Examination underachievement: is there a language factor?

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Pauline Rea-Dickins, Guoxing Yu, Oksana Afitska (Bristol) Zuleikha Khamis (State University of Zanzibar) Examination underachievement: is there a language factor?

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Pauline Rea-Dickins, Guoxing Yu, Oksana Afitska (Bristol) Zuleikha Khamis (State University of Zanzibar). Examination underachievement: is there a language factor?. Outline of this presentation. Overview of research context and issues Overview of study and research aims Some data - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Transcript of Examination underachievement: is there a language factor?

Page 1: Examination underachievement: is there a language factor?

Pauline Rea-Dickins, Guoxing Yu, Oksana Afitska (Bristol)

Zuleikha Khamis (State University of Zanzibar)

Examination underachievement: is there a language factor?

Page 2: Examination underachievement: is there a language factor?

2 Outline of this presentation

• Overview of research context and issues

• Overview of study and research aims

• Some data

• Discussion & some conclusions

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3 Context of Learning

Khadija is 15 years old and in Form 2 of secondary school. Her

learning in primary school was entirely through the medium of

Kiswahili, with English taught as a subject. She experienced an abrupt

shift from Kiswahili as medium of instruction on transition to

secondary school as in Form 1 she was expected to learn all her

subjects through English. However, in reality both her L1 (Kiswhahili)

and L2 (English) were used when she was being taught Maths, Science,

Geography and her other subjects. But, at the end of Form 2 she is

required to demonstrate her subject learning in formal school

examinations through the medium of English.

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4 The Research

• Rationale: – Significant numbers of learners in SSA have to

demonstrate their learning through an L2/L3

– BUT: little is known about how learners might be disadvantaged in demonstrating subject learning through an L2/L3

• Located in Zanzibar: islands of Unguja, Pemba,

Tumbatu

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5 Research Aims

• What evidence is there that language constitutes a

determining factor in the demonstration of achievement in

formal examination of school subject knowledge?

• What is the impact of different examination formats and

accommodations to extend the ways in which children’s

understanding may be examined in the 3 core areas:

English, Maths, Science: Biology & Chemistry

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6 What are the stakes?

– 55% leave primary education as unsuccessful learners; Alidou et al. 2006)

– Participation rates are very low in Basic Education: 38% (UNESCO, 2007:58)

– Exams are high stakes: e.g. only 27% of pupils who begin school in SA exist with a school leaving certificate after the twelfth grade (Heugh 2000:30)

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Linguistic problems

• Vocabulary: not understanding specific words

(from English test paper) WHALES, BREATHING, MAMMALS, SURFACE, BALEEN,

TOOTHED, SPECIES, FEEDING, PLANKTON, VAST SHOALS, SQUID, CHASE, DEEPER,

DEPTHS, TONS ➲; ARRANGEMENT, JOURNEY, MEANS OF GETTING, ARRIVAL, COULD

COLLECT YOU ➲.

(from Chemistry test paper) SOLUTION, DILUTE, CONCENTRATED.

(from Biology test paper) SIMILARITIES, MAMMALS, BIRDS (some learners) ➲.

(from Maths test paper) EVALUATE, FRACTIONS.

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When learners do not know the meaning of the words in the task or question they may either:

• (1) guess the meaning of the word and carry on

with the task, or

• (2) not attempt at the task at all as the meaning of

the word is not clear.

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Guessing the meaning

№ Turn Transcript

840 I ...ok well you underlined the word “squid” but in this answer you did use this word FOUR LIVING THINGS MENTIONED IN THE PASSAGE how do you know that squid is a living thing if you do not know the meaning of this word

841 E4 Statement (points to the sentence in the passage)

842 I THE TOOTHED

843 E4 THE TOOTHED WHALES just whales I think this is the animal FEED just to eat (shows a movement with his hand like he is eating something)

844 I Eat

845 E4 ON FISH fish is a

846 I [Living thing

847 E4 [Living thing AND THE SQUID both fish and squid are animals

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Not attempting at the task

№ Turn Transcript

111 D1 Because this question I did not understand

114 I WHAT ARE THE FOUR THINGS that’s question three WHAT ARE THE FOUR THINGS THAT MAN COULD RESEMBLE WHALES had you tried and guessed what it means

115 D1 I do not understand by this this one RESEMBLE

122 I If I tell you so that’s question 3 if I tell you that resemble means “to look like”... WHAT ARE THE FOUR THINGS THAT MAN that man has in common WITH WHALES could you do the question now “what are the four things that man and whales share” what they have man has and whales have can you do the question now

123 D1 Yes

124 I Ok so what’s the answer

129133

D1 Man .... Is warm-blooded... And whales also... Whales have lungs and man also have lungs

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Linguistic problems

• Pronunciation: Learners may have inaccurate pronunciation of

some English words. This potentially may stop them from

recognising such words as known or familiar when reading them.

