Abstract:
The Spanish form of the Woodcock-Munoz Language Survey is a set of individually-administered tests that sample oral proficiency, reading, and writing in Spanish for native speakers from 2 to 90 years of age. The purposes of the survey are: to classify an examinee's Spanish language proficiency; to determine eligibility for bilingual services; to help teachers understand an examinee's language abilities; to provide program effectiveness information; and to describe the language characteristics of subjects in research studies. An easel-style test book contains four tests: picture vocabulary, verbal analogies, letter-word identification, and dictation. Scores taken from these tests are combined to yield three overall measures: Broad Spanish Ability, Oral Language, and Reading-Writing. Test items are arranged in order of difficulty and the examiner establishes basal and ceiling performance levels, which reduces test time. Raw scores are entered into a "Scoring and Reporting" software program that is IBM/PC compatible, and the examiner chooses appropriate age or grade norms. The resulting report expresses an examinee's cognitive-academic language proficiency (CALP) in terms of numbers, but also more transparently in an accompanying narrative which identifies levels of tasks that would be easy and difficult, and makes comparisons with other Spanish speakers by age and grade level. Norms were established on the English version of the test and equated to the Spanish version using a Rasch model. The norming population included more than 6,000 examinees throughout the U.S. with ages ranging from 2-90 years. Split-half reliability was assessed in the .80s and .90s, and concurrent validity was established using seven other tests including the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts, the Bracken Basic Concepts Scale, and the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test. These validity scores range from the .10s to the .80s with the reminder that some parts of these tests do not correspond in context to the Woodcock-Munoz. Examiners are encouraged to take the survey as examinees before administering it to others. Administration and scoring procedures are included with the test materials.