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Given the increasing emphasis of communicative competence in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts and the lack of validation research on speaking assessments for adolescent EFL learners, in the current study we examined the validity of the TOEFL Junior® speaking test, a relatively new speaking assessment developed by Educational Testing Service. We utilized Messick’s integrative view of construct validity (1996) and Kane’s interpretation argument framework (Kane, 2013), and focused on two sources of validity evidence: internal structure and external relations to other variables (AERA, APA, and NCME, 2014). We used a cross-sectional design with 252 seventh-to-ninth graders in Taiwan, which aligns with the spectrum of the TOEFL Junior®’s target age group. All adolescent participants took the TOEFL Junior® speaking test and two researcher-developed speaking tests. They also completed a survey reporting their history of English learning experiences from kindergarten to present and evaluating their own English language skills. Adolescent participants’ teachers provided evaluations of participants’ English language skills. Results from correlational tests and confirmatory factor analysis showed robust evidence for the test’s internal structure. Correlation and multiple regression models also demonstrated strong positive relationships between TOEFL Junior® test scores and external variables, providing evidence for TOEFL Junior®’s construct validity.

This study points to ways in which the amount and complexity of teacher talk in two preschool classrooms during transitions between activities differed from instructional activity settings throughout the day. What emerged were language characteristics that suggest not all transitions are created equal. In fact, as shown by qualitative excerpts of teacher–student interactions, some transitions are quite substantive and provide opportunities for rich extended conversations. The findings of this study suggest that, despite the popular perception of transitions as lost instructional time, the informal setting of transitions can be used to reinforce concepts taught in more formal instructional settings such as circle time, as well as opportunities to introduce new concepts and vocabulary following children’s lead. Interviews with the teachers of these two classrooms, while revealing their acknowledgment of some challenges (e.g. children’s engagement), mostly emphasized the intentional and potentially instructional nature of transitions.

Students’ self-assessment of language features in their oral explanations of a mathematics task was supported by language learning progressions. Learning progressions map a continuum of knowledge or skills development as they increase in sophistication over time. Learning progressions can be a framework to support formative assessment by both teachers and students. Fifty-eight predominantly English-speaking US elementary students used language learning progressions to complete their self-assessment of either discourse stamina or vocabulary usage in the elicited oral explanations. Students were guided through a four-step, highly scaffolded self-assessment protocol that was analyzed for (1) concordance with researcher placements of their explanations on the progressions, and (2) student commentary on their own placements. Overall, 50% of the students self-assessed in accordance with researchers’ independent placement of their explanations on the progressions. However, significant grade-level and gender differences in concordance were found. Results were consistent with prior research findings that upper-elementary students’ self-assessments are more aligned with external measures than are younger students’ self-assessments (e.g., Butler & Lee, 2006). However, even the youngest students in the current study were able to complete the self-assessment activity, if not always with the same degree of concordance. Successful participation may be attributable to the format, scaffolding, and contextualization of the self-assessment activity with its use of language learning progressions. Also consistent with prior research, girls were more likely to agree with researchers’ placements than boys. Student self-assessment differed by the two language features. Most students found the self-assessment activity to be a useful learning experience. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Background/Context Children from Asian ethnic backgrounds currently constitute the second largest group of child immigrants in the United States. Although stereotyped as model minority students due to their academic and economic success, studies have revealed that many Asian immigrant students struggle in school. Research has also shown that, compared to child immigrants from an Indo-European language background such as Spanish and French, Asian child immigrants experience more challenges in learning English as a second language (L2) due to greater cross-linguistic differences. However, little is known about the long-term English language outcomes of first-generation Asian child immigrants. Purpose/Objective The present study examines the effects of learner-level and input-level factors on first-generation Asian child immigrants’ long-term English outcomes. Research Design Data for the current study are selected from a larger correlational and cross-sectional study that examined the effect of the age of arrival variable on Chinese immigrants’ English L2 outcomes. We used two criteria to select participants from the larger study: (1) those who had arrived in the United States between the ages of 5 to 18 (to qualify as a “child immigrant”), and (2) those who had resided in the United States for at least 10 years (to examine long-term outcomes). These criteria resulted in the current sample of 69 participants. The English language proficiency data include participants’ phonological production ratings, performances on a grammaticality judgment task, and their self-ratings of English proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Conclusions/Recommendations The current study showed a complex interplay of factors affecting former child immigrants’ English L2 acquisition. Although age of arrival played a critical role in their L2 learning outcomes, it exerted varying degrees of influence by L2 domain. Age of arrival was a strong predictor of L2 phonological production, grammar knowledge, and oral language proficiency, but not literacy skills. L2 input, language learning aptitude, and child immigrants’ affective status also contributed to their L2 outcomes, and carried more weight than age of arrival. We interpreted the results to be in line with the multiple sensitive period hypothesis in developmental psycholinguistics research. The results also suggested that literacy is not susceptible to age-related effects in the same way in which oral language and more specifically the phonological and syntactic systems are. Literacy as a cultural construct rather than a biologically unique human system is intensively taught throughout the school years and curriculum. Malleable factors, such as instruction and reading strategies, are thus perhaps more important in determining child immigrants’ long-term literacy outcomes.

