A PROPOSAL FOR RECALIBRATION OF A VOCABULARY LEVELS TEST AS DIAGNOSIS OF LATE BILINGUALS’ L2 PROFICIENCY

Autores

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22410/issn.1983-0378.v42i2a2021.3027

Palavras-chave:

VLT, recalibration, bilinguals.

Resumo

his study explores the recalibration and adequacy of a measure of vocabulary size – the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) – as a predictor of Brazilian Portuguese-English speakers’ ability to access grammatical representations through their non-dominant language. Such endeavor concerns a specific part of the test (composed majorly by cognates) which has been blurring the results when participants are natives in Latin-derived languages, such as Brazilian Portuguese. A new test (nVLT) was designed, with a novel version of this problematic part (level 4) present in the older test that, now, avoids the proliferation of cognates. Both versions were applied to a number of Brazilian participants and the results were correlated with another proficiency measure, taken from an acceptability judgment task designed according to the model reported in Souza et al (2015). When the low-proficiency participants took the VLT, there were a decreasing pattern in their scores from the first level of the exam all the way to level 3 (because each level is harder than the preceding). But, when they got to level 4, which is “harder” than level 3, their scores increased surprisingly, and then decreased again in level 5. When they performed the nVLT, which has a level 4 recalibrated (without latin cognates), the decreasing pattern was maintained evenly through the whole test. These results from nVLT show an internal coherence of the test due to the recalibration.

Biografia do Autor

Jesiel Soares-Silva, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto (UFOP)

Docente do Departamento de Letras (UFOP)

Lara Do Nascimento Góes, Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri (UFVJM)

Mestranda em Educação (UFVJM)

Brenda Lorraine Grillo Silva, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)

Graduanda em Letras (UFMG)

Geovanne Barbosa, Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri (UFVJM)

Graduando em Letras (UFVJM)

Jáliton Luiz Souza Ferreira, Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri (UFVJM)

Graduando em Letras (UFVJM)

Lays Albuquerque Benevides, Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri (UFVJM)

Graduanda em Letras (UFVJM)

Downloads

Publicado

23-12-2021

Como Citar

SOARES-SILVA, Jesiel; BRANDÃO, Luiz Henrique Mendes; GÓES, Lara Do Nascimento; GRILLO SILVA, Brenda Lorraine; BARBOSA, Geovanne; FERREIRA, Jáliton Luiz Souza; BENEVIDES, Lays Albuquerque. A PROPOSAL FOR RECALIBRATION OF A VOCABULARY LEVELS TEST AS DIAGNOSIS OF LATE BILINGUALS’ L2 PROFICIENCY. Revista Signos, [S. l.], v. 42, n. 2, 2021. DOI: 10.22410/issn.1983-0378.v42i2a2021.3027. Disponível em: https://univates.br/revistas/index.php/signos/article/view/3027. Acesso em: 5 nov. 2024.

Edição

Seção

Artigos