Manifestation of Stuttering Behavior in Bilingual Children with L1 as Urdu and L2 as English

Abstract

The present study is one of the earliest studies that analyze the significant and unique relationships in its nature and contribute in theory of linguistics and speech patterns. First, the study is contributing in theory to find an underpinned mechanism of U-E CWS as their native and foreign language. In Pakistan, it has not done earlier, for the languages of Urdu as primary language and English as secondary language.  Secondly, the empirical analysis of stuttering in content and function words in both languages (Urdu and English) give high contribution in the field of Applied linguistics. Thirdly, the research is determining the impacts of language proficiency on stuttering behavior in U-E languages. The relationship of language proficiency and stuttering behavior is the first attempt in Applied Linguistics, which gives extensive information to understand the need of language proficiency among CWS and their behaviors. The data for the presented research has been collected through questionnaire and purposive sampling technique was used to collect the data from respondents. Findings show that there is a significant difference among CWS in Urdu as L1 and English as L2, children stutter more in their secondary language rather than in primary language. While the results also showed that stuttering in function words (Urdu) is less and stuttering in content words (Urdu) is much higher, but the word type of L2, the stuttering is same. Which means stuttering in English is higher without impact of word types. The data analysis showed if the language proficiency is increased by 1 percent, there is 2.11 % improvement in stuttering behavior is possible. Therefore, there is a positive relationship in language proficiency and stuttering behavior among CWS.