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Expository discourse in adolescents with language impairments: examining syntactic development
Marilyn A Nippold1, Tracy C Mansfield, Jesse L Billow
1Communication Disorders and Sciences, College of Education, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA. nippold@uoregon.edu
American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
|October 9, 2008
Summary
Adolescents with language impairments show improved syntactic complexity in expository writing compared to conversation. Expository tasks better reveal differences in syntactic development between typical and impaired language groups.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Developmental Psychology
- Speech-Language Pathology
Background:
- Adolescent syntactic development is crucial for academic success.
- Understanding language development in adolescents with specific language impairment (SLI) and nonspecific language impairment (NLI) is essential.
- Previous research has not fully explored syntactic differences across discourse genres in adolescent language development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine syntactic development in a large cohort of adolescents with a history of SLI, NLI, or typical language development (TLD).
- To compare syntactic complexity between conversational and expository discourse genres in adolescents.
- To identify potential differences in syntactic performance related to language impairment status across genres.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal study of 444 adolescents (mean age 13;11).
- Language samples elicited in conversational and expository genres.
- Analysis of mean length of T-unit and subordinate clause production.
Main Results:
- Expository tasks yielded greater mean length of T-unit and subordinate clause use than conversational tasks for all groups.
- Adolescents with SLI and NLI demonstrated increased syntactic complexity in expository speech.
- Typical language development (TLD) group outperformed SLI and NLI groups in mean T-unit length and relative clause use on expository tasks.
Conclusions:
- Expository discourse tasks are more sensitive to syntactic development differences in adolescents than conversational tasks.
- Speech-language pathologists should consider using expository tasks to assess adolescent syntactic abilities.
- Findings highlight the importance of genre in evaluating syntactic development in clinical populations.
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