Effect of High-Stakes Exams on Creative Writing Skills of ESL Learners in Pakistan

Creative writing owns an important place in the education system. It enlightens creativity and boosts critical thinking among students. Therefore, it appears to be a ruling skill. Knowing that conventional high-stakes examination leaves a key impact on teaching and learning, the present study was designed to identify the effect of high-stakes exams on creative writing skills of secondary level students of English as a Second Language (ESL) in Pakistan. For this, the content of a series of seven English tests by 8th, 9th, and 10th graders (separately) taken in one of the two spans of private coaching at a renowned tuition center for preparation of high-stakes exams was analyzed to see incremental change in students’ creative writing abilities. Analysis discovered that the whole of students’ content was mere replicas of ready-made notes except few traces of original effort by students only in the beginning. It was revealed that the system of examination is producing crammers rather than developing real writing skills among students. The study recommended that the examination should include such writing tasks as should gear the education system to develop original creative writing skills among students.

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Complexities of Writing Skill at the Secondary Level in Bangladesh Education System: A Quantitative Case Study Analysis

English Language Teaching ◽

10.5539/elt.v13n12p65 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (12) ◽

pp. 65

Author(s):

Sujana Suvin

Keyword(s):

Education System ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Writing Skills ◽

Secondary Level ◽

School Level ◽

High School Level ◽

Case Study Analysis ◽

System A ◽

Writing Skill ◽

Teachers And Students

The goal of this study is to examine difficulties in and outside the classrooms which are the real obstacles to the writability of teaching and learning in the secondary level Bangladesh system. The secondary level tests writing skills by summary, paragraph, letter, application, story, conversation, composition, report, e-mail etc. Students who study at the high school level face serious writing complexities. The major problems in the examination are the vocabulary and grammar complexities. In this study, the reasons for the complexities of writing skills were examined. This study was conducted at Jahangirnagar School & College, Savar, Dhaka to find out the strategies for writing skills. Important questions of research have been developed to identify writing skill complexities. Data were taken from teachers, students and parents based on questionnaire survey. Teachers and students were encouraged to participate actively in the survey. Following collection of data, the practical advice for students and teachers was analyzed. While skills at secondary schools have been evaluated, most teachers are not taking any action to evaluate the abilities of students. Students are also less interested in writing skill in practice. The aim of the study is therefore to show a new image to the writing skill at the secondary level Bangladesh education system.

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The Impact of Language Testing Washback in Promoting Teaching and Learning Processes: A Theoretical Review

English Language Teaching ◽

10.5539/elt.v14n7p21 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (7) ◽

pp. 21

Author(s):

Faten Alqahtani

Keyword(s):

Policy Development ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Learning Processes ◽

High Stakes ◽

Different Types ◽

History Of ◽

Language Context ◽

High Stakes Exams ◽

The Impact ◽

Learning Language

Existing literature indicates that assessment is a critical aspect of teaching and learning language; the outcomes of testing are vital. The history of assessment can be traced back to when exams primarily served two significant purposes in China: choosing candidates for admission into government offices and preventing corruption. Washback as a concept can be traced back to the 1990s. It was advanced by Alderson and Wall in 1993 as a force that obliges test-takers and tutors to engage in particular tasks or activities due to exams. In this regard, washback is an impact that a test has on the teaching and learning process. High-stakes exams like the LOBELA demonstrate the significance of washback in the Saudi English-as-a-foreign-language context. This paper explores the mechanisms through which washback occurs in teaching and learning processes, ways to determine its validity, and different types of washback. It further highlights the impact of washback in promoting teaching and learning processes, as well as the role it plays in policy development in the educational system.   

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Teaching Creative Writing Skills in the Class Room Challenges and Strategies

International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering - 2 ◽

10.35940/ijrte.d1023.1284s419 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (4S4) ◽

pp. 68-69

Keyword(s):

Creative Writing ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Writing Skills ◽

Self Esteem ◽

Sentence Structure ◽

Basic Skill ◽

Writing Test ◽

The World ◽

Class Room ◽

And Control

Creative writing can be defined as “the ability to harness creative thoughts revolving inside one‟s head and mind and put it into writing using very good sentence structure”.The most important skill of any language is writing skill. It is the power students need to understand and control their lives, to shape their future, to define their hopes, dreams and aspirations. Writing allows students to put their ideas on a page. Anyone who thinks clearly should be able to write clearly – about anything in the world. Writing builds confidence and is not simply a way for students to demonstrate what they know. The essential thing is that everyone should be creative in his writing and should be unique. Creative writing is not confined to only writers, but is nowadays considered as a basic skill for getting success in life. We live in new world of teaching and learning. It‟s the world dominated with one clear aim of clearing „the writing test‟. But academicians should go beyond this only aim. And the prerequisite for the same is the belief that creative writing can be thought. The journey of teaching creative writing can be frustrating many times, but can also be rewarding sometimes. Definitely, if learning to write creatively is difficult, and then teaching to write creatively is equally difficult. By teaching students how to write well, by guiding them to focus their intellectual energy in this innovative way, a teacher can provide students a key that helps them unlock the complex ideas we expect them to a master as they mature. This can also contribute to the improvement in their behavior and self-esteem.

