Teacher Discussion Forums

For my very first adult ELL clinical interview, I initially thought that my student had a pretty good comprehension of the English Language. However, upon analyzing the transcripts, I realized how wrong I was. What I had thought was comprehension was actually a lot of "yes" or "no" answers. Her correctly formed sentences were the ones in which she was able to model my preceding sentence pattern; her independent sentence structure was much less accurate. I have not had a lot of experience teaching yet and my question is:how can I more accurately assess an adult's English proficiency? I feel that adults can more easily appear to have a higher comprehension level through imitative speech (a strategy which is probably utilized in day to day life with other English speakers- such as at the store, etc).

You learn to understand before you speak and your student showed you this. It sounds like you are gaining good skills in finding out what people know. Transcripts are a great way for both you and your students to see their progress. It is time consuming but very useful. The students can do their own eventually if you show them how and they gain a lot from hearing and then correcting their own mistakes.