1,721,018 research outputs found
Student accounts of the Ontario Secondary School literacy Test: a case for validation
No full textThe Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) is a cross-curricular literacy test issued to all secondary school students in the province of Ontario. The test consists of a reading and a writing component, both of which must be successfully completed for secondary school graduation in Ontario. This study elicited 16 first language and second language student accounts of their OSSLT test-taking processes immediately after the March 2006 test administration. The analysis of these students’ accounts provided valuable information about the validity of the inferences drawn from the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test. These accounts suggest the complexity of the processes that the students engaged as they attempted to demonstrate their reading and writing skills on the test. The study has implications for test developers and test users regarding the interpretation of student test performance on the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test
The challenges of the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test for second language students
No full textResults from the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) indicate that English as a Second Language (ESL) and English Literacy Development (ELD) students have comparatively low success and high deferral rates. This study examined the 2002 and 2003 OSSLT test performances of ESL/ELD and non-ESL/ELD students in order to identify and understand the factors that may help explain why ESL/ELD students failed the test at relatively high rates. The analyses also attempted to determine if there were significant and systematic differences in ESL/ELD students' test performance. The performance of ESL/ELD students was consistently and similarly lower across item formats, reading text types, skills and strategies, and the four writing tasks. Using discriminant analyses, it was found that narrative text type, indirect understanding skill, vocabulary strategy of reading, and the news report writing task were significant predictors of ESL/ELD membership. The results of this study provide direction for further research and instruction regarding English literacy achievement for these second language students within the context of having to complete large-scale English literacy tests designed and constructed for first English language students
Factors influencing English Language Learners' performance on the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test
No full textHow does anxiety influence language performance? From the perspectives of foreign language classroom anxiety and cognitive test anxiety
No full textThis study examined the relationships between students' foreign language classroom anxiety and cognitive test anxiety and their College English Test Band 4 (CET-4) performance. A questionnaire was distributed to 921 Chinese university students to understand the nature and degree of the examined relationships. Follow-up interviews with twelve students were used to shed further light on uncovering mechanisms of relationships found in the survey. Results revealed three factors of anxiety, explaining 43.14% of the total variance. Means, standard deviations, the internal consistency for each factor, and zero-order correlations among the three factors were calculated. Correlation and multiple regression of the anxiety factors and test scores were then conducted. Results confirmed that cognitive test anxiety factor was a significant negative predictor of language achievement. Interview results did not fully support the relationships found in the survey. Most students did not perceive themselves to be very anxious in their university settings, either in classrooms or in testing situations. However, they did express their anxiety toward English speaking skills in the classroom. The differential perspectives of anxiety revealed from both analyses indicate that a better understanding of language classroom anxiety and cognitive test anxiety can help students and teachers to optimize their learning and teaching practices
Do test formats in reading comprehension affect second-language students' test performance differently?
No full textLarge-scale testing in English affects second-language students not only greatly but also differently than first-language learners. The research literature reports that confounding factors in such large-scale testing such as varying test formats may differentially affect the performance of students from diverse backgrounds. An investigation of test performance between ESL/ELD students and non- ESL/ELD students on the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) was performed to investigate whether test formats in reading comprehension affected the two groups differently. The results indicate that the overall pattern of difficulty levels on the three test formats were the same between ESL/ELD students and non-ESL/ELD students, except that ESL/ELD students performed substantially lower on each format and that more variability was found among ESL/ELD students. Further, discriminant analysis results indicated that only the multiplechoice questions obtained a significant discriminant coefficient in differentiating the two groups. The results suggest a lack of association between test formats and test performance
Examining students' after-school literacy activities and their literacy performance on the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test
Get PDFThis study examined relationships between the after?school literacy activities and test performance of students who passed and students who failed the 2003 administration of the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test. It included both students who have been in the Canadian school system for most of their school lives and mostly use English as a first language (L1), and students who have recently entered the Canadian school system and use English as a second language (L2). This study demonstrates the relatively small yet complex relationship between the test performance of these different groups of students on this literacy test and their after-school reading and writing activities
What has experience got to do with it? An exploration of L1 and L2 test takers’ perceptions of test performance and alignment to classroom literacy activities
Get PDFThe importance of first language (L1) and second language (L2) test takers’ experience with large-scale literacy testing has been well documented in educational research. Our study focused on the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT), a crosscurricular literacy test that is one of the graduation requirements for Ontario high school students. We drew on qualitative data obtained from open-ended questions on a largescale survey administered to OSSLT test takers. Whether the test takers were preparing to take the test or had already taken the test seemed to play a critical role in L1 and L2 test takers’ perceptions. The most salient results highlight the role that test experience had on test takers’ perceptions of their test performance and the alignment between the test and their classroom literacy activities
Measuring anxiety
No full textThe investigation of anxiety belongs to a growing body of research on individual learner differences in relation to second language acquisition (SLA). Anxiety, a normal human emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical change, is a well-documented construct which is traditionally related to second language performance and achievement. The major empirical studies in SLA illustrated in this chapter have focused on three major dimensions of research, namely, foreign language anxiety, willingness to communicate, and test anxiety. The instruments empirically tested in measuring these aspects of anxiety in SLA research are also reviewed in this chapter. Strategies of measuring anxiety are further discussed. In the end, future research directions are recommended to focus on anxiety research within the changing language landscape of English as Lingua Franca (ELF) and multilingualism, as well as capturing the dynamic nature of anxiety
Test-takers’ background, literacy activities, and views of the Ontario secondary school literacy test
Get PDFThis study examined the relationships among students’ background information and their in-school and after-school literacy activities, as well as the relationships between students’ background and their views of the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT). The results showed that students’ literacy activities could be grouped into three types: e-literacy, traditional literacy, and creative literacy. Furthermore, results showed that categorization of literacy activities depended on whether the activities were conducted in English or in another language. Gender predicted certain types of literacy activities. Compared with English-as-a-first-language (L1) students, English-as-a-second-language (L2) students’ background influenced more of their views of the test
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