Initial Assessment of Language Proficiency
"The purpose of the initial assessment of English language proficiency is to obtain information regarding the student's proficiency in listening, speaking, reading and writing. This information can be used to:
determine instructional starting points
identify initial proficiency levels on the AB K-12 EAL Proficiency Benchmarks
determine programming and instructional support."
It is recommended that initial assessments of new arrivals' English language proficiency be completed within the first 30 days in order to inform instructional planning and provide timely and appropriate learning supports. For adolescents, an initial assessment is essential before a provisional placement is decided.
Documentation of a language proficiency assessment must be kept on file and updated annually for EAL student coding and EAL grant funding (see the Funding Manual for School Authorities).
Schools may be asked to provide this supporting documentation to Alberta Education.
Things to consider during the Initial Assessment process:
"The assessment may take a few minutes or an hour or two to complete, depending on the student's age, previous schooling, and previous experience with the new language of instruction.
The assessment begins with activities in the student's home language (L1) before moving on to tasks in English, the new language of instruction. Beginning with the first language may help students to feel more confident in this stressful situation, and can help the assessor to get a general idea of the student's overall language and literacy development.
Whenever possible, it is helpful to provide instructions in the student's own language
Students educated in other countries may not know what is expected of them when they are given questions such as fill-in-the-blank or multiple-choice. Demonstrate how to complete each type of question and let them refer to the model as they work.
It is best to stop if the student is unable or reluctant to participate in a particular task. Move on to another task, or stop the assessment altogether if you already have the information you need.
Asking students to read aloud unfamiliar text is not the most effective way to assess reading comprehension, especially for EAL students. Reading aloud is a challenging pronunciation task, and many EAL students are not able to focus on both pronunciation and comprehension at the same time. Let students read the text silently, and let them refer back to the text when answering questions. If you want to know how well they are able to read aloud, do this after they have already read and understood the text, and ask them to choose a few sentences to practise before reading to you.
In situations where several students arrive at the same time, it may be appropriate to administer some components of the assessment to groups of students rather than individually."
- Coelho, E. (2016). Adding English: A guide to teaching in multilingual classrooms (p. 18). University of Toronto Press.
Sequence of Activities for Initial Assessment
The following steps are from Coelho, E. (2016). Adding English: A guide to teaching in multilingual classrooms (pp. 19-24). University of Toronto Press.
These steps are here to provide schools and districts with a suggested procedure for conducting an initial assessment of language and literacy skills.
The choice of initial assessment procedures is at the district's discretion.
STEP 1: Reading and Writing in L1
"Ask the student to label a picture in his or her [first language]. Make sure the picture is appropriate to the child's experience: for example, the picture of people skating or snowmobiling might be very familiar to children from [rural Alberta] but baffling to a new arrival from Bangladesh.
If the student is able to label the picture, ask him or her to write a few sentences or paragraphs to introduce himself or herself, describe a favourite place, describe the picture, or retell an important event. Even if you have no immediate access to bilingual support, a writing sample can provide some useful information: for example, does the letter or character formation appear to be appropriately developed for the student's age? How long does it take for the student to produce the piece? Does the student check and edit the piece? How simple or complex does the writing appear?
Offer a selection of books in the child's first language and ask him or her to choose a page or a paragraph to read aloud. Provide a few minutes for preparation. While you will not get much sense of reading comprehension (unless a bilingual educator is available), you will learn something about the student's familiarity with print, including ability to decode and to read aloud with confidence and fluency."
If a selection of books is not available in the student's first language, consider the following resources:
The Stories of Us Library (Grades 9-12)
Translated versions from:
Assessing students in their first language provides important information. A student may not be able to write at all in English, but write full pages in their own language. It would be inapproriate to treat a student like this as pre-literate.
STEP 2: Informal Interview in English
"Proceed to this step only if the student has had some previous exposure to English.
Ask simple open-ended questions to get a sense of basic conversational skills. Make note of specific aspects of language performance such as fluency, pronunciation, accuracy in grammar and word choice, and overall communicative competence."
Optional: Record students’ spoken English in response to any of the following activities of their initial competencies. Listen to the recording later for specific information about students’ language.
STEP 3: Oral Response to a picture in English
"Proceed to this step only if the student was able to participate in Step 2. If the child has little or no knowledge of English, you already have sufficient information to begin planning instruction in English.
Provide a set of pictures showing people of various ages and ethnocultural backgrounds in a variety of situations.
Ask the students to choose a picture to talk about. Some may simply point to objects in the picture, saying aloud the words they know. Others may describe the picture, and some may tell a story using the picture as a starting or ending point."
