Assessing Children’s Native Language in Mandarin Using the Adapted New Reynell Developmental Language Scales-Mandarin (NRDLS-M)

Hui Woan Lim, Soon Tat Lee

Abstract


Early child language acquisition in Mandarin by Malaysian Chinese children is under-explored.  Following the establishment of the first Speech Sciences academic programme at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in 1994, there is a need to develop language tests to assess children who might be at risk for language disorders and to provide remediation accordingly by professionals such as speech therapists. The present study aims to adapt a contemporary British English test: The New Reynell Developmental Language Scales (NRDLS) to Mandarin. Since NRDLS is widely-used to assess language comprehension and language production, the aim of the present research therefore is to propose adaptation of NRDLS to Mandarin. The present research also aims to provide preliminary norms (age of acquisition for target structures and errors) for the local children.  Underlying factors which might influence child language development i.e. age, gender and socio-economic status (maternal education) are also examined. Using a cross-sectional study of 40 children aged 2;00-6;11, the present study aims to describe child language acquisition based on performance of the adapted NRDLS. The present results show that language skills advanced with age.  Gender and maternal education do not affect child language development. Overall, children demonstrated a more superior language comprehension than language production. The adapted New Reynell Developmental Language Scales-Mandarin (NDRLS-M) is developmentally sensitive though further revisions are required. The present findings implicate an influence of universality and ambient language effects on acquisition of Mandarin. The present findings also implicate a need to develop a bilingual Mandarin-English version of NRDLS-M.

 



Keywords


Mandarin; language development; child language assessment; The New Reynell Developmental Language Scales-Mandarin (NRDLS-M); Malaysian Chinese

Full Text:

PDF

References


Au, Y. L. E., Ma, K. M., Sy, W. M., Lee, W. C., Leung, L.S.J., Au, Yeung, Y. C., Chu, M. Y., Chung, C. K. J., Ho, P. K., Lau, W. L., Law, P. K., Siu, P. Y., Tse, K. S. & Wong, V. (2004). Use of Developmental Language Scales in Chinese Children. Brain & Development. 26, 127-129.

Bishop, D. V. M. (2003). Test for Reception of Grammar. London: Pearson Assessment.

Chang Hsing Wu (1992). The Acquisition of Chinese Syntax. In Chen, H. C. & Tzeng, O. J. L. (Eds.). Language Processing in Chinese (pp. 277-311). Oxford: Elsevier Publishers.

Chen Ji Dong & Shirai, Y. (2010). The Development of Aspectual Marking in Child Mandarin Chinese. Applied Psycholinguistics. 31, 1-28.

Chien Yu Chin & Wexler, K. (1987). A comparison between Chinese-speaking and English-speaking children’s acquisition of reflexives and pronouns. Paper presented at the Twelfth Annual Bolston University Conference on Language Development. Bolston, M. A.

Chok See San (2001). Production of Mandarin first words by ethnic Chinese children in Malaysia. Unpublished B.Sc. thesis, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia.

Clark, E. V. (1973). Non-linguistic Strategies and the Acquisition of Word Meanings. Cognition. 2, 161-82.

Duff, P. & Li, D. (2002). The Acquisition and Use of Perfective Aspect in Mandarin. Language Acquisition And Language Disorders. 27, 417-454.

Edwards, S., Fletcher, P., Garman, M., Hughes, A., Letts, C. & Sinka, I. (1997). Reynell Developmental Language Scales III. Windsor: NFER-NELSON.

Edwards, S., Letts, C. & Sinka, I. (2011). The New Reynell Developmental Language Scales. London: GL Assessment Ltd.

Fahn, R. L. S. (2003). Chinese-Speaking Children’s Production of Wh- Questions. Concentric: Studies in English Literature and Linguistics. 29(2), 82-117.

Fung, R S. Y. (2009). Characteristics of Chinese in Relation to Language Disorders. In Law Sam Po, Weekes, B. S. & Wong, A. M. Y. (Eds.). Language Disorders in Speakers of Chinese (pp. 1-18). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Genesee, F. (2003). Rethinking bilingual acquisition. In Dewaele, J. M. , Housen, A. & Li, W. (Eds.). Bilingualism: Beyond Basic Principles (pp. 204-228). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.

Hao Ying, Sheng Li & Gao Li Qun (2014). Mandarin-Speaking Children’s Pronoun Interpretation. Journal of Child Language Acquisition and Development. 6(2), 1-23.

Howell, D. C. (2002). Statistical Methods for Psychology. (5th edn.). Pacific Grove C. A.: Duxbury Press.

Hu She Nai, Gavarro, A. & Guasti, M. T. (2016). Children’s Production of Head-final Relative Clauses: The Case of Mandarin. Applied Psycholinguistics. 37, 323-46.

Jin Li Xian, Oh Bee Lim & Rogayah Abdul Razak (2012). C-LARSP: Developing a Chinese grammatical profile for clinical assessment in Malaysia. In Ball, M., Crystal, D. & Fletcher, P. (Eds.). Assessing Grammar: The Languages of LARSP (pp. 208-229). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Jin Li Xian, Rogayah Abdul Razak, Wright, J. & Song, J. (2014). Issues in Developing Grammatical Assessment Tools in Chinese and Malay for Speech and Language Therapy. In Winskel, H. & Padakannaya, P. (Eds.). South and Southeast Asian Psycholinguistics (pp. 145-55). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Klee, T., Wong, A. M.Y., Stokes, S. F., Fletcher, P., Leonard, L. (2009). Assessing Cantonese-speaking Children with Language Difficulties from the Perspective of Evidence-based Practice: Current Practice and Future Directions. In Law, S. P.

