Features Dependent on the learners’ discourse competence: Development of a rating scale description in a speaking test - Focusing on the REFUSAL task -

2020 ◽  
Vol 169 ◽  
pp. 321-360
Author(s):  
Hyang Lee ◽  
Hae Yong Lee
Author(s):  
Hazita Azman ◽  
Zarina Othman ◽  
Chairozila Mohd. Shamsuddin ◽  
Wahiza Wahi ◽  
Mohd Sallehuddin Abd Aziz ◽  
...  

This article evaluates a sustained monologue speaking production test to validate its link to the CEFR model. The monologue test is a low-stakes production test that engages the test taker in sustained monologue tasks targeted at B2-C1 of the CEFR levels. The evaluation of the test included determining the extent to which the monologue speaking tasks and the single assessment criterion-related rating scale developed for the test are valid and reliably aligned to CEFR benchmarked descriptors. The socio-cognitive framework for test evaluation was adopted, and an explanatory sequential mixed-methods research design was implemented. The evaluation revealed some contentious points of contrast between the test items and the language demand that each item prompted in production. Consequently, selected items were improved or deleted to ensure the appropriate competency levelled at B2-C1 are correctly prompted. Additionally, the findings underlined the imperative need for test developers to adhere to five inter-related sets of procedures in the justification of a claim that the monologue speaking test is aligned to the CEFR. These include familiarisation, specification, standardisation and benchmarking, standard-setting, and validation. It emerged that thorough familiarity with the CEFR by test item writers and examiners is a fundamental requirement for a test closely related to CEFR construct and levels. Thus, familiarisation training of CEFR and its illustrative descriptors is a mandatory prerequisite for ensuring test items and assessment of the elicited production correspond to the levels and ratings described in the CEFR model.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arab World English Journal ◽  
Bilal Khalaf Alzboun ◽  
Oqlah Mahmoud Smadi ◽  
Abdallah Baniabdelrahman

This study examines the effect of role-play strategy on the Jordanian tenth grade English as a foreign language (EFL) students' speaking skill. It is an attempt to answer if there is a statistical significance difference between the experimental and control groups' scores on the speaking test due to the teaching method (role-play strategy vs. the Teacher's Book instructions). A total of 86 homogeneous participants were selected through a random sampling technique from two sections at Lameece Secondary School for Girls in Amman, Jordan during the second semester of the academic year 2016-2017. The experimental group was 42 students while the control group was 44 students. For data collection, a role-play instructional program based on the speaking activities in Action Pack 10, a speaking test and a rating scale were used. The collected data were analyzed using proper statistical measures such as ANCOVA and MANCOVA. The results revealed that the role-play strategy had a significant effect on the five components of the speaking skill with the students of the experimental group. Further empirical studies on the effect of role-play strategy on developing other language skills are needed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 1381-1387
Author(s):  
Ying Yuan ◽  
Jie Wang ◽  
Dongyu Wu ◽  
Dahua Zhang ◽  
Weiqun Song

Purpose Severe dysphagia with weak pharyngeal peristalsis after dorsal lateral medullary infarction (LMI) requires long-term tube feeding. However, no study is currently available on therapeutic effectiveness in severe dysphagia caused by nuclear damage of vagus nerve after dorsal LMI. The purpose of the present investigation was to explore the potential of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) to improve severe dysphagia with weak pharyngeal peristalsis after dorsal LMI. Method We assessed the efficacy of 6-week tVNS in a 28-year-old woman presented with persisting severe dysphagia after dorsal LMI who had been on nasogastric feeding for 6 months. tVNS was applied for 20 min twice a day, 5 days a week, for 6 weeks. The outcome measures included saliva spitted, Swallow Function Scoring System, Functional Oral Intake Scale, Clinical Assessment of Dysphagia With Wallenberg Syndrome, Yale Pharyngeal Residue Severity Rating Scale, and upper esophagus X-ray examination. Results After tVNS, the patient was advanced to a full oral diet without head rotation or spitting. No saliva residue was found in the valleculae and pyriform sinuses. Contrast medium freely passed through the upper esophageal sphincter. Conclusion Our findings suggest that tVNS might provide a useful means for recovery of severe dysphagia with weak pharyngeal peristalsis after dorsal LMI. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.9755438


