Cross-language transfer for cognates in aphasia therapy with multilingual patients: a case study
Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: The issue of cross-language transfer (CLT) in aphasia therapy with bilingual patients is controversial and the conditions determining if there is transfer or not are not yet clear. A higher number of representations and processes shared by the two languages seem to increase transfer. We challenged this hypothesis through a treatment study focusing on cognates in a trilingual patient with chronic non fluent aphasia. Our aim was to investigate cross-language transfer of the benefits of therapy, building on the hypothesis of a post-lexical origin of the cognate effect. The patient received intensive therapy involving both cognates and non cognates in his L3 during 3 weeks with naming skills being assessed for treated and untreated words before and after. Results show benefits on the treated L3 words and also, albeit to a lesser degree, on the non-treated words in L1 and L3. However, no cognate effect was observed. Given that the patient's impairment can be located at the post-lexical level, the results are consistent with bilingual speech production models that postulate interactivity between levels of representation within and across languages, with cognate effects emerging at the post-lexical level. Within a clinical perspective, the study shows the efficiency of naming treatment in chronic aphasia, and that there may be cross-language transfer of therapy benefits in bilingual aphasia.
Source: HAL
Authors: Hameau, Solène, Köpke, Barbara
Institution: Macquarie University
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2743998946