Hello, my name is David Roney. I am in my junior year of college and am pursuing a major in Psychology and a minor in Communication Sciences and Disorders at The College of Wooster in Wooster, OH. Currently I am studying abroad at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand for the semester. I decided to take a psychology hiatus during this time, take classes in the field of Speech & Language Pathology, and potentially earn credits to be used towards graduate school. This semester I am enrolled in “Speech Sound Disorders” and “Language Disorders in Children.”
It is difficult to begin an analysis of living in New Zealand as a whole, as so many aspects are both different and very similar to life in the United States. One reason I chose to study abroad in New Zealand was the lack of a language barrier. I wanted to be able to have meaningful conversations, especially when it came to what I was studying. I am proficient in Spanish, but would not get enough out of Spanish-speaking classes to make a significant impact on my progress in my field of study. As it turns out, New Zealand English is very different from American English when it comes to studying (spoken) Communication Disorders. More on that to come.
“Speech Sound Disorders” is taught by Dr. Toby Macrae. He has spent upwards of a decade studying and teaching in the United States, most recently at Florida State University, and arrived back in Christchurch within a week of when I did. Despite being a Kiwi, he has communicated the process of readjustment he is going through.
“Language Disorders in Children” is taught by Dr. Jayne Newbury. A University of Canterbury alumna, she has spent the last several years working as an SLP throughout New Zealand and has recently returned to teach.
Week 1 of classes has been completed, I have done maybe 2 readings for each one, and I am itching to get deeper into the content. There is something strangely similar to my classes in the US, but the cultural basis for the material covered is different. I can’t speak to it sufficiently to make a claim yet, as I have only spent about 3 hours in each class. Much conversation in class has revolved around the amount of funding that New Zealand has to provide to Speech and Language treatment. The prevalence of speech and language disorders in the country exists much above the amount of funding available, but I imagine this is the case in many other places in the world.
A significant thing I’ve noticed, but never thought about through a specific CSD lens – vowels in Kiwi English are different. In the United States, many children have difficulty articulating the r-colored vowel, often into the school years. Kiwi English does not use this sound frequently in regular speech. “Car is pronounced “ka.” In the US, this pronunciation difference would remove a significant group of children from a “disordered” label. /r/ remains a difficult sound, of course, many children derhoticize prevocalic /r/ as well. Also, in the Maori language there exists a bilabial fricative (/β/). American-based SLP’s will not come across a child who uses this sound, or has difficulty with it, as much as New Zealand-based SLP’s. In comes the abundance of opportunities for cultural competency I expected this semester.
I look forward to what is to come in these two classes, and hope to gain more insight into the differences and similarities that I have outlined mentally already. And I also hope not to turn onto the right side of the road and crash next time I get into a car. It’s a flood of learning experiences out here, and I’m here for all of it.
CSD at the University of Canterbury 