Morphosyntactic investigationof high-functioning autism children's English language performances

Abstract

Speaking English with a native speaker’s (NS) accent often comes with perfect grammatical structures. However, with regard to children with High-Functioning Autism (henceforth, HFA), their superficially perfect expressive English language with English NS accent tends to mask their grammatical deficits; as a result, studies conducted on HFA children’s acquisition have been mostly focused on their pragmatic deficits and less on their morphosyntactic performance. Since previous studies have shown conflicting findings in terms of HFA’s grammatical ability, guided by the Weak Central Coherence theory, Theory of Mind, and the Optional Infinitive Hypothesis, this study investigates the English language performance of Malaysian HFA children through morphosyntactic investigation. This is to highlight the diverse linguistic areas that need attention so that their academic needs can be attended to. Data were obtained from spontaneous speech interactions with three eight- to ten-year-old Malay HFA children with English NS accents, for a period of 12 months. Qualitative analysis with quantitative support was used to analyse the data. The morphosyntactic performance in particular, the English present tense and past tense copula usage, was analysed. Based on Pence and Justice developmental timeline, the findings revealed the presence of three main items: complex syntax development, morphological development, and literate language. Results show that the children’s utterances have mixed performances. While the first child showed excellent morphosyntactic performance in the present tense compared to the past tense particularly the tense marking, the second showed almost intact morphosyntactic performance in both the present and past tenses. The third child, although showed poorer tense marking and morphosyntactic performance compared to the other two participants, exhibited quite good performance in some areas of tense marking, morphology, syntax and literate language. The findings of this case study contribute to the understanding of language peculiarities and the acquisition of English in Malay HFA children in Malaysia, whose English seem to be their first language. It is hoped that by highlighting their profiles and diverse linguistic performance, awareness to the mainstream teachers of the characteristics and linguistic ability of these children can be enhanced and that English language teachers will understand their special needs in specific morphosyntactic areas in the language and eventually accommodate their learning needs in the classroom despite their native-like English-speaking ability.