Professor Rada and Professor Carey
Remedial Speech Assessment Report for SP05, SP07,SP20
Report and data analysis prepared by Dr. Franca Ferrari-Bridgers
List your student learning outcomes as described in your syllabus. Please list ALL of the Student Learning
Outcomes that are listed in your syllabus
Gen Ed. Obj.
1.
Communicate
effectively through
reading, writing,
listening and
speaking
2. Students will
integrate knowledge
and skills in their
programs of study.
Outcome desired
Students will achieve
an increased level of
intelligibility in
speaking
Outcome desired
Students will
recognize and
discriminate and
pronounce the vowel
and consonant
phoneme of American
English
Students will
recognize and use the
elements of syllables
and word stress,
rhythm and intonation
patterns and
incorporate them in to
their conversational
speech
Students will increase
their fluency in
conversational
speech
Dr. Franca Ferrari 05/29/2014 (modified 12/16/2014)
Outcome desired
REMEDIAL SPEECH211
Outcome desired
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Describe the assessment activity and the (student learning outcome(s) it addresses ) that occurred in your
course.
Assignment:
Students were asked to read aloud the ‘Rainbow passage’ that is an OSHA standardized test to assess articulation of
American English sounds therefore satisfying the student learning outcome “Students will recognize and discriminate
and pronounce the vowel and consonant phonemes of American English”.
Instructions: Instructors administered the test twice during the semester: the first time was during week 2-3 and the
second time was during week 15. Students did not have the opportunity to see the test before reading it.
List the data collection instrument (s) used for assessment.
Participants of this study were not given prior opportunity to view the reading material before the third week of class.
The students were instructed to read the rainbow passage out loud as the instructor made phonetic notation at real
time. The students were not provided with verbal or visual cues for correct pronunciation of the “Rainbow Passage”,
nor were they provided with verbal or visual cues to indicate if the pronunciation was correct or incorrect. Each student
was instructed to read the passage twice, to insure the accuracy of the instructor’s written recording of the
pronunciation.
THE RAINBOW PASSAGE 1
When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act like a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of
white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two
ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but
no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold
at the end of the rainbow.
1
For more information about the usage of the Rainbow :https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=standards&p_id=9780
Dr. Franca Ferrari 05/29/2014 (modified 12/16/2014)
REMEDIAL SPEECH211
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Instructors marked the students’ errors on instructor’s copy of the reading. Instructors then counted the number of
correct sounds on the total of possible sounds elicited in the passage which are 39. The participants were only scored
on phoneme specific errors. Placement errors of the SAME phoneme were recorded, but NOT calculated in this trial
study. Therefore, the participants were scored on thirty-nine phonemes consisting of twenty-four consonants and
fifteen vowels in the American English pronunciation as taught in the course text book, as indicated in the “test
material used” above. This instructor is aware on the variations on “regional dialect” across the United States of
America, however, that data was not a consideration in this trial study.
Provide an analysis (and summary) of the assessment results that were obtained.
56 students were assessed in total. Students were part of SP05, 07 and 20. The average number and percentages of
correct phonemes between the first and the second reading (TIME_1 and TIME_2) of the Rainbow passage is
reported in the table below and it is visualized in the following two graphs.
Mean_T1
31
TIME_1
Mean_T2
34
Dr. Franca Ferrari 05/29/2014 (modified 12/16/2014)
82%
REMEDIAL SPEECH211
TIME_2
88%
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Time_1 vs. Time_2
Mean Difference
# Correct Phonemes
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Series1
Mean_T1
Mean_T2
31
34
TIME_1 vs. TIME_2
% Correct Phonemes
% Correct Phonemes
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Series1
TIME_1
82%
Dr. Franca Ferrari 05/29/2014 (modified 12/16/2014)
TIME_2
88%
REMEDIAL SPEECH211
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.
A t-Test Paired two Sample for means was performed. As the t-Statistics ( t (55) = -9.94, p < 0.05) suggests the mean
difference between TIME_1 and TIME_2 was significant. The t-Statistics together with the mean and percentage
difference values indicate that students improved their performances from TIME_1 to TIME_2.
Describe how the assessment results that were obtained affected (or did not affect) the student learning
outcomes you identified. As part of your discussion, describe any plans you have to address the areas where
students need to improve.
Students improved 6% in their overall accuracy production of American English sounds. Because remedial students
speak different first languages, the assessment results address improvement only for the phonemes that are difficult to
produce for all students. It is important to remember that the phonetics system of each student’s mother tongue diverges
from the American English system for a limited number of phonemes only. Therefore each remedial student will face
different phonemic challenges. These language specific phonemic challenges are not reflected in this assessment. The
results indicate that the GEN –ED 1 learning outcomes have been generally met.
Action plan:
Professor Rada and Carey will work for the Fall 2014 at the creation of a better data collection instrument such as a table
below with all the 44 sounds found in the passage. The table will allow the instructors to report data for each individual
sounds to better evaluate the specific needs of each students. A sample of a table that will be used is given here below.
i:
# errors
ɪ
ʊ
u:
E
ə
ɜ:
ɔ:
æ
ʌ
A rubric will also be added to the assessment instrument.
Dr. Franca Ferrari 05/29/2014 (modified 12/16/2014)
REMEDIAL SPEECH211
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