An Experimental Analysis of the Consonant Articulation Development of the Children in Multicultural Families and Its Implication to the Assessment of Their Language Development

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine whether the standardized assessment of phonology designed for Korean monolingual children can also be applicable to the children in multicultural families. The data were collected using Kim et al.’s (2007) APAC(Assessment of Phonology & Articulation for Children) from the participants, ranging in age from 3 to 7, consisting of 21 Korean monolingual children and 21 children in multicultural families (Korean-Chinese, Philippine, Cambodian, Uzbek, Vietnamese, French or English). The results of this study indicated that while normal developmental error patterns were observed in the group of Korean monolingual children, non-developmental error patterns as well as developmental ones were observed in the group of children in multicultural families. However, the percent consonant correct did not exhibit the significantly big difference between two groups. These results contrast with those of previous studies on the children in multicultural families. This study shows that when the phonological development of children in multicultural families is evaluated through using a standardized monolingual assessment tool, its results should be interpreted with caution. It also shows that it is required to develop a language development assessment tool specified for those children.