Abstract:
The Bilingual Language Proficiency Questionnaire (BLPQ) is an unstandardized, open-ended instrument intended to distinguish between actual language disorders among children bilingual in Spanish and English and a lack of fluency in English due to limited opportunities for language use. The BLPQ consists of a series of questions on the child's language usage patterns that are answered by a parent. It is meant to be administered by speech-language pathologists and other special education professionals who are fluent in Spanish. The BLPQ should be used to evaluate children from Spanish-speaking backgrounds who are being schooled in the U.S. and who have been referred for speech therapy. The BLPQ should not be viewed as the sole basis for making placement decisions, but as a tool for eliciting background information about a child's language environment. The thirty questions in the interview focus on identifying the situations in which a child uses each language, how often these situations occur, the ability of a child to make himself understood among his peers, his ability to give and understand instructions, and any specific speech problems his parents may have noticed. Interviewers add questions of their own when medical situations like a cleft palate exist or whenever extra information is necessary. Responses to the BLPQ can help educators re-interpret scores on standardized tests when low achievement may be due to limited language exposure rather than limited ability. Responses are recorded by the interviewer on a response sheet and are interpreted by the specialists who administer the questionnaire. No comparisons are made with the larger population and no norms are available. No statistical tests of reliability or validity were performed by the authors.