Multilingual Language Acquisition in Arabic-English Speaking Families: The Role of Parent Sex and Parent Education in Caregiver Report of Children’s Language Skills

Introduction. The robust linguistic and clinical research literature focusing on English language acquisition is generally based on a model that presumes that the oral language a child acquires at home without formal instruction is the same language that is used for reading and writing. Arabic presents a qualitatively different scenario, in that children learning Arabic must acquire at least two different language systems: (1) a dialectal form that is largely used for informal interactions and which is not formally codified, and (2) a standard form, which is typically used in formal contexts and is almost exclusively reserved for reading and writing. Multilingual Arabic speakers are among the fastest growing language communities in the United States (US), yet very little is known about language development in Arabic-English speaking children, leading to critical knowledge gaps in language acquisition theory, assessment, and intervention. This project was designed to provide an initial overview of the Arabic-English language learning environment by addressing the following research questions: RQ 1: Do demographic characteristics such as parent sex and parent education influence caregiver reported parent-child use of language outside of the home in the standard form and spoken/home language form? RQ 2: Do demographic characteristics such as parent sex and parent education influence caregiver reported child grammatical outcomes, such as verb use, tense, and agreement? Method. A community-based participatory approach was utilized for participant recruitment. The author partnered with community stakeholders to recruit a pilot sample of 42 families to the study. This study received institutional review board approval and followed all ethical guidelines. Questionnaires assessing caregiver ratings of their children’s language skills and the language richness of the home environment was administered in person within participants’ homes or in locations selected by participants (e.g., community centers). Families who consented were audio recorded for fidelity. Results: Results revealed statistically significant differences based on parent sex for parent-child use of the standard dialect and for child receptive morphosyntax. Limitations are discussed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Child Language

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Kansas

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Ghali, Samantha

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Colombo, John

• Arabic
• Bilingual
• Child Language
• Communication Sciences and Disorders
• Multilingual
• Speech-Language Pathology

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

https://www.proquest.com/LegacyDocView/DISSNUM/31297039

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/37108