Grammaticality in Written Language of Bilingual-Biliterate Children with Learning Disability

Abstract

It has been well established that children with Learning Disability (LD) have deficits in their grammatical knowledge. Additionally, research involving the assessment of written language difficulties in both the languages of biliterate students is not routinely conducted. Need for such research in a country like India is indispensable since majority of the citizens in India are bi/multilinguals. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to investigate whether language (Kannada vs. English) and genre of writing (Expository vs. narrative) has an influence on the grammatical abilities in the written language of children with LD. The participants were 15 Kannada-English bilingual- biliterate children with LD and 14 Typically Developing Children (TDC) within the same age group (9 to 10 years of age) and similar linguistic background. Children were asked to produce written compositions in response to verbal prompts to one expository and one narrative task in both Kannada and English. Total number of grammatical Tunits (Gram T-unit) in the sample was calculated using the SALT software. On comparison of the percentage of Gram T-units, it was found that TDC performed better than children with LD on most of the tasks. In Kannada, there was no significant difference between the performances of children between the two tasks. In English, there was a significant difference in the performance of children when the narrative and expository tasks were compared. The reasons for the effect of task on L2 and the absence of a similar effect in L1 have been looked into. The results have been discussed in terms of how the amount of exposure to a particular language determines the grammatical abilities in a particular language. Furthermore, how language and nature of the tasks (Expository vs. narrative) influence written language of children have also been discussed.