Foreign Language Aptitude Test for kids

[Amber]

we screened for current foreign language ability (in bilingual children, for example) so that it did not confer an advantage. And I can confirm that it never did

Amber what do you mean by this?
I am just curious. Were the bilingual children marked differently?

Well firstly when the children applied to the school under the language aptitude policy the parents had to list any languages the children spoke at home. The bulk of the test, the written part, would be unaffected by this, but the aural/oral part, without going into details, could have favoured speakers of some languages if not administered carefully. Basically we had 3 different test options at that stage depending on whether a child already spoke another language or not, and which language that was. These options were standardised for difficulty, so that you could not be advantaged or disadvantaged by being given any one of them.

The reason I can say that bilingual children were not advantaged is because they were not over-represented in the successful candidate group.

[guest201]

That is interesting, thanks Amber, both of my children did an MFL aptitude test, they are both bilingual and I remember in the application there was a question about whether they spoke any other languages. At the time I wondered what they would do with that information.

[Amber]

That is interesting, thanks Amber, both of my children did an MFL aptitude test, they are both bilingual and I remember in the application there was a question about whether they spoke any other languages. At the time I wondered what they would do with that information.

They would almost certainly have used it to ensure that their second language did not appear in any of the tests.

[Tinkers]

That is interesting, thanks Amber, both of my children did an MFL aptitude test, they are both bilingual and I remember in the application there was a question about whether they spoke any other languages. At the time I wondered what they would do with that information.

They would almost certainly have used it to ensure that their second language did not appear in any of the tests.

Amber I’m guessing if a parent didn’t put their child’s other language (either innocently or as a means of possibly cheating) it would be glaringly obvious from the results.

[Amber]

Amber I’m guessing if a parent didn’t put their child’s other language (either innocently or as a means of possibly cheating) it would be glaringly obvious from the results.

I asked the children themselves, as a double check. And because actually some children wanted to boast or pretend, we ended up with a lot more claiming to be bilingual than actually were! And yes it would have been really obvious to be honest, if they could already speak a language related to what we were using to test them on. I don't think it got as far as a parent saying, 'now, if they speak to you in Inukitut, pretend never to have heard it before and put on a non-Inukitut accent to keep them off the trail'. Though I can't be sure, reading some of the threads on this board.

[loobylou]

. And because actually some children wanted to boast or pretend, we ended up with a lot more claiming to be bilingual than actually were!

I remember when my ds was at nursery they asked the children to put their hands up if they were bilingual. Lots of them spoke a range of languages but ds apparently put his hand up too and informed them very seriously that he could speak English and American