COST Action IS0804
Aim of COST ACTION IS0804
Second language learners often produce language patterns
resembling those of children with Specific Language Impairment
(SLI). The overlap among the features of bilingual and impaired
language lead to methodological and clinical confusion,
which this Action aims to resolve in order to improve language
assessment of minority language children.
What is 'BISLI'?
European migrations have led to dramatic increases in the
number of children being raised with two or more languages
in multilingual communities. The numbers of children who
come to school with more than one language has increased
over threefold since the year 2000 in Ireland, Italy and
Spain and by 50% in the last two years in the UK (ec.europa.eu/education).
In the rest of Europe, this situation is far from unique.
At present, medical, language and educational professionals
have only limited diagnostic instruments to distinguish
bilingual migrant children with language impairments from
those who will eventually catch up with their monolingual
peers. In the Netherlands, for example, bilinguals constitute
14% of the mainstream school population, but 24% of them
study in special schools for children with Specific Language
Impairment (SLI). If there were no misdiagnoses, the percentage
of bilingual children should be identical in mainstream
and special schools.
Main objective of COST Action IS0804
To profile bilingual specific language impairment (SLI)
by establishing a network that will coordinate research
on the linguistic and cognitive abilities of bilingual children
with SLI across different migrant communities.
Derived objectives
Disentangle bilingualism and SLI by establishing the relative
contribution of each.
Show how SLI can be identified in both of a child's languages.
Explore the extent to which the manifestations of SLI
are similar or different across languages in the same child.
Establish whether the nature and severity of SLI is affected
by the child's acquisition of more than one language.
Secondary objectives:
Mentor young researchers from countries with significant
immigrant populations and language combinations.
dentify critical sociolinguistic information which will
set standards for increasing comparability of research in
bilingual SLI.
Develop guidelines for assessment.
The Action is motivated:
Theoretically:
1. By how typological differences between the two languages
of bilingual children with SLI effect the manifestation
of SLI in each language.
2. By how bilingualism and language impairment, respectively,
affect the performance of bilingual children with SLI.
Practically:
By challenges that multilingualism poses for the diagnosis
and treatment of language impaired bilingual children.
back to top
|
