No abstract

This study examines the ability of bilinguals to judge their linguistic competence. Participants evaluated their Spanish and English language skills both before and after administration of the Woodcock-Muñoz Language Survey, which provided an objective measure of these skills. Self-assessments were more accurate for Spanish than for English and, in the case of English, varied with the skill being rated. Feedback from the objective test improved self-rating accuracy more for Spanish than for English. There was little support for the conclusion that the language in which the self-assessments are presented influences bilinguals’ self-ratings of their linguistic skills. Implications for the use of self-assessments in applied situations are discussed.

An item response theory (IRT) analysis was used to identify unique cultural response patterns by comparing single-culture groups with a multicultural composite. A survey designed to measure attitudes toward mental health was administered in their native languages to American, German, and French working, retired, and student teachers. Item characteristic curves (ICCs) for each national group were compared with ICCs generated by a composite reference containing all three cultural groups, thus providing an omnicultural reference point. Items that exhibited differential item functioning (DIP), that is, items with dissimilar ICCs for the composite reference and focal groups, were indicative of unique cultural response patterns to the attitude survey items. The advantages and disadvantages of this method in an IRT analysis are discussed.

The measurement equivalence of an English-language version of the Trier Personality Inventory (TPI) was evaluated, using statistical methods based on item response theory (IRT) to identity items that displayed differential item functioning (DIF). In Study 1, the TPI was administered to 295 American and 213 West German subjects. From among the 120 items tested, 11 DIF items were detected. A follow-up study using a new sample of 203 Americans was conducted to replicate the original study and to evaluate the post hoc explanation that translation error was the source of DIF for one item. DIF was replicated for 6 of the 11 DIF items found in Study 1, and DIF was eliminated for one item by retranslation. Overall, there was significant agreement between the DIF indexes found in Studies I and 2 for all 120 items analyzed. Some problems in replicating significant indexes of DIF are discussed.

The differential functioning of items and tests (DFIT) framework was used to examine the measurement equivalence of a Spanish translation of the Sixteen Personality Factor (16PF) Questionnaire. The questionnaire was administered in English to English-speaking Anglo-Americans and English-dominant Hispanic Americans and in Spanish to Spanish-dominant Hispanic Americans and Spanish-speaking Mexican nationals. As expected, the compensatory differential item functioning/differential test functioning (CDIF/DTF) procedure, which accounts for CDIF at the scale level, flagged fewer items as differential functioning than did the noncompensatory differential item functioning (NCDIF) procedure. Results did not support the hypothesis that DIF would be greatest in the Anglo versus Spanish-speaker comparison followed by the Hispanic versus Spanish-speaker comparison and least in the Anglo versus Hispanic comparison. Advantages of using the DFIT framework in assessing test translations, especially for test developers, are discussed.