ASSESSING SPEAKING

Speaking is a valuable skill to develop in language learners for communicative purposes. Thus, assessing speaking becomes relevant; otherwise, if we neglect assessing it, we would be sending a double message. Nevertheless, objective testing may be challenging due to reliability issues concerning possible subjectivity in grading it by trained (or not) raters, plus other issues like lack of time, number of students, administrative difficulties. But with the importance of Rnglish as a universal language, language teachers must test speaking progress in our students.

THEORY OF SPEAKING ASSESSMENT

Different abilities are simultaneously used when speaking. These are:

-Grammatical competence

-Discourse competence

-Sociolinguistic competence

-Strategic competence

CATEGORIES OF ORAL SKILLS

Oral skills can be categorized as routine skills, which are associated to spoken language that is used for daily routines, such as asking for directions, and improvisational skills, which are used to keep a conversation or for negociation.

DESIGNING SPEAKING ASSESSMENTS

Prior considerations:

-Place and equal focus on fluency and accuracy

-To ensure inter-rater reliability, give relative weight to accuracy (grammar), vocabulary, linguistic ability (pronunciation, intonation, and stress), fluency (ability to express ideas), and content or ideas.

-Use multiple raters for reliability. For the exam, there could be two raters, the interlocutor, who interacts with the student being tested, and the assessor, who writes scores and makes notes. Then, both negociate the final score or take an average of the two marks.

-Simplify by using a scoring sheet with criteria for assessment.

-Leave a space for comments that wil serve as feedback to the student.

DESIGNING SPEAKING ASSESSMENT

Start with a simple task to calm students during the test, and use a variety of methods and techniques.

Formal Speaking Assessment Techniques

All students should be tested under reliable and standard conditions at least once during the course. According to Canale (1984), students perform better if they follow these steps:

-Warm up to relax students and to obtain basic information from the student.

-Level check the assessor gives questions or situational activities to determine the student´s level of proficiency.

-Probe to check the student´s level or to make him/her go beyond his/her abilities.

-Wind down by talking a little to the student. This part is not scored.

VARIATIONS ON THE FRAMEWORK

The following is a list of common tasks that may be used fot the level-check stage.

-Picture cue

-Prepared monologue

-Role play

Information-gap activities

CLASSROOM SPEAKING ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES

-Oral presentations

-Debate on controversial topic

-Reading aloud

-Retelling stories

-Verbal essays

-Extemporaneous speakinG

A LAST TIP REGARDING ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES

In regular classrooms, a tip is to assess speaking skills by selecting two or three students in a regular class period and focus on their performance. do this regularly to track students´progress.

ASSESSING LISTENING

Although listening is a very important skill to develop, this area is one of the least developed ones. This is a process that is given internally, which makes it difficult to observe and study. In order to teach and assess listening skills, we must be aware of the latest theoretical models of listening. We are following Davis Nunan´s theories into consideration.

According to Nunan, the processing of this skill may be bottom-up or top-down. In bottom-up processing, it is data-driven, linear. Comprehension takes place when learners take and decode phonemes, words, chunks of words, and later sentences, decode them, and link them with other ones.

In top-down listening, meaning is built upon input using background knowledge of situation and context.

APPROACHES TO LISTENING ASSESSMENT

Three major approaches to assess the skill of listening are described.

a. Discrete-point approach, along with the audiolingual method, where two beliefs were the rationale: being able to isolate one element from the stream of speech, and belief that spoken and written language were the same, except for one was presented orally. Tests assessed language knowledge by separating elements, using common question types such as responsive evaluation, phonemic discrimination, or paraphrase recognition.

b. Integrative approach assesses capability to use many little parts at the same time. Tests used dictation and cloze items.

c. Communicative approach assesses capability to understand the messageand then use it in context. Tests include authentic communicative question formats.

General and academic listening are separates with a taxonomy of micro-skills.

DESIGNING LISTENING TASKS

Before we design listening tasks, we must consider the course objectives. Also, we should focus on meaning rather than on form. Other aspects we must consider are background knowledge, test content (take texts you like and infuse oral characteristics into them,), vocabulary (lexical overlap can affect difficulty), test structure (questions in the order information is heard), formats (do not use new formats in tests), item writing (place items separately to give time to respond, frame new sections, record specific instructions.), timing (give time for pre reading the question.), and skill contamination, or skill integration (first read the question,then write the answer.)

TECHNIQUES FOR ASSESSING LISTENING COMPREHENSION

-Phonemic discrimination

-Paraphrase recognition

-Objective formats: MCQs and T/F, short answer questions, cloze, dictation.

