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Cultural diversity
148
ACQ
Volume 13, Number 3 2011
ACQ
uiring Knowledge in Speech, Language and Hearing
Linda Hand
know them all”. The conversation is largely about
languages, and it proves difficult to get any discussion
going on cultural aspects of communication. You realise
you need some good evidence to put the case for cultural
communication and language support being the business
of SPs and schools.
Response to this scenario
When you stop to reflect on this scenario, you feel that your
colleagues have taken a position which seems well
supported by “commonsense” or ethical and social justice
principles, and which shows some consensus between the
professions. For example, you can appreciate that English
is dominant in countries like Australia, New Zealand, and
the United Kingdom, and is also the language of school, so
perhaps we should give them only English? Similarly,
perhaps our colleagues are right to expect that learning
multiple languages will be too hard for children with
language disorders and that we may be right in only
teaching one? However, you are also aware that they are
adopting the strong legacy of an underlying monocultural
model of practice. You wonder whether the current
evidence base actually supports this model of practice and
whether “commonsense” reflects what the ethical and
social principles really say.
In response to the scenario, it seems timely and
paramount that we put the commonsense perspectives
aside and look to what the evidence and our ethical codes
are actually telling us. What enables bilingual children
to succeed? what can a SP who does not speak every
language achieve? and what do the principles of social
justice and equity, and ethics actually say?
Before turning to the evidence, you decide to review your
code of ethics to determine whether you are right in
questioning the monocultural model of practice. The code
of ethics of Speech Pathology Australia (2010) states “we
do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, gender”,
we “respect the context in which [our clients] live”, we
“strive to provide clients with access to services consistent
with their need”, and we ensure “our resources (such as
assessment tools and communication aids) are current,
valid and culturally appropriate”, while we “recognise our
competence and do not practice beyond these limits” (p. 1).
While this seems to support the position taken by your
colleagues, you feel that further clarification is needed about
what is meant by (the clients’) “context” and “need”. If we
see all children’s needs as similar, and that treating all
Speech pathology has been facing the
challenge of working with clients and families
from multilingual and multicultural contexts
for some time now. However, it is an area in
which professionals continue to feel a lack of
sufficient knowledge or skills, and where
there seems to be little consensus. This
edition of
What’s the evidence
draws on
codes of ethics documents and human rights
principles to suggest that speech
pathologists could take a more advanced
view of practices with bilingual clients. It then
discusses how the current evidence base
may be used to support the arguments for
bilingual support and intervention for
language disordered populations.
Clinical scenario
You have a number of children from bilingual or multilingual
homes in your practice, including children whose parents
were recent migrants or refugees to this country, or are in
strongly identified cultural communities. These cultures and
languages include Vietnamese, Chinese Mandarin-
speaking, Mãori, Samoan, Lebanese-Arabic, Greek, and
Somali. You want to discuss with the schools and with
associated professionals the need to incorporate multiple
cultural communication models and support for bilingualism
in the work with these children. The first senior school
person you speak with says “we believe very strongly in
helping these children succeed in school and the thing they
need most is the best English they can have. We treat all
children equally here – it doesn’t matter what culture or
language they come from. We put a lot of support into
helping their English. If they speak their other language at
school, they won’t learn English fast enough”. This sounds
difficult to argue against, and it seems to be a rejection of
your original intention. You are not sure how to respond.
You discuss it with some of your speech pathologist (SP)
colleagues and find some saying “It is too hard for children
already struggling with language to deal with two (or more)
languages. Besides, I don’t speak their languages, and they
are in this country now; what they need most is English and
that is my responsibility. It would be unethical and
unrealistic for me to try to deal with any other language – I
have over 60 different ones in my area! I can’t possibly
What’s the evidence?
Working bilingually with language disordered children
Linda Hand