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This study reports the results of a mixed-methods approach to investigate the impact of peer online learner-driven feedback (LDF) using Google Docs and peer-editing in a face-to-face classroom on EFL learners' writing skill. As this study was conducted using a quasi-experimental design, two intact groups, each including twenty EFL learners, were selected as the participants of the study. They were attending an IELTS preparation course at a language school in Iran. To assess the learners' IELTS academic writing skills, we used academic writing task 1 and task 2 and conducted semi-structured interviews to explore the learners' perceptions towards the impact of online learner-driven peer-editing on writing tasks. An independent-samples t-test, along with two one-way MANCOVA, was used to analyse the quantitative data. The results showed that LDF-based peer-editing significantly enhanced the learners' academic writing skills, compared to the conventional in-class feedback. The thematic analysis used to analyse the qualitative data shed light on the learners' positive perceptions towards the effect of online learner-driven peer-editing on academic writing skills.

The study explored the household education expenditures for higher education exam preparation in Turkey. The study employed the case study design, one of the qualitative research designs. The study group consisted of families whose children were preparing for the higher education exam. The families were living in the city of Zonguldak. While determining the study group, criterion sampling technique and snowball sampling technique were used. The study data were collected using a semi-structured interview form. The study showed that households had education expenditures for higher education exam preparation. These expenditures were in the form of exam books and private teaching institutions/private lesson expenditures. Educational expenditures of households affected the economic, social, and individual life of the household. This effect was in the form of postponing or abandoning the basic needs of the household. Families recommended a change in the education system in order to reduce/eliminate household education expenditures. In a period when neoliberal education policies are on the agenda, it can be stated that the contribution of households to education expenditures will continue. Pulling away from the marketized examination approach and strengthening public education expenditures instead of household education expenditures are not limited to education policies, but also depends on the change in political and economic policies.

This paper aims to determine the opinions of prospective teachers about biology lessons conducted through distance education during the pandemic. In the study, the focus group study technique was applied as one of the qualitative research methods. 15 prospective teachers from the Department of Science Education, studying in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th -grades in Siirt University, participated in this study. Questions were presented to the prospective teachers in the form of a semi-structured form and interviews were conducted separately for each grade and recorded. The data collected were analyzed via content analysis. Based on the findings of the study, the prospective teachers stated that they had internet-related and technical problems and they also failed to follow biology lessons due to their unsuitable home environment and ineffective communication processes. It was understood that the vast majority of prospective teachers preferred face-to-face evaluation rather than e-evaluation. To make biology lessons more efficient, it was recommended that prospective teachers should be obliged to attend classes, YouTube videos and animations should be added, classroom or laboratory lessons should be organized, WhatsApp groups should be created and question section should be added through these groups, and lessons should be synchronous rather than asynchronous.

This study aims to examine teacher candidates' learning responsibility through goal-setting activities carried out on a weekly basis. The research employed case study method, one of the qualitative research methods. The study group consisted of 36 fourth-year teacher candidates studying at a state university in the spring semester of the 2018-2019 academic year. The data were collected through diaries prepared by the researcher and kept by the participants for 12 weeks. The data were analyzed using the descriptive analysis technique and quantified with frequency distributions and percentage values. The study concludes that setting goals increases teacher candidates' learning responsibility and that Public Personnel Selection Exam (PPSE) and academic achievement concern cause teacher candidates to focus more on cognitive goals rather than other types of goals.

International English Language Testing System (IELTS) scores have been widely used as the language entry requirements for international students in many English-medium universities. However, research on the predictive validity of IELTS on subsequent academic performance has been inconclusive. Additionally, despite the proliferation of IELTS preparation courses, very few attempts have been made to explore the extent to which these courses support course takers' development of knowledge and skills needed for their subsequent university study. This paper investigated (a) the predictive validity of IELTS results on the subsequent academic performance of Vietnamese international students at UK universities, and (b) the extent to which an IELTS preparation course in Vietnam supported its course takers in their subsequent academic study in the UK. Questionnaires with 80 Vietnamese international students from 31 universities across the UK showed that there was a positive significant correlation between these students' IELTS scores and their academic results. Follow-up interviews with two undergraduates and two postgraduates who had previously studied in the same IELTS preparation course, but were studying different academic disciplines at different institutions in the UK, and analysis of the materials used in their IELTS preparation course and university courses revealed that the course positively supported these students' subsequent academic study, but certain skills and knowledge needed in their academic study were not effectively covered in the IELTS preparation course.

