The Department of English Studies of the University of Cyprus hosted the 3rd EALTA-CBLA (Classroom-Based Language Assessment) SIG Symposium on the 2nd and 3rd of November last year. The two-day event focussed on the washback effect language assessment exerts on students.
EALTA (European Association for Language Testing and Assessment) has many - world-wide known expert members in the assessment field and has formed a number of Special Interest Groups (SIGs) which specialise in various assessment areas catering for different assessment needs.
The EALTA CBLA SIG was initiated by Dr Dina Tsagari, Senior Lecturer at the Department of English Studies at the University of Cyprus.
Dr Tsagari organises SIG’s meetings in Cyprus, where doctoral students communicate their research, make their findings known to a wider audience, develop a sense of themselves as authorised scholars and encourage other university students to engage in research.
Anastasia Spyropoulou
In addition, invited academics comment on the work done so far and provide insights gained from their own practice and expertise.
In the 3rd EALTA-CBLA SIG Symposium, the invited academics were:
1. Charles Alderson, Professor of Linguistics and English Language
Education at Lancaster University
2. Elana Shohamy, Professor of Language Education at the School of
Education, Tel Aviv University
The presenters were:
• Niki Kouvdou, PhD candidate at the Hellenic Open University, who discussed whether alternative assessment, in the form of systematic observation-based record keeping, is appropriate for the assessment of oral performance skills in a teaching context where the principles of English as a Lingua Franca are highly valued.
Niki’s research stems from the point that English is widely used for communicative purposes mostly among non-native speakers of English. Therefore mistakes which do not impede communication should not be penalized. As far as washback effect is concerned Niki has evidence that this stress-free approach has positive effects on learners.
• Lana Loumbourdi, PhD candidate at Goethe University, Frankfurt, investigated the washback effect on candidates preparing for the FCE exams in Greece.
According to the findings of Lana’s research washback effect was of a negative nature in the Use of English paper of the test, which tests Grammar and Vocabulary.
Overall, the test itself seemed to have a positive effect on students and the way they perceived their skills and knowledge of English.
However, the preparation course they attended before the exam seemed to have a negative effect on both teachers and students, especially in the way it pushes towards repetition of the same material and teaching test-taking strategies.
• Vanda Papafilippou, PhD candidate at the University of Bristol, investigated the washback effect English language tests have on teaching in Greece.
Vanda interviewed a number of test-takers who stated that throughout their studies, viewed themselves primarily as candidates rather than learners and that it was their teachers and parents who put this pressure on them.
Teachers, in their turn, argued that they receive immense pressure from parents to teach to the test.
However, parents seemed not to know anything about the tests per se, and their main arguments were drawn from the human capital discourse ‘pool’.
Therefore, tests appear to draw their power not from their format or content but from the values that the society holds.
• Irine Papakammenou, PhD candidate at the University of Cyprus, is investigating the washback effect on teaching practices applied in multi-exam classes in Greece.
This phenomenon presents an interesting pedagogical ecology since different learners -in the same exam preparation class- are preparing for different in content and format exams.
It is also challenging for teachers, who are constantly adapting the teaching methods they use depending on which exam the learner is going to take.
• Eleni Meletiadou, PhD candidate at the University of Cyprus, is investigating the washback effect peer assessment (PA) has on learning. Eleni used a sample of 60 Cypriot adolescent EFL students. She divided the learners into three intact groups which received different kinds of feedback.
The findings indicated that: a) all three groups had a positive attitude towards PA, and b) learners who were actively involved in PA as student/assessors (third group) felt that they had learnt more than the learners who were passively involved as student/assessees (second group).
Eleni concluded by saying that the use of peer assessment mechanisms fosters positive washback on the learners as they can take control of the assessment.
Through peer assessment students become responsible for their own progress because they are able to diagnose strong or weak areas, identify current proficiency level, become more goal-oriented and consequently more self-directed learners.
• Stavroula Kontovourki, University of Cyprus, discussed literacy assessment in elementary schools.
Stavroula examined the meanings of assessment and the processes in which meanings of literacy and of literate identities are produced and shaped.
The invited academics’ talks
Prof. Charles Alderson described and discussed the concept of washback, presenting research that has tried to examine the nature of washback and the role of teachers and students in bringing about washback.
He then questioned whether all tests have washback and explored the relationship between test stakes and the impact of the test.
Prof. Alderson believes that low-stakes tests need not have washback and specifically that diagnostic tests are designed to have a positive effect on learners.
To substantiate his assertion Prof. Alderson referred to the experience of DIALANG and the ongoing research project DIALUKI .
(DIALANG is a language diagnosis system developed by many European higher education institutions. It reports the learner’s level of skill against the Common European Framework (CEF) for language learning. DIALANG’s skills are reading, writing, listening, grammar and vocabulary.
The system diagnoses the level of proficiency in Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Icelandic, Irish-gaelic, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. DIALANG has instructions and tests in all these languages.)
(The DIALUKI project studies the diagnosis of reading and writing abilities in a second or foreign language. It seeks to identify the cognitive features which predict a learner’s strengths and weaknesses in those areas. The project brings together scholars from applied linguistics, psychology and assessment to engage in multidisciplinary work and to develop innovative ways of diagnosing the development of second and foreign language abilities.)
Prof. Elana Shohamy examined different approaches of ‘building on washback’ for meaningful teaching and learning.
A common approach of the past few years has been to build on the concept of washback to connect testing and learning, i.e., to utilize washback, which refers to the effect of tests on teaching and learning – to the creation of various pedagogical approaches for effective language learning.
Such approaches range from those where testing companies engage in the development of learning and teaching materials that will assist students and teachers in obtaining higher scores on tests, to others which attempt to erase the divide between testing and learning using mediations and other socio-cultural methods as in Dynamic Assessment.
The term dynamic assessment (DA) refers to an assessment, by an active teaching process, of a child’s perception, learning, thinking, and problem solving.
The goals of the DA are to:
(a) assess the capacity of the child to grasp the principle underlying an initial problem and to solve it,
(b) assess the nature and amount of investment (teaching) that is required to teach a child a given rule or principle, and
(c) identify the specific deficient cognitive functions that are responsible for failure in performance and how modifiable they are as a result of teaching.
DA is designed to provide accurate information about:
(a) an individual’s current learning ability and learning processes;
(b) specific cognitive factors (i.e., impulsivity, planning behavior) responsible for problem-solving ability and academic success or failure;
(c) efficient teaching strategies for the child being studied; and
(d) motivational, emotional, and personality factors that affect cognitive processes.
Prof. Shohami evaluated and critiqued testing approaches which are widely used nowadays mostly in large scale testing in educational systems and universities and arrived at conclusions as to the desired type of connections between testing and learning.
The Symposium, which was sponsored by the University of Cyprus, the British Council and ETS, was an excellently organized event, which shed light on the backstage of assessment and gave novice scholars the opportunity to be positioned in the community of experts.
