Linguistics Department Assignment Coversheet

(Electronic Submission)

Name: Patricia María Guillén Cuamatzi.

Student Number: 40591913 Year & Semester: _______

Unit code: LING938_

Unit title: Curriculum Innovation in Language Teaching

Tutor’s name: Dr. John Knox

Tutorial group: _________________________________________

Assignment number: Two, option # 2

Declaration
(This declaration must be completed by the student or the assignment will not be marked.)

I certify the following:

• I have read and understood the University's Plagiarism Policy, available at:
<www.student.mq.edu.au/plagiarism/>.
• This assignment is my own work based on my personal study and or research.
• I have acknowledged all material and sources used in the preparation of this
assignment including any material generated in the course of my employment.
• The assignment has not previously been submitted for assessment.
• I have not copied in part or in whole or otherwise plagiarised the work of other
students.
• I have read and I understand the criteria used for assessment.
• The assignment is within the word and page limits specified in the unit outline.
• The use of any material in this assignment does not infringe the intellectual
property / copyright of a third party.
• I understand that this assignment may undergo electronic detection for
plagiarism, and an anonymous copy of the assignment may be retained on the
database and used to make comparisons with other assignments in future.
• By completing this coversheet in full and submitting this assignment
electronically, I am bound by the conditions of the University's Plagiarism
Policy and the declaration on this coversheet.

Name Email Address Date

Patricia María Guillén Cuamatzi charitopat@hotmail.com June, 2006

1
Patricia María Guillén Cuamatzi
ID 40591913
LING 938
 Patricia María Guillén Cuamatzi

June 2006.

Curriculum Innovation in Language Teaching

LING938

Dr. John Knox.

2
Patricia María Guillén Cuamatzi
ID 40591913
LING 938
 If you could do anything with your class, what would you do?

Introduction

The common use of tests among language teachers to account for the

achievement or level proficiency of learners or to make decisions about them have risen

questions about how accurate and fair those decision are at the level of individual

students. The relative facility to score what students “know” from what it has been

taught has favoured the persistent use of tests as the only one way of assessment or at

least the one that is given more importance. It would be important to make the

distinction between two concepts that are very likely to be confused, testing and

assessment. In the educational measurement literature, assessment is a term for all

forms of assessment whereas testing is a term for one particular form of assessment

(Lewkowicz, 2006).

This particular form of summative assessment is the one preferred among

teachers and institutions. However, the use of the quantitave results teachers have made

to take decisions or to draw conclusions on the learning of individuals, have lead them

to the reflexive questioning of their professional exercise resulting in the consideration

of new and innovative formative alternatives or procedures to assess students’ language

learning. Innovative practices imply the use of new materials or approaches not

currently employed that are intended to result in learning and teaching practices

improvement.

Discussions of English language teaching have included considerable attention

to whether tasks included in tests really foster communicative and academic skills that

individuals are expected to have learnt and developed in the regular course.

Accordingly, the need to have a wider range of evidence on which to judge whether

3
Patricia María Guillén Cuamatzi
ID 40591913
LING 938
students are becoming competent language users has made teachers to think about the

inclusion of other tools and systems for assessment, such as the portfolio.

The purpose of this paper is to present and describe a proposal of an innovative

assessment procedure to be adopted by English language learners and teachers of the

Autonomous University of Tlaxcala and that takes the use of the portfolio as a central

tool. The first part is the description of the existing syllabus for the specific course to

continue with the innovation suggested and to finish with some implications and

constraints to implement this innovation.

The existing syllabus.

English language learners of the Autonomous University of Tlaxcala in the

Faculty of Philosophy and Literature would adopt the innovation, specifically. Students

take English for the four years that the B.A. of Modern Languages lasts. The proposal is

suggested for the pre-intermediate English course in which students are required to take

three exams during the semester and a final one at the end as in all the English courses

of the B.A.

The syllabus of this class is structured as a task-based syllabus and within a

Communicative Approach. It is specified what learning activities students need to carry

out in order to reach the objectives stated. These objectives refer to the use of the

language learnt in the course as well as the ability to communicate satisfactorily in

formal and informal contexts according to the language proficiency level described for

the course. In addition, it is expected to help students to develop a positive attitude

towards the target language as well as autonomous learning.

