A Comparison of Korean Language Proficiency in Multicultural Families between Mothers of Children with Articulation and Phonological Disorders and Mothers of Normal Children

Cho, Seung-Youn; Lee, Eun-Ju

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2012;17(3): 414-423.

Seung-Youn Cho^` , and Eun-Ju Lee^`

조승연(Seung-Youn Cho)| 이은주(Eun-Ju Lee)

ABSTRACT

Background & Objectives
This study investigated whether Korean language proficiency of mothers in multicultural families affects their children’s articulation and phonological ability by comparing Korean language proficiency between the group of mothers whose children have articulation and phonological disorders and the group of mothers whose children are normal.
Methods
The study included 9 mothers whose children had articulation and phonological disorders and 12 mothers whose children were normal. The children were between 3 and 4 years of age, and the mothers were the caregivers. The mothers were tested for expressive vocabulary, sentence comprehension, articulation and phonological ability, and phonological awareness ability. In order to investigate the average difference between the 2 groups, a Mann-Whitney U test was conducted.
Results
There was a significant difference in articulation and phonological ability, phonological awareness, sentence comprehension, and expressive vocabulary between the groups. However, the 2 groups showed the level of a preschooler in all tests.
Discussion & Conclusion
This present study helps predict that low Korean proficiency of mothers in multicultural families could affect the development of articulation and phonological ability of their children.