ERIC Number: ED105732
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1974
Pages: 15
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Development of Local Language Norms for Papago Indians, Mexican-Americans, Blacks, and Anglos.
Evard, Beth L.; McGrady, Harold J.
The development of local norms using the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities was part of a larger study, the purpose of which was to identify the percentage of Arizona school children having a handicap. The first step in this part of the project, which involved screening for communication disorders, was the selection of tests to identify language disorders. Step 2, the development of criteria for identifying the disorder, raised the question of when such a disorder should be considered pathological and when it should be considered an identifying feature of some dialect of English. The main question, however, was whether a test developed for one population is valid when administered to another. The Auditory Association and Grammatical Closure subtests of the ITPA were administered to a random selection of subjects representing the Arizona public school population. Subgroups differences appeared chiefly across ethnic boundaries. From this it is concluded that a test is valid for a specific group only if relevant norms have been developed for that group. The local norms and other statistics on the study are tabulated at the end of the report. (AM)
Descriptors: American Indians, Blacks, Child Language, Cultural Influences, Ethnic Groups, Language Ability, Language Handicaps, Language Tests, Language Variation, Local Norms, Mexican Americans, Nonstandard Dialects, Norms, North American English, Psycholinguistics, Standardized Tests, Test Validity, Testing
Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: N/A
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Speech and Hearing Association (Las Vegas, Nevada, 1974)