title: Self-ratings of Spoken Language Dominance: A Multi-Lingual Naming Test (MINT) and Preliminary Norms for Young and Aging Spanish-English Bilinguals.
abstract: This study investigated correspondence between different measures of bilingual language proficiency contrasting self-report, proficiency interview, and picture naming skills. Fifty-two young (Experiment 1) and 20 aging (Experiment 2) Spanish-English bilinguals provided self-ratings of proficiency level, were interviewed for spoken proficiency, and named pictures in a Multilingual Naming Test (MINT, and in Experiment 1 also the Boston Naming Test; BNT). Self-ratings, proficiency interview, and the MINT did not differ significantly in classifying bilinguals into language-dominance groups, but naming tests (especially the BNT) classified bilinguals as more English-dominant than other measures. Strong correlations were observed between measures of proficiency in each language and language-dominance, but not degree of balanced bilingualism (index scores). Depending on the measure, up to 60% of bilinguals scored best in their self-reported non-dominant language. The BNT distorted bilingual assessment by underestimating ability in Spanish. These results illustrate what self-ratings can and cannot provide, illustrate the pitfalls of testing bilinguals with measures designed for monolinguals, and invite a multi-measure goal driven approach to classifying bilinguals into dominance groups.
authors.affiliation: University of California San Diego, Department of Psychiatry.
authors.forename: Tamar H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Gollan
authors.affiliation: University of California San Diego, Department of Psychiatry ; San Diego State University.
authors.forename: Gali H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Weissberger
authors.affiliation: Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Elin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Runnqvist
authors.affiliation: University of California San Diego, Department of Psychiatry.
authors.forename: Rosa I
authors.initials: RI
authors.lastname: Montoya
authors.affiliation: University of California San Diego, Department of Psychiatry.
authors.forename: Cynthia M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Cera
keywords: aging; language dominance; picture naming test; proficiency; self-ratings