ACQ Vol 13 no 3 2011

29 / 60

ACQ Volume 13, Number 3 2011 131
Wendy Pearce is a senior lecturer at James Cook University
(Townsville, Queensland), teaching in the areas of paediatric speech
and language impairments and with a special research interest in the
language skills of Indigenous Australian children. She gained a PhD
from Flinders University in 2007 and has over 25 years’ experience
working with children in early childhood settings and schools in South
Australia. Emma Stockings graduated with Honours from James
Cook University at the end of 2010 and now works as a speech
pathologist for Education Queensland in Bundaberg.
Correspondence to:
Wendy Pearce, PhD
Senior Lecturer in Speech Pathology,
James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland
phone: 07 4781 6501
email:
Appendix: Features of Aboriginal English present in the children’s narratives
Feature of “Aboriginal English” Example SAE form
Preposition is omitted or varied “it jumped out the jar” “it jumped out of the jar”
“bit him in the nose” “it bit him on the nose”
Pronouns vary in form (reduced marking “Sonny jumped outa the jar and went where he “Sonny jumped out of the jar and went
for gender, possession or case) mother” where his mother was”
Plurals are omitted “and they saw the frog two mummy” “and they saw the frog’s two mummies”
Possessive form is omitted or varied “and they saw the frog two mummy” “and they saw the frog’s two mummies”
Copula is omitted “there the frog” “there is the frog”
“Sonny jumped outa the jar and went where “Sonny jumped out of the jar and went
he mother” where his mother was”
Auxiliaries and modals are omitted “what you doing?” “what are you doing?”
“we gonna try and find him” “we are gonna try and find him”
Past tense forms are omitted or varied “the bees come out” “the bees came out”
“the boy waked up” “the boy woke up”
“then he looked in the hole and say ‘frog’“ “then he looked in the hole and said ‘frog’“
Future tense marked with “gonna” “we gonna try and find him” “we are going to try to find him”
Subject–verb concord is absent “they was hearing this thing behind the big “they were hearing this thing behind the big
big log” log”
Infinitive “to” missing “they try look outside” “they tried to look outside”
Repetition for emphasis “they was hearing this thing behind the big “they were hearing this thing behind the
big log” big log”
Pearce, W. M., James, D. G. H., & McCormack, P. F.
(2010). A comparison of oral narratives in children
with specific and non-specific language impairment.
Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 24(8), 622–645. doi:
10.3109/02699201003736403
Petersen, D.B., Gillam, S.L., & Gillam, R.B. (2008).
Emerging procedures in narrative assessment: The index of
narrative complexity. Topics in Language Disorders, 28(2),
115–130.
Price, L. H., Hendricks, S., & Cook, C. (2010).
Incorporating computer-aided language sample analysis
into clinical practice. Language, Speech and Hearing
Services in Schools, 41(2), 206–222. doi:10.1044/0161-
1461(2009/08-0054
Speech Pathology Australia (SPA). (2007). Working with
Aboriginal people in rural and remote Northern Territory: A
resource guide for speech pathologists. Melbourne: Author.
Turnbull, D. (2002). Monitoring second language
development using the bandscales for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander learners. Retrieved from www.education.qld.
Westerveld, M. (2011). Sampling and analysis of
children’s spontaneous language: From research to
practice. ACQuiring Knowledge in Speech, Language and
Hearing, 13(2), 63–67.
Westerveld, M., & Claessen, M. (2009, May). Children’s
spoken language skills in conversation and narration: A
cross-Tasman comparison . Paper presented at Speech
Pathology Australia National Conference, Adelaide.
Westerveld, M.F., & Gillon, G.T. (2010). Profiling oral
narrative ability in young school-aged children. International
Journal of Speech-Language Pathology , 12(3), 178–189.
Westerveld, M. F., Gillon, G. T., & Miller, J. F. (2004).
Spoken language samples of New Zealand children in
conversation and narration. Advances in Speech-Language
Pathology , (6)4, 195–208.