Language Assessment For Multilingualism
Language Assessment forMultilingualismProceedings of the ALTE Paris Conference,April 2014
For a complete list of titles please visit: www.cambridge.org/elt/siltAlso in this series:European Language Testing in a GlobalContext: Proceedings of the ALTE BarcelonaConference July 2001Examining Reading: Research and practice inassessing second language readingEdited by Cyril J. Weir and Michael MilanovicExamining Speaking: Research and practice inassessing second language speakingIELTS Collected Papers: Research in speakingand writing assessmentEdited by Lynda Taylor and Peter FalveyChanging Language Teaching throughLanguage Testing: A washback studyLiying ChengThe Impact of High-stakes Examinations onClassroom Teaching: A case study using insightsfrom testing and innovation theoryDianne WallImpact Theory and Practice: Studies of theIELTS test and Progetto Lingue 2000Roger HawkeyIELTS Washback in Context: Preparation foracademic writing in higher educationAnthony GreenExamining Writing: Research and practice inassessing second language writingStuart D. Shaw and Cyril J. WeirMultilingualism and Assessment: Achievingtransparency, assuring quality, sustainingdiversity – Proceedings of the ALTE BerlinConference, May 2005Hanan Khalifa and Cyril J. WeirEdited by Lynda TaylorIELTS Collected Papers 2: Research in readingand listening assessmentEdited by Lynda Taylor and Cyril J. WeirExamining Listening: Research and practice inassessing second language listeningEdited by Ardeshir Geranpayeh and LyndaTaylorExploring Language Frameworks: Proceedingsof the ALTE Kraków Conference, July 2011Edited by Evelina D. Galaczi and Cyril J. WeirMeasured Constructs: A history of CambridgeEnglish language examinations 1913–2012Cyril J. Weir, Ivana Vidaković, Evelina D.GalacziCambridge English Exams – The First HundredYears: A history of English language assessmentfrom the University of Cambridge 1913–2013Roger Hawkey and Michael MilanovicTesting Reading Through Summary:Investigating summary completion tasks forassessing reading comprehension abilityEdited by Lynda Taylor and Cyril J. WeirLynda TaylorExamining FCE and CAE: Key issues andrecurring themes in developing the FirstCertificate in English and Certificate inAdvanced English examsMultilingual Frameworks: The construction anduse of multilingual proficiency frameworksNeil JonesRoger HawkeyLanguage Testing Matters: Investigatingthe wider social and educational impactof assessment – Proceedings of the ALTECambridge Conference, April 2008Edited by Lynda Taylor and Cyril J. WeirValidating Second Language ReadingExaminations: Establishing the validity of theGEPT through alignment with the CommonEuropean Framework of ReferenceRachel Yi-fen WuAssessing Language Teachers’ ProfessionalSkills and KnowledgeComponents of L2 Reading: Linguisticand processing factors in the reading testperformances of Japanese EFL learnersEdited by Rosemary Wilson and Monica PoulterToshihiko ShiotsuEdited by Aleidine J Moeller, John W Creswell andNick SavilleAligning Tests with the CEFR: Reflections onusing the Council of Europe’s draft ManualEdited by Waldemar MartyniukSecond Language Assessment and MixedMethods Research
Language Assessment forMultilingualismProceedings of the ALTE Paris Conference,April 2014Edited byCoreen DochertyCambridge English Language AssessmentandFiona BarkerCambridge English Language Assessment
University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United KingdomCambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge.It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education,learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.www.cambridge.orgInformation on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781316505007 UCLES 2016This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevantcollective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the writtenpermission of Cambridge University Press.First published 2016Printed in XXXXA catalogue record for this publication is available from the British LibraryLibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataNames: ALTE Conference (5th : 2014 : Paris, France) Docherty, Coreen,editor. Barker, Fiona, editor.Title: Language assessment for multilingualism : Proceedings of the ALTEParis Conference, April 2014 / edited by Coreen Docherty, CambridgeEnglish Language Assessment and Fiona Barker, Cambridge English LanguageAssessment.Description: Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, [2016] Series: Studies in Language Testing ; 44 Includes bibliographicalreferences.Identifiers: LCCN 2015034884 ISBN 9781316505007Subjects: LCSH: Language and languages--Ability testing--Europe--Congresses. Second language acquisition--Ability testing--Europe--Congresses.Classification: LCC P118.75 A482 2014 DDC 404/.2--dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015034884Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs forexternal or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee thatany content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Information regardingprices, travel timetables, and other factual information given in this work is correct at the time offirst printing but Cambridge University Press does not guarantee the accuracy of such informationthereafter.
