Standardising written feedback on L2 student writing

Thesis (M.A. (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006The primary aim of this study is to determine whether it is possible to standardize written feedback on L2 student writing for use in a computerised marking environment. It forms part of a bigger project aimed at enhancing the feedback process as a whole The study attempts to establish "best practice" with regards to feedback on writing, by establishing from the literature what works and what should be avoided. Also, an empirical study was launched to establish what lecturers focus on and what marking techniques they use. A set of randomly selected essays from the Tswana Learner English Corpus and the Afrikaans Learner English Corpus were sent to the English departments of different tertiary institutions across the country. The essays were marked by the English lecturers at the relevant institutions. The conclusion was that lecturers typically focus on surface structures, and use ineffective marking techniques. The best practice (and data from the empirical study) was then used to create a set of standardised feedback comments (tag set) that can be used in a specially programmed software package in which students submit their texts electronically. Lecturers can then mark the student essays on the computer, hopefully speeding up the process, while at the same time giving much more detailed feedback. In later stages of the bigger project, students will get individualized exercises based on the feedback, and there are experiments currently being run to try and automate certain pans of the marking process in order to take some strain off the lecturers when marking. The immense archiving abilities of the computer will also be utilized in order to create opportunities for longitudinal studies. The effectiveness of the feedback tag set was tested in comparison to the marking techniques used by the lecturers in the empirical study and a self-correcting exercise. The conclusion was that the feedback tag set is more effective than the other two techniques. but students seem to perform weak overall when it gets to the revision of cohesive devices and supporting arguments. I argue that students are not used to revising these features, since lecturers seldom (if ever) comment on the structural elements of texts. However, the experiment proves that standardization of written feedback is possible to an extent. The implications of the findings are discussed, and recommendations for further research are made.Master

MarkWrite : standardised feedback on ESL student writing via a computerised marking interface

Thesis (Ph.D. (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.The research reported on in this thesis forms part of the foundation of a bigger research project in which an attempt is made to provide better, faster and more efficient feedback on student writing. The introduction presents the localised and international context of the study, and discusses some of the problems experienced with feedback practice in general. The introduction also gives a preview of the intended practical implementation of the research reported on in this thesis. From there on, the thesis is presented in article form with each article investigating and answering a part of two main guiding questions. These questions are: 1. Does feedback on student writing work? 2. How can feedback on student writing be implemented as effectively as possible? The abstracts for the five individual articles are as follows: Article 1 Article 1 presents a rubric for the evaluation of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) software based on international recommendations for effective CALL. The rubric is presented after a brief overview of the pedagogical and implementation fundamentals of CALL, and a discussion of what needs to be included in a needs analysis for CALL evaluation. It is then illustrated how the evaluation criteria in the rubric can be used in the design of a new CALL system. Article 2 Providing feedback on student writing is a much-debated topic. One group of researchers argues that it is ineffective and another group remains convinced that it is effective, while at ground level teachers and lecturers simply carry on “marking” texts. The author of this article contends that both arguments have valid contributions to make and uses the arguments both for and against feedback to create a checklist for effective feedback practice. Adhering to this checklist should counter most of the arguments against feedback while supporting and improving the positive arguments in favour of feedback. Article 3 This article reports on an experiment which tested how effectively standardised feedback could be used when marking L2 student writing. The experiment was conducted using a custom-programmed software tool and a set of standardised feedback comments. The results of the experiment prove that standardised feedback can be used consistently and effectively to a degree, even though some refinements are still needed. Using standardised feedback in a standard marking environment can assist markers in raising their awareness of errors and in more accurately identifying where students lack knowledge. With some refinements, it may also be possible to speed up the marking process. Article 4 This article describes an experiment in which Boolean feedback (a kind of checklist) was used to provide feedback on the paragraph structures of first-year students in an academic literacy course. The major problems with feedback on L2 writing are introduced and it is established why a focus on paragraph structures in particular is of importance. The experiment conducted was a two-draft assignment in which three different kinds of feedback (technique A: handwritten comments; technique B: consciousness raising through generalised Boolean feedback; and technique C: specific Boolean feedback) were presented to three different groups of students. The results indicate that specific Boolean feedback is more effective than the other two techniques, partly because a higher proportion of the instances of negative feedback on the first draft were corrected in the second draft (improvements), but more importantly because in the revision a much lower number of changes to the text resulted in negative feedback on the second draft (regressions). For non-specific feedback, almost as many regressions occurred as improvements. In combination with automatic analytical techniques made possible with software, the results from this study make a case for using such checklists to give feedback on student writing. Article 5 This article describes an experiment in which a series of statements, answerable simply with yes or no (labelled Boolean feedback), were used to provide feedback on the introductions, conclusions and paragraph structures of student texts. A write-rewrite assignment (the same structure as in article 4) was used and the quality of the student revisions was evaluated. The results indicate that the students who received Boolean feedback showed greater improvement and fewer regressions than students who received feedback using the traditional method. The conclusion provides a brief summary as well as a preview of the immense future research possibilities made possible by this project.Doctora

