SASL Newsletter - Fall 2019 Issue Issue 15 - Fall 2019 | Página 7

Continued from page 1: Tools for Assessing American Sign Language Acquisition
Language Receptive Skills Test (Herman, Holmes, & Woll, 1999) through an extensive process of
consultation with experts, development of new test items, creation of new test materials, and pilot
testing. The purpose of the ASL-RST is to measure children’s (aged 3 – 13 years) comprehension of
ASL morphology and syntax.
Format. The ASL-RST has two parts: the vocabulary check and the video-based test. The
vocabulary check is optional (particularly recommended for younger children) and is designed to
ensure children understand the vocabulary (signs) used in the test. It is a simple picture naming task
and children must know at least 15 of the 20 signs to be able to continue with the test. The video-
based test consists of 42 items that are organized in order of difficulty, and include eight ASL
grammatical structures: 1) number/distribution, 2) noun-verb distinctions, 3) negation, 4) spatial verbs,
5) handling classifiers, 6) size and shape classifiers, 7) role shift, and 8) conditionals. Children view a
signed ASL phrase/sentence on video, and then must select a picture (from a choice of four) that most
appropriately matches the meaning of the sentence. The examiner records each response on a score
form. Scoring includes an overall standard score as well as an analysis of error patterns over the eight
grammatical structures.
Psychometric Information. The ASL-RST was standardized on a sample of 203 deaf children,
with average nonverbal IQ, from across Canada and the United States between the ages of 3 to 13
years. There were 77 native signers (deaf parents) and 126 nonnative signers (but with exposure to
ASL by age 3 years or younger); 106 females and 97 males. All testing occurred in the children’s
schools by deaf researchers fluent in ASL. Each child’s raw score (out of 42) on the ASL-RST is
converted to a standard score based on the normative sample, which allows for comparison with other
children the same age. Results are reported according to the categories of average, above or below,
or significantly above or below average.
ASL Proficiency Assessment
Purpose. The ASL Proficiency Assessment (ASL-PA) was developed to provide a global
assessment of children’s (aged 6 – 12 years) expressive ASL proficiency levels.
Format. A 30-minute video-recorded sample of the child’s ASL abilities is elicited in three
different discourse segments: a) Interview (with a deaf adult, using specific questions to prompt
lengthy responses); b) Peer Interaction (based on previously modelled interview but between children
with similar linguistic experience); and c) Story Re-telling (based on a 3-minute cartoon video with no
verbal dialogue). The video-recorded sample is analyzed by trained assessors to determine the use of
23 target features, and receives a score of “0” (not used or incorrectly used) or “1” (correctly used) for
each feature (total score out of 23). The 23 target features are based on data from ASL acquisition
studies and incorporate eight linguistic structures: 1) one-sign and two-sign utterances, 2) nonmanual
markers, 3) deictic pointing (real-world indexing and abstract indexing), 4) referential shifting, 5) verbs
of motion, 6) aspect and number, 7) verb agreement, and 8) noun-verb pairs. The scores correspond
with proficiency levels: Level 3 (greater than 16), Level 2 (greater than 11, less than or equal to 16),
and Level 1 (11 and under).
Psychometric Information. The ASL-PA was initially developed with a small prototype group of
4 children (aged 6, 8, 10, and 12 years) to establish the sample elicitation and scoring analysis
procedures. It was then administered to a larger and more diverse group of 80 children (28 native ASL
signers, 37 nonnative ASL signers, and 15 English-based signers). Measures of construct validity
(does the test measure what it intends to measure) and scoring reliability (do different assessors
agree on a child’s score) were high. The larger sample was used to determine the cut-off values for
___
(Continue on the next page)
The Power of ASL
7
Fall 2019 – Issue 15