Pub Date : 2021-12-26DOI: 10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.4.3
Safoura Jahedizadeh, Ali H. Al-Hoorie
Directed motivational currents, unique and intense goal-directed motivational surges lasting over a period of time, have received increasing attention recently. This article reports the first systematic review of this phenomenon. A total of 21 reports appearing between 2013 and 2020 were included in the analysis. The results show that the majority of empirical reports were small-scale qualitative studies (median = 18 participants). The evidence on the three characteristics proposed as necessary and/or distinguishing conditions of directed motivational currents (vision, salient facilitative structure, and positive affect) is inconclusive due to the presence of directed motivational currents cases not exhibiting these features, and the absence of direct comparative analyses with non-directed motivational currents cases. A few intervention studies (N = 4) were conducted, but their results are also inconclusive due to a number of methodological limitations. Contrary to the claim that directed motivational current experiences are the “optimal form” of motivation, the results additionally showed that these experiences could lead to intense stress, anxiety, depression, sleeplessness, and panic attacks, thereby raising ethical concerns about deliberately inducing directed motivational currents in learners. We conclude that, although the concept of directed motivational currents is promising, more research is needed to reach a better understanding of its potential. We end this article by suggesting directions for future research into directed motivational currents, including renaming them as sustained flow.
{"title":"Directed motivational currents: A systematic review","authors":"Safoura Jahedizadeh, Ali H. Al-Hoorie","doi":"10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.4.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.4.3","url":null,"abstract":"Directed motivational currents, unique and intense goal-directed motivational surges lasting over a period of time, have received increasing attention recently. This article reports the first systematic review of this phenomenon. A total of 21 reports appearing between 2013 and 2020 were included in the analysis. The results show that the majority of empirical reports were small-scale qualitative studies (median = 18 participants). The evidence on the three characteristics proposed as necessary and/or distinguishing conditions of directed motivational currents (vision, salient facilitative structure, and positive affect) is inconclusive due to the presence of directed motivational currents cases not exhibiting these features, and the absence of direct comparative analyses with non-directed motivational currents cases. A few intervention studies (N = 4) were conducted, but their results are also inconclusive due to a number of methodological limitations. Contrary to the claim that directed motivational current experiences are the “optimal form” of motivation, the results additionally showed that these experiences could lead to intense stress, anxiety, depression, sleeplessness, and panic attacks, thereby raising ethical concerns about deliberately inducing directed motivational currents in learners. We conclude that, although the concept of directed motivational currents is promising, more research is needed to reach a better understanding of its potential. We end this article by suggesting directions for future research into directed motivational currents, including renaming them as sustained flow.","PeriodicalId":46277,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2021-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74594953","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-26DOI: 10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.4.4
J. Bobkina, María-José Gómez-Ortiz, María Cristina Núñez del Río, S. Sastre-Merino
The study explores the motivational profiles of Spanish EFL sports science university students from the second language (L2) motivation self system (L2MSS) perspective to ultimately support Spanish higher institutions´ plans committed to improving employability and competitiveness. The study analyzes the relationships between L2 motivation, L2 proficiency, gender, and L2 contextual variables using data from 196 English as a foreign language (EFL) sports science university students. The data reveal that the ideal L2 self construct stands out as the most salient and powerful factor, while the ought-to and rebellious L2 selves are less significant and there are items loading on both of them at the same time. Thus, higher means for the ideal L2 self motivation correspond to higher levels of L2 proficiency and are supported by L2 learning contextual variables. The strongest ought-to L2 self was registered in students with mid-low L2 proficiency and a lack of L2 learning experiences. Meanwhile, the rebellious L2 self is clearly distinguishable only for students with high L2 proficiency. Pedagogical and curricular implications of these findings are that the ideal and the rebellious L2 selves could positively predict students´ L2 proficiency. Thus, new dynamics of education should explore language teaching methodologies that are more likely to enhance students´ ideal and rebellious L2 selves.