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“Skill, drill, and kill”

International Journal for Innovation Education and Research ◽

10.31686/ijier.vol9.iss2.2899 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 371-386

Author(s):

Lokesh Ramnath Maharajh ◽

Lucia Tsitsi Musikewa

Keyword(s):

Education System ◽

Primary Schools ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Summative Assessment ◽

Summative Evaluation ◽

Data Generation ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

High Stakes ◽

Qualitative Research Design ◽

Severe Effect

This paper reports on teachers’ summative assessment experiences at grade seven level in selected primary schools in Chegutu District, Mashonaland West Province in Zimbabwe. The study's purpose was to determine the effect and impact the final, standardised, and high-stakes assessment have on teaching and learning at grade seven level in these primary schools. Using a qualitative research design, we generated data from eight teachers who were purposefully selected from four of the different primary schools found in Zimbabwe (rural, farm, urban, and boarding). Semi-structured interviews, documents, and records analysis were employed as data generation to allow for rich and detailed information from all available sources for this research. This paper presents and discusses the data about teachers’ summative evaluation experiences at grade seven in the Zimbabwean education system. The findings reveal a severe effect and impact of end-of-year grade seven examinations on teachers, instructional practices, the curriculum, the learners, and the education system. It also shows that teachers depend excessively on drilling and repetitious revision practices to meet the standards required and expected by stakeholders. The findings further reveal contradicting responses from teachers on enhancing learners’ performance from drilling and coaching. There emerged from the findings a consensus among teachers on merging formative, continuous, and summative assessment forms. This paper suggests a more balanced and holistic assessment structure at grade seven level that caters to learners' diverse populations and environments in Zimbabwe.

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UPAYA MENINGKATKAN KEMAMPUAN MENULIS DEVELOPING PARAGRAPH OF EXPLANATION TEXT MELALUI PENDEKATAN CONTEXTUAL TEACHING AND LEARNING (CTL) PADA MATA PELAJARAN BAHASA INGGRIS SISWA KELAS XII IPA 4 SMAN 9 PEKANBARU

JURNAL PAJAR (Pendidikan dan Pengajaran) ◽

10.33578/pjr.v1i1.4369 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 54

Author(s):

Muslainy Muslainy

Keyword(s):

Action Research ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Writing Skills ◽

Class Action ◽

Test Results ◽

English Class ◽

Survey Results ◽

Contextual Teaching ◽

Classroom Action Research ◽

Daily Writing

This study is a class action (class action reseach). Based on test results daily writing on students' class XII IPA 4 SMAN 9 Pekanbaru encountered symptoms as follows: only 11 students or 30,55% of the 36 students who have the ability to write a developing Paragraph of explanation textdalam good English so it has reached KKM predetermined is 85. A total of 25 students or 69,4% of the 36 students had difficulty in writing textsehingga developing paragraph of explanation they have not been able to achieve a predetermined KKM. Students find it quickly bored with the lessons presented, it can be seen from their activities are often played or talked with friends when subjects exercised. This study was conducted in two cycles, the data is described is writing developing paragraph of explanation text, ie before the action on the first cycle, the second cycle, each cycle is done in one meeting. This classroom action research in order to work well without barriers obstructing the smooth running of the study, researchers compiled stages traversed in action research, namely: (1) planning/ preparatory actions; (2) Implementation of the action; (3) observation; and (4) reflection. Based on the results of the discussion and analysis as presented in chapter VII can be concluded that the application of the approach contextual teaching and learning (CTL) can improve the ability to write a text explanation developing paragraph of english in english class students of class XII IPA 4 SMAN 9 Pekanbaru. Based on the survey results revealed that developing writing skills of explanation text paragraph british student before action classical gained an average of 64,40 in the first cycle of classical gained an average of 72,50, the second cycle obtain the average classical 90,20.

