Professional Development Course on Catering for Diversity in English Language Teaching ENG5316 Assessing Diversity in En

1. Professional Development Course on Catering for Diversity in English Language TeachingENG5316Assessing Diversity in English Language Learning Session 5 Assessment of oral language and behaviour Prepared by YANG, Chi Cheung Ruby, Department of English, HKIEd

2. The Nature of Oral Language Ability • Children use oral language either in conversation or in extended talk. • In conversations, speakers are supported by feedback from other speakers. • In extended talk, speakers must monitor their audience’s response and adapt, if necessary, to convey the message more clearly.

3. Assessment of Oral Language • Structurally, language can be viewed as having five components: phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. • Each of these five components involves both reception and expression.

4. Assessment of Oral Language • Phonology involves the use of phonemes, the smallest significant units of sound that are combined into words, to create meaning. • The assessment of phonology involves both the aural discrimination of speech sounds and the articulation of speech sounds.

5. Assessment of Oral Language • Morphology is concerned with how phonemes are put together to give meaning. • Example of assessment instrument: Test for Examining Expressive Morphology

6. Assessment of Oral Language • Syntax involves how words are put together to form sentences. • Assessment of syntax involves the measurement of the understanding of the meaning of sentences and the ability to formulate sentences.

7. Assessment of Oral Language • Semantics refers to the meaning of words. • The assessment of semantics skills usually involves the measurement of a person’s receptive and expressive vocabulary skills. • Receptive vocabulary can be measured using instruments such as the Peabody Vocabulary Test. • Expressive vocabulary measures are included on tests such as Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children.

8. Assessment of Oral Language Guidelines for Observing Oral Communication 8

9. Speech and Language Disorders Speech disorders affect the clarity, voice quality, and fluency of a child’s spoken words. Language disorders affect a child’s ability to hold meaningful conversations, understand others, and express thoughts through spoken or written word. 9

10. Speech Disorders Screening for Speech Disorders 10

11. Informal Assessment of Oral Language • Formal language testing usually occurs in a contrived situation.

12. Informal Assessment of Oral Language • One approach that can be used to evaluate the spontaneous use of language in a naturalistic setting is language sampling. This usually involves eliciting an individual’s language. • The procedures for obtaining a language sample include: • a spontaneous sample taken during free play or conversation • an elicited sample asking the child to respond to questions, pictures, etc.

13. Different Types of Oral Language Assessment Storytelling Picture description Oral presentations Question-and-answer tasks Mini-dialogues and role plays Information-gap tasks Group discussions Total physical response (TPR) tasks Dictation 13

14. Activity 1 In pairs/small groups, discuss some ways in which your school/department could involve pupils with special educational needs more fully in learning oral language. Remember to justify your decisions. 14

15. Assessment of Behavior • Brainstorming: Try to list the sources that a teacher can collect information about his/her student’s current and past classroom behavior.

16. Sources of Information About Classroom Behavior School Records The students Teachers Parents 16

17. Functional Behavioral Assessment • Information to determine why a student displays a specific behavior can be obtained through three broad methods of assessment: • Indirect method • Direct observation method • Functional behavioral analysis method

18. Functional Behavioral Assessment • Indirect Method • It includes techniques such as interviewing the classroom teacher and parents, reviewing data in the school records, completing behavioral rating scales, checklists, and so on (Overton, 2009).

19. Functional Behavioral Assessment Behavioral Checklists

20. Functional Behavioral Assessment • Rating scales • A rating questionnaire may be similar in content to a checklist, although the respondent rates the answer. • For example, the format of the checklist would change so that the respondent would rate student behaviors as ‘never’, ‘almost never’, ‘sometimes’, ‘somewhat often’, ‘frequently’, or ‘almost always’ (Overton, 2009).

21. Functional Behavioral Assessment • Direct Observation Techniques • The student is observed in the environment in which the behaviors are occurring. • Several techniques may be employed: anecdotal recording, event recording, time sampling, duration recording, and interresponse time.

22. Functional Behavioral Assessment • Anecdotal recording • The teacher observes the student and writes down everything that occurs (Overton, 2009).

23. Functional Behavioral Assessment • Event recording • It assesses the frequency with which behaviors occur.

24. Functional Behavioral Assessment • Time sampling • The teacher identifies the target behaviors and records student activity for a time period, such as 2 or 5 minutes, throughout the period or day (Overton, 2009).

25. Functional Behavioral Assessment • Duration recording • This technique is used when the length of the behavior is the target variable of the behavior (Overton, 2009).

26. Functional Behavioral Assessment • Interresponse time • It assesses the length of time between the behaviors or responses. • For example, a student may be distracted or off task every 2 minutes between the observation period of 2 to 3 pm, but become distracted only every 20 minutes during the observation period of 10 to 11 am (Overton, 2009).

27. Functional Behavioral Assessment • Functional Behavioral Analysis • It goes beyond observation to gather the information needed to plan positive behavioral interventions for students with problem behaviors. • It makes use of a variety of informal assessment techniques.

28. Functional Behavioral Assessment Describing the Target Behavior Identifying Factors That Influence the Behavior Generating a Hypothesis Program Planning Functional Behavioral Analysis

29. Functional Behavioral Assessment • Describing the target behavior • The behavior must be observable and measurable. • Identifying factors that influence the behavior • In order to arrive at hypotheses about possible causes, it is necessary to gather information from other sources. These sources are the persons who know the student best; the student him/herself and the student’s teachers. • Interviews are typically used for data collection.

30. Functional Behavioral Assessment • Generating a hypothesis • This hypothesis must take into account the behavior itself and the setting, antecedents (the variables triggering the behavior), and possible consequences that follow the behavior. • Program planning • The plan includes objectives related to the replacement behaviors and a data collection system for monitoring the progress.

31. Activity 2 Identify a student in your class who has behavioural problems. Then try to use Functional Behavioural Analysis to analyse your student’s behaviour. Be prepared to share with other participants. 31

32. Instruments for the Assessment of Behavior: Some examples • Classroom and home behavior instruments • Behavior Rating Profile • Devereux Behavior Rating Scale - School Form • ADHD instruments • Attention Deficit Disorders Evaluation Scale • Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Test • Autism instruments • Autism Screening Instrument for Educational Planning • Gilliam Autism Rating Scale

33. Instruments for the Assessment of Behavior: Some examples • Classroom and home behavior instruments • Behavior Rating Profile • Devereux Behavior Rating Scale - School Form

34. Instruments for the Assessment of Behavior: Some examples • ADHD instruments • Attention Deficit Disorders Evaluation Scale • Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Test

35. Instruments for the Assessment of Behavior: Some examples • Autism instruments • Autism Screening Instrument for Educational Planning • Gilliam Autism Rating Scale

36. References • McLoughlin, J. A. & Lewis, R. B. (2008). Assessing students with special needs (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Merrill/Prentice Hall. • Overton, T. (2009). Assessing learners with special needs: An applied approach (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall. • Spinelli, C. G. (2006). Classroom assessment for students in special and general education (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J. : Pearson/Merrill/Prentice Hall. • Taylor, R. L. (2000). Assessment of exceptional students: Educational and psychological procedures (5th ed.). Boston, Mass.: Allyn and Bacon.