I. Title of The Article "Bilingual Children With Primary Language Impairment: Issues, Evidence and

Name: MEDINE M.
LAWA Date: January 26, 2019

Subject: ELT 214 – Current Issues & Problems in Bilingualism
Professor: Dr. MELCHORA B. LECTOR
I. Title of the Article
“Bilingual Children with Primary Language Impairment: Issues, Evidence and

Implications for Clinical Actions”
II. Source
Author: Kathryn Kohnert

URL link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2900386/
III. Summary of the Text
The purpose of this article is to present general issues and empirical evidence relevant
to clinical actions with bilingual children with suspected or confirmed primary language
impairment. The information in this article is intended to be suggestive versus exhaustive: it
serves as an introduction to the extant empirical literature as well as a prelude and
complement to each of the more narrowly focused articles on assessment or treatment in this
special issue. In this article, general issues and empirical evidence relevant to clinical actions
with bilingual children with suspected or confirmed developmental language impairment is
presented. There is a solid and growing literature documenting language and cognitive
abilities in the L1 and L2 in typically developing bilingual children. The normative data base
provided a critical reference point when we consider children at risk for persistent PLI. Three
key characteristics of typically developing bilinguals identified are; an uneven distribution of
abilities in the child's two languages, positive as well as cross-linguistic associations within
bilingual learners at either structural or conceptual/processing levels, and individual variation
in response to similar social circumstances. These characteristics are fundamental
considerations in assessment as well as intervention in PLI. Although our understanding of
distributed skills and individual variation has increased exponentially over the past decade,
our understanding of cross-language associations in developing bilinguals lags behind.
Further investigation in this area would substantially improve our understanding of
educational and clinical interventions with bilingual learners.
IV. Analysis
After thoroughly reading the article, I have learned that the vast majority of children
who learn two (or more) languages during childhood are “typical” learners, in the sense that
with continued development and robust communicative experiences they will be skilled in the
languages used consistently in their environments. The concern here is with those bilingual
children who fail to make expected progress in both languages with no evident cause for the
delay. Children with primary language impairment appear on clinical caseloads and in the
research literature under a variety of names. These names include late talkers, specific
language impairment (SLI), language impairment and language-based learning disabilities.
These different names emphasize visible changes in the most obvious characteristics of the
affected population across different ages and stages of development as well as some
differences in theoretical perspectives.
I realized that to differentially diagnose PLI in dual- (as well as single-) language
learners, a variety of data gathering methods is recommended, with results compared to the
culturally and linguistically matched peers, the normative literature and the child's
environment. Studies which have relied on bilingual peer-based comparisons have shown that
a variety of language tasks reliably separate those affected by PLI. In contrast, language-
based comparisons with monolingual peers do not. There is some indication that the subtle
weaknesses in general cognitive processing that are part of the PLI profile can be exploited
for the identification of PLI in linguistically diverse learners. Further research in this area is
needed to translate this basic research finding to clinical practice and that to improve
treatment efficacy with bilingual children with PLI, it is essential to understand factors that
promote or constrain generalization within and across languages.
If given a chance, I will recommend this article to other language teachers so that
they’ll have an idea that a clear understanding of how to best provide clinical serves to
bilingual children with suspected or confirmed primary language impairment (PLI) is
predicated on understanding typical development in dual-language learners as well as the PLI
profile. I would also recommend this to future researchers who aims to find general issues
and empirical evidence relevant to clinical actions with bilingual children with suspected or
confirmed primary language impairment because the information in this article is intended to
be suggestive versus exhaustive: it serves as an introduction to the extant empirical literature
as well as a prelude and complement to each of the more narrowly focused articles on
assessment or treatment in this special issue.

I. Title of The Article "Bilingual Children With Primary Language Impairment: Issues, Evidence and

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

I. Title of The Article "Bilingual Children With Primary Language Impairment: Issues, Evidence and

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

I. Title of The Article "Bilingual Children With Primary Language Impairment: Issues, Evidence and

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Name: MEDINE M.

LAWA Date: January 26, 2019

I. Title of the Article

“Bilingual Children with Primary Language Impairment: Issues, Evidence and

Author: Kathryn Kohnert

III. Summary of the Text

You might also like