to be able to identify time, money, and dates and daysmonths, and to do simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Since the literacy classes run by the Eastern
Tamang Language Team ETLT have also been teaching reading, writing, and basic arithmetic skills to the participants, I am choosing these three basic skills to assess the
literacy performance of Eastern Tamang adult learners in Nepal.
3.3.1 Assessment components of reading skills
All the reading skills explored in section 2.5 can be classified into three categories: precursor reading skillsreading readiness skills, oral reading skills, and silent
reading skills. Precursor reading skills include the following: • print awareness – directionality, visual discrimination, visual memories,
letter forms, and picture-word associations Davis, 2004:53 • phonemic awareness – sound-symbol relationships and word recognition
ibid. • phonological awareness – segmenting and blending words, syllables, or
phonemes National Early Literacy Panel, 2009:3. The assessment of these precursor reading skills can be embedded into both oral
and silent reading assessments. Oral and silent reading skills are different in their main purposes and strategies for
reading. Oral reading gives greater focus to word pronunciation while silent reading focuses more specifically on comprehension. Whereas silent reading skills are
increasingly required for ―skillful‖ readers, oral reading skills are still important for the
following reasons: 1
as a valuable diagnostic tool to assess how much the learners have developed in the process of learning to read.
2 to confirm information to others.
3 in performance situations, such as the reading of plays, poems, story
dialogues, or for tape recording Davis, 2004:50. Oral reading consists of four measurable components: rate, accuracy, fluency, and
comprehension. Rate and accuracy of oral reading are the main indicators of automaticity which is define
d as ―fast, accurate and effortless word identification at the single word level
‖ and the best predictor of comprehension. On the other hand, fluency involves both automatic word identification and the application of appropriate prosodic features such as
rhythm, tone, intonation, and phrasing at the phrase, sentence, and text levels Hook and Jones, 2002. Comprehension is defined as
―the acquisition of information from printed material
‖ Davis, 2004:55. Hook and Jones explain the relevance of these four components to effective oral reading.
―Even mild difficulties in word identification can pull attention away from the underlying meaning, reduce the speed of reading, and create the need to reread
selections to grasp the meaning. Many students who struggle to learn to read are able, with appropriate instruction, to compensate for initial reading problems by
becoming accurate decoders but fail to reach a level of sufficient fluency to
become fast and efficient readers.‖ ibid. Silent reading requires word attackdecoding skills, fluency, comprehension, and
critical reading skills. Silent reading comprehension is the ultimate outcome of the reading process where all other components interact successfully Literacy Information
and Communication System: Reading components\ Meaning skills\ Silent reading comprehension, March 14, 2011. However, there has been no agreement among
researchers on the degree of correlation between oral reading fluency and silent reading comprehension Davis, 2004:50.
The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills DIBELS
33
measures the following components of reading: phonological awareness, the alphabetic principle,
fluency with connected text, vocabulary, and comprehension. Specified measures for each component and skill to be assessed through the DIBELS measures are presented in
Table 14: Table 14: Reading components and measures of DIBELS
Component Specified Measure
Skill to be assessed Phonemic
Awareness Initial Sound Fluency ISF
Identifying and producing the initial sound of a given word. Phonemic Segmentation
Fluency PSF Assesses a childs skill at producing the individual sounds
within a given word. Alphabetic
Principle and Phonics
Nonsense Word Fluency NWF
Knowledge of letter-sound correspondences and the ability to blend letters together to form unfamiliar
nonsense e.g., ut, fik, lig, etc. words. Oral Reading Fluency ORF
If accuracy is less than 95. Accuracy and
Fluency with Connected Text
Oral Reading Fluency ORF:
Assesses a childs skill at reading connected text in grade level materials.
Comprehension Oral Reading Fluency ORF
and Retell Fluency RTF Assesses a childs understanding of verbally read connected
text. Vocabulary and
Oral Language Word Use Fluency WUF
Assesses a childs ability to accurately use a provided word in the context of a sentence.
Source: University of Oregon Center on Teaching and Learning, 2008:2.
The project of Education Data for Decision Making II Eddata II, sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development USAID, has developed the
Early Grade Reading Assessment EGRA which is an oral assessment instrument
33
The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills DIBELS are a set of procedures and measures for assessing the acquisition of early literacy skills from kindergarten through sixth grade. They are
designed to be short one minute fluency measures used to regularly monitor the development of early literacy and early reading skills. DIBELS were developed originally on the basis of measurement
procedures for Curriculum-Based Measurement CBM, which were created by Deno and colleagues through the Institute for Research and Learning Disabilities at the University of Minnesota in the 1970s-
80s.