Yes/No/Maybe: A Boolean attempt at feedback

This paper describes an experiment in which Boolean feedback (a kind of checklist) was used to provide feedback on the paragraph structures of first year students in an Academic Literacy course. We begin by introducing the major problems with feedback on L2 writing and establishing why a focus on paragraph structures in particular is of importance. The experiment conducted was a two-draft assignment in which three different kinds of feedback (technique A: handwritten comments, B: consciousness-raising through generalised Boolean feedback, and C: specific Boolean feedback) were presented to three different groups of students. The results indicate that specific Boolean feedback is more effective than the other two techniques, in small part because a higher proportion of the instances of negative feedback on the first draft was corrected in the second draft (improvements), but much more substantially because in the revision a much lower number of changes to the text resulted in negative feedback on the second draft (regressions). For non-specific feedback, almost as many regressions occurred as improvements. In combination with automatic analytical techniques made possible with software, the results from this study make a case for the use of such checklists in giving feedback on student writing.http://reference.sabinet.co.za/sa_epublication/lang

Utilising lecturer input to inform the design of an audio e-assessment tool

With the rise of digital recording devices and web-based learning platforms, audio feedback has grown in popularity owing to easier distribution of recordings. Audio feedback is touted as having multiple advantages over written feedback. Although there are many studies reporting on the use of audio feedback and its effectiveness and efficiency, none of these have reported on the needs and requirements of lecturers to effectively provide audio feedback. Therefore, the aim of this article is to establish lecturers’ needs pertaining to audio feedback. For this purpose, lecturers interested in utilising audio feedback were invited to discuss their common frustrations and needs during a focus group interview regarding the provision of feedback. The findings of the focus group were in line with common frustrations regarding feedback in general as found in the literature. These findings were then interpreted to create a wish list for implementation in a lecturer-centred audio feedback syste

Akademiese taalvermoë en nagraadse studie – ’n gevallestudie

Academic language proficiency has a significant impact on students’ academic performance. According to existing literature underdeveloped language competence is a common problem amongst postgraduate students (Bammett, 1989; Grabe, 1991; Ellis, 1994; Cohen, 1998; Tercanlioglu, 2004; Brown, 2008; Young et al., 2013). Reasons for this situation include the fact that postgraduate students often have to write in a language other than their mother tongue or that they lack abilities in critical reading, the handling of sources, academic argumentation, and text structuring. Students at masters and doctoral level therefore often struggle with handling prescribed material and with producing well-written academic texts, and supervisors are challenged to act proactively in order to manage potential risks. This article is a report on the use of the Test of Academic Literacy for Postgraduate Students – TALPS (ICELDA, 2020) to determine the academic literacy needs of postgraduate students for the purpose of course development. TALPS was used in combination with needs reported by supervisors in order to identify performance requirements and gaps in students’ profi ciencies. In combination with guidelines for best practice available in the existing literature this knowledge was used for the creation of a short course in academic writing for postgraduate students. This context specific intervention focused on the writing of a literature review, text structuring, cohesion and coherence, academic argumentation, scholarly identity, and text editing. Exceptionally positive feedback from both students and supervisors and significant improvement in students’ writing testify to the success of this intervention

