1

NAPLANlanguageassessmentsforIndigenouschildreninremotecommunities:issuesand

problems

GillianWigglesworthUniversityofMelbourne

andJaneSimpson

UniversityofSydney

The home language of children inremote Indigenous communities

Traditional language (e.g. MurrinyPatha in Wadeye or Warlpiri inLajumanu)

Mixed language (e.g. Gurindji Kriol inDaguragu)

English-based Kriol (e.g. WumpurraniEnglish in Tennant Creek or Kriol inYakanarra)

2

Table 1: Characteristics of electiveand circumstantial bilinguals

Two languages will play acomplementary role and thestronger language may varydepending on the domain

First language will usuallyremain the dominantlanguage

Communicative needs mayrelate to survival, or success;communicative needs willvary across individuals

Communicative opportunitiesusually sought artificially(e.g. in classroom)

Second language required tomeet needs of newcircumstances

Choose to learn anotherlanguage

Characteristic of groupsCharacteristic of theindividuals

Circumstantial bilingualsElective bilingual

The school language of children inremote Indigenous communities

Standard Australian English in anenvironment where SAE is not thelanguage of the community (cf.children from immigrant backgrounds)

Remoteness means cultural knowledgeis likely to be very different from thatof the wider population

3

Assessing Indigenous children

NAPLAN test Indigenous children perform badly Indigenous children in NT perform

worse Indigenous children in remote

communities perform even worse

The Year 3 NAPLAN test ofreading

At year 3, “[s]tudents read and view simple texts thatentertain, move, report, explain and give opinions…such as children’s stories, rhymed verses, fairytalesand fables … reports, transactions and explanations.The texts they read and view containideas and information related to theirreal and imagined worlds, withillustrations that clarify meaning. Thetexts may be in illustrated books, school newsletters,local newspapers, children’s magazines,advertisements, films, and on television programs,CD-ROMs and websites.”

4

The Year 3 NAPLAN test ofreading

…”They can draw inferences from directly-stateddescriptions and actions (e.g. infer a character’sfeelings) and talk about how people, characters andevents could have been portrayed differently (e.g.more fairly). They relate theirinterpretations to their ownexperiences.”

Statements of Learning for English, Curriculum Corporation

The Year 3 NAPLAN test ofreading

Analysis based on sample testquestions for year 3

Consists of two texts each with a setof multiple choice questions

5

Reading text 1

Potential problems with text

Contains cultural knowledge thechildren may lack (no cinemas thusno promotional material)

Language specific issues: Reduced passive “a new movie directed

by … Recognition of synonymy of

“recommended for all ages” and“suitable for everyone”

6

Potential problems with questions

Question 1 tests unfamiliar culturalunderstanding

Question 2 uses unfamiliarterminology (e.g. session times;movie ratings)

Question 3 concepts “recommendedfor all ages” unlikely to receivereinforcement at home

Question 5 unfamiliarity with genre

Reading text 2

7

Potential problems

Unfamiliar context: newspapers arenot delivered to homes in remotecommunities

Language specific issues “papers” as synonym for “newspapers” must infer that the “Gazette” is a

newspaper from the use of the word“Paper” in the preamble

Potential problems continued

Language specific issues must interpret the word “box” as “letter or

newspaper box” - objects are very rare inremote communities

interpreting “in line with the fence” incommunities with no private letterboxes, andwhere houses are rarely fenced

“jutting” and “poking out” unlikely to befamiliar to ESOL/D

Remote communities do not have“newsagencies”

Highly idiomatic terminology “stuff andnonsense”

8

Potential problems with questionscontinued

Question 3 also has the problem ofinterpreting the meaning of “paper”.

Use of the word “stuffing” in thissense likely to be unfamiliar to thechildren.

Again in Question 3 children are notfamiliar with “newsagencies” letalone the relationship between thenewsagency and the paper boy.

Summary of problems with readingtest

Cultural contexts provided areunfamiliar

Inferring meaning of unfamiliarwords and constructions needs afamiliar cultural context to besuccessful

9

Language conventions

Divided into 2 types: spelling and“grammar and punctuation”

Spelling actually tests knowledge ofEnglish grammar

Language conventions: Year 3 test

10

Language conventions: Year 3 test

Language issues: Year 3

11

Language conventions: Year 5 test

Language issues: Year 5

12

Language conventions: Year 7 test

Language issues: Year 7

13

Grammar- Year 3

Grammar questions (1)

What do uncontextualised questionsabout language tell us about whatchildren know about language?

E.g. That car belongs to James.Give it back to …. immediately

Answer: it/him/them/himself

14

Grammar- Year 5

Grammar- Year 5

15

Grammar- Year 5

Grammar- Year 7

16

Grammar- Year 9

Grammar questions (2)

What justifications in terms ofgrammatical complexity or acquisitionaldifficulty are there for the choice ofquestions to ask at different years?

E.g. which of the following correctlycompletes the sentences

Year 5: By 8.30 am the train wouldalready ____the station

Answer Left/leave/have left/had left Year 9: Jane has ___the car she wants to

buy Answer saw/seen/will see/see

17

Summary of problems with thelanguage conventions test

Language convention tests test how wellSAE speakers have mastered theconventions of spelling and punctuatingwritten English.

They do not test how well ESOL/Dspeakers have learned the standardEnglish language, let alone whether theyare mastering written English, becausesome of the questions presupposelinguistic and cultural knowledge whichthe students may not have.

Conclusion

The importance of the familiarity of culturalcontext cannot be underestimated.

Test materials need to use contexts which will berelatively equally familiar (e.g. a classroom or akitchen)

NAPLAN tests test a first language learnersmastery of the academic and written aspects oftheir first language; they are not tests of anESOL/D speakers knowledge or stage ofdevelopment of English