scholarly journals Olympiad in the English Language as a Form of Alternative Language Assessment

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 6-12
Author(s):  
Evgeniya Bolshakova
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Alternative Assessment ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Test Items ◽  
Language Competition ◽  
Intellectual Abilities ◽  
Task Types

Although a variety of the English language written olympiads (language competitions) exist, fairly little is known about how they are different from traditional forms of language assessment.  In Russia, olympiads in the English language are now gaining currency because they provide an opportunity to reveal creative thinking and intellectual abilities of pupils.  The present study examined major differences between language olympiads and traditional forms of language assessment.  A comparison of five main olympiads in the English language in terms of their levels, assessed skills and task types is made and their distinctive features are outlined.  The results of a testing of a new written olympiad of the Higher School of Economics “Vysshaya proba” (Highest Degree) in the English language are analyzed.  A set of test items was developed for 120 secondary school pupils in Moscow to find out whether they can easily cope with non-traditional form of assessment, which is language olympiad.  The results indicate that language competition as a form of alternative assessment may be introduced at schools to encourage better learning.

scholarly journals Practices of Examiners in Marking English Essay at HSSC Level

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-280
Author(s):  
Muhammad Ahmad Hashmi ◽  
Muhammad Asim Mahmood ◽  
Aamir Shehzad
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
English Language ◽  
National Curriculum ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
Intermediate Level ◽  
Rater Reliability ◽  
School Certificate

The present study was carried out to spot the raters’ practices in marking English essays at the intermediate level in contrast to the marking system of O-level English language assessment in Punjab, Pakistan. The preceding researchers opined that a significant number of students fail in English as a subject. To unravel, the facts a sample of 350 HSSC (Higher Secondary School Certificate) paper raters with mixed experience, academic and professional qualifications have been taken randomly from the different districts of Punjab. Many of them had worked as examiners or sub-examiner for more than 10 years. The researchers formulated, piloted, and self-administered a questionnaire by visiting their workplaces. SPSS has been used to assay the data, and results have been generated. The results deduced that HSSC paper raters never exercised any rubric. They deduct and award scores on their individual judgments about the kind/number of mistakes, length of an essay, and handwriting. There has been found a scarcity of inter-rater reliability. Further, they are self-trained and are ignorant of the objectives; set in the national curriculum for HSSC. The current study is significant as it has implications onboard officials, policymakers, and examiners, which will finally promote skill-based learning.

scholarly journals Unscrambling jumbled sentences: An authentic task for English language assessment?

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Betty Lanteigne
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Real World ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
Learning Goals ◽  
Naturalistic Inquiry ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Indian English ◽  
Test Items ◽  
Local Schools

Jumbled sentence items in language assessment have been criticized by some authors as inauthentic. However, unscrambling jumbled sentences is a common occurrence in real-world communication in English as a lingua franca. Naturalistic inquiry identified 54 instances of jumbled sentence use in daily life in Dubai/Sharjah, where English is widely used as a lingua franca. Thus it is seen that jumbled sentence test items can reflect real-world language use. To evaluate scrambled sentence test items, eight test item types developed from one jumbled sentence instance (“Want taxi Dubai you?”) were analyzed in terms of interactivity and authenticity. Items ranged from being completely decontextualized, non-interactive, and inauthentic to being fully contextualized, interactive, and authentic. To determine appropriate assessment standards for English tests in schools in this region, the English language standards for schools and English language requirements for university admission in the UAE were analyzed. Schools in Dubai/Sharjah use Inner Circle English varieties of English (e.g., British or American English) as the standard for evaluation, as well as non-native-English-speaker varieties (e.g., Indian English(es)). Also, students applying to English-medium universities in the UAE must meet the required scores on standardized English tests including the IELTS and TOEFL. Standards for evaluation of communication in English involving tasks of jumbled sentences in classroom tests must reflect the language learning goals of the school and community. Thus standards for classroom assessment of English in Dubai/Sharjah are determined by local schools’ and universities’ policies.

The Speech-Language Assessment of English Language Learning Students: A Non-Standardized Approach

2013 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 95-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Kraemer ◽  
Allison Coltisor ◽  
Meesha Kalra ◽  
Megan Martinez ◽  
Bailey Savage ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
The United States ◽  
English Language Learning ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
English Speaking

English language learning (ELL) children suspected of having specific-language impairment (SLI) should be assessed using the same methods as monolingual English-speaking children born and raised in the United States. In an effort to reduce over- and under-identification of ELL children as SLI, speech-language pathologists (SLP) must employ nonbiased assessment practices. This article presents several evidence-based, nonstandarized assessment practices SLPs can implement in place of standardized tools. As the number of ELL children SLPs come in contact with increases, the need for well-trained and knowledgeable SLPs grows. The goal of the authors is to present several well-establish, evidence-based assessment methods for assessing ELL children suspected of SLI.

