Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-wq2xx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T23:21:55.469Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Assessing and Exploring the Oral Proficiency of Young Mandarin Immersion Learners

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 September 2017

Tara W. Fortune  and
Zhongkui Ju
Tara W. Fortune*
Affiliation:
Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA), University of Minnesotafortu001@umn.edu
Zhongkui Ju
Affiliation:
Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA), University of Minnesota
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Tara W. Fortune at the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition, University of Minnesota, Global Programs and Strategy Alliance, 140 University International Center, 331–17th Avenue Southeast, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55414. Email: fortu001@umn.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article presents original empirical research carried out in the early total Mandarin language immersion context. The study involves K–5 learners from three early total Mandarin immersion programs whose home language is English. We examined students’ second language (L2) oral proficiency in Mandarin in two ways: (a) a statistical comparative analysis of cross-sectional assessment data for kindergarten, Grade 2, and Grade 5 students and (b) a detailed linguistic complexity analysis comparing immersion students’ speech samples (one per grade level) produced during the assessment interview. Results indicate significant differences in median scores between kindergarten and Grade 2 in all domains; however, no median score differences were found between Grades 2 and 5. An exploratory complexity analysis of three speech samples revealed increasingly higher levels of grammatical complexity across grades. Measures of lexical complexity for the Grade 5 sample, while higher than those in kindergarten, were lower than those of Grade 2. Study findings question the efficacy of existing proficiency assessments at capturing the multidimensionality of oral proficiency in the intermediate and pre-advanced range. They also highlight the important role finely grained complexity measures can play in informing curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual Review of Applied Linguistics , Volume 37 , September 2017 , pp. 264 - 287
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press, 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Author's Note

