Jose's oral language evaluation Week 3 Kristen Scott

I analyzed Jose’s English and Spanish oral language development on February 17.  I used “a snowball” microphone and recorded his speech on my computer.

Sequential or Simultaneous?  Jose is a sequential bilingual, having arrived from Mexico last year.  Spanish is his native tongue, and it is still his dominant language.  What is striking about Jose is how quickly he has progressed in all domains of the English language.  His quick progress is more common in 4-5 year olds.  Normally, students his age progress more slowly. 

Previous evaluations:  I administered Jose’s WIDA ACCESS Oral Exam just last month (Jan. 2012).  He scored a 3 (Developing) in Instructional Language and a 2 (Beginning) in both the Social Studies and Science sections.

Attitudes about language:  Before the interview, I asked Jose about his use of Spanish and English in his daily life.  At home, he uses Spanish exclusively.  I asked him about his friends, and he said that with his Mexican friends with dominant Spanish language ability, he spoke Spanish, while with his American or English-dominant friends, he spoke English (which is to be expected).  What I find is encouraging is his willingness to make and spend time with English-dominant friends with whom he speaks only English.  Jose has no problem bridging the cultures.  Krashen would say that “affective factors”  are having a positive rather than an adverse effect on Jose’s language acquisition.  Jose seems to be facing no psycho-social obstacles in his language acquisition, which is crucial.   I can conclude that he has very positive attitudes about both languages.  This is important to note and interesting to evaluate in comparison to other ELLs.  His Nepalese and Chinese classmates, while also accepted and happy at school, have not integrated socially to the same extent as Jose because they come from cultures and backgrounds which are much more removed.  They do not yet spend time with American friends outside of school, for example, although that will come, I believe.   They are also adapting very well.

Spanish assessment:

Jose is in my Spanish Language Arts class (DBE), and I asked him to summarize a chapter from the novel we are reading, Cajas de Cartón.  Using a completed study guide based on the Six + One Traits of a Good Reader, he was able to deduce information from the text, paraphrase and summarize the chapter in question and defend a point of view with reasons.  In class, he communicates with fluency in an academic context and also in a social context.  He is very active in class, and he can negotiate meaning in a group discussion.  I can conclude from my evaluation and recording, along with his class participation, that Jose’s vocabulary usage is at Level 5 Bridging.  He used academic vocabulary to describe situations from the text:  “Yo puedo deducir que su madre estaba muy preocupada y no quería hablar.”  Also, in describing a grammar mini-lesson, he said “Este verbo esta en pret’erito porque describe algo que pasó una vez en un momento preciso.”  He is probably high 4 – low 5 in linguistic complexity, given that he used sentences of varying lengths, some long and complex, including with dependent and independent clauses, for example.   “Panchito quería su propio costal de algodón para mostrar que era un hombre.  El costal, para el, significaba ser hombre.  Jose’s language control is also Level  5, given that he completed 4th grade in Mexico and given his fluency.  He speaks using correct and complex grammatical structures, “Creo que la curandera no curó a Torito.  La familia de Torito rezó  durante un año a la Virgen De Guadalupe, y fue eso que lo salvó.” 

English:

I asked Jose to discuss two of the scary stories (Lexile 350-400) that we read recently in class.  I did not see examples of code-switching, linguistic blending or semantic extensions.  Jose is capable of thinking in English, and he speaks exclusively in English in our Newcomers Class.  From this evaluation, I’d argue that his vocabulary is a high 2 Beginning, but really pushing a 3 Developing.  He can re-phrase ideas from speech, “The wicked wooden maidens wanted to eat the boy.”  He can express time through multiple tenses, “They gave him ice cream so he would be fat so they could eat him.”  I also saw the beginnings of academic vocabulary, “The two stories are different because one had a reindeer, and the other had a lamb.  They were similar because both children didn’t supposed to open the door.”  He can connect ideas in discourse using transitions, “They took him to their cave, and then they gave him candy.”  I would put Jose’s linguistic complexity at a level 3 (Beginning-Developing) since most of his ideas were expressed in short, simple sentences.  “The wicked maidens wanted him to open the door.”  “They wanted him to go their cave.”  He expressed only a few expanded complex sentences.   His weakest point is language control.  He is relatively strong with “the bricks” (nouns, verbs), but, as is common with ELLs, he is still struggling with usage and prepositions, for example (“the mortar”).  Here, I would argue that he is a 2-3.  He is perfectly comprehensible, but he still struggles with control “The took him for eat.  The reindeer didn’t heard him, and he finally find him and saved him.”  His performance on this evaluation was quite a bit better than on the WIDA Access last month, and I believe it is because I asked him to discuss texts that he was familiar with, given that we had been working with these texts for about two weeks.  In contrast, the WIDA texts were all brand-new.              

