Measurement of Bilingualism

By:Ana Zulianingrum

Purposes

Ditribution(Estimate

bil in certain area)

Selection(Placement

test)

Summative(Sum up the proficiency)

Normative(Sum up the proficiency

and give feedback)

Background

• Problem of categorizing bilingualism• It’s natural to categorize the complexity of

language differences

Distribution(Census Questions)

Selection

DistribuClass

Classification

Bilingual proficiencyLanguage

background

BalancedSemilingual

Double Semilingual

Monolingual

Summative

Reading Vocabulary

Reading Comprehen

sion

Language Proficiency

Achievement Test

Totaling up

Spelling

GrammarOthers

Formative

Summing up

Language proficiency

Feedback during

learning

Direct action

Development

Examples of Measurement

Language Background

Scales

Language Censuses

Self Rating on

Proficiency

Language background scales

Limitation:1. Ambiguity of the

problem2. Social desirability3. Not comprehensive4. Narrow sample of major

domains5. Time frequency6. Insufficient question “to

whom”

Contextual dimensions need to be included:

Preferred categorization

Recent history of language

Geographical area of

language

Number of users

Legal status of language

Language Census

• Belgium census• The first

national census

1846

• US’ language census

• Taken every 10 years

1910

• Venezuela’s census

• To distinguise lg ability & lg use

1992

Census limitations

• Questions are often ambiguous

• Questions do not usually include 4 lg abilities

• No language domain’s questions

• Questions can be politically provocative

• Census doesn’t cover all population

Self-Rating Proficiency

• To assess students’ strength and weakness

• Adapted from a survey (Linguistic Minorities Project London)

• 4 basic lg competency included

Limitations

Ambiguity

Context

Social desirability

Slight tendency to say yes

Self-awareness

Narrow sampling

Labelling

Criteria of Lg testing(UNESCO, 1991)

Sound discriminationListening vocabulary

General comprehension speechUnderstanding morphology of verbs

Prepositions, nouns. Syntax of statements & questions

PronounciationSpeaking vocabulary

Fluency oral descriptionControl of verbs and preposition

Qualifiers, nounsControl of syntax & questions

• Lado : Lg theories tend to center skills &components

• Skills(L,S, W, R)• Comp(Gram, vocab,

phonology)

• Linguistic component(Syntax, Vocab)

• Sociolinguistics• Discourse• Strategic component

• Lg testing not neutral

• Culture, social, political, educational, ideological related

• Considering Lg structure theories

• Elana Shohamy(1997)

• Organizational competence(Grammatical, textual)

• Pragmatic(Illocutionary, sociolinguistics)

Bachman’s Lg competence

Critical view Lg testing

Structure of Lg competence

Canale&Swain’s Lg competence