Bilingual Verbal Ability Test

CATEGORIES: Ability, Speech and Language

AUTHOR: Ana F. Munoz-Sandoval, Jim Cummins, G. Alvarado, Mary L. Ruef (2005)

RANGE: 5 to Adult

TIME: 20-30 minutes

SUMMARY

Provides a measure of overall verbal ability for bilingual individuals

The Bilingual Verbal Ability Tests (BVAT) are intended for measuring bilingual verbal ability, or the unique combination of cognitive/academic language abilities possessed by bilingual individuals in English and another language. The need for this test is based in the reality that bilingual persons know some things in one language, some things in the other language, and some things in both languages. Traditional procedures only allow the person's ability to be measured in one language, usually the one considered to be dominant. Examiners intuitively realize that these individuals know "more" than they can show on these monolingual approaches.

New BVAT norms (2005) were introduced in the Normative Update edition, BVAT-NU.

PURPOSE

The BVAT provides a technically sound procedure for combining the person's knowledge in English and the native language, thus yielding a better estimate of his/her verbal ability. It may be administered either by one examiner who is fluent in the individual's two languages, or, alternatively, by a primary and ancillary examiner team when a bilingual examiner is not available. The procedure for using the primary/ancillary examiner team is described in detail in the manual that accompanies the test.

The BVAT can be used for a variety of purposes in bilingual education and clinical assessment. It can be used for entry and exit criteria for bilingual programs. It can be used to assess the academic potential of bilingual students through a comparison of his or her current level of English language proficiency to his or her bilingual verbal ability.

CONTENT

The Bilingual Verbal Ability Tests are comprised of three subtests from the Woodcock-Johnson-Revised Test of Cognitive Ability; Picture Vocabulary; Oral Vocabulary, and Verbal Analogies. These three subtests have been translated from English into several languages. The languages available in BVAT are:

Arabic	Japanese
Chinese (two forms)	Korean
English	Navajo
French	Polish
German	Portuguese
Haitian-Creole	Russian
Hindi	Spanish
Hmong	Turkish
Italian	Vietnamese

ADMINISTRATION

When using the BVAT, the examiner administers the three subtests in English first. Any item that was missed is then administered in the native language. If the person gets that item correct in the native language, it is added to the score for that subtest. The end result is a raw score that reflects the individual's knowledge in both languages. The raw score is then converted to derived, normative scores.

INTERPRETATION

The BVAT provides an overall score (BVAT) which can be used to determine an individual's overall level of verbal ability. For comparative purposes, the BVAT also provides a measure of English language proficiency. The BVAT yields an aptitude measure that can be used in conjunction with the WJ-R Tests of Achievement.

A Scoring and Interpretive Program is included with each test kit. This program automates all scoring procedures and provides a narrative report of the individual's bilingual verbal ability, English language proficiency, and language use and exposure. When used with the WJ-R Tests of Achievement, the achievement test results are scored and aptitude/achievement discrepancies are calculated and interpreted. The program determines and explains whether any identified discrepancy is related to limitations of English language proficiency.

COMPLETE BVAT-NU TEST KIT

Includes Test Easel Book with English Subtests, 16 Sets of tests with one of each language, Storage Container, Software, Manual, Multipack of 25 Forms, 11 Spanish, 7 of the 7-language Form, 2 of the French/Russian Form, and one of each remaining language.

COMPONENTS	ISBN	PRICE (Cdn. $)
Complete BVAT-NU Kit (for Windows only)	9-20965	$1349.00
Training Video Kit (video and sample exercises)	9-20884	$137.85