Misidentification: How Language Proficiency Exams Missed Out on One Child's Bilingualism

• In Event: 43.077 - MTCC Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: 43.077-9 - The Quest for Educational Equity for Bi/Multilingual Students

Abstract

Language proficiency exams are used to evaluate bilingual competency, from bilingual teacher certification to acceptance into bilingual programs. The use of language proficiency exams has been found problematic and many times proven to give an inaccurate picture of the child’s abilities. The purpose of the study is to demonstrate how the English and Spanish proficiency exams given to a child for admission into a dual language (Spanish-English) program framed a child in a deficit view and missed the proficiency the child had across languages. A qualitative case study of one child’s dual language (Spanish-English) program application process is presented. The sources of data include interviews with the mother, the pre-Language Assessment Scale 2000, and WIDA English language proficiency exam results.

Author

• Sandra Lucia Osorio, Illinois State University