Transcultural validation in Soninke of a language assessment tool: The Avicenne ELAL ©

Abstract

Children of migrants are often exposed to more than one language from an early age. The Avicenne ELAL^© test has been created to better assess language skills, avoid misdiagnosing learning disabilities, and inform early interventions. Plurilingual children aged 3.5 to 6.5 take the test in their mother tongues, with an interpreter's assistance. The test comprises three scales: Comprehension, Expression, and Storytelling. The objectives of this study were to describe steps of the transcultural validation of the Avicenne ELAL^© for the Soninke culture and language, both for children living in a monolingual environment in Mauritania and for migrant children living in a multilingual environment in France; to compare the performance of these two groups; and to explore its qualitative use in studying language pathways among bilingual and plurilingual children. A total of 71 children participated in this study in Mauritania (n = 25) and France (n = 46). The Avicenne ELAL^©, a 30-minute plurilingual language assessment using objects, picture boards, and storytelling tasks, was administered in Soninke (and in French for children in France) to migrant children in France and to children in Mauritania, with standardized procedures to minimize distractions and ensure comfort. All sessions were recorded, de-identified, and supplemented with field notes and a logbook to capture contextual and qualitative elements of children's language use. The results of the two groups of children were analyzed and compared with quantitative and qualitative methods. Given the excellent results of the monolingual children, the ELAL in the Soninke language can be considered valid. Statistical analysis confirmed significant differences between the children's scores in Mauritania and France, for both the total score and each separate scale (Comprehension, Expression, and Storytelling). The results also showed that the quality of the narrative skills (storytelling) was strongly correlated with the child's age. Comparing the language assessments collected in these two settings highlights the variations and cultural specificities that should be considered when studying the language skills of Soninke-speaking migrant children.