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"Standards-based"
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What Constitutes a Science of Reading Instruction?
Recently, the term science of reading has been used in public debate to promote policies and instructional practices based on research on the basic cognitive mechanisms of reading, the neural processes involved in reading, computational models of learning to read, and the like. According to those views, such data provide convincing evidence that explicit decoding instruction (e.g., phonological awareness, phonics) should be beneficial to reading success. Nevertheless, there has been pushback against such policies, the use of the term science of reading by “phonics-centric people”, and their lack of instructional knowledge and experience. In this article, although the author supports pedagogical decision making on the basis of a confluence of evidence from a variety of sources, he cautions against instructional overgeneralizations based on various kinds of basic research without an adequate consideration of instructional experiments. The author provides several examples of the premature translation of basic research findings into wide-scale pedagogical application.
Journal Article
Future directions in assessment: Influences of standards and implications for language learning
As Foreign Language Annals concludes its 50th anniversary, it is fitting to review the past and peer into the future of standards‐based education and assessment. Standards are a common yardstick used by educators and researchers as a powerful framework for conceptualizing teaching and measuring learner success. The impact of standards on language assessment, teaching, curricula, course design, and educational policy is indisputable, but can they even be more impactful, more beneficial? In this article, we reflect upon the role of language learning standards on world language practices and assessments and discuss standards’ design, implementation, and appropriation issues that will challenge the field over the next few decades. Although predicting the future is risky, forward thinking is critical when examining an issue as large and complex as the teaching and learning of world languages. Challenges This paper explores how standards‐based instruction and assessment have evolved and suggests areas in which future work may be helpful. How can advances in the field of applied linguistics inform our thinking? How will new approaches to assessment drive alternative conceptions of language teaching and pathways to language learning? Video & Discussion
Journal Article
A validity argument to support the ACTFL Assessment of Performance Toward Proficiency in Languages (AAPPL)
This article presents evidence for a validity argument on the ACTFL Assessment of Performance Toward Proficiency in Languages (AAPPL) tests (Interpersonal Listening/Speaking, Presentational Writing, Interpretive Listening, and Interpretive Reading) by summarizing an analysis of the 2014 test data from examinations administered in three languages (Chinese, French, and Spanish) to more than 10,000 students in grades 5 to 12. The specific stages the authors evaluated included the following: (1) the design of the instrument, (2) the effectiveness of the rating scale, (3) the reliability of the instrument, and (4) the extent to which ACTFL proficiency levels were generalizable across languages. As a complete test battery, there is validity evidence that the Assessment of Performance Toward Proficiency can be used to measure the performance of upper elementary, middle, and high school students as they develop increasingly sophisticated language proficiency. The strengths of the examinations are the productive skill areas, whereas the receptive skill areas have been targeted for continuing development. The Challenge Developing reliable and valid measurement instruments is essential to the effort to use student learning outcomes to guide goal setting, curriculum development, and instruction. To what extent does the Assessment of Performance Toward Proficiency validly assess grade 5 to 12 students’ performance? How can validity studies positively influence teaching and learning of world languages?
Journal Article
Putting local on the MAP: A model for engaging foreign language students with local cultures
Culture in the teaching and learning of foreign languages tends to be stereotypical and monolithic, marginalizing the diversity of local cultures and practices and resulting in a monocultural and monolingual bias. Expanding on the ACTFL Cultures and Comparisons Standards, the current article presents the MAPS model for Exploring Local Cultures aimed at engaging students with local products, practices, and perspectives through the creation, exchange, and analysis of digital artifacts of local cultures. The article demonstrates how a complex pedagogical model can be constructed from existing research and theory as well as how to implement it: in addition to presenting the model and its underlying literature, the article details its implementation in two classes. The Challenge Despite the growing superdiversity of today's world, monolithic national cultures remain the norm in language education. How can foreign language instruction meaningfully highlight local cultures? How can instructors engage students in the local diversity of cultural products, practices, and perspectives in an era of virtual mobility and distant access?
Journal Article
The Science of Adolescent Literacy
This department explores critical perspectives on issues at the intersection of policy and practice in order to generate fresh questions about enduring dilemmas, new challenges, and debates.
Journal Article
The Role of Academic-Language Features for Reading Comprehension of Language-Minority Students and Students From Low-SES Families
Academic language is frequently assumed to be especially challenging for students from families of low socioeconomic status (SES) and even more so for language-minority students. Due to their often especially disadvantaged position regarding socioeconomic background and exposure to the language of instruction, language minority students are considered to suffer from a double disadvantage when processing complex academic language. To test this assumption, the present study investigated the relationships between various academic language features and differential item functioning (DIF) in a reading comprehension test for language-minority students on the one hand and German monolingual students from low-SES families on the other hand. The analyses are based on data of 19,108 fourth-grade students who took part in the reading comprehension test of the German National Assessment Study in elementary school. Our findings indicate that both lexical and grammatical features of academic language correlate with DIF disfavoring language-minority students, with especially pronounced effects for long and complex words and average sentence length. For German monolingual students from low-SES families, fewer features were associated with DIF, and the correlations were generally smaller than for language-minority students. Findings are discussed in relation to the assumed double disadvantage of language-minority students in the comprehension of academic language.
Journal Article
Alternative grading practices in undergraduate STEM education: a scoping review
Alternative grading strategies are increasingly popular in higher education, but research into the outcomes of these strategies is limited. This scoping review aims to provide an overview of the relevant research regarding alternative grading strategies in undergraduate STEM and identify gaps in the literature to inform future research. This scoping review was done using the stages as described by Arksey and O’Malley (Int J Soc Res Methodol 8(1):19–32, 2005). The results of this review indicate there is a lack of consensus on the theoretical foundation for the benefits of alternative grading and, therefore, limited validated tools being used to capture these benefits. Additionally, we find that research into alternative grading methods tends to occur in both disciplinary and practice-based silos.
Journal Article
The Monster in the Classroom: Assessing Language to Inform Instruction
The authors describe Monster, P.I., which is an app‐based, gamified assessment that measures language skills (knowledge of morphology, vocabulary, and syntax) of students in grades 5–8 and provides teachers with interpretable score reports to drive instruction that improves vocabulary, reading, and writing ability. Specifically, the authors describe why an assessment of language is important to include, the components of language that are assessed by Monster, P.I., and how Monster, P.I., uses gamification to add enjoyment and motivation to the assessment experience. The authors then explain how to use Monster, P.I., to inform instructional decisions, specifically explaining the overall instructional framework, what each score means, and examples of instruction that link to each area assessed by the app. Links to Common Core State Standards are included. The authors conclude by sharing teachers’ feedback on the assessment and how they used it to support instruction in their classrooms.
Journal Article