THE TENABILITY OF COMPARING THE RECEPTIVE LEXICAL PROFICIENCY OF DUALLANGUAGE CHILDREN WITH STANDARDIZED MONOGLOT NORMS

As part of a doctoral investigation, the receptive lexical proficiency of 392 Dual Language primary, schoolchildren in Gibraltar, was compar ed with English monoglot norms based on a currently used test of recep tive vocabulary, i.e. the British Picture Vocabulary Scales (BPVS), wh ich was standardised on monoglot English speaking children in Great Br itain. The subjects' lexical proficiency was measured in the first lan guage (Gibraltarian Yanito Spanish) and in their second language (Engl ish). Their receptive conceptual vocabulary was also calculated. Their lexical proficiency in each of these linguistic variables was then co mpared with the published BPVS 'norms'. The results indicated that onl y a small number of children's lexical proficiency in Spanish and in E nglish was within the BPVS 'normal' limits. When, however, their conce ptual vocabulary was compared to the BPVS norms, a larger number of ch ildren fell within the 'normal' limits i.e. standard scare of 85 or mo re. It was concluded that the practice of assessing the lexical profic iency of Dual Language (Gibraltarian) schoolchildren by the use of tes ts standardised for monoglots is invalid and unreliable, even when the ir conceptual vocabulary is used as the measure of their receptive lex ical proficiency.