Language Assessment Essay

The class I chose to observe was an eighth grade ELA class. There were twenty students in this class, eight of the students were English language learners. The ELL students’ overall WIDA scores ranged from 3.9 to 5.6. A review of the WIDA data indicated that speaking and writing scores for these six students were weaker skill areas in comparison to their overall score, ranging from 3.4 to 4.6.

All three come together to persuade and audience because they appeal to the heart and the mind. People don’t make decisions with just one or the other, so this creates maximum persuasive effect. These

The assessment evaluated above was used in a 5th grade language arts class where students were assessed on their understanding and application of the eight parts of speech. The students had to know the eight parts of speech to answer every question correctly. The assessment was taken by 17 regular 5th grader students, 2 ESOL and one ESE. Proper accommodation was given for ESOL students and ESE student, such as extended time to complete the test. From the 20 students taking the assessment, 9 students were girls and 11 students were boys. The assessment has a high validity, for the questions are intended for students to identify the proper part of speech in each sentence.

One of the biggest errors made in schooling today is placing a student who is an English Language Learner into special education because of errors made in interpreting language acquisition as a learning or language disability. There has been no single method that has proven to be fully effective when distinguishing between English language learning students and students with a learning disability. As a result, students can end up in classrooms or programs that are not suited for their needs and can hinder their educational achievement. It is important for teachers and schools to understand the process of acquiring a second language and to be able to recognize whether the student is really receiving an adequate opportunity to learn.

The English language, although used by almost all across the United Kingdom, has been mutated and altered in so many ways that sometimes we cannot even understand it ourselves.

There can be several different reasons why an English Language Learner can have troubles comprehending the English language. Poverty can play a huge role when in explaining why many English language learners have the troubles in mastering the English language. The State testing has varied throughout the years, along with the degrees of assessments and progress. Teachers also need constructive feedback to properly assess their own progress. The increase prescription of ADHD medication can also be a factor. Programs like SLADI in effect that pulls ELL’s from mainstream classrooms to focus on advanced grammatical structures of the English language; all in which, have been unsuccessful in aiding the student to acquire mastery within the English language domains of reading and writing. Comparing a personal experience I had dealt with wasted school year time, regarding an ELL student, involves a teacher being out of touch with her student and giving inappropriate leveled work. All of these issues work hand in hand. The ultimate goal is to teach literacy and to reach proficiency within the English language.

American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: Author.

The pragmatics profile from the CELF-5 will be completed when the SLP is observing Justin in multiple contexts, in addition to completing interviews with Justin’s teachers and parents. This will give the clinician the ability to evaluate how Justin communicates with others in a variety of settings, and how his language difficulties impact his pragmatic behavior (Abdelal, 2007). Also, by interviewing Justin’s teachers and parents, the SLP will be able to better understand how Justin communicates in various environments (i.e. more language output in the home versus at school), and will help the SLP tailor treatment to each environment (Baxendale, Lockton, Adams, & Gaile, 2012). Also, if needed the SLP can request for the other professionals to record language samples of Justin in order to compare his performance in these specific

As such, the importance of further research is to determine if these students are actually being placed there due to the inexperience of teachers’ knowledge regarding ELL students. In addition, the ethical implications of this topic is, these students then become further behind from obtaining the necessary English skills in speaking and writing required to be successful academically in school and in the future workplace. Indeed, it is essential that administrators and teachers in our school system correctly identify a student with ELL difficulties versus a true learning disability and thus, decrease the number of ELL students dropping out of school. In particular, this topic is very relevant in my future role as a new special education teacher, as I will potentially be evaluating ELL students’ academic progress and their possible need for special education services. The current trend is that ELL students are being disproportionately placed in special education services and, as a result, fall further behind in acquiring English, are subjected to bias and inaccurate assessment, and have higher drop-out rates when inexperienced teachers are in charge of their

As a result, the language differences of these students are erroneously classified as speech impediments or learning disabilities. LeMoine states, “rather than throw away their faculty methods, teachers [tend] to throw away their students with language differences” (LeMoine, 1999, p. 67).

There have been many policies and legal battles when it comes to English Language Learners. For every policy, then will inevitably be a case to challenge it, as it is difficult to define what is truly equitable for every ELL student. Programs for English Language Learners (ELLs) have struggled to get the needed recognition and support from school district offices of our public schools. One piece of legislation that was passed to help end the inequality of education for these students was the Equal Education Opportunity Act or EEOA. The EEOA mandated that all students that are identified as an English Language Learner are to receive individual English only instruction. This is a good start to offering the right kind of instruction that is needed for students who are struggling to learn a second language.

Their purpose is to determine what aspects of a child's verbal repertoire are weak and where to begin a language intervention program, which is done by testing the child's language skills (the mand, tact, echoic, interverbal, imitation, and visual performance) and presenting them with an increasingly complex set of receptive and expressive tasks. The primary goal of these language assessments is to identify a child's age-equivalent linguistic level, which are obtained by a comparison of the child's score on the test to the average language abilities of a large group of typically developing children. Language assessments that focus on age-equivalent scores, and the traditional receptive and expressive distinction, are less useful to parent and teachers who simply need direction for working with a particular child. Finally, we should never forget the role that an early intervention plays in the child’s language development. Barbera Introduction, presented how an early intervention is critical for working with children who have some severe difficulties with language, socializing or communicating. Because treatment programs are more effective when started at early age including disorders as mental retardation and pervasive developmental disorders like autism, which are considered the most difficult to treat by the American Psychiatrist Association’s

In this essay I am going to evaluate my ability to use the English language. I am going to assess my strengths and weaknesses in the four skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing. Eight years ago I moved to the US and I stayed there for two years. The evaluation of my English is based on how competent I feel today, at this point. I must honestly say that I have lost a lot of my confidence in the English language since my days in the US and that includes all four skills more or less.

With the already high-impact pressures that are put on students in education these days, difficulties in speech and language only escalate their stress. Due to the progress made in technology though, several of these children can adapt to their educational environments smoothly and without concern.

In an effort to gain useable and positive feedback from English language learners, teachers must use ongoing assessments. Whereas standardized tests only give information on students during a certain part of the year, ongoing assessments will allow teachers to monitor students’ progress throughout the year. Informal assessments are very beneficial in monitoring the progress of students. One type of informal assessment is the use of role playing. During role playing, students are given opportunities to speak in English dealing with different situations. This assessment will let the teacher observe how well the student is comprehends the scenarios and how they respond to them. This type of assessment is effective because it allows students to put the English language into use increasing their English