English language proficiency assessments (ELPA) are used in the United States to measure annually the English language progress and proficiency of English-language learners (ELLs), a subgroup of language minority students who receive language acquisition support mandated and largely funded by Title III (NCLB, 2001). ELPA proficient and non-proficient classifications are determined by applying decision rules to combine the sub-domains of listening, speaking, reading, and writing in a conjunctive, compensatory, mixed or complementary manner in order that an ELP performance standard can be set. Although the ELP performance standard is used to set accountability objectives for federal reporting, it also is used to reveal students’ readiness for exit from English language services. This study operationalizes and tests the ELP performance standard for student-level decision making by describing to what extent students are classified as non-proficient under different models and rules and the effect of these differences on their eligibility for redesignation. Test performances from one state’s ELPA were gathered from a statewide sample of ELL ( n = 875) and randomly selected sample of native English speaker students (non-ELL, n = 92) in fifth grade. Findings indicate sizable differences in non-proficient classifications for ELLs, non-ELLs, and a constructed subgroup of academically high-performing students. There were also observed differences in redesignation eligibility in all groups suggesting that choice of model and decision rule can extend the length of time even high-performing students spend in English language services. Discussion includes implications for validation of high-stakes classification systems.

The comparative utility of serum and saliva as diagnostic fluids for identifying biomarkers of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) was investigated. The goal was to determine if salivary biomarkers could facilitate a screening diagnosis of AMI, especially in cases of non-ST elevation MI (NSTEMI), since these cases are not readily identified by electrocardiogram (ECG). Serum and unstimulated whole saliva (UWS) collected from 92 AMI patients within 48 hours of chest pain onset and 105 asymptomatic healthy control individuals were assayed for 13 proteins relevant to cardiovascular disease, by Beadlyte technology (Luminex®) and enzyme immunoassays. Data were analyzed with concentration cut-points, ECG findings, logistic regression (LR) (adjusted for matching for age, gender, race, smoking, number of teeth, and oral health status), and classification and regression tree (CART) analysis. A sensitivity analysis was conducted by repetition of the CART analysis in 58 cases and 58 controls, each matched by age and gender. Serum biomarkers demonstrated AMI sensitivity and specificity superior to that of saliva, as determined by LR and CART. The predominant discriminators in serum by LR were troponin I (TnI), B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), and creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB), and TnI and BNP by CART. In saliva, LR identified C-reactive protein (CRP) as the biomarker most predictive of AMI. A combination of smoking tobacco, UWS CRP, CK-MB, sCD40 ligand, gender, and number of teeth identified AMI in the CART decision trees. When ECG findings, salivary biomarkers, and confounders were included, AMI was predicted with 80.0% sensitivity and 100% specificity. These analyses support the potential utility of salivary biomarker measurements used with ECG for the identification of AMI. Thus, saliva-based tests may provide additional diagnostic screening information in the clinical course for patients suspected of having an AMI.

