ASSESSMENT AND ELLS
ESOL Awareness Workshop
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF ASSESSING
ELLS?
There are five different purposes for conducting
assessment with ESOL students. They are:
 Screening and Identification for Placement
 Determining their readiness to exit a program
(reclassification)
 Monitoring their progress in ESOL or regular
classroom
 Accountability for meeting state and other
standards
 Program evaluation to determine effectiveness
HOME LANGUAGE SURVEYS

English language learners are assessed within 3
weeks of enrollment if the answer to one or more
of these questions is yes:
(a) Is language other than English used in the
home?
 (b) Does the student have a first language other
than English?
 (c) Does the student most frequently speak a
language other than English?

COMPREHENSIVE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
LEARNING ASSESSMENT (CELLA )


The CELLA is a language proficiency test
designed to measure the English language
growth that ELLs need to succeed in school
(FDOE, 2007).
The CELLA is expected to provide data for
schools and districts to chart student progress
over time and allow them to meet the NCLB
program accountability objectives.
CELLA , CONT….
The CELLA tests all four language skills
separately in each of the test levels:
 Level A (Grades K-2),
 Level B (Grades 3-5),
 Level C (Grades 6-8), and
 Level D (Grades 9-12).
 The Listening, Reading, and Writing sections of
the test are administered to students in groups;
the Speaking section of the test is administered
as individual interviews with students.

ELLS AND FCAT

Do students who are English Language
Learners (ELLs) take the FCAT?
Per the Office of Academic Achievement
through Language Acquisition, all ELLs are
expected to participate in statewide assessments.
However, if an ELL has been receiving services
in an English for Speakers of Other Languages
(ESOL) program operated in accordance with an
approved district Limited English Proficient
(LEP) plan for one year or less AND a majority of
the student’s LEP committee determines that it
is appropriate, the ELL may be exempt from the
FCAT Writing or Reading administrations.
ELLS AND FCAT, CONT….
 Exempt
ELL students must
participate in the English proficiency
assessment or they will be counted as
“not assessed” and will impact the
participation rate calculation for
Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).
ELLS AND FCAT, CONT….
 All
ELLs are expected to participate in the
FCAT Mathematics and Science tests no
matter how long these students have been
receiving services. Not participating in
the FCAT Mathematics assessment
will impact the participation rate
calculation for AYP.
ELLS AND FCAT, CONT….
Accommodations:
 ELLs may take the FCAT using accommodations
appropriate for the particular need of each
student. It is the responsibility of local school
educators to work with students and parents to
identify the allowable testing accommodations.


Source:
http://www.fldoe.org/faq/default.asp?Dept=179&I
D=998#Q998
ASSESSMENT AND BIAS
Cultural Bias
 When a question includes reference to an item
that requires knowledge of a certain aspect of
culture in order to answer correctly, it is
considered culturally biased.


Avoiding culture references on reading tests is
very difficult. For that reason, teachers are asked
to keep this in mind when evaluating tests of
ELLs.
ASSESSMENT AND BIAS, CONT….



Attitudinal Bias
This type of bias takes place when the assessor
has a negative attitude toward a certain group of
people.
A bias toward a certain language or dialect can
have a negative influence on assessment.
ASSESSMENT AND BIAS, CONT….


Assessment Bias
This type of bias refers to using a certain format
in questioning that may not be familiar to some
ELLs.
ASSESSMENT AND BIAS, CONT….



Norming Bias
When ELLs are not a part of a norming group,
then these students are compared to a group that
does not represent them.
Often times when ELLs are included in the
norming group the ratio is too small to matter.
ASSESSMENT AND BIAS, CONT….


It is important for teachers to become familiar
with Cultural bias, Attitudinal bias, Assessment
bias, and Test or Norming bias.
Sometimes it is impossible to avoid some of these
issues, but we need to be aware of them and try
to reduce their affect on the assessment of
English Language Learners as much as possible.
FORMING QUESTIONS
 Questions
can be modified for ELLs
depending on their level of proficiency,
how long they have been in this country,
the teacher’s familiarity with the
students’ prior performances, educational
background, native language, etc.

See handout for examples
ERRORS


It takes most people a number of years to
“master” a new language. In the process of
learning a new language, learners make errors.
There are a number of causes for errors .
Language learners are often exposed to a great
deal of the new language over a short period of
time. It is not always possible to retain this large
amount of new information including vocabulary,
sentence structure, social dos and don’ts, idioms,
slangs, etc. in a brief amount of time.
ERRORS, CONT….
Influence of L1:
 Errors could be caused by transference of L1
patterns in pronunciation, grammar, spelling,
etc.
 The influence of L1 plays a significant role in the
learning of a new language. There are very many
languages that differ considerably from English.
Take for example Japanese and the absence of
articles (a, an, and the) which are an important
part of the English language.
ERRORS, CONT….

Russian follows a dissimilar word order. The
subject could be followed by the object and then
the verb, vs. subject – verb – object in English.
Part of the learning process! Errors do result
from incomplete knowledge of L2.
 When we learn a new language, we do not wait
until we develop complete fluency before we
begin to speak it. This means that the learners
are attempting to use a language they do not
know well.

ERRORS, CONT….
The English language has many unconventional
spelling patterns as well as words having more
than one possible meaning. There are rules and
then there are exceptions to the rules.
 These issues complicate the learning process and
bring about errors in the students’ production of
the new language.

ERRORS, CONT….

Writing: It is a skill and there are common areas
for errors which are occasionally traceable to the
influence of L1. Here they are:
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
Spelling
Words Missing
Words used incorrectly
Capitalization
Singular and plural endings
Subject-verb agreement
Proper use of articles
Punctuations
THE TREATMENT OF ERRORS
Direct Feedback:
Direct feedback refers to corrections
instructors provide regarding students’ word
choices, phrase structure, pronunciation, missing
words, etc.
Example: I go to visit grandma last week. The
teacher underlines the verb and writes “went”.

THE TREATMENT OF ERRORS, CONT….
Indirect Feedback:
Indirect feedback refers to teachers
providing their students with suggestions to
make some changes or when they paraphrase or
rephrase the “wrong statement”.
Studies have shown that this form of correction
(mainly modeling) has a long-term effect.

THE TREATMENT OF ERRORS, CONT….
When providing feedback, remember to provide
students with explanations of the reasons why
they should avoid the same errors in the future.
 Feedback should be tailored to students’ specific
needs, situations, linguistic background, life
experiences, age, etc.

THE TREATMENT OF ERRORS, CONT….
You say hoagie, I say gyro!

Finally, remember to differentiate between errors
and stylistic differences. Sometimes an error is
not really an error but something that is different
from what a native speaker might say.
GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR TESTING
ELLS









Avoid trick questions
Use direct speech – indirect speech misleads nonadvanced learners
Test what has been taught
Vary the difficulty level, it is best to go from easy to
difficult
Provide students with clear directions, simplify
language, and explain what is required of them
Beware of cultural bias in developing the test and in
grading
Provide examples and use visuals to clarify directions
when possible
Give credit for what the student knows
Permit extra time than is typically allowed for native
speakers of English
REFERENCES:
Bilingual & ESL Classrooms – Teaching in
Multicultural Context. Ovando et al (4th ed)
McGraw Hill
 Law, B., and M. Eckes. Assessment and ESL.
Canada. Peguis.
 Ferris, D. Treatment of Errors in Second
Language Student Writing. Michigan. 2005
