Measurement of Language Use and Language Proficiency, and Literacy and Its Analysis

Abstract

In this chapter I describe some measures of language use and measures of proficiency in the use of the national language (e.g., English in the United States) by foreign-born residents. This material should be useful in measuring the linguistic resources of a society, advancing the civil rights of minorities, evaluating the progress toward integration and linguistic acculturation of immigrants, developing a more nuanced concept of ethnicity, and analyzing sociolinguistic data obtained in social surveys.