Assessing Speech Production in Mandarin–English Bilingual Children: Comparison of Mandarin and English Sound Systems and Special Considerations

What is it about?

Purpose: When assessing bilingual children’s speech, it is important to determine whether the errors are indicative of a true speech sound disorder or a speech sound difference. The purpose of this tutorial is to provide cultural and linguistic background of Mandarin in comparison to English and to outline the process of speech production assessment for Mandarin–English bilingual children. Method: Pertinent literature was reviewed around varieties of Chinese, unique features of the Mandarin sound system, commonly used transcription methods (International Phonetic Alphabet and Pinyin), and patterns of Mandarin-influenced English. Previous research findings on the acquisition of consonants, vowels, and tones in monolingual Mandarin-speaking children were summarized. Results: The assessment process including consonants, vowels, tones, syllable structures, and lexical stress was described and illustrated with flow charts. Recourses related to cultural and linguistic information of Mandarin and accessible assessment materials are referenced. Conclusions: A thorough knowledge of a child’s language background is crucial in planning assessment of speech production for Mandarin–English bilingual children. A comparative understanding of the sound systems of Mandarin and English facilitates clinical decision making.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

According to data reported in Budiman (2021), the Chinese population in the United States is 5,399,000 among which 38% were born in the United States and 62% were foreign born. Fifteen percent of the total Chinese population in the US were school-aged children between 5 to 17 years. American-born Chinese for this age group accounts for 31% of the US born Chinese population. In the United States, over three million people (3,494,544) 5 years and older speak Chinese (including Mandarin and Cantonese). Over 65% of children with a Chinese background speak a Chinese language in addition to English (Dietrich & Hernandez, 2022). With a growing number of bilingual Chinese-English speaking children, there is a significant need for speech language assessment and therapy procedures for bilingual Mandarin-English children in the United States (Dollaghan & Horner, 2011; Wang & Farquharson, 2016). Available research aiming to establish phonological profiles in Mandarin-English bilingual children for clinical purposes were conducted on bilingual children outside of the United States (Hack et al., 2012; Lin & Johnson, 2010). It could be challenging to generalize these research findings to bilingual Mandarin-English children living in the United States due to potential factors such as dialectal differences among Chinese varieties and/or ambient language exposure. Bilingual children are also prone to overdiagnosis in that their speech sound differences are mistaken as disorders (Dollaghan & Horner, 2011). For speech-language pathologists, linguistic and cultural knowledge about Chinese is critical when working with families and children with a Chinese background. An understanding of the similarities and differences between the home language and English facilitates clinical decision-making about whether the possible errors on English sounds produced by a bilingual child are influenced by their home language or are true indications of a speech sound disorder (Yavas & Goldstein, 1998). This information should also be considered when establishing appropriate intervention goals and selecting specific intervention targets (Kester, 2014, Yavas & Goldstein, 1998). The present article aims to 1) introduce the linguistic and cultural background on Mandarin and other varieties of Chinese; 2) describe the speech sound system of Mandarin and compare it to the speech sound system of General American English; 3) outline an assessment process of speech production in Mandarin-English bilingual children.