{"title":"Why am I learning English? Spanish EFL sports science university students´ motivational orientations through the prism of the L2 motivational self system","authors":"J. Bobkina, María-José Gómez-Ortiz, María Cristina Núñez del Río, S. Sastre-Merino","doi":"10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.4.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.4.4","url":null,"abstract":"The study explores the motivational profiles of Spanish EFL sports science university students from the second language (L2) motivation self system (L2MSS) perspective to ultimately support Spanish higher institutions´ plans committed to improving employability and competitiveness. The study analyzes the relationships between L2 motivation, L2 proficiency, gender, and L2 contextual variables using data from 196 English as a foreign language (EFL) sports science university students. The data reveal that the ideal L2 self construct stands out as the most salient and powerful factor, while the ought-to and rebellious L2 selves are less significant and there are items loading on both of them at the same time. Thus, higher means for the ideal L2 self motivation correspond to higher levels of L2 proficiency and are supported by L2 learning contextual variables. The strongest ought-to L2 self was registered in students with mid-low L2 proficiency and a lack of L2 learning experiences. Meanwhile, the rebellious L2 self is clearly distinguishable only for students with high L2 proficiency. Pedagogical and curricular implications of these findings are that the ideal and the rebellious L2 selves could positively predict students´ L2 proficiency. Thus, new dynamics of education should explore language teaching methodologies that are more likely to enhance students´ ideal and rebellious L2 selves.","PeriodicalId":46277,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching","volume":"74 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2021-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86992894","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-20DOI: 10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.4.8
Breno B. Silva
Book Review: Learning words from reading: A cognitive model of word-meaning inference. Author: Megumi Hamada. Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021. ISBN: 978-1-3501-5368-4. Pages: 168
{"title":"Review of Learning words from reading: A cognitive model of word-meaning inference; Author: Megumi Hamada; Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021; ISBN: 978-1-3501-5368-4; Pages: 168","authors":"Breno B. Silva","doi":"10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.4.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.4.8","url":null,"abstract":"Book Review: Learning words from reading: A cognitive model of word-meaning inference. Author: Megumi Hamada. Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021. ISBN: 978-1-3501-5368-4. Pages: 168","PeriodicalId":46277,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2021-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85528434","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-20DOI: 10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.4.7
Mengyao Ma, X. Gao
Book Review: Individual differences in language learning: A complex systems theory perspective. Authors: Carol Griffiths, Adem Soruç. Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. ISBN: 978-3-030-52900-0. Pages: 220.
{"title":"Review of Individual differences in language learning: A complex systems theory perspective; Authors: Carol Griffiths, Adem Soruç; Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020; ISBN: 978-3-030-52900-0; Pages: 220","authors":"Mengyao Ma, X. Gao","doi":"10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.4.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.4.7","url":null,"abstract":"Book Review: Individual differences in language learning: A complex systems theory perspective. Authors: Carol Griffiths, Adem Soruç. Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. ISBN: 978-3-030-52900-0. Pages: 220.","PeriodicalId":46277,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching","volume":"40 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2021-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79661339","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-13DOI: 10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.3.3
G. Brooks, Jon Clenton, Simon Fraser
This exploratory study represents an attempt to investigate the factors that may affect the reading comprehension abilities of English as an additional language (EAL) learners. For this study, we examined a participant group of 31 (25 EAL and 6 first language English) learners studying at an international school in Japan. We assessed the participants according to four factors shown to influence reading comprehension: vocabulary knowledge, word decoding skills, reading fluency, and general linguistic ability. Our results show that differences in vocabulary knowledge show more variance in reading comprehension scores than the other factors examined in this study, highlighting the importance of vocabulary knowledge for reading comprehension. However, other factors such as reading fluency and general linguistic knowledge are also shown to be moderate to strong predictors of reading comprehension. Based on these results, we suggest that EAL learners need targeted language support to enhance academic text comprehension.
