When Developmental Language Disorder Meets Diglossia: A Cross-Sectional Investigation of Listening Comprehension Among Native Arabic-Speaking Preschoolers

Ibrahim A. Asadi, Asaid Khateb, Jasmeen Mansour-Adwan, Afnan Khoury-Metanis

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Diglossia in the Arabic language refers to the existence of two varieties of the same language: the Spoken Arabic (SA) and the Literary Arabic (LA). This study examined the development of listening comprehension (LC) among diglossic Arabic K1–K3. For this purpose, a large sample of typically developing (TD; N = 210) and developmental language disorder children (DLD; N = 118) were examined using SA and LA texts. The analysis of variance conducted on their performance in LC revealed significant effects of K-level, group (TD vs. DLD) and text affiliation (SA vs. LA): higher scores in TD and in SA. A significant interaction between text affiliation and K-level was observed among the TD but not the DLD group. This interaction indicated that the gap in LC between the SA and LA varieties decreased with age only among TD children. The theoretical and pedagogical implications of these results are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Psycholinguistic Research
DOIs
StateAccepted/In press - 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Keywords

  • Arabic diglossia
  • Developmental language disorder (DLD)
  • Kindergarten
  • Listening comprehension
  • Oral language

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Language and Linguistics
  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Linguistics and Language
  • Psychology (all)

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