Bilingual Development in Children with Special Education Needs: Minority and Majority Language Contexts
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Grant
Dr. Johanne Paradis [PI], Dr. Andrea Macleod (University of Alberta) [ Co-I], Dr. Tamara Sorenson Duncan (Carleton University) [Co-I], Dr. Laurent Cammarata (University of Alberta) [collaborator], Dr. Ann Sutton (University of Ottawa) [collaborator]
Two official languages, official multiculturalism and high levels of immigration mean that there are many opportunities for children to be bilingual in Canada. Children who speak a minority first language (L1) and learn English as a majority second language (L2) are non-elective bilinguals in the sense that learning the majority-L2 is not achieved through parent choice of a specialized education program, but instead is driven by the primary language of schooling and the need for community inclusion. French immersion programs for anglophone students outside Québec offer the opportunity for children who speak a majority-L1, English, to acquire proficiency in a minority-L2, French, through elective education programs. However, there is one group of Canadian children who do not have equal opportunities for bilingual development: children with developmental disorders that impact speech, language and communication, and who are often students with special education needs (hereafter: SENs). Regarding non-elective bilingualism, switching to monolingualism in the majority-L2 is often promoted for SENs, resulting in loss of proficiency in their minority-L1. Regarding elective bilingualism, low enrolment rates for SENs in immersion programs point to decreased opportunities for French L2 learning. For both elective and non-elective bilinguals, beliefs on the part of parents, clinicians and educators that SENs are less capable of dual language learning, and insufficient knowledge about the dual language development of SENs in elementary school to test these beliefs, are key contributing factors to the loss of opportunities. The objectives of the proposed research are to fill gaps in knowledge by taking a tripartite approach to understanding the sources of successes and challenges in the bilingual development of SENs.
Research will take place in Ottawa and Edmonton, cities of a similar size that offer extensive French immersion programs. Because of Ottawa’s proximity to Québec and status as the national capital, French proficiency is expected to be a higher priority than in Edmonton. Research in the non-elective bilingual and elective bilingual streams of this program will consist of three components: (1) CONTEXT: administrative data from school boards will be gathered and analysed to understand the demographics, special education delivery and academic outcomes relevant to SENs who are non-elective and elective bilinguals. (2) PERSPECTIVES: semi-structured interviews and questionnaires with parents and education team members will yield information about beliefs in the capacity of SENs for dual language learning, facilitators and barriers in support services, and recommendations for change. (3) DIRECT ASSESSMENT of individual SENs will be done in their majority and minority languages (phonology vocabulary, grammar and story-telling skills). Children’s ages, cognitive abilities, and language input and experience outside school will be used to determine what factors contribute to stronger or weaker outcomes in individual children’s development of their L1 and L2. Comparisons across streams and components will be made where possible.
This program of research will be ground-breaking in Canada because of the two streams (non-elective and elective) within one research program as well as the tripartite design. The intention is to produce comprehensive and multifaceted data on bilingualism and SENs that will inform not only language acquisition theory regarding the capacity of SENs to become bilingual, but also, parental decision making and educational practice and policy. The overall goal is to use the knowledge generated to increase opportunities for bilingualism for SENs in Canada.
Successes and Challenges in the Language, Literacy and Wellbeing of Syrian Refugee Children
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Grant
Language, Literacy and Learning Cluster. Dr. Johanne Paradis [co-lead] & Dr. Becky Xi Chen, U of T/OISE [co-lead]. Co-investigators: Dr. Adriana Soto-Corominas, Dr. Alexandra Gottardo, Redab Al Janaideh, Dr. Irene Vitroroulis, Dr. Katholiki Georgiades, Dr. Jennifer Jenkins
More than 60,000 Syrian refugees have been resettled in Canada since late 2015. As such, there is an urgent need for research to provide evidence for effective policies and practices tailored to the needs of refugee children. Accordingly, this research project examines factors that determine the successes and challenges in language and literacy development, both in English, the second language (L2) and Arabic, the first language (L1), as Syrian refugee children settle in Canada. In order to fully participate in Canadian schools and society, refugee children need to achieve fluent English language and literacy skills. At the same time, maintenance of their Arabic L1 is key to their identity, family and community relationships. Determinants of success and challenges in bilingual and bi-literacy development include individual cognitive abilities as well as home language and literacy environments. Given their difficult pre-migration experiences, it is imperative to also include socio-emotional wellbeing as a determinant of refugee children's language and literacy development. This is a longitudinal study - involving children aged 6-13 and their families - that is being carried out in three Canadian cities. Measures include parent and child questionnaires, standardized and experimental tests of language and reading abilities and the cognitive skills that underlie them. Together, our results will have significant implications for the ways in which educational and service agencies interact with refugee children. Accordingly, our knowledge dissemination plan prioritizes outreach beyond the academic community.
