Self-ratings of spoken language dominance: A Multilingual Naming Test (MINT) and preliminary norms for young and aging Spanish–English bilinguals

TLDR

The study examined how self‑ratings, proficiency interviews, and picture‑naming tests correspond in classifying bilingual language dominance. Participants (52 young, 20 older) self‑rated proficiency, underwent spoken proficiency interviews, and completed the Multilingual Naming Test (plus the Boston Naming Test in the younger group). Self‑ratings, proficiency interviews, and the MINT classified bilinguals into dominance groups similarly, but picture‑naming tests—especially the Boston Naming Test—tended to label participants as more English‑dominant and underestimated Spanish ability, with up to 60 % scoring best in their non‑dominant language, highlighting the limitations of monolingual‑oriented measures and the need for a multi‑measure approach.

Abstract

This study investigated correspondence between different measures of bilingual language proficiency contrasting self-report, proficiency interview, and picture naming skills. Fifty-two young (Experiment 1) and 20 aging (Experiment 2) Spanish-English bilinguals provided self-ratings of proficiency level, were interviewed for spoken proficiency, and named pictures in a Multilingual Naming Test (MINT, and in Experiment 1 also the Boston Naming Test; BNT). Self-ratings, proficiency interview, and the MINT did not differ significantly in classifying bilinguals into language-dominance groups, but naming tests (especially the BNT) classified bilinguals as more English-dominant than other measures. Strong correlations were observed between measures of proficiency in each language and language-dominance, but not degree of balanced bilingualism (index scores). Depending on the measure, up to 60% of bilinguals scored best in their self-reported non-dominant language. The BNT distorted bilingual assessment by underestimating ability in Spanish. These results illustrate what self-ratings can and cannot provide, illustrate the pitfalls of testing bilinguals with measures designed for monolinguals, and invite a multi-measure goal driven approach to classifying bilinguals into dominance groups.