Project title: Consonant development in typically developing Welsh-English bilingual children (PhD Bilingualism: Linguistics)

This project will examine the acquisition of consonants in typically developing Welsh-English bilingual children. Despite the large number of Welsh-speaking children in Wales, there has been little research on speech development in Welsh-English bilingual children (Ball, Muller & Munro, 2001a; 2001b, Munro, Ball, Muller, Duckworth and Lyddy, 2005). Work on Welsh phonetics in general is limited, based on descriptive data with small numbers of speakers (Ball and Jones, 1984; Ball & Williams, 2001; Hannahs, 2013). This poses a challenge for SLTs working in Wales, who require detailed information about speech development in Welsh-English bilingual children to assess, diagnose and treat speech disorders. Munro, Ball, Muller, Duckworth and Lyddy (2005: 26) note that Welsh SLT is 'founded on monolingualism which does not take into account the relationship between two developing phonologies in a bilingual context'.
The existing research that has been conducted into Welsh-English speech acquisition focusses primarily on children between the ages of 2;6 and 5, but the research shows that not all of the Welsh and English consonants are acquired by the age of 5 in the participant groups (Ball, Muller & Munro, 2001a; Ball, Muller & Munro, 2001b; Munro et al, 2005). Furthermore, these previous studies on the acquisition of Welsh and English simultaneously have shown an effect of language dominance on speech sound acquisition, but proposed that further work is required to explore the development of consonant acquisition in Welsh-English bilingual children. The proposed project will investigate language exposure and language dominance in children from three areas in Wales where Welsh is spoken by a higher proportion of the population.
Very few studies have investigated the experiences and attitudes of practitioners in identifying children of concern who are bilingual. Recent research on the experience of Irish SLTs working with Irish-English speaking bilingual children were using monolingual English assessments due to the lack of resources (Mulgrew, Duffy and Kennedy, 2022). It is essential that we have clear descriptions of speech development in bilingual children to develop guidelines for how to proceed with bilingual children of concern (Law et al., 2000). Varying attitudes or lack of knowledge about language development in bilingual children may affect the interventions for children who require speech and language support.
Specifically, this project will focus on the development of the consonant inventory in Welsh-English bilingual children between the ages of 2 and 7, focussing on the effect of language exposure in the home. This will be addressed by collecting production data via e.g. word lists, picture naming tasks as well as background parental questionnaires. The production data will be described and analysed using a combination of acoustic analysis and phonetic transcription to identify the production variants of the children. A secondary aim of the project is to investigate the experiences of Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) and clinicians in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of bilingual children's speech via questionnaires.
The study will provide a contemporary overview of consonant development in Welsh-English bilingual children from different backgrounds. It is essential to include children from different regions in Wales as they are exposed to varying levels of Welsh. This study aims to provide a benchmark for professionals to use when working with bilingual children who have speech, language and communication needs.