Literature has long been used as a tool for language teaching and learning. In the New Academic Structure in Hong Kong, it has become an important element in the senior secondary English language curriculum to promote communicative language teaching (CLT) with a process-oriented approach. However, as in many other English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL) contexts where high-stakes testing prevails, Hong Kong students are highly exam-oriented and expect teachers to teach to the test. Because there is no direct assessment on literature in the English language curriculum, many teachers find it challenging to balance CLT through literature and exam preparation. To address this issue, this article describes an innovation of teaching ESL through songs by 'packaging' it as exam practice to engage exam-oriented students in CLT. A series of activities derived from the song "Seasons in the Sun" was implemented in the ESL classrooms in a secondary school in Hong Kong. Based on the author's observations and reflections informed by teachers' and students' comments, the students were first motivated, at least instrumentally, by the relevance of the activities to the listening paper in the public exam when they saw the similarities between the classroom tasks and past exam questions. Once the students felt motivated, they were more easily engaged in a variety of CLT activities, which encouraged the use of English for authentic and meaningful communication. This article offers pedagogical implications for ESL/EFL teachers to implement CLT through literature in exam-oriented contexts.

Can a class assignment covering the reading help students do better in an introductory chemistry class for nonmajors? Two sections of the same course have been compared where one section had a reading assignment that "forced" the students to interact with the text while the other class had the typical homework, quiz assignments, and discussion posts. Both groups took 3 exams and the final exam. A t-test compared the means for each exam, the final exam, and the overall class average. The mean was higher for the group that had the reading assignment in each case. The mean for the class was 71.3% versus 66.7% (p value = 0.050). The mean for exam 1 was 73.0% versus 60.5% (p = 0.052). The mean for exam 2 was 73.3% versus 67.5% (p = 0.225). The mean for exam 3 was 76.9% versus 62.4% (p = 0.044). The final exam was 56.6% versus 55.3% (p = 0.445). The implication may be that students do not understand how to study or what is involved in effective studying. When reading the text is incentivized as an assignment, more students seemed to interact with the text, and more were likely to succeed in the class. This paper examines how interacting with the text for a class supports comprehension.

This paper reviews a total of 20 empirical research studies concerning parents' behavior under the context of high-stakes language assessment, aiming to reveal the impact of the assessment on parents' behavior. The results show that (1) parents are typically involved in high-stakes language assessment process; (2) their involvement practice includes general (such as hiring tutors for children) and extreme involvement behavior (such as participating in movement against high-stakes testing); (3) no unanimous conclusion is reached concerning the effectiveness of parents' involvement in high-stakes language assessment; (4) multiple factors that affect parents' involvement in high-stakes language assessment are identified, including parents' perceptions of tests, their educational background, and the time they spend with their children. This study concludes that tests might influence the ways parents are involved in children's education. However, not all parents might be influenced by testing, and testing might have a positive impact on some parents but a negative impact on others. This synthesis has several practical implications. Firstly, it indicates that parents' involvement behavior in the context of high-stakes language assessment deserves to be further investigated. Secondly, it points that various intervention programs should be provided for parents to help them better support their children's learning and test preparation. The paper also offers several suggestions for future research.

The present study aimed to determine university students' perceptions regarding EM and EAP courses and how they studied EM and EAP courses and their exams. It was designed as a qualitative study. Eight students participated in the study. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed by content analysis method. The findings of the study indicated that the students who perform well in EM and EAP courses and who perform well in EM courses but have difficulty in EAP courses are motivated to receive EM courses and have positive attitudes toward EM courses. Yet, the students who perform well in EM and EAP courses are more motivated to receive EAP courses and have more positive attitudes toward EAP courses. The findings also indicated that the ways the students study EM and EAP courses and for their exams have both similarities and differences. The findings were discussed. The pedagogical implications and limitations of the study were explained, and suggestions for further research were made.

In the current study, it is aimed to determine the correlation between cognitive flexibility levels and goal orientation levels of the students who are preparing for special talent exams for sports, and to compare these in terms of various demographics. The study group of the research consists of students (n=351) preparing for special talent exams in order to study at faculties/schools of higher education of sports of the universities predetermined through convenience sampling method, which is a sampling method that is not based on probability, that will accept students for 2021-2022 academic year. 180 of the participants are female (51.3%) whereas 171 of them are male (48.7%). In the study, "Cognitive Flexibility Inventory" (CFI) and "Task and Ego Orientation in Sports Questionnaire" (TEOSQ) are used. In order to evaluate CFI and TEOSQ levels of the participants in terms of various demographic features, t-test, ANOVA and Pearson Correlation tests are used. Before the statistical analysis of the obtained data, skewness and kurtosis values of the data are calculated to determine if the data has normal distribution, and it is determined that the data has normal distribution. As a result of the research, it is determined that there is a significant and positive correlation between cognitive flexibility and task-oriented goals and ego-oriented goals. In addition, it is seen that there is a significant difference in control subscale of cognitive flexibility and goal-oriented and ego-oriented targets subscales of participants when the high schools of the participants are considered.