4
Patricia María Guillén Cuamatzi
ID 40591913
LING 938
 With respect to the materials the only one specified in the syllabus is the course

book. Along with this book, teachers count with the audiocassettes, the teachers’ book,

the resource pack and a tests package. However, in the classroom teachers usually work

with a variety of materials such as pictures, extra readings, posters and, realia among

others. In addition, there is some equipment in the institution that is available for all

teachers. For instance, there is the Over Head Projector, tape recorders and two laptops.

The approach that has been adopted in the institution since several years ago is

the Communicative Approach based on learning tasks that students should carry out

along the semester. In this specific case, students are expected to go in depth in some

topics contained in the syllabus as well as cultural aspects of the target language. In

addition, it is required that students attend the Self-Access Center (SAC) in order to

develop self-learning strategies and that they do written reports and oral presentations.

The assessment practices for the pre-intermediate course consists in four exams,

a project, in class participation, homework and reports. The exams are usually taken

from the package that comes with the textbook and other times they are designed by the

teacher himself based on what he or she considers important to be tested. As it might be

deduced students are not usually included in the assessment system and the decisions

that are taken from the results. The homework and reports are only taken as submitted

or not submitted but there not a real monitoring of them in terms of how much progress

students have made during the course. In addition, it is very unlikely that students are

required to edit or rework their papers to be submitted again. Actually, many students

do not even know or realize about their language problems. In short, there is little or no

reflection about the learning and teaching process.

5
Patricia María Guillén Cuamatzi
ID 40591913
LING 938
 It is important to mention that language teachers haven’t had any formal

preparation about test design or construction and the implications. However, most of

them have taken professional development courses and M.A. programs.

On the basis of the Communicative Approach the fours skills are developed in

the regular classes through different tasks and activities. To review the writing papers of

students, teachers have agreed on a series of standard criteria that includes accuracy,

problems with spelling, tenses, subjects and so on. Some teachers have tried to keep a

record of students writing process by asking the to resubmit the corrected papers.

However, this activity has proved to be time and effort consuming and not many

teachers are able to do it.

With respect to reading, students are assessed through reports that they do

without being taught systematically how to do them. Therefore, there are no clear

criteria to evaluate this or the other skills. The speaking skill is formally assessed

through oral exams that take the form of presentations of topics that should be covered

in the semester. However, as in the case of reading there is no agreed criteria to assess

this skills and it is unlikely that students have a clear idea of what they should

demonstrate or not. Some of the aspects that teachers usually consider when evaluating

speaking are fluency and accuracy without being clear how fluent or accurate the

students’ speech should be. For the listening ability, students are exposed to listening

materials throughout the course and a section devoted to this skill is included in the tests

of the subject. It should be mentioned that although students are required to work in

teams, groups and pairs for the oral presentations and learning tasks in the class the

reality is that they do not work collaboratively in the construction of knowledge.

Learners are not very enthusiastic in assisting their partners or to ask for their help.

6
Patricia María Guillén Cuamatzi
ID 40591913
LING 938
 It is difficult to say that the grades students have obtained through the

assessment system described above may be considered as valid and reliable. Although

teachers are very concerned with students’ language use and how effectively they

communicate, the actual situation is that the proficiency level of learners in general is

very low from what it is expected. In addition, it is very unlikely that students have the

sense that they are really learning or what they actually can do. That is to say, the

syllabus specifies what is going to be taught but not what is going to be learnt and to

what extent.

The English teachers of the B.A. have agreed on the lack of consistency of the

assessment system, which does not account much on what the grades of students really

mean, that is, what students really know. Furthermore, it has been identified that many

times the tests that teachers use from the package that comes with the course book are

not suitable to the their teaching contexts. As a final important fact it is needs to be

mentioned that students are not usually included in the assessment system designed.

Actually, there is little negotiation and even null intervention of them in the assessment

process; they are commonly excluded from the assessment system.

For the reasons mentioned above the need to work with a more systematic and

authentic assessment system guides us to propose the use of the portfolios as a learning

and assessment procedure that would inform either teachers and students about the

achievements reached during the course in a more qualitative form.

The proposal:

Portfolios as an alternative of assessment.

