Oral Language Sample, An Example Of Informal Langu

ORAL LANGUAGE SAMPLE, an example of INFORMAL LANGUAGE ASSESSMENTSettingAn informal conversation between MY., an ESOL instructor, and a seven year old second-grader at an elementary school in Miami where 95% of the students are Hispanic. The student, who is Cuban, had just completed the oral portion of the IDEA Language Proficiency Test, a formal, nationally standardized assessment instrument. The teacher and the little boy began chatting while they were waiting for other students to join them for an administration of the reading and writing portion of the IDEA— IPT. The teacher asked him if his parents were learning English, and he explained that they couldn’t afford lessons. (Teacher’s part of dialogue in bold)TranscriptionTape: # 141—165 1.. .We rent a house now. .because the old house, it was not us, 2. it was mine. .my Grandma’s ..and that cost too much, and then3 we have to pay the money, the telephone, the light, and all 4 of that, and then they could not learn (English]. My Mommy’s 5 going to get, like a hundred and ninety nine dollars. Three 6 hundred [dollars].7 Oh!8 Yeh, because she. .um. .buy a. .a house, a new house.9 She’s buying a new