title: Acquisition of Consonant Clusters and Acceptable Variants in Chinese-Influenced Malaysian English-Speaking Children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study investigated consonant cluster acquisition in Chinese-influenced Malaysian English (ChME)-speaking children.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional study involved 262 typically developing ChME-speaking children (138 girls, 124 boys) ages 3 to 7 years old. A single-word picture-naming task, which contained 66 words and targeted 32 syllable-initial (SI) and 14 syllable-final (SF) consonant clusters, was administered.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Older children produced more correct productions than younger children, and there was no sex effect for consonant cluster production. SF consonant clusters were more accurate than SI consonant clusters among the younger children. The overall sequence of SI consonant cluster accuracy based on cluster categories from most to least accurate was /s/ + C, C + /w/, C + /j/, C + /l/, and C + /r/, whereas for SF consonant clusters, the order was C + stop, C + /s/, nasal + C, and /l/ + C. Two-element clusters consistently had higher accuracy in comparison to three-element clusters across the age groups. The overall consonant cluster accuracy of the present study showed similar patterns to those found in previous studies of Standard English.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings of the study will be useful in the assessment of consonant cluster production of ChME-speaking children.
authors.forename: Hooi San
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Phoon
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maclagan
authors.forename: Anna Christina
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Abdullah
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D008296:Malaysia; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D010700:Phonetics; D012016:Reference Values; D012660:Semantics; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D014825:Vocabulary