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Exploring assessment criteria for oral Interactions in Japanese elementary English education: An intervention study
Get PDFThis study aims to explore the challenges of establishing clear assessment criteria for oral interactions, guided by the research question, "What are the potential criteria for assessing oral interactions among Japanese elementary school students?" Since the initiation of formal foreign language education in elementary school in Japan, predominantly focused on English, in 2020, the curriculum has strongly emphasized oral communication. This approach aligns with the Basic Language Cognition (BLC) theory proposed by Hulstijn (2015), which underscores the importance of oral input and interaction in the acquisition of basic structures and vocabulary for beginners.
However, the assessment of oral interactions in Japan faces significant hurdles, notably in defining clear, assessment criteria. This intervention study involved 87 fifth-grade students, who were divided into two experimental groups and one control group. In January 2022, they participated in a restaurant role-play activity, preceded by regular English lessons where they learned five formulaic expressions for ordering in a restaurant. The experimental groups received explicit instruction on communication strategies (CS) and fluency enhancement. The role-play was conducted in separate rooms, one-on-one with a language instructor, with students recording their performances for evaluation. Transcriptions were analyzed based on 18 initial items, including aspects of fluency (speed, breakdown, repair) and the frequency of CS use. However, only four items showed significant differences between the groups, as determined by the Mann-Whitney U test.
This study sheds light on the complexity of assessing oral interactions among young, novice learners, taking into account factors such as the relationship between interlocutors, various learning conditions (e.g., absenteeism), and individual differences. It suggests the potential of using analytical assessment items, like the four identified items related to mastering formulaic expressions, for effective and practical measurement in classroom settings. This indicates a path forward for integrating analytical assessment into language education, potentially enhancing teaching strategies and assessment methodologies through a more nuanced understanding of student performance in oral interactions
Reading interventions for second language learners: a systematic review
Get PDFBetween 50% and 70% of the world’s population are bilingual. To master both spoken and written language is crucial for students’ development in school and is essential for academic achievement. Earlier research and international evolutions show that many young students with Swedish as L2 struggle with reading. Therefore, finding effective methods for L2 readingteaching are important. In the present systematic review, findings from intervention studies of learning to read in a second language are identified. The study aims to focus on the research gaps in the field of reading interventions for L2 students from kindergarten to the end of compulsory school, focusing on different first and second language pairings and transfer effects. The study addresses two questions as follows: What evidence may be found concerning reading interventions for L2 students at school age in different second languages, and what evidence is available about the relevance of different first languages? What evidence may be found about the impact of reading interventions in one language on outcomes in another? PICO’S and PRISMA Flow Diagram was used to select and summarize results systematically. The studies reviewed support the view that explicit and systematic interventions that combine vocabulary instruction with phonological- and decoding skills training are effective for L2 students. Most studies concern interventions in Kindergarten or the first years of elementary school. Most of the research evidence comes from studies with participants whose first language is Spanish who are learning English as a second language and are identified as being at risk for reading difficulties. It is concluded that there is a need for further research in the field that focuses on other first and second languages than Spanish and English and addresses the varying needs of students of different ages
Teachers’ perceptions of RTI implementation targeting reading development among Swedish elementary students
Get PDFThe development of adequate reading comprehension skills among students is essential for their active participation in a democratic society. In recent years, models for early identification of students at risk for reading difficulties have been implemented in several school systems worldwide. One such system is Response to Intervention (RTI), which aims to proactively address reading difficulties through early detection and early intervention in a tiered system of support.
With the increasing global implementation of RTI models, understanding the perceptions of teachers directly involvedbecomes crucial. This study aims to explore teachers’ perceptions of RTI implementation targeting reading development among Swedish elementary students. Specifically, the research investigates teachers’ views on RTI and their suggestions for its implementation in their schools. The central question guiding this inquiry is: How do teachers perceive the implementation of the RTI model within Swedish elementary schools regarding its application to students' reading development? Understanding teachers' perceptions RTI implementation in Swedish elementary schools is facilitated by the application of Hall and Hord's (2006) Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM), which provides a structured framework for analyzing educators' perceptions during the adoption process.