{"title":"Exploring the importance of vocabulary for English as an additional language learners’ reading comprehension","authors":"G. Brooks, Jon Clenton, Simon Fraser","doi":"10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.3.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.3.3","url":null,"abstract":"This exploratory study represents an attempt to investigate the factors that may affect the reading comprehension abilities of English as an additional language (EAL) learners. For this study, we examined a participant group of 31 (25 EAL and 6 first language English) learners studying at an international school in Japan. We assessed the participants according to four factors shown to influence reading comprehension: vocabulary knowledge, word decoding skills, reading fluency, and general linguistic ability. Our results show that differences in vocabulary knowledge show more variance in reading comprehension scores than the other factors examined in this study, highlighting the importance of vocabulary knowledge for reading comprehension. However, other factors such as reading fluency and general linguistic knowledge are also shown to be moderate to strong predictors of reading comprehension. Based on these results, we suggest that EAL learners need targeted language support to enhance academic text comprehension.","PeriodicalId":46277,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85030238","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-13DOI: 10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.3.5
D. Banegas, Robert J. Lowe
There has been much research on the connections between second language (L2) writing and learner motivation. However, few studies have focused on contexts in which L2 learning is mandatory, rather than elective. This technical action research-based study evaluated a project in which teenage learners in Argentina were engaged in creative writing tasks, with the goal of including their final written pieces in a formal publication. Through focus group interviews and group discussions, it was found that the project had increased the motivation not only of the learners, but also of the teachers. Further, the study highlights the importance of making such writing tasks student-centered, and calls attention to the role played by the teachers in motivating and engaging students. The study suggests that effort should be made to develop more initiatives in formal education settings in order to motivate and engage learners involved in mandatory language study.
{"title":"Creative writing for publication: An action research study of motivation, engagement, and language development in Argentinian secondary schools","authors":"D. Banegas, Robert J. Lowe","doi":"10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.3.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.3.5","url":null,"abstract":"There has been much research on the connections between second language (L2) writing and learner motivation. However, few studies have focused on contexts in which L2 learning is mandatory, rather than elective. This technical action research-based study evaluated a project in which teenage learners in Argentina were engaged in creative writing tasks, with the goal of including their final written pieces in a formal publication. Through focus group interviews and group discussions, it was found that the project had increased the motivation not only of the learners, but also of the teachers. Further, the study highlights the importance of making such writing tasks student-centered, and calls attention to the role played by the teachers in motivating and engaging students. The study suggests that effort should be made to develop more initiatives in formal education settings in order to motivate and engage learners involved in mandatory language study.","PeriodicalId":46277,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80365020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-13DOI: 10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.3.4
G. Bui, Xuewei Luo
Prior research demonstrates that primary and secondary school teachers often find teaching young learners to write in a second language a slow and effortful process. Moreover, students in this age range lack the motivation to write. Therefore, it is important to explore the EFL writing pedagogy suitable for young learners. The present study investigated how story continuation (with or without reading input) under different topic familiarity conditions serves as a viable pedagogical means for secondary school students. Ninety-one Chinese students in four intact classes of comparable proficiency levels were assigned four writing task conditions in a 2 ⨉ 2 factorial design. Group 1 (Fam) was provided with the beginning of a familiar story in L1 Chinese and was required to complete the story in L2 English. Group 2 (UnFam) had the same task as Group 1, with an unfamiliar story. Group 3 (Fam+Input) was initially provided with the complete familiar story in Chinese (the same story as Group 1) as reading input and were then instructed to write the story in English with the reading material taken away. Group 4 (Unfam+Input) received the full unfamiliar story in Chinese (the same story as Group 2) as input before writing. Again they were not allowed to refer to the reading in the composing process. The results revealed that the young learners who wrote on familiar topics (Groups 1 and 3) produced longer texts and demonstrated greater lexical diversity than those with unfamiliar stories (Groups 2 and 4), although topic familiarity did not affect their writing quality or lexical sophistication. As for the story continuation conditions, students who completed writing the story without the L1 reading input on the topics (Groups 1 and 2) developed longer compositions and better writing quality than those with such input (Groups 3 and 4), although their lexical profiles (both lexical diversity and lexical sophistication) remained uninfluenced. Pedagogical implications for EFL writing among young learners were also discussed in the present study.
