Learning graphic symbols in two languages: Effects of monolingual teaching

Limited research exists to guide augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) intervention for children from multilingual backgrounds. When a graphic symbol-based AAC system is provided to children, they need to learn the meaning of the graphic symbols. This study determined the effect of teaching the association between a graphic symbol and a spoken word in one language on the ability of bilingual children without disabilities to transfer this learning to their second language.

A one-group pre-test-post-test design was used. The ability of 30 English-Afrikaans bilingual children aged 4-5 years to provide the spoken words associated with nine graphic symbols in English and Afrikaans was evaluated before and after teaching them the symbol-word associations in English.

Correct symbol-word associations in English increased from a median of 0-9 post-teaching, while correct symbol-word associations in Afrikaans increased from a median of 0-6. A moderate positive relationship was identified between children's performance on symbol-word associations in Afrikaans during the post-test and their use of Afrikaans in the home.

Results suggest the presence of positive transference of graphic symbol-word associations learnt in one language to another known language. The implications of this finding on the provision of multilingual AAC intervention are discussed.