Volume 15, Number 3, Winter 2020Language Sampling and Semantics in Dynamic Assessment: Value, Biases, Solutions AUTHOR(S):
ABSTRACT Dynamic approaches to assessment of child language have provided direction for reducing cultural, linguistic, and racial biases in the practice of speech-language pathology. As Guttierez-McLellan and Peña (2001) wrote: “A child’s limited test performance may reflect different learning experiences or a lack of Educational opportunity, and not necessarily language deficits. Children from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds may exhibit depressed test performance, yet their performance may not reflect their true abilities or learning potential. On the other hand, CLD children with language impairment may be at risk for under-referral if language difficulties are believed to be language differences. For these children, clinicians must be able to use appropriate methods to differentiate children with a language difference from those with a language disorder (p.212).” Dynamic assessments consider the potential influence of cultural and linguistic history on children’s responses to tasks; for example, whether dialect differences contributed to an African-American child’s response “He run” to a ‘third-person singular /s/ item on a standardized test (non-obligatory in African-American English). Dynamic assessments also engage the learning process as another control for potentially biased judgements about performance on standardized tests. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the role that spontaneous language sampling, children’s own ideas and intentionality can play in assuring unbiased assessments of language competence. DOI: DOWNLOAD FULL ARTICLE |