Language Disabilities in Cultural and Linguistic Diversity

Martin (education, U. of Birmingham, UK) critiques the traditional approach to language-related disabilities in culturally and linguistically diverse populations by drawing on sociocultural perspectives and the work of developmental psychologist Lev Vygotsky to reinterpret psychological and sociolinguistic research in light of the idea that learning is both social and cognitive, and enabled by language. After laying out the theoretical perspective, she examines sociocultural contexts and practices around cultural and linguistic diversity, inclusive and exclusive practices of health and education provision to culturally and linguistically diverse families and children with language disabilities, discourses around and issues of dyslexia and deafness, a critique of formal assessment methods of language disabilities in bilingual populations, practices of intervention and teaching with bilingual children with language disabilities, and the multidisciplinary collaboration among practitioners needed to meet the needs of bilingual children with language disabilities. Distributed in the US by UTP Distribution. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Deirdre Martin is Senior Lecturer in the School of Education, University of Birmingham, UK. She has extensive experience as an educator and researcher with children and families with language disabilities in multilingual societies. She was a speech and language therapist in the UK and Peru, co-founded the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists' special interest group in bilingualism and has been a specialist professional advisor. She currently leads postgraduate programmes on language disability and dyslexia for professionals working in EAL, EFL and bilingual contexts. She has published and presented widely in the field of language development, disability and bilingualism.