The aim of this study is to present the qualities of 7th grade Turkish skill-based questions due to levels of reading skills and proficiency that used to prepare PISA reading skills questions. With these questions, secondary school students are prepared for national and international exams. The case study pattern has been used in the study, which is one of the qualitative research methods. The data obtained through document review were analyzed by content analysis by three field experts in Turkish education using a question analysis table. As a result of the examination it is determined that Turkish skill questions; include examples of all text types in PISA reading skills; mostly the text types which have continuations are preferred amongst the text types in PISA reading skills; big part of the questions are in a comprehensible level in terms of cognitive processes that the reader interacts with the text; and Turkish skill questions have problems for ''1b, 1a, 2nd and 3rd'' levels in the proficiency levels of PISA reading skills. As the result of the study, it is emerged that there is a necessity to provide a balanced dispersion for PISA reading skills, its dimensions and levels. In addition, there is also another necessity for arrangements to meet high level qualifications and Turkish skills questions should be created by taking into account all of the cognitive processes used in PISA that the reader interacts with the text.

This study examined the perceived effects of test preparation for College English Test Band 4 (CET4) on development of language ability and test performance, which has not received sufficient attention previously. A total of 79 undergraduate students from two classes in a Chinese university participated in the study. At the end of the CET4 preparation program provided by the university, the participants completed a questionnaire indicating their perceived improvement in the various attributes (language skill development, skill understanding, test-taking strategies, and confidence) in relation to writing, listening, reading, and translating measured by the test. Six participants took part in one-to-one interviews to provide detailed information about their perceived effectiveness of learning as a result of the preparation program. Overall participants thought they made more progress in reading and translating, but less in listening and writing. Regression analyses mainly established that the perceived improvements of most of the attributes and language abilities are significant predictors of students' anticipated and actual CET4 performance. Implications for test preparation programs, language learners and instructors are discussed with reference to how to facilitate learners' learning and development of language ability and how to improve performance on future tests.

This study explores the effective utilization of the online program Forms via smartphones to enrich the classroom experience for both students and teachers in two prep classes for the standardized English Test, Eiken. The instructor used Forms to create, distribute, collect, and analyze surveys and quizzes. Students' attitudes toward English and their motivation to learn the language using these tools were examined. Via smartphones, they were given review quizzes that had game-like elements and that gave feedback in real time. Surveys investigating the degree of confidence in learning, the review quizzes, and smartphone usage were also distributed to their smartphones. The results indicate improvement in attitude towards English in general and enhanced confidence.

Despite the rhetoric, establishing effective home-school partnerships remains a puzzle for Turkish educators. Extant literature in Turkey provides some guidance, but these studies focus heavily on problematic cases and merely request educators' and parents' perceptions about existing problems. The current study focuses on an exemplary literacy teacher ("Mr. Kara") in an urban public school who was recognized for implementing an effective partnership program with the parents of his counseling classroom1 (8-E) and examines what Kara and the 8-E parents were able to achieve. Findings of this case study reinforce the importance of educators' leadership and their values, dispositions, and practices, as they were displayed by educators in promoting or disabling positive relationships with parents. Findings showed that 8-E parents were previously avoiding home-school partnerships because of their negative partnership experiences in schools. This one teacher was able to change about 75% of the parents' negative preconceptions by his proactive leadership. In this case, Kara believed in all the parents, viewed them as dedicated advocates for their children's education, and built on the parents' care for their children. He took responsibility for establishing a positive partnership and strategically fought parents' negative preconceptions about schools and educators.

Existing literature indicates that assessment is a critical aspect of teaching and learning language; the outcomes of testing are vital. The history of assessment can be traced back to when exams primarily served two significant purposes in China: choosing candidates for admission into government offices and preventing corruption. Washback as a concept can be traced back to the 1990s. It was advanced by Alderson and Wall in 1993 as a force that obliges test-takers and tutors to engage in particular tasks or activities due to exams. In this regard, washback is an impact that a test has on the teaching and learning process. High-stakes exams like the LOBELA demonstrate the significance of washback in the Saudi English-as-a-foreign-language context. This paper explores the mechanisms through which washback occurs in teaching and learning processes, ways to determine its validity, and different types of washback. It further highlights the impact of washback in promoting teaching and learning processes, as well as the role it plays in policy development in the educational system.

