Biculturality and performance in cloze tests of language comprehension: A cross‐cultural study

• Autores: Nduka Okoh
• Localización: Journal of multilingual and multicultural development, ISSN 0143-4632, Vol. 2, Nº. 3, 1981, págs. 183-194
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This study investigated the effects of bilingualism on the bilingual child's performance in attainment tests of language comprehension in two contrasting socio‐cultural environments (Nigeria and Wales).

    Measures of language comprehension (using the cloze procedure), ‘social‐class’ background, and home‐language environment were applied to two samples of 122 and 167 9–11 year old primary school children in Nigeria and Wales respectively who were selected broadly to reflect a bilingual‐monoglot dichotomy in each country.

    The results indicated: (1) that in Nigeria, and to a lesser extent also in Wales, bilingual pupils performed better in language comprehension tests when given in their mother‐tongue (Yoruba or Welsh) than when given in their ‘second’ language (English) — although the level of competence in English of these bilingual children in both countries was still relatively high; and (2) that the different socio‐cultural backgrounds largely account for the difference in performance in the second language observed between the two countries.