VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES A CRITICAL REVIEW OF CURRENT EL TESTING PRACTICES AT THAI NGUYEN LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOL SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF TESOL TR N NG KHÁNH LINH Supervisor: Dr. V TH PH NG ANH NHA TRANG September 2005 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF CURRENT EL TESTING PRACTICES AT THAI NGUYEN LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOL in terms of the statement of Requirements for Theses in Master’s Programmes issued by the Higher Degree Committee. Nha Trang, September 10th, 2005 TR N NG KHÁNH LINH II RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, TR N NG KHÁNH LINH, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses.
Nha Trang, September 10th, 2005 TR N NG KHÁNH LINH III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Dr. V Th Ph ng Anh, who provided insightful discussions, valuable comments, criticisms, and support in the preparation and completion of this thesis. My special thanks go to the organizers of this master course, Mr. Lê H u Ph c, Head of the Department of Post Graduate Studies of Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities; and Mr.
Nguy n Hu nh t, Head of the Department of English Linguistics and Literature of the university; and their staff members. This thesis would never have been possible without the permission and financial support from Mr. Lê Thanh Bình, Rector of Nha Trang Teacher Training College; and Mr. Hà V n H nh, Head of the Foreign Language Department of the college.
I would like to express my thanks to these people. I also wish to thank all the staff members at the English Section, Nha Trang Teacher Training College for their help and moral support, in particular Ms. Nguy n Th H ng Liên, and Ms. oàn Linh Chi.
I am also grateful to Mr. Nguy n Cao Phúc, the Foreign Language Specialist of Khanh Hoa DOET; the English language staff; and the Grade-6 students of Thai Nguyen Lower Secondary School, who heartily participated in the research. Thanks also to all my friends, especially Thanh Nhã, Lan Anh, ng Nguyên, Hoàng Mai, H nh Huy n, who have continually encouraged me to complete my study. My warmest thanks go to my mother-in-law and my husband, who took all the family burden during my long absence from home with great understanding, and whose love has backed me to attain to my aim.
Last, but not least, I especially owe my little son for not giving him adequate motherly care during his infancy to finish my study in Ho Chi Minh City. His sacrifice makes a great contribution to the completion of my post graduate course in general and of this thesis in particular. IV LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLA : Communicative Language Ability CLT : Communicative Language Teaching DOET : Department of Education and Training EL : English Language ESL : English as a Second Language LSS : Lower Secondary School MOET : Ministry of Education and Training MSOET : Municipal Service of Education and Training S : Student T : Teacher TLU : Target Language Use TMF : Test Method Facet V ABSTRACT English language teaching at LSSs in Khanh Hoa has undergone a reform with the promotion of the CLT since 1995 and the use of new text books in large scale since 2002. During the renovation much attention has been paid to new teaching techniques but little care has been taken over the testing aspect of the new teaching methodology.
This thesis takes a critical look at current English language testing practices at one of the best schools in Khanh Hoa: Thai Nguyen LSS. The purpose of the thesis is to find if the neglect of the testing aspect has made testing unable to cater for the course objectives; and, if it is the case, how the backward testing has affected the school’s teaching practices. To do this, a study was carried out to investigate the school’s testing practices at Grade Six - the grade on which the new textbook has been used for three years, an adequate time for any evaluation. All aspects of the testing reality were examined: (a) the teachers’ perception of the role and principles of communicative language testing; (b) their testing practices (both formal and informal); and (c) their students’ communicative language ability.
The methods employed in the investigation includes: (1) reference of relevant documents for the course’s TLU domain and TLU tasks; (2) a survey on how well the staff understand what it means to test language ability communicatively, with questionnaires given out to 8 staff members having experience in the new teaching program; (3) class observation for the teachers’ informal testing practice and the washback effect of their testing practices on their teaching, with observation sheets tailored to highlight the evaluation criteria; (4) a systematic analysis of the test papers used during the first semester of academic year 2004-2005; and (5) the assessment of the communicative language ability of the school’s students - the products of the current teaching-testing practices - through their performance on a communicative achievement test designed by the researcher. The results of the study shows that communicative testing has NOT been in effect at Thai Nguyen LSS, the pioneering school in the province’s teaching reform. Even worse, the backward testing practices have caused negative washback to the school’s teaching: the teachers are either conducting grammar-based classes or VI giving extra-curricular evening classes to prepare the students for the tests. The problems are defined mainly as the consequence of the disorientation of the DOET and MSOET through their test specifications and term-test design.