Towards modelled testing of productive knowledge of collocations

Accurate use of collocations is seen as a measure of a learner’s proficiency in a second/ foreign language. However, research is not conclusive as to how to best test productive knowledge of collocations and, more fundamentally, there is no agreement on how vocabulary size, i.e. word comprehension, influences collocation production within a constrained or unconstrained context. This article elaborates on a battery of tests aimed at examining these issues. The tests were presented to both English as Foreign Language (EFL) and English as Second Language (ESL) students. The findings indicate that constrained and unconstrained contexts may represent different levels of productive knowledge, casting doubt on the definition of productive knowledge collapsing the two contexts – constrained and unconstrained – into one construct. Furthermore, both levels are influenced by the size of a learner’s receptive knowledge, which confirms Gyllstad’s earlier observation on the relationship between receptive knowledge of collocations and vocabulary size, which is extended here to include productive knowledge. On the basis of these results, we argue that a new definition for ‘productive knowledge of collocations’ is in order, where productive knowledge is categorised according to four levels based on the amount of context provided to the learner

Productive knowledge of collocations may predict academic literacy

The present study examines the relationship between productive knowledge of collocations and academic literacy among first year students at North-West University. Participants were administered a collocation test, the items of which were selected from Nation’s (2006) word frequency bands, i.e. the 2000-word, 3000-word, 5000-word bands; and the Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000). The scores from the collocation test were compared to those from the Test of Academic Literacy Levels (version administered in 2012). The results of this study indicate that, overall, knowledge of collocations is significantly correlated with academic literacy, which is also observed at each of the frequency bands from which the items were selected. These results support Nizonkiza’s (2014) findings that a significant correlation between mastery of collocations of words from the Academic Word List and academic literacy exists; which is extended here to words from other frequency bands. They also confirm previous findings that productive knowledge of collocations increases alongside overall proficiency (cf. Gitsaki, 1999; Bonk, 2001; Eyckmans et al., 2004; Boers et al., 2006; Nizonkiza, 2011; among others). This study therefore concludes that growth in productive knowledge of collocations may entail growth in academic literacy; suggesting that productive use of collocations is linked to academic literacy to a considerable extent. In light of these findings, teaching strategies aimed to assist first year students meet academic demands posed by higher education and avenues to explore for further research are discussed. Especially, we suggest adopting a productive oriented approach to teaching collocations, which we believe may prove useful

Land subsidence by peat oxidation leads to enhanced salinization through boils in Dutch polders

Peat oxidation in deep Dutch polders leads - in addition to subsidence - to the development of new saline boils, enhancing the salinization of these polders. This on-going process is studied in detail in the Middelburg-Tempelpolder. The objective of the study was to get more in-depth knowledge about this process and to assess it for the present situation and for future landscapes (after 10, 50, 100 and 500 years).</p

Land subsidence by peat oxidation leads to enhanced salinization through boils in Dutch polders

Peat oxidation in deep Dutch polders leads - in addition to subsidence - to the development of new saline boils, enhancing the salinization of these polders. This on-going process is studied in detail in the Middelburg-Tempelpolder. The objective of the study was to get more in-depth knowledge about this process and to assess it for the present situation and for future landscapes (after 10, 50, 100 and 500 years).</p

Temperature buffering by groundwater in ecologically valuable lowland streams under current and future climate conditions

Groundwater seepage influences the temperature of streams and rivers by providing a relatively cool input in summer and warm input in winter. Because of this, groundwater seepage can be a determining factor in the provision of suitable water temperatures for aquatic biota. Climate warming affects stream and groundwater temperatures, and changes the thermal characteristics of streams leading to the potential disappearance of habitats. In this study the importance of groundwater for the temperature of two Dutch lowland streams and its possible role in mitigating the effects of climate change was determined by combining field measurements and a modelling experiment. Stream temperature measurements using fibre optic cables (FO-DTS) and sampling of 222Rn were done to map localized groundwater inflow. Several springs and seepage ‘hot-spots’ were located which buffered the water temperature in summer and winter. A stream temperature model was constructed and calibrated using the FO-DTS-measurements to quantify the energy fluxes acting on stream water. This way, the contribution to the stream thermal budget of direct solar radiation, air temperature and seepage were separated. The model was then used to simulate the effects of changes in shading, groundwater seepage and climate. Shading was shown to be an important control on summer temperature maxima. Groundwater seepage seemed to buffer the effect of climate warming, potentially making groundwater dominated streams more climate robust. Protecting groundwater resources in a changing climate is important for the survival of aquatic species in groundwater-fed systems, as groundwater seepage both sustains flow and buffers temperature extremes. Keywords: Stream temperature, Groundwater-surface water interaction, Distributed temperature sensing, Stream temperature model, Radon-222, Climate chang