Cell Phone Portfolios

1. Cell Phone Portfolios Re-Assessing Speaking Assessment.

2. What is esl speaking assessment? • How do you currently assess ESL speaking? (think about it for a minute) • Does it include a mid-term, or a final exam? • What percentage of the four strands does speaking assessment comprise? • Is the larger part of the mark based on summative assessment? (a mid-term or final exam mark) • How do you formatively assess speaking? (an ongoing observation based mark)

3. What the research says Second Language Acquisition Lightbown’sten generalisations (2000: 432): • 1. Adults and adolescents can ‘acquire’ a second language. • 2. The learner creates a systematic interlanguage which is often characterised by the same systematic errors as the child learning the same language as the first language, as well as others which appear to be based on the learner’s own native language. • 3. There are predictable sequences in L2 acquisition such that certain structures have to be acquired before others can be integrated. • 4. Practice does not make perfect. • 5. Knowing a language rule does not mean one will be able to use it in communicative interaction.

4. 6. Isolated explicit error correction is usually ineffective in changing language behaviour. • 7. For most adult learners, acquisition stops before the learner has achieved native-like mastery of the target language. • 8. One cannot achieve native-like (or near native-like) command of a second language in one hour a day. • 9. The learner’s task is enormous because language is complex. • 10. A learner’s ability to understand language in a meaningful context exceeds his/her ability to comprehend decontextualised language and to produce language of comparable complexity and accuracy Lightbown, P. 2000, ‘Classroom SLA research and second language teaching’, Applied Linguistics, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 431-462.

5. Speaking-in-class and anxietyAn exploration of speaking-in-class anxiety of Chinese ESL learners, System, 39(2), 202-214. Jin, T., Mak, B., & Zhou, P. (2011). • Speaking in class is probably the most frequently cited concern of anxious second language learners ( [Aida, 1994], [Liu and Jackson, 2008] and [Mak and White, 1997]). Horwitz et al. (1986) call second language performance anxiety ‘communication apprehension’. • Kleinmann (1977) found her Spanish and Arabic EFL students’ oral performance was positively related to anxiety • Bailey’s (1983: 67) students cited ‘the stressful, competitive nature of oral public performance’ as the major source of anxiety in their SL classrooms • American university students of Spanish reported oral presentations, role plays and charades as their most anxiety-provoking language activities (Koch and Terrell, 1991) • Price’s (1991) American students of French reported speaking in the foreign language created the greatest anxiety • Samimy and Tabuse (1992) found that speaking anxiety was one of the most important factors in determining the oral performance of American university students of Japanese.

6. Metalinguistic function of outputSwain, M. (2007). The output hypothesis: Its history and its future. Retrieved from http://www.celea.org.cn/2007/keynote/ppt/Merrill%20Swain.pdf • Learners may notice that they cannot say what they want to say in the target language (Swain 1995). • Noticing this “hole” (Doughty and Williams 1998) may be an important step to noticing the gap. • Using language to reflect on language produced by others or the self, mediates second language learning.

7. Esl speaking and rehearsed speech • If ESL students are given the opportunity to practice speaking the target language in a comfortable environment, they will less likely feel anxious when speaking in public. • Video recorded speech and dialogue is a way for students to rehearse speaking, and then reflect on their progress as part of the metalinguistic process.

8. Constructivism and portfolios • Studies are increasingly showing that students learn best when they actively participate in the construction of knowledge. • “Because of the incompatibility of process learning and product assessment and the discrepancy between the information needed and the information derived through standardized testing, educators have begun to explore alternative forms of student assessment” (Moya, O’Malley p.1).

9. The benefits of portfolios in the esl classroomMoya, O’Malley, 1994, p.4 • A single testing measure cannot expose the diversity of skills, knowledge, processes, and strategies that combine to determine student progress. • Language proficiency must be viewed as a composite of many levels of knowledge, skills, and capabilities. • A varied approach to measurement, including both test and non-test methods, is, therefore, needed to ascertain student strengths and weaknesses in all critical areas. • Portfolio assessment encourages the use of multiple measures.

10. A sample dialogue • These intermediate ESL students gave me permission to use this. They are from Korea. They created the dialogue based on a sample dialogue with a language focus on Rejoinders. They emailed it to me from their cell phone.

11. Assessment of speaking portfolios: to mark or not to mark? • Because a portfolio is essentially a package of student work that shows progress over the period of an academic term, as educators we wonder how to assess it. • For example, how would you mark the video dialogue that you just saw? (think about it for a minute, talk to the person sitting beside you about your ideas, and then share with the rest of us)

12. What the experts say Three complementary points of reference are commonly used in interpretation of educational data: • individual performance across time, • mastery of skills, and • relative group standing (Moya & O’Malley, p.9) “Portfolios are to be used for global assessment based on proficiency guidelines” (Staehler,p.15) • “The portfolio is a way of including students in the assessment process...the student is a full and active learner in his or her own learning and the assessment thereof” (Paulson& Paulson, 1994).

13. Non-numerical grading that is feedback focused My Rubric

14. Speaking Porfolio assessment summary • It is recommended that team-teachers come up with a summative evaluation rubric of portfolios together (Paulson & Paulson, 1994). • Furthermore, the rubric should take into account language benchmarks for that level. • The student should have choice in the process regarding which work to submit. • The assignments that go into the portfolio should contain teacher feedback.

15. Do you have any ideas for assignments? • Cell Phone Speaking Portfolios can be used for conversation dialogues and more... • What are your ideas?

16. References • Jin, T., Mak, B., & Zhou, P. (2011). An exploration of speaking-in-class anxiety of Chinese ESL learners, System, 39(2), 202-214 • Lightbown, P. 2000, ‘Classroom SLA research and second language teaching’, Applied Linguistics, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 431-462. • Moya, S. S., & O'Malley, J. M. (1994). A portfolio assessment model for ESL. Journal of Educational Issues of Language Minority Students, 13, 13-36. • Paulson, F. L., & Paulson, P. R. (1994). Assessing portfolios using the constructivist paradigm.(1-15). • Paulson, F. L., & Paulson, P. R. (1994). A guide for judging portfolios. ().Measurement and Experimental Research Program,Multnomah Education Service District. • Staehler, E. A., & Gateway Technical Coll., Racine, WI. (1994). Portfolio assessment • Swain, M. (2007). The output hypothesis: Its history and its future. Retrieved from http://www.celea.org.cn/2007/keynote/ppt/Merrill%20Swain.pdf