Public Lecture by Prof Heather Brookes

The research focus area Understanding and Processing Languages in Complex Settings invites all interested individuals to attend an online public lecture by Prof. Heather Brookes (Stellenbosch University). Professor Heather Brookes heads the Child Language Development Node of SADiLaR (South African Centre for Digital Language Resources housed at North-West University). Read more

Title: Instrument Translation and Adaptation for Measuring Early Child Language Development across Multilingual and Socio-cultural Diverse Settings.

Abstract

This talk will focus on methodological aspects of a large-scale initiative to obtain early language development norms for South Africa’s 11 spoken official languages. We translated and adapted the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI), a parent-report tool measuring 8- to 30-month-old children’s language acquisition, that has been adapted for over 100 languages worldwide. Our simultaneous cross-linguistic adaptation for 11 languages is the largest CDI adaptation ever undertaken. I will describe the processes and challenges of constructing, adapting, and piloting the CDI for gathering language development norms across typologically different languages. Although there are some reports on the challenges of collecting child language data in diverse settings, few discuss the specific challenges of adapting instruments for multiple languages in multilingual and under-resourced contexts. I will describe the common adaptation methodology we developed to allow cross-linguistic comparison while ensuring that each CDI remained linguistically and culturally specific and appropriate.

Meeting ID: 368 636 196 327

Passcode: ePEh9R