-Information Transfer tasks (transfer information to a chart or visual)

-Note-taking

LISTENING TEST DELIVERY

The equipment used, as well as the conditions of the room where the test is taken influence in the validity and reliability of the test. The modes of delivery used may also affect these. Also, non standard procedures.

SCORING

The most reliable tests are are dichotomous scoring.

ASSESSING WRITING

The following is a summary of chapter 4 in the book, "Assessing English Language Learners," by Christine Coombe et al., Michigan Teacher Training.

PRACTICAL ISSUES TEACHERS FACE ASSESSING WRITING

Good writing abilities are highly appreciated in students who aspire for higher education and/ or better jobs. That is why language teachers must assure that our writing assessment practices be valid and reliable.

There are two major approaches in assessing writing, which are:
a. indirect measures of writing assessment, and
b. direct measures of writing assessment.

Indirect measures of writing assessment is the approach that refers to the correct use of sentence construction, spelling, punctuation, through multiple choice and cloze test formats, to measure writing sub-skills in accuracy of sentence construction and grammar.

Direct measures of writing assessment is the approach is the approach which assesses the ability to communicate through production of written texts, integrating all elements of writing, such as organization of ideas, use of appropriate vocabulary, and syntax.

There are four basic elements in designing good writing assessment tests, according to Hyland (2003), which follow.

1. Rubric: the instructions to carry out the writing task and/ or the set of criteria by which a paper or a project is evaluated. Most of the information comes from the test specifications like topic, text type, length, areas to be assessed, timing, weighting (percentage), and pass level.

2. Prompt: the writing prompt, which can be base prompt - states the entire task in direct and simple terms, framed prompt -presents the frame to interpret the task, and text-based - presents a text to respond or use in their writing.

3. Expected response: description of what the teacher intends students to do with the task.

4. Post-task evaluation: assessing the effectiveness of the writing task.

Some relevant issues in writing assessment are the following.

Time allocation. This is how much time is allowed for the sttudent to complete the task.

Process versus Product. More value has been given to the process of writing, so the process approach, such as working with a portfolio that includes all drafts, is suggested.

Use of Technology. The use of technology allows grammar and spelling checkers, which could plasce students with no access to technology in a disadvantage, so be consistent with all students.

Topic restriction. Some teachers provide a list of topics for students to select one, which allows them to write about what they like and know, while limiting to one topic does not produce variance in scores. It is recommended to select topics of same genre and rhetorical pattern.

READING: FACTORS THAT AFFECT IT

Towards the insights that any language teacher may reflect upon reading, I have chosen to briefly comment on three factors that may affect this interactive skill. These factors are the following.

1. The metacognitive knowledge.
Any person may take a reading and analyze it from top to bottom - the process whole texts, from the largest parts to the smallest ones- or bottom-up - the recognition of letters, words, and sentences - or both at the same time.

2. The schemata.
Readers bring background knowledge - schemata - which is constantly incorporating with knew information. The degree of differences between the native language of the learner and the target language, includes all cultural differences involved.

3. The proficiency.
Reading skills that have already been acquired by the individuals in their native language are going to be transfered to process the texts.

ASSESSING READING

Some difficulties in assessing language learners imply the issues regarding invisible skills such as reading and luistening, since we cannot see the process in our students´ minds. That is why we must consider construct models or models of receptive skills to design assessment. A relevant aspect to take into account is the importance of reading in the overall institutional assessment of our learners.

Reading is a complex skill that is challenging to those who assess. It is fundamental for most overall assessments at the K-12 levels in USA, and a mayor component in an intensive English program for students´success in tertiary level of education, while it is not important in conversational classes. In all cases, teachers asure that students are familiarized with the format and directions of the examinations.
The processes that occur during reading may vary according to the texts. Bottom-up skills refers to the recognition and decoding letters, words, and sentences, while top-down refers to the process of entire texts. "Text applies to both linear passages of prose as well as a wide variety of non-linear sources of information such as maps and pie charts." (p.45) A starting point for reading assessment is the target skills that our students develop, as well as the subskills and strategies that are relevant within that teaching/learning context. Classroom assessment requires focus on mayor and minor (contibuting) skills in reading. These are described as follows.

