Examining Second Language Reading: A Critical Review of the Singapore Cambridge General Certificate of Education Ordinary-Level Chinese Language Examination

This mixed methods study critically reviews how the Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education Ordinary-Level Chinese Language Examination (GCE 1162) examines second language reading. The main research question asks, ‘To what degree have the intended measurement objectives of the GCE 1162 reading examination been achieved?’ Four sub research questions address issues of specifications and administration, test-taker characteristics, cognitive parameters and contextual parameters. Resources drawn on include Singapore Ministry of Education and Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board documents, specifically, examination information booklets, syllabuses, committee reports and annual reviews. Subject matter experts were appointed to analyse the reading comprehension passages and test items from 22 sets of GCE 1162 reading examination papers from 2006 to 2016. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 22 stakeholders involved in coordination, test design, item construction, marking and reviewing. The interviewees included members of an elite policy group with privileged access to test specifications and procedures. Further interviews were carried out with secondary school Chinese language teachers and students, whose perspectives are seldom considered in validation processes. Opinions were also sought from experts in the field of Chinese as a second language, reading and assessment. The study begins with an account of the concepts of validity and reading constructs. Chapter 2 discusses the Singapore education and examination system, foregrounding the history of Chinese language education and the bilingual policy introduced in 1966. A methodology chapter follows. Chapters 4 to 8 address separately each of the four sub research questions in which claims, assumptions, supporting evidence and rebuttals are presented. The final chapter, Chapter 9, addresses a posteriori inferences, including scoring, criterion-related components, and washback and impact. A cautious conclusion is drawn, namely that the measurement quality of the GCE 1162 reading examination is at a moderately unsatisfactory level

Multimedia -assisted reading in Spanish and its relationship with the cognitive control of field dependence and field independence

This study examines the influence of the cognitive controls of field independence and field dependence on the use of a multimedia-assisted reading program and reading recall. The participants were 11 university students of intermediate Spanish as a second language. The participants were classified as field dependent or field independent based on GEFT scores. The participants read a passage about Mayan architecture that was converted to a multimedia-assisted format. Participants could access as many or as few of the multimedia aids as they chose. After completing the reading, a recall measure was obtained in which participants wrote everything they could recall of the passage. Independent t-tests examined the relationship between cognitive control and the use of multimedia aids, and the relationship between cognitive control and recall score. None of these differences were significant. However, since there were apparent differences in the access patterns, future research should include replication of the study with a larger sample

The Potential of the Human Respiratory System e-Worksheet based on the Guided Inquiry in Empowering Critical Thinking Skills

The presence of the covid pandemic, technological advances, and the complexities of the 21st century demand renewal of teaching materials in schools. Guided Inquiry learning models can also bridge the empowerment of critical thinking skills. This study aims to: 1) describe the feasibility of the e-worksheet based on expert judgment, 2) describe the practicality of the e-worksheet based on the teacher's assessment, and 3) describe the results of the e-worksheet readability assessment by students. This development research refers to the ADDIE development procedure. However, this research was only carried out up to the development stage due to limitations. The results of the feasibility assessment by material experts, teaching materials experts, and linguists showed that the e-worksheet was categorized as valid with a score of 80.00, 74.00, and 90.00, respectively. Then, the teacher's assessment results showed that the e-worksheet was in the practical category, scoring 92.00 and 94.00. Finally, the student readability test results showed that the e-worksheet could be read well, with scores of 93.61 and 93.88. Thus, the respiratory system e-worksheet based on the developed guided inquiry model can be recommended to improve students' critical thinking skills

DEVELOPING ISLAMIC-BASED MANDARIN CONSTRUCTIVIST TEACHING MATERIALS

This research is motivated by the absence of Mandarin language teaching materials that are integrated with Islamic values in their learning and the use of Mandarin language teaching materials, especially textbooks from the country of origin of China (People's Republic of China) which is still thick with eastern culture and less relevant to Islamic values. The research stages are identification analysis, formulation of teaching materials, readability test, trial, validation, and revision as well as making a final prototype. This research concludes that (1) Islamic-based Mandarin constructivist teaching materials are needed, especially in Islamic educational units that include Mandarin in their curriculum. (2) The design of teaching materials with the main topics of discussion on prayer, fasting and Eid has gone through the trial, validation and revision stage to produce the product is in the form of an Islamic-based constructivist Mandarin textbooks for beginners consisting of a teacher's manual and a student's book. (3) Based on the results of the readability test and validation of material experts, Islamic-based Mandarin teaching materials have been feasible 4) Islamic-based Mandarin Language Teaching Materials have received good acceptability from teachers and students as users.This research is motivated by the absence of Mandarin language teaching materials that are integrated with Islamic values in their learning and the use of Mandarin language teaching materials, especially textbooks from the country of origin of China (People's Republic of China) which is still thick with eastern culture and less relevant to Islamic values. The research stages are identification analysis, formulation of teaching materials, readability test, trial, validation, and revision as well as making a final prototype. This research concludes that (1) Islamic-based Mandarin constructivist teaching materials are needed, especially in Islamic educational units that include Mandarin in their curriculum. (2) The design of teaching materials with the main topics of discussion on prayer, fasting and Eid has gone through the trial, validation and revision stage to produce the product is in the form of an Islamic-based constructivist Mandarin textbooks for beginners consisting of a teacher's manual and a student's book. (3) Based on the results of the readability test and validation of material experts, Islamic-based Mandarin teaching materials have been feasible 4) Islamic-based Mandarin Language Teaching Materials have received good acceptability from teachers and students as users.Keywords: Teaching Materials, Constructivist, Islamic Base

