Sociolinguistic analysis: Non-formal assessment of children's language and literacy skills

The focus of this special issue of the journal is upon nonformal assessment of children'slanguage and literacy skills in school. Each of the authors of this isse shares the view that the traditional methods of testing and evaluation of children's competencies have not adequately contributed to the improvement of children's leaning in shool. In particular, formal standardized testing has failed nonmajority children. The research preseted in this issue clearly illustrates the inadequacies of solely relying on standardized testing to obtain a complete view of children's competencies. This article provides an overview for the three research articles presented in thisissue. It includes a discussion of sociolinguistic approaches to assessment and a comprehenvise view of multiple methods of assessment as applied to observation of children's language use in school. The conclusion considers the consequences of inadequate assessment for school failure.