Assessing the Language Acquisition Progress of Limited English Proficient Students: Problems and New Alternative

Abstract

The article discusses the need educators have for measures of linguistic competence for limited-English-proficient (LEP) students. Traditional measurement procedures do not meet these needs because of mismatches between educational experiences and test content, cultural experiences and test con- tent, and linguistic experience and test content. A new type of test -Sentence Verification Technique (SVT) test - that may meet some of the measurement needs of LEP students is described, and the results of a study that examines the reliability and validity of the new tests as measures of the listening and reading comprehension performance in both the native language and English are reported. The results indicate that the tests are reliable and that SVT performance varies as functions of placement in a transitional bilingual education program, teacher judgments of competence, and difficulty of the material. These results are consistent with the interpretation that SVT tests are valid measures of the linguistic competence of LEP students. The article concludes with a discussion of some of the advantages of using SVT tests with LEP populations.

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