Abstract
The current study attempted to validate that English proficiency self-ratings predict bilinguals’ recognition of English words as reported in Shi (2011) and to explore whether relative proficiency ratings (English vs. first language) improve prediction. One hundred and twenty-four participants in Shi (2011) and an additional set of 145 participants were included (Groups 1 and 2, respectively) in this study. All listeners rated their proficiency in listening, speaking, and reading (English and first language) on an 11-point scale and listened to a list of words from the Northwestern University Auditory Tests No. 6 (Tillman & Carhart, 1966) at 45 dB HL in quiet. English proficiency ratings by Group 2 yielded sensitivity/specificity values comparable to those of Group 1 (Shi, 2011) in predicting word recognition. A cutoff of 8 or 9 in minimum English proficiency rating across listening, speaking, and reading resulted in the best combination of prediction sensitivity/specificity. When relative proficiency was used, prediction of Group 1 performance significantly improved as compared to English proficiency. Improvement was slight for Group 2, mainly due to low specificity. Self-rated English proficiency provides clinically acceptable sensitivity/specificity values as a predictor of bilinguals’ English word recognition. Relative proficiency has the potential to further improve predictive power, but the size of improvement depends on the characteristics of the test population.
Published Version
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