Employing qualitative methodology, data were gathered through face-to-face interviews with nine teachers across four schools. A content analysis revealed emergent themes regarding teacher perceptions. Preliminary findings indicate that teachers perceive RTI as facilitating the identification and intervention of students at risk of reading difficulties. Moreover, teachers reported positive outcomes such as noticeable progress in students’ reading abilities through RTI and the effectiveness of progress monitoring in keeping teachers focused on efficient instruction. Collaboration among school staff and the provision of rapid additional support to struggling students were also positively highlighted. However, challenges were also reported, including difficulties in planning and organizing RTI due to scheduling conflicts, resource demands, and a perceived rigidity of the model. Teachers expressed the need for a more flexible RTI model. In conclusion, the study suggests implications for RTI implementation targeting elementary students’ reading development
Exploring secondary education teachers’ written corrective feedback practices and beliefs in L2 English within the Spanish context
Get PDFL2 writing research has shown that written corrective feedback (WCF) improves learners' writing (Benson & Dekeyser, 2019; Karim & Nassaji, 2018; Li & Roshan, 2019), and has a facilitative role in L2 learning (Bitchener, 2012, 2016; Bitchener & Ferris, 2012; Bitchener & Storch, 2016). By contrast, research on teachers' WCF practices and beliefs in L2 has been inconclusive with certain studies reporting total alignment between both (e.g., Lira-Gonzales et al., 2021); partial alignment (Mao & Crosthwaite, 2019); and a total lack of coherence between these two aspects of L2 writing (Lee, 2009). This exploratory study intends to shed light on these issues by scrutinizing the WCF practices of 4 Secondary Education teachers in 60 students' texts produced in L2 English, and their beliefs about their practices in semi-structured interviews. The qualitative analysis of the teachers' practices consisted of the identification of WCF points in the students' writings (Lee, 2009), and their categorization according to the different types of feedback established in the literature (Ellis, 2009). Quantitative analyses were also conducted and were based on different statistical tests. The qualitative analysis of the teachers' beliefs followed thematic content analysis (Krippendorff & Bock, 2009). Results indicated that the teachers' WCF practices mainly comprised correction of micro-level errors that focused on linguistic forms. These practices also included direct and unfocused WCF regarding linguistic errors, and indirect and focused feedback on content errors. Although participants shared the belief that linguistic accuracy and feedback at both the micro and macro levels of textual production are the most relevant aspects of L2 writing, as well as the belief that students' reception of WCF is positive, they indicated that the latter hardly incorporate such feedback in subsequent writings. Results also showed that these teachers' practices and beliefs only aligned in the provision of unfocused WCF, which reflects the general absence of coherence between their WCF practices and beliefs. These findings may help raise L2 writing teachers' awareness of the potential mismatch between their practices and beliefs regarding the provision of feedback, so that they make adjustments that address their students' writing and language learning needs more efficiently
Acceptance and resistance: Examining shifting ideologies and discourses towards English education in Japan
Get PDFCompared to other countries in Asia, Japan was a late adaptor (Steiner-Khamsi, 2006) at implementing English as a foreign language in its public elementary school system. Only in 2020, did Japan’s Ministry of Education lower the starting age of foreign language activities to Grade 3 and make English an academic subject from Grade 5. This presentation will discuss findings from a multiple case study at three public elementary schools in Japan. Utilizing ethnography of language policy (Hornberger & Johnson, 2007; Johnson, 2013), which conceptualizes policy implementation as a process, the 4-year fieldwork consisted of document analysis, 76 interviews with stakeholders across the education system, and classroom observations. A critical analysis of discourse to language policy (Blommaert, 2005) revealed that a neoliberal ideology of globalization now frames elementary school English as necessary for sustained socioeconomic development. This new conceptualization replaces an earlier discourse in Japan of elementary school EFL being part of international awareness and understanding. In terms of pedagogy, the earlier multilingual approach to developing positive attitudes towards foreign languages among younger learners has been replaced with a methodology that focuses on developing English proficiency. Interview data with national-level policymakers and advisors revealed that they faced several challenges as they tried to balance competing discourses and articulate important pedagogical concepts while having their voices heard. Some of these struggles were external power relations between the Ministry of Finance and the business community imposing control and influence, while other conflicts were internal political battles within the Ministry of Education for the resource of lesson time. This presentation will discuss these issues and the problems teachers faced as they appropriated the new English policy in classrooms and resisted certain changes to the national curriculum
