EAL speakers in SLT caseloads
Process 3: Assessment
9. Are there factors operating within the primary settings that can inhibit or promote performance on the competencies assessed?
3.7 SOUTH AFRICAN CONTEXT: SLT AWARENESS, TESTS AND CHANGE
assessment. These issues cannot be perceived in isolation from the historical, political context of the country.
The discussion that follows on language assessment test development in South Africa includes the translation of tests, but test translation is not the aim of this study. The history of the development of language evaluation instruments however provides a clear illustration of the background and the need for the changes proposed in this study. It also demonstrates the focus on translation in the SLP profession.
government was in power and there was a rise in the development of the Afrikaans language, which was regarded as the language of the oppressor by Black Africans. Black children were being taught in Afrikaans against their will in many provinces (Kamwangamalu, 2000). This created tensions among the Black South African population, resulting in the historically significant 1976 Soweto riots, where students rose up in protest against being taught in Afrikaans, the language of the oppressor (Clarke & Worger, 2004).
Most of the work done on adapting, translating or developing tests for the African language speakers was post-1990. This period is extremely significant in the political history of South Africa as there was a change in the political regime(Baard & Schreiner 1986). Many African political movements that had been banned were unbanned and Nelson Mandela, who was perceived as representing Black liberation, was released from prison. An interim coalition government was established and the first truly democratic elections, where Black people could vote, occurred in 1994. During this time there was a re-emergence of a consciousness and pride in African language and culture that was reinforced by policies and programs, such as the African Renaissance by the then President Thabo Mbeki (Makgoba, 1999). The focus on African Renaissance incorporated the values and principles regarding the role of choice in identity formation that were propagated by the Black Consciousness Movement leader Steve Biko. During his trial in 1975-1976, when put on the stand and interrogated by his lawyer, David Soggot, on his cultural vision for South Africa, Biko commented: “You know cultures affect each other, you know, like fashions and you cannot escape rubbing against someone else’s culture but you must have the right to reject or not anything that is given to you” (Biko cited by Mangcu, 2008, p. 18).
In the above quote, Biko was making reference to the assimilation of African culture by Western, European culture. He argued that cultural values need to reflect all the values of the
people in that society, without being a threat to others. In the concept of ‘joint culture’, the Comment [p49]: spacomg
European Western culture should not be the “divine pace setter” that excludes the African experience. The pluralism of our new South African multicultural society should not be a framework of justice where one group’s well-being is at the expense of another(Mc Carthy, 1996; Ramphele, 2008). Lemmer, Meier & van Wyk (2006) also make reference to this point in the discussion on macro- and micro-cultures. Macro-culture is a culture of the dominant group and micro-culture that of the less dominant group. The two types of cultures are interconnected in a pluralistic society like South Africa.
Steve Biko further warns of the hegemony of the dominant culture as it can result in cultural alienation and cultural discontinuity. In the educational setting, cultural alienation and discontinuity manifest in behaviours like feeling a misfit and dropping out of school. The White Paper 6 (Government, 2001b) makes reference to children dropping out of school due to the conditions at school that could be traced to the apartheid history of SA that included linguistic and cultural oppression.
The changes in the political scenario in the 1990’s seem to have had an impact on the SLP profession as more tests were developed in African languages, as reflected in Table 1.