{"title":"Topic familiarity and story continuation in young English as a foreign language learners’ writing tasks","authors":"G. Bui, Xuewei Luo","doi":"10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.3.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.3.4","url":null,"abstract":"Prior research demonstrates that primary and secondary school teachers often find teaching young learners to write in a second language a slow and effortful process. Moreover, students in this age range lack the motivation to write. Therefore, it is important to explore the EFL writing pedagogy suitable for young learners. The present study investigated how story continuation (with or without reading input) under different topic familiarity conditions serves as a viable pedagogical means for secondary school students. Ninety-one Chinese students in four intact classes of comparable proficiency levels were assigned four writing task conditions in a 2 ⨉ 2 factorial design. Group 1 (Fam) was provided with the beginning of a familiar story in L1 Chinese and was required to complete the story in L2 English. Group 2 (UnFam) had the same task as Group 1, with an unfamiliar story. Group 3 (Fam+Input) was initially provided with the complete familiar story in Chinese (the same story as Group 1) as reading input and were then instructed to write the story in English with the reading material taken away. Group 4 (Unfam+Input) received the full unfamiliar story in Chinese (the same story as Group 2) as input before writing. Again they were not allowed to refer to the reading in the composing process. The results revealed that the young learners who wrote on familiar topics (Groups 1 and 3) produced longer texts and demonstrated greater lexical diversity than those with unfamiliar stories (Groups 2 and 4), although topic familiarity did not affect their writing quality or lexical sophistication. As for the story continuation conditions, students who completed writing the story without the L1 reading input on the topics (Groups 1 and 2) developed longer compositions and better writing quality than those with such input (Groups 3 and 4), although their lexical profiles (both lexical diversity and lexical sophistication) remained uninfluenced. Pedagogical implications for EFL writing among young learners were also discussed in the present study.","PeriodicalId":46277,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching","volume":"40 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85087930","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-13DOI: 10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.3.2
S. Ke, Dongbo Zhang
This scoping review explores the causal relationship between morphological instruction and reading development in young L2 learners by synthesizing 12 primary studies published between 2004 and 2019 (N = 1,535). These studies focused on reading English as the target language and involved participants between kindergarten and Grade 12 from four countries (China, Egypt, Singapore, and the USA). Findings suggested that (a) morphological instruction led to consistent and positive gains in L2 children’s morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge, and the effect sizes (Cohen’s ds) ranged from small to large; and (b) the relationship between morphological instruction and other outcomes such as phonological awareness, word reading accuracy, word reading fluency, spelling, and reading comprehension was inconclusive. Notably, transfer effects of L2 English morphological instruction on novel word learning in English or on reading development in an additional language were only examined and observed in four primary studies. Discussion was provided regarding future instructional and research design.
{"title":"Morphological instruction and reading development in young L2 readers: A scoping review of causal relationships","authors":"S. Ke, Dongbo Zhang","doi":"10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.3.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.3.2","url":null,"abstract":"This scoping review explores the causal relationship between morphological instruction and reading development in young L2 learners by synthesizing 12 primary studies published between 2004 and 2019 (N = 1,535). These studies focused on reading English as the target language and involved participants between kindergarten and Grade 12 from four countries (China, Egypt, Singapore, and the USA). Findings suggested that (a) morphological instruction led to consistent and positive gains in L2 children’s morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge, and the effect sizes (Cohen’s ds) ranged from small to large; and (b) the relationship between morphological instruction and other outcomes such as phonological awareness, word reading accuracy, word reading fluency, spelling, and reading comprehension was inconclusive. Notably, transfer effects of L2 English morphological instruction on novel word learning in English or on reading development in an additional language were only examined and observed in four primary studies. Discussion was provided regarding future instructional and research design.","PeriodicalId":46277,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84862432","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-13DOI: 10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.3.6
B. Reynolds, M. Teng
The study examined the types of written corrective feedback given by second language writing teachers on Taiwanese secondary school students’ collocation errors. First, the written corrective feedback that teachers provided on learners’ word choice errors was examined to uncover the types of feedback provided. Then, analysis focused on verb–noun collocations to draw attention to how students had been receiving different types of written corrective feedback from teachers on a single collocation error type. Results showed that some sentences tagged as including word choice errors only contained rule-based errors. Furthermore, for verb-noun collocation errors, teachers chose to provide indirect and direct feedback almost equally at the expense of metalinguistic feedback. Based on the results, we suggested options for second language writing teachers when providing feedback on word choice errors.