Besides, it is the staff’s superficial understanding of Communicative Language Testing that results in their misleading informal testing practice. The thesis, therefore, makes suggestions to all the stake-holders of the provincial education for a reform in language testing practices at LSSs in general and at Thai Nguyen LSS in particular. The recommendations of the study are believed to contribute to a comprehensive reform in the provincial teaching and help to solve the critical problem of uncontrollable extra-curricular classes in the province. VII Table of contents INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY.
Aims of the research and overview of the thesis. BACKGROUND TO THE RESEARCH. Description of Grade - 6 English program at Thai Nguyen LSS. Teaching approach, course objectives, and time allocation.
Course book and additional teaching materials. Teaching and learning environment. The English Language Teaching Staff and the Examination Authority. The English Language Teaching Staff.
The examination authority. REVIEW OF RELEVANT LITERATURE. The importance of testing in language teaching and learning. The Communicative Approach to Language Testing.
Features of communicative language tests. Communicative Language Ability. Bachman’s framework of Test Method Facets (TMF). For course orientation and course objectives.
For the school teachers’ perceptions and their teaching-testing practices. For the evaluation of test qualities. For the students’ Communicative Language Ability. Guiding documents from the course designers and the education authorities.
Class observation sheets. The progressive and summative tests in practice at the school. The communicative test. Data collection procedure.
Scoring of test results. DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS. Analysis of guiding documents on the new teaching program. Analysis of the teachers’ feedbacks on the questionnaires.
Analysis of class observation results. Analysis of the school’s test papers. Analysis of the sample’s performance on the communicative test. SYNTHESIS OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
Summary of findings from each research method. Findings from documents on new orientation of English language teaching. Findings from the teachers’ responses of the questionnaire items. Findings from class observation.
Findings from the analysis of the school’s test papers. Findings from the students’ performance on the communicative test. The school’s effort to renovate its teaching of English. The backwardness of the school’s testing practices.
The harmful washback the backward testing leaves on the school’s teaching. The student’s lack of Communicative Language Ability. The deficiency of the new course books. Delimitations and Limitations of the study.
Suggestions and Recommendations. 77 X INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY Testing: an important part of every teaching and learning experience. The study reported in this thesis examines the renovation in English teaching at Thai Nguyen Lower Secondary School (Thai Nguyen LSS) in Nha Trang, to investigate how testing has changed towards the new teaching approach and methods. The aim of this introductory chapter is to identify the problem the thesis attempts to solve, to state the aim of the study, and to present an overview of the thesis.
The problem Since 1995 the English language-teaching curriculum in Lower Secondary Schools (LSS) has undergone a process of change and reform. This process has involved the promotion of a new teaching methodology and the recent development of a new curriculum with new course books: the Ti ng Anh 6 since 2002, the Ti ng Anh 7 since 2003 and the Ti ng Anh 8 since 2004. The overall approach in the course books is eclectic. As claimed by the authors, though, there is a move towards a more communicative approach, which is exemplified by, for example, the use of pair work and group work, the emphasis on language skills, and the view of grammar and vocabulary as means of communication and information exchange, not as the objectives of the teaching-learning process.
All these strides have been made to motivate the students to use the target language competently. It is hoped that this reform in teaching has been well-backed by the way the students’ progress and achievement are tested, i. the students’ competence in using English must be the supreme goal of any tests, either formal or informal. No longer can there be tests that only attempt to measure the students’ linguistic knowledge.
For one reason, it is unfair to the students to teach them one thing and then measure their ability at another. More importantly, it is essential for the success of the new teaching methodology that test content and testing techniques be fully 1 congruous with the aims and objectives of the new language-teaching curriculum. Studies have gained facts showing that testing always has some wash back effect (or ‘backwash’ as defined by Arthur Hughes, 1997) on teaching and learning. When well-matched tests are given, learning can be enhanced by the learners’ awareness of the course objectives and the areas of emphasis in the course.
Such tests can also help teachers to see how effective the process of teaching and learning is. This congruence is especially crucial when we consider the setting of English language learning in Vietnamese LSSs, where informal and formal tests in class put great pressure on both the student and the teacher, for test results provide the stakeholders with the only information about the students’ competence and the teachers’ professional skills. In such a situation, success in tests is the supreme aim of every student and teacher. Therefore, if the tests continuously fail to measure what the students have been asked to learn, all the teaching and learning effort that precedes the tests become meaningless.
As a result, the course objectives as quoted in the course books will soon be abandoned to give way to test content. That is why Weir (C.Weir, 1993: 5) insists that language testing in the classroom cannot be divorced from the course syllabus and the course objectives.