Academic Language Proficiency Research Articles

Children's Early Decontextualized Talk Predicts Academic Language Proficiency in Midadolescence.

This study examines whether children's decontextualized talk-talk about nonpresent events, explanations, or pretend-at 30months predicts seventh-grade academic language proficiency (age 12). Academic language (AL) refers to the language of school texts. AL proficiency has been identified as an important predictor of adolescent text comprehension. Yet research on precursors to AL proficiency is scarce. Child decontextualized talk is known to be a predictor of early discourse development, but its relation to later language outcomes remains unclear. Forty-two children and their caregivers participated in this study. The proportion of child talk that was decontextualized emerged as a significant predictor of seventh-grade AL proficiency, even after controlling for socioeconomic status, parent decontextualized talk, child total words, child vocabulary, and child syntactic comprehension.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ВИКЛАДАННЯ ІНОЗЕМНИХ МОВ ПРОФЕСІЙНОГО СПРЯМУВАННЯ В КОНТЕКСТІ ІНТЕГРОВАНОГО НАВЧАННЯ ПРЕДМЕТА І МОВИ (CLIL)

The article looks at the prospects of multilingual education in Ukraine. Upon examination of the number of government initiatives, it becomes clear that higher education of Ukraine is open for innovations that will allow Ukrainian students and graduates participate in academic and professional mobility within the European Community. Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is one of the approaches that have been introduced to meet the needs of rapid internationalization in European universities. Its relevance to teaching languages for specific purposes has been shown by demonstrating the correlation between the main dimensions of this approach and the four components of professional intercultural communicative competence. The main focus is on the methods and techniques that a language teacher should be aware of in order to be able to teach in a language-sensitive way. To achieve this there must be a clear understanding of differences in acquiring basic interpersonal communicative skills and cognitive academic language proficiency. The implications are that the former can be acquired implicitly in the process of active learning, while the latter can be developed only with the use of cognitively demanding tasks. Thus, teacher language awareness requires metacognitive thinking that help teachers plan and teach their lessons efficiently. This research supports the argument that academic skills should be taught by means of scaffolding, an instructional technique of providing individual support that enables learners to build on prior knowledge and internalize new concepts. Therefore, under these conditions, CLIL teachers should certainly opt for explicit instruction and integrate this type of strategies into their classes.

Dogme ELT Practice for Enhancing Conversation

Conversation is the default form of language. Children acquire their mother tongue only through conversation with their parents and siblings. Conversation is therefore an interactive communication between two people and it emphasises the fact that it is social, dialogic, and dynamic. It is a means of language learning and socialization and not the end product of language learning. It is this medium through which people conduct their daily affairs. It is capable of solving most of the life issues. It is the base means for people to socially relate themselves with others and it is important for career growth. This paper argues that Dogme ELT can enhance conversational skills through certain self-motivating language tasks that demand almost nil textbook materials by instilling confidence in learners. It also locates conversational skills within General English as opposed to cognitive academic language proficiency.

Czytanie jako umiejętność kluczowa w nauce języka poprzez treść u dzieci dwujęzycznych

Autorka artykułu omawia zagadnienia związane ze specjalistyczną odmianą języka edukacyjnego i nabywaniem przez dzieci kompetencji w zakresie przetwarzania treści za pomocą języka (tzw. kompetencje akademickie CALP) w odróżnieniu od kształtowania podstawowych kompetencji komunikacyjnych, wykorzystywanych przez uczniów w codziennych kontaktach społecznych (BICS). Podkreśla wagę wczesnej nauki czytania w języku mniejszościowym i nabywania biegłości w pracy z tekstami tak dla wspierania rozwoju kompetencji akademickich, jak i dla zrównoważonego, ogólnego rozwoju dwujęzycznego dziecka. W artykule zostały uwzględnione również praktyczne przykłady realizacji omawianych tez, zaczerpnięte z podręczników i innych materiałów dydaktycznych dla dzieci dwujęzycznych (bilingwizm polsko-angielski).

