SCENARIO

Ms. Campbell is a language specialist who works with students at both the elementary- and middle-
school levels. She has several elementary-level students who have difficulty retrieving words when
speaking. Often, these students will shift in their seats and say, “I know it” when trying to describe an
event. In addition, these students have trouble participating in group discussions, sharing ideas on a
topic, and developing ideas that follow previous learning. Interpreting critical parts of a story is a
tremendous challenge for these students. Recently, many of these students have demonstrated immature
social skills. They may misinterpret social cues, fail to think of others’ thoughts and feelings, and be
unable to predict the consequences of their behavior.

1. One of Ms. Campbell’s students is a bilingual student who speaks Spanish and has acquired English
as a second language. What factors should Ms. Campbell consider when assessing this student?
a. how long has she live in the US
b. School attendance patterns
c. School instructional history (language of instruction in native country)
d. Cultural background
e. Performance in comparison to peers (language, learning skills and rate)
f. Home life
g. Health and developmental history

2. Describe two formal language assessment instruments that Ms. Campbell can use to gain
information regarding her students’ language abilities.
Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals and Adolescent Language Screening Test

3. Ms. Campbell believes that one of her kindergarten students has phonological deficits that affect
language development. How can she test this student’s phonological skills?
She should assess the content-oriented level (actual content the student has learned)
and the process- oriented level (which tells how the student learns or acquires skills)
When testing she should use a list of all consonants phonemes and collect pictures to
depict words that contain each phoneme. She will then make notes of the phonemes that
were correct. She can then come up with a plan to target the incorrect phonemes. She
can also use toys or pictures to stimulate conversation to check for correctness.

4. Ms. Campbell wants to use strategies for increasing language production. Present three strategies
that may improve the expressive skills of her students.
a. She can expect students to speak occasional in incomplete sentences because this is
normal for discourse.
b. Act as a good language model, and ask students to imitate what they hear.
c. Use activities such as role playing and charades to improve a students use of language
in different contexts and to enhance the ability to recognize the importance of
nonverbal skills.
5. Describe two instructional language games that can be played by Ms. Campbell’s students in small
groups.
a. What Goes Together: to teach classification by association- student have to match
cards with pictures that associate such as a shoe and a sock. Each player gets 6 cards
to start. The rest are laid face down in the middle. Each student draws a card and
then lays down their associated card pair. Students play until all the cards are
matched. The student with the most matches wins.
b. Phonetic Bingo: teach phoneme identification- Each student is given a card with 5
columns. The top row is numbers and the bottom 5 rows are all phonemes. When the
phoneme is called out they can mark it off. First one to get a whole row marked wins.