{"title":"Innovating teacher feedback with writing activities aimed at raising secondary school students’ awareness of collocation errors","authors":"B. Reynolds, M. Teng","doi":"10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.3.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.3.6","url":null,"abstract":"The study examined the types of written corrective feedback given by second language writing teachers on Taiwanese secondary school students’ collocation errors. First, the written corrective feedback that teachers provided on learners’ word choice errors was examined to uncover the types of feedback provided. Then, analysis focused on verb–noun collocations to draw attention to how students had been receiving different types of written corrective feedback from teachers on a single collocation error type. Results showed that some sentences tagged as including word choice errors only contained rule-based errors. Furthermore, for verb-noun collocation errors, teachers chose to provide indirect and direct feedback almost equally at the expense of metalinguistic feedback. Based on the results, we suggested options for second language writing teachers when providing feedback on word choice errors.","PeriodicalId":46277,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching","volume":"48 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74975775","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-13DOI: 10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.3.7
Maggie Ma, Gavin Bui
Teacher conceptions of assessment influence their implementation of learning-focused assessment initiatives as advocated in many educational policy documents. This mixed-methods study investigated Chinese secondary school teachers’ conceptions of L2 assessment in the context of an exam-oriented educational system which emphasizes English grammar, vocabulary and reading comprehension skills. For the quantitative part of the study, survey data were collected to gauge the conceptions of assessment held by 66 senior secondary EFL teachers from six schools in Eastern China. For the qualitative part, case studies of two teachers from schools with different rankings were conducted. Quantitative results showed that the teacher participants as a group agreed most with the view that assessment is to help learning. However, there was a strong association between two factors, that is, the assessment as accurate for examination and teacher/school control factor, and the assessment as accurate for student development factor. The strong association indicated that it may be less likely for the group of teachers to adopt the formative assessment initiatives emphasizing student development as promoted in the English curriculum reform. Qualitative findings further revealed individual differences in the two case study teachers’ conceptions and practices of assessment as well as the interplay among meso-level (e.g., school factor), micro-level (e.g., student factor), and macro-level (e.g., sociocultural and policy contexts) factors in shaping the teachers’ different conceptions and practices of assessment. A situated approach has been proposed to enhance teachers’ assessment literacy.
{"title":"Chinese secondary school teachers’ conceptions of L2 assessment: A mixed-methods study","authors":"Maggie Ma, Gavin Bui","doi":"10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.3.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.3.7","url":null,"abstract":"Teacher conceptions of assessment influence their implementation of learning-focused assessment initiatives as advocated in many educational policy documents. This mixed-methods study investigated Chinese secondary school teachers’ conceptions of L2 assessment in the context of an exam-oriented educational system which emphasizes English grammar, vocabulary and reading comprehension skills. For the quantitative part of the study, survey data were collected to gauge the conceptions of assessment held by 66 senior secondary EFL teachers from six schools in Eastern China. For the qualitative part, case studies of two teachers from schools with different rankings were conducted. Quantitative results showed that the teacher participants as a group agreed most with the view that assessment is to help learning. However, there was a strong association between two factors, that is, the assessment as accurate for examination and teacher/school control factor, and the assessment as accurate for student development factor. The strong association indicated that it may be less likely for the group of teachers to adopt the formative assessment initiatives emphasizing student development as promoted in the English curriculum reform. Qualitative findings further revealed individual differences in the two case study teachers’ conceptions and practices of assessment as well as the interplay among meso-level (e.g., school factor), micro-level (e.g., student factor), and macro-level (e.g., sociocultural and policy contexts) factors in shaping the teachers’ different conceptions and practices of assessment. A situated approach has been proposed to enhance teachers’ assessment literacy.","PeriodicalId":46277,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching","volume":"37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79221689","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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