title: Why bother with testing? The validity of immigrants' self-assessed language proficiency.
abstract: Due to its central role in social integration, immigrants' language proficiency is a matter of considerable societal concern and scientific interest. This study examines whether commonly applied self-assessments of linguistic skills yield results that are similar to those of competence tests and thus whether these self-assessments are valid measures of language proficiency. Analyses of data for immigrant youth reveal moderate correlations between language test scores and two types of self-assessments (general ability estimates and concrete performance estimates) for the participants' first and second languages. More importantly, multiple regression models using self-assessments and models using test scores yield different results. This finding holds true for a variety of analyses and for both types of self-assessments. Our findings further suggest that self-assessed language skills are systematically biased in certain groups. Subjective measures thus seem to be inadequate estimates of language skills, and future research should use them with caution when research questions pertain to actual language skills rather than self-perceptions.
authors.affiliation: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: aileen.edele@iqb.hu-berlin.de.
authors.forename: Aileen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Edele
authors.affiliation: Chair for Sociology, esp. Analysis of Social Structure, University of Bamberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Julian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Seuring
authors.affiliation: Chair for Sociology, esp. Analysis of Social Structure, University of Bamberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Cornelia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kristen
authors.affiliation: Institute for Educational Quality Improvement, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Stanat
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D004521:Educational Measurement; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007807:Language Tests; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012649:Self Concept
keywords: Immigrants; Language ability; Language test; Self-assessment; Validity