Gottardo, A., Al-Janaideh, R., Paradis, J., Soto-Corominas, A., Chen, X., & Amin, N. (2023). Age, experience and language and literacy skills in English-Arabic speaking Syrian refugees. Languages, 8(2), 101.
Al‐Janaideh, R., Tibi, S., Gottardo, A., Paradis, J., & Chen, X. (2023). Morphology and Reading Skills in Arabic‐Speaking Syrian Refugee Children. Reading Research Quarterly, 58(3), 391-405.
Daskalaki, E., Soto-Corominas, A., Barisé, A., Paradis, J., Chen, X., & Gottardo, A. (2023). The interplay between syntactic and morphological comprehension in heritage contexts: The case of relative clauses in heritage Syrian Arabic. Applied Psycholinguistics, 44(6), 1043–1068.
Paradis, J. (2023). Sources of individual differences in the dual language development of heritage bilinguals. Journal of Child Language, 50(4), 793–817.
Paradis, J., Soto-Corominas, A., Vitroulis, I., Al Janaideh, R., Chen, X., Gottardo, A., Jenkins, J., & Georgiades, K. (2022). The role of socioemotional wellbeing difficulties and adversity in the L2 acquisition of first-generation refugee children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 25(5), 921–933.
Paradis, J., Genesee, F., & Crago, M. (2021). Dual language development and disorders: A handbook on bilingualism and second language learning (3nd Edition). Baltimore, MD: Brookes
Blom, E., Soto-Corominas, A., Daskalaki, E., Attar, Z., & Paradis, J. (2021). Interdependence between L1 and L2: the case of Syrian children with refugee backgrounds in Canada and the Netherlands. Applied Psycholinguistics, 42, 1159–1194.
Soto-Corominas, A., Daskalaki, E., & Paradis, J., Winters-Difani, M., & Al Janaideh, R. (2021). Sources of variation at the onset of bilingualism: the differential effect of input factors, AOA, and cognitive skills on HL Arabic and L2 English syntax. Journal of Child Language, 49(4), 741-773.
Paradis, J., Soto-Corominas, A. Daskalaki, E., Chen, B., & Gottardo, A. (2021). Morphosyntactic development in first generation Arabic-English children: The effect of cognitive, age and input factors over time and across languages. Languages 6: 51, pp 1-31 .
Paradis, J., Soto-Corominas, A., Chen, B., & Gottardo, A. (2020). How language environment, age and cognitive factors support the bilingual development of Syrian refugee children recently arrived in Canada. Applied Psycholinguistics, 41, 1255-1281.
Rusk, B., Paradis, J., & Jarvikivi, J. (2020). Comprehension of English plural-singular marking by Mandarin L1, early L2-immersion learners. Applied Psycholinguistics, 41(3), 547-577.
Soto-Corominas, A., Paradis, J., Rusk,, B., Marinova-Todd, S., Zhang, X. (2020). Oral language profiles of English second language learners in adolescence: Cognitive and input factors influence how they compare to their monolingual peers. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 42, 697-720.
Sorenson Duncan, T., & Paradis, J. (2020). Home language environment and children’s second language acquisition: The special status of input from older siblings. Journal of Child Language, 47(5), 982-1005.
Sorenson Duncan, T., & Paradis, J. (2020). How does maternal education influence the linguistic environment supporting bilingual language development in child L2 learners of English? International Journal of Bilingualism, 24(1), 46-61.
Jia, R. & Paradis, J. (2020). The acquisition of Mandarin relative clauses by Mandarin heritage language children. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 10:2, 153-183.
Govindarajan, K., & Paradis, J. (2019). Narrative abilities of bilingual children with and without Developmental Language Disorder (SLI): Differentiation and the role of age and input factors. Journal of Communication Disorders, 77, 1-16.
Paradis, J. (2019). English Second Language Acquisition from Early Childhood to Adulthood: The Role of Age, First Language, Cognitive and Input Factors. In M. Brown and B. Dailey (Eds.), Proceedings of the 43rd Boston University Conference on language Development (pp 11-26). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
Paradis, J. & Govindarajan, K. (2018). Bilingualism and children with language and communication disorders. D. Miller, F. Bayram, J. Rothman and L. Serratrice (Eds.), Bilingual language and Cognition: The state of the science across its subfields. [Sibil 54], pp 347-370. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Paradis, J., Rusk, B., Sorenson Duncan, T., & Govindarajan, K. (2017). Children’s second language acquisition of English complex syntax: The role of age, input and cognitive factors. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 37, 1-20.
Paradis, J., & Jia, R. (2017). Bilingual children’s long-term outcomes in English as a second language: Language environment factors predict individual differences in catching up to monolinguals. Developmental Science, 20, 1-15.
Paradis, J. (2016) The development of English as a second language with and without specific language impairment: Clinical implications. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 59, 171-182.