scholarly journals Off-Topic Essay Detection: A comparative study on the Portuguese language

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (03) ◽  
pp. 177-190
Author(s):  
Guilherme Passero ◽  
Rafael Ferreira ◽  
Rudimar Luís Scaranto Dazzi
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Future Research ◽  
High Stake ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Detection Mechanism ◽  
Multiclass Problem ◽  
Essay Grading ◽  
Detection Mechanisms

Advances in automated essay grading over the last sixty years enabled its application in real scenarios, such as classrooms and high-stakes testing. The recognition of off-topic essays is one of the tasks addressed in automated essay grading. An essay is regarded as off-topic when the student does not develop the expected prompt-related concepts, sometimes purposely. Off-topic essays may receive a zero score in high-stake tests. An off-topic essay detection mechanism may be used in parallel or embedded in an automated essay grading system to improve its performance. In this context, the main goal of this study is to evaluate the existing approaches for automated off-topic essay detection. A previous systematic review of the literature showed some deficiencies in the state of the art, including: the low accuracy of current approaches, the use of artificial validation sets, and the lack of studies focused on the Portuguese language. In this study, the approaches found in the literature, originally proposed for the English language, were adapted for the Portuguese language and compared in an experiment using a public corpus of 2164 essays related to 111 prompts. The experiment used a set of artificial off-topic examples and the best performing algorithm achieved higher accuracy than that found in the literature for the English language (96.76% vs. 94.75%). The results presented suggest the application of off-topic essay detection mechanisms in the Brazilian educational context in order to benefit the student, with computer generated feedback, and educational institutions, regarding automated essay grading. Some suggestions for future research are presented, including the need to address the task of off-topic essay detection as a multiclass problem, and to reproduce the experiment with a larger and more representative set of real off-topic essay examples.

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

RELC Journal ◽  
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.

scholarly journals The impact of language and high-stakes testing policies on elementary school English language learners in Arizona.

2006 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne E. Wright ◽  
Daniel Choi
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Ell Students ◽  
Sheltered English Immersion ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Sheltered English

This article reports the results of a survey of third-grade teachers of English Language Learners (ELLs) in Arizona regarding school language and accountability policies—Proposition 203, which restricts bilingual education and mandates sheltered English Immersion; the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB); and Arizona LEARNS, the state’s high-stakes testing and accountability program. The instrument, consisting of 126 survey questions plus open-ended interview question, was designed to obtain teacher’s views, to ascertain the impact of these polices, and to explore their effectiveness in improving the education of ELL students. The survey was administered via telephone to 40 teacher participants from different urban, rural and reservation schools across the state. Each participant represents the elementary school in their respective school district which has the largest population of ELL students. Analyses of both quantitative and qualitative data reveal that these policies have mostly resulted in confusion in schools throughout the state over what is and is not allowed, and what constitutes quality instruction for ELLs, that there is little evidence that such policies have led to improvements in the education of ELL students, and that these policies may be causing more harm than good. Specifically, teachers report they have been given little to no guidance over what constitutes sheltered English immersion, and provide evidence that most ELL students in their schools are receiving mainstream sink-or-swim instruction. In terms of accountability, while the overwhelming majority of teachers support the general principle, they believe that high-stakes tests are inappropriate for ELLs and participants provided evidence that the focus on testing is leading to instruction practices for ELLs which fail to meet their unique linguistic and academic needs. The article concludes with suggestions for needed changes to improve the quality of education for ELLs in Arizona.

High Stakes Testing: Issues, Implications, and Remedies for English Language Learners

2008 ◽  
Vol 78 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald W. Solórzano
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Proficiency Tests ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
High Stakes Tests

This article discusses the issues and implications of high stakes tests on English language learners (ELLs). As ELLs are being included in all high stakes assessments tied to accountability efforts (e.g., No Child Left Behind), it is crucial that issues related to the tests be critically evaluated relative to their use. In this case, academic achievement tests are analyzed relative to their norming samples and validity to determine their usefulness to ELLs. Also, commonly used language proficiency tests are examined relative to definitions of proficiency, technical quality, alignment with criteria for language classification and reclassification, and their academic predictive validity. Based on the synthesis of the literature, the author concludes that high stakes tests as currently constructed are inappropriate for ELLs, and most disturbing is their continued use for high stakes decisions that have adverse consequences. The author provides recommendations for addressing the issues related to high stakes tests and ELLs.

