Rights statement: This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Afitska, O, Heaton, TJ. Mitigating the effect of language in the assessment of science: A study of English‐language learners in primary classrooms in the United Kingdom. Science Education. 2019; 1– 27. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21545 which has been published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/sce.21545 This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Mitigating the Effect of Language in the Assessment of Science
T2 - A study of English-language learners in primary classrooms in the United Kingdom
AU - Afitska, Oksana
AU - Heaton, Timothy
N1 - This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Afitska, O, Heaton, TJ. Mitigating the effect of language in the assessment of science: A study of English‐language learners in primary classrooms in the United Kingdom. Science Education. 2019; 1– 27. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21545 which has been published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/sce.21545 This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving. 30/08/2019
PY - 2019/11/1
Y1 - 2019/11/1
N2 - Children coming from homes where English is not the primary language constitute a significant and increasing proportion of classrooms worldwide. Providing these English language learners (ELLs) with equitable assessment opportunities is a challenge. We analyse the performance of 485 students, both English native speakers and ELLs, across 5 schools within the UK in the 7-11 year age group on standardized Science assessment tasks. Logistic regression with random effects assesses the impact of English language proficiency,and its interactions with question traits, on performance. Traits investigated were: question focus; need for active language production; presence/absence of visuals; and question difficulty. Results demonstrated that, whileELLs persistently performed more poorly, the gap to their native speaking peers depended significantly upon assessment traits. ELLs were particularly disadvantaged when responses required active language productionand/or when assessed on specific scientific vocabulary. Visual prompts did not help ELL performance. There was no evidence of an interaction between topic difficulty and language ability suggesting lower ELL performance is not related to capacity to understand advanced topics. We propose assessment should permitflexibility in language choice for ELLs with low English language proficiency; while simultaneously recommend subject-specific teaching of scientific language begins at lower stages of schooling.
AB - Children coming from homes where English is not the primary language constitute a significant and increasing proportion of classrooms worldwide. Providing these English language learners (ELLs) with equitable assessment opportunities is a challenge. We analyse the performance of 485 students, both English native speakers and ELLs, across 5 schools within the UK in the 7-11 year age group on standardized Science assessment tasks. Logistic regression with random effects assesses the impact of English language proficiency,and its interactions with question traits, on performance. Traits investigated were: question focus; need for active language production; presence/absence of visuals; and question difficulty. Results demonstrated that, whileELLs persistently performed more poorly, the gap to their native speaking peers depended significantly upon assessment traits. ELLs were particularly disadvantaged when responses required active language productionand/or when assessed on specific scientific vocabulary. Visual prompts did not help ELL performance. There was no evidence of an interaction between topic difficulty and language ability suggesting lower ELL performance is not related to capacity to understand advanced topics. We propose assessment should permitflexibility in language choice for ELLs with low English language proficiency; while simultaneously recommend subject-specific teaching of scientific language begins at lower stages of schooling.
KW - ELL
KW - Assessment
KW - Primary education
KW - Science
KW - Generalized linear model
KW - random effects
U2 - 10.1002/sce.21545
DO - 10.1002/sce.21545
M3 - Journal article
VL - 103
SP - 1396
EP - 1422
JO - Science Education
JF - Science Education
SN - 1098-237X
IS - 6
ER -