LINGUIST List 6.1239

Tue Sep 12 1995

Sum: Oral Test of Sociolinguistic Competence

Editor for this issue: Ljuba Veselinova <lveselinemunix.emich.edu>

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1. Marjory Hord Borden, oral test of socioling. comp.

Greetings from Mexico,
 In January I asked for input on tests of oral sociolinguistic
competence, in English, and had mostly responses saying "When you find
one, tell us". Elaine Andersen did interesting studies with children
(1990) using puppets, which gave me the idea of role-playing and a
story. Day and Shapson (JMMD 1987) used evaluation which included
sociolinguistic abilities(one activity being the retelling of a story),
but in French (immersion programs).
Verhoeven (1991 LL41) used oraltesting involving various parameters.
However, I found nothing specific for my needs and designed a story in
which the child was asked at intervals things like "and what do you think
she said then?" It was a helpful tool but one that could be improved on a
lot. (This was for my thesis on simultaneous bilingual children in
Mexico, English-Spanish).
 Margarita Hord de M.