Browsing by Author "Chen, Yao"

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    Experiences of Parents of Emergent Bilingual Children Facing Autism Inquiry
    (2024-05-07) Chen, Yao; Guo, Shibao; Roy, Sylvie; Zhao, Xu
    Parents are unique experts on their children and their developmental environment. This is especially the case of emergent bilingual children’s parents, who are promising untapped sources of knowledge and wisdom about their children’s language learning, social communication, and development. Emergent bilingual children from immigrant families are in the process of becoming bilinguals when taking the language assessment (Garcia, 2009). The immigrant parents co-construct their children’s bilingual and bicultural experiences. Social communication/interaction (SC/I) deficits are the main diagnostic criteria of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Parents’ perspectives on their children’s SC/I, including language skills, were rarely considered in the ASD evaluation. Informed by sociocultural theory (Vygotsky,1993), translanguaging (Garcia, 2009), and the middle-range theory (Merton, 1968), this research explores how immigrant parents describe their emergent bilingual children’s diagnosis of ASD. Data for the study were collected through semi-structured interviews and artifacts with 12 immigrant parents of 13 emergent bilingual children, documenting the nature and extent of immigrant children’s social communication and development, and interaction with the environment. Thematic and moment analysis (Wei, 2011) were used for data analysis. Results of the study revealed that, from the parents’ perspectives, the current ASD assessment tools and procedures marginalized emergent bilingual children. First, this study showed that the assessors in autism diagnosis often failed to recognize emergent bilingual children’s translanguaging practices and other social communication development features. Secondly, the cultural bias and expected SC/I development milestones in ASD assessment tools disadvantaged emergent bilingual children. Thirdly, the current ASD diagnosis often overlooks immigrant parent knowledge. The study suggested that immigrant parent knowledge could expand bilingual children’s SC/I evaluation. It hopes to inspire academics and communities to the interpretive paradigm (Vasilachis de Gialdino, 2009) on SC/I evaluation of emergent bilingual children in the ASD diagnostic process.
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    Learning more than one language across the lifespan: A literature review
    (Second Languages and Intercultural Council (Alberta Teachers' Association), 2021-01) Ma, Yue; Chen, Yao; Guo, Jie; Lei, Tian; Li, Qiuchen; Dressler, Roswita
    This literature review is based on the final assignment of a graduate-level language and literacy theory and research course at the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, in Calgary, Alberta. The course is an introduction to the principles of language learning from cognitive, sociocultural and critical perspectives. For the final assignment, students choose a topic of interest and then write, revise and finalize a literature review. Five students in the course, along with the instructor, are the authors of this article. Each student focused on a particular topic in the field of multiple language learning. Here, they present their literature reviews, along with their understandings of the topic, making critical analyses and identifying gaps in the literature. During the course, they discussed their topics with each other and provided feedback on the written work. By the end of the course, they all were not only familiar with all five topics but also acquired the skills needed for writing and revising a literature review, as well as for providing peer- review feedback. Each topic focused on a factor of learning more than one language across the lifespan. The topics were as follows: • Students’ classroom language use in full and partial immersion programs • Assessing depth of vocabulary knowledge in listening comprehension • Language assessment strategies for bilingual children in the diagnostic process for autism spectrum disorders • Parental factors and involvement in children’s English learning in China • Factors that influence the second language socialization of international students The literature reviews that follow represent a cross-section and an overview of the research on language learning. The students explore their topics by presenting empirical studies, synthesizing the main findings, and discussing classroom implications and directions for future research. They then comment on their learning from the course and this assignment, which will be of great value to other teachers who are considering graduate studies, as well as to postsecondary instructors who are framing course formats and assignments.