A Comparison of the Detroit First Grade Tests Given in Italian and English
- Author:
Giovanni Giardini, Monessen High School,
and W. T. Root, University of Pittsburgh.
In attempting to evaluate the performance of a first grade child of foreign parentage, one is confronted with this problem: What allowance should be made for linguistic shortcomings?1 In the study presented here the authors were able to give the Detroit First Grade Tests, Form A, to some 340 children.2 The children speak either English or Italian or both and no other language groups are present. They were divided into eight groups as nearly equal as the conditions would permit.
W-B Group: Italian spoken in the home. Tests administered in English. X-B Group: Italian spoken in the home. Tests administered in Italian.3 Y-B Group: Italian spoken in the home. Test instructions first given in Italian and then repeated in English item by item. Z-B Group: English spoken in the home. Tests administered in English. This group is approximately half second-generation Italian who do not speak Italian at home.
Groups W-A, X-A, Y-A, Z-A are analogous groups of A section of the first grade. (See Table I.) The Italians in this neighborhood are largely from South-Central Italy (Campania). The cultural status is low, but economically the neighborhood is superior to the general impression gained from the surroundings. This is evidenced by the fact that in the recent depression the neighborhood showed no marked indication of want or malnutrition. The non-Italian and the English speaking Italians are of similar economic and cultural status as the Italians.
1 In the October number, 1922, of the Journal of Educational Research there appeared an article by C. S. Berry on “The Classification of Tests of Intelligence of Ten Thousand First Grade Pupils.” In this article the author discusses the importance of language difficulty in relation to rating in intelligence. He concludes that in cases where the pupil speaks a foreign language at home the rating in intelligence is considerably lower; and again, that some foreign children rate much lower than others. The Italians are at the bottom of the list, which may mean that these acquire English with greater difficulty than do the Germans, let us say. 2 Through the kindness of Miss A. Bartcls, principal of the Larimer School, Pittsburgh, and the cooperation of the teachers.
‘ The test instructions were translated into Italian as literally as possible. (101)
Reducing Test Scores to I. Q’s. Many of the children in both the A and B sections of the first grade are repeaters. Consequently the absolute score in the test often gives an entirely erroneous idea of the child’s relative performance when chronological age was not taken into consideration. The following arbitrary method was used to determine the mental age and the I. Q. Assuming that the median first grade child is 6-6 and makes a median score of 27 (Engel), and considering each unit of score equivalent to one month of mental age, we have: 78 + (individual score ? 27)
chronological age
In the present investigation we set out to discover two things: (1) What effect has the speaking of a foreign home language upon the intelligence rating of pupils? (2) Are Italian children less intelligent as compared with American children or is the low rating due to difficulty of learning two languages at the same time?
In Table II we notice with few exceptions, when considering the four groups in the A class, a certain consistent increase in the averages as we approach the Z-A group. Group W-A (Italians taking tests in English) has a lower average in each test than group X-A to whom the tests were given in the language spoken at home. This is especially true in test 3 (Memories) and test 10 (Directions) which are distinctly language tests.
In passing on to group Y-A to whom the tests were given both in Italian and English we would expect a higher average throughout. But such is not entirely the case. The total average for the group is 60 per cent as compared with 63 per cent of group X-A and 43 per cent of group W-A. So, while giving of the tests in both languages resulted in a higher average than obtained in W-A, it showed no improvement over group X-A where only Italian was used.
In considering group Z-A we find what we expected, that is, the highest total average of the four groups. But the difference between Z-A and W-A is not as great as Mr. Berry would have us believe when the tests are considered separately instead of as a whole. Our discussion so far would lead us to the conclusion that, since Italians who speak Italian at home achieve a slightly better average when the tests are given in Italian or Italian and English than when they are given in English, language is a factor in the rating of intelligence of foreign children. This fact, however, is not bourne out when we study the four groups in the B class. Here we find, with few exceptions, that the averages in the W-B group, Italians who were tested in English, are higher than the averages of the X-B group which was tested in Italian and in some cases even higher than the averages of the Z-B group, the English speaking group. As a matter of fact, the total average for the Z-B group is 51 per cent as compared with 52 per cent of W-B group and 55 per cent of X-B group. In other words we have almost a complete reversal of rank orders in the B class as compared with the A class. Therefore it cannot be maintained that language difficulty is a factor in the rating of intelligence according to the tests we used and the results obtained, nor can we say that language difficulty is not a factor in the solution of the problem at hand. All we can say is that the data at hand are not sufficient to lead us to a conclusion one way or the other. This becomes even more evident upon studying Table III wherein we notice that after all there is not very much difference between the medians of the absolute scores of the different groups of either class nor between the Arithmetic Means. There is little difference also between the two classes when taken as wholes.