Weekes, B. S. & Wong, A. M. Y. (Eds.). Language Disorders in Speakers of Chinese (pp. 89-111). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Klein, W., Li, P. & Hendriks, H. (2000). Aspect and Assertion in Mandarin Chinese. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory. 18(4), 723-770.

Letts, C., Edwards, S., Sinka, I, Schaefer, B. & Gibbons. W. (2013). Socio-economic Status and Language Acquisition: Children’s Performance On the New Reynell Developmental Language Scales. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders. 48, 131-43.

Letts, C., Edwards, S. Schaefer, B. & Sinka, I. (2013). The New Reynell Developmental Language Scales: Descriptive Account and Illustrative Case Study. Child Language Teaching and Therapy. 0(0), 1-14.

Li Ping & Bowerman, M. (1998). The Acquisition of Grammatical and Lexical Aspect in Chinese. First Language. 18, 311-350.

Li Peggy, Huang Becky & Hsiao Ya Ling (2010). Learning That Classifiers Count: Mandarin-speaking Children’s Acquisition of Sortal and Mensural Classifiers. Journal of East Asian Linguistics. 19(3), 207-30.

Lim Hui Woan (2003). Bilingual Phonology Acquisition. Final Report UKM Grant Research NN026-2003.

Lim Hui Woan, Wells, B. & Howard, S. (2015). Rate of Multilingual Phonological Acquisition: Evidence from a Cross-sectional Study of English-Mandarin-Malay. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, Early Online. 1-19.

Myers, J. (2000). Rules vs. Analogy in Mandarin Classifier Selection. Language and Linguistics. 1(2), 187-209.

Norsofiah A B, Rogayah A Razak & Lim Hui Woan (2016) Pemerolehan Klausa Relatif dalam Kalangan Kanak-kanak Melayu: Satu Kajian Awal. GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies. 16(3), 145-65.

Ooi Chia Wen (2003). Acquisition of Mandarin temporal terms by children aged 3-8 years in ‘Malaysia. Unpublished B.Sc. thesis, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia.

Owens, R. E (2016). Language Development: An Introduction. Boston: Pearson.

Phoon Hooi San (2003). Acquisition of comprehension of wh- questions amongst the Chinese pre-school children. Unpublished B.Sc. thesis, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia.

Phoon Hooi San & A. C. Abdullah (2014) Oral vocabulary as a predictor of English language

proficiency among Malaysian Chinese preschool children. 3L: Language Linguistics Literature®, Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies. 20(1), 143-156.

Qi Ru Ying (2010). Pronoun Acquisition in A Mandarin-English Speaking Bilingual Child. International Journal of Bilingualism. 14(1), 37-64.

Rogayah Abdul Razak, Madison, C., Siow, Yee Kuan &Mohd. Azmarul A. Aziz (2010). Preliminary content validity and reliability of a newly developed Malay preschool language assessment tool. Asia Pacific Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing. 13(4), 217-34.

Reed, V. A. (2014). An Introduction to Children With Language Disorders (4th Edn.) Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

Reynell, J. & Huntley, M. (1985). Reynell Developmental Language Scales: Revised. Windsor: NFER-Nelson.

Reynell Developmental Language Scales-Cantonese (RDLS-C)(1987). Hong Kong Society for Child Health and Development.

Shipley, K., Maddox, M. & Driver, J. (1991). Children’s Development of Irregular Past Tense Verb Forms. Language. Speech and Hearing Services in Schools. 22, 115-122

Siegel, S. & Castellan, N. J. (1988). Nonparametric Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences (2nd. ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Tan Lay Kuang (2004). Acquisition of Mandarin classifiers. Unpublished B.Sc. thesis, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia.

Teng Wei Ping (2003). Acquisition of locative prepositions by Malaysia Chinese pre-school children. Unpublished B.Sc. thesis, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Bangi, Malaysia.

Tsang, K. S. & Stokes, S. F. (2001). Syntactic Awareness of Cantonese-speaking Children. Journal of Child Language. 28(2), 703-39.

Wang Lin (2011). Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns in English and Mandarin Chinese: A contrastive study. Ph.D. thesis, Freie Universitaet Berlin, Berlin.

Zeng Tao, Mao Wen & Duan, Niu Niu (2016). Acquisition of Event Passives and State Passives By Mandarin-speaking Children. Ampersand. 3, 1-12.

Zhang Yi Wen, Jin Xing Ming, Shen Xiao Ming, Zhang Jin Ming & Hoff, E. (2008). Correlates of Early Language Development in Chinese Children. International Journal of Behavioral Development. 32(2), 1-7.

Zhang, R. J. (1985). On Children’s Mastery of Expressions Denoting Space. Journal of East China Normal University. 4, 35-46.

Zhu, M. S., Wu, J. Z., Ying, H. C., Zhu, I. M. & Zhuang, X. J. (1982). Children’s Comprehension of Several Kinds of Temporal Words in Sentences. Acta Psychologica Sinica. 14, 294-30.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/gema-2017-1702-08

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


 

 

 

eISSN : 2550-2131

ISSN : 1675-8021