Substitution Errors and the Role of Markedness in Bilingual Phonological Acquisition.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to (a) provide evidence for a theoretical model of between-language interaction in bilingual phonological production through the examination of substitution error patterns and to (b) provide developmental data on bilingual children with and without speech sound impairments for use in clinical assessment and diagnosis. Through the lens of markedness, or relative featural complexity, patterns of between-language interaction were observed to provide a foundation for clinical decision making in phonological assessment.

Method: Seventy children, ages 3;11-6;7 (years; months), participated in this study: 63 typically developing bilingual Spanish-English-speaking children (x¯ = 5;2) and seven bilingual Spanish-English-speaking children with speech sound impairments (x¯ = 4;6).