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Cultural diversity
132
ACQ
Volume 13, Number 3 2011
ACQ
uiring Knowledge in Speech, Language and Hearing
Taiying Lee
(top) and Elaine
Ballard
Keywords
BILINGUALISM
CLINICAL
CONSIDERATIONS
MANDARIN
PHONOLOGICAL
DEVELOPMENT
a wider applicability and is not restricted to any particular
type of assessment or intervention. These considerations
are furthermore not restricted to Mandarin-speaking
immigrants, as they are relevant to any immigrants from a
Chinese background. We conclude the paper with some
thoughts on how best to work with this population.
Linguistic considerations
When diagnosing bilingual children for a possible speech
sound disorder or delay it is a given that they be assessed
in both their languages (Genesee, Paradis, & Crago, 2004;
Kohnert, 2007; Zhu & Dodd, 2006). In working with the
Mandarin-speaking population, clinicians need some basic
background knowledge of Mandarin, in particular its
phonology and its differences to English phonology so that
they can make informed clinical decisions around
assessment, analysis, and therapy.
Mandarin
Mandarin is the most widely spoken language in the world
with 1,023 million speakers globally (Lewis, 2009) and is the
native language of approximately 70% of the population in
mainland China. In China, Mandarin is commonly known as
Putonghua. As the official language of the country it has
widespread uses in the mass media and is the language of
instruction in schools. Mandarin is also the official language
of Taiwan where it is known as Guoyu, and in Hong Kong it
shares official language status with English and Cantonese,
a southern variety of Chinese. Mandarin is also widely
spoken in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia,
Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand as well as in overseas
Chinese communities in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and
New Zealand.
In assessing children’s ability in Mandarin we have used
the Putonghua speech sound assessment developed by
Zhu (2002). This assessment is not the only one available
(see Putonghua Segmental Phonology Test [So & Zhou,
2000]) but it is readily accessible. The Zhu assessment
(2002) is a picture-naming task that targets all of the
consonants, vowels, and tones of modern standard
Chinese as spoken in China. Below we give a description
of Mandarin phonology based on the version used in the
assessment.
Consonants
Mandarin has 22 consonant phonemes (see Table 1). Unlike
English, Mandarin does not have a voicing contrast with its
obstruents. This is generally not critical for the stops and
Immigration patterns in both New Zealand
and Australia have changed significantly in
the last 20 years with an increase of clients
from a Mandarin-speaking background in
clinical practice. Working with this population
as a clinician can be both challenging and
frustrating. In this paper we outline some
issues speech pathologists should be aware
of in order to make their practice with clients
from this background more effective. Our
discussion will cover both linguistic and
cultural considerations. We conclude with
some thoughts on how best to work with this
population.
I
mmigration patterns in both New Zealand and
Australia have changed significantly in the last 20 years
(Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006; Statistics New
Zealand 2006). As a result, speech pathologists in these
countries are now working with an increasingly multilingual
and multicultural population. Of particular note is the
increase of clients from a Mandarin-speaking background in
clinical practice. The ethnic Chinese are one of the largest
and fastest growing immigrant groups in New Zealand with
a 40% increase from the 2001 to the 2006 Census. This
is also reflected in the Australian statistics where there has
been a 57% increase from 2001 to 2005. From the census
as well as our experience of working with families, both
clinically and through research, we are aware that most of
these families speak Mandarin as their first language, and
have a strong commitment to encouraging the maintenance
of that language by their children. The children are primarily
exposed to Mandarin in the home environment, and have
their first exposure to English in early childhood centres and
can thus be considered as growing up bilingual.
Clinicians face linguistic and cultural challenges when
working with this bilingual population. In this paper, we
outline some of the issues speech pathologists should
be aware of in order to make their practice with clients
from a Chinese-English background more effective. Our
discussion will be divided into two sections: 1) linguistic
issues, and 2) cultural considerations. As our experience
of this population is primarily in the area of phonological
acquisition, the linguistic section will focus on phonology.
The discussion of cultural considerations will, however, have
Working with Mandarin-
speaking clients
Linguistic and cultural considerations
Taiying Lee and Elaine Ballard
This article
has been
peer-
reviewed