Breaking the Language Barrier: Equitable Assessment in General Chemistry

Because language provides the framework through which knowledge is constructed, it is crucial to consider the ways in which students with limited English proficiencies are able to express their understanding. English language learners (ELLs) make up a significant portion of the student body in the education system and represent many ethnic and racial minorities in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) fields (Burke & Mattis, 2007). Despite the national push to build a more diversified, STEM-ready workforce, there is little research that considers the way ELLs are assessed in STEM courses at the postsecondary level. Literature reports that science tests that assess the knowledge of students who are still in the process of learning language skills are inadequate and threaten the validity of assessments. The way students interpret and respond to test items are mediated by linguistic and cultural factors, such as home language and prior educational experiences in the country of origin. Therefore, language and cultural factors must be taken into consideration in order to improve the validity of classroom assessments in science courses. Students’ experiences in introductory science courses, such as biology and general chemistry, are critical in their choice of staying in or switching out of STEM majors (Astin & Astin, 1992). Of these, general chemistry is one of the most feared science courses for undergraduate students (Carter & Brickhouse, 1989), and it is a required course for many STEM-bound career paths. Most students struggle with understanding chemistry and many do not succeed on chemistry assessments (Woldeamanuel et al., 2014). Research suggests that scientific language literacy has a significant influence on all students’ success in chemistry assessments, including that of both ELLs and Native English Speakers (NES) (Woldeamanuel et al., 2014). Therefore, one way to support the success of all students—and particularly of ELLs—on chemistry assessments is to address the linguistic complexity inherent in chemistry assessment questions. One way to ease the burden of linguistic complexity during testing is to apply the Equity Framework of Classroom Assessments (EFCA) (Siegel, 2008) to written test items. This framework aims to make test items more accessible without simplifying the content. In general chemistry, the EFCA can be implemented to make commonly-used items more accessible to all students using modifications such as division of prompt into smaller parts, reduction of non-essential information, adding representation, and simplifying sentence structure. This study investigated the perceptions of ELL and NES students about general chemistry assessment items that were modified according to the EFCA. ELL students reported to experience difficulties understanding items that included complex linguistic features such as complex sentence structures and vocabulary. The results show that ELLs perceived language-independent features of items to be the most helpful on assessment items. These features included the formatting of items and the visual representations embedded in items. Although NES students also found the visual features of items to be helpful, they used language-dependent features to understand and set up the problems. The results suggest that ELL students particularly benefited from scaffolding-related features in assessment items. Features that provided content support and guidance for identifying key information and setting up the problems were more helpful for ELL than NES students. Both groups of students found features that provided contextualization in the form of storylines and/or background information which were not directly related to solving the assessment items to be irrelevant, challenging, and/or confusing. Both groups of students reported that they preferred the revised versions—which included the modifications recommended by the EFCA—over the original versions of the assessment items presented to them. The findings suggest that most of the modifications employed in the EFCA are effective in mitigating linguistically complex elements of written assessments items about limiting reactant and percent yield in general chemistry and support the assessment of both ELL and NES students

An investigative study of English vocabulary acquisition patterns in adult L2 tertiary learners with Chinese/Malay L1

This study investigates patterns of second language (L2) learners’ vocabulary acquisition of English in pedagogical contexts, and develops a vocabulary acquisition model, specifically a pre-receptive to productive vocabulary (PR-PV) model which analyses the patterns of inferencing strategies, the role of context on the strategies, and the influence of teaching explicit strategies on vocabulary development. Research in the area of vocabulary development is unclear on the interrelationships among various aspects of lexical competence, learning, and production processes in second language lexical acquisition. Models of vocabulary acquisition in English as a second language are scarce and the lack often prompts L2 researchers to draw from first language vocabulary study models to correlate vocabulary developmental patterns. Research is also uncertain about how L2 learners respond to reading texts however, it is quite clear that the receptive vocabulary of L2 learners is larger than productive vocabulary.The study employed a mixed-method research approach and the findings suggest that both content and context play significant roles in the extent to which L2 learners interact efficiently with reading texts. The findings from the study may have pedagogical and theoretical implications for curriculum developers, instructors and policy makers in second language tertiary English learning contexts

Automatic Scaling of Text for Training Second Language Reading Comprehension

For children learning their first language, reading is one of the most effective ways to acquire new vocabulary. Studies link students who read more with larger and more complex vocabularies. For second language learners, there is a substantial barrier to reading. Even the books written for early first language readers assume a base vocabulary of nearly 7000 word families and a nuanced understanding of grammar. This project will look at ways that technology can help second language learners overcome this high barrier to entry, and the effectiveness of learning through reading for adults acquiring a foreign language. Through the implementation of Dokusha, an automatic graded reader generator for Japanese, this project will explore how advancements in natural language processing can be used to automatically simplify text for extensive reading in Japanese as a foreign language

High Interest Low Readability Books And Motivation In Chinese Classrooms

The research question addressed in this study was, how do high interest texts mediate Chinese middle school students’ reading comprehension? The author opens up this research territory by exploring four areas including the history of education in China, China’s examination system of high-stakes testing, L2 motivation, and classroom reading materials used at her school. The author focuses on interest as a factor and orientation towards intrinsic motivation, where high interest texts are used to mediate students’ reading experience and reading comprehension. Wigfield and Guthrie’s seminal work on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation along with Saddleback Educational hi-lo books influence the author’s approach to creating her own research methods. For this mixed methods study, the author uses middle school students from mainland China and matches them with high interest texts. The author collects data on student reading experiences via reading comprehension quizzes and a qualitative interview. The author concludes that student interest in the text related to higher reading achievement, although higher performance was on quantitative cognitive thinking skills, not qualitative cognitive thinking skills. In addition, the study found that student interest was elevated via texts with morals and relatable main characters but diminished during stories with repetitious events or less complex themes