Adaptation and Validation of the Child Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire Into Kannada

Parent-reported measures are one of the ways of gathering a child's language experience and proficiency. Because no parent-reported questionnaires are available in Kannada to assess children's language proficiency and experience, the present study aimed to adapt and validate the Child Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire (CLEAP-Q) into Kannada.

We employed a cross-sectional study design. The CLEAP-Q was translated into Kannada using the standard guidelines for cross-cultural adaptation. Three groups of participants were handed out the final version of the CLEAP-Q in Kannada (KCLEAP-Q). One hundred parents of bilingual children whose first language (L1) was Kannada and second language (L2) was English were included in Group 1. Twenty-five parents of bilingual children whose L1 was Kannada and L2 was English were included in Group 2. Twenty-five parents of multilingual children whose L1 was Telugu, L2 was English, and third language was Kannada were included in Group 3. The responses from each participant were collected and statistically analyzed. The study used Cronbach's alpha (α) to evaluate test-retest reliability, factor analysis was used to determine internal consistency, and an independent-samples t test was conducted between Group 2 and Group 3 participants to assess known-groups validity.

For all dimensions of bilingualism of L1 and L2, the KCLEAP-Q showed high test-retest reliability, with a Cronbach's α of more than .9. The factor analysis revealed good internal consistency, producing six factors. The KCLEAP-Q also showed a significant difference between the children with high and low proficiency in Kannada, thereby showing good known-groups validity.

Clinicians and researchers could use the KCLEAP-Q as a valid and reliable tool to assess language experience and proficiency in bilingual Kannada-speaking children.