The Early Years Evaluation – Teacher Assessment (EYE‐TA) was designed to assess children’s overall development and their learning needs upon entry, or shortly after entry, into kindergarten. The assessment is based on teachers’ observations about children’s acquisition of specific developmental skills. The challenge for kindergarten French immersion teachers and teachers teaching in French schools in predominantly English-speaking areas is that often this is a child’s first exposure to the French language. Teachers need to be able to discern whether a child has acquired a skill, such as being able to count 15 objects or recognize commonly used signs (e.g., stop, washroom, recycling, exit), when the everyday classroom activities are in French. This challenge is especially difficult for items in the Language and Communication domain. For example, the question, “This child can communicate orally in 5 to 7 word sentences others can understand” requires the teacher to determine whether the child can do this in his or her first language. If a child appears to be unable to do a task, is it because it is being presented in French or is it because the child has not yet acquired the skill in his or her first language? As such, teachers of children learning French as a second language need to be especially acute observers.
We recognize that jurisdictions have different levels of allowance of English being spoken in French or French immersion classrooms. Therefore, we offer these general guidelines to help you and your team decide on how to proceed with assessing children with limited French language skills.
Option 1
Assessing the children on all EYE-TA items in their mother tongue, i.e., English, (while accepting any correct French responses too), is the preferred option. This approach will provide the best indication of the child’s skills without the limitations imposed by learning a new language or being assessed in a second language. This approach also ensures the items are not used as an assessment of language proficiency.
Option 2
If a rigid ‘no English in French-Immersion / French classrooms’ rule is in place in your jurisdiction, the assessments may be done in French. Note that in this case, the evaluation becomes an assessment of French language development, which is not the intent of the EYE-TA. We recommend that English responses be accepted and that observations conducted outside the classroom environment (during recess, for example) also be used as an indicator of skill development. Jurisdictions using this approach should also interpret their results accordingly. For example, children may score lower on the Language and Communication domain as it appropriately reflects the children’s skill development in French. Also, with this approach where the EYE‐TA is used as an assessment of a child’s proficiency in French, the estimation of resource requirements based on the Responsive Tiered Instruction (RTI) model would in most cases over‐estimate the need for extra resources.
Considerations with both options:
- In all cases, everyone in a school—and jurisdiction where possible—should use the same approach for assessment.
- The approach adopted for the Pre-assessment should also be used for the Post-assessment. As such, if the children are assessed in English for the Pre-assessment, they should be assessed in English again for the Post-assessment, even if their French language skills may have improved during the school year.
- The language of assessment should be communicated to parents and caregivers when sharing results.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss this topic, please do not hesitate to reach out to your EYE coordinator.