ASIAN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE: IMPLICATIONS FOR ASSESSMENT AND INTERVENTION

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ASIAN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IMPLICATIONS FOR
ASSESSMENT AND INTERVENTION
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• Some information is gathered from an interview

• Dr. Jocelyn Marzan, 11/18/19
• She is a Filipino SLP doing some work at UCDavis
  Medical Center
• She presented at ASHA

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Not on test 2asha.org/practice/multicultural
/phono information about the sound systems of
various languages
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I. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

• ORIGINS
• East Asia (Japan, Korea, China)
• Southeast Asia (Philippines, Laos, Cambodia,
  Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Burma,
  Vietnam, Malaysia)
• South Asia (Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka)
• KEY RELIGIONS Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism

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Pew Research Center

• Asian immigrants projected to become the largest
  foreign-born group in the U.S. by 2055

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Demographic Data (not on exam)

• Asians are the fastest-growing group in the U.S.,
  outnumbering Hispanics
• Groups in order of high-low population size
• 1. Chinese
• 2. Filipino
• 3. Indian
• 4. Vietnamese
• 5. Korean
• 6. Japanese

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For the next exam, please know ?

• 2 fastest-growing groups in U.S. are 1 Chinese
  and 2 Filipino

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Migration Information Resource (not on test)

• Close to ½ of all Asian immigrants have settled
  in California, New York, and Texas
• Top 4 counties LA, Santa Clara, Orange (in
  California) and Queens (New York)

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Many Indians in the U.S. are Brahmin
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Former student Harpreet

• Lighter-skinned Indians in middle school would
  not let her associate with them
• Bullied because she is darker and of a lower caste

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Sonam R. (Indian)

• There is NO intermarriage between castes
• Girls are encouraged to stay home

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Former student Noma (p. 116)

• She and her family are Brahmin Indians
• When they lived in Nepal, it was very frowned
  upon to entertain lower caste persons in your
  homeother Brahmins look down on you
• People dont marry outside their caste both
  families are likely to reject the couple

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II. CONTRASTNG BELIEFS, VALUES, AND PRACTICES

• TRADITIONAL ASIAN MAINSTREAM
• Fatalism Personal control over envt.,
  ones fate
• Tradition, living with Change, future
• the past orientation

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• TRADITIONAL ASIAN MAINSTREAM
• Group welfare Self actualization,
• privacy
• Mutual interdependence Independence, indiv.
  autonomy
• Hierarchy, rigid role status Equality, status
  determined by achievement
• Conformity Challenge authority

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• TRADIT. ASIAN MAINSTREAM
• Encourages continued Early indep.
• dependence on family encouraged
• (older sibs HELP)
• Parent is authority Parent gives choices
• expects submission, indep. thinking
• unquestioning obedience encouraged
• Parents ask ch Parents ask ch
• What can you do to What can I do to
• help me? help you?

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For children, many Asian families believe (in
contrast to traditional U.S. families)
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Having children is importantFidela B.,
Laotian (p. 123)

• Under a lot of pressure to get married (shes
  around 25)
• Mom Your eggs are dying.

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Dr. Jocelyn Marzan (not on exam)

• As of 2019, divorce, euthanasia, and abortion are
  still illegal in the Philippines

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III. CUSTOMS, COURTESIES, VALUES

• A. Customs and Courtesies
• Hospitality
• Respect for elders, teachers, authority figures
• Modesty, humility

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B. Communication Styles

• Formal rules of communication propriety based on
  relative status of interlocutors
• May be considered appropriate to ask personal
  questions
• Indirectness often the norm re touchy subjects
• Some Asians may smile or laugh when embarrassed
  or angry

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For example, key Filipino cultural values
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IV. HEALTH CARE AND DISABILITIES

• Visible vs. invisible disabilities
• Disabilities ?fate, karma, sins committed by
  ancestors
• Families may be ashamed to bring a child for help
  if his/her disability represents sins committed
  by parents/ancestors

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As SLPs

• We may have trouble getting families to
  acknowledge disabilities and sign IEPs for
  special education services

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V. ASIAN EDUCATION

• Hugely valued
• Asian children attend preschool at a higher rate
  than other groups

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In terms of education and income
Asians are the most highly educated and well paid
persons in the U.S.
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Migration Information Resource (not on test)

• Over the past decade, the of Asian students in
  the U.S. has more than doubled
• 486 increase in Chinese students

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California EducatorAsians in the U.S. have the
highest rates of

