ERIC Number: EJ1179729
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018-May
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1092-4388
EISSN: N/A
Prosodic Boundary Effects on Syntactic Disambiguation in Children with Cochlear Implants
Fortunato-Tavares, Talita; Schwartz, Richard G.; Marton, Klara; de Andrade, Claudia F.; Houston, Derek
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, v61 n5 p1188-1202 May 2018
Purpose: This study investigated prosodic boundary effects on the comprehension of attachment ambiguities in children with cochlear implants (CIs) and normal hearing (NH) and tested the absolute boundary hypothesis and the relative boundary hypothesis. Processing speed was also investigated. Method: Fifteen children with NH and 13 children with CIs (ages 8-12 years) who are monolingual speakers of Brazilian Portuguese participated in a computerized comprehension task with sentences containing prepositional phrase attachment ambiguity and manipulations of prosodic boundaries. Results: Children with NH and children with CIs differed in how they used prosodic forms to disambiguate sentences. Children in both groups provided responses consistent with half of the predictions of the relative boundary hypothesis. The absolute boundary hypothesis did not characterize the syntactic disambiguation of children with CIs. Processing speed was similar in both groups. Conclusions: Children with CIs do not use prosodic information to disambiguate sentences or to facilitate comprehension of unambiguous sentences similarly to children with NH. The results suggest that cross-linguistic differences may interact with syntactic disambiguation. Prosodic contrasts that affect sentence comprehension need to be addressed directly in intervention with children with CIs.
Descriptors: Syntax, Intonation, Assistive Technology, Ambiguity (Semantics), Phrase Structure, Form Classes (Languages), Contrastive Linguistics, Suprasegmentals, Hearing Impairments, Comparative Analysis, Children, Prediction, Language Processing, Portuguese, Foreign Countries, Task Analysis, Computer Assisted Testing
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. 2200 Research Blvd #250, Rockville, MD 20850. Tel: 301-296-5700; Fax: 301-296-8580; e-mail: slhr@asha.org; Web site: http://jslhr.pubs.asha.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Brazil
Grant or Contract Numbers: 5R01DC011041