Strategies Used by Lecturers in Teaching English Productive Skills at English Study Program of FKIP UIR

Teaching English productive skills was considered to become the most difficult lesson, the students needed to have good pronunciation, master structure, discourse and the social context of cultural competence. Besides, speaking and writing were difficult, more effort was required on the part of the students and lecturers. It was not enough for the students to listen only. This research tried to explore the strategies used by the lecturers and their influences in developing students’ cognitive academic language proficiency by working on students’ English productive skills. This research was a descriptive qualitative research. It consisted of only one variable, which the researcher wanted to explore the description of strategies used by the lecturers and their influences on students’ English productive skills at English study program of FKIP UIR. In this research, researcher only focused on exploring the strategies used by the lecturers and describing the influences from those strategies on students’ English productive skills. The result of this research showed that there were some strategies used by lecturers in teaching English productive skills at English study program of FKIP UIR, they were: (1) in the speaking classroom; Buzz group, think-pair-share, circle of voices, video recording method. (2) in the Writing classroom; collaborative writing technique. All of those strategies were suitable for teaching speaking or writing and gave description for reader to increase students’ English productive skills.

Languages of schooling in European policymaking: present state and future outcomes

AbstractEuropean language policies have unfolded under the umbrella of the Council of Europe and the European Commission over the last past decades. The major goal has been so far to handle autochthonous multilingualism and preserve language diversity. Major developments in this area has been followed by new political and educational targets. The first one is the spread of high levels of cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) across all the student population. High CALP levels imply the acquisition of high order skills triggered by the practice of advanced language structures at school, mostly through language across the curriculum schemes. Secondly, their interests lie in the development of second language instruction competence (SLIC); i.e. the ability to process school content in a variety of languages so that multilingual education does not affect communicative levels only. CALP and SLIC will mark the political goals for language policy in the nearby future and it so happens that languages of schooling provide a framework to operationalize these goals. Following on past research on European multilingual language policies, this paper intends to explore the means to make this language policy happen in schools. The major concepts, innovations and policies discussed will be illustrated with examples from the course of History.

한국어(KSL) 교육과정에서의 학습 한국어 개념 설정 원리와 실제

This study covers the concept of Basic interpersonal communication skill(BICS) and Cognitive academic language proficiency(CALP) that The present ‘Korean as a Second Language Curriculum’ suggests, and aims to clarify the concept of ‘Academic Korean’. This study argues that the vocabulary provided in the appendix should be reorganized in order to reduce the level difference between BICS and CALP and suggests practical methods. And we emphasizes the importance of the role of ‘Korean as learning tool ’ in bridging ‘Daily life Korean’ and ‘Academic Korean’ to reduce the level difference and presented the theory and actuality.

The effectiveness of texting to enhance academic vocabulary learning: English language learners’ perspective

ABSTRACTThis study examined university undergraduate English language learners’ (ELLs) perspectives on an intervention, Word Matters, that aimed to enhance functional academic vocabulary learning critical to their cognitive academic language proficiency development (Cummins, 1989), a challenge faced by many ELLs in English-medium universities. This intervention provided undergraduate ELLs with instructional support of their vocabulary learning through the use of texting. It focused on their acquisition of academic and low-frequency words that appeared in the readings assigned by two content-based English for academic purposes (EAP) courses required for ELLs at a large Canadian university. The intervention was aligned with the lesson plans of the courses. Data in this study were collected from follow-up interviews (n = 10) and a post-treatment survey (n = 40) from a total of 48 students who participated in the intervention. The results revealed students’ overall positive experience with the intervention, the feasibility of the intervention design and its effectiveness in supporting ELLs’ vocabulary learning. The findings, students’ suggestions for improving the intervention, and directions for future research are discussed.