The teaching and learning process changed into an online during the COVID19 outbreak, and thus online evaluation became a requirement. This research examines the positive and negative effects of online assessment on students' learning behaviour and how teachers prepare their teaching. This case study research included the result of questionnaire from thirty IC students followed by interview with three EFL teachers in the Intensive English Course (IC) program and six IC program students in one of Islamic University in Kediri. The small survey indicated that students have positive attitude toward the administration of online assessment. Furthermore, the outcomes of open-ended interviews showed that there were four themes for beneficial effects, including enhancing flexibility in assessment, improving evaluation versatility, building teachers and students' awareness of preparing evaluation and cultivating students' autonomous learning abilities. On the other hand, three themes for negative effects emerged from the online assessment, including complication of evaluation administration, reduced interaction between teachers and students, and anxiety in English test. The effects emerge from how teachers and students view the drawbacks of the online assessment itself. Positive effects lead to students' learning better are caused by lesson taken from conducting the test; however, the negatives should be treated as challenges that will improve the teaching and learning. Finally, both teachers and students are ready to face online assessment in the future.

This study aims to reveal the opinions of social studies teacher candidates who are prepared for KPSS on the effects of the pandemic period on their studies. KPSS: It is the shortening of the Public Personnel Selection Exam. These exams determine people to work in public institutions and organizations in Turkey. The phenomenology model, one of the qualitative research techniques, was used in the study. The study group of the research consists of 34 teacher candidates (male = 19, female = 15) graduated from Usak University, Department of Social Studies. In the collection of data in the research, firstly review of literature about the subject was done, and then a semi-structured interview form was used to apply to social studies teacher candidates. Some questions are standardized, some questions are prepared open-ended. In this type of interview, it is possible to obtain in-depth information. The data collected within the scope of the research were transferred to a word file in computer-mediated and subjected to content analysis. At the end of the research, the most frequently applied sources of candidate teachers preparing for KPSS during the pandemic period is that; videos, books, online lessons, articles and lesson notes. The teacher candidates stated that their families' attitudes towards them were generally positive during the pandemic period. The advantages of the pandemic period was revealed that candidate teachers studied more than usual, the disadvantages of the pandemic period was that there was no activity, anxiety and stress increased, and the fear of getting sick came out. In addition, it was emphasized in the study that preparing for KPSS during the pandemic period is more difficult than preparing for it in the normal period.

This research explores the role of concept mapping and speech repetition in developing EFL learners' oral fluency. Eighty language learners, after passing an in-house placement test, were randomly assigned into two equal experimental groups. The data analyses demonstrated that both groups' oral fluency significantly improved when they were trained to apply concept mapping and 4/3/2 technique. It was argued that concept mapping helps them take a more active role to effectively organize the concepts, plan their tasks, and monitor their activities. Besides, repetition techniques may lead to linguistic proceduralization and automaticity which results in positive changes in underlying cognitive mechanisms and ultimately contributes to long-term and transferrable effects on speaking fluency. Furthermore, a semi-structured interview was run to triangulate the data. This paper discusses some implications for instructors and educators.

The relationship between shadow education and competition has been discussed and studied widely by educational experts and policy makers in Japan. One major topic has been the role that shadow education plays in social inequality by creating winners and losers. Another is related to competition and students' psychological health; and a third concerns the cause-and-effect relationships between cram/preparatory schools and competition. The present paper focuses on students' perspectives and describes an empirical study carried out with 211 Japanese senior high school students and 145 university students. The students answered open-ended questions about their cram/preparatory school attendance, and were asked to describe how they perceived the relationship between cram/preparatory schools and competition. The free descriptive answers were content-analysed and categorized. The majority of the respondents not only saw a relationship between the two but also listed a number of functions that increased students' competitive advantage. Educational experts' and sociologists' common criticism that shadow education has detrimental effect on fairness or equal chances in education was hardly at all expressed. Relatively few students expressed doubts or emphasized the negative or harmful side of cram/preparatory school attendance and competition. The results call the attention to the importance of studying different aspects of shadow education more in-depth from the direct "users'" i.e, the students' perspective as well.

Derivational knowledge is associated with writing and speaking skills. These skills are essential for EFL students who express themselves in oral presentations or written assignments. Therefore, diagnostic measurement of productive derivational knowledge is of vital importance, especially in regard to the most frequent 1,000 word families that cover 81% and 85% of written and spoken text. This study measured 46 Iranian university EFL students' productive derivational knowledge of the words at the 1,000 word frequency level. The findings indicate that while participants had the productive form-meaning knowledge of the words at 1,000 level, they did not seem to have extensive derivational knowledge of the same words. This assists in diagnosing area of weakness and placing instructional emphasis on high frequency words.