A portfolio is the systematic collection of student work measured against

predetermined scoring criteria (Gómez, 2000). Practicing the new system through the

7
Patricia María Guillén Cuamatzi
ID 40591913
LING 938
use of the portfolios would allow for the learning process to be more perceptible and

students’ language competencies more noticeable. To work with a portfolio implies an

important process that is desirable to allow students to reflect in the learning involved.

The aim of this proposal is to help students develop lifelong skills that would build the

basis for their future learning and to enable them to evaluate what they learn and not

only to study for the coming test. In addition, there is the goal to collect and provide

clear evidence that learners have achieved the level of mastery implied in the syllabus

by obtaining an authentic description of what students can do.

The portfolio innovation in the pre-intermediate course as a new system for

assessment would represent an unknown practice both for the teacher and students.

Therefore, moving from the existing summative traditional procedure to a new

formative assessment system implies a change in the culture of assessment for students

and teacher in the first plane and for the institution in a second one in case the proposal

is adopted and implemented.

The first step would be to introduce students to the portfolios and what it

consists of. The teacher would provide students with all the information available for

learners to have a picture of what this assessment tool implies and requires from them

and from the teacher too. The suggestion is a series of orientation sessions with the

students at the beginning, middle and end of the semester -in addition to their regular

classes- that would have to be obligatory otherwise learners would not attend. In the

first sessions students would be provided with a sample of the portfolio structure

(Appendix A) that would serve as a basis for the future construction or their own. The

motivation for these meetings is primarily, for students to gain knowledge about the

innovation, and secondly to discuss and reflect on the alternative assessment making

profit of the feedback learners may provide.

8
Patricia María Guillén Cuamatzi
ID 40591913
LING 938
 Subsequently, the content of the portfolios would be discussed and negotiated.

By this way, at the end students would have the chance to select their best work

measured according to pre-determined criteria and to develop the skill of self-reflection

and self-assessment of their products of learning (Lynch, 2005). It is desirable to have a

collection of oral and written work such as homework, projects, audiotapes of oral

presentations or tasks, video tapes of language performance, students diary entries, self-

assessment comments, and comments from peers and from the teacher.

The next step would be to specify the criteria to assess the portfolio content.

Some suggestions for the criteria would be personal development, accuracy in the final

drafts, the representation of each area of the course such as language and learning

activities that support the learning process, and the presentation of the portfolio. It is

important to point out that within the alternative perspective, assessment results mirror

the different tasks that learners complete, each of which tells about a different aspect of

the students’ knowledge and abilities. Thus, paying attention to the insights teachers can

get from the portfolio construction and assessment process represents a very valuable

opportunity and experience that would contribute to the understanding of what learning

a language implies for the specific context of this pre-intermediate group of English.

Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall, & Wiliam (2003) say that “innovations in

formative assessment can lead to improvement in the learning of students” (pp. 6-7).

Bye using the portfolios to assess students knowledge and competencies in the target

language the teacher desires to offer learners a fairer and more authentic alternative that

may provide them with a real sense of learning and development, and the chance to

interact with the curriculum rather than being a mere product of it (Wile & Tierney,

1996). Furthermore, there would be the possibility to move to a more students’

9
Patricia María Guillén Cuamatzi
ID 40591913
LING 938
centered- curriculum and to a more collaborative work that would provide learners with

a more cumulative and integrative learning experience than tests may.

As the portfolio includes self and peer reflection the teacher is aiming to develop

effective and interpersonal skills by convincing students to accept feedback as a helpful

experience that may result in a positive interdependence with others. Thus, the portfolio

is intended to have three main characteristics: useful with real outcomes, academically

valuable and reflective so that students would develop some critical thinking for their

future learning. In addition, it is believed that the adoption of this proposal will

positively benefit students learning in several aspects such as a higher awareness of

their processes, a greater and shared responsibility for their learning and, the

development of independent thinking and self-assessment skills “resulting in a higher

degree of personal investment and willingness to take risks” (Lynch, 2005, pp. 291).

Implications and constraints.

The implications in the teaching practice would be to assure the provision of

similar opportunities to students to practice the language and more than one to complete

tasks successfully (Gómez, 2000). Besides, the teacher would move form being a

dispenser to a facilitator of knowledge, transition that implies much reflection and the

willingness to change.

Some of the possible difficulties that are envisaged to adopt the innovation

suggested would be the resistance of students to be an active part in the assessment

process of their learning. Unfortunately, students as well as teachers are very used to

traditional tests probably because of their relative facility of administration and scoring.