MAYOR READING SKILLS
-skimming and scanning, establishing overall organization of the text
-careful reading for main ideas, supporting details, author´s arguments and purpose, relationship of paragraphs, and facts versus opinion
-informatiuon transfer from nonlinear texts
-drawing inferences from stated / implied content

MINOR OR ENABLING READING SKILLS
-understanding at the sentence level - vocabulary, syntax, cohesive markers
-understanding at inter-sentence level - identifying what pronouns refer to, recognizing discourse markers
- understanding components of nonlinear texts - the meaning of graph or chart labels, keys, and the ability to find and interpret intersection points

ASSESSMENT AND EDUCATION IN OUR MEDIA

Teaching practices involve many aspects that encompass teaching/learning processes. Data concerning (Informe del Estado de la Educación, Costa Rica, 2010) our students show an index of educational opportunities where 40% of the 17 to 21 year olders complete high school due to factors such as resources and characteristics of educational climate from their homes in a country where youngsters need at least complete high school and a year of collegeor tertiary education. Thus, evaluating this entire process takes mayor relevance, focussing on assessment for it "refers to a v ariety of ways of collecting information on a learner´s language ability or achievement."(p.xv) being testing the part of measuring the learner´s achievement, and an essential issue in our quotidian endeavor.

The etire curriculum cycle in education enfolds the process of developing assessment, embracing planning, development, administration, analysis, feedback, and reflection. Planning involves the consideration of the goals and objectives of the linguistic abilities we expect in our students, deciding "the best means of assessment for those objectives."(p.5)

OTHER TEST ITEMS

In language tests, there are other options of common subjective items we can use. Among these, we may use cloze and gap fill, short answer and completion items, and essay questions. The following is a brief description of these items.

CLOZE AND GAP-FILL ITEMS

Cloze testing

The fist time that Cloze testing was used was around 1950´s to evaluate reading comprehension. In this test, a word is systematically deleated from any written text. Now, in a conventional cloze test, we remove a word every five to eight words, and the student has to read around the word to complete the text with an appropriate term, in meaning and structure.

Gap-fill

Gap-fill testing has a blank in a sentence. The student has to fill in the missing word or phrase. The gap may be a function word (articles, prepositions, conjuntions) with only one correct answer, or semantic (noun, adjectives, verbs, adverbs) with a variety of possible correct answers.

Rational deletion cloze

This is an item similar to gap fill. It has words deleted for assessment purposes, for example, focused on certain grammar points like articles, prepositions, pronouns, verb tense, and agreement, within one same paragraph. It can be formatted into a multiple choice cloze, too, so that the student has a limitted amount of options to select the word that is best for each space.

Some general recommendations to write cloze/gap-fill items are the following:

- Make sure there is enough space to write the answers (which should not be very long).

-Offer enough context for students to presume what goes in the blank.

-Provide the same length of blanks. The main body of thw question should predeed the blanks.

-Allow more than one possible answer when grading.

-Let the initial sentence in the paragraph complete to set context, so put the gap after it.

SHORT ANSWER/ COMPLETION ITEMS

There are some advantages and disadvantages in short answer/completion items. Among the advantages, these items help students not only to recognize but to learn and know the answer. Another advantage is less guessing, for they must produce the answer. Also, they are easy to construct. Besides, they are valuable to check what, where, when, who content, intense text comprehension, gist, and higher order thinking skills. Last, they are easy to construct. On the other hand, some disadvantages include discouraging memorization of fact since students produce language to answer, the time it takes the student to answer, and the time it takes the teacher to score them, and the potential unreliability through inter-rater and intra-rater issues. Inter-rater reliability refers to consistency between two or more graders, and intra-rater reliability alludes inner consistency between one marking session and another.

Some recommendations to write these types of items are:

-Only one short, concise response should be allowed.

-Partial credit should be given to the various degrees of correctness.

ESSAY QUESTIONS

There are some advantages and disadvantages in essay questions. Some advantages include their usefulness to assess higher-order cognitive processes such as analysis, evaluation, summary and synthesis, and the autonomy the student has to decide the organization of the answer regarding the approach, ideas, contents and conclusions. Contrary to these, the disadvantages may be the required writing ability, they are time consuming, their potential reliability problems emerging from subjective scoring, and the scoring workload for the teacher.

The following are recommendations to write essay questions.

-The level of difficulty in essay questions should be similar.

-Essay questions should force students to use higher-order cognitive processes such as, evaluating, summarizing, alayzing, and synthesizing.

-Allow plenty linear space for students to write their essays.

-Specify the type and amount of information required in the essay.

-Asses content that is appropriate for the essay format.

-The specific scoring rubric should be shared wih the students before or during the exam to decreasse student´s anxiety.

According to Coombe et al, these are the ten things to remember about testing techniques.

"1. Design tests and assessmentt tasks based on blueprints or test specifications."

"2. Ensure the format remains the same within one section of the exam."

"3. Make sure the item format is correctly matched o the test purpose and course content."

