Boston Naming Test performance in French-speaking Acadians

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: Standardized tools for the assessment of language and cognition for French Canadians are limited, especially for those living outside of Quebec, making it difficult for clinicians to diagnose and treat language and cognitive impairments. Acadians are an understudied, linguistically diverse group with varying levels of bilingualism in French and English that affords the opportunity to study naming performance in individuals with varying degrees of bilingualism. Aims: The goals of this investigation were threefold: a) to describe the naming performance of Acadians in French, including name agreement on individual Boston Naming Test (BNT) items and naming performance as a function of age and education; b) to investigate the effect of using different published datasets (Kaplan’s norms for English speakers and the Quebec naming dataset for French speakers) when calculating the naming ability level (i.e., high average, average, low average, borderline, and extremely low) on the BNT in French; and c) to examine the effects of bilingualism on BNT performance in French and English. Methods & Procedures: French-speaking Acadians (N = 119) aged 20–81 years (M = 44.3, SD = 14.49) completed a questionnaire self-reporting their language proficiency and use, followed by the administration of the BNT (Kaplan et al., 2001) in French. Outcomes & Results: Name agreement analyses revealed a high percentage of correct responses for many items, while other items were frequently described using regionalisms. Naming performance improved as a function of education, but there was no effect of age. The study also highlighted the effects of using different naming datasets to calculate each participant’s naming ability. Overall, the Acadian sample’s naming ability was lower than expected when calculating naming ability using either the Kaplan English norms (Kaplan et al, 2001) or the Quebec naming dataset for French speakers (Roberts & Doucet, 2011). Moreover, agreement in the naming ability level (from extremely low to high average) was poor. Consistent with previous studies, total BNT scores in French were significantly lower for French-speaking bilinguals (FS-BIs) compared to French-speaking unilinguals (FS-UNIs) after controlling for educational levels. It was also noted that French-English bilinguals performed better on the English compared to the French administration of the BNT. Conclusion: The results of this study support the need for a separate naming dataset for bilingual and French-speaking Acadians. Implications for the assessment of naming ability and deficits in clinical practice with French and French/English bilingual speakers are discussed.