Bilingualism and its effects on the development of English phonology

A substantial proportion of the World’s population is bilingual.  In the UK, the number of bilingual children appears to be rising, with 15.2% of children in primary schools in the UK speaking a language other than English at home, up 1% in 12 months*.  This has implications for the identification of speech and language impairments as many of the assessment tools have been developed and tested on monolingual populations.  Consequently there has been a history of both over and under diagnosis of speech and language impairments in bilingual populations.
To understand more about how speech develops when children are exposed to more than one language in their everyday lives, a review of the literature is being conducted. Sixty six research articles have been identified and reviewed in depth. These cover the development of speech perception and production and phonological awareness in both typically developing and speech impaired individuals and involve a number of bilingual populations in various English speaking parts of the world. Findings will inform the development of further research that aims to improve identification and treatment of speech impairments in bilingual populations.
*DCSF: Schools, Pupils and Their Characteristics: January 2009