As it is known formative assessment focuses on both learning process and learner's performance. In this study, digital formative assessment and traditional speaking tests were utilized comparatively to evaluate 52 upper-intermediate EFL learners' English language speaking skills. The study was designed as a mixed-method. The quantitative data were collected via achievement tests which had been administered both in traditional speaking tests and digital formative tests. The qualitative findings were collected with students' interviews which consisted of four open-ended questions. The results of the study showed that participants outperformed in digital formative tests in comparison to traditional speaking tests. Another significant finding of the study is that participants are satisfied with the digital formative assessments in terms of peer collaboration during tests, enriched test materials, and preparation time for the speaking test. Although they have positive views on digital formative assessment, participants are dissatisfied with it in terms of technical problems that they encountered during the administration of digital formative tests.

A variety of Flashcard Apps (FCAs) for standardized tests such as the IELTS, TOEFL, TOEIC, GRE and SAT can be downloaded from the Google Play, and iPhone App Stores for free and used by the students to prepare for any of those tests. FCAs contain thousands of essential words and specialized vocabulary covering several categories such as biology, history, art, environment, social and human science. FCAs have customizable features. They have several learning modes: Study, Slide show, Matching, Memorize and Quiz. Students can listen and learn, without having to look at the screen. Multiple choice tests, Group choice test, Word choice test are provided as well. Words can be browsed alphabetically, sequentially, or randomly. They are a good tool for improving vocabulary and helping the students learn faster and remember more in a shorter time. Words that are important or difficult can be starred and revised on demand. This article gives examples of standardized test mobile flashcard apps (MFCAs), shows how FCAs can be located and gives some criteria for selecting relevant flashcards apps. Instruction with the MFCAs goes through three stages: pre task, task, and post-task phases. The instructor serves as a facilitator. She can help the students find and download flashcards that meet their needs and purposes and match their proficiency level, gives pre-questions, and follows the students up to make sure they are making the best use of them. The article concludes with some recommendations.

The number of teacher candidates is increasing as a result of the excessive quotas given to departments that train teacher candidates and the right to teach different branches with pedagogical formation certificates. Therefore it becomes compulsory to hold selection exams in teacher appointments. The exams carried out during this selection process undergo changes over time both in number and content. While exams containing questions of general knowledge, general ability, and educational sciences were used in teacher appointments in Turkey since 2002, the field knowledge test has also been applied since 2013. Geography is also one of the branches in which the field knowledge exam is applied. This study aims to evaluate the field knowledge exam according to the views of geography teachers. The study conducted in a phenomenology pattern, one of the qualitative research methods, was carried out with 25 geography teachers determined by criterion sampling methods. The data collected through semi-structured interviews were analyzed by descriptive analysis method. Direct quotations are included to increase the reliability of the research. In line with the opinions of the geography teachers, it was determined that as it increases teacher competence, taking the field knowledge exam is important and necessary. The majority opinion is that increasing the number of questions in the field knowledge exam in 2019 increased the content validity of the exam. As it caused changes in the questions, the field knowledge exam duration was considered to be excessive by some participants. According to the views of the geography teachers, undergraduate education did not coincide with the scope of the field knowledge test. It was determined that most of the candidates went to the course in the exam preparation process in order to fill the deficiencies. As a result of the research, it is recommended that the number of questions in the field knowledge test, the content validity should increase further, and the effect of the field knowledge test on the scoring basis for appointment should be further increased.

In response to increased accountability demands placed on teacher preparation programs across the United States, some programs are using standardized teacher performance assessments, such as edTPA. In our elementary teacher preparation program, a recent state mandate stipulated that teacher candidates had to successfully complete edTPA in order to receive teacher certification. This case study used mixed methods to examine teacher candidates' (N=30) experiences and views while engaging in the assessment. Preparation for edTPA was integrated in specific courses in the program. Data were collected through a survey and individual interviews, with the analysis showing the teacher candidates felt largely ready for and supported during the edTPA completion but did not view the assessment as a fair measure of teaching effectiveness or tend to believe it improved them as neophyte teachers. The findings illuminate concerns about edTPA's use and implications for the program that could be considerations for others using edTPA, including program and curricular refinements.

