Abstract
Abstract In bilingualism research, language dominance has been conceptualized and operationalized in different ways. In this paper, we discuss this notion and investigate to what extent language dominance is congruent with vocabulary knowledge in each language. First, we summarize definitions and operationalizations of language dominance. We show that comparison of proficiency related measures is a common operationalization of language dominance. Yet, the importance of attitudinal, biographical, or use-related components is often stressed. Such components are included in survey instruments like the Bilingual Language Profile (BLP). Second, we analyze data on language profiles of 225 French/German and 70 Italian/German adult bilinguals. Correlation and regression models are fitted to investigate the relation between the multi-dimensional dominance metric (BLP) results and results based on lexical tests (LexTALE for German and French, the VSPT from Dialang for Italian). The results reveal a strong linear association between BLP and LexTale.
Highlights
The notion of dominance is well-established in bilingualism literature
What is the strength and direction of the relation between information obtained via a multi-dimensional dominance survey (BLP) and information obtained via a vocabulary recognition test (LexTALE)?
This study addressed methodological and conceptual problems frequently encountered in quantitative studies investigating bilingualism: What measures are used to shed light on bilinguals’ language dominance and how comparable are these different ways of operationalizing the bilinguals’ language profiles? We discuss how our findings can contribute to dominance-related research in bi- and multilingualism
Summary
The notion of dominance is well-established in bilingualism literature It is most commonly seen as being distinct and distinguishable from skills or proficiency in the languages of the individual: “We distinguish bilingual groups with respect to their proficiency in the L2, their relative language dominance, and the degree to which the context of language use supports each of the two languages.” (Kroll and Linck 2007: 238). As this illustrates, dominance as a construct is generally used as a grouping or continuous variable, with the typical goal of explaining variance in an outcome variable that operationalizes an aspect of language skill or competence. Different composite measures of dominance have been proposed, and we use one of them, the Bilingual Language Profile, here (Birdsong et al 2012)
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