• College degree attainment
• of persons with advanced degrees
• Working in highly skilled occupations (outperform
  Whites)

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However, in California (California Educator
continued)

• 40 of Hmong, 38 of Laotians, and 35 of
  Cambodians dont complete high school
• Due to poverty
• Exam please know 3 top groups (Hmong, Laotian,
  Cambodianno s)

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Poverty could be related to early marriage in
some groups

• A students husband is Hmong his sister married
  at age 15 years
• At the age of 20, she has 4 children

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In most Asian countries, there is

• Great respect for teachers
• Heavy reliance on rote learning, memorization
• Teachers are very authoritarian
• Class is formal teachers lecture
• Teachers dont admit mistakes

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Differences--Asian and American Schools
(Stevenson compared Beijing Chicago)

• Long days, but lots of recess (in Asian schools)
• 3x more American than Asian mothers very
  satisfied w/ their childrens progress
• U.S. children ranked themselves much higher than
  Chinese children, even though the Chinese
  children were ahead academically in all subjects

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• When asked what theyd wish for

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Abboud Kim (cited in text)

• Role of Asian children in families 1) respect
  elders and obey parents, 2) work hard and do well
  in school to secure a bright future
• Many Asian parents work hard all day and morph
  into educators at nightthat is their role
• Asian parents put academics first, while other
  parents often put sports/athletics first kids
  are too tired to study

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Many Asian parents are unaware of extra
curricular activities
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VI. ASIAN LANGUAGE CONSIDERATIONS

• Introduction
• Many languages have numerous dialects

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Some Languages are Tonal

• Khmer (Cambodia), Japanese, Korean not tonal
  languages
• Vietnamese, Chinese, Laotian are tonal each tone
  represents a meaning change
• Vietnamese has 6 tones, for example

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Please know in detail

• The charts on pp. 129-130
• Chart p. 128 not on test ?

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Linguistically

• Some countries are monolingual
• E.g, in Laos--Lao Japan--Japanese
• However, in some countries, there are multiple
  languages

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For example, in Singapore, people speak (you
dont need to memorize each lang. for exam)

• Bengali
• Chinese Malay
• East Punjabi Sindhi
• English Telugu
• Hindi Thai
• Japanese Korean
• Java

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Migration Information Resource (not on test)

• Top languages spoken by Asian immigrants
• Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Korean, Hindi,
  Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Telugu, Gujarathi

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VII. IMPLICATIONS FOR PROFESSIONALS

• We may need to address the husband first because
  the wife is subordinate
• It may be disgraceful for the family to admit to
  or discuss a childs disability entire family
  lineage disgracedintervention may be rejected
• Some families do not believe that it is important
  to talk with young children and babies may not
  be open to early intervention

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Dr. Jocelyn Marzan
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To, Stokes, Cheung, Tsou (Journal of Speech,
Language, and Hearing Research) Narrative
assessment for Cantonese-speaking children.

• Narrative skills are strong predictors of later
  language outcomes
• This study attempted to create some norms for
  evaluating narrative skills of Cantonese-speaking
  children
• Studied typically-developing subjects and those
  with specific language impairment (SLI)

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The researchers found that
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These children also
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So we know that

• Assessment of childrens narrative skills is very
  promising ? differentiating language difference
  from LI

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Pua, Lee, Liow
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It is important for us to understand Filipinos

• They have greatly increased in the U.S.,
  including Sacramento

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Former students from this class

• Filipinos predominantly Roman Catholic enlist
  help of priest, church members
• Family--huge sacrifices to come to U.S. for a
  better life for their children
• 150 dialects

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Dr. Jocelyn Marzan 11/19
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• Parents push for math, science majors safe
  careers so their children will not be poor
• More career freedom for sons than daughters
• Oldest sibling--lots of responsibility
• Dr. Marzangirls are still expected to help
  around the house

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• Many Filipinos have maids, esp. to help care
  for children
• College credits, creds/degrees may not transfer
  to U.S.
• Hide tattoosprison

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Hannah, Filipino student 2019 (not on exam)

• She is Catholic and they believe your body is
  pure
• No tattoos or piercings
• She would get kicked out of her house if she ever
  did that!

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Tasha KetphanhLaos (former student from this
class)

• Grew up in Sacramento on welfare
• Education not importantyoure just going to work
  in rice fields
• Laotians ?st prison population of Asians
• Dont ever look an adult in the face

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Tasha (Laos continued)
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I have found that Asians

• Are generally terrific to work with
• Very appreciative
• If they understand WHY, they will do carry over