With the shift away from evaluation of isolated aspects of linguistic performance,
discourse assessment has become an important tool in assessing the communication
competence of individuals following a neurological insult. The present research
investigates the effects of mild to moderate aphasia on the discourse performance of
Creole speaking Mauritians. A control group was included so as to differentiate aspects
of discourse from normal to pathological and with a view to discerning the compensatory
strategies of adults with aphasia in discourse. Various narrative tasks from an adapted
version of the Ulatowska et al (1998) battery were employed. Each task assessed
different levels of language and cognitive complexity. The major findings of the study
revealed that the underlying difficulty of the individuals with mild to moderate aphasia
lie not in the quality of the discourse characteristics analysed but rather in the quantity.
Moreover, their problem at a linguistic level is highlighted which is in agreement with
past research. Also, an appraisal of the adaptation features disclosed the compensatory
strategies employed by the subjects. It was found that the subjects with aphasia
employed repetitions as a compensatory strategy in their narratives. Finally, the battery
was found to be culturally and linguistically appropriate to the Mauritian population and
it elicited natural language which helped gain insight into the discourse characteristics of
Mauritian Creole. Results indicated that the Creole speakers favour a full verbal channel,
thus priming fluency. Numerous theoretical, clinical and future research implications
emerging from this study are discussed.