School of Human and Community Development (ETDs)

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Browsing School of Human and Community Development (ETDs) by Author "Banjo, Hillary Pelumi"

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    Phonetic verbal fluency in Multilingual speakers
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Banjo, Hillary Pelumi; Ferreira-Correia, Aline
    Verbal fluency is a core neuropsychological function that assess a person's ability to locate precise information under specific search criteria. This study aimed to investigate the differences in performance of multilingual individuals who report English as their first language and individuals who report other languages as their first language on a phonemic fluency test assessed by the COWAT FAS. Whilst also investigating the influence of the covariates (age, gender, years of formal education, and code switching) on the performance of these individuals. To address these aims a sample of 60 participants were recruited through purposive and snowballing sampling. The results of the study revealed a statistically non-significant difference in the performance between multilingual individuals who report English as their first language and individuals who report other languages as their first language as well as a statistically non-significant (p >.05) difference in performance between males and females. The Spearman rho correlation revealed a significant correlation (p < .05) between the age of participants and their COWAT FAS total score, while a non-significant correlation was observed between the code switching of participants and their COWAT FAS total score. Similarly, the Pearson product correlation revealed a significant positive correlation between the years of formal education of participants and the COWAT FAS total score. Overall, this study provides fresh insight into the performance of multilinguals in South Africa as well as demographic factors that influence performance on this test which creates a foundation for more studies to be conducted on this topic.