Examination of the Extent to Which English Aural – Oral Skills are Evaluated in Compliance with the Provision of the 9 – Year English Studies Curriculum at Junior Secondary Schools in Katsina State, Nigeria. (Published)
The study examines compliance with the 9 – year English studies curriculum proposition that after each topic students’ performance in oral English be evaluated. The design adopted for the study was the descriptive survey. Two objectives and their corresponding research questions were used to guide the research. 210 teachers of English and 384 students from public, community and private secondary schools across the seven zones of Education formed the respondents for the research questionnaires. Two sets of questionnaires developed by the researcher, were used for data collection. Forty eight teachers were also observed in real class teaching – learning situation. The findings as check – mated by classroom observation revealed neglect of evaluation of the aural – oral skills contrary to the provision of the 9 – year English Studies Curriculum. Where the tests were carried out. They were lop – sided in favour of productive skills. Among the recommendations given based on the findings is that In consonance with the 9 – year Basic Education English Studies Curriculum, after each lesson and each topic, schools management, inspectors and supervisors, should ensure that students’ oral performance is adequately evaluated.
Keywords: Compliance, Curriculum, Evaluation, Examination, Language Testing, aural – oral skills
KOREAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ RANKS OF DIFFICULTY AND FREQUENCY OF ATTITUDE ON TEST-TAKING (Published)
This study determined Korean university students’ ranks of difficulty as well as rank and frequency of attitude on test-taking. Specifically, difficulties on 1) test instructions, 2) test contents, 3) test types, and 4) frequency of attitude towards testing were determined by employing the exploratory-quantitative-qualitative-interpretative type of research design. Through students’ survey questionnaire and focused group discussion as well as teachers’ interview, the findings are concluded that: 1) having been taught basic grammar points and vocabulary with the use of the learning materials, the students could still not communicate confidently and spontaneously in conversation practice that made them not able to display desirable competence in some written tests and activities; 2) students’ attitudes made an impact in learning the language as most of them did not see the importance of it for future life, because they did not exert effort to learn by studying religiously and participating in all activities; 3) the students were not able to develop their linguistic and communicative potentials because only an hour and fifty minutes were spent for each class in a week, covering the four macro skills with grammar and vocabulary enrichments; and, 4) for the teachers, tests were difficult to construct for validating language proficiencies because extremely poor and extremely good students were made to attend in one class altogether. It is implied that the students were not emotionally- and intellectually-prepared. To establish remedy, the teachers should provide 1) elaborated lecture-discussion to internalize knowledge, 2) appropriate teaching techniques to assimilate and accommodate language inputs, 3) sufficient examples of a test with various test types to demonstrate well their language skills, and 4) constant dialogue with them to establish rapport in a language testing environment and language classroom learning in general. The recommendations made by Lado (1961) and Jianrattanapong (2011) may also work in this study.
Keywords: Language Testing, Personality Factor, Short History of English Language Testing, Types Of Testing Based On Purpose and Interpretation
Ranks of Difficulty and Frequency of Attitude among Korean University Students on Test-Taking (Review Completed - Accepted)
This study determined the ranks of difficulty as well as the rank and frequency of attitude Korean university students experienced on test-taking. Specifically, difficulties on 1) test instructions, 2) test contents, 3) test types, and 4) frequency of attitude towards testing were determined employing the exploratory-quantitative-qualitative-interpretative type of research design. Through students’ survey questionnaire and focused group discussions as well as teachers’ interview, the findings were concluded that: 1) having been taught basic grammar points and vocabulary with the use of the learning materials (Smart Choice textbooks and workbooks), the students could still not communicate confidently and spontaneously in conversation practice that made them not able to display desirable competence in some written tests and activities; 2) students’ attitudes made an impact in learning the language as most of them did not see the importance of it for future life, because they did not exert effort to learn by studying religiously and participating in all activities; 3) the students were not able to develop their linguistic and communicative potentials because only an hour and fifty minutes were spent for each class in a week, covering the four macro skills with grammar and vocabulary enrichments; and, 4) for teachers, tests were difficult to construct for validating language proficiencies because extremely poor and extremely good students were made to attend in one class altogether. It is implied that students were not emotionally- and intellectually-prepared. To establish remedy, teachers should provide 1) elaborated lecture-discussion to internalize knowledge, 2) appropriate teaching techniques to assimilate and accommodate language inputs, 3) sufficient examples of a test with various test types to demonstrate well their language skills, and 4) constant dialogue with them to establish rapport in a language testing environment and language classroom learning in general. The recommendations made by Lado (1961) and Jianrattanapong (2011) may also work in this study.
Keywords: Language Testing, Personality Factor, Short History of English Language Testing, Types Of Testing Based On Purpose and Interpretation