Moreover, there is the fact that the monitoring and revision of every student’s drafts and

learning products implies time investment different to the class time and teachers are

10
Patricia María Guillén Cuamatzi
ID 40591913
LING 938
not always enthusiastic on the idea to work more on a new and probably unknown

experience. However, teachers may be led to implement new practices in their

classrooms to deal with specific learning difficulties as part of some action research.

Most institutions are in the process of promoting research as an essential activity for

teachers and the Autonomous University of Tlaxcala is not the exception. Hence, action

research would be a suitable choice for teachers in this University assisting them with

some orientation on this activity that will serve to make them aware that “action

research…is a valuable professional development tool” (Nunan, 2001, pp. 198).

Another important issue to mention is the validity of the portfolio results. As the

evaluation report of the portfolio would be qualitatively, as a profile or a detailed

description of students’ achievement the validity issue comes into play. Validity from

the alternative assessment is formulated as a consensus reached through dialogue

acknowledging the importance of the context of assessment. Consequently, the validity

of the portfolio results is based on “the degree to which the specific performance or tests

score matches constructs or meanings that educators have predetermined as the object of

assessment” (Lynch, 2005, pp. 269). This particular concept of validity raises another

important issue related to the generalizability of some particular ability or knowledge

that the portfolio may allow. As this assessment tool is intended to report some

qualitative improvement for every student it wouldn’t be justified to make

generalizations of learners’ achievements. In summary, it may be argued that the goal of

tests is to generalize about learning whereas for the portfolios is to contextualize

learning.

In conclusion, this paper has shown the suggested change for a particular group

of learners in a specific context considering some possible implications and constraints

to implement the innovation. There might be other important issues that might have not

11
Patricia María Guillén Cuamatzi
ID 40591913
LING 938
been taken into account added to the fact that “all innovation is a risky business and that

close to three quarters of educational innovations are likely to fail” (Markee, 2001, pp.

119), however, it is strongly believed that teachers and learners would gain more by

trying new things in their classrooms than not experiencing innovative ideas for their

specific contexts.

12
Patricia María Guillén Cuamatzi
ID 40591913
LING 938
References

Black, P., Harrison, C., Lee, C., Marshall, B., & Wiliam, D. (2003). Assessment for

learning: Putting it into practice. Maidenhead, England: Open University Press.

Gómez, E. (2000). Assessment portfolios: Including English Language learners in

large-scale assessments. Washington, D.C.: ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages

and Linguistics

Lewkowicz, J. (2006). Expanding horizons and unresolved conundrums: Language

testing and assessment. TESOL Quarterly 40, 211-234.

Lynch, B. (2005). Portfolios, Power, and Ethics. TESOL Quarterly 39, 263-298.

Markee, N. (2001). The diffusion of innovation in language teaching. In Hall, D., &

Hewings, A. (Eds.), Innovation in English language teaching (pp. 118-126).

London: Routledge.

Nunan, D. (2001). The diffusion of innovation in language teaching. In Hall, D., &

Hewings, A. (Eds.), Innovation in English language teaching (pp. 197-207).

London: Routledge.

Wile, J. M., & Tierney, R. J. (1996). Tensions in assessment: The battle over portfolios,

curriculum, and control. In R. C. Calfee & P. Perfumo (Eds.), Writing portfolios

in the classroom (pp. 203-215). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

13
Patricia María Guillén Cuamatzi
ID 40591913
LING 938
 APPENDIX A

Portfolio structure

A. The portfolio commentary. This first section is planned to contain the overall
preface introducing the Portfolio and its significance. In addition, the criteria for
selection of products and the student’ explanations of what he/she has learned
from being engaged in the process would be also part of this section.

B. Academic and learning products. Here, students would include any piece of their
work that have been completed or achieved in the course. Students would be
encouraged to include drafts and final papers or their written work as well as
recordings of their performances when using the target language.

C. Personal writing. The portfolio may contain extracts or entire entries of students’
journal writing, autobiographical writing, or any form of writing related to their
learning or even to teaching activities.

D. Critiques. The content of this section would be formal presentations of critical

reflection on the portfolio from three different sources: self-assessment, peer
critiques and the teacher’s feedback.

14
Patricia María Guillén Cuamatzi
ID 40591913
LING 938