15Teacher involvement inhigh-stakes testingDaniel XerriPatricia Vella BriffaUniversity of MaltaAbstractThis paper explores the premise that teachers’ involvement in high-stakestesting is desirable because the resulting test is a product of their knowledgeof the learning context, the student cohort, and the subject content. Suchinvolvement is indicative of an increased sense of trust in teachers’ judgements. By means of a case study approach, this paper discusses the processof developing a public examination from the authors’ combined perspectivesas researchers and teachers whose assessment literacy was enhanced becausethey were privileged to be involved at every stage. This paper outlines thechallenges faced and elaborates on the lessons learned from their prolongedinvolvement. It evaluates the implications of teachers’ involvement inhigh-stakes testing and seeks to contribute to a better understanding of thebenefits that may arise when teachers are invited to play an instrumental rolein the design and implementation of such examinations.IntroductionTeachers’ involvement in high-stakes test development can enhance theirassessment literacy and result in examinations that are informed by theirknowledge of the learning context, the student cohort, and the subjectcontent. There is a dearth of research on how teachers’ involvement in publicexaminations translates into such potential benefits. The idea that teachersshould be encouraged to don the examiner’s hat has not been given sufficientattention in the assessment literature. In fact, Sasanguie, Elen, Clarebout,Van den Noortgate, Vandenabeele and De Fraine (2011:908) point out that‘Despite [high-stakes tests’] great impact, discussions on the separation versuscombination of teaching and assessment roles are rare and empirical researchis nearly absent’. This paper therefore sheds light on the benefits that may bederived when teachers actively contribute to high-stakes examinations.In this paper we present a case study of our involvement in high-stakes321
Language Assessment for Multilingualismtesting by evaluating our role as teachers in the design and implementation ofa newly introduced English speaking component forming part of a popularpublic examination at Advanced level in Malta used for university admissions. Our experience as teachers allowed us to identify and address the gapspresent in the syllabus in order for our students and other candidates to beprovided with a reliable and valid form of assessment of their speaking skillsat this advanced stage of language learning. This paper analyses our contribution to this speaking examination from its inception up to the first sittingby a national cohort of candidates. By demonstrating what we learned froma three-year process made up of a number of test development stages, thispaper illustrates how teachers’ involvement in public examinations couldhelp develop their assessment literacy and lead to a more equitable form ofhigh-stakes testing.Concerns with high-stakes testingThe impact of language tests can be far-reaching, especially if these tests areof a high-stakes nature. Taylor (2005:2) affirms that ‘the use of tests and testscores can impact significantly on the career or life chances of individual testtakers’. Over the past few years a number of countries seem to have placed astronger emphasis on high-stakes testing. A case in point is the USA wherehigh-stakes testing is becoming the chief means of assessing students andgauging teacher and school accountability. However, high-stakes testingreceives a fair amount of criticism, especially because it is accused of reproducing social and educational inequality (Au 2008) and for being mechanisticand reductive (Allen 2012). It does so by binding academic success to performance on tests that might be based on a limited set of measurable outcomesto the exclusion of other significant areas of learning. Grant (2004:6) labelshigh-stakes tests ‘oppressive’ because they impair quality teaching and learning, subject students to a restricted curriculum, and push teachers to teach tothe test. In their research on the impact of a school-leaving English examination in Poland, Lewkowicz and Zawadowska-Kittel (2008:30) found thatteachers focus on task types that feature in examinations and teach studentsstrategies that enable them to do well on a test. Similarly, a study focusingon the Nigerian context found that a preoccupation with attainting certification has promoted teaching and learning oriented primarily towards passingthe test rather than enhancing language use (Christopher 2009:12). Nichols’s(2007:57) review of the literature on the impact on student achievement ofhigh-stakes tests leads her to posit that ‘the findings from the most rigorousstudies on high-stakes testing do not provide convincing evidence that highstakes testing has the intended effect of increasing student learning’. In fact,the unintended outcomes of high-stakes testing are largely negative, especially on instruction and on teacher and student motivation (Jones 2007).322
