In September of 2018, we introduced changes to items C3 and C4 from the EYE-TA. The following article describes what these changes were, and the rationale behind them.
Children enrolled in French Immersion programs require the ability to be assessed on any given EYE-TA item in either English or French (detailed information about our recommendations for children learning in a French Immersion context can be found here). Items C3 and C4 had originally posed some challenges in this regard, and so changes were made in order to accommodate this unique context.
C3: Match each letter (B, D, G, M) with the picture beginning with that letter.
Issue: The C3 assessment plates contained pictures that corresponded to the letters B, D, G, or M in one language, but not the other. For example, a picture of a dog corresponded to "D" in English, but a "C" (chien) in French. Additionally, the C3 assessment plates purposely include some pictures of items that do not begin with B, D, G, or M in order to challenge children. However, two full assessment plates in the French version of the assessment did not contain any items that began with B, D, G, or M, while this was not the case for the English version.
Change: We updated the C3 assessment plates such that now all images of items that begin with B, D, G, or M correspond to the same starting letter in both English and French (for example, a picture of a ball corresponds to "B" in both languages). We have also ensured that there are no assessments plates that do not contain at least 2-3 images that correspond to the letters B,D,G, or M.
C4:
Original: Tell the first letter and letter sound in: his or her first name, and in fish, king, and sun.
New: Tell the first letter and letter sound in: train, lamp, penguin, and sun.
Issue: First, the words "fish" and "king" begin with different letters in English than they do in French ("poisson", and "roi"). Second, the word "roi" in French is a more challenging word with a higher age of acquisition than its English counterpart. Finally, some children have names that are more difficult to pronounce and spell than others, so identifying the first letter and letter sound in their name was much easier for some children than others, resulting in unequal scoring opportunities for this item.
Change: We removed the "his or her first name" element of this item, and have instead opted to have children tell the first letter and letter sound in 4 words, all of which begin with the same letter in both English and French:
Train (EN) / Train (FR)
Lamp (EN) / Lampe (FR)
Penguin (EN) / Pingouin (FR)
Sun (EN) / Soleil (FR)
Several factors went into choosing these words, including ensuring that:
- each word has a similar age of acquisition in both languages
- the 3 new words present a similar range of age of acquisition to what the item had prior (with king, fish, and sun).
- the words contain the same number of syllables in English and French (all do except for Sun/Soleil; however, the age of acquisition is very similar for this word in both English and French, and this particular word was not raised as being problematic)
- the words do not begin with B, D, G, or M, as this is covered in item C3; vowels; C (as this can be hard or soft); H (silent in French); and Q (difficulty, similarity with K sound)
- all words are easily identifiable by picture (picture would not leave any ambiguity or have multiple options for answers)
Other Considerations
The "TR" sound in Train: We recognize that some children may interpret the blended letter sound of "TR" to be "CH". However, due to the age of acquisition of this word (4 years), most children being assessed on the EYE-TA will be familiar with the fact that this word begins with a T. In the event that a child indicates the blended letter sound to be "CH", the teacher can simply prompt the child by saying the word and emphasizing the "T" sound in isolation of the R.
Pingouin/Manchot: We recognize that French dialects spoken outside of Canada may use the word "manchot" instead of "pingouin". The focus of this item is on the identification of the first letter and letter sound, and not the recognition of the word itself. As such, if a child uses the word "manchot", the teacher can simply indicate that the word is "pingouin", and have the child then indicate the first letter and letter sound.