Efficacy of Treatment in L1 and L2 in Russian/Hebrew Bilingual Patients With Aphasia

The prevalence of bilingualism is constantly growing worldwide, but research on the efficacy of language therapies for bilingual patients with aphasia is still sparse (see Goral et al., 2010, 2012). Previous case studies show a positive effect of Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA) therapy in relation to language functions (Boyle, 2010; Kiran & Roberts, 2010) and communicative abilities (e.g., Wambaugh & Ferguson, 2007) in both monolingual and bilingual persons with aphasia (MonoPWA and BiPWA, respectively). SFA is a naming treatment that requires the patient to generate words associated with the word they cannot name. The current study aims to evaluate the efficacy of the SFA therapy on the language functions and narrative production of Russian/Hebrew BiPWAs. The presented study is part of a larger research program aimed to determine the differences in narrative production of Russian/Hebrew BiPWA and Hebrew MonoPWA, additionally clarifying BiPWA language profiles in terms of background factors (e.g., language use/ dominance before the stroke) and executive-functioning. Two Russian/Hebrew BiPWAs with chronic aphasia received two consecutive blocks of SFA therapy in L1-Russian and L2-Hebrew (12 sessions in each language). Patients were tested prior to the treatment on the Russian and Hebrew short versions of BAT (Ivanova & Hallowell, 2009; Paradis & Libben, 1987) as well as on narrative abilities. At each SFA session, the patients were asked to generate the semantic features of 12 words (8 nouns and 4 verbs) and name the words. Both patients improved in naming the target words. In addition, the scores on the BAT naming subtest after the treatment was higher in both treated and the untreated language. More importantly, an improvement in narrative production was detected in both languages, as measured by the number of correct information units. This finding confirms that the therapy yields a generalized effect, beyond naming.