Districts may decide to use oral language screeners for this step.
Optional: Record students’ spoken English in response to any of the following activities of their initial competencies. Listen to the recording later for specific information about students’ language.
"When choosing pictures to prompt speaking and writing, offer a choice of pictures, photos, or magazine pictures to stimulate writing. Ensure that the pictures include people and situations representing a variety of ethnic, cultural, and geographic contexts. Choose pictures that may encourage students to go beyond mere descriptions and use the situations in the pictures as the beginning, middle, or end of their story. You can also offer a set of pictures depicting a sequence of events."
STEP 4: Writing in English
"Proceed to this step only if the student was able to complete Step 1. If the child has no literacy skills in their [first language], you already have the information you need in order to begin planning literacy instruction.
Some students who have studied the language in their own country may have had difficulty with Steps 2 and 3, but may still be able to write in English.
Ask the student to write about the picture. Some students may be able to label a few items while others may be able to write a few sentences of description. Some may be able to write an entire story or composition.
Offer a bilingual dictionary and observe how the student makes use of it.
Use a holistic approach in assessing this writing sample, considering the writer's purpose, the relevance of the information, and how it is organized, before you consider vocabulary, grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Instead of writing about a picture, older students who have studied English as a foreign language in their home country or who have already participated in an ESL program in another school may prefer to respond to one of the following topics:
Write a letter to a friend in your own country. Tell your friend about your first days in your new country.
Write a letter to introduce yourself to your new teachers.
Describe your favourite teachers in your last school.
Describe a holiday that you celebrate in your country.
Do you think boys and girls should go to separate schools? Why/why not?"
STEP 5: Reading Comprehension in English
"Provide a selection of short reading passages with age-appropriate content and at various levels of difficulty, and ask the student to choose a passage to read silently. Be careful not to choose material that could offend some students, or assume cultural knowledge that the student may not have. For example, a story about pigs might be troubling to Muslim or Jewish children, and a story about skating would be inappropriate for students from countries where winter sports are seldom practised.
Ask the student to talk about the content of the passage. Questions and prompts should progress from factual retelling (who, when, where, etc.) to questions that encourage students to relate the content of the passage to their own prior knowledge or experience (Have you ever....).
Proceed to more challenging questions involving inference and evaluation (Do you think.... What would you do....., etc.)
If the student participates with ease, encourage him or her to try a more challenging reading passage.
If you are working with time limitations, students could answer true/false, fill-in-the-blank, and short-answer, written questions. It is important to show them how to answer each type of question first."
Possible sources for reading passages:
Textbooks
Picture books
Assessment with Young Children
It may be easier to assess young children in the classroom, over a period of days, by incorporating daily learning activities, and adapting the above procedure as follows:
"To assess competence in simple day-to day social interaction in English, engage the learner in conversation. Begin with questions such as 'What is your name?' If the child can respond with appropriate information, continue with a simple interview.
Use pictures and concrete objects (e.g., pictures of numbers and upper- and lower-case letters, colour samples, shapes, and various real objects, such as those found in the classroom) to assess the student's vocabulary. Ask the student to name the letters or numbers in English or point to a specific item when you name it.
Use simple props and instructions to assess the child's ability to follow simple oral instructions in English (e.g., 'Give me the blue ball,' 'Put the ball in the box,' 'Show me the smallest one,' or 'Open the book at page four').
To assess listening comprehension, read a simple picture book aloud while the child looks at the illustrations. Then ask questions based on factual comprehension and, if the child is able to respond, ask questions designed to encourage her to offer personal responses and opinions and to make inferences.
Collect a writing sample by asking the child to draw a picture and label it or write about it in the first language. This could be a picture of the home, the family, a friend, or a special event such as a birthday. Then askt eh child to label or write about the picture in English. If necessary, provide a scribe.
To assess reading comprehension in English, supply several picture books, both fiction and non-fiction, and ask the child to choose one. Talk about the book and read a page or two around before asking the child to continue reading silently. Then ask questions about the story."
- Coelho, E. (2016). Adding English: A guide to teaching in multilingual classrooms (pp. 23-24). University of Toronto Press.
After initial language assessment information has been gathered, the English language proficiency of the EAL student can be identified using the AB K-12 EAL Proficiency Benchmarks. The purpose of the EAL Benchmarks is to establish a baseline proficiency level, guide appropriate programming for EAL students, and monitor language proficiency growth and development.
If the initial assessment reveals concerns regarding student learning or behaviour, additional assessment of the EAL student may be required.