Running head: LANGUAGE SAMPLE ANALYSIS 1

Language Sample Analysis - Example

Author Names

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

TED 604 - Applied Linguistics for ESL Teachers

Summer 2019
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Language Sample Analysis - Example

(adapted from Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure [MTEL] ESL Practice Test)

For the language sample analysis project, our group identified longitudinal writing

samples from one 6th grade English learner whose first language is Spanish. A total of 3 written

samples were selected representing the student’s language development over the course of one

semester. Each group member analyzed one writing sample from phonological, morphological,

and syntactic perspectives first and then compared our findings to reach agreement for our

analysis and interpretation. In this analysis, I share findings based on the analysis of one writing

sample produced at the beginning of the semester by the student.

Language Sample Analysis Methods

Sample Description

This language sample was obtained as one of the formal assessments assigned in class.

The teacher asked the student to silently read a short passage from a sixth-grade science textbook

and then then complete a brief written task related to the text. Figure 1 is the short passage from

the textbook students read. Figure 2 includes the student’s writing sample describing the main

ideas of this passage in their own words. Table 1 includes sentences the student produced in this

writing sample with all sentence numbered. The sample contains 16 sentences, ranging from 5

words to 13 words in length.

Sample Analysis

The sample analysis was conducted at both the macro-level and the micro-level. The

macro-level analysis was conducted based on the WIDA English language development

standards (WIDA, 2012). The micro-level analysis was conducted to highlight the student’s
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phonological, morphological and syntactic mastery of the English language. Areas of

improvement were also discussed based on the analysis from these three linguistic perspectives.

Findings

Overall English Language Development

Based on the World-class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) English

language development standards, the student is at Level 1 for reading and approaching Level 2 in

terms of writing. The student demonstrated ability to use pictures to support comprehension and

used high frequency words and simple sentence structures to describe the pictures in this writing

sample.

The student demonstrated basic understanding of the topic of the text “animal adaptation”

based on pictures available in the text. In the writing sample, the student was able to describe not

only the animals in the pictures, but also the corresponding environments. The writing sample

followed a logic discourse sequence as the student described the pictures in the text. However, it

was evident that the student had difficulty reading the content words in the text. Instead of using

the content words of animal names and their adaptations from the text (e.g. “musk ox” or

“porcupine”), the student described the animals (e.g. sentence 5 and 8) and wrote twice “I dont

no de name.” (sentence 6) and “I dont no name ether.” (sentence 9).

In terms of writing, the student showed general mastery of basic writing conventions.

Capitalization at the beginning of each sentence and punctuation (period) at the end of each

sentence were consistently used. The student also showed mastery of simple sentences using

subject, verb, propositional phrases and adverbs. Overall, the writing sample followed a logical

discourse order as the student described the pictures in the text.

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Phonological Development

The writing sample indicated the student’s mastery of most of the English consonants and

vowels and some phonological rules. The consistent use of invented spelling also showed the

student’s strengths and areas of development as the student develops his/her spelling ability.

Four invented spellings were especially worth noting: “daptashuns” in sentence 3,

“kamilian” in sentences 11, 12, and 13, “needel” in sentence 8 and “leef” in sentence 13. All

these examples demonstrated the student’s mastery of phonics rules including the pronunciation

of “sh” as /ʃ/, “ee” as /i:/, and various consonants and short vowels such as those in “kamilian”.

The student had difficulty with two pairs of consonants: /f/ and /v/; /θ/ and /ð/. Table 2

highlights examples of phoneme and letter substitutions associated with these consonants from

the writing sample. The student consistently spelt “of” as “ov” based on the pronunciation of the

word. It was noted that in other occasions such as “liv” in sentence 14 and “leef” in sentence 13,

the consonants were represented correctly. Consistent substitutions of letters “t” and “d” were

observed for diagraph “th” to represent consonants /θ/ and /ð/. It was interesting to observe that

the “th” spelling was used correctly in “ether” (sentence 9) and the high frequency word “the”

was used correctly six times throughout the sample.

In addition to the inconsistent spelling of “the”, other inconsistencies were also observed.

For example, the word “picture” was spelt as “picher” four times and correctly once in sentence

8. The word “like” was spelt as “lik” in sentences 8, 12, and 13, but correctly in sentence 5.

These inconsistencies may indicate the student’s reliance on invented spelling based on phonics

patterns as s/he develops mastery of these high frequency words.

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Morphological Development

In the writing sample, the student used 57 unique words to describe the pictures in the

text. Table 3 provides a list of words from the writing sample and their parts of speech

categories. Among these words, the majority of the words are nouns. The student demonstrated

general understanding of the use of pronouns (e.g. “I” as subject), nouns (e.g. “picture”), verbs

(e.g. “see”), prepositional phrases (e.g. “in the branch”), adjectives (e.g. “big”), adverbs (e.g.

