Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Sep;28(8):845-861.
doi: 10.1017/S1355617721001004. Epub 2021 Aug 31.

The MINT Sprint: Exploring a Fast Administration Procedure with an Expanded Multilingual Naming Test

Dalia L Garcia  1 , Tamar H Gollan  2
Affiliations

The MINT Sprint: Exploring a Fast Administration Procedure with an Expanded Multilingual Naming Test

Dalia L Garcia et al. J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2022 Sep.

Abstract

Objectives: The present study examined if time-pressured administration of an expanded Multilingual Naming Test (MINT) would improve or compromise assessment of bilingual language proficiency and language dominance.

Methods: Eighty Spanish-English bilinguals viewed a grid with 80 MINT-Sprint pictures and were asked to name as many pictures as possible in 3 min in each language in counterbalanced order. An Oral Proficiency Interview rated by four native Spanish-English bilinguals provided independent assessment of proficiency level. Bilinguals also self-rated their proficiency, completed two subtests of the Woodcock-Muñoz, and a speeded translation recognition test. We compared scores after 2 min, a first-pass through all the pictures, and a second-pass in which bilinguals were prompted to try to name skipped items.

Results: The MINT Sprint and a subset score including original MINT items were highly correlated with Oral Proficiency Interview scores for predicting the degree of language dominance - matching or outperforming all other measures. Self-ratings provided weaker measures (especially of degree of balance - i.e., bilingual index scores) and did not explain any unique variance in measuring the degree of language dominance when considered together with second-pass naming scores. The 2-min scoring procedure did not improve and appeared not to hamper assessment of absolute proficiency level but prompting to try to name skipped items improved assessment of language dominance and naming scores, especially in the nondominant language.

Conclusions: Time-pressured rapid naming saves time without significantly compromising assessment of proficiency level. However, breadth of vocabulary knowledge may be as important as retrieval speed for maximizing the accuracy in proficiency assessment.

Keywords: Bilingualism; Language dominance; Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI); Self-ratings; Speeded naming.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors have nothing to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
The x-axis shows language dominance scores (English minus Spanish) on the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI). Negative scores along both axes show bilinguals who scored higher in Spanish than in English.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
The x-axis shows Bilingual Index Scores (Lower Score/Higher Score) on the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI). This y-axis shows relationships between index scores across the different measures in comparison to the OPI index scores
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Average MINT Sprint Scores in 2-min scoring procedure, first-pass, and second-pass scoring for all 80 bilinguals out of 80 MINT Sprint pictures in each language. Error bars show standard errors.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2020). Demographic profile of ASHA members providing bilingual services, year-end 2019. Available from www.asha.org
    1. Ardila A. & Moreno S (2001). Neuropsychological test performance in Aruaco Indians: an exploratory study. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society: JINS, 7, 510–515. doi: 10.1017/s1355617701004076 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Artiola i Fortuny L, Heaton RK, & Hermosillo D (1998). Neuropsychological comparisons of Spanish-speaking participants from the U.S.-Mexico border region versus Spain. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society: JINS, 4, 363–379. - PubMed
    1. Bedore DLM & Peña ED (2008). Assessment of Bilingual children for identification of language impairment: current findings and implications for practice. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 11, 1–29. doi: 10.2167/beb392.0 - DOI
    1. Bedore LM, Peña ED, Summers CL, Boerger KM, Resendiz MD, Greene K, Bohman TM, & Gillam RB (2012). The measure matters: language dominance profiles across measures in Spanish–English bilingual children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15, 616–629. doi: 10.1017/S1366728912000090 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types