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Classroom Management

European Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies ◽

10.26417/ejms.v1i1.p201-210 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 201

Author(s):

Elida Kurti

Keyword(s):

Classroom Management ◽

General Education ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Educational Institutions ◽

Important Place ◽

Rural And Urban Areas ◽

Rural And Urban ◽

Intellectual Level

This paper aims to reflect an effort to identify the problems associated with the educational learning process, as well as its function to express some inherent considerations to the most effective forms of the classroom management. Mentioned in this discussion are ways of management for various categories of students, not only from an intellectual level, but also by their behavior. Also, in the elaboration of this theme I was considering that in addition to other development directions of the country, an important place is occupied by the education of the younger generation in our school environments and especially in adopting the methods of teaching and learning management with a view to enable this generation to be competitive in the European labor market. This, of course, can be achieved by giving this generation the best values of behavior, cultural level, professional level and ethics one of an European family which we belong to, not just geographically. On such foundations, we have tried to develop this study, always improving the reality of the prolonged transition in the field of children’s education. Likewise, we have considered the factors that have left their mark on the structure, cultural level and general education level of children, such as high demographic turnover associated with migration from rural and urban areas, in the capacity of our educational institutions to cope with new situations etc. In the conclusions of this study is shown that there is required a substantial reform even in the pro-university educational system to ensure a significant improvement in the behavior of children, relations between them and the sound quality of their preparation. Used literature for this purpose has not been lacking, due to the fact that such problems are usually treated by different scholars. Likewise, we found it appropriate to use the ideas and issues discussed by the foreign literature that deals directly with classroom management problems. All the following treatise is intended to reflect the way of an effective classroom management.

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Engaging Exam-Oriented Students in Communicative Language Teaching by ‘Packaging’ Learning English Through Songs as Exam Practice

RELC Journal ◽

10.1177/0033688220978542 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 003368822097854

Author(s):

Kevin Wai-Ho Yung

Keyword(s):

Hong Kong ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

English Language ◽

Language Teaching ◽

High Stakes Testing ◽

Communicative Language Teaching ◽

High Stakes ◽

Secondary English ◽

Language Curriculum ◽

Teachers And Students

Literature has long been used as a tool for language teaching and learning. In the New Academic Structure in Hong Kong, it has become an important element in the senior secondary English language curriculum to promote communicative language teaching (CLT) with a process-oriented approach. However, as in many other English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL) contexts where high-stakes testing prevails, Hong Kong students are highly exam-oriented and expect teachers to teach to the test. Because there is no direct assessment on literature in the English language curriculum, many teachers find it challenging to balance CLT through literature and exam preparation. To address this issue, this article describes an innovation of teaching ESL through songs by ‘packaging’ it as exam practice to engage exam-oriented students in CLT. A series of activities derived from the song Seasons in the Sun was implemented in the ESL classrooms in a secondary school in Hong Kong. Based on the author’s observations and reflections informed by teachers’ and students’ comments, the students were first motivated, at least instrumentally, by the relevance of the activities to the listening paper in the public exam when they saw the similarities between the classroom tasks and past exam questions. Once the students felt motivated, they were more easily engaged in a variety of CLT activities, which encouraged the use of English for authentic and meaningful communication. This article offers pedagogical implications for ESL/EFL teachers to implement CLT through literature in exam-oriented contexts.

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Teaching Mathematics during the COVID-19 Lockdown in a Context of Historical Disadvantage

Education Sciences ◽

10.3390/educsci11040177 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 177

Author(s):

Brantina Chirinda ◽

Mdutshekelwa Ndlovu ◽

Erica Spangenberg

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

South African ◽

Mathematics Teachers ◽

Education System ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Face To Face ◽

Global Pandemic ◽

Education Community ◽

South African Education

The COVID-19 global pandemic widely affected education across the world and engendered unprecedented scenarios that required expeditious responses. In South Africa, the pandemic came on top of pre-existing inequalities in the education system. Using a qualitative research method of exploratory and descriptive nature, this study engaged a social justice framework to explore the teaching and learning of mathematics during the COVID-19 lockdown in a context of historical disadvantage. A sample of twenty-three Grade 12 mathematics teachers at various public secondary schools in Gauteng, South Africa was used in the study. The teachers were selected through purposive sampling. A Google-generated open-ended questionnaire and follow-up telephonic interviews were used to collect data. Data were analysed thematically in five steps. The findings revealed that the WhatsApp platform is a valuable tool that can support the teaching and learning of mathematics beyond the classroom in the contexts of historical disadvantage. The findings also provided insights into how mathematics teachers became learners themselves during emergency remote teaching (ERT) as they had to adapt to digital teaching, find solutions to unfamiliar problems and acquire knowledge from a larger mathematics education community around the globe. The article discusses these findings and teachers’ challenges of transitioning from traditional face-to-face classrooms to ERT and how they were addressed. At the time of publishing the article, most learners in South Africa had started going to school on a rotational basis. Nonetheless, the study reported in this article is of importance as ERT in the context of historical disadvantage has foregrounded issues of inequality in the South African education system that must be dealt with urgently.

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