The fact has not been overlooked that we are dealing with pupils of different ages in the same grade or approximately in the same grade. Some of the pupils have been repeaters for as many as five terms. Again, some of them were in Kindergarten for two or more terms. Both of these factors might tend to inflate the absolute scores and consequently the average percentage of tests passed by each group.
A glance at the median I. Q. column of Table III shows there is nothing to warrant the conclusion that language difficulty is a factor in rating of intelligence in our investigation. The relatively high median I. Q. of W-B group in the B class is balanced by the relatively low median I. Q. of W-A group of the A class. If anything, there seems to be evidence that language difficulty is not a factor, especially in the B class.
When we compared those who had had Kindergarten training with those who had not, we found the averages of the former and the latter did not differ from each other more than two points in any case. So we are safe to conclude that Kindergarten training did not inflate the scores obtained to any degree worthy of consideration. In the course of the investigation the attempt was made to explain some of the peculiar results that were entirely beyond our expectations. We notice, for instance, in Table II that group Z-A scored an average of 15 per cent in test 10 and group W-A scored an average of 20 per cent in the same test, both averages being very low when compared with other averages. We find the same discrepancy in group Y-B in the same test where the average is 13 per cent and probably would have had somewhat the same results in group W-B but we were unfortunately unable to give this test. On the other hand groups X-A and X-B show fairly high averages, relatively. We have pointed our elsewhere that test 10 is one which depends upon language to a very great extent. This being the case we can readily understand why groups W-A and probably W-B score low. But it is not plainly seen why groups Y-B and Y-A should score even lower than W-A when the two former groups were given the tests both in Italian and English. We can give but one explanation. The directions are very much involved consisting of an unusual combination of prepositions and adverbs which becomes even more unusual when translated into Italian. The directions were read first in Italian and then repeated in English. The English did not seem to clarify but rather helped to confuse the idea in the child’s mind. Children at the age of from six to eight, and under such conditions, are in a state of transition from one language into another and consequently they do not get the same meaning from the same phrase given in two different languages. Moreover, the child at home is called upon to use and understand only those expressions which are peculiar to the everyday routine of an Italian home whose manners, customs and cultural setting has nothing in common with the school environment. In school, on the other hand, the child is called upon to use and understand an entirely different set of expressions and idioms referring to things and events which probably bear no relation to the things and events of his Italian experience at home.
It was interesting to watch the immediate reactions of the children when the tests were given in both Italian and English. Some of them responded as soon as the command was given in Italian without waiting for its repetition in English. Others waited until the command had been repeated in English and a great number of them were puzzled at the end of both commands. The struggle for immediate adaptation was obvious.
Another question we attempted to answer was whether a given test was equally difficult for all groups. In Table IV the tests for each group are arranged according to difficulty, beginning in each case with the most difficult for that particular group. While some of the tests fluctuate only two or three spaces others fluctuate several spaces. But again, the greatest discrepancy occurs between group W-B and the other groups. For while test 4, for instance, is one of the most difficult for all the rest of the groups, for group W-B it is seventh in difficulty or relatively easy. Again, while test 8 is one of the easier tests occupying in most cases the seventh or eighth place in other groups, for group W-B it is the most difficult but one. We are at a loss to explain this discrepancy although there is a possibility that it is all due to a different, probably better, grade of teaching.
Now we come to the second point of our discussion, namely: Are Italian children less intelligent as compared with American children or is the low rating, as stated by Mr. Berry, due to the difficulty of learning two languages at the same time?
The present investigation has not proved that language difficulty is a factor in rating of intelligence. But neither has it proved that Italian children are less intelligent on the average than American children. A study of Table III shows that there is very little difference between the English speaking groups and the groups who speak both Italian and English. Table Y shows more conclusively that the Italian children, when given time to adapt themselves to American environment, customs and traditions will perform as well as the average American child. In this table we have two groups of children: Z-A and Z-B. Each group is made up of American children and Italian children of the second generation, that is, Italians whose parents were born here and who speak English at home. When considering the distribution of individual I. Q’s. of the two groups we find that approximately there are as many Italians above the median as there are below. The same may be said of the Americans. If the Italians were less intelligent than the Americans we would expect to find more of the former below the median and fewer above.