Language at the Grade Three and Four interface: The theory-policy-practice nexus

This paper interrogates the complexity of language use at the Grade Three-Four transition, using the South African context as a microcosm of similar educational systems. The paper describes the complex nature of the transition, particularly within a second language (L2) instructional context. It explores the dissonance between and among theory, policy or curriculum, and practice; which aggravates an already complex transition. It draws on Cummins’ Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) theory, the Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis (LIH) and the Linguistic Threshold Hypothesis (LTH). Theory is considered in relation to the South African policy and curriculum ideals as espoused in the Language in Education Policy (LiEP) and the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) respectively, as well as in relation to the reality of the classroom instructional context. The paper argues for extensive research, which delineates the linguistic needs and thresholds second language learners need for the transition, a consideration of learners’ attainment of the requisite linguistic thresholds as a condition for the use of a First Additional Language (FAL) as Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT), and deliberate teaching for transfer in the Foundation Phase, among other recommendations. Keywords: BICS and CALP; cross-linguistic transfer; First Additional Language; Grade Three to Four transition; Language of Learning and Teaching; linguistic interdependence; linguistic threshold

Development of CALP through ICT and Lexical Approach in Second Generation Foreign Students

The public Italian School is a multicultural school: 51% of foreign students were born in Italy or arrived before starting primary school and their academic performance is lower than average, as verified by the Ministry of Education (MIUR 2015) and confirmed by a research group of Genoa University that assessed pupils’ prior knowledge in an elementary school. Consequently two research questions have been formulated:;1. A second generation foreign student has the same CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency, Cummins 1979) as an Italian student? 2. Can the development of CALP both in Italian and Spanish give significant results? If so, which ones? The project LI.LO (acronym of Lingua Italiana, Lingua di Origine) aims to study relations between heritage language and second language acquisition in CALP. It also has the purpose to build bilingualism programs in the public middle school by using ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) in order to improve academic proficiency and study skills in both languages. This paper wants to show the two basic phases of the project: in the first phase the researchers collected data about students’ linguistic prior knowledges and skills, showing a better competence in the section of the pre-test related to the lexicon. The analysis of the first phase was used to consider aims and guidelines for the bilingual course LI.LO. The method has been the Lexical Approach (Lewis, 1993, 1997) . Secondly the researchers opened the course on a platform CLAT/Clire, in which they put materials in both languages. ICT were used in many activities. In the contribute it will be shown analysis, results and further perspectives of the project.

The influence of academic vocabulary knowledge on school performance

While academic language is often assumed to impact children's school success, evidence for this claim is still limited. One reason is the lack of empirically sound test measures for academic language that are based on clear conceptualizations. In a study with 173 German fourth graders we investigated whether academic vocabulary knowledge predicts children's performance in school beyond general vocabulary knowledge, employing newly developed tasks to assess academic vocabulary. Analyses reveal that academic vocabulary rather than general vocabulary predicts grades in four subjects, controlling for age, gender, language background, and nonverbal cognitive abilities. These results support the claim that already in primary school academic language proficiency significantly influences academic careers.

A Developmental Approach to the Use of Critical Thinking Skills in Writing: The Case of Moroccan EFL University Students

Training students to think critically is one of the most serious challenges that face Moroccan higher education, with experts being in unanimous agreement that critical thinking should be part of any instructional practice. In actual fact, a number of studies have come to the conclusion that students who have the ability to provide a critical assessment of the knowledge and information they receive — be they inside or outside of the classroom — can become critical thinking individuals, successful professionals, and, in the long run, active citizens. Given the importance of critical thinking in EFL teaching, the present paper purports to investigate the extent to which academic level affects the development of critical thinking skills among Moroccan EFL learners. In order to come up with a developmental account of critical thinking among these learners, two tests were administered to 60 students that were divided into three groups of 20 students. The first test, the Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test, targeted argument evaluation skills, while the second test, argumentative essay writing, targeted argument construction skills. The results have been quantitatively analyzed so as to (i) provide tentative understanding of the current state of critical thinking in Moroccan higher education in general and among Moroccan EFL students in particular, and (ii) examine the influence that academic level and language proficiency have on the progress of critical thinking. The analysis will help us draw implications for EFL teaching methods and curriculum development in Moroccan higher education. Suggestions are made with regard to the integration of critical thinking in EFL instruction.