"4. Include items of varying levels of difficulty." (Follow the 30/40/30 principle of students´ range abilities.)

"5. Start with an essay question first."

"6. Avoid ambiguous items, negatives, and especially double negatives."

"7. Avoid race, gender, and ethnic background bias."

"8. Prepare answer keys in advance of test administration."

"9. Employ items that test all levels of thinking."

"10. Give clear instructions."

CORRECTING TEST ITEMS

Correcting tests elaborated by other colleagues or by ourselves in previous years seems rather unusual in our daily work. In my years of teaching experience, the regular procedure requires handing in a copy of the test to our institution´s evaluation committee and file a copy in our personal test bank. Now we have a practical exercise of our work´s insight - or that from our colleagues- by revising, correcting or redesigning any old - or not so old- test. The procedure is very simple, since all we do is write observations on the margins of the pages. This gives us the opportunity to go back to that test, read the observations, and correct or redesign them so we can use them with a new group of students, if it is suitable.

The following is an example of a test with some observations.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX High School Total Points: 50
7th Grade I Mid-Term Exam I Trimester Points Obtained:

Teacher:XXXXXXXXXXXX - 2009 Score: ______
Time allowed: 80 minutes. 35%Obtained:
Parent´s Signature: _____________________________
Name: _________________________Date: ______________ Group: ______
General Instructions: Read everything carefully before you begin. Use blue or black pen[O.V.D.1] only. Avoid use of correction pen so you may present your complaints. Work individually and in silence.

I PART. Subjective Items.
A.MATCHING (6 points)

In COLUMN A, there are formal and informal types of greetings, leave takings and introductions. In COLUMN B, there are the names of these expressions. Relate the expressions to their names.
COLUMN A COLUMN B

See you later . . . . . . . . ( ) a. Formal greeting
What´s up ? . . . . . . . . . . . . .( ) b.Informal greeting

I´d like to introduce you to Mr. Clark . ( ) c. Formal introduction
Good morning. May I help you? . . . . . . ( ) d. Informal introduction
Hey, friends, this is Annie. . . . . . ( ) e.Formal leave taking
Good night, Mr.Brown. . . . . . . . ( ) f.Informal leave taking[O.V.D.2]

B. IDENTIFICATION[O.V.D.3] (13 points)
*Identify the correct personal pronoun. Write it on the space. (6points)

My name is John . ___________ am John.
Their names are Nancy and Maria. __________ are Nancy and Maria.
His name is Victor. ___________ is Victor.
Our names are Henry and Luis. ___________ are Henry and Luis.
Her name is Annie. ___________ is Annie.
Its name is Fifi. ________ is a dog.

*Identify[O.V.D.4] the correct possessive adjective. Write it on the space. (7 points)
1. We are Sara and Greg. _______ names are Sara nad Greg.
2. They are Jose and Kate. _______ names are Jose and Kate.
3. It is a cat. _______ name is Misingo.________ name is Misingo[O.V.D.5] .
4. She is Kenisha. ______ name is Kenisha.
5. He is Kevin. __________ name is Kevin.
6. You are Hellen. ______ name is Hellen.
7. I am Guadalupe. _______ name is Guadalupe.

C. SHORT ANSWER[O.V.D.6] .(12 POINTS)
*Find the words that complete the dialogue in the box, and fill in the blanks


BOX Hello-Bye- thanks -Pleased -about-study-How-friend –
meet – Henry – you-too



Ana: _______________.
Henry: Hi, Anna. ________ are you?
Ana: I´m O.K. How ______________ you?
Henry: I´m fine, ______________.
Ana: Henry, this is my ___________, Alonso.
Henry: Glad to ___________ you, Alonso.
Alonso: _______________ to meet you, too.
Ana: Where do _______ study?
Alonso: I ___________ at Liceo Nuevo. How about you?
Arturo: We both study at Liceo Nuevo, _______!
Alonso: Great! We will meet there soon.
Ana: See you later, _______________. Bye.
Arturo: ____________, Ana.

II PART SUBJECTIVE ITEMS.
Answer the questions with personal information.
(6 points)(1 point/correct answer, 1 point/correct structure)(8 points[O.V.D.7] )

1. What is your name?

2. Where do you live?

3. Where are you from?

4. How old are you?


Write an informal conversation. Use greetings,
leave takings and introductions. (12 points)(1 point/ correct structure, 1
point / correct expression)

*

*

*

*

[O.V.D.1]Ink


[O.V.D.2]Add
more options in column B.

[O.V.D.3]This
is not identification. It is a
completion exercise.

