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Part of
Multilingual Acquisition and Learning: An ecosystemic view to diversity
Edited by Elena Babatsouli
[Studies in Bilingualism 67] 2024
► pp. 143–168

Chapter 5
Stuttering in two languages

An SFL-based exploration of bilingual stuttering

| Florida International University
| University College Cork
| Bangor University

The purpose of this study was to describe the linguistic resources used by four Spanish-English speaking bilingual males who stutter to convey their attitudes and experiences with bilingual stuttering. Participants were 16, 28, 29, and 63 years of age. Analytic tools grounded in Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, namely those based on experiential meaning and appraisal, revealed how participants structured their talk to emphasize details and experiences of significance. Aspects of being a second language learner were described as a facilitator and a hindrance to fluency, while stuttering was reported as having both a positive and negative impact on language learning. Characteristics of Spanish grammar such as high frequency of vowel-initial words and morphosyntactic structure were described as barriers to fluent speech.

Keywords: Systemic Functional Linguistics, SFL, stuttering, bilingualism, qualitative
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1An overview of stuttering
    • 1.2Bilingual stuttering
    • 1.3A brief introduction to systemic functional linguistics
    • 1.4Research purpose
  • 2.Methods
    • 2.1Ethics
    • 2.2Participants
    • 2.3Data collection
    • 2.4Data analysis
    • 2.5Reliability
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Ivan
    • 3.2Sam
    • 3.3Brian
    • 3.4Neil
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
    • 5.1Considerations for future SFL-based research
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 30 May 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil.67.05med
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