Equipping new teachers in today's society is a noble and challenging task. Of late, many additional licensing standards for teachers create additional responsibilities for universities that provide pedagogy, knowledge, and content for teacher candidates. Identification of best practices that support teacher candidates on the Educative Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA) is of interest to many teacher education programs. The purpose of this research was to analyze whether incorporating a "mock edTPA" had beneficial results on the passage of the edTPA. This study spanned fourteen ten-week quarters and included 688 teacher candidates who were preparing to become certificated teachers at a university in Washington State. The questions that were posited were: (1) does a capstone class requiring a mock edTPA benefit students; and (2) which edTPA rubrics are the most challenging, and why are they challenging? This research study found that adding a mock edTPA prior to the student teaching experience did not produce a statistically significant difference in scores when compared to the group who received an embedded curriculum. When comparing the two different time periods, the passing rate was not significantly different and there was little difference in the mean scores of both groups.

The author, having drawn examples from her doctoral study, describes how a thematic analysis approach was employed to interpret raw data in her doctoral study which explored the impacts of a high-stakes test on students and parents in Nepal. As the main purpose of this paper is to provide some guidelines for English language teaching (ELT) practitioners and early career researchers to rigorously apply a thematic analysis approach, this paper presents a step-by-step guideline for the application of the approach. It also presents detailed examples of the processes the author followed during the analysis of her data (from familiarising with the data to identifying initial codes to preparing a final report) to reveal how analysis of the raw data (from interviews and oral diaries transcripts) progressed towards the identification of overarching themes that captured the nature of the test impacts in the Nepalese context described by participants in the study.

Feedback is a key factor in helping individuals to self-regulate their learning behavior. Informative feedback, as a very basic form of feedback informing learners about the correctness of their answers, can be framed in different ways emphasizing either what was correct or what must be improved. The regulatory focus theory describes different strategic orientations of individuals towards goals, which may be associated with different effects of different informative feedback types. A promotion orientation describes the preference for approaching positive outcomes, while a prevention orientation describes the preference for avoiding negative ones. Applied to the context of informative feedback in self-regulated e-learning environments, we predict that regulatory fit, defined as the congruence of individuals' regulatory orientations and framed feedback, positively affects learning persistence and performance. In two experiments, we assessed individuals' regulatory orientations and experimentally varied framed feedback in samples of university students preparing for exams with an e-learning tool (N = 182, experiment 1; N = 118, experiment 2) and observed actual learning behaviors. Using different operationalizations of regulatory-framed feedback, we found statistically significant regulatory fit effects on persistence and performance in both experiments, although some remain insignificant. In experiment 2, we additionally tested ease of processing as a mechanism for regulatory fit effects. This way, we expand the literature on regulatory fit effects and feedback on actual learning behavior and provide evidence for the benefits of adaptive learning environments. We discuss limitations, especially regarding the stability of regulatory fit, as well as future directions of research on regulatory-framed feedback.

The present research, by using cross-sectional (Study 1, N = 413) and daily diary methods (Study 2, N = 95) aimed to investigate the way intelligence mindset influences students' self-esteem and emotional experiences when they are confronting academic adversities (i.e., failures and difficulties). Although fixed intelligence mindset showed no association with students' daily positive or negative emotions, results consistently indicated that fixed intelligence mindset moderated the effect of academic failures (Study 1) and daily difficulties (Study 2) on their self-esteem. Academic adversities reduced students' self-esteem, and fixed intelligence mindset amplified this effect.

Many learners of English as a foreign language often feel that learning spoken English is frustrating and quite difficult, especially when they have to talk to English-speaking foreigners. In general, because they are unfamiliar with the spoken mode of English and are worried about making grammatical errors, they often feel very scared to speak English. Furthermore, spoken language and reading differ in many ways. For instance, when seeing text containing new words, learners can stop and look up words in a dictionary. Additionally, a passage can be read multiple times by learners to understand it. Conversely, spoken language must be understood immediately in order to communicate effectively. The purpose of this study is to propose an interactive chatbot system named TPBOT which stands for "TOEIC Practice Chatbot" for EFL learners to eliminate their fear of speaking English and enable them to chat with online chatbots to practice spoken English at any time. This TPBOT would be very helpful to eliminate learners' anxiety about speaking a foreign language with foreigners. Participants in this study are Taiwanese students whose oral scores on the TOEIC® test are below 100. They hope to improve their oral English ability after participating in the four-month experiment. The results have shown that students are satisfied with using this TPBOT and believe that it has indeed helped them improve their English speaking skills. Obviously, the TPBOT was very effective for the intended purpose. For educators, the TPBOT is very useful to build learning content in the TPBOT, provide learners with interactive exercises and improve learning effects.

