A Study on the Washback Effects of the Test for English Majors (TEM)

A Study on the Washback Effects of the Test for English Majors (TEM) PDF

Author: Qian Xu

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-10-05

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 9811319634

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book adopts a multi-method and multi-phase approach to investigate the washback effects of Test for English Majors (TEM) on program administrators, teachers and students, shedding new light on TEM reform and the reform of English teaching and learning in China. TEM, a nationwide test used to measure the language proficiency of undergraduate English majors in China, is a major standardized test taken by nearly 400,000 students every year. The book’s key features include: an in-depth discussion of the nature of washback and a framework for investigating it; a multi-method and multi-phase approach, employing both the quantitative method of questionnaire surveys and the qualitative methods of interviews and classroom observations; large-scale questionnaire surveys conducted among experts, program administrators, teachers and students, and involving over 30,000 participants; detailed assessments of TEM’s washback effects on stakeholders’ perceptions, classroom teaching practice, students learning activities, etc.; and essential insights into testing and teaching reforms.

Data Science

Data Science PDF

Author: Jianchao Zeng

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-09-10

Total Pages: 532

ISBN-13: 9811659435

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This two volume set (CCIS 1451 and 1452) constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Conference of Pioneering Computer Scientists, Engineers and Educators, ICPCSEE 2021 held in Taiyuan, China, in September 2021. The 81 papers presented in these two volumes were carefully reviewed and selected from 256 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on big data management and applications; social media and recommendation systems; infrastructure for data science; basic theory and techniques for data science; machine learning for data science; multimedia data management and analysis; ​social media and recommendation systems; data security and privacy; applications of data science; education research, methods and materials for data science and engineering; research demo.

The Sociopolitics of English Language Testing

The Sociopolitics of English Language Testing PDF

Author: Seyyed-Abdolhamid Mirhosseini

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-02-20

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 1350071366

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Highlighting marginalized but significant perspectives about the sociopolitical essence of English language tests and testing processes worldwide, this book explores the social considerations of testing theories and practices from a critical perspective. Investigating concerns surrounding power inequalities, The Sociopolitics of English Language Testing takes a socially-situated view of language assessment, bringing sociopolitical understandings of language teaching, learning, and assessment to the forefront in the field. Within the broader discussion of the politics of test use, an international team of language and education experts address the issues of ideology, diversity, power, and dominance in English language testing. Through socially-sensitive theoretical as well as empirical discussion and investigation of English language testing, this book offers valuable insights, not only to applied linguists and the language education community who have focused on positivistic and cognitively-oriented conceptions of language testing, but to anyone who wishes to venture beyond the traditional bounds of the field.

Vocabulary and the Four Skills

Vocabulary and the Four Skills PDF

Author: Jon Clenton

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-07-05

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 1000074625

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This edited volume provides a single coherent overview of vocabulary teaching and learning in relation to each of the four skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking). Each of the four sections presents a skill area with two chapters presented by two leading experts in the field, relating recent advances in the field to the extent that each skill area relates differently to vocabulary and how this informs pedagogy and policy. The book opens with a summary of recent advances in the field of vocabulary, and closes by drawing conclusions from the skill areas covered. The chapters respond to emerging vocabulary research trends that indicate that lexical acquisition needs to be treated differently according to the skill area. The editors have chosen chapters to respond to recent research advances and to highlight practical and pedagogical application in a single coherent volume.

Pacific Rim Objective Measurement Symposium (PROMS) 2012 Conference Proceeding

Pacific Rim Objective Measurement Symposium (PROMS) 2012 Conference Proceeding PDF

Author: Quan Zhang

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-06-13

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 3642375928

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Entrusted by the Board of Management of the Pacific Rim Objective Measurement Symposium (PROMS), PROMS2012 is held in Jiaxing, China from August 6-9, 2012. Over the past years, PROMS has been hosted in many parts of the Pacific Rim, in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Tokyo, which has greatly promoted the research of and contributed to the development of Rasch Model in one way or another. As early as in 1980s, the ideas and concepts regarding IRT was first introduced into China by Prof. Gui Shichun, my Ph.D supervisor, and it is Prof. Gui who first conducted with great success the ten-year long (1990-1999) Equating Project for Matriculation English Test (MET) in China. MET is the most influential entrance examination for higher education administered annually to over 3.3 million candidates then. The Equating Project won recognition by Charles Alderson and other foreign counterparts during 1990s. Academically, those were Good Old Days for Chinese testing experts and psychometricians. Then for certain reasons, the equating practice abruptly discontinued. Therefore, in China nowadays, the application of IRT-based software like BILOG, Parscale, Iteman 4 and others to real testing problem solving is confined to an extremely small 'band' of people. In this sense, PROMS2012 meets an important need in that it provides an excellent introduction of IRT and its application. And anyone who is seriously interested in research and development in the field of psychometrics or language testing will find such a symposium and related workshops to be an excellent source of information about the application of Rasch Model. PROMS2012 focuses on recent advances in objective measurement and provides an international forum on both the latest research in using Rasch measurement and non-Rasch practice.

