Translanguaging Tools: Usability Results for Universally Designed Accessibility Features for English Learners

• In Event: Poster Session 8
  In Poster Session: Research in Bilingual Education

Abstract

Students who are emergent bilinguals (i.e., English Learners) are increasing in number across the United States. Educators are charged with teaching and assessing the progress of these students. However, emergent bilinguals are faced with the dual task of learning both content and the English language, simultaneously. When taking content assessments in English, students’ performance are wrought with threats to validity. Traditional content assessment practices may underestimate students’ content knowledge, as their performance is constrained by their English proficiency. We propose to use translanguaging, a bilingual classroom pedagogical tool, in an assessment context to design a mathematics assessment to allow emergent bilinguals to fully participate with use of their whole linguistic repertoires. We will share our early findings in this session.

Authors

• Danielle Guzman-Orth, Educational Testing Service

• Alexis Lopez, Educational Testing Service

• Sultan Turkan, ETS