Linguistic skill and ethnic group

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Abstract
This paper reports a survey of language proficiency, using the NFER Test 273, Tests of Proficiency in English. The group surveyed were of varied immigrant and native extraction, and the intention was to compare the performance of children of different ethnic origin. After a brief review of theories relevant to potentially different performance by groups of different cultural and linguistic origin, there is consideration of the relevance of survey methods to this area, and of their limitations, particularly using tests designed for other purposes, e.g. the diagnostic. Having full regard to these limitations, it is suggested that in relation to this age group there appear to be few grounds for thinking that their proficiency in ‘school’ English is importantly affected by variation in initial dialect or version of English. If this is so, there would be even fewer grounds for thinking that such variation is important for school subjects more generally. The discussion includes consideration of the factors involved in performance on ‘comprehension’ tests.

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