A growing body of research shows that private tutoring is a globally pervasive phenomenon. A common way in which tutoring provisions are defined is with the use of the metaphor "shadow education", signifying that tutoring centres "shadow" formal schools. Despite the popularity of this metaphor in the field, how "shadowing" occurs as a process and what implications this process has for formal schooling and society have seldom been put through empirical scrutiny. To redress this gap in the literature, this article draws on the data produced through an ethnography of schooling in Dehradun (India) between 2014-15. The discussion on specific ways in which the institutional arrangement of private tutoring aligns with that of formal schooling reveals the socio-educational embeddedness of private tutoring within the mainstream schooling experience in India. The article argues that "shadowing" is not a neutral process, it is executed tactically and strategically with an aim to provide private tutoring a valued, legitimised, and competitive space in an increasingly marketised education sector. Importantly, this analysis of "shadowing" exposes problematic practices within formal schooling and suggests that by mirroring these practices in its structure, private tutoring reproduces social inequality. The insights into understanding the "shadowing process" that this article offers may be of value to the analysis of the organisational arrangements of tutoring businesses within India and in other societies. Through demonstrating that tutoring is part of everyday schooling, this article makes a case for recognising it as integral to mainstream education in India.

The premise of this research is that analytical and extensive reading in a digital environment might be used to facilitate second language acquisition at the tertiary education level. Despite the general orientation toward communicative methods in modern second language acquisition, reading methods and techniques have seen an unexpected yet very productive comeback in recent years. A regression analysis of the data gathered from three focus groups of learners (2018-2020) at an institution of higher education in Russia suggests that analytical and extensive reading (based on Adler's method) may be associated with relatively better performance in reading tasks of all types of Cambridge Assessment certifications. The inference should be drawn that limited exposure to analytical and extensive reading of the original works of literature by three focus groups during the second and the third years of study may facilitate the preparation for the Reading and the Use of English/Reading sections of CAE, CPE, and IELTS Academic. The results suggest that reading plans and book profile creation activities, as well as extensive and analytical reading practice in a digital environment, may be used as relatively effective tools of second language acquisition.

This quantitative study examined the scale, nature and effectiveness of private supplementary tutoring (PT) at one of the transition points in Kazakhstan's education system during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data were collected from 366 secondary school students. The findings show that 73.8% of participants received PT, mainly to help them prepare for the university entrance examination. Seventy-four percent of fathers and 83% of mothers were holders of university degrees and they had the economic means to invest in more and better PT for their children. Thus, PT has the potential to be a force for reducing equity, and so effective policies to regulate PT should be adopted.

The present study examined the relationship between working memory capacity (WMC) and comprehension on a multiple text assessment from the ACT test for college preparedness in which texts are available during question answering. Specifically, it was of interest whether differences in relations would be seen across different question types. Only performance on the inference questions was uniquely related to WMC whereas performance on textbase and across-text questions was not. Results suggest that WMC still plays a role in comprehension even when texts are available, and the role of WMC seems to be most strongly tied to integration demands.

The awarding organizations that create and administer high-stakes assessments for beginner-to-low-intermediate 16-year-old learners of French, German, and Spanish in England provide optional topic-driven word lists as guides for teachers and textbook writers. Given that these lists are developed by the awarding organizations, they exert a powerful washback effect on teaching and learning. However, we do not know how much of these lists have actually been used in exams. We therefore analyzed the extent to which these lists have been used when developing the General Certificate of Secondary Education listening and reading exams, a corpus totaling 116,647 words. One key finding showed that approximately half of the awarding organizations' lists had never been used in any of the exams to date. Given recent changes to curriculum policy, we also investigated how word list type--frequency-informed versus the awarding organizations' topic-driven lists--affected lexical coverage of the exams. Overall, our findings suggested that using the topic-driven lists was likely to be a suboptimal use of lesson time, as they did not provide learners with enough words to understand any given text with ease. Frequency-informed word lists, however, seemed to better prepare learners for the exams.

The study explores the unaddressed washback on the English-speaking test of the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE-English Language Paper 4). The HKDSE is a university entrance exam in Hong Kong which includes a group discussion speaking test known as English Language Paper 4. To identify ongoing washback effects, including sociocultural perspectives, the study analyses ongoing student washback of test-specific and non-specific preparation and how the mediating factors affect these preparations. One-hundred and ninety-nine secondary 4th to 6th grade students provided the questionnaire data in two rounds. Results from exploratory factor analysis indicate six major types of test preparation, which are categorised as two test specific, three non-specific, and one integrated type of preparation. Mediating factors comprise five categories of learner characteristics and stakeholders in and out of school. The cluster analyses identified four students' groups intertwined with the involvement of washback and the mediating factors. A strong relationship between extrinsic factors and explicit learning and intrinsic factors and implicit learning was found. The study concludes that students' washback is affected by mediating factors aside from the test; learning method choice by students (e.g. learning from entertainment content) has a strong relationship with specific mediating factors (e.g. interest in English).

