Gillian Wigglesworth

An investigation of planning time and proficiency level on oral test discourse

The inclusion of planning time in semi-direct oral interaction tests adds consider ably to the overall length of the test, and it is important to be clear that the increase in length is justified by the language outcome. Previous research has shown that the effect of planning time in second language can differentially influence the resultant discourse with planned discourse eliciting more complex language on a range of measures. However, where planning time has been provided it has gener ally been a substantial amount of time (ten minutes or more), and in a second language classroom situation, rather than a testing situation. Where planning time is provided in an oral interaction test it is generally limited to one or two minutes. In this study planning time was manipulated as a variable in a trial administration of a semi-direct test. Discourse analytic techniques were then used to determine the nature and/or significance of differences in the elicited discourse across the two conditions in terms of complexity and accuracy. In addition, candidates were divided into high-proficiency versus low-proficiency groups. The findings suggest that for the high-proficiency candidates, planning time may improve accuracy on some measures where the cognitive load of the task is high, but that this effect does not extend to the low-proficiency candidates.

Pair versus individual writing: Effects on fluency, complexity and accuracy

The assessment of oral language is now quite commonly done in pairs or groups, and there is a growing body of research which investigates the related issues (e.g. May, 2007). Writing generally tends to be thought of as an individual activity, although a small number of studies have documented the advantages of collaboration in writing in the second language classroom (e.g. DiCamilla & Anton, 1997; Storch, 2005; Swain & Lapkin, 1998). Particularly in university contexts, group or pair assignments are widely used in many disciplines. In addition, collaborative writing could be used in second language classroom assessment contexts as formative assessment. However, research which compares texts produced by learners collaboratively to texts produced individually, and the implications of this for assessment practices, is rare. This study is a first step in the investigation of using collaborative writing in second language contexts and comparing the performance of two groups of second language learners: one group worked individually, and the other group worked in pairs. When writing in pairs, each pair produced a single text. All participants completed one writing task: an argumentative essay. The performances of the individuals (N = 48) and the pairs (N = 48) were compared on detailed discourse analytic measures of fluency, complexity and accuracy. This comparison revealed that collaboration impacted positively on accuracy, but did not affect fluency and complexity. A detailed analysis of the pair transcripts recorded during the writing activity provides insights into the ways in which pairs work together, and the foci of their endeavour. The implications of these findings for in-class assessment of second language writing are discussed.

Learners' Processing, Uptake, and Retention of Corrective Feedback on Writing.

The literature on corrective feedback (CF) that second language writers receive in response to their grammatical and lexical errors is plagued by controversies and conflicting findings about the merits of feedback. Although more recent studies suggest that CF is valuable (e.g., Bitchener, 2008 ; Sheen, 2007 ), it is still not clear whether direct or indirect feedback is the most effective, or why. This study explored the efficacy of two different forms of CF. The investigation focused on the nature of the learners’ engagement with the feedback received to gain a better understanding of why some feedback is taken up and retained and some is not. The study was composed of three sessions. In session 1, learners worked in pairs to compose a text based on a graphic prompt. Feedback was provided either in the form of reformulations (direct feedback) or editing symbols (indirect feedback). In session 2 (day 5), the learners reviewed the feedback they received and rewrote their text. All pair talk was audio-recorded. In session 3 (day 28), each of the learners composed a text individually using the same prompt as in session 1. The texts produced by the pairs after feedback were analyzed for evidence of uptake of the feedback given and texts produced individually in session 3 for evidence of retention. The learners’ transcribed pair talk proved a very rich source of data that showed not only how learners processed the feedback received but also their attitudes toward the feedback and their beliefs about language conventions and use. Closer analysis of four case study pairs suggests that uptake and retention may be affected by a host of linguistic and affective factors, including the type of errors the learners make in their writing and, more importantly, learners’ attitudes, beliefs, and goals. The findings suggest that, although often ignored in research on CF, these affective factors play an important role in uptake and retention of feedback.

