22
. . although both sociocultural and educational
factors contribute directly to the development of
communicative proficiency in minority students, a
large majority of academic and communicative
deficits . are developed in these students as
a result of failure by educators to respond
appropriately to sociocultural and communicative
characteristics which children bring to school.
(P. 41)
Measuring language proficiency
Canale (in press) reviews some of the recent frameworks for
language proficiency and finds that there is general agreement
regarding general "underlying abilities, knowledge systems, and
skills," but "there is less agreement on the content and boundaries
of this underlying competence, and hence, on what language proficiency
tests do and should measure" (p. 2). While Cummins (1981) accepts the
terms "communicative proficiency" and "linguistic proficiency" as
synonyms, Canale finds that linguistic proficiency is comprised
generally of language universals that are only part of what he terms
individual proficiency. Communicative and autonomous proficiencies
are a result of socialization processes, as well as individual differences
in personal development, learning style, personality, and motivation.
Differential criteria in language evaluation are exemplified in
the research of Damico, Oiler, and Storey (1981) who utilize both
pragmatic and surface-oriented criteria to identify bilingual in
dividuals displaying language disorders. Results indicate that
pragmatic criteria were more effective than surface-oriented criteria
in distinguishing language disorders from lack of language proficiency.
The research of Rodriguez-Brown and Elias-Olivares (1981) cor
relates language use at school, at home, and in natural language