2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-60
Author(s):  
Anu Subramanian

ASHA's focus on evidence-based practice (EBP) includes the family/stakeholder perspective as an important tenet in clinical decision making. The common factors model for treatment effectiveness postulates that clinician-client alliance positively impacts therapeutic outcomes and may be the most important factor for success. One strategy to improve alliance between a client and clinician is the use of outcome questionnaires. In the current study, eight parents of toddlers who attended therapy sessions at a university clinic responded to a session outcome questionnaire that included both rating scale and descriptive questions. Six graduate students completed a survey that included a question about the utility of the questionnaire. Results indicated that the descriptive questions added value and information compared to using only the rating scale. The students were varied in their responses regarding the effectiveness of the questionnaire to increase their comfort with parents. Information gathered from the questionnaire allowed for specific feedback to graduate students to change behaviors and created opportunities for general discussions regarding effective therapy techniques. In addition, the responses generated conversations between the client and clinician focused on clients' concerns. Involving the stakeholder in identifying both effective and ineffective aspects of therapy has advantages for clinical practice and education.


2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 136-143
Author(s):  
Lynn E. Fox

Abstract The self-anchored rating scale (SARS) is a technique that augments collaboration between Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) interventionists, their clients, and their clients' support networks. SARS is a technique used in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, a branch of systemic family counseling. It has been applied to treating speech and language disorders across the life span, and recent case studies show it has promise for promoting adoption and long-term use of high and low tech AAC. I will describe 2 key principles of solution-focused therapy and present 7 steps in the SARS process that illustrate how clinicians can use the SARS to involve a person with aphasia and his or her family in all aspects of the therapeutic process. I will use a case study to illustrate the SARS process and present outcomes for one individual living with aphasia.


1968 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin A. Young ◽  
Tom D. Downs

Ratings by observers are often used in speech pathology to measure complex speech dimensions; this seems reasonable since a speech “disorder” represents the product of an observer’s evaluation and a speaker’s performance. An index of the validity of these evaluations may be estimated by the amount of agreement among the observers. In this paper, the semi-interquartile range and the intraclass correlation are discussed as possible indices of agreement, and another index is suggested, based on the range of observer ratings. Under the assumption that the distribution of ratings is uniform when ratings are randomly assigned, that is, the observers show no agreement, tables were constructed to indicate the probability of any range for selected numbers of observers and rating scale categories. Some applications for this index concern the training of observers, estimating the number of observers needed, and the construction of master scales.


2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 8-8
Author(s):  
Richard T. Katz

Abstract The author, who is the editor of the Mental and Behavioral Disorders chapter of the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (AMA Guides), Sixth Edition, comments on the previous article, Assessing Mental and Behavioral Disorder Impairment: Overview of Sixth Edition Approaches in this issue of The Guides Newsletter. The new Mental and Behavioral Disorders (M&BD) chapter, like others in the AMA Guides, is a consensus opinion of many authors and thus reflects diverse points of view. Psychiatrists and psychologists continue to struggle with diagnostic taxonomies within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, but anxiety, depression, and psychosis are three unequivocal areas of mental illness for which the sixth edition of the AMA Guides provides M&BD impairment rating. Two particular challenges faced the authors of the chapter: how could M&BD disorders be rated (and yet avoid an onslaught of attorney requests for an M&BD rating in conjunction with every physical impairment), and what should be the maximal impairment rating for a mental illness. The sixth edition uses three scales—the Psychiatric Impairment Rating Scale, the Global Assessment of Function, and the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale—after careful review of a wide variety of indices. The AMA Guides remains a work in progress, but the authors of the M&BD chapter have taken an important step toward providing a reasonable method for estimating impairment.


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