Exploring bias analysis as a tool for improving rater consistency in assessing oral interaction

In this article, multifaceted Rasch techniques are used to investigate inter- and intrarater reliability in the assessment of two alternate versions of an oral interaction test - a direct version and a semi-direct version. Following the rating of trial administration of both versions of the test, an analysis of the bias of each individual rater in respect to test type and particular criteria used in rating the test was undertaken. The results of these analyses were then presented to the rater. The raters then assessed a further administration of the test and their bias with respect to this administration was analysed. The results of the two bias analyses were compared to determine whether rater performance had improved as a result of the feedback. There was some evidence that performance had improved.

Children's narrative acquisition: a study of some aspects of reference and anaphora

This paper reports the results of an experimental study designed to provide insights into the development of childrens ability to introduce a character into a story, and to maintain reference to that character and any additional characters. Previous studies have suggested that the appropriate linguistic devices used for this purpose, such as definite/indefinite articles and anaphoric pronouns are not acquired until relatively late. Four groups were tested, three groups consisting of children aged eight, six and four, and an adult group. The results indicated that none of the groups of children had attained adult compe tence in their control of reference and anaphoric relations. In compar ing the results of this study with other similar studies, it was also suggested that the nature of the materials used to elicit the narratives can influence the conclusions drawn from the results.

Children's Individual Approaches to the Organization of Narrative.

This paper investigates the similarities and differences observed in individual approaches to the linguistic organization of narrative. Twenty subjects in each of five age groups (four, six, eight, ten years and adult) were asked to relate a narrative elicited from a picture book. All references to the animate characters in the book were coded for form (nominal/pronominal), and function (switch versus maintenance). Individual analyses of the narratives indicated that a variety of strategies were used across all age groups. Strategies identified included thematic subject, nominal and anaphoric. When the narrative was divided into segments based on the referential load of each segment, it was found that there was an interaction between the strategy adopted in the first segment, the age of the subject and the referential load of subsequent segments. A variety of strategies was adopted by all age groups although there were preferential trends observable within each group. The ability to maintain a strategy across the varying referential load of the narrative increased with age. Five developmental stages were identified from the analysis which enabled certain tentative predictions to be made about the way children approach a complex narrative task, suggesting that children pass through a number of stages which reflect their ability to organize the referential content of the narrative at differing speech levels.

Early language development in children with profound hearing loss fitted with a device at a young age: part I--the time period taken to acquire first words and first word combinations.

Objective: Increasing numbers of infants and young children are now presenting to implantation centers and early intervention programs as the impact of universal newborn hearing screening programs is felt worldwide. Although results of a number of studies have highlighted the benefit of early identification and early fitting of hearing devices, there is relatively little research on the impact of early fitting of these devices on first language milestones. The aim of this study was to investigate the early spoken language milestones of young children with hearing loss (HL) from two perspectives: first, the acquisition of the first lexicon (i.e., the first 100 words) and second, the emergence of the first word combinations. Design: Two groups of participants, one comprising 24 participants with profound HL and a second comprising 16 participants with normal hearing, were compared. Twenty-three participants in the HL group were fitted with a cochlear implant and one with bilateral hearing aids. All of these were “switched-on” or fitted before 30 months of age and half at <12 months of age. Language data were collected using the Diary of Early Language, a procedure in which parents recorded their childs first 100 spoken single words and any word combinations produced while reaching this single-word target. Acquisition of single words was compared by using the time period (in days) taken to reach several single-word targets (e.g., 50 words, 100 words) from the date of production of the first word. The emergence of word combinations was analyzed from two perspectives: first, the time (in days) from the date of production of the first word to the emergence of the first word combinations and second, the size of the single-word lexicon when word combinations emerged. Results: The normal-hearing group required a significantly shorter time period to acquire the first 50 (mean <1.9 months) and the first 100 (mean <3.9 months) words than the HL group. Although both groups demonstrated acceleration in lexical acquisition, the hearing group took significantly fewer days to reach the second 50 words relative to the first 50 words than did the HL group. Finally, the hearing group produced word combinations significantly earlier (i.e., in fewer days from production of the first word) than the HL group; however, the size of the single-word lexicon when word combinations emerged was similar for both groups. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that despite fitting of a device at an early age, HL continues to impact early lexical acquisition and the emergence of word combinations. Further, similarities between the hearing and HL groups, such as the overall pattern of lexical acquisition and a lexicogrammatical link, suggest that the processes underpinning early language acquisition for hearing children and those with HL may also be similar.