Assessing Chinese Learners of English

Assessing Chinese Learners of English PDF

Author: Guoxing Yu

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-02-17

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 1137449780

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This volume gathers researchers from around the world endeavouring to better understand a number of perennial issues in assessing Chinese learners of English, covering topics such as students' test performances, interactional competence and lexical knowledge, students' motivation, teachers' attitudes and assessment policy changes.

Changing Language Teaching Through Language Testing

Changing Language Teaching Through Language Testing PDF

Author: Liying Cheng

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2005-10-06

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 9780521544733

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

There has been growing interest in recent years in the influence of tests on teaching and learning - a phenomenon commonly referred to as 'washback'. Despite persistent assertions about its nature and scope, empirical studies investigating test washback are still limited in number, and few of these make use of both qualitative and quantitative methods in washback research. This volume presents a study of how the introduction of the 1996 Hong Kong Certificate of Education in English - a high stakes public examination - impacted on classroom teaching and learning in Hong Kong secondary schools. The washback effect was observed initially at the larger 'macro' level, among different stakeholder groups within the Hong Kong educational context; and also at the more local 'micro' level, in terms of teachers' attitudes, teaching content and classroom interactions. This study: provides a theoretical background to the washback concept, discusses the need for empirical investigation of washback, describes the use of a mixed methodology approach in washback research, offers insights into the role of tests as agents of innovation and change in the classroom and broader educational context. This volume will be of particular relevance to language test developers and researchers interested in the consequential validity of tests; it will also be of interest to teachers, curriculum designers, policymakers and others in education concerned with the interface between language testing and teaching practices/programs. Book jacket.

Learning-Oriented Language Assessment

Learning-Oriented Language Assessment PDF

Author: Atta Gebril

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2021-05-11

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 1000378403

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This collection brings together research on learning-oriented language assessment from scholars working across geographic and educational contexts, highlighting the opportunities of assessment practices which seek to better align assessment and learning tasks and support effective learning. The volume begins by introducing learning-oriented assessment (LOA) and the context around its growing popularity, especially in accountability-oriented settings which favor summative large-scale tests. The first part of the book charts the development of LOA’s theoretical and conceptual underpinnings, outlining the ways in which they have been informed by theories of learning and key elements. The second part demonstrates LOA in practice, drawing on examples from different countries and instructional settings to explore such topics as the role of technology in LOA and developing feedback materials based around LOA principles and developed for core literacy skills. Offering a holistic view of learning-oriented assessment and the real-world affordances and challenges of its implementation, this book is key reading for graduate students, researchers, and practitioners in language testing and assessment, TESOL, and language education.

English Language Teaching Research in the Middle East and North Africa

English Language Teaching Research in the Middle East and North Africa PDF

Author: Sahbi Hidri

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-11-23

Total Pages: 716

ISBN-13: 3319985337

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This edited collection examines a range of English Language Teaching (ELT) research in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). While the MENA context has witnessed considerable change in recent years, it has so far been under-represented in ELT research at both the regional and the international level. This book aims to fill that gap by surveying the current state of the field, examining in detail a range of issues and concepts, and suggesting future directions for further research. It will be of interest to ELT researchers and practitioners in general - not just those based in MENA contexts themselves.

Self-regulated Learning and Second Language Writing

Self-regulated Learning and Second Language Writing PDF

Author: Lin Sophie Teng

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-05-30

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 3030995208

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This monograph is to investigate practical applications and contributions of self-regulated learning (SRL) to second/foreign language (L2) writing from sociocognitive and sociocultural perspectives. It showcases a comprehensive and updated review of conceptual and methodological issues of SRL and the state-of-the-art research on its applications to L2 learning and teaching. This volume further elaborates the design and results of a large-scale project which conducts observational and intervention studies investigating SRL strategies in L2 writing. This book reveals that a cross-disciplinary understanding of SRL strategies plays a crucial role in advancing theoretical functions of SRL and in extending its applications to L2 education in general, and L2 writing in particular. This book makes significant contributions to developing and validating new conceptual frameworks and tools for evaluating multidimensional structures of SRL strategies and self-efficacy in L2 writing; elucidating the interplay of personal, behavioral, environmental and psychological factors with SRL strategies and writing performance; and presenting an effective self-regulation instructional model for nurturing L2 learners’ motivation and confidence to strategize, reflect and succeed in writing. Teng has established herself as one of the prominent scholars in the discussion of self-regulated learning strategies. Her contribution to the fields of L2 writing and strategic learning are undeniable. This monograph is an excellent showing of how her ​endeavors to bring established theories from educational psychology to applied writing research have progressed over a number of methodologically rigorous studies. It should be required reading for anyone with an interest in cultivating strategic writers not only in the Chinese context but worldwide. Nathan Thomas, UCL Institute of Education