Boosting ESL learners’ vocabulary intake: The role of typographic enhancements in language classroom
Get PDFThis study investigates the efficacy of typographic enhancement (TE) in facilitating formulaic language (FL) acquisition among English as a Second Language (ESL) learners. Given the crucial role of FL in daily conversations and its pragmatic values, this research focuses on whether TE strategies in ESL/EFL learning environments can improve the intake of formulaic sequences (FS) in learners with low proficiency. The study adopts a quasi-experimental design, involving two groups of university students. The experimental group, consisting of thirty students, interacted with reading passages featuring highlighted and bolded FS, while a control group of twenty six students received no typographic treatment. The methodology encompassed a pre-test, post-test, and delayed post-test. These instruments were validated by experts and pilot-tested to ensure clarity and appropriate difficulty level. Target vocabularies, selected from students' coursebooks and the frequency of words were assessed using the British National Corpus (BNC) and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). Data were collected over eight weeks in an English course at a Malaysian public tertiary institution. Pre-test scores were first analyzed using analysis of variance to evaluate initial group differences, followed by multivariate analysis of post-test and delayed post-test scores. The results reveal that typographic enhancement (TE) has a small to medium positive short-term impact on the intake of target formulaic sequences (FS) among low-proficiency learners. While the statistical analysis indicates significant short-term improvements in the experimental group compared to the control group, the long-term efficacy of TE remains inconclusive, with no significant long-term improvement observed. This limitation points to the necessity for extended research, ideally involving larger participants to validate these findings. Additionally, the study suggests integrating qualitative methods, such as interviews, to further enrich the understanding of TE’s long-term effects in ESL/EFL pedagogy. In short, the findings revealed that the effectiveness of TE technique when employed in isolation was effective in the short-term, with small to medium effect sizes, in enhancing the intake of the target FL when compared to no enhancement given to the learners in their reading texts. It contributes significantly to the understanding of TE’s isolated impact, particularly in a non-conflated experimental design
Facets of Trust in Science: Researchers can be perceived as ethical and competent despite inconsistent research results
No full textThe public perception of science and scientists themselves has become a much-debated topic in recent years. In this article, we contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the public’s trust in science by focussing on the practices of science, which are often not known by the public. Building on previous research by Ebersole, Axt and Nosek (2016), we conducted a preregistered, quota-sampled survey in Austria (N = 564), where we presented participants with different scenarios about scientific practices. Thereby, we disentangled the perception of scientists–i.e., how competent and ethical they are being perceived–from the confidence in their scientific findings–i.e., how correct their results are being perceived. For instance, when “a researcher X conducted a study with an interesting finding, which he then publishes”, this researcher was–in our study– perceived as averagely competent and ethical, and the findings were perceived as neither correct nor incorrect (but somewhere in between). However, if “another researcher Y tried to replicate X’s finding, but failed - and X then criticized Y’s methodology and dismissed the new study”, researcher X was perceived as less competent, less ethical and the original results were perceived as less correct by participants. Importantly, if researcher X “acknowledges Y’s methodology” or “investigates the difference between the original study and the failed replication”, ratings for X’s competence and ethical behavior were higher than for how correct his results were being perceived. Moreover, the highest competence and ethics ratings were obtained, when researcher X was described to share the methods and data online for transparency. Psychological dispositions of the participants, such as political orientation or motivation for cognition, did not seem to affect these ratings to a large degree. These results are discussed in the light of Mertonian norms of science, which highlight cooperativeness and disinterestedness
Comment on: Responsible Research Assessment I and Responsible Research Assessment II
No full textA long-term personnel policy in filling professorships, aimed at remedying deficits in psychological research, should be able to significantly improve the scientific quality of psychology: “The main reason is that the hiring and promotion of such researchers is most likely to contribute to the emergence of a credible scientific knowledge base“ (Gärtner et al., in press).
