Assessing spoken language development

in Gaelic Medium Education

Morag DonaldsonSchool of Philosophy, Psychology

& Language Sciences

Central role of spoken language

Central role of spoken language

Spoken language as a multi-purpose tool

communicationcognitive

Children with language impairment (LI)

Primary LI = Specific LI (SLI) Unexplained difficulties with spoken language

Secondary LI Secondary to other, more global difficulties

(e.g. autistic spectrum, general learning difficulties, hearing impairment)

OR Biological cause (e.g. brain injury) OR severe environmental deprivation

Speech, language & communication needs (SLCN)

Children with LI have varying types of difficulties

Expressive difficulties Producing/using language in role of speaker

Receptive + expressive difficulties Comprehending/understanding language in role of

listener

Affecting some or all of……grammatical abilities…vocabulary abilities…pragmatic abilities

Why assess spoken language development?

Additional Support Needs (ASN)

To identify children with LI

To clarify what type of additional support is needed

To monitor progress & adjust support

Assessment for learning – inclusive approach

To set learning goals

To design learning activities & resources

To monitor progress & refine learning goals

Language learning ability

• What can learn• If get “typical”

opportunities & language exposure

• In any language

Language proficiency

• What has learned• At particular time• In a particular language

Language proficiency = language learning ability x language experience

Identifying LI in bilingual children

Risk of LI = similar for bilingual & monolingual children = c. 7%

Children with LI have impaired language learning ability

If a bilingual child has LI, both languages are affected

If a bilingual child has LI, both languages are affected“Normal” language proficiency in either language

LI can usually be ruled out

Poor language proficiency in one/both languages

Is this due to LI?

Or is it due to limited language exposure?

Spoken language assessment in GMEChallenges?

1. Almost no standardised tests for assessing Gaelic spoken language development

2. Almost no research on Gaelic spoken language development

3. Children in GME vary considerably in experience of Gaelic

4. No Gaelic-English bilingual norms for standardised tests of English spoken language development

5. Specialist professionals are often not Gaelic speakers

But…

…much can be done!

– Some things will take time

– Other things could be done now

Collaboration amongst key players

GME pupils

Parents

GME teachers

Speech & language therapists

Educational psychologists

Academic researchers

All pupils in a GME classroom…

… are learning Gaelic & English

… have teachers who speak Gaelic & English

… have parents who have deliberately chosen GME

What can be done now (or soon)?

Some issues to consider

Which language(s) should bilingual children be assessed in? Depends on purpose of assessment

If purpose is to identify children with LI

Ideally, assess abilities in both languages

If not possible, then in dominant language= English for most GME pupils

Remember that LI will affect both languages

Can standardised English tests be used to identify LI in children in GME?

Are test results

average or above?

yesCan

probably rule out LI

no

Is English the child’s dominant language?

yesUseful

evidence but interpret

cautiously

no

Interpret extremely cautiously

Evidence from standardised tests is important but never sufficientFunctional criteria

Does the child have linguistic difficulties that are significantly impacting on ability to communicate & function effectively in everyday contexts?

Evidence from standardised tests needs to be combined with evidence from other forms of assessment.

Evidence from other forms of assessment

Observations of spontaneous language use

Parents’ reports on children’s language skills

Structured tasks

to probe particular aspects of language use & understanding

useful for profiling strengths & weaknesses

Developing and deploying non-standardised assessment tools for Gaelic

How could assessment techniques that are already being used informally in GME classrooms be adapted?

Are there learning activities and resource materials that could be adapted for use as assessment tools?

Translating or adapting assessment tools from English

Possible sources

Tasks from research studies on language development

Standardised & non-standardised tests used by practitioners

Useful for comparing proficiency in Gaelic & English

Guidance availableMultilingual Toolkit for adapting New Reynell Developmental Language Scales (Letts & Sinka, 2011)

Is it better to translate or adapt tools?

Translating not straightforwardEspecially for grammar, but even for vocabulary

Adapting more promising Borrow task formats, e.g.

Answering questions about picture sequencesCompleting or imitating sentencesChoosing pictures to match sentencesActing out sentences using toys

Develop new items relevant to key features of Gaelic

Deciding which aspects of language proficiency to assess

Comprehension ProductionVocabulary VocabularyGrammatical GrammaticalPragmatic Pragmatic

Assess as many aspects as appropriate to stage of development

Which Gaelic vocabulary items?

If purpose is to monitor progress & set learning goals

Words that taught or used in class

Words relevant to lessons being planned for near future

If adapting English vocabulary comprehension test

Ask children who are fluent Gaelic speakers to name pictures in Gaelic

Use these Gaelic words to test comprehension in broader range of children

Which aspects of Gaelic grammar?

Useful to include aspects that likely to be challenging

Systematic evidence lacking re what these are

Some possible sources of clues

Grammatical errors made by children -- of various ages & language backgrounds

Intuitions of adult Gaelic speakers -- learners & native/fluent speakers

Assessing language learning abilityrather than products of language learning

Can help to distinguish between LI and limited language exposure

e.g., assess how well children learn new words

Introduce in story or explicit teaching context

Use tasks (e.g. naming pictures, choosing pictures) to assess how much children learn about meaning & pronunciation of new words over period of time

Children with LI tend to learn less than typically developing children (Nash & Donaldson, 2005)

Dynamic assessment framework

How do children respond to varying amounts/types of prompting & feedback in language learning tasks?

More prompting & feedback seems to be required for bilingual children with LI than for those with limited experience of particular language

(Hasson et al., 2013)

Making comparisons between children that take account of language background How does individual child’s performance on linguistic

assessments compare to other children with similar experience of Gaelic & English?

Requires information from parents about children’s language experience to be…

collectedkept

updatedused

Future directions

Facilitate sharing of expertise, resources & information amongst professionals & stakeholders

Develop standardised tests of spoken Gaelic development & norms for Gaelic-English bilinguals

Build up repertoire of other Gaelic assessment tools

Conduct research on Gaelic language development

Collaboration amongst key players GME pupils

Parents

GME teachers

Speech & language therapists

Educational psychologists

Academic researchers

What is typical? What is challenging? What is important?

Your ideas on future directions?

Morag.Donaldson@ed.ac.uk

References

Hasson, N., Camilleri, B., Jones, C., Smith, J., and Dodd, B. (2013). Discriminating disorder from difference using dynamic assessment with bilingual children. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 29, 57-75.

Letts, C. & Sinka, I. (2011). Multilingual Toolkit. London: GL Assessment.

Nash, M. and Donaldson, M.L. (2005). Word learning in children with vocabulary deficits. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 48, 439-458