Aims: To describe correlations and agreement between salivary and serum B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin (IL)-6, and IL-10 and determine which biomarkers predict worse functional class in patients with heart failure (HF). Methods: Serum and saliva were collected from 75 hospitalized patients with HF (57 ± 12 years, 43% female, New York Heart Association [NYHA] Classes I [4%], II [43%], and III [53%]). Oral inflammation was rated as good, fair, or poor. Spearman’s ρ and Bland–Altman were used to determine correlations and agreement of the salivary and serum forms of each biomarker. Logistic regressions were used to determine which biomarkers predicted worse NYHA functional class, controlling for depression, body mass index, smoking, and oral inflammation. Results: Median biomarker concentrations were as follows: BNP (serum 361 pg/ml, saliva 9 pg/ml), CRP (serum 13 ng/ml, saliva 25.6 ng/ml), IL-6 (serum 19.3 pg/ml, saliva 10.5 pg/ml), and IL-10 (serum 64.1 pg/ml, saliva 4.7 pg/ml). There was a moderate-to-strong correlation for serum–salivary CRP, weak correlation for serum–salivary IL-6, and no correlations for serum–salivary BNP and IL-10. The Bland–Altman test showed good salivary–serum agreement for all biomarkers, but as serum concentrations rose, salivary measures underestimated serum levels. Visible oral inflammation was the only predictor of worse NYHA class.

This article is focused on the different Home Language Surveys (HLS) used across U.S. states as a means of identifying students who, with further assessment, may prove eligible for language-support services. The majority of states mandate some form of HLS, be it state- or district-created. However, there is great variation in the number and the phrasing of survey items across states that raises issues of equity. To date, there is a dearth of evidence for the validity of HLS in the procedures used for identifying students for English learner (EL) status. States must recognize that the fundamental role of an HLS in their English-language proficiency assessment systems necessitates its further scrutiny as part of the assessment validation process. The article concludes with a series of recommendations for federal- and state-level actions to help remedy current concerns with EL identification processes around the nation.

For parents to provide effective support for their children’s language development, they must be attuned to their child’s changing abilities. This study presents a theoretically driven strategy that addresses a methodological challenge present when tracking longitudinally the cessation or ‘fading’ of behaviors by capturing withdrawal of maternal assistance over time relative to change in child participation. Data are the co-constructed narratives of 31 mother–child dyads when the children were 3, 4, and 5 years old. Responsibility for providing narrative macrostructure shifted from children relying on maternal prompts to contributing them spontaneously, while maternal contributions showed a gradual cessation. The findings support the notion of bidirectionality in co-construction and are interpreted using a dose-effect model of the shift in responsibility for the narration over time with implications for intervention.

English language development or proficiency (ELD/P) standards promise to play an important role in the instruction and assessment of the language development of English language learner (ELL) pre-K-12 students, but to do so effectively they must convey the progression of student language learning in authentic school contexts for authentic academic purposes. The construct of academic English is defined as the vocabulary, sentence structures, and discourse associated with language used to teach academic content as well as the language used to navigate the school setting more generally. The construct definition is informed by a relatively modest number of empirical studies of textbooks, content assessments, and observations of classroom discourse. The standards of a state with a large ELL population and a large multi-state consortium are then reviewed to illustrate the role of the academic English construct in the standards’ coverage of language modalities or domains, levels of attainment or proficiency, grade spans, and the needs of the large number of young English learners. Recommendations and potential strategies for validating, creating, and augmenting standards that reflect authentic uses of academic language in school settings are also made.