Detecting Anomalies in Assessment Devices for Cross-Cultural Use: Fairness Concerns

Assessment devices are developed with the undertaking of collecting data that will inform a valid and reliable crux of interest. Such information is mandatory as it will constitute a basis for responsible decision-making. In order to meet the projected function appropriately, any assessment device, let alone those for cross-cultural use, needs to be anomaly-free. While the use of assessment devices across nations has been ubiquitous worldwide, scrutinizing assessment devices for any existing covert defects is unavoidably imperative if fairness in the result interpretation is to be envisioned. This paper reviews briefly several concepts related with nuisances that potentially cause anomaly in assessment devices particularly for cross-cultural use. Keywords: anomalies, assessment devices, cross-cultural studie

Assessing Non-english Department Students\u27 Mastery of Academic Content Area Reading

: Assessing Non English Department Students\u27 Mastery of Academic Content Area Reading. This study addresses mainly college students\u27comprehension on academic texts. It involves 400 respondents of three state and three private universities in Malang with study programs with ‘high, ‘fair\u27, and ‘low\u27 bases on the proportion of the study programs accredited A by the National Board of Accreditation (BAN). Quantitative data were analyzed descriptively and comparatively. The results show reading com­prehension of most respondents ranges from ‘avarage\u27 to ‘low\u27. Most word attack skills and text content attack skills are low. Text structure attack skills are not adequately mastered. The respondents\u27 compre­hension across state universities does not significantly differ, but there is a difference across private univer­sities, limited to certain private universities. A significant difference between the comprehension of stu­dents of state universities and private universities and a significant difference between the comprehension of science and social studies students are evidenced. Most respondents are not yet ready for academic comprehension of English

ARCHETYPAL EFL READERS: PRELIMINARY EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE SUBSTANTIATED FROM SELECTED DISCRIMINATING VARIABLES

The study is an attempt to empirically examine factors that differentiate EFL readers with different EFL reading proficiency levels. Four selected factors believed to play a role in reading comprehension are considered, namely: linguistic knowledge, reading strategies, text structure knowledge, content and world background knowledge. Discriminant analysis was employed to scrutinize the data collected on these variables. The analysis wraps up, revealing that advanced EFL readers, while they are sufficiently equipped with formal schemata that necessarily embrace both linguistic knowledge and text structure knowledge, can be speculated to consist of three groups: those who fail to activate their relevant schemata, those who fail to use their reading strategies, and those who can function both content and world background knowledge and their readingstrategies with ease

Ujian Nasional (UN): Harapan, Tantangan, dan Peluang

The National Examination (NE) has been conducted for several times nation-wide. However, public debates always emerge over the importance of NE prior to the annual excecution of the examination. The government’s policy to raise the passing standard under the pretext of improving the quality of the national education has commonly triggered a heated controversy. This paper discusses the NE from the perspectives of expectations, challenges and opportunities. It attempts to provide an objective picture as to the need to hold NE. As such, it puts the attempts to improve the quality of the national education through NE in a proportionately wider perspective.Keywordsnational examination, national education, quality of national education

Reading for meaning : theories teaching strategies and assesment

170 hlm.: 21 c

Promoting College Students' Academic Speaking Skills through The Crosscultural Multistructural Approach

The writing of this article is motivated by the practice in the teaching of speaking skills in the English Department which seems to encounter several challenges, three of which are: absence of cross-cultural contexts, insufficient guidance on the part of the students in organizing ideas, and insufficiency in the instructional framework that the teacher implements to reach the pre-stated goal. To this end, an approach to instruction has been developed, which mainly rests on three theoretical frameworks: knowledge of the world, cultural thought pattern, and cooperative learnin

Is The Unitary Competence Hypothesis Tenable?

In Oiler's view (1979) the idea that language can be broken down into smaller, isolated segments falls short of validity. Instead, Oller hypothesises the existence of a single faculty which is responsible for all language processing. Although his proposal is derived from several studies, this is not sufficient assurance for the validity of the theory he tries to establish

Detecting Anomalies in Assessment Devices for Cross-Cultural Use: Fairness Concerns

Assessment devices are developed with the undertaking of collecting data that will inform a valid and reliable crux of interest. Such information is mandatory as it will constitute a basis for responsible decision-making. In order to meet the projected function appropriately, any assessment device, let alone those for cross-cultural use, needs to be anomaly-free. While the use of assessment devices across nations has been ubiquitous worldwide, scrutinizing assessment devices for any existing covert defects is unavoidably imperative if fairness in the result interpretation is to be envisioned. This paper reviews briefly several concepts related with nuisances that potentially cause anomaly in assessment devices particularly for cross-cultural use