What is proficiency? Characterizing spoken language proficiency in older Spanish-English bilinguals

• Garcia, Dalia L. ^[1] ; Gollan, Tamar H. ^[2]
  1. [1] San Diego State University

     San Diego State University

     Estados Unidos

     
  2. [2] University of California, San Diego

     University of California, San Diego

     Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Bilingualism: Language and cognition, ISSN 1366-7289, Vol. 29, Nº 1, 2026, págs. 211-222
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.1017/s1366728925000343
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Dialnet Métricas: 1 Cita
• Resumen

  • We conducted a detailed linguistic analysis of Oral Proficiency Interviews (OPIs) from older Spanish-English bilinguals ( n  = 28) to determine which cognitive, linguistic, and demographic factors predict proficiency. In the dominant language, older age was associated with lower proficiency scores, but aging effects were not significant after accounting for cognitive functioning scores. In the nondominant language, bilinguals with larger vocabulary scores, fewer speech errors, and higher education levels obtained higher proficiency scores. Multiple linguistic submeasures from the OPIs were highly correlated across languages (e.g., fast speakers spoke fast in both languages), but these same measures exhibited significant language dominance effects (e.g., bilinguals spoke faster in the dominant than in the nondominant language). These results suggest it is critical to control for cognitive functioning when examining aging effects on language production, reveal powerful individual differences that affect how people talk regardless of language, and validate the use of the OPI to measure bilingual proficiency.

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