“very”), and determiners (e.g. “the”). No conjunction was observed in the writing sample.

In addition, the student showed emerging understanding of the use of plural forms for

nouns. In the first sentence, for example, the student wrote: “I see pichers in the book.”. The

plural form “-s” was applied. In the following sentences when the student described different

pictures, singular form of the noun, “picher” or “picture”, was used consistently (sentences 4, 5,

7, 8, and 10). The student also demonstrated growing mastery of the simple present tense. For

example, the student used “I see” (sentences 1 and 4) and “Teacher says” (sentence 2) with

inflectional morpheme “-s” added to the verb “say” to indicate third person singular. Attempts

were also noted for the use of past tense (e.g. “didnt” in sentence 2) and present continuous tense

(e.g. “runing” in sentence 7).

Even though the reading text includes tier 3 content words, the student chose to use

descriptive sentences to write about the pictures rather than using the specific content words

from the text. Further academic language instruction to support students’ development of correct

spellings of high frequency words and comprehension of tier 3 words in context is needed.

Syntactic Development

At the syntactic level, the student demonstrated mastery of simple sentence structures.

Specifically, the student showed familiarity with sentence structures such as:
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• Subject + Verb + Object (e.g. “I see pichers in the book.”)

• There is + noun (e.g. “Der is uder picher ov big animal like cow wit a lota hair.”)

Even though no compound or complex sentence structures were observed, it was noted that the

student attempted a complex sentence with subordinate clauses: “Der is uder picher ov rabit

[that] is runing.”

The overall writing demonstrated basic cohesion and coherence. However, further

academic language development is needed as the student continues to develop mastery of

complex syntactic structures in English.

Conclusion

The writing sample reflected the student’s overall reading and writing proficiency was at

Level 1 and approaching Level 2 based on the WIDA English language development standards

(WIDA, 2012). The phonological, morphological, and syntactic analysis further illustrated

students’ mastery of phonological rules as reflected in invented spellings, general understanding

of a variety of parts of speech and inflectional morphemes indicating plural and third person

singular in simple present tense, and familiarity with basic English sentence structures. The

analysis also pointed out several areas of development including sound-letter association

involving consonant pairs (e.g. /f/ and /v/; /θ/ and /ð/); inconsistent spelling of high frequency

words (e.g. “the”), and the limited use of tier 3 or content-specific academic vocabulary. While

the student made attempts to form past tense and a complex sentence, it was evident that more

exposure to the verb tenses, the use of conjunctions, and compound and complex sentence

structures were needed to support the student’s overall academic language development.
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References

World-class Instructional Design and Assessment [WIDA] (2012). 2012 English language

development standards. Madison, WI: Author. Retrieved from:

https://wida.wisc.edu/resources/2012-english-language-development-standards.
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Figure 1. Short passage from text.

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Figure 2. Student writing sample

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Table 1

Student Writing Sample 1 - Sentence by Sentence

Sentence Writing Sample

Number

1 I see pichers in the book.

2 I didnt see al dose animal befor.

3 Teacher says dey haf daptashuns help to not die.

4 I see one picher ov snake.

5 Der is uder picher ov big animal like cow wit a lota hair.

6 I dont no de name.

7 Der is uder picher ov rabit is runing.

8 Der is uder picture ov animal wit tings lik needel very sharp.

9 I dont no name ether.

10 Der is uder picture ov reptile can chanj color.

11 I tink name is kamilian.

12 In the branch kamilian is broun lik the bark.

13 In the leef kamilian is green lik the leef.

14 The animal liv in diferent envirment.

15 One envirment is very cold and sno.

16 Uder envirment is very hot and sun.

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Table 2

Invented Spelling for /f/, /v/, /θ/, and /ð/

Consonant Substitution Correct Consonant Representation

/f/ and /v/ ov (of) liv (live), leef (leaf),

Substitute “d” for “th” /ð/ dose (those), dey (they), ether (either), the

de (the), uder (another),

der (there)

Substitute “t” for “th” /ð/ wit (with)

Substitute “t” for “th” /θ/ tings (things), tink

(think)
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Table 3

Words from Writing Sample

Category Words from Writing Sample Morphemes

Pronoun I, they, there

Noun picture, book, animal, teacher, -s for plural

adaptations, one, snake, another, cow,

lot, hair, name, rabbit, things, needle,

reptile, color, chameleon, branch, bark,

leaf, environment, snow, sun

Verb see, do/did, say, have, help, die, is, -s for simple present tense

know, run(ning), can, change, think -past tense (did)

-ing for present continuous

tense

Adjective big, sharp, brown, green, different, cold,

hot

Adverb before, very, either

Preposition in, to, of, with, like

Determiner/Article the, a, those -those as plural for “that”