scholarly journals Advantages of authentic assessment over traditional assessment while teaching English to university students majoring in non-linguistic subjects

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 287-293
Author(s):  
Irina Evgenyevna Abramova ◽  
Elena Petrovna Shishmolina ◽  
Anastasia Valeryevna Ananyina

The paper analyzes existing approaches to assessing the results of teaching foreign languages to the university students majoring in non-linguistic subjects with a special focus on the advantages of authentic assessment. The authors stress the state-level need to develop and implement effective assessment tools for ESL university teaching, and substantiate the effectiveness of authentic assessment for increasing students motivation to learn English. They identify advantages of authentic assessment, including a possibility to track individual students learning progress, to effectively use peer assessment and self-assessment, to focus on students performance indicators, to create a success effect, and to present actual teaching and learning results or personal development achievements in the form of presentations, projects and other tangible accomplishments. The paper describes a unified system of control, assessment and evaluation of ESL teaching and learning results, developed by Foreign Languages for Students of Humanities Department at Petrozavodsk State University (Russia) for modeling a foreign-language environment and enhancing students language socialization. The authors give a detailed account of establishing procedures for the assessment of speaking and writing skills, and analyze a didactic potential of a foreign language portfolio as one of authentic assessment tools. They come to the conclusion that peer assessment, self-assessment and other authentic assessment methods help to shift the focus from teaching to learning and create optimal conditions for student-centered education process.

Author(s):  
I. V. Kharlamenko ◽  
V. V. Vonog

The article is devoted to control and feedback in foreign language teaching in a technogenic environment. The educational process is transformed in terms of the implementation and active use of digital technologies. ICT-rich environment provides new models of interaction between the teacher, students and digital tools. It also enriches the diversity of tasks and expands the range of possible forms of control and feedback. According to the authors, automated evaluation takes place both in out-of-classroom activities and directly in the classroom using Bring Your Own Device technology (BYOD). Automated control contributes to the intensity of the educational process. It provides all the participants with an opportunity to choose a convenient mode of work and get instant feedback, thereby allowing self-assessment and self-reflection of their own actions. When teaching foreign languages, special attention should be paid to chatbot technology. Chatbots imitate human actions and are able to perform standard repetitive tasks. The growing popularity of bots is explained by a wide range of usage spheres and the ability to integrate chatbots into social networks and mobile technologies. In the technogenic educational environment, ICT can be the basis for interaction, co-editing and peer assessment in collaborative projects. In this case, students receive feedback not only from the teacher, but also from other students, which increases the motivation for independent learning. Thus, automated control, self-assessment and peer assessment can both identify problem areas for each student and design an individual learning path, which increases the effectiveness of learning a foreign language.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Prem Prasad Poudel ◽  
Madan Prasad Baral

Abstract In recent years, in Nepal, while some languages of the nation are on the verge of extinction, some foreign languages (such as Japanese, Korean, Chinese) are emerging as new attractions among the youths and adults and are widely taught in the marketplaces through the private sector initiative. Against this backdrop, in this article, we have examined the current foreign language teaching and learning situation drawing on qualitative empirical data obtained from the institutes involved in foreign language instruction in a city in Gandaki Province of Nepal. The data were collected from a survey in forty institutes, ten individual interviews and five focus group discussions. Drawing on the data, an ecological model was adopted, which focused on dynamic interaction, co-existence, and competition among languages, and findings were discussed in line with these aspects of ecological understanding. Findings revealed that learning foreign languages has been established as a conduit towards economic gains and opportunities for employment and education, which has largely been contributory towards reshaping the ecological relationship among the foreign languages in Nepal.


Author(s):  
Tatiana Sidorenko ◽  
Vladimir Yampolsky

Integration of the Russian system of engineering education into the global educational domain compelled Russian universities to enhance the importance of humanities in engineering programs with a special focus on foreign languages. However, it must be admitted that the system of language training in Russia at a university level comes up against serious problems of historical, economic or political backgrounds, for which reason there are processes in the system that hamper a solution of the tasks set before the university and the society. The solution requires strong and decisive initiatives capable to improve the situation with the language proficiency among the graduators. Therefore, there is a rapid need in essentially new approaches to teaching foreign languages attain the desired outcomes for engineers, which reflect not only subject-oriented knowledge but also personal skills and the ability to effectively communicate with an opponent or a partner. The need to identify barriers towards high-quality language courses at a university level motivated the authors to carry out a special research based on the methods that are typical to system analysis.


2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 711-739
Author(s):  
Isis da Costa Pinho ◽  
Marilia dos Santos Lima

This paper reports on a case study research focusing on digital fluency as a new competence for teaching foreign languages through technology. The data were generated on a training course having as its main purpose the investigation of pre-service and in-service teachers' perceptions about the relevance of digital fluency and the pedagogical use of digital technologies for foreign language (FL) teaching and learning. The trainee teachers were asked to work in groups with the purpose of exploring Windows Movie Maker software in order to create a movie addressing the importance of digital fluency and the potential of this digital tool in FL teaching and learning. The results suggest that digital fluency was considered a necessary competence for the creation of more attractive and dynamic lessons that motivate meaningful FL production.