References

REFERENCES

American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). (1986). ACTFL proficiency guidelines—Listening. Yonkers, NY: Author.Google Scholar
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). (1999). ACTFL proficiency guidelines—Speaking. Yonkers, NY: Author. Retrieved from http://www.actfl.org/publications/guidelines-and-manuals/actfl-proficiency-guidelines-2012/english/speakingGoogle Scholar
Anderson, R. C., & Li, W. (2006). A cross-language perspective on learning to read. In McKeough, A., Phillips, L., Timmons, V., & Lupart, J. L. (Eds.), Understanding literacy development (pp. 65–94). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Avant Assessment. (2012). STAMP 4Se (STAndards-based Measurement of Proficiency—4 Skills Elementary) Technical Report. Retrieved from https://d3itqxtdxl1nz0.cloudfront.net/pdfs/avant-stamp4Se-technical-document.pdfGoogle Scholar
Avant Assessment. (2013, March). STAMP 4Se benchmarks and rubric guide. Retrieved from http://www.avantassessment.comGoogle Scholar
Bacon, M. (2007, June). ELLOPA/SOPA/COPE assessment results—May 2007. Presentation at the University of Minnesota's Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) Summer Institute: Immersion 101 for Chinese and Japanese, Minneapolis, MN.Google Scholar
Beck, I. L., & McKeown, M. G. (1985). Teaching vocabulary: Making the instruction fit the goal. Educational Perspectives, 23 (1), 11–15.Google Scholar
Bulté, B., & Housen, A. (2012). Defining and operationalising L2 complexity. In Housen, A., Kuiken, F., & Vedder, I. (Eds.), Dimensions of L2 performance and proficiency: Complexity, accuracy and fluency in SLA (pp. 21–46). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Bulté, B., Housen, A., Pierrard, M., & Van Daele, S. (2008). Investigating lexical proficiency development over time–the case of Dutch-speaking learners of French in Brussels. Journal of French Language Studies, 18 (03), 277–298.Google Scholar
Bygate, M. (1999). Quality of language and purpose of task: Patterns of learners’ language on two oral communication tasks. Language Teaching Research, 3, 185–214. doi:10.1177/136216889900300302Google Scholar
Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA). (2015). Chinese learner language. Retrieved from http://carla.umn.edu/learnerlanguage/chn/index.htmlGoogle Scholar
Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL). (2010). The CAL oral proficiency exam and student oral proficiency assessment rating scale (draft Chinese version). Washington, DC: Author.Google Scholar
Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL). (2017). The directory of foreign language immersion programs in U.S. schools. Retrieved from http://webapp.cal.org/Immersion/Google Scholar
Cohen, J. (1960) A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 20, 37–46.Google Scholar
Duff, P., Anderson, T., Ilnyckyj, R., VanGaya, E., Wang, R. T., & Yates, E. (2013). Learning Chinese: Linguistic, sociocultural, and narrative perspectives. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Ellis, R., & Barkhuizen, G. P. (2005). Analysing learner language. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fortune, T. W. (2012). What the research says about immersion. In Chinese language learning in the early grades: A handbook of resources and best practices for Mandarin immersion (pp. 9–13). Asia Society. Retrieved from http://asiasociety.org/china-learning-initiatives/chinese-language-learning-early-gradesGoogle Scholar
Fortune, T. W., & Song, W. (2016). Academic achievement and language proficiency in early total Mandarin immersion education. Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education, 4 (2), 168–197.Google Scholar
Fortune, T. W., & Tedick, D. J. (2015). Oral proficiency development of K-8 Spanish immersion students. Modern Language Journal, 99 (4), 637–655.Google Scholar
Foster, P., Tonkyn, A., & Wigglesworth, G. (2000). Measuring spoken language: A unit for all reasons. Applied Linguistics, 21 (3), 354–375.Google Scholar
Garman, M. A. G. (1990). Psycholinguistics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Genesee, F., & Lindholm-Leary, K. (2013). Two case studies of content-based language education. Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education, 1 (1), 3–33.Google Scholar
Geva, E. (2006). Second-language oral proficiency and second-language literacy. In August, D. & Shanahan, T. (Eds.), Developing literacy in second-language learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth (pp. 123–139). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Guiraud, P. (1954). Les caractères statistiques du vocabulaire. Paris, France: Presses universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Hanban. (n.d.). Youth Chinese Test. Retrieved from http://english.hanban.org/node_8001.htmGoogle Scholar
Harley, B. (1992). Patterns of second language development in French immersion. Journal of French Language Studies, 2, 159–183.Google Scholar
Harley, B. (1993). Instructional strategies and SLA in early French immersion. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 15, 245–259.Google Scholar
Harley, B., Cummins, J., Swain, M., & Allen, P. (1990). The nature of language proficiency. In Harley, B., Allen, P., Cummins, J., & Swain, M. (Eds.), The development of second-language proficiency (pp. 7–25). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hart, D., Lapkin, S., & Swain, M. (1991). Secondary level immersion French skills: A possible plateau effect. In Malave, L. & Duquette, G. (Eds.), Language, culture and cognition (Vol. 69, pp. 250–265). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Housen, A., Kuiken, F., & Vedder, I. (Eds.). (2012). Dimensions of L2 performance and proficiency: Complexity, accuracy and fluency in SLA. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Koda, K. (2013). Development of second language reading skills: Cross-linguistic perspectives. In (pp. 303–318). In Gass, S. M. & Mackey, A. (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 303–318). New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Li, H., Rao, N., & Tse, S. K. (2012). Adapting Western pedagogies for Chinese literacy instruction: Case studies of Hong Kong Shenzhen, and Singapore preschools. Early Education and Development, 23 (4), 603–621.Google Scholar
Li, C., & Thompson, S. A. (1981). Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Lindholm-Leary, K. (2011). Student outcomes in Chinese two-way immersion programs: Language proficiency, academic achievement, and student attitudes. In Tedick, D. J., Christian, D., & Fortune, T. W. (Eds.), Immersion education: Practices, policies, possibilities (pp. 81–103). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Mandarin Immersion Parents Council. (2016). Full Mandarin immersion school list [Data file]. Retrieved from https://miparentscouncil.org/full-mandarin-immersion-school-list/Google Scholar
MacIntyre, P. D., Burns, C., Jessome, A. (2011). Ambivalence about communicating in a second language: A qualitative study of French immersion students’ willingness to communicate. Modern Language Journal, 95, 81–96.Google Scholar
Met, M. (2008). Paying attention to language: Literacy, language and academic achievement. In Fortune, T. W. & Tedick, D. J. (Eds.), Pathways to multilingualism: Evolving perspectives on immersion education (pp. 22–45). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Montrul, S., & Potowski, K. (2007). Command of gender agreement in school-age Spanish-English bilingual children. International Journal of Bilingualism, 11, 301–328.Google Scholar
Packard, J. L. (2000). The morphology of Chinese: A linguistic and cognitive approach. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Padilla, A. M., Fan, L., Xu, X., & Silva, D. (2013). A Mandarin/English two‐way immersion program: Language proficiency and academic achievement. Foreign Language Annals, 46 (4), 661– 679.Google Scholar
Perfetti, C. A., Cao, F., & Booth, J. (2013). Specialization and universals in the development of reading skills: How Chinese research informs a universal science of reading. Scientific Studies of Reading, 17 (1), 5–21.Google Scholar
Pienemann, M. (1998). Language processing and second language development: Processability theory. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Rabiteau, K., & Taft, H. (1985). Provisional modified ACTFL/ETS oral proficiency scale for junior high school students. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.Google Scholar
Rhodes, N., & Thompson, L. (1990). An oral assessment instrument for immersion students: COPE. In Padilla, A., Fairchild, H., & Valadez, C. (Eds.), Foreign language education: Issues and strategies. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Tarone, E., & Swierzbin, B. (2009). Exploring learner language. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tavakoli, P., & Foster, P. (2008). Task design and second language performance: The effect of narrative type on learner output. Language Learning, 58 (2), 439–473.Google Scholar
Thompson, L. E., Boyson, B. A., & Rhodes, N. C. (2006). Administrator's manual for CAL foreign language assessments, Grades K–8: Early Language Listening and Oral Proficiency Assessment (ELLOPA), Student Oral Proficiency Assessment (SOPA), and CAL Oral Proficiency Exam (COPE). Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics and Iowa State University National K–12 Foreign Language Resource Center: Ames, IA.Google Scholar
Tukey, J. W. (1977). Exploratory data analysis. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Valentino, R., & Reardon, S. F. (2014). Effectiveness of four instructional programs designed to serve English language learners: Variation by ethnicity and initial English proficiency. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 37 (4), 612–637.Google Scholar
Wang, Y., & Feng, L. (2014). Research on acquisition difficulty of relative clauses in Chinese as L2. In Nan, J. (Ed.), Advances in Chinese as a second language: Acquisition and processing (pp. 254–270). Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Xiao, R., Rayson, P., & McEnery, T. (2009). A frequency dictionary of Mandarin Chinese: Core vocabulary for learners. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Xu, T. (1991). Zi he hanyu de yuyi jufa [Word and Chinese semantics and syntax]. In Ma, Q., (Ed.), Yufa yanjiu rumen [Introduction to grammar research]. Beijing, China: Commercial Press.Google Scholar
Yates, E. (2012). Characterizing oral proficiency and language use of long-time learners of Chinese as an additional language using computer technology (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.Google Scholar
Yuan, F. (2009). Measuring learner language in L2 Chinese in fluency, accuracy, and complexity. Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association, 44 (3), 109–130.Google Scholar
Zhu, D. (1982). Yufa jiangyi [Grammar notes]. Beijing, China: Commercial Press.Google Scholar