Att hantera tiggeri som samhällsfenomen i förskolan: Pedagogiska och etiska svårigheter kring ett känsligt och kontroversiellt ämne
No full textIn the last decade, thousands of commonly called “vulnerable EU citizens” have come to Western European countries, including Sweden. Many of them support themselves by begging, which has changed public space considerably. Poverty and social vulnerability have become visible in places they had not been visible in for a long time. This implies that many people, both adults and children, are confronted with poverty and social vulnerability on a regular basis. Many preschool children meet vulnerable EU citizens when they are out with their parents as well as with their preschool teachers.
Through examining the experiences and thoughts of preschool teachers on how to handle begging as a social phenomenon together with preschool children, the article intends to contribute to knowledge on how to address a sensitive and controversial issue in preschool. What do the experiences of preschool teachers in meeting begging together with children look like? Is begging an issue that is addressed by adults and children in preschool, and, if so, in which ways? Which pedagogical and ethical challenges arise when the issue is approached in a preschool context?
Begging is not criminalized in Sweden. It is not considered a threat to public order, safety, and health. Yet, previous research shows that encounters with people begging triggers many emotions, often negative and contradictory ones. How can this be reconciled with the “equal treatment” policies expected from Swedish preschools? Drawing inspiration from poststructuralist theory on education and ethics, I conceive these encounters as “meetings with the Other”, which do create tensions, but also possibilities.
The empirical material comes from ten focus group interviews with teachers from six Swedish preschools in different socio-demographic settings. The focus group interviews made it possible to document collective rather than individual processes of interpretation and sense-making. The material has been evaluated with the help of a reflexive thematic analysis.
Few of the interviewed preschool teachers has raised the issue of begging in conversation with preschool children, neither in connection with concrete encounters nor on other occasions. The teachers have also contended that it is not an issue raised by the children. There seem to be two possible explanations for this: One, people begging have become part of daily life, and today’s preschool children don’t know any other. Two, children learn from an early age that begging is nothing to be discussed, since both parents and preschool teachers often avoid the topic. The interviewed preschool teachers regarded begging to be a complicated and sensitive issue that was also considered as too political. Many of them, however, suggested that preschool children would have interesting things to say about the issue if adults felt comfortable raising it.
In order to outline both why the issue is avoided and how it could be addressed, the article looks at three of the most central pedagogical and ethical challenges related to encounters – real and imagined – with people begging: to avoid divisions between “us” and “them”; to negotiate asymmetric relationships of power; and to live up to perceived demands of political neutrality. The article relates these challenges to questions of human rights as well as “the Other”, “asymmetric ethics”, “the political”, and “conflictual consensus”.
The article argues that social justice is practiced in meetings with the Other. Social justice, therefore, is based on the choices and decisions we make in everyday encounters. These choices and decisions imply different forms of pedagogical and ethical challenges, but they also imply a potential for lived justice – even if incomplete.Under det senaste decenniet har tusentals utsatta EU-medborgare kommit till Sverige. Många av dem försörjer sig genom tiggeri, vilket har lett till att gatubilden har förändrats och att många förskolebarn därmed möter fattigdom och social utsatthet i samhället. Genom att undersöka pedagogers erfarenheter av och tankar om att hantera tiggeri som samhällsfenomen tillsammans med barn, är syftet med artikeln att bidra till kunskap om hur ett känsligt och kontroversiellt ämne behandlas i förskolan. Med inspiration från poststrukturalistisk teori om utbildning och etik förstås inte etik som i första hand idéer eller principer, utan snarare som något som uppstår i mötet med den Andre. Det empiriska materialet består av fokusgrupper med pedagoger i förskolan. Analysen visar att de flesta har mött tiggeri med barngruppen, men inte tagit upp ämnet till diskussion utan snarare undvikit ämnet. Barn uppges sällan ställa frågor. En anledning till att ämnet inte tagits upp handlar om att det genererar pedagogiska och etiska svårigheter, varav de tre mest centrala handlar om en rädsla att förstärka ”vi” och ”dom”, att hantera asymmetriska maktrelationer samt att förhålla sig till upplevda krav på neutralitet. Ämnet tiggeri verkade upplevas som något som ligger lite utanför förskolans uppdrag samtidigt som intresset för att diskutera frågan var stort