Coordinator's Corner Assessing Language Learnability

Volume 6, Number 3

Special Interest Divisions

Alejandro Brice

• Division 14 will have a monthly Current Events page available at http:// www.asha.ucf.edu/CE.html.

Coordinator’s Corner This year Division 14 has been a co-sponsor of two conferences. One was the ASHA Schools conference where Division 14 sponsored invited speaker Dr. Li-Rong Lilly Cheng. The other conference was the 2nd International Symposium on Communication Disorders in Multilingual Populations, recently held in South Africa. Speakers at that symposium from Division 14 included Dr. Lilly Cheng, Dr. Carol Westby, Dr. Adele Proctor, Dr. Loraine Obler and Dr. Alejandro Brice. Information regarding changes and updates to the Division 14 Web page are as follow:

• The Division 14 page is available through ASHA at http:// www.asha.org/sidivisions/ sid_14.htm.

• A more detailed and user specific Division 14 page is linked from the above page and can be found at http:// pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/ ~abrice/SID14.html.

• Division 14 has posted its e-mail directory page at http:/ /www.asha.ucf.edu/ Division14email.html. This page includes a listing of all Division 14 members who have provided an e-mail address.

• Members can contact and e-mail the Steering Committee at http:/ /www.asha.ucf.edu/ Div14SC.html.

Please look for the Call for Papers from the University of Texas at Austin for the 2001 Texas Research Symposium for Language Diversity and the convention announcement for the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP). Division 14 is investigating specialty recognition. A discussion of this possibility occurred at the ASHA Convention with the session, “Bilingual speech/language pathology: Is specialty recognition really necessary?” Division 14 has co-published two newsletters with other divisions this year—one with Division 12, Augmentative and Alternative Communication and this issue, published with Division 1, Language Learning and Education—on topics of joint interest. In addition, Division 14 co-sponsored this year’s Convention Short Course, Designing an Infant Preschool to Deliver Services in Spanish, with Division 16, SchoolBased Issues. Division 14 is working on establishing continuing education for its members through the newsletter and workshops. As a result, the newsletter will begin publishing peer-reviewed articles in the year 2001. It has been a busy year and we will continue to serve the needs of our members.

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December 2000

Assessing Language Learnability Deborah Hwa-Froelich Saint Louis University

Carol E. Westby Wichita State University and University of New Mexico

Marlene Schommer-Aikins Wichita State University Assessment for children from culturally/linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds has always been problematic. Children are both overand under-identified as having language impairments. Reliance on traditional assessments currently available frequently results in over- iden-

In This Issue. . . Coordinator’s Corner ....................... 1 Assessing Language Learnability .... 1 Language Characteristics of Native American Children: Considerations for Assessment ...................... 6 Storytelling in an Urban Preschool Classroom: Reconceptualizing Narrative Analysis ....................... 11 The Thematic Redundance Approach: Teaching English Vocabulary in Therapy With Bilingual Children ......................... 15 Becoming a Culturally Competent Clinician .......................................... 19 Continuing Education Instructions and Answer and Evaluation Forms (Attachments) CEU Participant Form (Enclosure)