40 research outputs found
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The Impact of the School Leaving Certificate Examination on English Language Teaching and Student Motivation to Learn English
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The Relationship between Reading Strategy Use and EFL Test Performance
There has been a steady interest in investigating the relationship between strategy use and English as a foreign language (EFL) test performance. Despite numerous studies on strategy use, the relationship between the two is still not clear. This paper reports on a study that investigated the use of reading strategies in the Secondary Education Examination English reading test and the relationship between reading strategy use and the test performance. A sample of 312 EFL learners studying at Grade 10 in Nepal participated in this study. They were asked to take the test and then respond to a reading strategy questionnaire. The quantitative software SPSS (version 20) was used to analyze the data. The results indicated that participants were active strategy users, and they used cognitive strategies more frequently than metacognitive strategies. A significant relationship was identified between reading strategy use and EFL proficiency; high-proficiency learners reported significantly higher use of reading strategies than moderate-proficiency learners, who in turn reported higher use of those strategies than their low-proficiency peers. Implications of these findings for EFL teaching and recommendations for further research are discussed
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Roles of Planning and Tasks in EFL Performance
There is a substantial body of research into the effects of planning time on second language (L2) oral performance, but different effects were found – some of them showing increased accuracy, others increased complexity and/or fluency of language. In this study, 30 English as a foreign language learner individually performed a narrative and an argumentative task under planned and unplanned conditions. Then, ten of the participants took part in a retrospective debriefing. Both the oral narratives and retrospective reports were transcribed and analyzed manually. The results revealed that planning led to syntactically more varied but less accurate language whilst fluency remained unaffected. Significant effects of task type could be observed, with argumentation outperforming narration on most measures. In addition, an interaction between planning and task type was statistically proven for almost all measures of fluency and for a single measure of complexity. Furthermore, most participants had positive attitudes towards pre-task planning. The findings also suggest that choosing suitable task-based implementational conditions can assist L2 learners in improving oral performances
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Impact of the Secondary Education Examination (English) on Students and Parents in Nepal
This study aimed at investigating the impact of the secondary education examination English test on students and their parents in Nepal. It was conducted with Grade 10 students (N=247) and their parents (N=6) in Nepal. It employed a mixed methods methodology comprising a longitudinal survey (pre-test and post-test survey) with students, oral diaries recorded by six students intermittently for three months and interviews with those six students and their parents both in the pre-test and post-test context. The test impacts were critically examined through the lens of critical language testing theory.
The findings suggest that the majority of students (79%) were motivated to learn English in the pre-test context, but not in the post-test context. Most students and their parents had positive attitudes towards the test fairness and accuracy in the pre-test context but they considered the test to be unfair and inaccurate in the post-test context. They reported feeling extremely anxious about the test and under enormous pressure to raise test scores. The test had huge impact on learning English; students’ learning was limited to the test contents and they rarely used the strategies that develop their English language skills. Parents provided any possible support to their children for the test preparation. They even tended to coerce their children to use certain strategies for the test preparation and to work very hard for the test. However, individual differences were observed in each case.
Despite the fact that the test supported students to study the subject of their choice at higher secondary level, the overwhelming majority of students had difficulty in learning different subjects taught through English at Grade 11. Thus, the study provided a set of implications for teaching English in an English as a foreign language context along with some recommendations for the improvement of the test and for future research
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Effects of task repetition on EFL oral performance
There is considerable research into the effects of task repetition (TR) on second language (L2) performance but the results are not yet conclusive. However, some patterns are emerging in the findings such as TR in most cases seems to trigger more fluent language. Unfortunately, limited attention has been paid to L2 learners’ perceptions of TR. In this study, 40 English as a foreign language (EFL) learners were asked to repeat a task, three days after they first performed the task. On both performances, they performed the task as soon as they received instructions. The results indicated that TR triggered more complex and fluent, but less accurate, narratives. Post-task interviews indicated that the majority of learners had positive attitudes towards TR; they were more confident second time around because of their familiarity with the task. The finding of the study that TR promoted fluency and accuracy might have some pedagogical implications for EFL teaching
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Construct validity of the Nepalese school leaving english reading test
