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Issues relating to bilinguals Pattern of acquisition is similar across bilinguals and monolinguals (e.g., De Houwer, 2005; Pearson & Fernández, 1994) …although some unique bilingual characteristics sounds naming [2 words] 3+ words (sentences)
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Issues and methods in the development of language assessment tools for bilingual
Welsh-English speakersEnlli Môn Thomas
Prifysgol Bangor University
ASN, Edinburgh 23 June, 2014
Structure of the talk• Background issues relating to bilingual language
development– Issues for minority and majority language assessment
• The development of receptive vocabulary tests– Prawf Geirfa Cymraeg, Fersiwn 7-11 (Gathercole & Thomas,
2007)– Prawf Geirfa Cymraeg, Fersiwn 11-15 (Gathercole, Thomas,
Hughes, Roberts & Owen, forthcoming)
• The development of Welsh verbal categorisation and verbal analogy tasks– Cognitive Abilities Task 4, Welsh Adaptation (GL Assessment,
2014)
Issues relating to bilingualsPattern of acquisition is similar across bilinguals and
monolinguals (e.g., De Houwer, 2005; Pearson & Fernández, 1994)
…although some unique bilingual characteristics sounds
naming
[2 words]3+ words (sentences)
Issues relating to bilingualsHowever…
Rate of acquisition slower in bilinguals than in monolinguals:
– Vocabulary (e.g., Umbel, Pearson, Ferńandez & Oller, 1992; Pearson, Ferńandez & Oller, 1993,1995; Pearson & Ferńandez, 1994; Bialystok, Luk, Peets & Yang, 2010);
– expressive > receptive (Thordardottir, 2011)
– Morphosyntax (e.g., Thomas et al., 2014; Kupisch, 2004; Kupisch, Müller & Cantone, 2002)
Why?• Vocabulary knowledge is ‘distributed’ across bilinguals’ two
languages (so called ‘Distributed Characteristic’ – Oller, 2005)• domain specific• item-by-item
• For morphosyntax: takes longer for bilinguals to achieve the “critical mass” of exposure (Maratsos, 2000) in any of their languages that is necessary in order to be able to abstract regularities from the input and generalise patterns in a productive manner.
• Once “critical mass” is achieved, differences between bilinguals and monolinguals should /can disappear (e.g., Oller & Eilers, 2002).
Catch-up?• ‘Vocabulary gap’ more prolonged than grammatical
difference – e.g., Oller et al. 2007; Paradis & Genesee, 1996; but see e.g.,
Thordardottir, Rothenberg, Rivard, & naves (2006) for equal performance for both vocab and grammar for balanced bilinguals
• But…largely dependent on amount of input, particularly in the minority language (e.g., Thordardottir, 2011; Thordardottir et al., 2006; Thomas et al., 2014) and use of the language
• Bilingual ‘catch-up’ is quicker and more likely in dominant community languages (Gathercole & Thomas, 2009).
81.28
57.83
73.47 71.39
86.11 85.39
60.44
70.83
96 95.3 95.9 100 100 100 98.8 95
0102030405060708090
100
L1 Welsh childrenL1 Welsh adults
58.41
34.141
26.41
44.1 44.7235
44.83
81.573.35
78.8
96.692 96
89.697.5
0102030405060708090
100
+suff
+suff/V
~suff
~suff/V -su
ff-su
ff/V V
Suppletive
2L1 children2L1 adults
45.61
32.39 36.39
24.5734.35 32.78
20.48
39.43
74.364.6 66.8
76.582
100
71.6
83.1
0102030405060708090
100
+suff
+suff/V
~suff
~suff/V -su
ff-su
ff/V V
Suppletive
L2 Welsh childrenL2 Welsh adults
Thomas, E. M., Williams, N., Jones, Ll. A., Davies, S., & Binks, H. (2014). Acquiring complex structures under minority language conditions: Bilingual acquisition of plural morphology in Welsh. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 17 (3), 478-494.
