... The assessment of the bilingual child in school is something that commences as soon as they enter and continues until they leave. ... On entry to the school, the bilingual child, (in fact any child), is screened by the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) using standardised reading and spelling tests. ... It could be argued that bilingual children and particularly those at the early stages of English language acquisition do have a special educational need just by the mere fact of them being bilingual. ... If it is meant that children in such circumstances require specific and detailed planning by class teachers in order for them to achieve the maximum benefit from the curriculum then one may well agree with the label. However, at no time should it be taken to mean that such children have less ability because they perhaps may not have the language skills to express themselves. ... There is a lack of awareness of the degree of importance that any one of the four modes of language hold in the different language cultures present in the school community. ...
Similarly, diagnostic baseline assessments are used in the foundation years and many bilingual children score low results (quote OFSTED report). ... There is an Urdu speaking bilingual assistant on the staff and this is the first language of most of the bilingual children who join the school at this age. ...
The fact that many of the bilingual children in school (and for that matter their parents also), cannot read or write in their first language - Urdu) but speak fluent Punjabi (the spoken form of language in the community referred to under the overall name Urdu), suggests that reading and writing do not hold such importance in the community. Indeed, many bilingual families do recognise the importance of their child’s learning English but surely a child who is unfamiliar with written language will have little chance of performing well in an assessment which focuses on just that.
Whilst some research evidence (Delgado-Gaitan 1990), illustrates that many bilingual families engage in rich language and literacy activities others such as Brice Heath’s study (1983), show that the language and form of these activities are different from what the child might be presented with on their first day in school
First language assessments are often conducted in school when a bilingual child does not appear to demonstrate the prior knowledge they would be expected to have. ... Given the number of different societies and cultures represented in the school at any one time, it could be suggested that the most appropriate stance would perhaps be one of experience. ...
Having said this the first language assessment provides a more accurate view of the bilingual child’s language leaning for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is carried out in the child’s first language often by an adult who shares a similar cultural experience to that of the child thereby eliminating any language barriers and possibly some cultural ones too (REFER). ... Profiles of each child are maintained and updated on a termly basis thus informing staff of the progression/and needs of particular children. The annual test is when each child’s language is assessed and they are awarded an SELA score or an Additional Curriculum and Pastoral Support (ACPS) score. The former is for children who are bilingual and will be the focus of the next few paragraphs. Traditionally, this was a five point scale (A-E), ranging from A being children at the early stages of language acquisition, to ‘E’ awarded to children who were considered to be fluent users of English in most social and learning contexts. A major flaw with this system was the middle score which was considered to be too broad as children could remain in this band for a number of years thus appearing to have made no progress. ... It is hoped that this system will be standardised and used across all authorities (REFER). Within the new system bilingual children are assessed using seven steps which are more streamlined and uses assessments that incorporate curriculum related and task based activities across all four modes of language acquisition thereby acknowledging the receptive and productive elements of their language use. It is separate from but also fits succinctly with the National Curriculum assessment tests when the children reach a level where it is felt that they can be assessed solely using National teats (Cameron and Bygate 1997). As a result of this bilingual children’s assessments can be linked to teachers assessments and the two can be married more easily thereby culminating in meaningful results that are not only useful in targeting support but also in informing the teaching and learning process.
To determine a bilingual pupil’s progress through the curriculum we need to be able to measure the language they can understand and use. ... Staff are aware of the different preferred learning strategies of learners (visual, auditory and kinaesthetic) and the usefulness of strategies such as the use of graphic organisers, use of keywords, and the use of prior knowledge as proposed by O’Malley and Chamot’s (1990) Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA). The use of visual representations form a clear and explicit link between the key concepts of context and cognitive demand thus helping to lower the linguistic demand for the bilingual child allowing them to understand and engage in cognitively demanding tasks which might other wise be inaccessible to them (Leung 1996).
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