Speech-language pathologists' beliefs about language services for bilingual-bicultural individuals

A major challenge facing the field of speech/language pathology is the appropriate assessment of communication differences and disorders of multilingual/multicultural individuals. A national survey of speech/language pathologists was conducted to determine their beliefs about the language assessment of bilingual/bicultural individuals. Using Vygotsky's sociocultural focus on the importance of contextual factors in language learning, three groups of speech/language pathologists were formed: monolingual; bilingual (learning a language other than English in a school setting): and bilingual/bicultural (learning a language other than English at home or abroad). Using quantitative analyses of questionnaire responses and qualitative analyses of their written comments, three belief domains about the language assessment process for bilingual/bicultural individuals were examined: personal efficacy in assessing a bilingual client (with the help of an interpreter), general efficacy (i.e., the efficacy of most speech/language pathologists in assessing a bilingual client, with the help of an interpreter), and the role of bilingual input in interpreting language assessment data.;All three groups reported low personal efficacy in assessing a bilingual client, but monolingual speech/language pathologists reported the lowest. In terms of attributions for their low self-efficacy, the monolingual groups was most likely to mention their lack of knowledge, the bilingual group commented on their language proficiency, and the bilingual/bicultural group reported on both proficiency and experience as influences. Low general efficacy was also reported by all three groups. Over half of all participants reported that the presence of bilingual language input would influence their interpretation of language assessment results. Forty percent reported that they would be more conservative in recommending language therapy for a bilingual than a monolingual child, particularly due to their own lack of knowledge. About twelve percent reported that they would be less conservative.;These results add to our knowledge base on the complex relationships among lang uage learning experiences and beliefs about the assessment of bilingual/bicultural individuals among speech/language pathologists.