0000000000614095
AUTHOR
Tiina Lammervo
Comparing speaking situations in three different language tests
The purpose of this study was to compare learner outcome when five similar speaking situations were offered in the speaking subtest in Finnish, Swedish and English intermediate level tests in the Finnish National Certificates language testing system. The overall aim was to investigate the tasks by comparing learner outcomes across the three tests and to seek explanations for the outcome in the learners’ selfreported demographic, language, educational and professional background.The speaking situations were selected from the NC item bank meaning that they have undergone the Item Response Theory based analyses which indicate that the tasks function well in all tests. More information was need…
Australian TESOL Teachers’ Cultural Perceptions of Students
ABSTRACTOver the last decade, research in the field of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) has increasingly focused on the relationship between culture and learning. Researchers such as Kumaravadivelu (2003) have been vocal in their opposition to the practice of cultural stereotyping. In the current study, Holliday’s (2005) model of Culturism was used as a theoretical basis. Six Australian TESOL teachers were interviewed to determine the nature and extent of the cultural stereotypes that they held, particularly as they pertained to specific learning-related behaviours. A qualitative analysis of the data revealed that teachers most often grouped students in terms of natio…