Investigating bilingual aphasia: a focus on discourse production
Keywords:
bilingualism, aphasia, language, discourse, cognition.Abstract
The assessment and treatment of bilinguals and multilinguals’ discourse processing still represents a challenge to researchers and speech pathologists, due to the lack of specific training to treat this population and the scarce number of neuropsychological instruments adapted to Brazilian socio-linguistic reality. An effective discourse processing by aphasic bilinguals is fundamental to their re-adaptation to the family and social environment. The aim of this article is to present a review of the main characteristics of bilingual aphasia, its assessment, treatment and the languages recovery patterns. The findings of this study are exemplified by evidence brought
by two case studies of bilingual aphasic individuals, with a left hemisphere brain damage in the frontal lobe. The article illustrates the complexity of the study and treatment of bilingual aphasia in its discursive aspects, generated by the interplay between cognitive components and the two linguistic systems involved.