Investigating the validity of an integrated listening-speaking task: A discourse-based analysis of test takers’ oral performances

Performance on integrated tasks requires candidates to engage skills and strategies beyond language proficiency alone, in ways that can be difficult to define and measure for testing purposes. While it has been widely recognized that stimulus materials impact test performance, our understanding of the way in which test takers make use of these materials in their responses, particularly in the context of listening-speaking tasks, remains predominantly intuitive. Recent studies have highlighted the problems associated with content-related aspects of task fulfilment on integrated tasks, but little attempt has been made to operationalize the way in which content from the input material is integrated into speaking performances. Using discourse data from a trial administration of a pilot for an Oxford English language test, this paper investigates how test takers integrate stimulus materials into their speaking performances on an integrated listening-then-speaking summary task, whether these behaviours are reflected in the relevant rating scale and, by implication, whether the test scores assigned according to this scale reflect real differences in the quality of oral performances. An innovative discourse analytic approach was developed to analyse content-related aspects of performance in order to determine if such aspects represent an appropriate measure of the speaking ability construct. Results showed that the measures devised, such as the number of key points included from the input text, and the accuracy with which information was reproduced or reformulated, effectively distinguished participants according to their level of speaking proficiency. The study’s findings support the use of this particular task-type and the appropriateness of the associated rating scale as a measure of speaking proficiency, as well as the utility of the devised discourse-based measures for the validation of integrated tasks in other assessment contexts.

CURRENT APPROACHES TO RESEARCHING SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNER PROCESSES

Language learning is a complex set of processes that largely take place in the learners head. The extent to which learners consciously focus on specific aspects of language, the degree to which they notice particular features of language, and how this is done has been the object of considerable debate in different theoretical approaches to second language acquisition. For researchers in second language acquisition, one dilemma is how to find out what learners notice, and how, if at all, they incorporate this into their developing linguistic knowledge. Here, I discuss three approaches to researching learner cognitive processes that can be used to identify the knowledge that learners have about their second language, and obtain some insights into the cognitive processes of learners. These approaches have the potential to contribute to our understanding of how learners learn a second language, and, therefore, how this task may be facilitated. The first approach attempts to tap directly into the learners thought through the use of think-aloud protocols, whereas the second involves having learners engage with activities that encourage them to talk aloud, thus providing insights into their thought processes. The third approach uses planning effects on task performance to investigate how learners monitor their language.

An Investigation of the Effectiveness and Validity of Planning Time in Speaking Test Tasks

The study described in this article investigated the relationship between three variables in the IELTS oral module—planning, proficiency, and task—and was designed to enhance our understanding of how or whether these variables interact. The study aimed to determine whether differences in performance resulted from 1 or 2 min of planning time. It also aimed to identify the most effective strategies used by candidates in their planning. Ninety candidates, in two groups—intermediate and advanced—each undertook three tasks with either 1 or 2 min planning time or none. All tasks were rated by two raters, and the transcripts of the speech samples subjected to a discourse analysis. Neither the analysis of the scores nor the discourse analysis revealed any significant differences in performance according to the amount of planning time provided. Although this suggests that planning time does not positively advantage candidates, we argue that 1 min of pretask planning should be considered as an option in the test development process in the interests of fairness and to enhance the face validity of the test. The study concludes with a discussion of possible reasons for our null findings and proposes avenues for further research.