Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to determine if intelligibility ratings of bilingual (Spanish-English) preschool children by unfamiliar listeners are predicted by age, gender, and/or measures of rate of speech, receptive vocabulary, and phonological deviations. A second purpose was to ascertain whether significant differences exist among predictor variables in both Spanish and English. Participants for this study were 60 bilingual preschool children ranging in age from 4:0 (years: months) to 5:10. Unfamiliar listeners rated connected speech samples for each child in both languages using a 5-point Likert scale. A total occurrence of major phonological deviations score was obtained for each child in both languages. In addition, a number of syllables per 30-second connected speech sample provided the means for rate of speech calculations. One bilingual receptive vocabulary score was obtained for both languages. Based on a multiple regression analysis, two significant predictor variables emerged for each language. In English, phonological deviations and vocabulary predicted intelligibility ratings of preschool children. Phonological deviations also predicted intelligibility ratings of preschool children in Spanish, followed by rate. Results of a 2 X 2 X 2 MANOVA revealed significant main effects related to language and age, but not gender. Follow-up univariate analyses revealed that 5-year-old children across the two languages were found to be significantly more intelligible than 4-year-olds. In addition, children were found to speak significantly faster in Spanish than in English and 5-year-old children also were found to speak significantly faster in Spanish than 4-year-olds