(Discussion of biology test paper) SKELETON = SEKELTON

(Discussion of English test paper) WHALES = WALS

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№ Turn Transcript

328 E4 I think it was in topic of sekelton (meaning skeleton)

№ Turn Transcript

859 E4 I think this story was about how wals (meaning whales) live

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Linguistic problems

• Reading accuracy: Learners may misread the words and

therefore interpret their meaning based on what they read.

(Discussion of maths test paper) QUOTIENTS ➪ QUANTITIES

(Discussion of English test paper) COLLAR ➪ COLOUR

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№ Turn Transcript

399 E4 Quantities (learner reads “QUOTIENTS” as “quantities”)

400 I That is QUOTIENTS

418 E4 I understand quantities like length measure of quantity I know measures of quantity like length volume

№ Turn Transcript

903 E4 Collar I do not understand I think “colour”

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Linguistic problems

• Misinterpretation of words: This happens when learner

reads a word properly but his/her knowledge on meaning of the word

is inaccurate. (Discussion of maths test paper) EITHER ➛ INTERSECTION

Discussion of maths test paper) TWICE ➛ TWINS

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№ Turn Transcript

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E4 Either means intersection ... You can you may say that in a mathematical “either” means “intersection”

572 I The way you understand it

574 E4 Yes

№ Turn Transcript

423 I What about question number 6... Can you translate it to Kiswahili

426 B6 [in Kiswahili]

427 I So TWICE means TWINS

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Non-linguistic problems

• Topics not covered in class

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№ Turn Transcript

67 A5 they were not taught to me teacher just I do not know but this time he was not taught other lesson or other topic example in biology we have not taught {or talked} about this question STATE AS PRECISELY AS YOU CAN WHERE IN HUMAN BODY YOU WOULD FIND this here we have not talked about it it so I will try try to answer it ... then this question here

68 I Question number 3

69 A5 Number 3 these two we have not talked teacher but I tried to answer it in my opinion how I was I was understand this question here

160 A5 Just in two question and I thought it because I have not learn it example this is DRAW and I saw to draw and to LABEL but I have not done that ANTERIOR VIEW OF A THORACIC VERTEBRAE so I can not I have not feeling how can I draw and label it

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Non-linguistic problems

• No/not enough practice on tasks: More practice ➪

easy task ; less/no practice ➪ difficult task

(Discussion of easiness / difficultness of tasks) The DIFFICULT tasks were mostly

those that were NOT COVERED in the class (lines 494-495) whereas the EASY ones

were those that were PRACTICED in class (lines 126-152, 421, 424-426) (lines 182-

185, A5).

Question 6 in maths paper: The combined ages of Juma and Asha are 10 years. The

difference of Asha’s age from twice Juma’s age is 8 years. Find the ages of each one.

Learner E4 identified this task as easy as it was one of the tasks that he had to do in

his trial exam.

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Non-linguistic problems

• Lack of or no laboratories and equipment for

science lessons

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№ Turn Transcript

191199202693

E4 School there we have no laboratory... we must use laboratory... and then we must to get microscope because in our [level] we have not... some of thing we must to show we must to see but we can’t see because we haven’t (a microscope)

203 I Do you think use of laboratory help in teaching science

204208

E4 Yes, yes because if we study in laboratory our teacher can make our teacher he can show us a lot of thing which we did not saw we did not see but if we learn in class we can’t see them... I think if I learn it in laboratory I will benefit very well than in class

703 I Do you think use of laboratory can boost up your understanding

704 E4 Yes

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Non-linguistic problems

• Not enough or no visual presentations (e.g.

experiments)

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№ Turn Transcript

685 E4 In Biology I think we haven’t any experiment which use laboratory I think there is no any experiment which use like laboratory

686687

I But yesterday your teacher showed you how to identify... It was that kind of showing reactions

689 E4 I think in only in on that day

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Non-linguistic problems

• Pressure from adults to help with work in

expense of learning

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№ Turn Transcript

316 E4 but I get few chance to repeat my book because many times I help my father

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Non-linguistic problems

• Exam/time pressure = attentiveness: There seems

to be a pressure on learners by the fact that they are taking exams.

Asking the learners to do the same tasks without the time/exam

pressure seems to be making them perform better. They can

complete tasks correctly, can notice the mistakes that they made in

test.

(Noticing mistakes) PHYLORIC ➪ PYLORIC

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№ Turn Transcript

631 E4 Easiest it was this question … I get wrong because I forget I put “H” here it was “y” “pyloric end” not “phyloric”

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Non-linguistic problems (cont.)

