–904.     

Valian, Virginia. 2015. Bilingualism and cognition. Bilingualism, 18: 3–24. doi: 10.1017/S1366728914000522 

Prof. Dr. Cornelia Hamann
Dr. Lina Abed Ibrahim
Guest Editors

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• language impaired bilinguals
• diagnosis
• L1/L2 assessment
• developmental paths
• factors influencing development
• heritage speakers, refugees