Elise Hardin & Erika Kroskos Chapter 5: Language Assessment Oral and English Language Learner/Bilingual Elise Hardin & Erika Kroskos

How do you assess oral and speech language? Informal assessment opportunities Observations of both verbal and nonverbal behaviors This includes… Speech (articulation, voice, and fluency) Language (content, form, use, receptive, expressive, and inner language) Guidelines to help observe oral communication p. 153 How do you assess oral and speech language?

Speech and Language Disorders Affect the way that children talk, understand, analyze, and process information. Speech disorders: affects the clarity, voice quality, and fluency of a child’s spoken words. Language disorders: affects the child’s ability to hold meaningful conversations, understand others, problem solve, read and comprehend, and express their thoughts through spoken or written word Speech and Language Disorders

Approximately six million children under the age of 18 have a speech or language disorder. Boys make up two-thirds of this population Under IDEA, 1.5 million children have received services for speech and language 10.5% increase from a decade ago Normal development chart p. 155-156 Some Statistics

Factors that affect Language Development Whether the child has a disability If the focus of the child is on another major skill (ex. gross motor like walking) Amount and kind of language children are exposed to (such as if there are two language spoken in the home) How people interact with and respond to the child Faster development when the people around the child use eye contact, acknowledge the child, and respond to the child in a positive way) Factors that affect Language Development

Indicators of Language-Learning Disorder Co-occurrence of language disorders and learning disabilities is quite high Difficulty in language development can result in delays in learning to listen, speak, read, or write. Children with language disorders often do poorly in academic areas and have trouble communicating with peers Indicators of Language-Learning Disorder

Types of Speech Disorders Articulation Speech articulation- pronunciation of individual and combined sounds assessed in single words and conversation Sound error categories: omissions, substitutions, and distortions Voice A voice disorder occurs when the pitch, loudness, or quality of sound calls attention to itself rather than to what the speaker is saying. Fluency Fluency disorder: when normal speech is characterized by interruptions in flow. Characteristics: stumble over words, backtrack, repeat syllables or words, speak too rapidly, use an inappropriate pattern of stress, or pause in the wrong place Types of Speech Disorders

Two areas that significantly affect the process of learning to read: receptive language and expressive language Receptive language- skills in understanding through listening or reading (more advanced in most people) Expressive language- skills involve language used in speaking and writing How to Assess Language

Language comparisons between target student two other students that are the same age, sex, and linguistic background. Skills assessed: verbal and communicative competence, articulation, word retrieval, vocabulary usage, syntactic structures, and fluency RAN: Rapid Automatized Naming Children have word-finding problems, cannot quickly and automatically name objects and are slow to recall the correct words. This is usually due to memory retrieval problems Assessing Language

Assessing Language with Content, Form, and Use Content: also known as semantics, uses the language code which is the ideas and concepts used to communicate. Includes vocabulary use, ability to retrieve the appropriate word, ability to use figurative language, and the ability to use these words accurately. Form: also known as syntax, it is the structured rule system that is generally divided into phonology, morphology, grammar, sentence structure, and order Use: also known as pragmatics, it is the function or purpose of oral communication Assessment Forms p. 165 Assessing Language with Content, Form, and Use

There are two types of language proficiency: Basic interpersonal communication skill is proficiency in everyday language that is acquired naturally without formal training (2 years to develop) Cognitive academic language proficiency is language proficiency in language with formal training in an academic setting. (5-7 years to develop) Example of BICS: I want a sandwich, ex. Of calp: Compare s democracy and a dictatorship. CALP can take longer to develop due to several factors incl. length of time in the country, socioeconomic status and education level, etc. BICS and CALP

ELL’s usually develop conversational English (BICS) that appears fluent yet they still struggle with reading, writing and spelling (CALP) This is referred to as the BICS-CALP gap Due to this gap, many ELL’s are wrongly perceived to have a learning disability Although students have developed BICS, they often have not developed CALP. School personnel will often see the child labeled ‘fully English profdi ceient’ and will then give them English standardized tests, which is wrong because they haven't developed CALP fully. When these children don’t do well on these standardized tests, they are often labeled LD. BICS/CALP Gap

