Bayesian vocabulary tests

This paper proposes a new way of looking at productive vocabulary in L1 and L2 speakers. An experiment was conducted where 160 participants provided six words for five different picture prompts they were presented with. Data from this minimal vocabulary test was analysed using Bayesian statistics in order to decide whether a set of responses were generated by an L1 speaker or by an L2 advanced learner. Results obtained provide some interesting insights into the viability of minimal vocabulary tests (small sets of words can carry large amounts of information on vocabulary use), as well as some indications of how Bayesian methods could help us explore productive vocabularies of L2 speakers at different proficiency levels.

EFFECT OF CAPTION TYPE IN PICTURE PROMPTS ON EFL WRITING QUALITY

To explore the validity of picture-prompt writing assessment, the study investigated the influence of caption type (i.e. narrative, abstract, and zero) in the picture prompt on EFL writing quality of Chinese college students in terms of holistic scores and functional dimensions (i.e. Dimensions of Involvement, Narration, Elaborated reference, Persuasion, Abstractness, and On-line informational elaboration). ANOVA, MANOVA, and linear regression analysis were conducted and results showed that (a) participants performed significantly better with the abstract caption; (b) Dimensions of Involvement and Abstractness significantly distinguished essays with the abstract caption from those with other types; (c) Dimension of Persuasion significantly predicted ratings of essays with the narrative caption, while Dimension of Narration significantly predicted ratings of essays with the abstract caption. Finally, implications for picture-prompt writing assessment and instruction were discussed.

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING PHOTOGRAPHS ON TEACHING WRITING NARRATIVE TEXT FOR NON-ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS

This study concerns about teaching writing, especially writing narrative text by using picture prompts as media. Picture prompts are believed can make the students relax to study and can encourage them to begin to write. Picture prompts have many advantages in teaching and learning writing. Related to the objective of the study, the aim of this study is to find whether picture prompts can help the students to get higher scores or not. This research will be done in UIN Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang in Arabic Language and Literature Department with the research object of class A for experimental group and class B for control group. The objective of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of using picture prompts in writing class in helping students write narrative texts. The quasi-experimental research design will be used in writing this research. This research design was chosen because it was impossible for the researcher to randomize the subjects to the intended conditions. This was due to the fact that moving the students from one class to another in order to get the ideal groups for the sake of the experiment was not allowed. As the study deals with the students of two different classes, the explanation about teaching-learning processes will be applied to it. In the processes, the researcher will conduct pretest to know the students’ writing ability before getting treatment of writing narrative using picture prompts. After the treatment, the researcher conducts posttest to compare the result and to discover whether the students get higher score or not. Then the results of the research between two subjects will be analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for The Social Science) data analysis of group pair data. Keywords: Picture Prompts, Narrative Text, Writing

The revision and transfer effects of direct and indirect comprehensive corrective feedback on ESL students’ writing

This study investigated the short-term and delayed effects of comprehensive written corrective feedback (WCF) on L2 learners’ revision accuracy and new pieces of writing (i.e., the transfer effect of feedback). Three types of feedback were compared: direct feedback and two types of indirect feedback that differed in their degree of explicitness (i.e., underlining only and underlining+metalinguistic cues). Fifty-three intermediate level learners of English as a second language (ESL) were divided randomly into four groups: One direct, two indirect, and a control group. Students produced three pieces of writing from different picture prompts and revised them over a three-week period. Each group also produced a new piece of writing two weeks later. The study included seven sessions: Writing 1, revision of Writing 1, Writing 2, revision of Writing 2, Writing 3, revision of Writing 3, and Writing 4 (delayed writing). The results showed that all the three feedback groups significantly outperformed the control group in revision tasks. Some short-term accuracy improvements were also found on new pieces of writing for direct and underlining+metalinguistic feedback, but the effects were largely non-significant.

The tortoise trainer

The author observes a painting of Osman Hamdi Bey about a tortoise trainer, an Ottoman dervish with a bamboo flute. This picture prompts the author for personal reflections about his grand-grandfather, who had to flee in 1918 because of the British invasion in Istanbul. For Rumi the bamboo flute is a symbol of the human being detached from his roots. That feeling of detachment and painful desire for his origin is the main subject of the author. He refers to Walter Benjamin, who described the European flaneurs as searchers without an earthly purpose and compared them with oriental Sufis who search for God. The desire of the author for his roots reveals itself also in his representation of the Ottoman Empire, which is linked to the fortune of his grand-grandfather, who had to give up his life due to the beginning of a new era. Nevertheless, behind all the pain which is caused by every separation, which might be senseless to us, hope, sense and reconciliation arise: “Flaneurs are those sensitive souls exiled by the postmodern who can acquire a sweet taste from all the constituent pain, because they see a universal reality in them.”

Increasing “Object-Substitution” Symbolic Play in Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) may not develop symbolic play skills, so such skills need to be taught specifically. We report an experiment regarding a procedure targeting “object-substitution” symbolic play skills. The “object-substitution” symbolic play behavior occurred when the child labeled a common object with the name of a substitute and used the object to perform a play action (e.g., As she put a bowl on her head, she called it a hat). A multiple probe across behaviors design was employed with five children (four boys and one girl, aged 3 to 6 years) with ASD. All children had verbal communication and demonstrated functional play and generalized imitation, but no symbolic play skills prior to the study. The instruction consisted of intraverbal training, picture prompts, and modeling of play actions. All children demonstrated object-substitution symbolic play skills after the instruction. The occurrences of response generalization were also discussed.