A Multi-Modal Intervention for English Language Learners: Preliminary Results

Abstract Finding culturally responsive practices that are engaging for students is even more important with the ever-increasing population of English Language Learners (ELLs) in the United States. The challenges of a language barrier can contribute to low achievement and high dropout rates. This 16-week study examined the effects of authoring and sharing dual-language identity texts on the narrative skills of 3 Spanish-speaking ELLs who were in the third grade. Specifically, we examined discourse length and lexical diversity. In this culturally responsive intervention, students authored and read dual-language identity texts. Language samples were elicited in the form of story generations prompted by randomly selected photographs. Results of the study indicate that 2 of the 3 participants made notable gains in vocabulary and narrative skill performance. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. Keywords: dual language, culturally responsive intervention, narrative skills, book sharing, story grammar ********** One of the most pressing issues in education today is how to address the academic needs of English Language Learners (ELLs). The population of ELLs has increased dramatically in classrooms across the United States. Nearly one in five children come from a home where English is not the native language and more than one in four children are Hispanic where Spanish is the primary language spoken (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012). The challenges of a language barrier make it difficult for ELLs to compete with their English-proficient peers resulting in low academic achievement and high dropout rates (Hernandez, 2011; McCardle, Meie-McCarthy, Cutting, Leos, & D'Emilio, 2005). Vocabulary knowledge and narrative skills have been found to be precursors to achieving literacy for children who are learning two languages (August & Shanahan, 2006). Narrative skills and extended monologues are a type of academic language proficiency that children are expected to comprehend and produce during school activities (Ortiz, 1997; Westby, 1992). These skills have also been identified as areas that are problematic for ELLs (Castro, Paez, Dickinson, & Frede, 2011). Compared with their typically developing peers, children with language and literacy difficulties are more likely to produce narratives that include less information (shorter discourse length) and contain less grammatical complexity (shorter utterances), lexical diversity (fewer different words), cohesive adequacy, and organizational coherence (Gutierrez-Clellen, 1995; Hayward, Gillam, & Lien, 2007; Paul & Smith, 1993). Difficulties in these areas can lead to an adverse effect on academic progress (Boudreau & Hedberg, 1999). Researchers have found that narrative skills are a predictor of progress in language development (Cleave, Girolametto, Chen, & Johnson, 2010) and a predictor of later reading outcomes (Dickinson & McCabe, 2001; Gutierrez-Clellen, 2002). Furthermore, the lexical diversity of children's narrative discourse has been found to be one of the most informative predictors of oral language skill (Fergadiotis, Wright, & Capilouto, 2011). It is important that quality classroom instruction include opportunities for ELLs to strengthen second language skills by providing strong connections with their native language and culture. Culturally Responswe Practices That Support Natwe Language Educators who implement culturally responsive instruction create opportunities for children to practice new skills, engage in meaningful experiences, and understand new concepts. Instruction that allows ELLs to draw upon their culture and their first language reinforces a sense of belonging and a desire to participate in classroom activities (Cummins 2001, 2004; Reyes & Azuar, 2008; Taylor, Bernhard, Garg, & Cummins, 2008). It also helps students develop their identities and make sense of their world (Cummins, 2001, 2004; Gonzalez et al. …

Assessing English Language Learners: Bridges to Educational Equity: Connecting Academic Language Proficiency to Student Achievement

Assessing English Language Learners: Bridges to Educational Equity: Connecting Academic Language Proficiency to Student Achievement

Academic achievement and language proficiency in early total Mandarin immersion education

Two types of Mandarin immersion programs for elementary age children are growing in popularity: the early total (90/10) program model and the partial (50/50) model; however, little empirical data exists on student learning in either program type. This paper reports on a multi-year research study of K–5 students who participated in the early total Mandarin immersion program. Findings show achievement in English reading and math that is commensurate with, and at times better than grade-level non-immersion peers’ achievement in the same school, district, and state. There was also evidence of a “math advantage” for the Mandarin immersion learner group both in Grades 3 and 5. Beyond academics, the majority of Grade 5 students demonstrated proficiency in Mandarin at Intermediate levels with listening and speaking skills outpacing character writing and reading. This finding suggests a need to further explore character literacy development to better understand best practice for English-proficient children in the U.S.

