Dual-language testing improves bilinguals' verbal scores

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Bilingual individuals often underperform compared to monolinguals on verbal ability tests when restricted to a single language.
• Existing assessment methods may not fully capture the linguistic capabilities of bilinguals.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if allowing Spanish-English bilinguals to respond in either language improves their performance on verbal ability tests.
• To assess if this improved performance bridges the gap between bilinguals and monolinguals.

Main Methods:

• Spanish-English bilingual college students and English-speaking monolingual students were compared.
• Participants completed the Bilingual Verbal Ability Tests (BVAT), including Picture Vocabulary, Oral Vocabulary, and Verbal Analogies.
• Bilinguals were given the option to answer in Spanish for items they initially failed in English.

Main Results:

• Bilinguals demonstrated significantly higher scores on all three BVAT subtests when allowed to use Spanish.
• Bilinguals' performance matched monolingual levels on Oral Vocabulary and Verbal Analogies.
• The "either-language" scoring approach revealed enhanced verbal abilities in bilinguals.

Conclusions:

• An "either-language" scoring method offers a more accurate measurement of bilinguals' verbal abilities.
• Normative data for the BVAT using this scoring approach are provided for clinical assessment.
• This approach may be crucial for accurate clinical evaluation of bilingual individuals.