ELTWorldOnline.com

Lead Articles

Feature

Assessing Students’ Language Arts Performance: The Experience of Hong Kong Teachers

by Benjamin Li
The Hong Kong Institute of Education

This article reports findings from an investigation of the English language arts (LA) assessment strategies used in Hong Kong secondary schools, and the extent to which these strategies reflect the principles of performance-based assessment. The summative and formative assessment tasks, together with their criteria, assessment checklist, holistic scoring guide, and student language arts work were examined to capture the reality of language arts assessment and identify what was expected and valued in student performance in language arts. Three case studies also allow a comparison and contrast of the use of performance-based assessment (PBA) in the teaching and learning of LA. It was found that the teacher participants recognised the need to conduct LA assessment in the classroom, but the degree of classroom attention paid to it varied as teachers had only a partial understanding of this new mode of assessment, which hindered the pace of change in assessment reform. There appears to be a gulf between the features of PBA as provided in the LA curriculum and the assessment practices currently espoused by many teachers of English language in Hong Kong. To enable teachers to develop the strategies that cater to students’ capabilities, professional development opportunities focusing on performance-based assessment need to be provided. Read more

---

Feature

Five Reasons Why Listening Strategy Instruction Might Not Work With Lower Proficiency Learners

by Willy A Renandya
National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University
Singapore

Despite numerous theoretical discussions and empirical studies that have been generated in the past 30 years or so, a strategic approach to teaching L2 listening has not been whole-heartedly embraced by practitioners, in particular when they work with lower proficiency learners of English. I offer five possible reasons for this: first, the empirical evidence supporting listening strategy instruction is not particularly strong; second, strategy instruction places a rather heavy demand on the teachers; third, teachers are not totally convinced that strategy instruction can solve their students’ listening difficulties which often stem from basic decoding (word recognition) problems; fourth, lower proficiency learners have not acquired a threshold level of proficiency to take full advantage of strategy instruction; finally, there is a possibility that learners may not in fact need to learn strategies, as they may have acquired and used these strategies in their first language. Of these, the first reason, lack of strong empirical support, deserves serious attention from advocates of strategy-based instruction. Read more

---

Feature

Motivation through Autonomy: A Case Study at a Japanese University

by Richard Miles
Nanzan University
Nagoya, Japan

Since the 1990s learner autonomy has become more widely utilized by educators around the world (Little, 2007), but does it necessarily have a positive effect on motivation in second language classrooms? In an attempt to provide at least a partial answer to this question, a preliminary study was conducted in which students in an oral communication class at a Japanese university were given a degree of autonomy in part of the curriculum and then compared with a similar class in which no such autonomy was granted. Students in the dependent group made autonomous decisions as to how the teacher would assess their speaking effort, how feedback would be provided and how this portion of their grade would be calculated and assigned. While an argument for direct causality is difficult to make, students in the dependent group exhibited a stronger level of motivation than those in the control group at the end of the semester, suggesting learner autonomy had had a positive effect in this case. Potential reasons for this finding are that the greater involvement by the students in the curriculum in the dependent group meant a higher level of self-awareness and reflection with regard to their spoken English. While the findings from this study add support to the argument that there is a potentially strong relationship between learner autonomy and motivation, further research is needed before any conclusive claims can be made. Read more

---

Innovation

Using Facebook to Extend Learning Into Students’ Digital Lives

by Chris Harwood and Brad Blackstone
National University of Singapore

This paper reports on the use of Facebook for educational purposes in two different university communication courses. It discusses the decision-making processes concerning what type of Facebook page to use, the design, form and content of the Facebook pages, guidelines for lecturer and student use, as well as the means by which lecturers can encourage students to increase participation in courses using Facebook as an educational tool. Detailed survey feedback from a pilot study of students who used the two courses’ Facebook pages is also discussed. Finally, it demonstrates how using the Facebook pages facilitated greater student engagement and understanding of concepts, and encouraged what Adhihari (2011) calls “conversations,” which were often carried back and forth between cyberspace and the classroom. Read more

---