Comment [p50]: above you have written macroculture as one word- please chagne
Table 1_- Showing the history of adaptation of tests adapted from Penn ( 1998)
TEST LANGUAGE/CULTURAL
GROUP
RESEARCHER YEAR
Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities -ITPA
Afrikaans using English version and Afrikaans adaptation (Adapted tool)
Lotter 1974
Carrow Test of Auditory Comprehension
Afrikaans (Adapted tool)
Christie Simons
1980
Carrow Test of Auditory Comprehension
English ( nonstandard) (Adapted)
Christie 1987
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test – PPVT
English, Indian Children (Adapted tool)
Khan 1988
Renfrew Word-Finding Scale
Indian and White English Children (Adapted tool)
Pahl & Kara 1992 Test of Auditory
Comprehension of Language
Xhosa (Adapted tool)
Leggo 1992
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test – PPVT
White English and Afrikaans, Coloured and Xhosa (Adapted tool)
Sweizer 1993
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT)
Zulu
(Adapted tool)
Naidoo 1994
Reynel Developmental Language Scales
White and Coloured English Speaking Children and British Children
Rabinowitz 1995
Sepedi Articulation Test
Sepedi (Adapted tool) Joubert 1996
Zulu Expressive and Receptive Language Assessment ( ZERLA)
Zulu (New tool) Bortz 1997
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT)
Northern Sotho (Adapted tool)
Alant and Pakendorf
1997
Test for the Ability to Explain( TATE)
Zulu (New tool) Solarsh 2001
The problem with the paucity of resources that are culturally and linguistically relevant for African EAL speakers from indigenous language and cultural backgrounds has not only presented a challenge for the SLP profession, but also had ripple effects into the education field with teachers and SLTs based at schools have been struggling to discriminate between a
language disorder and language difference in EAL speakers( Jordaan, 2013; Ratele, 2006;
Russo, et al., 2005).
A language pathology may include difficulty in understanding or expression of meaning of language, problems with understanding or appropriate use of the grammatical or
morphological (involving word structure and form) rules, appropriate use in social context and problems with speech sounds, patterns or rules of organisation (Shipley & McAfee, 2004). The difficulties described here manifest in whatever language the individual uses. It is thus a language problem and not a L2 difficulty. On the other hand, there may be language differences in the production by the individual, in the process of learning a L2 i.e. undergoing bilingualism. These differences which may be perceived as errors will only manifest in the L2or language being developed rather than the mother–tongue. Furthermore these language differences may mimic some of the features of a language disorder (Paradis, 2007a).
The similarity between some of the features of a language difference and a language disorder may confuse the teacher or SLT as a child with a language difference may also have or be at risk for developing a language disorder. Southwood and van Dulm (2008) focus on the distinction between a language difference and language disorder in Afrikaans as they
contribute towards a language assessment instrument for this population that takes cognisance of the dialectal differences. Teachers have limited guidelines to assist them to identify children who are at risk of Specific Language Impairments (SLI), pure language impairment with no obvious cause or co-occurring condition (Crotchley, 1999; Shipley & McAfee, 2004), in the group of African EAL speakers who come from an indigenous language and cultural background. Research ( Paradis, 2007a) has shown that some of the errors of bilingual children may be similar to those of monolingual children of the same age with a language impairment. “Such an overlap between a clinical and typically developing population has
practical consequences for differential diagnosis in multilingual contexts” (Paradis, 2007a, p.
392).
Naude , Louw and Weidemann (2007) conducted research focusing on African EAL speakers who are from indigenous language and cultural backgrounds with the aim of providing SLTs and preschool teachers with a tool for early identification of those children who are at risk of SLI. They compiled profiles of African language speaking children in South Africa who could be at risk of SLIs. EAL speaking preschoolers from an urban area in Pretoria were used in the study. Their home languages represented the repertoire of African languages in the area, such as isiZulu, seSotho and seTswana. The researchers found that in order to identify children at risk for SLI it is necessary for the preschool teacher to have a good knowledge of bilingualism as multilingualism may mask language impairment.
Despite the acknowledgement within the profession of the need to develop tests for African EAL speakers from indigenous language and cultural backgrounds, there are many stumbling blocks to achieving this task. Bortz (1997) cites the socio-economic climate as a major challenge. Concerns are also raised over the limited guidelines for the design or accurate translation of a valid assessment tool for culturally and linguistically diverse population groups (Carter , et al., 2005).
Jordaan (1989, cited in Alant & Pakendorf, 1997)cautions that the gaining of such information through new test development requires extensive research, is expensive and is time consuming. She suggests the adaptation of existing tests in a manner that would create a culturally valid version of the test. This suggestion has been adopted by this study where an existing test is critiqued to provide guidelines on making it a more culturally and linguistically valid tool.
Comment [p51]: is it through or fo?