Catch-up?However…
•Bialystok & Luk (2012): prolonged differences between ‘balanced’ adult bilinguals and monolinguals , even on receptive knowledge of English vocabulary (dominant community language)
•This suggests that acquisition of vocabulary in a dominant community language is not necessarily ‘automatic’
•Such findings have clear implications for bilingual education and assessment, as well as for theoretical approaches to language production and comprehension
Rhys, M. & Thomas, E. M. (2013). Bilingual Welsh–English children's acquisition of vocabulary and reading: implications for bilingual education. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 16 (6), 633-656.
Bilingual Control
L1 Welsh L1 English 2L1 Monolingual
7/8 36 28 19 17
10/11 46 27 19 15
Total (N=207):
82 55 38 32
Controlled for SES (all Fs > .115, all p > .077) and NVIQ (F(3, 196)= 2.619, p= .052).
English reading
Home language (F(3,193)= 7.400, p= .000) & age (F(1, 193)= 12.065, p= .001). Mono > L1 Welsh (p= .006) , 2L1 (p= .017)L1 English > L1 Welsh (p= .007), 2L1 (p= .024).
80
85
90
95
100
105
110
7 to 8 10 to 11
Control
L1 English
2L1
L1 Welsh
Standard Scores (NARA-II)
English vocabularyStandard Scores (BPVS)
Home language (F(3, 196)= 17.827, p= .000).Mono & L1 English > L1 Welsh(p= .006) , 2L1 (p= .017)
70
75
80
85
90
95
100
7 to 8 10 to 11
Control
L1 English
2L1
L1 Welsh
Implications of past research findings for Celtic bilinguals
• Bilinguals should be tested in both languages
• Bilinguals should be compared to a meaningful norm in both tests – English: existing tasks may be appropriate to use with L1
English bilinguals, but not 2L1 or L1 Welsh/Scottish Gaelic– Need to create bilingual norms for existing English tasks– Welsh/Scottish Gaelic: need language specific tests, with
meaningful norms– English & Welsh/Scottish Gaelic: tests need to deal with
unique features of bilingual speech – e.g. code-switching
Initial considerations
• Each word native Welsh word
• No cognates/ borrowings
• Avoid dialectal words
• Wide range of frequencies and complexities (Cronfa Electroneg o’r Gymraeg, Ellis et al., 2001)
• Able to be expressed easily in pictorial form
240 words
30 words each per 8 frequencyLevels:
•600-1000+ per 1,000,000•200- 599 "•150 - 199 "•100-149 "•75-99 "•50-74 "•25-49 "•< 25 " "
Cronfa Electroneg o’r Gymraeg (Ellis et al., 2001)
AB
CCH
[Target =Pren “wood/wooden”]
AB
C CH
[Target =Peryglus “dangerous”]
AB
C CH
[Ymosod “to attack”]
A B
C CH
[Cuddio “to hide”]
A
B
C CH
[Gwag “empty”]
A B
C CH
[Llygru “to pollute”]
A B
C CH
[Dwys “solemn”]
7- to 11-year-olds:
Age OWH WEH OEH Tot.7 43 36 29 1088 45 60 55 1609 36 43 44 123
10 54 40 46 14011 36 17 27 80
Tot. 214 196 201 611
Criteria for assignment to bilingual ‘type’:
Language spoken by Parent 1 to child
Language spoken by Parent 2 to child OWH WEH OEH
only W only W xonly W mostly W x
mostly W mostly W xW and E W and E xonly W only E xonly W W and E x
mostly W W and E xonly E mostly W xonly E W and E x
mostly E mostly W xmostly E W and E x
only E only E xmostly E mostly E x
Norming the data
Variables:• Age
– 7-11• School Year
– higher/lower• Home Language
– OWH, WEH, OEH
• Performance on 111/240 words differed across the variables
Raw score
General standardised score
+Age/Year x Home
Language standardised score
75.0
73.3
81.6
77.8
89.2
83.3 85
.4
94.1 97
.682
.084.8
75.1
68.070
.6
66.2
61.4
69.6
77.5
88.4
78.5
72.0
71.3
68.370.2
58.259
.3
59.4
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
1107
- Yr
3
8 -
Yr 3
8 -
Yr 4
9 -
Yr 4
9 -
Yr 5
10 -
Yr 5
10 -
Yr
6
11 -
Yr
6
11 -
Yr
7
Age - Year Group by Home Language
Num
ber o
f Wor
ds
OWH WEH OEH
Mean Number Correct Responses by Age - Year and Home Language on 111 discriminating words
AGE 7
AllAge 7 - Yr 3
OWH WEH OEH
8586878890
85 9186 9287 9388 94
85 90 9586 91 9787 92 9888 93 9989 94 10090 95 10191 97 10292 85 98 10394 86 99 10595 87 100 10796 88 101 10897 90 102 10998 91 103 11099 92 105 111
100 93 107 112101 94 108 113102 95 109 114103 97 110 115104 98 111105 99 112106 100 113107 101 114109 102 115110 103
434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475
Gathercole, V. C. Mueller, Thomas, E. M., Hughes, E. K., Roberts, E. J., & Hughes, C.(in press) . Prawf Geirfa Cymraeg: Fersiwn 11-15. Bangor: School of Psychology, Bangor University.
