Language Use in Aphasia Testing in German-Speaking Switzerland
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05/2015
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06 - Presentation
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Leizpig
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Abstract
This paper presents data on the use of Swiss German dialects and standard High German
in situations of aphasia testing. In the German-speaking part of Switzerland, the use of
dialect vs. standard language depends on context (Rash, 2002) and does not correlate with
the social status of the speaker (Werlen, 2004). Dialect is used in oral communication
among Swiss-German speakers, except in contexts such as class, parliament or partly
church. The dialect is native language, whereas many speakers feel not comfortable when
speaking High German. The fact that standardised tools are only available in High German
to assess aphasia raises a number of questions: (1) What does the language use of speechlanguage
pathologists (SLPs) look like? (2) Does code-switching between Swiss and High
German occur in SLPs and patients in aphasia-testing situations? (3) Do SLPs see the need
for a diagnostic tool that accounts for the Swiss language situation?
Two different methods have been employed to address these questions. To answer the
first and the third question, an online questionnaire was sent to SLPs working in Germanspeaking
Switzerland in different settings like hospitals, rehabilitation centres and SLPs’
practices. In addition to demographic, working-situation and test-use details, the
questionnaire collected data about the varieties used in daily life and in clinical settings, as
well as suggestions for relevant aspects for test development for Switzerland. 82 SLPs from
17 cantons completed the questionnaire. The second question was addressed with a case
study involving two SLPs testing one client each with the Aachen Aphasia Test (AAT;
Huber et al., 1983), a standardised test specifically developed for the German language
containing several subtests targeting different linguistic modalities. SLP-patient interactions
were video-recorded, transcribed, and analysed with respect to code-switching.
Results show that not only native speakers of Swiss German (81% of participants), but all
SLPs indicate to use dialect in clinical contexts (80/82) and in their daily life (77), even
though some individual cases might involve a non-Swiss dialect or a light adaptation of
High German towards Swiss German. Most SLPs use both Swiss and High German for
communication with their patients, and many use also other languages, such as Italian or
French. The case studies on variety use in testing situations reveal that both SLPs and
patients code-switch between varieties, with patients showing more code-switching, in some
instances possibly to bypass word-finding problems in High German. SLPs’ code-switching
shows some systematicity; in addition the pronunciation of Swiss High German varies. The
survey data show that a large majority of SLPs (63/82) regard a taking-into-account of the
Swiss language situation as important for aphasia test developments. Most think that all
linguistic levels should be included in this.
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iClave (The International Conference on Language Variation in Europe)
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English
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Yes
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Unpublished
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WIDMER BEIERLEIN, Sandra, Constanze VORWERG und Laura LISSONI, 2015. Language Use in Aphasia Testing in German-Speaking Switzerland. iClave (The International Conference on Language Variation in Europe). Leizpig. Mai 2015. Verfügbar unter: http://hdl.handle.net/11654/23322