Teacher involvement in high-stakes testingHowever, high-stakes tests have become an intrinsic part of the contemporary educational milieu and they can have a positive washback effect onteaching and learning. Hence, it might be better for teachers to use them totheir advantage rather than seeking to debunk them at every turn. In ourcase, we argued that it would be more profitable for us to be involved in ahigh-stakes examination rather than distancing ourselves from it and complaining about its effects.High-stakes testing can affect teachers in a number of ways, especiallyif they are made to feel that they have no sense of ownership over the testor that it is exclusively determining the nature of teaching and learning.Currently, the driving force behind the curriculum that teachers focus onin class seems to be constituted by ‘the pressures of assessment systems thatpay little heed to consistency or coherence between teachers’ visions of desirable education and those articulated in high-stakes examinations’ (Atkin2007:57). These pressures can impinge on classroom practice, stifle teachers’views and make them feel disenfranchised (Nichols and Berliner 2007). Thisis especially so when teachers are not given the opportunity to be involved inthe development of high-stakes tests. High-stakes testing can lead teachersto ‘increasingly feel that they are at the mercy of forces beyond their control’(Reich and Bally 2010:181). For example, Costigan (2002:32) reports that theamount of high-stakes testing that a small group of primary school teachers were faced with when they entered the profession not only affected thequality and type of instruction they delivered but also made them feel disempowered. Focusing on public school teachers in New York City, Crocco andCostigan (2006:1) contend that ‘high-stakes testing has produced high-stakesteaching in many schools, raising the risk of aggravating the already highlevel of teacher attrition’. Such assessment-driven teaching burdens teachers with undue pressure. A study by Assaf (2008:249) shows how an EnglishLanguage Learner (ELL) reading teacher struggled to act autonomously dueto testing pressures and felt forced to reinvent her professional identity soas to be in synch with the testing culture in her context. This is in line withstudies indicating that the pressure of high-stakes testing might lead teachersto change their instructional practices (Hoffman, Assaf and Paris 2001) andaffects the way they respond to students’ learning needs (Flores and Clark2003, Pennington 2004). Rubin (2011) explains that the present emphasis onstandardised testing in the USA as embodied by the No Child Left BehindAct is generating low levels of morale, an increase in stress and anxiety, asense of deprofessionalisation of teaching, and teacher attrition. Such unintended outcomes have an impact on teachers’ attitudes towards assessment.Negative attitudes towards high-stakes testing might lead teachers to demonise it and disregard the fact that it can be beneficial. In fact,Taras (2005:469) argues that ‘the terrors evoked by the term “assessment”have distorted its necessity, centrality and its potentially neutral position’.323
Language Assessment for MultilingualismPishghadam, Adamson, Sadafian and Kan (2014:46) found that ‘teacherswho do not esteem assessment as a sign of school quality or an improvement tool for learning, and deem assessment negative, bad and unfair, maybecome exhausted, indifferent, and finally experience burnout to a higherdegree’. However, when teachers are convinced that a high-stakes test isrigorously designed and has the potential to aid teaching and learning thentheir attitudes towards it may be positive. In her study on perceptions ofEnglish language testing in Taiwan, Wu (2008:8) found that despite someteachers’ concern that external exams are the driving force behind teachingand learning, they also concede that good exams might have a positive washback effect. Teachers are more likely to perceive the introduction of externalstandardised assessment as motivating for students and supportive of learnerautonomy if tests are deemed to be a well-designed measure of an appropriate range of knowledge and skills (Docherty, Casacuberta, Rodriguez Pazosand Canosa 2014). It seems as if the negative attitudes engendered by highstakes testing are a result of teachers being deprived of a sense of ownershipover high-stakes tests and being unconvinced of their potential to lead toquality teaching and learning. Providing teachers with ownership over highstakes testing by encouraging them to be involved in test development mightbe one way of changing their attitudes towards high-stakes tests.Teacher as examiner, examiner as teacherMostly characterised as negative due to the uses of high-stakes tests andthe attitudes towards them, the washback effect of such tests on classroompractice is potentially strong. Nonetheless, some researchers argue that‘high-stakes tests, powerful as they are, might not be efficient agents for profound changes in an educational context’ (Tsagari 2009:8). Irrespective ofthe level of strength, the washback effect of such tests need not always benegative and stultifying. While acknowledging that there is scant empiricalevidence on the formative use of summative assessment data, Hoover andAbrams (2013) found that the majority of teachers of English and other subjects in their study used such data to change their instruction. Moreover,positive washback is more likely to ensue if tests are produced with an awareness of the learning context. According to Whitehead (2007:449), the validityof tests can be enhanced if they possess ecological validity, i.e. if they reflectteaching and learning, and students’ use of the assessed content. Providingteachers with a sense of ownership by encouraging them to play an active rolein high-stakes testing is likely to increase its formative potential.Teachers’ involvement in high-stakes testing can help in reducing thealienation that they sometimes experience in relation to tests that are implemented without their consultation. Gregory and Clarke (2003:72) arguethat teachers must be able to engage with any assessment systems that are324
