Steps in Designing and Implementing an Innovative Assessment Instrument

Preliminary research for innovative assessments valid for both African American English- and Mainstream American English-speaking children suggested a process consisting of two separate tests: (1) a screening test, and (2) a comprehensive test of Syntax, Pragmatics, Semantics, and Phonology. Language probes were designed to accomplish the functions of dialect identification, using highly contrastive features between the dialects, and diagnosis of disorder, which uses noncontrastive elements. The resulting assessment/proposal, which has undergone extensive experimental field testing, differs from existing tests at the level of its individual items and in the process of test construction as a whole.

KEYWORDS

Dialect identification - diagnostic risk - language domains - dialect-neutral - dialect sensitive

REFERENCES

• 1 Campbell T, Dollaghan C, Needleman H, Janosky J. Reducing bias in language assessment: processing-dependent measures.  J Speech Lang Hear Res. 1997;  40 519-525
• 2 Pearson B Z. Theoretical and empirical bases for dialect-neutral language assessment: the contribution of theoretical and applied linguistics to communication disorders.  Semin Speech Lang. 2004;  25 13-26
• 3 de Villiers J G. Cultural and linguistic fairness in the assessment of semantics.  Semin Speech Lang. 2004;  25 73-90
• 4 Roeper T. Diagnosing language variations: underlying principles for syntactic assessment.  Semin Speech Lang. 2004;  25 41-56
• 5 Chomsky N. Barriers. Cambridge, MA; MIT Press 1986
• 6 Bland L, de Villiers J, Roeper T, Champion T, Seymour H N. Wh-movement in children of divergent language backgrounds. Presented at: the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Annual Meeting San Antonio, TX; 1992
• 7 Weissenborn J, Roeper T, de Villiers J G. The acquisition of WH-movement in German and French. In: Maxfield TL, Plunkett B Papers in the Acquisition of WH. Proceedings of the University of Massachusetts Roundtable Amherst, MA; UMOP Special Edition 1990: 43-73
• 8 de Villiers J G, Roeper T, Vainikka A. The acquisition of long-distance rules. In: Frazier L, de Villiers JG Language Processing and Language Acquisition Boston; Kluwer Academic 1990: 257-297
• 9 de Villiers J G, Roeper T. Relative clauses are barriers to wh- movement for young children.  J Child Lang. 1995;  22 389-404
• 10 Gee J P. Two styles of narrative construction and their linguistic and educational implications.  J Educ. 1989;  171 97-115
• 11 Michaels S. Listening and responding: hearing the logic in children's classroom narratives.  Theory Pract. 1984;  23 218-224
• 12 Champion T. Understanding Storytelling among African American Children: A Journey from Africa to America. Mahwah NJ; Lawrence Erlbaum 2002
• 13 Seymour H N, Roeper T, de Villiers J G. Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation (DELV) Norm-Referenced Edition. San Antonio TX; The Psychological Corporation 2005 (projected)