Document Type : Original Articles
Authors
1 Department ofSpeech Therapy, , School of Rehabilitation, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences,Tehran,iran.
2 department of Speech Therapy, Rehabilitation School, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
3 department of Biostatistics, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran.
Abstract
Background: Various studies have reported conflicting results regarding the differences between monolingual and bilingual people in verbal (semantic and letter) fluency. Considering the differences between languages in bilinguals and cultural differences influencing language, the present study was conducted to investigate verbal fluency in Kurdish and Azari bilinguals and comparing it with Farsi monolinguals.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 30 Farsi monolingual students, 28 Kurdish- Farsi bilinguals, and 29 Azari-Farsi bilinguals. In this study, both semantic (fruits and animals) and letter fluency (/f/, /a/, and /s/) tasks were used. Each bilingual subject was asked to perform verbal fluency tasks twice (once in their native language and once again in Farsi).
Results: Bilinguals performed better in Farsi than their mother language (Azari and Kurdish) in both fluency tasks (P <0.001). Also, bilinguals and monolinguals were found to be the same in formal language of their community (Farsi language).
Conclusion: It seems that, formal language in Iran (Farsi) dominates the language of bilingual people, because people study in educational system and formal writing is done in Farsi and bilinguals only use native language for conversations in their native context and with their peers.
Keywords
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