scholarly journals Linguistic structures and functions of thesis and dissertation titles in Dentistry

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar Alberto Morales ◽  
Bexi Perdomo ◽  
Daniel Cassany ◽  
Rosa María Tovar ◽  
Élix Izarra
Keyword(s):  
Single Unit ◽  
English Language ◽  
Genre Studies ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Nominal Phrase ◽  
Research Students ◽  
Linguistic Structures ◽  
Grammatical Structures

AbstractTitles play an important role in genre analysis. Cross-genre studies show that research paper and thesis titles have distinctive features. However, thesis and dissertation titles in the field of dentistry have thus far received little attention. Objective: To analyze the syntactic structures and their functions in English-language thesis and dissertation titles in dentistry. Methodology: We randomly chose 413 titles of English-language dentistry theses or dissertations presented at universities in 12 countries between January 2000 and June 2019. The resulting corpus of 5,540 running words was then analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively, the two complementary focuses being grammatical structures and their functions. Results: The average title length was 13.4 words. Over half of the titles did not include any punctuation marks. For compound titles, we found that colons, dashes, commas, and question marks were used to separate the different components, colons being the most frequent. Four syntactic structures (nominal phrase, gerund phrase, full-sentence, and prepositional phrase) were identified for single-unit titles. Single-unit nominal phrase titles constituted the most frequent structure in the corpus, followed by compound titles. Four particular rhetorical combinations of compound title components were found to be present throughout the corpus. Conclusions: Titles of dentistry theses and dissertation in English echo the content of the text body and make an important contribution to fulfilling the text’s communicative purposes. Thus, teaching research students about the linguistic features of thesis titles would be beneficial to help them write effective titles and also facilitate assessment by teachers.

scholarly journals Can multiple choice questions be successfully used as an assessment format in undergraduate mathematics?

Pythagoras ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 0 (69) ◽  
Author(s):  
Belinda Huntley ◽  
Johann Engelbrecht ◽  
Ansie Harding
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Assessment ◽  
Multiple Choice ◽  
Mathematics Assessment ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Continuous Assessment ◽  
Multiple Choice Questions ◽  
Undergraduate Mathematics ◽  
Test Items ◽  
Mathematics Test ◽  
Assessment Format

In this study we propose a taxonomy for assessment in mathematics, which we call the assessment component taxonomy, to identify those components of mathematics that can be successfully assessed using alternative assessment formats. Based on the literature on assessment models and taxonomies in mathematics, this taxonomy consists of seven mathematics assessment components, hierarchically ordered by cognitive level, as well as the nature of the mathematical tasks associated with each component. Using a model that we developed earlier for measuring the quality of mathematics test items, we investigate which of the assessment components can be successfully assessed in the provided response question (PRQ) format, in particular multiple choice questions (MCQs), and which can be better assessed in the constructed response question (CRQ) format. The results of this study show that MCQs can be constructed to evaluate higher order levels of thinking and learning. The conclusion is that MCQs can be successfully used as an assessment format in undergraduate mathematics, more so in some assessment components than in others. The inclusion of the PRQ assessment format in all seven assessment components can reduce the large marking loads, associated with continuous assessment practices in undergraduate mathematics, without compromising the validity of the assessment.

scholarly journals Slumps and Jumps: Another Look at Developmental Changes in Creative Abilities

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 152-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacek Gralewski ◽  
Izabela Lebuda ◽  
Aleksandra Gajda ◽  
Dorota M. Jankowska ◽  
Ewa Wiśniewska
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Secondary School Students ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
Assessment Criteria ◽  
Formal Schooling ◽  
Primary School Students ◽  
School Students ◽  
Creative Abilities ◽  
Nonlinear Pattern

AbstractThe aim of this study is the analysis of creativity changes across life, particularly the widely discussed crisis periods in the development of creative abilities. A large and diversified sample of Poles (N = 4898 aged from 4 to 21 years), at each educational stage of the Polish education system, from pre-schoolers, through primary school students, middle-school students, secondary-school students and finally university students completed the Test for Creative Thinking – Drawing Production. The observed changes showed a nonlinear pattern in the development of creativity with diverse declines and increases in creative abilities. These trends are different for each of the assessment criteria of the TCT-DP and at least three different trajectories were identified. The adolescent slump was confirmed for three of the 14 assessment criteria as well as the total TCT-DP score. What was not noted however was: a slump caused by entry into formal schooling, (age 6 vs 7), 4th grade slump, (age 9 vs 10) and 6th grade slump (age 11 vs 12). We discuss possible reasons for and consequences of the findings.

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