Speech Language Pathologists and Teachers Perceptions of Bilingual Students

Prior research has focused on speech language pathologists (SLPs) and teachers and their ability to work with bilingual students. It has been found that both teachers and SLPs struggle to work with bilingual students as they do not have the prior knowledge necessary to work efficiently with these students (Teoh, Brebner, & McAllister, 2017). Additionally, speech therapy and other necessary resources for students to succeed may only be given in one language, potentially not their L1, making it difficult for students and teachers to work in the L2 language (Hammond, Mitchell, & Johnson, 2009). There has been a lack of research that has explored SLPs and the ways in which they treat and work with students who are bilingual and multilingual compared to those who are monolingual. Studying these groups simultaneously will provide information from different learning environments as well as give insight on the amount of or lack of one-on-one attention given to bilingual students in those respective environments. The purpose of this research is to understand how SLPs’ and teachers perceive and work with students who are bilingual versus how they work with and perceive students who are monolingual. Results have shown that there is a significant difference in the level of preparedness of and in the perceptions that teachers and SLPs hold when it comes to working with students who are bilingual and multilingual.