Assessing Language Disabilities If a child has difficulty speaking his/her native language, a language disability is likely. A language disability is unlikely when the following conditions are present… There native language skills are comparable to their peers The level of language proficiency is similar to peers who have been learning English for the same amount of time The child is able to communicate with family Also, the child s rate of developing the English language is coparable to English speaking children. Assessing Language Disabilities

Recommended procedures to assess language proficiency Spontaneous conversation/language samples Storytelling or dictation tasks Story retelling Cloze tests Interviews with parents or other family members Language samples assess how well a child understands or speaks the 2 languages (native & English) with different people in different settings 2. storytelling assess child's receptive language skills and lesson content 3. retelling helps assess narrative skills and the students ability to organize info sequence of events, and draw conclusions 4. cloze tests assess a students vocab and grammar background 5. parent interviews help the professional gain a better understanding of their use of language in the home/community Recommended procedures to assess language proficiency

Assessing Language Proficiency ELL students are evaluated using standardized language proficiency instruments The 2 most important things to consider when evaluating English fluency are the following: Can the students speak, read and write in English at a level comparable to English speaking peers? Can the student achieve at the appropriate grade level in the regular instructional program? Assessing Language Proficiency

ELL & Bilingual Assessment It is difficult to identify disabilities in the among ELLs Standardized test results are not reliable due to testing procedures; as a result there is ethnic and racial overrepresentation in special ed Test procedures used in special education for ELL’s are biased Most assessment personnel have no training in languages other than English 1. Tests that have been used to identify LD ELLs have underestimated the cultural and linguistic abilities of ELL’s They do not distinguish between learning/and a communication disorder and lack of language proficiency.. 2. The testing procedures used to test for learning disabilities in an ELL students are essentially not fair. Traditional norm referenced tests are inappropriate for ELL’s because they often result in misdiagnosis, even when adapted, because due to lack of academic support, limited English and cultural differences ELL & Bilingual Assessment

Informal Assessment for ELL’s Move away from formal assessments (standardized, norm-referenced tests) Begin by assessing the instructional program instead of the student Gather information by using checklists and surveys Experts agree that the first place to start is in the classroom to find out what works , what doesn’t work and what is needed to help the child become successful and to find out what, if any, learning problem exists 2. Information should be gathered by using checklists and surveys. Some of these include a student interview guide that ask basic questions like ‘What is your name, address, telephone number, why did you come to America, etc. There are also parent surveys. The surveys are necessary to find out as much info on the child as possible to determine what their needs are. Informal Assessment for ELL’s

Authentic Assessments Curriculum based assessments Performance based assessments Portfolio Assessments Dynamic Assessments Authentic Assessments Environmental Assessments Curriculum based ass. Meaure what a student knows, what needs to be learned and what the instruction needs to be. These are better for ELL’s because they arent standardized and adaptions can be made without ruining the validiuty of the test Performanced based ass. Link assessment and instruction thru meaningful tasksthat give the chance for the student to show what they know , support the language needs of ELL’s, are criterion referenced, provide feedback on the students strengths and weaknesses Authentic examples of student work in English and the students native language, very successful for low income families because they can contribute by collecting samples at home like drawings or a list of books read, etc. portfolios also helpful for migrant worker families who move often, as the portfolio can be taken place to place Dynamic Ass. Follow a teach test teach method. This method involves guided support of the istructor, who can ask the student questions and ask for clarification. This monitors how much support is needed and will be continue to be needed to learn a skill Authentic Assessments- examples include strorytelling, retelling, fill in the blanks type of testing, an example of this would be DRA2 testing for reading Environmental Asses. Refers to the cultural climate of the school. Are the teachers sensitve to the needs of ELL/bilibgula children. Are their needs and cultures taken into consideration? Teachers should consider taking a ‘cultural audit’ of their classrooms and consider the following 5 areas: a. environment style b. interaction style c. instructional strategies for cognitive style d. cognitive responses and e) their assessment style. Are all of these factors being considered when working with ELL kids? Authentic Assessments

Test Accommodations…. Establish trust Assess in both English and native language Speak slowly and simple vocabulary Test in a familiar environment Use visual materials, real life examples and hands on activities and story maps Allow extra test time Reword directions as needed Provide context clues Use a translator if needed The text states the evaluator must have expertise in the pupils primary language and culture. In my experience, this rarely happens!! Test Accommodations….

Are there any questions? The End… Are there any questions?