scholarly journals Construct Under-representation and Construct Irrelevant Variances on IELTS Academic Writing Task 1: Is There Any Threat to Validity?

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 1097
Author(s):  
Seyyed Mohammad Alavi ◽  
Ali Panahi Masjedlou
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Think Aloud ◽  
Marked Contrast ◽  
Lexical Resource ◽  
Think Aloud Protocols ◽  
Scoring Rubrics ◽  
Cognitive Validity ◽  
Cognitive Difficulty ◽  
Diagram Analysis ◽  
Writing Task

The study reports on the validity of IELTS Academic Writing Task One (IAWTO) and compares and assesses the performance descriptors, i.e., coherence and cohesion, lexical resource and grammatical range, employed on IAWTO and IELTS Academic Writing Task Two (IAWTT). To these objectives, the data used were 53 participants' responses to graphic prompts driven by IELTS scoring rubrics, descriptive prompt, and retrospective, rather than concurrent, think-aloud protocols for detecting the cognitive validity of responses. The results showed that IAWTO input was degenerate and insufficient, rendering the construct under-represented, i.e., narrowing the construct. It was also found that IAWTO displayed to be in tune with cognitive difficulty of diagram analysis and the intelligence-based design of the process chart, rather than bar chart, being thus symmetrical with variances irrelevant to construct; this is argued to be biased to one group: Leading to under-performance of one group in marked contrast to over-performance of another group. Added to that, qualitative results established on instructors' protocols were suggestive of the dominance of performance descriptors on IAWTT rather than on IAWTO. The pedagogical implications of this study are further argued.

scholarly journals Effect of Alignment on Text Cohesion in the Continuation Task

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin Jiang ◽  
Xin Xu
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Latent Semantic Analysis ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Think Aloud ◽  
Collaborative Dialogue ◽  
Think Aloud Protocols ◽  
Text Cohesion ◽  
Task Conditions ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Writing Task

<p>A continuation task provides learners with a text with its ending removed and requires them to complete it through writing in a most coherent and logical way. The current study investigated (a) whether the continuation task had a positive effect on text cohesion and (b) whether texts produced by pairs exhibited higher cohesion than those produced by individual learners. A total of 80 college students were randomly assigned to one of three task conditions: 1) 40 students working in pairs in a continuation task; 2) 20 working individually in a continuation task; and 3) 20 working individually in a picture writing task. Text cohesion was analyzed by using three indices from Coh-metrix: Argument Overlap, Latent Semantic Analysis, and Causal Cohesion. Moreover, the collaborative dialogue and think-aloud protocols were collected and transcribed for identifying language-related episodes (LREs). The results showed that learners in Condition 1 produced the highest text cohesion while those in Conditions 3 the lowest. Furthermore, learners in Condition 1 produced more cohesion-related LREs, especially proportionally more correctly resolved LREs than those in Conditions 2 and 3. The implications of these findings from the perspective of alignment are discussed.</p>

scholarly journals A THINK-ALOUD PROTOCOLS AS A COGNITIVE STRATEGY TO INCREASE STUDENTS’ WRITING NARRATIVE SKILL AT EFL CLASSROOM

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
Purwo Trapsilo
Keyword(s):  
Group Treatment ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Think Aloud ◽  
Thinking Aloud ◽  
Think Aloud Protocols ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Narrative Skill ◽  
Narrative Performance ◽  
Experimental Group ◽  
Writing Task

The purpose of this study was twofold: its first aim was to know whether any differences of think-aloud potocols to develop writing narrative skill; second, to know whether which one is more effective to develop students’ writing narrative skill by using think-aloud protocols and traditional method.Students randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group. Treatment had three stages. In Stage 1, students were asked to write about a topic. InStage 2, students in the experimental group studied a model essay about that writing task and they hadthink-aloud protocol about those aspects of language that they noticed in the model essays. However inthe control group, students studied model essays for themselves and they did not have think-aloud part. InStage 3, students were asked to rewrite the writing task. The students in the experimental group showed that they got higher score in writing narrative by using think-aloud protocols than the control group. Furthermore, in the post test, experimental groupoutperformed the control group. The findings of the study suggest that thinking-aloud could be a goodstrategy for improving writing narrative performance.

