Chapter 5: Language AssessmentOral 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

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

Some Statistics

• 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

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)

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

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

How to Assess Language

• 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

Assessing 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 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

BICS and CALP

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)

BICS/CALP Gap

• 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

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

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

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:

1. Can the students speak, read and write in English at a level comparable to English speaking peers?

2. Can the student achieve at the appropriate grade level in the regular instructional program?

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

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

Authentic Assessments

• Curriculum based assessments• Performance based assessments• Portfolio Assessments• Dynamic Assessments• Authentic Assessments• Environmental 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 End…Are there any questions?