Initial research on DIBELS was conducted at the University of Oregon in the late 1980s and research on DIBELS continues at Dynamic Measurement Group DMG and at numerous universities and research
institutions around the world. This information comes from https:dibels.uoregon.edudocsdibelsinfo.pdf .
requiring about 15 minutes per child. It is a simple diagnostic of individual student progress in reading by testing letter knowledge, phonemic awareness, the alphabetic
principle, accuracy and fluency, reading and listening comprehension, and vocabulary. In August 2009, EGRA instruments were developed in six languages of Nepal
– Nepali, Tharu, Rana Tharu, Doteli, Magar, and Bajang
–for USAIDWashington.
34
The instruments are in use for a national or program-level diagnostic to measure learning
outcomes and school effectiveness. The EGRA instruments for Nepal assess concepts about print, passage reading and comprehension. Even though the EGRA instruments aim
to test children ‘s oral reading proficiency, they imply some common indicators of reading
skills for adult learners as well. Test components of EGRA are listed in Table 15: Table 15: Test Components of EGRA
35
Component: Skill demonstrated by:
1. Letter name knowledge Provide the name of upper- and lowercase letters in random order
2. Phonemic Awareness Segment words into phonemes
Identify the initial sounds in different words 3. Letter sound knowledge
Provide the sound of upper- and lowercase letters distributed in random order 4. Familiar word reading
Read simple and common one- and two-syllable words
34
This information comes from https:www.eddataglobal.orgdocumentsindex.cfm?fuseaction=pubDetailID=255.
35
This information comes from the slide 12 and 13 of power point presentation, ―Assessing Foundation Skills in Reading‖ retrieved [March 14, 2011] from http:www.worldbankrussia.rufiles244.pdf done
by Amber Gove at the First Read Global Conference: ―Developing a Vision for Assessment Systems‖ in October 2, 2009
http:web.worldbank.orgWBSITEEXTERNALTOPICSEXTEDUCATION0,,contentMDK:2236578 5~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:282386,00.html. Retrieved on March 14, 2011. Amber
Gove, PhD, is a senior education research analyst in RTIs International Development Group and the main
author of ―Early Grade Reading Assessment Toolkit.‖ Much of her recent work has centered on the development of the Early Grade Reading Assessment, a system-level diagnostic for understanding
students foundation skills in reading http:www.rti.orgexperts.cfm?objectid=B4B6EB11-5056-B155- 2CB3A8B946BD3B27. Retrieved on March 14, 2011.
Component: Skill demonstrated by:
5. Nonsense word reading Make grapheme-phoneme correspondences GPCs through the reading of simple
nonsense words 6. Oral reading fluency with
comprehension Read a text with accuracy, with little effort, and at a sufficient rate
Respond to literal and inferential questions about the text they have read 7. Listening comprehension
Respond to questions about the text the assessor reads to them 8. Dictation
Translate sound to print, write, spell, and use grammar properly
McShane 2005:13 notes that research on reading has identified five reading components: phonemic awareness, decodingword identification, fluency, vocabulary,
and comprehension. Assessment Strategies and Reading Profiles ASRP of Literacy Information and Communication System LINCS
36
classifies reading components into two groups: print skills alphabetics and meaning skills. Print skills include phonemic
awareness, word analysis or phonics, word recognition, spelling, and fluency. Meaning skills encompass word meaning listening and expressive, background knowledge, and
silent reading comprehension. Among these components, ASRP has selected five key reading components which it conceives as major determinants of reading ability: word
recognition, spelling, word meaning, silent reading comprehension, and fluency oral reading rate.
37
36
Literacy Information and Communication System LINCS is a national dissemination and professional development system developed by the National Institute for Literacy in accordance with the 1991
National Literacy Act of USA. It provides information on a wide variety of literacy relevant issues, research, practices, and resources. Assessment Strategies and Reading Profiles ASRP of LINCS
provides research-based assessment strategies to improve reading instruction for Adult Basic Education ABE and Adult Secondary Education ASE learners in USA. Further information of ARSP is available
on the following internet website, http:lincs.ed.govreadingprofilesindex.htm.
37
Further information can be retrieved from http:lincs.ed.govreadingprofilesMC_Reading_Components.htm.
3.3.2 Assessment components of writing skills