We conducted a detailed linguistic analysis of Oral Proficiency Interviews (OPIs) from older Spanish-English bilinguals (n = 28) to determine which cognitive, linguistic, and demographic factors predict proficiency. In the dominant language, older age was associated with lower proficiency scores, but aging effects were not significant after accounting for cognitive functioning scores. In the nondominant language, bilinguals with larger vocabulary scores, fewer speech errors, and higher education levels obtained higher proficiency scores. Multiple linguistic submeasures from the OPIs were highly correlated across languages (e.g., fast speakers spoke fast in both languages), but these same measures exhibited significant language dominance effects (e.g., bilinguals spoke faster in the dominant than in the nondominant language). These results suggest it is critical to control for cognitive functioning when examining aging effects on language production, reveal powerful individual differences that affect how people talk regardless of language, and validate the use of the OPI to measure bilingual proficiency.

中文翻译：

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什么是熟练度？描述老年西班牙语-英语双语者的口语能力


我们对年长西班牙语-英语双语者 （n = 28） 的口语能力访谈 （OPI） 进行了详细的语言学分析，以确定哪些认知、语言和人口统计学因素可以预测熟练程度。在主导语言中，年龄较大与较低的熟练度分数相关，但在考虑认知功能评分后，衰老影响并不显著。在非主导语言中，词汇分数较高、语音错误较少且教育水平较高的双语者获得了更高的熟练度分数。来自 OPI 的多个语言子测量在不同语言之间高度相关（例如，快速说话的人在两种语言中都说得很快），但这些相同的测量表现出显着的语言优势效应（例如，双语者在主导语言中说得比在非主导语言中说得更快）。这些结果表明，在检查衰老对语言产生的影响时，控制认知功能至关重要，揭示影响人们说话方式的强大个体差异，无论使用何种语言，并验证使用 OPI 来衡量双语熟练度。