language teachers' target language (lttl): assessing student writing

Language teachers' target language skills: assessing students' writing.

Tatiana Ershovatatiana.a.ershova@gmail.com

Language Teachers' Target Language (LTTL)

Alexey Korenev (Moscow University)Carolyn Westbrook (Southampton Solent University)Tatiana Ershova (Moscow University)Yvonne Merry (Southampton Solent University)

Describe how teachers use the language for professional purposes inside and outside classroom (their Target Language Use Domain);Create a language course for students at pedagogical universities (pre-service teachers);Design a language assessment for pre-service teachers.

LTTL research group

ELT classroom is a special environment in which “language is supposed to be simultaneously the medium and the object of instruction”.

(Freeman, Katz, Gomez & Burns 2015).

Prof. Anthony Green, Granada, October 2014)

A learner needs at least a C1* level of language to work as a teacher of English

A learner with C1 of language can work as a teacher of English

* depends on the context

≠

Existing research:

▪ Classroom Interaction (Van Lier 1988)▪ Pedagogic functions of language (Jarvis and Robinson

1997)▪ Critical Classroom Discourse Analysis

(Kumaravadivelu 1999)▪ Turn taking and sequence (Seedhouse 2004)▪ Exploring classroom discourse (Walsh 2011)▪ LPATE and its impact (Coniam and Falvey 2013, Drave

2013)▪ English-for-teaching: rethinking English proficiency in

the classroom (Freeman, Katz, Gomez and Burns)

managing the classroom

understanding and communicating lesson content

assessing students and giving them feedback.

English-for-teaching: rethinking English proficiency in the classroom (Freeman, Katz, Gomez and Burns, 2015)

ElTeach functional areas of classroom language use:

OCLA — a diagnostic tool for teachers

Procedures:

Do you ever perform any of these tasks in English?

Do you think future teachers should be trained to perform

these tasks in English?

Needs Analysis

Assessing writing is challenging

Wolfe, Edward W., and Brian Feltovich. "Learning To Rate Essays: A Study of Scorer Cognition." (1994).

Expanded model of scorer cognition:

True/False

LTTL: Assessing writing & Giving feedback

http://blogs.longwood.edu/483sp13/page/8/

Content-focused assessment

Language-focused assessment

+

Feedback

Language-focused assessment micro-skills:

Linguistic error detection

Identification between its type and nature

Distinction between an 'error' and a 'mistake'

The use of an appropriate error-correction technique

• direct & indirect• focused & unfocused• metalinguistic

(error codes & metalinguistic comments);• reformulation

Typology of written corrective feedback (Ellis, 2008):

Language Teachers Target Language Copr.

Direct

Language Teachers Target Language Copr.

Ellis, Rod. (2009). Corrective Feedback and Teacher Development. L2 Journal, 1(1). Retrieved from:

http://escholarship.org/uc/item/2504d6w3

Indirect

Focused - correcting specific type of errors (e.g. verb forms, articles)

Unfocused - correcting all errors in the text.

Language Teachers Target Language Copr.

Ellis, Rod. (2009). Corrective Feedback and Teacher Development. L2 Journal, 1(1). Retrieved from:

http://escholarship.org/uc/item/2504d6w3

Metalinguistic

Ellis, Rod. (2009). Corrective Feedback and Teacher Development. L2 Journal, 1(1). Retrieved from:

http://escholarship.org/uc/item/2504d6w3

You are given a piece of writing. Provide the author with direct written corrective feedback.

Exercise 1.1

Correct the errors in the piece of writing below using unfocused indirect corrective feedback locating the errors .

Exercise 1.2

Chose the right error code to indicate the error committed in each of the phrases below.

Error Codes:

Gr. - grammarSp. - spellingWW - wrong wordFrag. - fragmentationPrep. - prepositionTense - wrong tense useArt. - use of articles

Exercise 1.3

Language Teachers Target Language Copr.

Provide the author of the following piece of writing with indirect corrective feedback focused on the verb forms.

Exercise 1.4

Let's Risk It!

Types of feedbackWritten

Oral (teacher-student conference)

Audio/video recorded...

Multiple matching (essay+feedback)

Feedback reconstruction

Final comment: what should it be like?

Guiding principles of written teacher commentary.

Guiding principles of written teacher commentary:

Teachers should provide both encouragement & constructive criticism through their feedback.

Teachers should not respond to every single problem on every single student draft.

Teachers should take care to avoid ‘appropriating’, a student’s text.

Teachers should consider their written feedback as part of an ongoing conversation between them and each of their

students.

(Ferris & Hedgcock, 2005, p.190)

Assessment

Thank you for your attention!

tatiana.a.ershova@gmail.com