scholarly journals A THINK-ALOUD PROTOCOLS AS A COGNITIVE STRATEGY TO INCREASE STUDENTS’ WRITING NARRATIVE SKILL AT EFL CLASSROOM

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Purwo Trapsilo
Keyword(s):  
Group Treatment ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Think Aloud ◽  
Thinking Aloud ◽  
Think Aloud Protocols ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Narrative Skill ◽  
Stage 1 ◽  
Experimental Group ◽  
Writing Task

The purpose of this study was twofold: its first aim was to know whether any differences of think-aloud potocols to develop writing narrative skill; second, to know whether which one is more effective to develop students’ writing narrative skill by using think-aloud protocols and traditional method. Students randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group. Treatment had three stages. In Stage 1, students were asked to write about a topic. In Stage 2, students in the experimental group studied a model essay about that writing task and they had think-aloud protocol about those aspects of language that they noticed in the model essays. However in the control group, students studied model essays for themselves and they did not have think-aloud part. In Stage 3, students were asked to rewrite the writing task. The students in the experimental group showed that they got higher score in writing narrative by using think-aloud protocols than the control group. Furthermore, in the post test, experimental group outperformed the control group. The findings of the study suggest that thinking-aloud could be a good strategy for improving writing narrative performance.Keywords: Think-aloud protocols, Writing Narrative skill, EFL

Are Subjective Reports of Conscious Recollection Valid? Evidence from Think Aloud Protocols

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey K. Boman ◽  
David P. McCabe ◽  
Amanda E. Sensenig ◽  
Matthew G. Rhodes ◽  
Meghan T. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Think Aloud ◽  
Think Aloud Protocols ◽  
Conscious Recollection ◽  
Valid Evidence ◽  
Subjective Reports

The interplay of glossing with text difficulty and comprehension levels

2021 ◽  
pp. 136216882110204
Author(s):  
Seyede Faezeh Hosseini Alast ◽  
Sasan Baleghizadeh
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
First Language ◽  
Think Aloud ◽  
Text Difficulty ◽  
L2 Reading ◽  
Think Aloud Protocols ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Impact ◽  
L2 Reading Comprehension ◽  
Underlying Processes

The aim of this experiment was to investigate how glossing influences second language (L2)reading comprehension in relation to text difficulty and the two local and global meaning representations. Fifty-eight undergraduate students were asked to read three easy, moderate, and difficult texts and, following each passage, answer twenty comprehension questions targeting local and global concepts in one of the two first-language-glossed and unglossed conditions. Half of the participants in each group were supposed to think aloud while reading. The results revealed a significant difference between the performance of glossed and unglossed groups on comprehension of local concepts in all three difficulty levels. However, the impact of glossing on comprehension of global concepts was significantly influenced by text difficulty. The qualitative analysis of think-aloud protocols suggested a substantial difference in glossing functionality on fluency between the easy and the difficult texts. Furthermore, it is suggested that revisiting the glossing effect in combination with text difficulty on the reading product and underlying processes might reconcile some divergent hypotheses on glossing impact on fluency.

scholarly journals Rhetorical, Metacognitive, and Cognitive Strategies in Teacher Candidates’ Essay Writing

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-100
Author(s):  
Claudio Díaz Larenas ◽  
Lucía Ramos Leiva ◽  
Mabel Ortiz Navarrete
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Cognitive Strategies ◽  
Think Aloud ◽  
Writing Intervention ◽  
Writing Program ◽  
Post Intervention ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Think Aloud Protocols ◽  
Before And After

This paper reports on a study about the rhetoric, metacognitive, and cognitive strategies pre-service teachers use before and after a process-based writing intervention when completing an argumentative essay. The data were collected through two think-aloud protocols while 21 Chilean English as a foreign language pre-service teachers completed an essay task. The findings show that strategies such as summarizing, reaffirming, and selecting ideas were only evidenced during the post intervention essay, without the use of communication and socio-affective strategies in either of the two essays. All in all, a process-based writing intervention does not only influence the number of times a strategy is used, but also the number of students who employs strategies when writing an essay—two key considerations for the devising of any writing program.

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