Jose’s Writing Analysis

                I asked Jose to write a short essay about immigrating to the United States in both languages.   He wrote the Spanish essay first and then asked me if he could use it to write the English essay.  I politely declined, explaining that I preferred that he think in English rather than use his Spanish essay to “translate”.   I was not surprised to see that his essay focused heavily on soccer, which is his great passion in life.  Both essays were clear and comprehensible.  It is clear that Jose understands that the purpose of writing is to convey meaning. 

                Rubin and Carlan /Vocabulary/Sentence Structure/Grammar/Spelling:  The transitional stage, as defined by Rubin and Carlan, is characterized by knowledge of common spelling patterns as well as sounds they hear in words (Gentry, 1982,2000)  One example of demonstrating knowledge of spelling patterns would be adding silent e at the end of words.   This is where Jose’s written English falls (the transitional stage), as is evidenced by only two errors in his one-page writing sample (“Inglesh” and “United State”).  His spelling accuracy was nearly the same in both languages, and his use of vocabulary was slightly more developed in Spanish than in English (“llegamos” as opposed to “came”)(“empece a jugar “ as opposed to “I played with another team”.) 

                The transitional stage, which  has no equivalent in Ferreiro and Teberosky’s scheme (probably because most Spanish words are spelled phonetically, and students thus move directly to the conventional stage), also features more complex sentence structure and syntax as compared to the phonetic stage.  In the English sample, Jose’s placement of adjectives was correct, but he omitted the article “the” in one instance “came from Mexico to United State”.  Apart from that one instance, the two samples were not very far apart.  Jose’s written Spanish is definitely at the conventional (Level 5) stage of development.  In terms of grammar, Jose uses four grammatical tenses in his Spanish sample, (“me sentí, “estaban en Mexico”, “quisieron que yo jugara con ellos” y “he aprendido”, while in his English sample, he used only the present tense and the past simple tenses.  He definitely shows greater language control in Spanish, which is why I place him in the conventional L5 stage.  He did, however, omit most of the accents in his writing, a fact which will inform my instruction.

Writing Miscue Analysis

                Jose, surprisingly, showed no evidence of spelling approximations or code switching.  He is able to form fairly complex sentences in English without borrowing vocabulary and without blending.  There is one notable exception that I believe qualifies as copying as it applies to punctuation.

                 It seems that Jose is confused about the placement of periods, and I am theorizing that, as a Mexican who is used to writing long sentences with dependent clauses and additive relationships, he has been corrected (by other teachers) and asked to shorten his sentences by inserting periods (in his English writing.)  His English essay consists of three very long sentences (the last consisting of 43 words), while his Spanish essay consists of six sentences (the longest of which was 89 words).

                His placement of periods indicates confusion in both languages.   (“Cuando me mude de Mexico a Estados Unidos me senti triste. Porque mis amigos estaban en Mexico.” “..cuando llegamos a los Estados Unidos.Entre en un equipo de mexicanos…” When I came from Mexico to United State.I was sad because my friends are in Mexico.”  I am theorizing that his teachers’ entreaties to write simpler, shorter sentences have resulted in confusion with regard to punctuation in both languages.

                Smith/Discourse pattern: He also seems to have transferred his Spanish discourse style, characterized by long, run-on sentences and by additive, explicative and causal relationships, according to Smith), to English.  (“Mi mejor amigo se llama Elviz y el me regalo un balon de futbol que tanto queria y cuando llegamos a los Estados Unidos….”  “And I was happy and when we came to United State I played with a mexican team and then I played for another team the problem is when…”).

                Overall, I find it impressive that Jose’s English writing is at the transitional stage, given that he is clearly a Spanish-dominant, sequential language learner who arrived in the US from Mexico only last year.  When he arrived in my Newcomers Class in September, he could not form a complete sentence in English; he instead whispered single words and short phrases.  I am thrilled to see his strong spelling, grammar and vocabulary.  I worked very hard with him, and I would love to take credit, however, I must admit that Jose is a very intelligent boy with a strong aptitude for languages! 

                His English and Spanish writing are both steadily progressing given that he had step-by-step instruction in Newcomers (phonics and sight words, which then gave way to reading 400 lexile books and writing essays).  He is progressing simultaneously in Spanish through DBE-Spanish Language Arts, where we focus heavily on reading, research and writing.

                Jose’s confusion with regard to the placement of periods in both languages and the related issue of discourse patterns in the respective languages will definitely inform my instruction.  I will also address Spanish accents in an upcoming mini-lesson.

                This was an incredibly accurate and useful method for analyzing writing.  I wish I had the time to be this thorough with all of my students.  Perhaps with practice and experience, I will be able to do it more quickly and efficiently.  I also found Rubin’s  and Carlan’s recommendations on p. 738 very useful, and I will implement them in my classroom.