An Assets-Oriented, Formative Oral Language Assessment for Multilingual Students

This chapter introduces an assets-oriented oral language formative assessment tool for use with multilingual students. The assessment tool, called the Oral Language Record (OLR), was developed to help teachers listen to, record, and analyze authentic student talk in a variety of settings. It provides valuable information about the vocabulary and language structures that students use, helps determine current instructional needs, provides a frame for capturing student talk, and documents growth over time. The OLR contains a continuum based on observable behaviors and an analysis tool that helps teachers determine next steps in instruction based on their observations. Used in conjunction with a student's writing sample and observation of the child's reading, the OLR provides a holistic view of a multilingual student's language and literacy acquisition, enabling the teacher to focus on the child's linguistic strengths to plan future instruction.

How to Write (Science) Better. Simplified English Principles in a Skill-Oriented ESP Course

Teaching writing to doctoral students or academics at a technical university is a challenging task. Because they need to publish their research findings in English to pursue academic careers, they are usually highly motivated and expect a lot of the class. Their language competences, however, very often lack enough proficiency and may contribute to manuscript rejection. The paper focuses on language issues based on the rules of controlled natural languages (CNLs) and guidelines of Plain English. It shows how employing these issues improves grammatical quality and readability of science-oriented written texts. The paper describes four principles: removing nominalisation and using the so-called strong verbs to make the message simpler and more direct; combining nouns in strings to express complex ideas economically; applying grammatical consistency for coordinate elements in sentences to make them less chaotic; and reducing wordiness to obtain a more precise and comprehensible piece of writing. Sample phrases and sentences from authentic student writing as well as their improved versions are provided to each of the guidelines so that a reader has a deeper insight into how the principles work in a specialist context. Because problems with, for example, research papers, grant proposals or reports are common to various disciplines and at various levels, the Author of the paper draws conclusions that these principles should be implemented not only in a technical but also legal, medical and business writing course offered by English teachers to both young researchers and experienced scientists.

Estudio comparativo de la prueba de redacción académica IELTS por escrito frente a la realizada en computadora en participantes de IELTS de inglés como lengua extranjera en la Universidad de Teherán

The current study is an attempt to investigate whether learners perform differently on paper or on the computer in the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) writing test, in terms of Task response/achievement, coherence/cohesion, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy. In addition, it explores whether the candidates’ computer familiarity are different in paper or computer groups. To this end, a total number of 108 candidates were selected out of 144 based on the results of the Oxford Placement Test (OPT) in Tehran University, Iran. To gather the data, a retired IELTS academic writing sample and a computer familiarity questionnaire were administered. The participants were divided into two equal groups. In the Paper Mode (PM) group, students were given the test to write conventionally on paper. In the other, Computer Mode (CM) group, the students were given the same test; but were asked to type the test in the computer provided for them in their class. Also, all the participants took the computer familiarity questionnaire. The gathered data were analyzed through the Independent samples t-test. The findings reveal significant differences between paper-based and computer-based modes in both writing tasks. Moreover, the analysis of the questionnaire shows the impact of the candidates’ computer familiarity on their writing performance.

Offline Writer Recognition for Kurdish Handwritten Text Document Based on Proposed Codebook

Handwritten text recognition has been an ongoing attractive task to research in the field of document analysis and recognition with applications in handwriting forensics, paleography, document examination, and handwriting recognition. In the present research, an automatic method of writer recognition is presented using digitized images of unconstrained texts. Despite the increasing efforts by prior literature on the different methods used for the same purpose, such methods performance, particularly their accuracy, has not been promising, leaving plenty of room for improvements. This method made use of codebook-based writer characterization, with each writing sample represented by a group of computed features from a primary and secondary codebook. The writings were then represented through the computation of the probability of codebook patterns occurrence, and the probability distribution was employed for each writer’s characterization. Writer identification process involved comparing two writings through the computation of the distances between their respective probability distribution. The study carried out experiments to determine the performance of the implemented method in light of rates of identification with the help of standard datasets, namely, KRDOH and IAM, the former being the most current and largest Kurdish handwritten datasets with 1076 writers, and the latter being a dataset containing 650 writers. The outcome of the experiments was promising with a rate of identification of 94.3%, with the proposed method outperforming the state-of-the-art methods by 2–3%.

