Conducting Clinical Assessment in Multilingual Contexts

Africa is one of the most multilingual continents, with a wide range of speakers having bi-/multilingual repertoires (Juillard, 2021). In Cameroon, more than 250 national languages coexist alongside French and English, which are the official languages (Binam Bikoï et al., 2012).

This multilingual situation has consequences on everyday linguistic practices as well as on the linguistic profiles of speakers, who range from exclusive monolingualism to early bilingualism, late bilingualism, additive bilingualism, subtractive bilingualism, consecutive bilingualism and polyglotism. Within a context of linguistic and cultural diversity as striking as that found in contemporary urban communities, the practice of speech therapy is becoming increasingly complex (Michalon, 2025).

Challenges arise in terms of effective assessment and targeted care. However, not only is speech therapy virtually non-existent in Cameroon, but there are also no tests available in Cameroonian languages. Most assessments are carried out using tools developed in French or English, which does not allow the linguistic and cultural particularities of each patient to be highlighted, and which does not guarantee targeted and successful treatment.

This conference brings together researchers from different backgrounds working in speech therapy, audiology, psycholinguistics, psychology and language acquisition. The aim is to undertake an in-depth exploration of the challenges and issues related to clinical assessment in a context of linguistic and cultural diversity.