A number of studies have demonstrated language dominance effects at different linguistic levels, also in Catalan-Spanish early and functional bilinguals (phonetic: Ramírez & Simonet, 2019; lexical: Ferré & Brysbaert, 2017; morphosyntactic: Puig-Mayenco et al., 2018; among others). However, there is not a single definition of language dominance, nor a consensus as to how to measure and operationalize it (Silva-Corvalán & Treffers-Daller, 2016). For this purpose, a variety of sociolinguistic questionnaires have been designed (e.g., Marian et al., 2007; Dunn & Fox-Tree, 2009), but none of them has been thought for assessing language dominance in bilingual societies such as Catalonia. Nowadays, there are progressively more studies using the Bilingual Language Profile (BLP; Birdsong et al., 2012). This self-reported questionnaire understands language dominance as a multidimensional and gradual construct and aims at placing bilingual participants in a bilingual continuum. It is divided in four modules: a) language history, b) language use, c) language proficiency, and d) language attitudes. The scores obtained for each module are used to generate a global dominance score.
The aim of the present study is to analyze to what extent the BLP allows for characterizing bilinguals who live and have grown up in a bilingual society where both languages are used daily and in a variety of contexts. To do so, 254 bilinguals raised and educated in Catalonia, mainly university students, answered the BLP. From their global dominance score, they were classified into three groups: Catalan-dominant bilinguals, balanced bilinguals, and Spanish-dominant bilinguals. Several comparisons were made to investigate in which modules or questions the three bilingual groups presented similar or different experiences.
Results show that the BLP global dominance score allows for grouping Catalan- and Spanish-dominant bilinguals homogeneously enough. These two groups show clearly polarized scores in their respective dominant languages. Conversely, balanced bilinguals show more variation, specially in the language use module, which is the module that more categorically distinguishes the three groups. The language history module offers a higher overlap between groups than the language use module. Indeed, in the responses referring to language history, the shared experiences by our bilinguals seem to be more weighted than the experiences that distinguish them. This finding suggests the need to refine this module. Regarding language proficiency, very few differences emerge between bilinguals, which questions its relevance as a determining element for bilinguals schooled in Catalonia. Finally, clear differences appear in the attitudes' module, specially referring to language identification. Overall, language use and attitudes are the modules that make the most relevant contribution to the BLP's global score. In this regard, we bring up the question of whether language attitudes should have the same weight or value as language history and use as explanatory parameters of language dominance.
In short, the BLP can delimit bilinguals with clearly polarized linguistic experiences (i.e., Catalan- and Spanish-dominant bilinguals), but does not allow for clearly identifying the bilingual profile of more balanced bilinguals. Hence, there is a need to develop a tool that assesses language dominance adapted to the sociolinguistic reality of Catalonia.
