Analysis of the proficiency level tests

All students participated in the language proficiency test, which means that 180 bilingual Albanian students took both tests, one in Macedonian and one in English, on the same day, with a break in between. The tables below present the scores obtained by Low, Medium, and High Bilinguals on the Macedonian and the English proficiency test.

Low Proficiency Bilinguals Language proficiency level Total number of

participants: 74

Elementary Pre-intermediate Intermediate Advanced

Macedonian 48 26 - -

English - 51 23 -

The scores obtained by the Low Bilinguals indicate that they fared better on the English than on the Macedonian proficiency test. In English no student reached only elementary proficiency, 51 were at a pre-intermediate level, and 23 were intermediate. These are interesting but not surprising results since most of the participating students were studying the English language.

On the Macedonian proficiency test, the students scored lower. The proficiency of 48 was classified as elementary, 26 were pre-intermediate, and there were no students with intermediate language abilities in Macedonian. These results can be explained by the fact that the Low Bilingual students learnt Macedonian at school only, and communication with Macedonians was rare.

Intermediate Bilinguals Language proficiency level Total number of participants:18Elementary

‘bad’ Pre-intermediate ‘normal’ Intermediate ‘good’ Advanced Macedonian - 14 4 - English - 6 7 5

Table 6.2 Results of Intermediate Bilinguals proficiency test

The Intermediate Bilinguals’ scores in Macedonian were different from those obtained by the Low Bilinguals. According to the test results, no student reached elementary level only, 14 were at pre-intermediate, and 4 at intermediate level in Macedonian. The English results showed different scores, no student has elementary knoweledege only 6 were on a pre-intermediate level, 7 on an intermediate, and 5 on an advanced level.

High Bilinguals Language proficiency level Total number of participants: 88 Elementary ‘bad’ Pre-intermediate ‘normal’ Intermediate ‘good’ Advanced Macedonian - - 21 67 English - 73 6 9

Table 6.3 Results of High Bilinguals proficiency test

The results of the High Bilinguals were much better than those of the other groups of students. Macedonian language scores showed no student at elementary and pre-intermediate level. Based on the Macedonian scores, 21 High Bilinguals were classified as intermediate and 67 as advanced in Macedonian. According to the English scores, 73 students were placed at pre-intermediate level, 6 at intermediate, and 9 at advanced level. In comparison to the previous two groups, the scores obtained by the High Bilinguals were much better in Macedonian, while the scores in English showed fewer differences.

Finally, the results of the questionnaires and proficiency tests were compared and the findings were analyzed. Following the analysis, several issues appeared.

First, the self-evaluation results showed that the students were aware of their proficiency levels.

Second, the number of Intermediate Bilinguals was small (18) compared to Low (74) and High Bilinguals (88). Due to the small size of the sample, the Intermediate Bilinguals were not examined further.

In addition, according to the English proficiency test, no student was found to be at elementary level, 124 students were pre-intermediate from both the group of Low (51) and of High Bilinguals (73).

These results indicated that most bilinguals were to be placed at pre- intermediate level, consequently, this study focused on the English language

production of bilingual students at A2 on the Common European Frame of Reference, describing a pre-intermediate level during English language acquisition.

The number of Low Bilinguals with L2-Macedonian was 48, while the number of students at pre-intermediate level of English was 51. To form comparison groups with an equal number of students, 3 students voluntarily left the study.

The number of High Bilinguals with L2- Macedonian was 67, while 73 were placed at pre-intermediate level in English. Again, a few students, this time 6

students, left the study voluntarily so that comparison groups with equal numbers could be created.

Finally, the results of the analyses suggested the formation of two experimental groups constituted by 48 Low Bilinguals and 67 High Bilinguals with pre-intermediate level of English. These groups were studied further.

The different results of the number of the participants between the two groups will be considered in calculating transfer items from L1 Albanian and L2 Macedonian in L3 production. This is because of the weighted contributions expected from each bilingual group. The measuring principle will be based on the total transfer items in L3 production per occurence from L1 or L2. The numbers of transferred items will be then divided by the total number of the subjects in each bilingual group (Inluence Index = transfer items : students number), which will lead to the results of the index for each group with respect to the number of occurances in the five types of lexical transfer (code switching, the cognate effect, deceptive cognates, calques of multiword units and semantic extensions).

The calculated index for each bilingual group of L3 learners will show the role of their first and second language in the third language production. In addition, illustrations of comparison between two bilingual groups will be displayed in order to visually understand those differences. In this view, the influence of background languages is marked by the degree of influence index (ii) per group; Low Bilinguals are marked with blue quadrate and High Bilinguals with bright tuquoise.