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A major problem in data collection was the noise made by jet
airplanes flying overhead. The school is directly in the flight path
of the planes landing and leaving from a very busy airport. Frequently,
we had to pause during oral testing because of the noise. Students
and teachers are accustomed to this noise because it occurs in the
instructional areas throughout the school day. There was no way to
avoid this noise contamination.
The order for completing individual tasks was as follows: students
filled out the information on the cover of the LAS II in Spanish. They
then listened and responded to the LAS Sentence Comprehension subsection.
Students then listened to the prerecorded LAS II story, "Los Astronautas,"
and retold the story on a cassette tape. Next they recorded directions
for playing a game. The game they usually gave directions to was
parchisi. Some students gave directions to checkers. Next the students
listened to the prerecorded LAS II story, "El Amor del Principe y la
Princesa." After listening to this story students wrote the story as
they remembered it. All subsections of the individualized tests were
administered in exactly the same manner, using a standard format of
directions. When students had completed those four activities, they
returned to their classroom. Within the next 2 days, they repeated
the same process in English, omitting the part with the directions for
playing a game. They listened and retold the story, "Pink Chiffon,"
and listened and wrote the story, "Hotel Street," from the LAS II in
English.
When all 41 students had been individually tested in Spanish and
English, they were administered the Student Survey as a group. I was