There has been a steady interest in investigating the validity of language tests in the last decades. Despite numerous studies on construct validity in language testing, there are not many studies examining the construct validity of a reading test. This paper reports on a study that explored the construct validity of the English reading test in the Nepalese school leaving examination. Eight students were asked to take the test and think-aloud, followed by retrospective interviews. Additionally, seven experts were asked to make judgments regarding the skills tested by the test. The findings provide grounded insights into students’ response behaviors prompted by the reading tasks, and indicate some threats to the construct validity of the test. Additionally, the study reports a low level of agreement among the experts, and a big gap between the skills used by the students and the skills that the experts thought were being examined by the test
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Reading Strategies in the Nepalese School Leaving Exam: Establishing Construct Validity
There are a number of studies on construct validity of a language test in general, and a reading test in particular; most of them are quantitative in nature. As quantitative studies may not capture the cognitive processes the test takers follow to respond to a test item, the importance of collecting verbal reports of test takers has been recommended in order to establish the construct validity of a test (Alderson, 1990b). Additionally, no research to date, has investigated the construct validity of the reading test of the school leaving examination in Nepal. Therefore, the present study was designed to fill this gap i.e. to investigate whether the reading strategies, the test claims to test, are measured by the test. In order to investigate the issue, eight grade 10 students were asked to take the reading test and think-aloud when responding to the test items. Immediately after they completed the test, they were asked to take part in a retrospective debriefing. Additionally, in order to triangulate the data, the views of seven language testing experts on the reading strategies tested by the test were collected. The experts were first asked to make judgements individually with regard to the skills tested by the test. Then, they were asked to take part in a focus group discussion. The findings provide grounded insights into the response behaviours prompted by the reading tasks on the test and indicate some threats to the construct validity of the test as the test does not seem to be measuring all the reading strategies it claims to measure. The study also indicates a very low level of agreement among the subject experts regarding the strategies tested by the test. Consequently, there was a big gap between the strategy use and expert judgements. Therefore, the usefulness of expert judgements to predict which reading strategies the test items are testing is questioned and the need for further research concerning the methodologies used in the study has been suggested. More importantly, the study highlights the need to make the test more valid
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EFL Students’ Test Preparation Practices in the Nepalese context
Test preparation is often seen as a potential factor influencing students’ performances beyond their ability on the construct measured by language tests. It is assumed that the higher the stakes of a test, the more likely that students are engaged in the test preparation as students are under pressure to raise test scores. The literature on language testing indicates that test impacts on classroom learning (and teaching) has been widely explored. However, little research has explored English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ out-of-class test preparation practices though they spend more time outside formal classes. The research reported in this paper explored this area in the context of Nepal. The major focus of the current study was on the Secondary School Examination (SEE) English test- a nationwide large-scale standardised test conducted at the end of 10-year school education in Nepal. The stakes associated with the SEE are extremely high as its grades determine which course a candidate can study in higher education and the test is used as a basic qualification for most jobs in Nepal. Thus, success in this examination widens students’ prospects for students’ self-developmen
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Students’ and parents’ attitudes towards the SEE English test
This paper reports on a study that explored students’ and their parents’ attitudes towards the fairness and accuracy of the Secondary Education Examination (SEE)English test- a high stakes test in the Nepalese context. It is most probably the first empirical study that has extensively explored this area. The data generated through a longitudinal survey among 247 SEE candidates and semi-structured interviews with six students and their parents in both the pre-test and post-test contexts indicates that students had mostly positive attitudes towards the test fairness and its accuracy in the pre-test context but mostly negative attitudes in the post-test context. However, parents had mostly negative attitudes towards the test in both contexts. Both students and their parents raised questions regarding the accuracy and fairness of the listening and speaking test in the post-test context. Having collected both the qualitative and quantitative data, this study has gained a comprehensive picture of the complexity of the test impacts within the Nepalese educational context, as perceived by students and their parents. The implications of the study have also been highlighted
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High-Stakes Test Impact on Student Motivation to Learn
This paper reports on a study that explored the impacts of the Secondary Education Examination (SEE) English test on students’ motivation to learn English. Unlike previous studies on test impact, this study has extensively explored both the pre-test and post-test impacts of the test on students’ motivation to learn English. The data generated through a longitudinal survey among 247 SEE candidates and semi-structured interviews with six students and their parents in both the pre-test and post-test contexts indicates that the majority of students (79%) were motivated to learn English in the pre-test context but more than half of the students (54%) were discouraged from learning English in the post-test context. There were several reasons behind their demotivation to learn English in the post-test context including unfair judgement in the test and poor conduction of its speaking test. Pedagogical implications of the study have been discussed