(Time pressure) PUNCTUATE

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№ Turn Transcript

906 I I just have a question what does the word PUNCTUATE mean

907909

E4 Punctuate It means [in Kiswahili ------ ]

910 I(1) It is ok (translating to 2) putting coma and full stops

911 I Aha so here you put a full stop right to this sentence

912 E4 Yes

913 I Uhm because in here we had a sentence without a full stop (task 3b (i) in part II) if you look very carefully at this sentence now do you think there is anything else missing sentence except the full stop HIS FRIEND

914 E4 FRIEND

915 I NAME

916 E4 HIS FRIEND’S NAME HIS FRIEND’S NAME

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Non-linguistic problems (cont.)

№ Turn Transcript

917 I Aha so what do we need to de here

918 E4 HIS FRIEND’S NAME

919 I Yeah so can you write what is missing

920 E4 writes in red pen in his English paper on top of his initial answer HIS FRIEND’S NAME IS RASHID.

921 E4 His friend’s

922 I Uhm

923 E4 is

924 I So you know what the problem was why did not you write HIS FRIEND’S first time why did you write HIS FRIEND you did not notice it

925 E4 Time that can make me to thought... it was little

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23 Discussion: Class Participation & Marginalised Groups(Data from Study 4)

• Restricted opportunities for reading & writing

• Lack of follow up tasks that might develop

explanatory skills, use language spontaneously,

develop a sense of genre specific writing

• Teachers tend to focus on same, few learners in class

& these tend to be the better students: the weaker

learners are a seriously marginalised group

• Severely limited resources: focus on BB work

• Switch to L1 for discussion: pair or group work

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24 Discussion: Classroom Discourse(Data from Study 4)

• Much teacher L2 talk is very restricted (see also Probyn, 2005;

Hornberger & Chick, 2001):- limited L2 proficiency: TT are L2 speakers & their linguistic

repertoires is shallow (Prophet & Badede, 2007); leads to ‘watering down of content’, simplification of ideas; dominant Qn types encourage recall/review of prior knowledge

- repetition of words & phrases; sentence completion & rote learning: factual recall; reading aloud or from BB; Q&A routines with single word/short answers

- almost no evidence of a strong scaffold in L2 for either content or language learning; little or no exploratory talk as basis for discourse-specific writing in L2; some evidence in L1.

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25 Some Conclusions

YES there IS a language factor:

(i) SS inadequately prepared for examinations– Lack of exposure to rich language models– Little opportunity to: exchange meanings, to develop

skills of reasoning, explanation, justification = lack of practice in ‘learning talk’ and exposure to genre for learning

– Yet: exams require learners to explain (sequential or causal explanations), argue, organise information through describing, discussing, evaluation …

– Some (but little overall) evidence of a language focus in the subject classes & of a cross-curricula focus in the English classes: lack of opportunities for language development

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26 Some Conclusions

(ii) The examinations themselves in English pose

difficulties to the learners

(iii) There are other crucial mediating factors, e.g.:

– Teachers struggle in their use of the L2 and cannot provide the rich and varied linguistic environments for the development of subject learning and L2 abilities as preparation for the formal high stakes examinations at end of Form 2

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27 Some Conclusions

• Lack of resources (e.g. graph paper is drawn on

the BB; no periodic tables for Chemistry, no

textbooks for learners)

• Teacher Certification: many Form 2 teachers are

Form 4 school leavers

• …..

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28 Some Conclusions

Is language THE factor in examination underachievement??

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Pauline Rea-Dickins, Guoxing Yu, Oksana Afitska, Bristol

Zuleikha Khamis, State University of Zanzibar

Examination underachievement: is there a language factor?

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English test paper (1)

Read the following passage very carefully then answer the questions that follow it:

 Whales and man are warm-blooded, air breathing mammals. Whales have lungs and need to come to the surface of the sea to breathe air. They can be separated into two groups, the baleen whales and the toothed whales.

 There are about twelve species of baleen whales, all feeding on small plankton organisms. The baleen whales feed by swimming through vast shoals of plankton with mouths open.

 The toothed whales feed on fish and squid which they have to chase in deeper water. Some of these whales can dive to great depths.

 The largest animal that has ever lived on this planet is the blue whale, which can grow to 100 feet (30 metres) and about 100 tons in weight. ➲

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English test paper (2)

Write a letter to your friend KAWAONE, whom you will visit

during your holidays. The letter should contain the following

details.

 

• Reason(s) for visiting him/her.

• Your arrangement for the journey

• Means of getting to the station.

• Day, date and time of your arrival

• The place where he/she could collect you.

• Your name is TUWENAO. ➲

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Biology test paper

Question 2: List down characteristic similarities and

differences between birds and mammals ➲ 

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Mammals Birds

Similarities1.2.

1.2.

Differences 1.2.

1.2.