Search

The article offers the author's insights on the proposal by Qiufang Wen and Yihong Gao, which says that articles published in periphery journals in local languages should be published in translation in English journals. It states that the proposal is found by many academics as repugnant and untenable, while for others, it goes to the heart of the inequalities in access both to knowledge and to the rewards of being published. It mentions that both sides of the argument are supported on ethical grounds including originality, ownership, and of not double-dipping, versus distributive justice, knowledge that should be owned and shared, and double-giving. Furthermore, the author says that it is better to publish a research in the language of its origin and of journals read in that society.

The article explores the teacher-based assessment of oral English and the systematic principles needed to create large-scale alternative assessment form in Hong Kong, China. It cites that English school-based assessment (SBA) was implemented by the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, which aims to bring goals on the assessment for learning at level of schools and classroom. It notes that the elements in the creation of assessment of learning approaches provides a role for teacher as assessor of the student's learning and evaluate if a student has met the standards of the subject. It mentions that the key principles of a test tool are reliability, validity, practicality and consequences.

The two authors conducted a small empirical study to attempt to find support for − or evidence against − the view that international tests of English language proficiency are unfair to speakers of non-standards forms of English, since these tests privilege standard forms. We explore the question of whose norms should be imposed in these tests, and what the consequences for test-takers are if the norm imposed by the test is not the “normal” variety accepted in their own society. Data used for the study are written texts by English learners from six language backgrounds, scored by raters from their own language backgrounds as well as by native American English raters. Interesting patterns emerge, but we conclude that the complexity of the variables involved, the small n-size, and the inherent unreliability of scoring productive samples prevent any definitive claims being made. 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike success in first language acquisition, success in learning a second or foreign language is considerably more variable. Recently, second language acquisition researchers have called for more integrative research on individual difference factors. With this goal in mind, this study followed a larger, quantitative study of the links between self-directedness for language learning and English language learning attainment among university students on the Chinese mainland and in Hong Kong. Drawing on the findings of that study (Gan, 2003), this 1-semester study looked closely at 2 small groups of tertiary-level English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in China in order to document how they carried out their out-of-class (self-directed) English learning, as well as to elaborate issues that may be critical to understanding the variability that had already been observed in their English learning outcomes. The data were gathered through interviews, diaries, and follow-up email correspondence with 9 successful and 9 unsuccessful second-year EFL students at 2 Chinese mainland universities. Using grounded theory methodology (Strauss & Corbin, 1994, 1998), 6 categories of qualitative data were constructed: conceptualizing English language learning; perceptions of the College English Course; learning and practising strategies; self-management; internal drive; and English proficiency tests. The study findings suggest that different levels of success may be explained by a complex and dynamic interplay of internal cognition and emotion, external incentives, and social context. The findings imply the need to take a holistic view of variation in language learning outcomes and to broaden the scope of the current practice in learner strategy training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports on research into the claim that widely used English language proficiency tests are unfair (unfair in the sense that a test favouring boys could be said to be unfair to girls). The global spread of English opens a major debate on the acceptability of competing norms, whether they should be exonormative or endonormative (Davies, 1999; Gill, 1999). An International English (IE) view insists that the only acceptable norms are those of native English speakers (NES). A strong World Englishes (WES) view maintains that to impose IE on users of WEs may be discriminatory against non-native English speakers (NNES). The theoretical and practical aspects of the issue come together in institutionalized English language proficiency testing. The paper reports on comparative definitions by expert local judges of the norms used in international (IELTS and TOEFL) and national (Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, India, China) English language proficiency tests and considers in what ways the differing definitions have in practice influenced language test construction. It further reports on the findings so far with regard to three basic questions: 1. How possible is it to distinguish between an error and a token of a new type? 2. If we could establish bias, how much would it really matter? 3. Does an international English test privilege those with a metropolitan anglophone education? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a response by Liz Hamp-Lyons about his article "Polemic Gone Astray: A Corrective to Recent Criticism of TOEFL Preparation." He explains that his purpose was not to attack the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or the Educational Testing Service, rather, to direct critical attention toward unethical test preparation materials. He also asserted that his claims about the incapability of adult learners of self-guided learning were based on the research and not on an assumption.

Opinion. Focuses on the role of textbooks on the influence of tests in teaching and learning. Questions raised concerning the prevalent practices of test preparation and materials used; Illustration of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL); Conclusions reached from a study of TOEFL preparation classes and teachers; Proposal of general principals for the profession.

Discusses methodological challenges in the rating of language compositions of nonnative English speakers. Portfolio-based writing assessments; Internal congruence within a student's essay; Holistic scoring system; Limitations of essay testing; Multiple trait assessment.

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article "Process, Not Product: Less Than Meets the Eye," by Daniel M. Horowitz in the March 1986 issue.

Presents a response to a commentary made by James Dean Brown and Asha Tickoo about the article "Whose Norms? International Proficiency Tests in English," published in the periodical "World Englishes," vol. 22. Definition of terms; Concept of bias; Nature of evidence.