Working towards diagnosing bilingual children's language abilities: Issues for teachers in Wales

Enlli Thomas, Carla Marie Owen, Ffion Hunt, Nia Young, Morgan Dafydd, Lise Fontaine, Michelle Aldridge-Waddon, Kirk Sullivan, Sian Wynn Lloyd-Williams, Gwilym Ap Gruffudd, Gareth Caulfield

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Abstract

One area of concern within a bilingual context relates to the appropriate ‘diagnostic’ assessment of bilingual children’s language abilities and to the suitable application of their assessment results in practice. Communication and language difficulties are numerous and complex, and manifest themselves in a variety of ways that are captured to different degrees via standardised tests. Such tools are readily available – often in multiple forms – in some languages, such as English, but less readily available in others. This is particularly the case for minority languages such as Welsh, and this poses great difficulty when aiming for a certain type of assessment of specific language abilities. This paper outlines the current state of diagnostic assessment tools for Welsh, with a specific focus on measures of literacy abilities. Drawing on research evidence from the Welsh context, we argue for appropriate training of educators in this area, and for the urgent need to develop tools that are both language and context specific, with relevant bilingual speaker norms, that have practical applications in the classroom, to ensure equitable and relevant diagnosis and support for all children educated in Wales.
Translated title of the contributionGweithio tuag at ddiagnosis o alluoedd plant dwyieithig: ystyriaethau ar gyfer athrawon yng Nghymru
Original languageEnglish
Article number4
Number of pages24
JournalCylchgrawn Addysg Cymru | Wales Journal of Education
Volume24
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01 Jan 2023

Keywords

  • Welsh
  • Bilingual
  • minority language
  • bilingual education
  • literacy difficulties
  • child language assessment

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