How do you assess bilingual EAL students?
- Many assessment procedures rely heavily on English-language use and may not give a full and accurate picture of your EAL students’ learning.
- Bilingual Pasifika students’ progress in English-language learning should be carefully assessed and monitored, whether or not the students are receiving ESOL funding support.
Assessment to support learning
Good assessment is one of the keys to achieving better teaching and learning for all students; it is one of the 10 characteristics of quality teaching for the diverse student groups identified in Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis (Ministry of Education, 2003a). Many teachers will be aware of the central role effective assessment played for the schools in the SEMO project (Strengthening Education in Māngere and Otara) that were successful in raising student achievement. They will also be familiar with the emphasis on ‘assessment for learning’ in the Ministry’s books on Effective Literacy Practice (2003b and 2006) and the principles and procedures they recommend for effective assessment.
This inquiry looks at some specific assessment issues that affect bilingual students.
Ministry of Education (2003a) recommends that:
Assessment for learning should:
- be part of effective planning of teaching and learning
- focus on how students learn
- be recognised as central to classroom practice
- be regarded as a key professional skill for teachers
- be sensitive and constructive (because any assessment has an emotional impact)
- take account of the importance of learner motivation
- promote commitment to learning goals and a shared understanding of the criteria for meeting the goals
- provide learners with constructive guidance about how to improve
- develop learners' capacity for self-assessment so that they can become reflective and self-managing
- recognise the full range of achievements of all learners.
(Pages 51–52.)
Assessment for Pasifika bilingual students
To know their bilingual Pasifika students as learners, teachers and schools need to:
- monitor and assess their curriculum learning in appropriate ways
- monitor and assess their progress in English, referring to the ESOL Progress Assessment Guidelines (Ministry of Education, 2005) for tools and processes that are appropriate for English-language learners
- encourage them to develop their Pasifika languages, and discuss their proficiency and progress with them.
Assessing curriculum learning in appropriate ways
If bilingual Pasifika students’ proficiency in English is below the level of their cohort, it is important to find ways to assess their understanding of the curriculum that reflect their actual skills and understandings in relation to the curriculum, rather than their proficiency in using the English language.
How?
Formative assessments of curriculum learning, where you work alongside the students, allow you to use interactive dialogue to explore what your students know. Remember that all language learners generally understand more than they can easily say or write. With your support and input, your students will be able to show the full extent of their understanding.
As well as using interactive dialogue to explore what students know, you and the students can use non-verbal means of communicating ideas (for example, by using objects, diagrams, pictures, gestures, or demonstrations).
Providing opportunities for students to work with a group of bilingual peers can also help you find out more about each student’s understanding of the curriculum and their ability to apply their understandings.
Using effective assessment strategies and analysing assessment data will provide evidence of what specific students’ actual learning needs are. Refer to the TKI assessment community for a wide range of assessment tools and professional readings. For advice about assessment, refer to Assessment Strategy .
Affirming Pasifika languages
Plan for your students to use and maintain their Pasifika languages. Remember that an EAL student’s first language plays a vital role in the progress they make in schooling, and so it is important to sustain and be aware of it. (See the inquiry Are languages linked? .)
How?
Refer to the inquiries Affirming biliteracy and Affirming Pasifika languages in the mainstream .
Assessing English using ESOL tools
If bilingual Pasifika children have entered the New Zealand schooling system with limited knowledge of English in comparison with their English L1 peers, they may need assessment of their English proficiency from an ESOL point of view for at least 7 years. The inquiry How long does it take to learn a language? gives an indication of how long it typically takes new learners of English to reach the same level of English proficiency as L1 English speakers in various areas.
ESOL assessments are an important component of schools’ usual English-language assessments because they help to pinpoint the specific gaps that distinguish learning English as a second language from learning it as a first or only language.
How?
Mainstream teachers often need to participate in assessing ESOL students’ English in mainstream contexts for ESOL funding purposes. Your school may have a teacher who is responsible for ESOL funding applications and has particular expertise in helping mainstream teachers assess their EAL students’ English proficiency.
The ESOL Funding Assessment Guidelines (Ministry of Education, 2004b) provide examples of assessments and suggest processes and tasks to use when assessing students against the ESOL criteria for listening, speaking, viewing, and presenting. Although many bilingual Pasifika students will no longer be eligible for ESOL funding, you can still use these guidelines to help you assess if their proficiency does not yet reach the national norms for their age.
The Ministry of Education (2005) also provides The ESOL Progress Assessment Guidelines, which describe issues that affect the assessment of English-language learners and discuss a range of assessment tools and processes that may be used for English-language learners. The assessment tools and processes focus on aspects of language knowledge or proficiency and literacy skills, and not on specific content areas.