Validating an Academic Group Tutorial Discussion Speaking Test

<p>This study attempts to validate an academic group tutorial discussion speaking test for undergraduate freshmen students taking initial EAP training at a university in Hong Kong in terms of task, rater and criterion validity. Three quantitative measures (Cronbach’s Alpha, Intraclass Correlation Coefficient, and Exploratory Factor Analysis) are used to assess validity of rater scores for the test using a rubric with considerations for assessment of academic stance presentation, inter-candidate interaction, and individual language proficiency. These results are triangulated with post-hoc interview data from the raters regarding the difficulties they face assessing individual proficiency and group interaction over time. The results suggest that current provisions of the rubric in dealing with the assessment of interaction in group settings (namely visual cues such as “active listening” as well as provisions for interruptions in the form of “domination”) are problematic, and that raters are unable to separate the grading of academic stance from the grading of language concerns. We also note affective and cognitive difficulties involved with assessing extended periods of interactional discourse including student talking time (or lack of it), the group dynamic, and raters” personal beliefs and practice as threats to validity that the statistical measurements were unable to capture. A new sample rubric and further suggestions for improving the validity of group tutorial assessments are provided.</p>

Language policies in Puerto Rican higher education: conflicting assumptions of bilingualism

ABSTRACTThis paper describes the language policies at 38 institutions of higher education on the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. As a commonwealth of the US, Spanish and English hold co-official status on Puerto Rico despite the fact that majority of islanders use Spanish as their first language. Given the colonial status of the island, English has held a privileged role in higher education where institutional policies have allowed professors to teach in English or Spanish. After a description of the language context of Puerto Rico, data is presented that used document analysis of university catalogues along with structured interviews with registrars’ offices from the majority of the island’s campuses. The findings describe varying levels of open-language policies, which the author argues can be beneficial to students and professors who are bilingual but a detriment to students who have yet to develop academic language proficiency in both languages. The findings further indicate that the majority of institutions have de facto open-language policies, which allow instructors to use textbooks largely published in English and present their lectures and assessments in Spanish or a mixture of Spanish and English.