But the Italians of these two groups are second generation Italians. Would the Italians who speak Italian at home distribute themselves in I. Q. in the same manner as the Italians in Table V? We have already seen that the performance of these is slightly inferior to that of the second generation Italians. Is language after all the determining factor? If not what might there be that causes the Italian to attain a slightly lower rating than the second generation Italian? We believe that?since this slight superiority of the second generation Italians is evidenced in most cases in spite of the fact that the first generation Italians were given the tests in English or Italian or both?the ability to perform is influenced by factors other than the simple one of language. The somewhat inferior performance of the first generation born in this country may be due to either imperfect habit formation in both or either language or to the fact that it may require two generations or more to make certain cultural adaptations to an environment which, if not superior, is at least more typically American.
Conclusions.
1. In the present data there is not enough difference in median scores or range of distribution for the different groups to warrant the statement that language difficulty plays a prominent part in the rating of intelligence of Italian children.
2. The slightly lower scores obtained from giving the tests both in Italian and English are due probably to the fact that the routine home language relates to things and events which are totally different from things and events the child deals with at school. There is no correlation of experience between the two institutions.
3. A comparative study of the I. Q. medians does not show that language difficulty is an important factor in the rating of intelligence of foreign children.
4. Kindergarten training does not influence the absolute scores to any appreciable degree.
5. A comparison of the I. Q. distribution of Italian children with that of American children of the same group shows that the former distribute themselves above and below the median just as evenly as the Americans do. This seems to indicate that Italian children of second generation, at least, are not less intelligent than the American children.
6. We believe there are other factors which play a part in the rating of intelligence of foreign children besides that of language. These factors are probably in the nature of a general cultural adaptation.
Table I.?Grouping of Children in Relation to Home and Test Language. Groups Class B. W-B X-B Y-B Z-B Class A. W-A X-A Y-A Z-A Language spoken at home Ital. Ital. Ital. Eng. Ital. Ital. Ital. Eng. Language in which tests were given Eng. Ital. Ital. and Eng. Eng. Eng. Ital. Ital. and Eng. Eng.
Table II.?Average Percentage of Individual Tests Passed by Each Group. No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Tests. Information.. Similarities… Memories…. Absurdities… Comparisons., Relationships. Symmetries… Designs Counting Directions…. lotal Group Average Test Language. W-B 42 45 53 54 56 49 53 43 69 52 X-B 30 34 50 29 69 59 49 62 65 36 48 e tfi .2 C3 ?sw Y-B 38 45 44 24 62 59 46 48 70 13 55 Z-B 40 48 59 28 69 63 34 61 61 48 51 W-A 42 44 17 25 61 47 50 60 59 20 43 X-A 50 62 76 34 85 66 51 72 78 52 63 .3 a Y-A 49 75 80 24 86 58 57 78 79 15 60 Z-A 58 64 69 37 81 75 57 78 82 74 H g ? H 43 51 55 32 71 59 49 63 71 36 108 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC. Table III.?Results of Tests by Groups. Groups. No. of Cases. Lowest Score. Highest Score. Median. Arith. Mean. Lowest I. Q. Highest I. Q. Median I. Q. W-B X-B Y-B Z-B W-A X-A Y-A Z-A 46 48 47 40 26 52 23 58 7 1 9 2 13 19 7 35 39 42 40 35 40 40 45 23 25 20 25 19 31 31 34 22.6 23.3 21.7 25.2 20.9 30.6 29.4 32.8 84 65 52 75 56 69 63 62 118 111 109 115 98 102 100 112 101 89 88 96 75 89 84 92 Table IV.?Tests Arranged in Order of Difficulty. W-B X-B 4 1 2 10 7 3 6 Y-B 10 4 1 3 2 7 8 6 5 9 Z-B 4 7 1 2 10 3 8 9 6 5 W-A 3 10 4 1 2 6 7 9 X-A 4 1 7 10 2 6 8 3 9 5 Y-A 10 4 1 7 6 2 8 9 3 5 Z-A 4 7 1 2 3 10 6 8 5 9
KEY
Information 6. Relationships
Similarities 7. Symmetries
Memories 8. Designs
Absurdities 9. Counting
5. Comparisons 10. Directions Table V.?Distribution of I. Q. of American and Italian Children of the English-Speaking Groups.
Groups.
Z-A.. Z-B. Total. Below Median. Italian. American. 13 18 10 9 23 27 Above Median. Italian. American. 14 13 13 22 26
Disclaimer
The historical material in this project falls into one of three categories for clearances and permissions:
Material currently under copyright, made available with a Creative Commons license chosen by the publisher.
Material that is in the public domain
Material identified by the Welcome Trust as an Orphan Work, made available with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
While we are in the process of adding metadata to the articles, please check the article at its original source for specific copyrights.