ALTE International Conference 3-5 May 2017

ALTE International Conference 3-5 May 2017, Bologna Panel Insights from research on sign language tests

Panel: Intro •  Sign language test research and application is an emerging field in Europe and in the global context •  Existing sign language tests target different groups of learners, e.g., deaf children, deaf or hearing adult learners •  State of research on the structure and acquistion of many sign languages (or lack of it) •  Lack of sign language resources (e.g., corpora) •  Presentations: insight in research on sign language tests for different groups of learners

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Presentations •  Philida Schellekens, UK: Teaching and Assessing British Sign Language •  Krister Schönström & Ingela Holmström, Sweden: Elicited imitation tasks (EITs) as a tool for measuring sign language proficiency in L1 and L2 signers •  Laetitia Puissant-Schontz, France: Assessing morphosyntactic skills in LSF (French Sign Language): How and why focus on predicative structures? •  Tobias Haug, Switzerland: Web-based sign language assessment: Challenges and innovations •  Discussant: Mark Wheatley, Executive Director, European Union of the Deaf, Belgium 3.-5.5.2017

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ALTE International Conference 3-5 May 2017, Bologna Panel Insights from research on sign language tests Web-based sign language assessment: Challenges and innovations Tobias Haug, HfH Zurich

Overview •  Current situation of sign language learning and assessment •  Use of Web-/mobile solutions for sign language assessment •  Sign language test portal •  Survey results on Web-/mobile-based testing •  Automatic sign language recognition and generation •  Collaborations

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Current situation •  Implementation of CEFRaligned curricular, e.g., •  France, Ireland, The Netherlands, Germany... •  Europen projects, like ECML-project ProSign 1, ProSign 2 •  Lack of sign language assessment instruments (www.ecml.at)

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Use of Web-/mobile solutions for sign language assessment

! (www.signlang-assessment.info) 3.-5.5.2017

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Sign language test portal

•  Developed by the company Sign Language Assessment Services •  Preliminary version used in EU project SignMET (2014-15)

(www.signmet.eu)

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[Portal]

Key features of portal •  Different user profiles (e.g., institution, test developer, test taker etc.) •  Different item types and response formats (incl. online video recording!) •  Create different online scoring instruments (e.g., holistic, analytic) and score reporting •  Create background questionnaire for test takers •  Localization into different languages •  Responsive design •  Runs on any standard browser and different devices •  Media library 3.-5.5.2017

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[Portal]

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[Portal]

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[Portal]

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Survey results: Advantages and disadvantages Advantages

Disadvantages

Accessibility, easy set up

Lack of IT support, firewall, no highspeed Internet connection

Automatic scoring of receptive sign language tests

Internet security

Interactive in nature

Technical glitches

More time effective (e.g., entering demographic data)

Data protection issues (e.g., new EU data protection law, 2018) with online stored data

Implementing current Internet security technologies (e.g., SSL) More motivating for young test takers

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[Survey results]

Survey results: Thinking out of the Box (“wish-list”) •  Better technical infrastructure at test sites, e.g., schools •  Automatic recognition of signed answers (lexical level) •  Data base with data across sign languages > platform for research and discussion among researchers and teachers •  Touch-screen technology for comprehension tests (Haug, 2015)

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Automatic sign language recognition •  Swiss National Science Foundation research project SMILE •  Scalable multimodal sign language technology for sign language learning and assessment •  Automatic sign language recognition and its usage for an automatic vocabulary assessment system 3.-5.5.2017

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Pose tracking (SMILE project, 2016)

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Automatic sign language generation

From project „Trainslate“, University of Zurich English translation: Please spread yourselves over the entire platform and move towards the center of the wagon immediatly after boarding. 3.-5.5.2017

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Collaboration with spoken language testing community •  This panel •  Presentations at ALTE conference 2014, LTRC 2014 •  Edited volume on language testing (with Wolfgang Mann, UK and Ute Knoch, Australia), Oxford University Press •  Paired-papers on sign language and spoken language testing

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Reference Haug, T. (2015). Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Sign Language Test Development - Results of an International Surey. Deafness & Education International, 17, 1, 33-48.

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Links •  Project ProSign •  www.ecml.at/prosign •  Information about sign language test •  www.signlang-assessment.info •  Sign Language Test Portal •  www.signlang-portal.com •  Sign Language Assessment Services •  www.slas.ch

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Panel questions •  What is urgently needed in the field of sign language assessment? •  What are possible areas of collaboration between spoken and signed language assessment? •  Are there any suggestions from colleagues from spoken language assessment?

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