This study examines the washback effect of a final examination. Despite the general criticisms of a final examination for its negative influence on education, no empirical evidence was noted in the existing literature; rather some evidence for positive washback was found. The study was based on the assumption that the detrimental effect of a final exam is not inherent; whether the washback is negative or positive is dependent on the design of the exam. Furthermore, the power that the exam has to influence teaching and learning, if exploited properly, can make it work as an instrument for educational change. The context of the study was English language teaching and testing at school in Nepal. The washback effect of the School Leaving Certificate English exam, an exit exam based on prescribed textbooks in terms of its content and discrete-point approach in terms of its format, was examined. A new exam of reading, grammar, note-taking and writing based on the course objectives of the SLC English course in terms of its content, and integrative-communicative approach in terms of its format was designed to use as the criterion measure of the English proficiency of the students. The new exam was administered to school leavers and students of the previous year. The performance of the school leavers on the new exam was compared with their performance on the SLC English exam, and with the performance of the students of the previous year on the new exam. The results indicate that SLC English exam had a negative washback on the teaching and learning of the SLC English course because it failed to allow the students and the teacher to work for the course objectives of the SLC English. It was concluded that washback is an inherent quality of a final exam; people whose future is affected by the exam-results work for the exam regardless of the quality of the exam. Whether the washback is negative or positive is dependent on what the exam measures; if it is congruent with the sentiment and the purposes of the course objectives, it can achieve beneficial washback; if not it is bound to produce harmful washback. Innovations through the former type of exam would lead the teaching for the exam to be in accordance with it. The implications for language testing in general, and the Nepalese ELT situation in particular are presented. It is suggested that the SLC English exam should be replaced by an exam similar to the one used, in order to bring about change in the teaching of the SLC English course. Recommendations for further research are made.

The present research investigates the use of different question prompts and the discourse they generate in the SLE:OI, an ACTFL-variant second language oral proficiency interview test. One hundred and fifty-two question prompts used to elicit the test task of 'supporting an opinion,' were transcribed from 27 SLE:OI tests administered between July and November, 2000. From this, 30 categories of question prompts were identified by 6 SLE:OI raters acting as judges. Independently, the researcher and the judges determined task difficulty/complexity to be the predominant feature differentiating the categories. Using the 30 categories as a basis, the Question Prompt Complexity Questionnaire was produced and administered to the 6 judges. Analysis of the questionnaire data indicated a clear consensus for 3 categories into 'easy' and 'difficult' groups. Subsequently, candidate responses to 11 question prompts from the easy group, and 10 from the difficult group were transcribed, and discourse analyses were carried out to ascertain response levels of L2 fluency (by type-token ratio; frequency of silent and filled pauses, repetitions, and self-repairs), accuracy (by verb morphology and lexical use), and complexity (by clause subordination). The results demonstrated that those candidates tested with 'easy' and 'difficult' question prompts showed strong, significant differences in two aspects of their response fluency, but no significant differences in the accuracy or complexity of their responses. Based on these findings, several recommendations and implications for rater training were cited.

No description available.

This study examines how well the qualities of good essay writing expressed in the British Columbia Ministry of Education's handbook, Using rating scales to evaluate student writing, are transmitted to teachers and students. In asking how well those values are communicated to teachers and students involved in grade twelve English examinations, the study compares the features demonstrated in the writing reference sets and specified in the Holistic scoring guide to the responses of markers, teachers and students who were surveyed concerning their familiarity with those terms and to their beliefs about what constituted a good essay. Most teachers reported instructional practices which utilized these reference sets, and students supported this assertion. The qualities described by teacher-markers such as “command of language, thoughtful, well structured, interesting argument, depth of understanding, engaging, sense of voice” were also compared to salient features of papers which they had just scored and found to correspond quite closely. Students, however, in describing the features they hoped to produce in writing a good essay, did not use the terms of the official rating scale descriptors, but instead, fell back on a vocabulary expressing the most basic features of the process approach to writing, such as “planning, webbing ideas,” and “revising.” Survey instruments used in the study were not sufficiently detailed to provide data on student comprehension of rating scale terms. Observations are made on such aspects of large-scale writing evaluations as recommended scoring practices, the need for thorough marker preparation, the vagueness of some criteria such as “voice”, and on current approaches to high school composition instruction with emphasis on modelling theory as the basis for instruction in a jurisdiction which uses reference sets of student work as standards for its rating scales. Shortcomings of the study are noted and suggestions for future research in this area are offered. The appendices include all survey forms used, results of a feature analysis of over 300 highly-rated examination essays, typescripts of student interviews, and a sample writing reference set with scale-point descriptors. / Graduate

published_or_final_version / Language Studies / Master / Master of Arts

To argue that inferences drawn from a test of writing are valid, empirical evidence must demonstrate that the test adequately represents the construct it is designed to measure (Messick, 1998). The writing component of the Canadian Academic English Language (CAEL) Assessment, was developed in the early 1990's to represent the construct of English in use for academic purposes (EAP). Since that time, EAP approaches have been criticised within the fields of both language testing (Alderson, 1993; Clapham, 2001) and genre and composition studies (Freedman, 1999). Writing is currently viewed as a "site of social and ideological action" (Schryer, 1994), embedded within, and interacting with the disciplinary, historical, political and cultural contexts in which it acts (Freedman and Medway, 1994; Norton, 1995). Informed by cultural-historical Activity Theory (Cole and Engestrom, 1994; Vygotsky, 1989), this research examines the "social actions" which characterise performance on the CAEL writing test in relation to two other tests of English as a Second Language (L2) writing, the personal essay and the timed-impromptu essay. In Study 1, the semiotic potential of each test is defined by analysis of the verbal accounts of 4 raters and 20 test takers. In their accounts, what separates the EAP writing test from the other tests of writing is the academic expertise the EAP test elicits. In Study 2, the scores from n = 375 EAP essays and n = 271 cloze tests are compared in order to examine how much of the variance in each test is accounted for by academic expertise. Taken together, Studies 1 and 2 provide empirical evidence of what performance on the EAP writing test means to those engaged in the activity of testing. Evidence that the EAP writing test represents a construct, which has been reconceptualized to reflect current theories of writing, addresses the criticism of EAP-based tests and provides a model of inter-disciplinary test validation in relation to evolving construct

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

No description available.