Author(s):  
Liudmila Konyakhina ◽  
◽  
Lora Yakovleva ◽  

The article discusses a number of issues related to developing the linguistic persona and intercultural competency and focuses on educational ideas, strategies, technologies, and practices that embody intercultural approaches to foreign language education. To ensure the high quality of foreign language education, our priorities must include the development of competences in the area of professional communication in foreign languages. In that regard, the article identifies pedagogical conditions conducive to fostering the socio-cultural competence and the successful development of the learner’s linguistic persona. The authors present mechanisms of implementing the said pedagogical conditions in the following areas: a) developing communication skills and competencies of foreign language instructors; b) modeling situations with communication barriers in diverse ethnocultural environments; c) acquiring and selecting ethnocultural information; d) integrating in-class and out-of-class activities in a foreign language; and e) establishing a good rapport between an instructor and her students. The authors go on to describe the methodological basis for designing the content of foreign language programs, identify optimal approaches to teaching and learning foreign languages, and reflect on the context of the intercultural paradigm in university-level foreign language education.


Author(s):  
Luiza Ciepielewska-Kaczmarek

The following factors have contributed to arising new target groups in teaching foreign languages: the European Union’s claim concerning the multilingualism of its members, migrations, common mobility. As a consequence of this situation new handbooks for teaching and learning foreign languages have appeared on the market. Thus, the teacher is often confronted with the necessity of choosing the handbook, which is most adequate for the needs of a particular group of learners. The present article aims at defining the criteria of handbook selection in the light of the latest trends in foreign language teaching methodology.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 177-182
Author(s):  
Elena Dubrovskaya

The article considers the phenomenon of gamification in education, studies various electronic resources creating educational quizzes, presents a comparative analysis of their advantages and disadvantages in order to teach foreign languages to University students. To prove the efficiency, the results of a comparative experiment of the use of electronic resources for creating quizzes are given.


Author(s):  
E. B. Yastrebova ◽  
D. A. Kryachkov

The article analyzes how professors and students of MGIMO-University’s School of International Relations perceive innovations in language teaching.As a synergy system, language teaching relies on selfdevelopment based to a great extent on innovations, which can be initiated either from the inside or from the outside. To identify the basic features of innovations in foreign language teaching, the authors conducted a survey of professors and students of the School of international Relations. The results suggest that for most respondents the main purpose of innovations in foreign language teaching and learning is to attain a significantly higher level of communicative competence, which is seen as feasible only if fundamentally new teaching materials and computer technologies are used. According to the survey, the success of innovations largely depends on their source (innovations ‘from the top’ and innovations ‘from the bottom’) and commitment on the part of professors and students to participate in them, the latter being often prompted by their discontent with the state of play. Innovations ‘from above’ tend to be more encompassing and affect the entire system of language education, whereas innovations ‘from the bottom concern the teaching process per se. Though the survey suggests that it is innovations ‘from the top’ that tend to be more successful, the authors conclude that language education as a synergy system adopts only non-shattering innovations that address its most vital needs, thus encouraging its sustainable development.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-142
Author(s):  
Martin Javier Caicedo Pereira ◽  
Jhonny Alexander Lozano Bermúdez ◽  
Luis Alfonso Vanegas Medina

This action research study examines the effect of self-evaluation on grammatical range and grammar accuracy on the English speaking performance of 27 foreign language university and pre-university students enrolled in three different language centers, in three different cities in Colombia. Participants were asked to record themselves answering different IELTS-type tasks for four times during a 6-week period and score and reflect towards their performance using IELTS-type analytical scoring rubrics and journals. Researchers used journals to register impressions, thoughts, and judgments observed during the process. The findings led to conclude that learners highly benefit from applying self-assessment techniques using videos of their production and a language benchmark to compare with in the improvement of their oral language accuracy and grammatical range.


Author(s):  
Hazel Jin May Ng ◽  
Gyeo Woon Jung

In an increasingly blended environment, language instructors now have to take on the additional responsibility of designing online language modules and tasks. Although they acknowledge that technology is a good tool for the teaching and learning of foreign languages, for instructors who are just starting out with designing their own online activities, the task might seem daunting. One of the biggest challenges instructors face when designing their online activities is the lack of ideas, or even a lack of a model after which they can mould their own modules. Therefore, this chapter aims to give these instructors a sampler of ideas, a “starter pack” of sorts, to inspire them to create meaningful and engaging language activities online using TIMeS, the Moodle-based learning management system used at Taylor's University. These samples are taken from the Spanish and Korean language modules offered at this university.


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