Hello colleagues, We know that building our understanding of the languages and cultures learners bring to the classroom can enhance our instruction. At the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association website, you'll find an abundance of resources to add to your knowledge of a wide range of languages and cultures.
As outlined on the site, the linguistic information provided can assist speech/language specialists, including teachers, in the following ways to:
- "Identify sounds in a client's phonological system for languages other than English.
- Determine phonemic influences of a client's native language on English.
- Identify sounds from the client's first language that may not exist in English or identify sounds in English that do not exist in someone's native language.
- Recognize that even if there are similar sounds across two languages, they may not be used the same way. For example, in some languages a sound may only be used at the ends of words and not as a word-initial sound."
If you learn something valuable at this site, let us know! If you are aware of other valuable resources, thanks for posting them here.
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, English Language Acquisition Group