Strategizing assessment to support emerging bilingual students: a focus on the home language

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Nieto ◽  
Annie Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Bilingual Students ◽  
Achievement Scores ◽  
True Knowledge ◽  
Use Of Assessment ◽  
Emerging Bilingual Students ◽  
Assessment Results

Abstract Both educators and students in the United States feel the continuous pressure to improve achievement scores as a form of validation for their work and success. However, emerging bilingual (EBs) learners encounter barriers within assessments that break the assumptions of validity, reliability, and fairness and prevent them from demonstrating their true knowledge. This is worsened when assumptions about EBs' academic capacity are extracted from those assessment results. This paper focuses on the use of assessment for and as learning for emerging bilingual (EB) students. Specific attention is given to the use of the students' home language as a resource in evaluating their knowledge and how teachers may address some of the inequitable practices to prepare EBs not only to be successful academically, but to demonstrate it in today's assessment world.

Bilingualism and testing: A special case of bias. G. Valdes and R. Figueroa. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1994. Pp. 255.

2000 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 290-296
Author(s):  
Evangeline Harris Stefanakis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Special Education ◽  
Standardized Testing ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
The United States ◽  
Minority Population ◽  
Bilingual Students ◽  
School Age ◽  
Educational Leader ◽  
Special Case

Guadalupe Valdes and Richard Figueroa carefully and clearly craft an argument for why bilingualism and testing constitute a special case of bias that continues to have serious consequences for today's school-age minority population in the United States. This argument could not be more timely, given the drive in the United States for standards and a rising wave of state-mandated standardized testing programs for all students, including bilinguals. Perhaps a summary of this book should be on the desk of every educational leader and policymaker charged with the mandate of administering standardized tests to bilingual students and comparing their scores with those of monolingual groups for the purpose of special education and vocational placements.

Language exposure outside the home becomes more English-dominant from 30 to 60 months for children from Spanish-speaking homes in the United States

2020 ◽  
pp. 136700692095187
Author(s):  
Stephanie N Welsh ◽  
Erika Hoff
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Extracurricular Activities ◽  
Maternal Education ◽  
General Pattern ◽  
The United States ◽  
South Florida ◽  
Family Characteristics ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
Language Exposure

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to document the out-of-home exposure to English and Spanish experienced by children from Spanish-speaking homes in the United States during the preschool years. Methodology: Primary caregivers of 149 children from Spanish-speaking homes in South Florida reported on their children’s language exposure. Data and analysis: Descriptive statistics and paired-samples t-tests described and compared children’s exposure to English and Spanish outside the home. Multi-level modeling described trajectories of change and the influence of family characteristics on English and Spanish out-of-home exposure. Findings: Children heard more English than Spanish outside of their homes. Grandparents were the primary out-of-home source of exposure to Spanish. Language exposure in preschool and extracurricular activities was primarily English. From 30 to 60 months, English exposure increased, while Spanish exposure decreased. Within this general pattern, there was variability in children’s out-of-home language exposure as a function of parents’ language backgrounds and maternal education. Originality: Studies of bilingual children’s language exposure have focused on home language use. The present study shows that out-of-home experiences are a significant source of exposure to societal language (SL) for children from language minority homes. Implications: For children in immigrant families, the home and family members outside the home are the primary sources of heritage language exposure. Out-of-home language experience is SL-dominant and increasingly so as children get older, although the degree to which this is the case differs depending on parental characteristics.

Assessment in Academia. The good, the bad and the ugly

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 113
Author(s):  
Paul Kelter
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Good Teaching ◽  
Normal Part ◽  
People Skills ◽  
Grant Money ◽  
Use Of Assessment ◽  
Department Faculty

<span>The use of assessment tools in academia is increasing at a torrid pace. The most important factor in this stunning increase in assessment is the desire for accountability during difficult economic times. In particular: administrators need to prove to a skeptical public that tax dollars are being spent wisely; individual department faculty need to justify their own budgets; employers want to know that the graduates they hire have the content, thinking and people skills that are required by corporations; and federal, state and private granting organizations want to know that their grant money is being put to good use. This paper will discuss the audiences for assessment and the types of tools that are now a normal part of our faculty responsibilities in the United States. The special focuses will be on considering how we distinguish good teaching from bad teaching, what U.S. universities are doing, and can do, to deal with bad teachers, and how I deal with these issues in my own classroom.</span>

Teaching Children With Hearing Impairment To Listen and Speak When the Home Language is Not English

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Douglas
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Hearing Impairment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Primary Method ◽  
Multilingual Learning ◽  
Children With Hearing Loss ◽  
Implementing Strategies ◽  
Growing Population

Many speech-language pathologists (SLPs), deaf educators, and audiologists (AuDs) are finding themselves serving increasing numbers of children with hearing impairment (HI) who come from families that do not speak English. The majority of these families are likely to select listening and spoken language (LSL) as the primary method of communication for their children. This paper will present issues that need to be considered to support develop of LSL in more than one language for an ever-growing population of children with HI in the United States. Specific areas discussed include bilingual capabilities of some children with hearing loss, achievements of children with HI at a few institutions in North America, determining the language(s) of intervention, understanding current models of intervention, and implementing strategies that facilitate successful multilingual learning.

‘New speakers’ of Irish in the United States: practices and motivations

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Walsh ◽  
Laoise Ní Dhúda
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
First Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Motivating Factors ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
European Project ◽  
New Speakers

AbstractThis paper examines the experiences and motivations of ‘new speakers’ of Irish in the United States. ‘New speakers’ of Irish refer to those whose first language is not Irish but who use the language regularly and fluently. Based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out among Irish speakers in five locations across the United States, the paper begins by describing the language backgrounds of participants. It goes on to analyse their use of Irish and their motivations for learning it and considers the links between practice and ideology. Although Irish heritage and culture are often strong motivating factors for Americans to learn Irish, not all learners are Irish American and only some advance to a level of competence high enough to adopt Irish as family or home language and/or attempt to influence the language ideologies of others. High and active competence is linked to deep personal dedication and is achieved despite significant obstacles facing those who wish to become new speakers of Irish in the United States. This research is part of a broader European project about the practices and ideologies of ‘new speakers’ from a range of languages.

Exploring the rapid rise in Black achievement scores in the United States (1970–1990).

2004 ◽  
pp. 251-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Grissmer ◽  
Stephanie Williamson ◽  
Sheila Nataraj Kirby ◽  
Mark Berends
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Achievement Scores ◽  
Rapid Rise

scholarly journals Culturally Conscious Assessment as Pedagogy in Study Abroad

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 168-186
Author(s):  
Jillian Martin ◽  
Candace Moore ◽  
Alex Foley ◽  
Kiyah McDermind
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
Study Abroad ◽  
The United States ◽  
Program Assessment ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Use Of Assessment ◽  
Assessment Strategies

The Higher Education in the Ghanaian Context (HEGC!) program was created to engage participants in critical examination of concepts related to power, privilege, and oppression within higher education settings in Ghana and the United States. The course has three components: pre-immersion, immersion, and emersion that are guided by a central “big” question: What can this experience teach me about contributing to a global society through the application of culturally conscious practices in my field? To answer this question, we partner with Ghanaian higher education practitioners to co-create a collaborative, cumulative project that participants work on through the duration of the trip. We present in this paper a case study for the use of assessment as pedagogy including an overview of the HEGC! Program, assessment strategies used, and pedagogical incorporation for the course. We conclude with a list of implications for study abroad and assessment practices. 

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