Editorial

Welcome to the Summer 2016 issue of Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice. In this issue, you will find some light and not so light summer reading—two substantive articles, an instructional module on a hot topic (simulation studies), and a new feature, the Gallery of Winners that showcases the top 10 graphics and visuals submitted for NCME's 2016 competition. Many of you attending the NCME breakfast this past April in Washington, DC, may remember seeing some of the winning entries. The first article is titled “Validating English Language Proficiency Assessment Uses for English Learners: Academic Language Proficiency and Content Assessment Performance,” written by Mikyung Kim Wolf and Molly Faulkner-Bond of the Educational Testing Service. As these researchers note, many states use standards-based English language proficiency test scores to support high-stakes decisions for students with limited ability in English. Using a series of hierarchical linear models, this work unpacks the complex relationships among social language use, academic language abilities, and performance on English language proficiency tests of the type used in states’ accountability systems. This work stresses the importance of looking more deeply at the constructs underlying most English language proficiency tests, particularly when these test scores have implications for policy and practice. “It was the best of tests, it was the worst of tests, it reflected a policy of wisdom, it reflected a policy of foolishness.” This is the opening line of our second article, “A Tale of Two Tests (and of Two Examinees)” by Amanda L. Clauser and her colleague at the National Board of Medical Examiners, Howard Wainer. This article, I suspect, will be of interest to both educational measurement specialists and policymakers. Clauser and Wainer show how making high-stakes decisions on the basis of multiple measures—a common practice in U.S. schools—can lead to an increased likelihood of falsely rejecting otherwise qualified examinees. They argue persuasively for thinking more about the tradeoff of making false positive vs. false negative decisions or classifications. It is a good read. To further our commitment to improve the teaching and learning of methods and statistical practices in educational measurement, we have a module in our Instructional Topics in Educational Measurement Series (ITEMS) titled “Conducting Simulation Studies in Psychometrics” developed and written by colleagues from the National Board of Medical Examiners, Richard A. Feinberg and Jonathan D. Rubright. Simulation studies are, more and more, being carried on a host of psychometric issues—including new methods for differential item functioning (DIF) analysis, equating studies, factor analysis, and subscore validity studies. Using code written in R, and made available to readers, Feinberg and Rubright illustrate, using a worked example, how to design and carry out a simulation study. This is must reading for quantitative (i.e., psychometric) researchers because Monte Carlo simulation studies have become a powerful tool for testing model-based assumptions and parameter estimates in something of a controlled environment. My thanks to our two colleagues for taking on the development of this instructional module. In addition to these three substantive articles, this issue offers Summer readers with a bit lighter fare: a close-up look at the winners of NCME's Spring 2016 Visuals competition. Our colleague Katherine Furgol Castellano did a fantastic job organizing the competition, rounding up judges, notifying the winners, and making the entire competition fun and informative for our NCME friends and colleagues. Our heartfelt thanks go to Katherine. As we go to press, the annual NCME meeting in Washington, DC, has come to a close. This year's theme Foundations and Frontiers: Advancing Educational Measurement for Research, Policy, and Practice offered us a particularly timely framework for the meeting. Kudos to Andrew Ho and Matt Johnson for all their hard work as the Annual Meeting Co-Chairs. They made a very challenging task look easy. My colleagues on the editorial team and I will be spending more than a few afternoons this spring and summer combing through the NCME program and the affiliated online paper repository looking for papers to publish. In addition, as always, we welcome your suggestions for commentaries, special issue topics, and instructional modules and look forward to hearing from all of you. Enjoy the summer!

Validating English Language Proficiency Assessment Uses for English Learners: Academic Language Proficiency and Content Assessment Performance

States use standards‐based English language proficiency (ELP) assessments to inform relatively high‐stakes decisions for English learner (EL) students. Results from these assessments are one of the primary criteria used to determine EL students’ level of ELP and readiness for reclassification. The results are also used to evaluate the effectiveness of and funding allocation to district or school programs that serve EL students. In an effort to provide empirical validity evidence for such important uses of ELP assessments, this study focused on examining the constructs of ELP assessments as a fundamental validity issue. Particularly, the study examined the types of language proficiency measured in three sample states’ ELP assessments and the relationship between each type of language proficiency and content assessment performance. The results revealed notable variation in the presence of academic and social language in the three ELP assessments. A series of hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses also revealed varied relationships among social language proficiency, academic language proficiency, and content assessment performance. The findings highlight the importance of examining the constructs of ELP assessments for making appropriate interpretations and decisions based on the assessment scores for EL students. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Inferences from the Test of Academic Literacy for Postgraduate Students (TALPS)

Inadequate student success at the undergraduate level forms the focus of much current research in the realm of higher education in South Africa. However, few studies have examined to what extent success is being achieved at postgraduate level, and whether language proficiency constitutes a barrier to academic achievement at this more advanced phase of study. In this article, which provides an analysis of the test results of a cohort of postgraduate students who wrote the Test of Academic Literacy for Postgraduate Students (TALPS) at a centrally located university in South Africa, I find that postgraduate students show the same kind of vulnerability to academic literacy challenges as their undergraduate peers. On the basis of inferential statistics and an analysis of student writing, the inferences to be drawn from the available test data are that not only are students being allowed to graduate with low levels of academic literacy and language proficiency, creating another form of social injustice, but some of these students are even being admitted to postgraduate study. This anomaly suggests that existing short-term literacy interven- tions fall short of reaching the desired outcomes and that language issues need to be prioritised considerably more throughout the undergraduate phase.