Evaluering af sprogvurderingsmaterialer i daginstitutioner.

The point of departure of this study is that language assessment at a daycare centre can be considered as a social practice and can be analysed as such with advantage. On this basis, the study aims to elucidate how a language assessment practice is constructed in the meeting between the assessment material, the social pedagogue and the child. Based on the understanding of language assessment as a social practice, the central research question of the study is formulated as follows: Based on language assessment materials, how is a language assessment constructed at daycare centres, and how does this practice relate to the central professional issues within research into language assessments?

Analysis of language assessment materials has shown that the basic understanding of language and assessment in these different materials create different institutional practices. Generally, it must be said that the observed assessment materials’ view of language, measuring and knowledge in the direct interaction between child and social pedagogue creates an interactional pattern with a predominant controlling and assessing perspective, where children are not seen as knowledgeable individuals and as persons, who are interested in talking about their experiences, surroundings, etc. When comparing practices in the three assessment materials analysed in this study, it is quite apparent that they intervene in the activities of daycare centres in very different ways. In most cases, TRAS-Early Registration of Language Development seems to generate a dialogue between social pedagogues about a child’s development, whereas the material from the City of Copenhagen on “Language assessments of three-year-olds” requires different and far more actions.

The study has a qualitative design with analyses of three language assessment practices. Data consists of interviews, conversations and observations. 

Holm, L. (2009). Evaluering af sprogvurderingsmaterialer i daginstitutioner. København: Danmarks Pædagogiske Universitetsskole, Aarhus Universitet.