Asian Language and Culture: Implications for Assessment and Intervention

1. ASIAN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE: IMPLICATIONS FOR ASSESSMENT AND INTERVENTION

2. Story of Nancy Nguyen p. 115

3. Not on test 2:**asha.org/practice/multicultural/phonoinformation about the sound systems of various languages

4. I. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND** ORIGINS: • East Asia (Japan, Korea, China) • Southeast Asia(Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Burma, Vietnam, Malaysia) • South Asia(Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka) • KEY RELIGIONS: Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism

5. Pew Research Center:** • Asian immigrants projected to become the largest foreign-born group in the U.S. by 2055

6. Demographic Data:** • Asians are the fastest-growing group in the U.S., outnumbering Hispanics • Groups in order of high-low population size: • 1. Chinese • 2. Filipino • 3. Indian • 4. Vietnamese • 5. Korean • 6. Japanese

7. For the next exam, please know ** • 2 fastest-growing groups in U.S. are #1 Chinese and #2 Filipino

8. Migration Information Resource (not on test)** • Close to ½ of all Asian immigrants have settled in California, New York, and Texas • Top 4 counties: LA, Santa Clara, Orange (in California) and Queens (New York)

9. Many Indians in the U.S. are Brahmin

10. Former student Harpreet:** • Lighter-skinned Indians in middle school would not let her associate with them • Bullied because she is darker and of a lower caste

11. Sonam R.:** (Indian) • There is NO intermarriage between castes • Girls are encouraged to stay home

12. Former student Noma: (p. 116)** • She and her family are Brahmin Indians • When they lived in Nepal, it was very frowned upon to entertain lower caste persons in your home—other Brahmins look down on you • People don’t marry outside their caste; both families are likely to reject the couple

13. II. CONTRASTNG BELIEFS, VALUES, AND PRACTICES** TRADITIONAL ASIAN MAINSTREAM Fatalism Personal control over envt., one’s fate Tradition, living with Change, future the past orientation

14. TRADITIONAL ASIAN MAINSTREAM** Group welfare Self actualization, privacy Mutual interdependence Independence, indiv. autonomy Hierarchy, rigid role status Equality, status determined by achievement Conformity Challenge authority

15. TRADIT. ASIAN MAINSTREAM** • Encourages continued Early indep. dependence on family encouraged (older sibs HELP) • Parent is authority; Parent gives choices • expects submission, indep. thinking • unquestioning obedience encouraged • Parents ask ch Parents ask ch • “What can you do to “What can I do to • help me?” help you?”

16. For children, many Asian families believe (in contrast to traditional U.S. families)

17. Having children is important—Fidela B., Laotian:** (p. 123) • Under a lot of pressure to get married (she’s around 25) • Mom: “Your eggs are dying.”

18. III. CUSTOMS, COURTESIES, VALUES** • A. Customs and Courtesies • Hospitality • Respect for elders, teachers, authority figures • Modesty, humility

19. Air China**

20. B. Communication Styles** • Formal rules of communication propriety based on relative status of interlocutors • May be considered appropriate to ask personal questions • Indirectness often the norm re: touchy subjects • Some Asians may smile or laugh when embarrassed or angry

21. For example, key Filipino cultural values:

22. IV. HEALTH CARE AND DISABILITIES** Visible vs. invisible disabilities Disabilities fate, karma, sins committed by ancestors Families may be ashamed to bring a child for help if his/her disability represents sins committed by parents/ancestors

23. As SLPs…** • We may have trouble getting families to acknowledge disabilities and sign IEPs for special education services

24. V. ASIAN EDUCATION** • Hugely valued • Asian children attend preschool at a higher rate than other groups

25. In terms of education and income:** • Asians are the most highly educated and well paid persons in the U.S.

26. Migration Information Resource (not on test)** • Over the past decade, the # of Asian students in the U.S. has more than doubled • 486% increase in Chinese students • 1,739% increase in Saudi Arabian students • 530% increase in students from Kuwait

27. California Educator—Asians in the U.S. have the highest rates of:

28. However, in California: (California Educator continued)

29. In most Asian countries, there is:** • Great respect for teachers • Heavy reliance on rote learning, memorization • Teachers are very authoritarian • Class is formal; teachers lecture • Teachers don’t admit mistakes

30. Differences--Asian and American Schools (Stevenson; compared Beijing & Chicago)** • Long days, but lots of recess (in Asian schools) • 3x more American than Asian mothers “very satisfied” w/ their children’s progress • U.S. children ranked themselves much higher than Chinese children, even though the Chinese children were ahead academically in all subjects

31. When asked what they’d wish for:

32. Abboud & Kim (cited in text):** • Role of Asian children in families: 1) respect elders and obey parents, 2) work hard and do well in school to secure a bright future • Many Asian parents work hard all day and morph into educators at night—that is their role • Asian parents put academics first, while other parents often put sports/athletics first; kids are too tired to study

34. VI. ASIAN LANGUAGE CONSIDERATIONS** • Introduction Many languages have numerous dialects

35. Some Languages are Tonal** • Khmer (Cambodia), Japanese, Korean not tonal languages • Vietnamese, Chinese, Laotian are tonal; each tone represents a meaning change • Vietnamese has 6 tones, for example

36. Please know in detail…** • The charts on pp. 129-130 • Chart p. 128 not on test 

37. Linguistically…

38. For example, in Singapore, people speak: (you don’t need to memorize each lang. for exam)** • Bengali • Chinese Malay • East Punjabi Sindhi • English Telugu • Hindi Thai • Japanese Korean • Java

39. Migration Information Resource (not on test)** • Top languages spoken by Asian immigrants: • Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Korean, Hindi, Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Telugu, Gujarathi

40. VII. IMPLICATIONS FOR PROFESSIONALS** • We may need to address the husband first because the wife is subordinate • It may be disgraceful for the family to admit to or discuss a child’s disability; entire family lineage disgraced—intervention may be rejected • Some families do not believe that it is important to talk with young children and babies; may not be open to early intervention

41. Teach Asian children “home” and “school” rules for talking** • Analyze expressive language skills by evaluating writing, not speaking (quiet in class) • Some families dislike “game” format of tx—prefer structured drill activities

42. To, Stokes, Cheung, & T’sou (Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research) Narrative assessment for Cantonese-speaking children.** • Narrative skills are strong predictors of later language outcomes • This study attempted to create some norms for evaluating narrative skills of Cantonese-speaking children • Studied typically-developing subjects and those with specific language impairment (SLI)

43. The researchers found that:

44. These children also…

45. So we know that…** • Assessment of children’s narrative skills is very promising  differentiating language difference from LI

46. Pua, Lee, & Liow (2017)

47. It is important for us to understand Filipinos…** They have greatly increased in the U.S., including Sacramento

48. Former students from this class:** • Filipinos predominantly Roman Catholic —enlist help of priest, church members • Family--huge sacrifices to come to U.S. for a better life for their children • 150 dialects