Receptive and Expressive Language Module (RELM): Design, Contextualization and Validation

• In Event: Innovative Foundation Literacy and Language Assessments

Proposal

It is well established that language proficiency is a predictor of reading comprehension skills. A large proportion of variance (about 90%) in reading comprehension skills is explained by a combination of decoding and language comprehension skills, and their sub-constructs (Hoover & Tunmer, 2020). Reading comprehension depends on an efficient and fluent decoding process that allows readers to translate text into oral language (Shanahan, 2020.) However, decoding skills alone are not sufficient for comprehension. Many readers are fluent decoders but remain poor in reading comprehension (Nation and Snowling, 1997). Readers need to know the meaning of the words they are decoding and combine the information in a text with their prior knowledge and experiences to extract meaning (comprehension).

Since learning to read in any language is critically dependent on oral language skills, it is not surprising that these skills play an even more significant role in multilingual, second-language, or later-language learners (August & Shanahan, 2006; Jeon & Yamashita, 2014; van den Bosch, Segers, & Verhoeven, 2020; Raudszus, Segers, & Verhoeven, 2021). For multi-lingual learners, language comprehension is the first step to becoming fluent readers in that language. Unlike monolingual learners, it cannot be assumed that they begin school with sufficient oral language proficiency to read with comprehension. (Babayigit, 2015; Melby-Lervag & Lervag, 2011).

Yet, most existing assessments in LMICs do not measure language comprehension skills. The Receptive and Expressive Language Module (RELM) is designed to fill this gap as it assesses pertinent aspects of receptive and productive language proficiency skills in students in pre-primary and primary grades across low-and middle-income countries. During this presentation, we will discuss the purpose and uses of RELM, the language sub-constructs assessed by the module and the process employed to contextualize, pilot and validate it across different languages and settings, including Rwanda, Kenya, and Mozambique.

Authors

• Fernanda Soares, University of Notre Dame

• Pooja Nakamura, American Institutes for Research

• Caroline Freeman, University of Notre Dame