Problem Roulette (PR), an online study service at the University of Michigan, offers points-free formative practice to students preparing for examinations in introductory science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses. Using four years of PR data involving millions of problem attempts by thousands of students, we quantify the benefits of increased practice study volume in introductory physics. After conditioning the mean final grade on standardized (ACT and SAT) math test score, we analyze deviations based on student study volume. We find a strong effect; mean course grade rises quadratically with the logarithm of the total number of PR questions encountered over the term (N[subscript Q,tot]), with an overall gain of 0.77 ± 0.12 grade points between 1 < N[subscript Q,tot] < 1000. The gains are persistent across the range of math test scores represented in our sample. While N[subscript Q,tot] surely correlates with other study habits, the benefits of increased study in general still hold. A model for final grade using test score and study volume largely accounts for demographic stratification, including by sex, parental education level, number of parents at home, nationality or underrepresented minority status, and regional income level, with two significant exceptions: students whose parents did not earn a college degree, who earn -0.27 ± 0.04 grade points (6.1[sigma]) below expectations, and underrepresented minority students at -0.14 ± 0.04 points (3.6[sigma]). Residual scatter in final grade remains comparable to the maximal study gains, implying that the model is far from deterministic: individual variation trumps mean trends. Our findings can help motivate students to study more and help teachers to identify which types of students may especially need such encouragement.

This study used Latent Growth Curve Modeling (LGCM) to examine the overtime patterns of the score and test-taking strategy changes in an international high-stakes standardized proficiency test. To this end, the test records of 178 Iranian IELTS repeaters were analyzed, using close- and open-ended questionnaires to measure test scores as a function of construct-relevant and construct-irrelevant test-taking strategy changes. Additionally, this study explored the accountable factors for the changes in the repeaters' strategies. Results indicated a small and gradual increase in the test scores following an overall augmented use of test-management (TM) and a decreased employment of test-wiseness (TW) strategies. Along with contributing to IELTS validity evidence based on the repeaters' scores, this study found multiple sources to account for the changes in repeaters' test-taking strategies. Consideration of changes in repeaters' test-taking strategies by IELTS instructors and test users may add to the validity of interpretation of test scores to the intended purposes of the tests.

The form of Physical Education (PE) teacher selection matters in that, as a system of rules (i.e. institution), it shapes the practices of Initial Teacher Education (ITE), including pre-service PE teachers' daily preparation for teaching qualification and employment. This article examines the secondary PE teacher selection examination as one of the locations of teacher socialisation and identity (re)formulation. Focusing on South Korea's National Secondary Teacher Selection and Employment Examination (STSEE), the paper addresses two main research questions: (a) how does the STSEE structure everyday practices of pre-service PE teachers who prepare for the exam for a year at least; and (b) what does this intensive year-long routine of commitment bring to the social and professional identities of the applicants? Drawing on a micro-sociological concept of 'reinventive institutions' (Scott, 2010, 2011), this study analyses qualitative data from a number of documents and in-depth interviews with 11 pre- and in-service PE teachers. Our analysis reveals two main findings. First, the STSEE features key attributes of reinventive institutions, including "total" commitment to exam preparation, deference to gurus and communities of comradeship, all of which operate on the basis of individuals' aspirations to success in the STSEE. Second, distinguished from the stereotype of physical educators in previous generations (e.g. incompetent, violent and unprofessional), PE teachers who have passed the exam acquire reinvented identities as smart, passionate and professional PE teachers who can enjoy 'permanent job security' with their advanced social positionality. The paper concludes by discussing the significance of teacher employment examinations in studying PE teachers' socialisation into the profession.

Much of the learning that college students engage in today occurs in unsupervised settings, making effective self-regulated learning techniques of particular importance. We examined the impact of task difficulty and supervision on whether participants would follow written instructions to use repeated testing over restudying. In Study 1, we found that when supervised, instructions to test resulted in changes in the self-regulated learning behaviors such that participants tested more often than they studied, relative to participants who were unsupervised during learning. This was true regardless of the task difficulty. In Study 2, we showed that failure to shift study strategies in unsupervised learning was likely due to participants avoidance of testing rather than failure to read the instructions at all. Participants who tested more frequently remembered more words later regardless of supervision or whether or not they received instructions to test, replicating the well-established testing effect (e.g., Dunlosky et al. in "Psychol Sci Public Interest" 14:4-58, 2013. http://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266). In sum, there was a benefit to testing, but instructing participants to test only increased their choice to test when they were supervised. We conclude that supervision has an impact on whether participants follow instructions to test.