Language Assessment Notes

8/10/2019 Language Assessment Notes

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Assessing and TeachingLanguage

EXC 7130


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Definition of Language

Any code employing signs, symbols, or

gestures used for communicating ideas

meaningfully between human beings. Social tool to communicate meanings,

feelings, and intentions.

Language comprises of receptive skills(understanding) and expressive skills (use)

and includes both written and oral forms.


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Theories of Language

Behavioristic: Skinner

Infant begins with no knowledge of language, but

possesses ability to learn it through reinforcement

and imitation

Nativistic or psycholinguistic: Chomsky

Child is prewired for language development and

the environment triggers its emergence

Interactionistic: Piaget Language occurs through fixed developmental

stages


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Language Components & Skills

Form

Phonology

Morphology

Syntax

Content

Semantics Use

Pragmatics


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Functionalist Language Theory

Pragmatics

Syntax

Semantics

Morpholo

gyPhonology


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Phonology

Study and use of individual sound units in a

language and the rules by which they are

combined and recombined to create largerlanguage units.

Phonemes are the unit of sound such as /s/

or /b/ , they do not convey meaning.

Phonemes alter meaning of words when

combined (e.g., sat to bat).


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Phonological Deficits

Frequently appear as articulation

disorders.

Child omits a consonant: oofor you

Child substitutes one consonant: wabbit

for rabbit

Discrimination: child hears

go get the

nailinstead of mail


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Morphology

Study and use of morphemes, the smallest

units of language that have meaning.

A morpheme is a group of sounds that refersto a particular object, idea, or action.

Roots can stand alone (e.g., car, teach, tall)

Affixes are bound such as prefixes and suffixes

and when attached to root words change themeaning of the words (e.g., cars, teacher, tallest)


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Morphological Deficits

Elementary aged: may not use appropriate

inflectional endings in their speech (e.g.,He

walkor

Mommy coat

).

Middle school: lack irregular past tense or

irregular plurals (e.g., drived for drove or

mans for men).

Be aware of Black English: John cousin

fifty cent, or She work here.


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Syntax

Study of the rules by which words are

organized into phrases or sentences in

a particular language. Referred to as the grammar of the

language and allows for more complex

expression of thoughts and ideas bymaking references to past and future

events.


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Syntactic Deficits

Lack the length or syntactic complexity

(e.g., Where Daddy go?).

Problems comprehending sentencesthat express relationship between direct

or indirect objects.

Difficulty with whquestions.


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Semantics

The larger meaning component of

language.

More than single words, includescomplex use of vocabulary, including

structures such as word categories,

word relationships, synonyms,antonyms, figurative language,

ambiguities, and absurdities.


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Semantic Deficits

Limited vocabulary especially in adjectives,

adverbs, prepositions, or pronouns.

Longer response time in selecting vocabularywords.

Fail to perceive subtle changes in word

meaning: incomplete understanding and

misinterpretations.

Figurative language problems.


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Pragmatics

Knowledge and ability to use language

functionally in social or interactive

situations. Integrates all the other language skills,

but also requires knowledge and use of

rule governing the use of language insocial context.


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Pragmatic Deficits

Problems understanding indirect

requests (e.g., may say yes when asked

Must you play the piano?). May enter conversations in a socially

unacceptable fashion or fail to take

turns talking. Difficulty staying on topic.


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Preschool and Kindergarten

Difficulty with readiness skills: counting,

naming colors, naming the days of the week,

and using scissors. Unable to follow simple directions, follow a

story line, or enjoy listening to stories.

May exhibit immature-sounding speech, word

finding difficulties, and inability to name

common objects.


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Elementary Students

Limited ability to identify sounds, analyzing

and synthesizing sound sequences and

segmenting words. Problems with temporal and spatial concepts

(e.g., before-after, some, few).

Word finding (retrieval) difficulties exist.

Problems sounding out and blending sounds.

Problems with expressive and oral language.


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Secondary Students

Tend to be passive learners and lack

metacognitive skills.

Problems gaining information from classlectures and textbooks, completing

homework, following classroom rules,

demonstrating command of knowledge

through test taking, expressing thoughts inwriting, participating in classroom

discussions, and passing competency exams.


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Bilingual and Culturally Diverse

Students Assessment should be conducted in the

students primary language.

Assessment should examine writing, reading,listening, and speaking skills.

Assessments should include both quantitative

measures (i.e., formal tests) and qualitative

measures (e.g., observations, adapted test

instruction, and a language sample).


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Formal Language Assessment

Standardized instruments used to compare astudents performance with pre-establishedcriteria.

Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals,Peabody Picture Voc. Test

Screening Tests Provides general overview in particular area can

norm referenced.

Diagnostic Tests Measure one or more specific language

components. See Table 6.3


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Informal Assessment

Often used to affirm or refute the results

of formal measures.

Determine specific instructionalobjectives.

Use large sample of items and repeated

opportunities for observations.


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Informal Tests of Phonology

Analyze students production of phonemes in

single words.

List of all the consonant phonemes + pictures todepict words containing each phoneme (e.g.,

picture of a pot for initial /p/, map for final /p/).

Include a comments section to describe the error

recorded.

Provide prompts Tell me about your weekend

for 3-minute sample, count correct and incorrect

phonemes.


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Informal Test of Morphology

Determine mastery level of each morpheme

in a hierarchy (Brown, 1973).

ing: present a picture of girls playing and sayThe girls like to play. Here they are

________.Student adds missing word.

Show a series of 20 action pictures and ask

student what they are doing.

Accuracy below 90% - morpheme has not been

mastered


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Informal Tests of Semantics

Logical relationships, cause-and-effect, andverbal problem solving are difficult to assess.

Verbal opposites: SRA picture cards of 40

pairs of opposites. Student sorts them intoopposites.

Word categories: Teacher says a word andstudent says as many words in the same

category. Semantic relationships: analyzing

spontaneous speech while playing orinteracting with friends.


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Strategies for Increasing

Language Comprehension Establish eye contact and cue student tolisten.

Ask student to repeat directions.

Classroom arrangement to reducedistractions.

Use familiar vocabulary when presenting newconcept.

Present new concept in as many modalities.

Teach memory strategies (e.g., visualimagery, clustering and groupinginformation).


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Strategies for Increasing

Language Production React to the content of students message,then correct syntax error.

Teach language in various settings.

Act as a good language model, have studentsimitate what they hear.

Comment or elaborate on studentsideas toprovide more information.

Use storytelling, role playing, or charades toimprove verbal expression.

Use structured language programs thatprovide adequate practice.


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Students with Mental Retardation

Develop language more slowly, including

both receptive & expressive delays

Often dont use make use of incidental

learning opportunities

May have insufficient interactions with

children with more skilled language use

Frequently less effective in social

communication


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Students with Behavior Disorders

May possess age-appropriate skills atphonemic and morphemic level, but

have difficulties with syntax, semantics,and pragmatics

Difficulty expressing ideas, feelings,concerns, and needs

Oral language may be contain profanity

Difficulty with social communication


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Students with Learning Disabilities

Problems understanding or using spoken or

written language (definition)

Problems with word retrieval and word choice Ambiguity and lack of cohesion

Inefficient decoding of messages presented

by speech of others

Uneven language abilities in both school and

social settings

Language Assessment Notes

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