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Dynamic assessment has been proposed as a non-biased method for determining language differences vs. language impairment. To date there is limited, but emerging information on the effects of dynamic assessment of language in children in the process of learning English as a second language. In this session, results from a large-scale study funded by the National Institutes of Health to identify markers of bilingual language impairment in Spanish-English bilinguals will be presented. As part of this larger study, the investigators used dynamic assessment with bilingual Spanish-English kindergarten-age children. Here, the focus was to explore whether a dynamic assessment approach—conducted in English only—yielded good classification accuracy for these bilinguals. Results focusing on pre-posttest changes in narrative performance and modifiability will be presented. Implications for use of dynamic assessment with children in the process of learning a second language will be discussed. |
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