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Understanding How Languages Interact
Sounds Sounds Sounds
Unique to Common Unique to
L1 L2
The Venn diagrams present information about the consonants and vowels in English
and another language (L1). The diagrams indicate the sounds that are unique to L1, the sounds
that are unique to English (L2), and the sounds that are common to both languages. Using this
information helps to determine whether errors on certain sounds can be expected. Speech‐
language evaluators should not be concerned about a child who is only making errors on
sounds that are unique to English. However, evaluators should be concerned about a child
who is making errors on shared sounds and the unique sounds of his or her native language.
That said, evaluators also have to take into account the normal developmental sequence of
the sounds. Sounds that are unique to one language or the other also tend to be later
occurring sounds.
LANGUAGE STRUCTURES
Aspects of the language systems that help differentiate normal and atypical
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productions include word order, verb systems, and morphological markers, among other
features. When systems or structures differ across languages, English language learners often
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