Teacher involvement in high-stakes testingabout to be implemented and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. Thisis crucial if they are to contribute to policy-making in relation to assessment and thus prevent the kind of centralisation of power that can damagestudents (Gregory and Clarke 2003:73). Teachers who are not involved inlanguage testing may ‘feel that a gap between teaching and testing is in evidence. They often feel that those who write the tests are not in touch withthe realities of the classroom’ (Coombe, Al-Hamly and Troudi 2009:15).Marshall (2011) discusses how the London Association for the Teaching ofEnglish acted as a platform from which teachers could take a more activerole in high-stakes examinations and thus reform the assessment systemby encouraging examination boards to adopt a bottom-up approach. Thiscase study epitomises ‘the growing role of the teacher as examiner, and theexaminer as teacher’ (Norman 2011:1,055). By being encouraged to positionthemselves in this way teachers are likely to feel that their judgement matters.Klenowski and Wyatt-Smith (2012:75) point out that in order for nationaltesting programmes to improve outcomes there needs to be agreement onthe idea that teachers, rather than tests, are the primary change agents. Thisentails foregrounding teacher judgement. The latter can serve to heighten theformative potential of high-stakes tests and it is for this reason that thereshould be more opportunities for teachers to play the role of examiners.Sloane and Kelly (2003:12) highlight the need for teachers to contribute totest design so that the resulting test is aligned with the curriculum and hasthe potential to heighten student motivation. Harlen (2005a:221) is in favourof involving teachers in public tests because through such ‘involvement theydevelop ownership of the procedures and criteria and understand the processof assessment, including such matters as what makes an adequate sampleof behaviour, as well as the goals and processes of learning’. The implication is that the knowledge and skills they develop by being involved in suchhigh-stakes tests will feed into their own classroom practices. However,such involvement might first require bolstering their confidence in their ownjudgement. One way of doing this is by developing an assessment communitywithin a school so as to increase confidence in teacher judgement amongstteachers and test users (Harlen 2005b:266). Teachers’ confidence in preparing their students for high-stakes tests ‘is less likely to come from pep ralliesor inspirational speakers than it is from the slow, steady work of teachersworking together to understand the tasks their students will face on highstakes exams’ (Reich and Bally 2010:182). Enabling teachers to positionthemselves as examiners empowers them to play a role in reforming highstakes testing so that it is more equitable and more likely to enhance classroom practices.Most probably one of the reasons for which teachers are not encouragedto be more actively involved in high-stakes testing is the perception that theirassessment practices in other non-high-stakes situations are insufficiently325
Language Assessment for Multilingualismreliable (
Examining FCE and CAE: Key issues and recurring themes in developing the First Certi!cate in English and Certi!cate in Advanced English exams Roger Hawkey Language Testing Matters: Investigating the wider social and e
Bruksanvisning för bilstereo . Bruksanvisning for bilstereo . Instrukcja obsługi samochodowego odtwarzacza stereo . Operating Instructions for Car Stereo . 610-104 . SV . Bruksanvisning i original
Global Education and Language Learning Dr Lid King The Languages Company. . Cambridge Assessment English is delighted to publish this paper as a contribution to discussion of multilingualism in policy and practice. Dr Nick Saville Director, Research & Thought Leadership Cambridge Assessment English Language Assessment . The Impact of Multilingualism on Global Education and Language Learning .
10 tips och tricks för att lyckas med ert sap-projekt 20 SAPSANYTT 2/2015 De flesta projektledare känner säkert till Cobb’s paradox. Martin Cobb verkade som CIO för sekretariatet för Treasury Board of Canada 1995 då han ställde frågan
service i Norge och Finland drivs inom ramen för ett enskilt företag (NRK. 1 och Yleisradio), fin ns det i Sverige tre: Ett för tv (Sveriges Television , SVT ), ett för radio (Sveriges Radio , SR ) och ett för utbildnings program (Sveriges Utbildningsradio, UR, vilket till följd av sin begränsade storlek inte återfinns bland de 25 största
Hotell För hotell anges de tre klasserna A/B, C och D. Det betyder att den "normala" standarden C är acceptabel men att motiven för en högre standard är starka. Ljudklass C motsvarar de tidigare normkraven för hotell, ljudklass A/B motsvarar kraven för moderna hotell med hög standard och ljudklass D kan användas vid
LÄS NOGGRANT FÖLJANDE VILLKOR FÖR APPLE DEVELOPER PROGRAM LICENCE . Apple Developer Program License Agreement Syfte Du vill använda Apple-mjukvara (enligt definitionen nedan) för att utveckla en eller flera Applikationer (enligt definitionen nedan) för Apple-märkta produkter. . Applikationer som utvecklas för iOS-produkter, Apple .
Multilingualism in Lithuanian cities: . on language profiles and language vitality in terms of reported language proficiency, language choice, language dominance, and language preference. . and can function as agents of change (Nicholas 1994) in a variety of public and private d
Supporting Bilingualism, Multilingualism and Language Learning in the Early Years 5 Importance of language learning The Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages (VACL) was established in 1994 with the goal of 'retrieving, recording and researching Aboriginal languages', which have been lost since colonisation (VACL 2019).
