The relationship between bilingualism and stuttering patterns in adult Arabic-English bilinguals: Clinical cases report

Abstract

Abstract

Background Bilingual speakers with stuttering may demonstrate different stuttering patterns in each language (e.g. Roberts, 2002; Lim, Lincoln, Chan, & Onslow, 2008; Jankelowitz & Bortz, 1996). This study presents data from existing literature of stuttering behaviours that were produced by bilingual speakers across different languages. However, the nature of stuttering in Arabic-English bilinguals remains vague; which pinpoints a need for further investigation in this area.

Aims This study aims to add to the existing body of knowledge investigating the link between bilingualism and stuttering in Arabic-English bilingual speakers, explore if stuttering patterns are different in English and Arabic of a bilingual speaker, and examine if stuttering severity is impacted by language dominance. This research also intends to examine if stuttering frequency is correlated to specific speech sound classes that exist in Arabic language only (e.g. Arabic emphatic-stop sounds; /ðˤ/, /sˤ/, and /tˤ/), and to determine if the benefits of stuttering intervention in the dominant language generalise to the non-dominant language (the non-treated language).

Proposed Methods & Procedures The Arabic-English bilingual participants are planned to be recruited through work colleagues and social media advertisements to participate in assessment and treatment sessions which will take place over two months. Quantitative and qualitative data will be collected through a language history questionnaire to determine which language is the dominant one and standardised stuttering assessment will be conducted to explore the stuttering patterns differences and similarities in the two languages. The stuttering assessment will be conducted in two sessions to assess it in the two languages; each session will take around 40 minutes. The stuttering assessment will be repeated after the intervention to determine if benefits of stuttering intervention in the treated language (dominant language) were generalised to the non-treated language (non-dominant language). Data will be analysed using thematic analysis for qualitative data as well as descriptive statistics to produce values of mean, median, and mode, inferential statistics (i.e. paired t-test), and the Pearson correlation test for quantitative data. The data generated out of this study is intended to answer the research questions related to stuttering in Arabic-English bilinguals which are: (1) Do the severity, type, and frequency of disfluency moments differ in the English and Arabic of a bilingual speaker? (2) Is stuttering severity determined by language dominance; i.e. whether Arabic-English speakers stutter more in their dominant language compared to their non-dominant language? (3) Does stuttering frequency pattern observed in speech sounds that exist in Arabic only (e.g. Arabic emphatic-stop sounds; /ðˤ/, /sˤ/, and /tˤ/), but not in English, follow the same stuttering patterns that have been observed in English speech sounds; that stuttering frequency is higher in stop and fricative English sounds than other sounds (e.g. Sheehan, 1974; Ward, 2017; Johnson & Brown, 1935)? (4) Do the benefits of stuttering intervention in the dominant language generalise to the non-dominant language (non-treated language)?

Potential Results & Conclusion In terms of answering the research question about stuttering patterns differences between the two languages, it is expected that stuttering would be more evident in the dominant language compared to the less-dominant language. This expectation is made based on the premise that bilingual stutter more in the dominant language as they do not exhibit any hesitation or caution while using the language which in result will increase their speaking rate and will lead to higher chance of demonstrating stuttering moments (Roberts, 2002). With regards to the