Reconceptualizing Assessment of Spanish-Speaking Latinos: Capturing the Dynamics of Dual Language Growth

• In Event: Roundtable Session 37
  In Roundtable Session: Conceptualizing Latino Academic Language: Interdisciplinary Views on Equity, Constructs, and Assessment

Abstract

Objective/Purpose
The purpose of this empirical paper is to discuss the advantages of narrative language sampling analysis (LSA) over traditional forms of language assessment for young Latino children (Author 4, 2013). Using a large sample of Latino children this session will show how LSA captures fairer constructs of academic talk, which are predictive of later success in school.
Perspectives/Theoretical Framework
LSA has long been held as a valid indicator of children’s expressive language performance, and is recognized as a gold standard for assessment (Paul & Norbury, 2012). LSA has a number of advantages; it uses real communication contexts in order to minimize cultural biases, the same context can be used to elicit a sample of Spanish and English, it can be used throughout the developmental period, and research suggests that LSA-based oral language measures are strong predictors of reading achievement in both languages (Miller et al., 2006).
Analytic Methods
LSA of Latino’s children languages can be conducted through a variety of methods, but this session will focus on using the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT; Miller & Iglesias, 2015) software program, and the use of growth curve modeling. Empirical evidence on the dynamic dual language growth of Latino children will be discussed including the following key constructs: gross syntactic complexity, lexical diversity, and overall verbal fluency (Author 4, 2013).
Data Sources
The Bilingual Spanish/English Story Retell and Unique reference databases (RDs), built into SALT, contain narrative language samples from over 5,000 bilingual (Spanish-English) Latino students in grades K-3, ranging in age from 5;0 through 9;9. These large-scale RDs can be used to assist in the assessment and proficiency monitoring of Latino children’s language performance in both languages at one point in time, or over multiple points in time.
Findings
LSA-based findings will specify how key constructs can be used to assess the languages of Latino children using large-scale RDs of Latino peers, as well as how the languages of Latino children grow over time. Further, the impact that distinct programs of language instruction have on dual language growth will be considered. Parameters of language growth will be discussed, including the relation between language skills at school entry and how these can predict future dual language growth.
Scholarly Significance
The scholarly significance of this paper is considerable, as it will address the urgent need for and relative void of systematic, longitudinal data on the emerging dual language development of Latino children (Hammer et al., 2014; Hoff, 2013). In a larger context, the research findings discussed in this session can serve as an empirical basis to better understand and more precisely assess the emerging dual language development of Latino children in the U.S. Having access to a robust, empirical, and developmental reference point of dual language skills can instrumentally inform practice (from assessment to intervention) to more appropriately serve Latino children, by a wide range of service providers including: speech-language pathologists; developmental and educational psychologists; and regular education, special education, and English as a second language teachers.

Author

• Raul Rojas, University of Texas - Dallas