Long-timed words, Peirce Triangle, Tetrahedron of Ontological Propis

In this work author analyses names (signs) with the period of existence greater than zero. The whole body of names (signs) is divided into 1) “long-timed words” and 2) “singular words”. It is shown that in Peirce Triangle the name (sign) itself, its denotation and meaning may last in different combinations. Typology of “long-timed words” and “singular words” is described. New notion describing the world of possible and real objects is introduced - Ontological Space or Writing Sample (Propis). Tetrahedron of Propis is also introduced with meaning (concept) rather than name (sign) as its apex. It is shown than neither “name” nor “denotate” can exist without sense whilst sense can exist without “name” or “denotate”. The fact that Writing Sample (Propis) consists of “segments-streaks” is justified. It is also shown that “long-timed words” do (do not) correspond to these “segments-streaks” of the Propis. Analysis of the Propis led to formulating fourteen axioms that its “segments-streaks” and “long-timed words” obey.

EFL Learners’ Responses on the Use of Performance-based Assessment

Assessment is an ongoing process of evaluating learners’ ability or skill after process of teaching and learning. In English class, assessment also plays an important role. According to the facts found, assessment mostly used in English class is traditional assessment. English class needs more alternative assessments to set the goals of learning English. Curriculum 2013, which is used in Indonesia right now, emphasizes the use of authentic assessment, and performance – based assessment is to be a subset of authentic assessment. This article is trying to discuss the students’ responsess on the use of performance-based assessment applied by the English teachers. This study applied descriptive qualitative research design. The subjects of this research were 30 Senior High School students. To collect the data needed, this study used observation and interview as the instrument. The observation was used to discover performance-based assessments which had already been applied by the English teachers in school. The result of the interview was interpreted to clarify the students’ responsess on the use of performance-based assessment applied by the English teachers. Performance-based assessments which had already been applied were role-plays, writing sample, and retelling. From 6 classes, 3 classes (50%) applied role-plays. Moreover, 2 (33,3%) classes applied writing sample, and the rest applied retelling (16,66%). It means that role-plays was performance-based assessment which was mostly applied by the English teachers. Furthermore, the students’ responsess on the use of performance-based assessment was good. Almost of the 30 students considered that performance-based assessment can improve their English skills and confidence instead of traditional assessment. 24 of the 30 students also claimed that traditional assessment is still inadequate to activate their English skill. In short, 80% of 30 students gave a positive responsess on the use of performance-based assessment.

A Study on the Application of Pigai.org Software in Teaching University-level English Writing — Taking a Freshman Class in Chongqing as an Example

Writing correction and feedback are important links in teaching English writing. Both play a vital role in improving students' English writing ability. Pigai.org is an online service that provides correction for teachers of the English language, as well as students. He (2013) believes that traditional teaching methods of English writing have various drawbacks, such as delayed teaching feedback and requiring a heavier workload for teachers. Applying Pigai.org to the teaching of university English writing can not only improve the efficiency of teachers by reducing their workload, but is also able to enhance students' English writing ability and self-writing awareness. Based on the analysis of teaching methodology and the current situation of traditional teaching of university-level English writing, this article uses the writing sample of students as research material, questionnaires and interviews as research methods, so as to explore whether Pigai.org can be used in the teaching of university-level English writing and play a role in improving the effectiveness of university-level English writing.

Experimental Evidence on Teachers’ Racial Bias in Student Evaluation: The Role of Grading Scales

A vast research literature documents racial bias in teachers’ evaluations of students. Theory suggests bias may be larger on grading scales with vague or overly general criteria versus scales with clearly specified criteria, raising the possibility that well-designed grading policies may mitigate bias. This study offers relevant evidence through a randomized Web-based experiment with 1,549 teachers. On a vague grade-level evaluation scale, teachers rated a student writing sample lower when it was randomly signaled to have a Black author, versus a White author. However, there was no evidence of racial bias when teachers used a rubric with more clearly defined evaluation criteria. Contrary to expectation, I found no evidence that the magnitude of grading bias depends on teachers’ implicit or explicit racial attitudes.

Implementing Authentic Assessment in the 2013 Curriculum by English Teachers of Modern Boarding High School

This article aimed to express the implementing authentic assessment in the 2013 curriculum by English teachers of Prof. Dr. Hamka Padang Modern Boarding High School. The illustration enclosed the kinds of authentic assessment, the implementation and the problems encountered by the English teachers. The subjects were two English teachers and 36 students. Observation checklist, questionnaire sheet and interview guideline were used as the research instruments. This is descriptive research and analyzed by qualitatively. The results showed that kinds of authentic assessment implemented by the two English teachers were oral interview, observation, writing sample, project, constructed-respond item and performance by score 45,55% with “poor category”. Although they have maximized their effort, they did not do better on the preparing, scoring, and reporting. Then, lack of time, knowledge and difficult to find appropriate material were still being problems encountered by the English teachers in implementing of the authentic assessment. Keywords: Authentic Assessment, 2013 Curriculum, English Teachers