If you have never been tested for language assessment, the following information will be useful to you.
Dr. Daniel Dato, CCC and President of BiLaSHA (Bilingual Language-Speech-Hearing Association, Inc.) used both a psychological and linguistic approach in developing PAFA Assessment Test. I use this assessment and it addresses the following factors involved in language acquisition:
- Physical–use of speaking muscles in throat, larynx, mouth, lips, tongue and breathing mechanisms
- Cognitive-memory, perception, formulating ideas and processing language
- Socio-cultural-assimilation into the new and strange environment of a second culture
Assessment Testing involves:
- Using a technique of error analysis
- Applying the inventory of errors to designing a highly individualized and customized training program
Now, what does all of that mean?
Speaking is not an easy task. There are many mechanisms that go into uttering just one sound. In case you are wondering what an evaluation test is all about, I'll try to explain it as simply as I can.
This test evaluates the speaking and discrimination skills of adult learners of English as a second language. Speaking and discrimination skills basically means this:
- how a speaker hears sound
- produces intonation patterns -voice going high or medium or low
- produces stress patterns-what syllable in a word is pronounced hard
- produce rhythm-how fast you speak and how words are linked
- producing grammatical structures-saying the sentence correctly.
It doesn't really matter what your native language is, but the trainer does have to have a knowledge of what types of sounds are not in certain languages and what sounds are transposed (ex. lip pronounced rip)and how those sounds can be successfully brought over into the new language. When all of the above are assessed and categorized, then a training program is drawn up.
It is a time consuming, detailed process, but a successful one which makes all of the work worthwhile. I hope this information has enlightened you and eased whatever discomfort you may have had regarding language assessment testing.