Formally Measuring an Adult Second Language Learner's Proficiency in English

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Formally Measuring an Adult Second Language Learner’s Proficiency in English

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The Learner
Observe an adult second language learner with whom you can meet on a regular basis. Please note that this learner must be an adult who has learned or is learning English as a second language in the US or in a country where English is the primary means of communication. By definition, a language is considered the learner’s second language if it is spoken by the citizens of the country as a first language. Your ideal learner maybe an adult who learned English in a country where it was not the lingua franca - a common means of communication and now lives in an English-speaking country. Keep in mind that you should not observe a child language learner of English for the simple reason that her linguistic growth has not plateaued yet.

Proficiency Assessment
Formal measures of the learner’s proficiency in English or Spanish should include reading, writing, listening, and speaking tests. To measure the learner’s proficiency, use the following assessment tools.

Reading
To assess the learner’s reading proficiency in English, go to https://readtheory.org and sign up as an instructor. You will then be able to administer reading tests that include passages followed by multiple-choice questions. ReadTheory will generate a progress report for the learner after s/he completes a diagnostic test and will place her into an appropriate level of proficiency.

Writing
Read the CUNY Assessment Test in Writing (CATW) Faculty Handbook and familiarize yourself with the reading passage, rubric, and articulations for each scoring domain (there are five). You can easily google the document and download a PDF version of the Handbook. Ask the learner to peruse the reading passage and write a response essay in 90 minutes. The learner is allowed to use a monolingual (English-English) or a bilingual (Spanish-English) dictionary. Rate the response essay in the five scoring domains, namely “Critical Response to the Writing Task and Text,” “Development of Writer’s Ideas,” “Structure of the Response”, “Language Use: Sentences and Word Choice”, and “Language Use: Grammar, Usage, Mechanics”, and write your rationale for each score.

Listening 
To measure the learner’s listening proficiency in English, the National Public Radio (NPR) website has several different listening prompts. Choose a topic from the Programs & Podcasts tab and play an audio clip. You will need to formulate both open-ended and multiple-choice questions about the listening prompt to assess the learner’s topic area knowledge after listening to a podcast, an interview, or a lecture. Ask the learner to listen to a podcast, for example, carefully and take mental notes. After s/he listens to the prompt, have the learner answer the questions. You may ask open-ended questions orally and record the answers provided by the learner. Here is the NPR website: http://www.npr.org

Speaking
You may assess the learner’s speaking proficiency in English various ways. You may interview the learner, have a conversation, or discuss topics such as politics, sports, education, health and nutrition. The purpose is to elicit an oral response from the learner. Be sure to record the spoken exchange between you and the learner, because you will need to listen to the answers more than once to measure the learner’s speaking proficiency.

The Observation Report
Once you have collected your data, you will measure the learner’s reading, writing, listening, and speaking proficiencies using the Interagency Language Roundtable Skill Scale. 




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