Survey questions generated and piloted for director survey and student survey

1
SLP students with accents University clinics
policies and practices Erika S. Levy, Catherine
J. Crowley, Elise M. Wagner, Stephanie Downey,
Rebecca Kastl, Yana Pleshivoy, Dan Rosenthal,
Dorothy Tancredi, Melanie Yukov
Speech Production Perception Lab
27 DIRECTOR RESPONSES
STUDENTS REGARDING TREATMENT AREAS
INTRODUCTION
Generally speaking, please select all the areas
you feel can be TREATED appropriately by an
accented clinician. (Note the degree of accent
was reported to be a determining factor.)
Speech-language pathologists often provide
services for clients who speak a language or
dialect that is different from the SLPs native
language or dialect. There is a paucity of
research on the impact of efficacy of services
when such linguistic differences exist between
the SLP and the client (e.g., native English
speakers working in Spanish or non-native English
speakers working in English). Yet university SLP
clinic and program directors must make choices
about whether to assign clients to student
clinicians when there is a difference in accents.
An e-mail survey was conducted to examine the
policies and practices of SLP programs involving
students with accents in one heterogeneous
northeastern state. The following is our
preliminary report.
Is there an official policy regarding students
with accents? Yes 33 No 67 Is there a
greater demand than availability of
Spanish-speaking student clinicians? Yes 82 No
18 (i.e., 9 out of 11 directors who felt they
knew)
Once students are accepted, does your program
have a pronunciation screening procedure? (Note
13 of respondents reported English screening
before acceptance)

ACCENT, defined for the purposes of this study
Pronunciation that is different from the
accepted or standard pronunciation that might
be expected by the university. Accents can be
regional, culturally-based or influenced by a
second language.
What is usually done if an SLP student is
identified as having an accent?
SUMMARY
1. Few policies, variety of practices, ranging
from no action to required accent modification
by peers 2. Patterns revealed Screenings occur
more often in English than in Spanish or other
languages. Accent modification is required for
non-native English speakers more often than for
non-native speakers of Spanish. Yet non-native
English speakers started learning their second
language earlier than non-native speakers of
Spanish. 3. Appropriateness of treatment by
accented clinician depends on area and degree of
accent. For areas in which explicit instruction
in pronunciation is needed, treatment deemed to
require more native-like phonology.

• ACCENTwhy the focus?
• A place to start maybe the first and most
  enduring sign that a language is not someones
  first others may draw conclusions about language
  proficiency based solely upon someones accent

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
SAMPLE DIRECTOR COMMENTS

• What is the standard to determine whether an
  accent is too strong?
• As long as the shortage in bilingual clinicians
  with native-like competency in both languages
  persists, need for consistent policies regarding
  students with accents in any language, based on
  research on clinical populations and perception
  and production of accented speech.

We have engaged in considerable discussion about
this issue, as well as the issue of students who
present with clinical problemsAt present we are
trying to address this issue in a manner
consistent with ASHA policy. All students in
our undergrad program participate in a
speech-language-hearing screening those who fail
the screening for any reason are asked to have an
evaluation communication disorders are addressed
with graduate students on an individual
basis This is a very interesting topic. At
this institution, we do not have (and haven't
had) any speech pathology students who have
accents, so we have not had to respond to some of
the issues the survey raises.
QUESTIONS
1. What policies and practices are implemented in
the states SLP programs when an SLP student
has an accent? 2. How are the policies and
practices applied to the various languages in
which students provide services? 3. Are
different disorders perceived as more or less
acceptable for accented clinicians to work with
and does this depend upon the strength of the
accent?
SAMPLE STUDENT COMMENTS
I think that this survey brings up a very
interesting topic which probably has not been
greatly touched upon in the literature! This is
a sensitive subject, as a bilingual/bicultural
speaker, I am at first offended. My first
reaction is Now they don't want us to be SLPs.
However, I am also disturbed by the fact that I
have seen SLPs with only a bare minimum of
Spanish proficiency get hired to treat bilingual
Spanish children, and so can see the need for
this research. I think that two factors are to be
kept in mind. 1) the level of accent, is a person
just able to speak conversational Spanish (in my
opinion, that is not the level of proficiency
needed to treat clients) 2)how do we determine
who does NOT have an accent? Be it national or
regional. If they only have a regional accent in
English then that is OK? Why? If I am a New
Yorker, with a child who needs articulation
issues addressed, do I really want a Southern SLP
to do it? It is very important not to target any
one group. That is difficult when there is a
large minority. Again, a very touchy subject, but
also incredibly interesting.
497 STUDENT RESPONSES
PROCEDURES
Percent of students who are non-native English
speakers planning to do therapy in English 16
Percent of students who are non-native Spanish
speakers planning to do therapy in Spanish Yes
8 Maybe 25

• Survey questions generated and piloted for
  director survey and student survey
• Format Multiple choice, some open ended,
  questions regarding policies, practices, and
  experiences with speech screenings, accent
  modification, etc., and attitudes about
  appropriateness of treatment of various disorders
  by accented clinicians
• Distribution and completion of survey
• Directors E-mail survey sent directly via
  information provided on ASHA website and
  societies of clinic/program directors
• Students E-mail survey forwarded by NSSLHA
  representatives or faculty/staff, pending
  Institutional Review Board approval
• Respondents clicked on link and completed survey
  on-line (approx. 15 minutes)
• Surveymonkey.com software with encryption device
  assured anonymity

How old were you (in years) when you began
learning your second language? Mdn age
non-native English doing therapy in English 7
yrs old Mdn age non-native Spanish doing therapy
in Spanish 11 yrs old Have you been told
by your program director, instructor or placement
supervisor that you need accent modification in
the language? Percent non-native English told
need accent modification in English
12 Percent non-native Spanish told need accent
modification in Spanish 0
Many thanks to all of our respondents and the
faculty and staff who helped distribute the
survey, as well as to our pilot participants.
Special thanks to Debra Bengis, Dawn Dickerson,
Lois Levy, Larry Raphael, Melissa Randazzo,
Teresa Signorelli, and Barbara Schmidt. Thanks
also to Stephen Silverman, John Saxman, Jo Ann
Nicholas, Bernadine Gagnon, Natalia Martínez and
the Speech Production and Perception Lab at
Teachers College.
Corresponding author Erika S. Levy
(elevy_at_tc.columbia.edu)