scholarly journals Parents’ Involvement in High-Stakes Language Assessment A Review of Test Impact on Parent Behavior

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Jing Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Negative Impact ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Future Research ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Test Impact

This paper reviews a total of 20 empirical research studies concerning parents’ behavior under the context of high-stakes language assessment, aiming to reveal the impact of the assessment on parents’ behavior. The results show that (1) parents are typically involved in high-stakes language assessment process; (2) their involvement practice includes general (such as hiring tutors for children) and extreme involvement behavior (such as participating in movement against high-stakes testing); (3) no unanimous conclusion is reached concerning the effectiveness of parents’ involvement in high-stakes language assessment; (4) multiple factors that affect parents’ involvement in high-stakes language assessment are identified, including parents’ perceptions of tests, their educational background, and the time they spend with their children. This study concludes that tests might influence the ways parents are involved in children’s education. However, not all parents might be influenced by testing, and testing might have a positive impact on some parents but a negative impact on others. This synthesis has several practical implications. Firstly, it indicates that parents’ involvement behavior in the context of high-stakes language assessment deserves to be further investigated. Secondly, it points that various intervention programs should be provided for parents to help them better support their children’s learning and test preparation. The paper also offers several suggestions for future research.  

scholarly journals English language assessment in Bangladesh today: principles, practices, and problems

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Md Shaiful Islam ◽  
Md Kamrul Hasan ◽  
Shahin Sultana ◽  
Abdul Karim ◽  
Mohammad Mosiur Rahman
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
Assessment Methods ◽  
Teacher Education Programs ◽  
English Language Learning ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Goals And Objectives

AbstractThe achievement of curriculum goals and objectives, to a large extent, depends on how assessment methods are designed, implemented, monitored, and evaluated. English language learning in Bangladesh has miserably failed, and ineffective assessment methods may be largely attributed to this failure. This paper attempts to address various aspects and issues of English language assessment in Bangladesh in relation to English language learning as a curricular reform and the education policy of the country. The analysis revealed that there was always a gap between the principles of assessment embedded into the curriculum and the actual assessment practices. Furthermore, heavily hard hit by the high-stakes testing, the curriculum, the learners, and the instructors need to be liberated from this vicious policy. The review concluded with a recommendation that teachers need to develop assessment literacy through teacher education programs that are essential to helping teachers to acquire knowledge, skills, professionalism, and assessment expertise.

Marketisation, managerialism and high-stake testing

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 568-579
Author(s):  
Sybert Mutereko
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Education System ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Traditional Values ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
High Stake ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Secondary Sources

Purpose Using a South African district of education as a case study, the purpose of this paper is to explore how high-stake assessments informed by marketisation and managerialism have been embedded in the South African education system. Design/methodology/approach This papers draws on data that were collected through a mixed method approach in the secondary schools of the uMgungundlovu District, which is in Kwazulu-Natal province (KZN) in the eastern part of South Africa. This paper emerged from multiple sources of data, that is, from documents, interviews, questionnaires, and observation as well as secondary sources. Findings The paper demonstrates how the pincer movement of markets and managerialism have used high-stake testing as a mechanism of performativity. It illustrates how test scores are published in newspapers to provide consumers with information that is needed for full participation in the marketised education system. Practical implications The insights from this paper have profound implications for school managers and policy makers. While high-stake tests are logically consistent and theoretically defensible, overdependence on them portends the replacement of traditional values of schools by the market value of the education. Originality/value The study contributes profound insights into how the high-stake testing serves the purpose of social control and subjugation mechanisms for students, schools, and teachers by the state and the invisible arm of the markets. The problem with the use of high-stakes testing as performativity mechanisms is not just that they hinders learning and teaching, but it changes the work of schools and teachers who are at the chalkface of education system.

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