Discussed in Chapter 9 (pp.175-193):
Thomas, E. M., Gathercole, V. C. Mueller, & Hughes, E. K. (2013). Sociolinguistic Influences on the Linguistic Achievement of Bilinguals: Issues for the Assessment of Minority Language Competence. In V. C. Mueller Gathercole (ed.), Solutions for the Assessment of Bilinguals. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Method
• 242 words tested in total• 212/242 same as in the 7-11 version • Additional 30 less frequent words added
30
Age (in years)
11 12 13 14 15 Total
Home language
Welsh 47 57 48 56 52 260
Welsh & English
35 69 45 49 41 239
English 31 54 54 77 52 268
Total 113 180 147 182 145 767
Results
• Performance on 125/242 was at ceiling (over 90% correct) or at baseline (under 25% correct)
• 3/242 words non-discriminatory• Final test includes 114 words
31
Results
32
7680
84 84
89
8176
7066
76
6664
6965
63
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
11 12 13 14 15
Age Group
Num
ber o
f Wor
ds
OWH WEH OEH
Norming the data11-13, OWH. WEH, OEH
14-15 OWH, WEH
Raw score
General standardised score
+Age/Year x Home
Language standardised score
Norming the data14-15 OEH
Raw score
General standardised score
+Age/Year x Home
Language standardised score
+ community language standardised score
Results: Home Language, Age and Community Type
• Quantitative– Number analogies– Number series
• Non-verbal– Figure classification– Figure matrices
• Spatial– Figure analysis– Figure recognition
• Verbal
Verbal task 1: Verbal Classification
Verbal task 2: Verbal Analogies
Development of verbal tasks in Welsh
• All items translated• 3 researchers read all
items• Items coded as
– acceptable for Welsh– Not acceptable for
Welsh• Researchers met to
discuss and agree on items to keep
• Project leader (me)• Team of Welsh-speaking
researchers (Bangor University)
• Translation services (Atebol) • Teachers• Data collectors (GL
Assessment)• Statistician (GL Assessment)• Original author
Development of verbal tasks in Welsh
• Non-acceptable items coded further:– Problems with target– Problems with options
• Problems usually of the following types:– Item irregular word– Item dialectal word– Not enough expressions
from within same category in Welsh
– Duplication
• Project leader (me)• Team of Welsh-speaking
researchers (Bangor University)
• Translation services (Atebol) • Teachers• Data collectors (GL
Assessment)• Statistician (GL Assessment)• Original author
Development of verbal tasks in Welsh
• Adapting the items– Some thrown out– Some included item
changes– Some needed to be
created from new
• Project leader (me)• Team of Welsh-speaking
researchers (Bangor University)
• Translation services (Atebol) • Teachers• Data collectors (GL
Assessment)• Statistician (GL Assessment)• Original author
Development of verbal tasks in Welsh
• Researchers worked on developing new items and new full entries
• Meetings to discuss items
• Final version sent to translators and teachers
• Few queries• Final decisions made
• Project leader (me)• Team of Welsh-speaking
researchers (Bangor University)
• Translation services (Atebol) • Teachers• Data collectors (GL
Assessment)• Statistician (GL Assessment)• Original author
Results
Results