Henriette W. Langdon

Language Disorder or Difference? Assessing the Language Skills of Hispanic Students:

Results from a study on current practices of Spanish-speaking speech and language specialists are reported. Analyses of the data indicate that a heavy diagnostic emphasis continues to be placed on the results of discrete-point tests. A protocol to assess limited-English-speaking students suspected of a language or learning disability is offered.

Assessment and Intervention Strategies for the Bilingual Language-Disordered Student

Since the mid-1970s, increasing attention has been given to the non-native English-speaking student who has had difficulty keeping up with students of similar social and linguistic backgrounds. This article covers the following areas: overview of language acquisition, development, and disorders in bilingual individuals; discussion of informal and formal instruments available to assess first and second language skills of bilingual students; determination of a language disorder in a bilingual population—description of a study; and discussion of intervention techniques that include this authors experience working with Puerto Rican students in the Boston area and Mexican-American students in southern Santa Clara County, California.

Dual-Dimension Naming Speed and Language-Dominance Ratings by Bilingual Hispanic Adults.

Abstract This study compared the efficacy of measures of naming speed, verbal fluency and self-ratings for establishing language dominance in 25 bilingual English–Spanish adults with college degrees. Naming speed was measured by total naming times (in seconds) for five Alzheimers Quick Test tasks (Wiig, Nielsen, Minthon & Warkentin, 2002) and verbal fluency with the Word Listing by Domain (Lambert, Havelka, & Crosby, 1958; Fishman & Cooper, 1969). Self-ratings of English–Spanish competence (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) and frequency of use of each spoken language served as standards for comparisons. For the aggregate sample, color–form, color–animal, and color–object naming times were significantly shorter for English than Spanish (p < .01). There was 100% agreement in language-dominance judgments between self-ratings of language competence and frequency of use, and color–form, color–animal, and color–object naming-time differences in the two languages. Word Listing by Domain quotients for language dominance showed a lower degree of agreement (52%) with self-ratings and naming-time differences. The findings suggest that cross-linguistic comparisons of naming times for color–form, color–animal, and color–object naming may be helpful in screening adults for language dominance for psychoeducational assessment purposes.

Setting the Teaching-Learning Wheel in Motion in Assessing Language Minority Students

The teaching-learning wheel is suggested as a model to assess possible language learning difficulties in limited English proficient (LEP) students. A step-by-step process is described in which 3 approaches including components of this model are utilized. The 3 approaches include observations and ethnographic interviewing, formal analysis of oral and written performance, and dynamic assessment. The 3 approaches are applied considering the school and home settings. The step-by-step process is illustrated through a case study. Following this model prevents false diagnoses of language learning disabilities in LEP students and delineates some helpful strategies for intervention.