COMMUNICATION DISORDERS ACROSS CULTURES II. Linguistic Diversity.

Communication Disorders Across Cultures

II. Linguistic Diversity

Linguistic Diversity

The type of English spoken in the US is commonly referred to as American English (AE).

In the US, speakers of English may be categorized into one of three basic groups on the basis of accent or dialect.

The first group consists of person who were born in another country and learned their first language(s) before they acquired English.

Their English may be accented by their first language(s). This group could include persons born in other countries

where students learn English while in school.


The second group consists of person born in the United States who learned their first language(s) before they acquired English.

This group could include children born to parents who speak a language(s) other than English in the home and whose children then learn English in school, or children who are learning multiple languages, including English, simultaneously.


The third group consists of persons born in the United States or other countries whose only language is English.

Their development of English is affected by region, status, style, ethnicity, age, gender, life experiences, and communication models, resulting in their use of a dialect of English, which may or may not be viewed as a nonstandard dialect of English.

Examples of this third group would include, but are not limited to, individuals who speak Appalachian English, one of the New York dialects, African American English, standard English, British dialect, southern English, and English influenced by some other non-English languages such as Spanish.

Standard & Non-Standard Dialects

In reality, all speakers have accents and dialects because to speak a language is to speak some dialect of that language.

The term dialect is intended to be a neutral label to refer to any variety of language which is shared by a group of speakers (Wolfram, 1991).

However, the existence of various dialects is the result of historical, social, linguistic, and geographical factors, which may bear on their perception as socially prestigious (standard) or not.

Standard & Non-Standard Dialects

Because language issues have impacted the country in much the way that civil rights issues affected policy after the 1960s, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA, 1983), unanimously approved the position paper on social dialects prepared by the Committee on the Status of Racial Minorities after a decade of study.

ASHA’s Position on Language Diversity

It is the position of ASHA that no dialectal variety of English is a disorder or a pathological form of speech or language.

Each social dialect is adequate as a functional and effective variety of English.

Each represents a legitimate rule-governed language system comprised of phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic, lexical, pragmatic, and suprasegmental features.

Each dialect serves a communication function as well as a social solidarity function.


Each dialect maintains the communication network and the social construct of the community of speakers who use it.

Furthermore, each is a symbolic representation of the geographic, historical, social, and cultural background of its speakers.

However, society has adopted the linguistic idealization model that standard English is the linguistic archetype.


Standard English is the linguistic variety used by government, the mass media, business, education, science, and the arts.

Therefore, there may be nonstandard English speakers who find it advantageous to have access to the use of standard English.

Language Difference versus Language Disorder

A speaker of any language or dialect may exhibit a language disorder unrelated to his or her use of the native dialect.

One must distinguish between those aspects of linguistic variation that represent regular patterns in the speaker's dialect from those that represent true disorders in speech, language, and hearing.

It is indeed possible for dialect speakers to have linguistic disorders within the dialect.


The SLP must have certain competencies to distinguish between dialectal differences and communicative disorders.

These competencies include: recognizing all American English dialects as rule-governed linguistic systems;understanding the rules and linguistic features of American English dialect(s) represented by their clientele; and being familiar with nondiscriminatory testing and dynamic assessment procedures.


Once the difference/disorder distinction has been made, the SLP treats only those features or characteristics that are true errors and not attributable to the dialect.

Aside from traditional clinical service delivery, the SLP may also be available to provide elective clinical services to nonstandard English speakers who do not present a disorder.

For these individuals, the SLP provides the desired competency in standard English without jeopardizing the integrity of the individual’s first dialect.

Elective Clinical Services

It is a prerequisite for the SLP to have a thorough understanding and appreciation for the community and culture of the nonstandard English speaker.

ASHA’s position statement has similar implications for bilingual individuals.

For the bilingual speaker who exhibits a speech or language disorder within his or her dominant language, speech or language intervention would be indicated.

However, treatment should only be initiated after a comprehensive evaluation of the dominant language by an appropriately trained SLP has been undertaken.

Elective Clinical Services

The SLP may provide elective clinical services to the bilingual individual seeking to acquire a more standard production of English.

The SLP must have a thorough knowledge of the linguistic rules of the particular dialect or languages of the bilingual speaker.

CLD Professionals in the Discipline

Demographic changes anticipated over the next decade indicate a need for increasing numbers of professionals with linguistic diversity to provide services to those individuals with communication disorders from CLD populations.

Speakers with accents and dialects must also be permitted full participation in the professions of speech-language pathology and audiology.

In the past, many CSD programs and some employers have imposed a monocultural perspective regarding linguistic diversity.


Many educational programs have discouraged speakers of certain nonstandard linguistic varieties from majoring in CSD.

Other programs have not permitted or have restricted clinical practicum experiences for students who speak [certain] nonstandard linguistic varieties of English.

Still others have required student enrollment as a client at the university clinic to eradicate accents or dialects, or have reassigned such students based solely on negative attitudes and prejudices of clients and clinical supervisors.


In many of these cases, the ability of students with accents and dialects to provide clinical services or write clinical reports have been called into question.

Similar negative practices have been demonstrated by some employers.

These behaviors are contrary to fostering and celebrating the cultural diversity that enhances the profession.


The same position that states that dialects among our clients are not to be considered as disordered speech and language governs the same inclusiveness and acceptance of diversity among practitioners and students from CLD populations who may not speak standard English.

SLPs and audiologists, as well as the consumers they serve, all speak with accents and/or dialects that reflect when, where, how, and with whom and from whom they learned language.

Language Diversity & Discrimination

The presence of an accent and/or dialect may make a person vulnerable to stereotypical judgments, prejudices, and sometimes discrimination because some accents or dialects are deemed more acceptable than others.

Nonetheless, members of ASHA, in the conduct of their professional activities, are urged not to discriminate against persons who speak with an accent or dialect.

COMMUNICATION DISORDERS ACROSS CULTURES II. Linguistic Diversity.

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