[O.V.D.4]This
is a copletion exercise, not identification.


[O.V.D.5]This
is repeated.

[O.V.D.6]This
is an identification exercise, not “short answers.”

[O.V.D.7]The
value of points is not clear. Is it worth 6 points or 8 points?

TESTING TECHNIQUES

Challenges may be found in elaborating test items and tasks because test items are the foundation of tests and other assessment instruments. Therefore, we will start by explaining a classification of test items according to the type of response from the test taker. There are selection items and supply items. Selection items are the items in which the student selects the correct answer from a number of presented options. These may be true/false, Multiple Choice, Matching, Numbering Sequence. On the other hand, in supply items, the test takers must supply or construct the correct answer. These items may be Cloze or Gap-Fill (No response provided), or Essay questions.

Test items may be also classified according to the scoring scoring procedure, into objective and subjective items. Thus, objective items are scored following an answer key, which does not requirethe marker (the person who corrects the tests) to have any knowledge of the subject being evaluated. These are "short answer-closed response items" (p.17) of recognition that are corrected easily and rapidly, reliable when there are plenty items, but difficult to properly construct. They can be used to test global and detailed understanding. Set in opposition, subjective items make imperative to have a marker knowledgeable of the subject being evaluated where much human judgment is required, although they are easy to construct. In addition, these items demand from the testers to produce open-ended responses and from the markers time and difficulty in checking.

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

Multiple choice questions (MCQ) are conventionally used in textbooks and in English language proficiency tests at the recall and comprehension levels. Their basic structure is a stem and response. The stem is usually written as a question or an incomplete statement and one response, or key, among two or three other choices or distractors. The test taker identifies the correct or most appropriate response, called the key. When testing reading, vocabulary and grammar, there are four choices, but only three for listening, not to rely much on the student´s memory. The advantages of MCQ are: their reliability, their usefulness in various levels, the test taker´s abilities in writing are irrelevant to these, they can be scored by computer, and students everywhere are familiarized with them. Teir disadvantages are that they encourage guessing, they are time consuming to write, they do not test productive language skills, and frequently, teachers forget MCQs can be used to asses higher-order thinking skills.

There are common MCQ item violations that can be mended. These violations are:

-grammatical inconsistency

-extraneous cues or clues

-three for one split (Three distractors are parallel and one is not.)

-impure items (They test more than one concept.)

-apples and oranges (Two response options have no relation to the other two.)

-subsuming response options (The key and one of the distractors could both be correct.)

-unparallel options (Key and distractors are not parallel in length or in grammatical consistency.)

-gender bias in language

-sensitivity (negative emotional impact material should be avoided.)

-double answer or key (More than one response option is correct.)

-no answer (There is no key among the response options.)

-Giveaway distractors

True/False Format

True/false questions are a specialized form of the MCQ format, written as statements, with only two possible alternatives. The two response categories are: True/False, Yes/No, Correct/Incorrect, Right/Wrong or Fact/Opinion. Their advantages include being able to test large amounts of content, they require less time to be responded and more items can be incorporates into the tests, which increases reliability, and scoring is rapid, reliable, and accurate. Their disadvantages are the guessing factor of 50% and that you need to include ample number for them to be reliable.

Matching Format

Matching format is an extended form of MCQ. It brings forth the test taker´s ability to make connections among ideas, vocabulary, and structure. It is presented in two columns of information where items in the left-hand column are called premises or stems, and the items in the right-hand column are called options. Some advantaages of this format are that test takers have more distractors per item, and writing these are easier than writing MCQs.

ASSESSMENT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

When teachers are involved in the assessment development process, we can benefit by understanding all of its phases. This is of value for most of the times, we are involved in one or more of these phases as part of our activities.These phases are planning, development, administration, analysis, feedback, and reflection.We have to consider that "assessment is an integral part of the entire curriculum cycle,"

Planning

As we start planning, we must consider why we are assessing what type of assessment fits our needs. At this point, the target language use domain, TLU, which is delineated as the tasks that the test taker is likely to encounter outside of the test itself, and to which we want our inferences about language ability to generalize (Bachman and Palmer), is consideredin the initial stages of our planning to choose assessment tasks that reflect TLU domains, be these real-life domains or language instruction domains. We also have to decide the best means of assessment for our objectives, envisioning the skills we want to asses, the time and resources, seeing what realistic options we have in our situation.

LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT

LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT

The following are comments based on the reading of the book, A practical guide to assessing English language learners, by Christine Coombe, Keith Folse, Nancy Hubley, and the remarkable dissertation from Dr. Gilbert Hernandez.

All tasks and activities that teachers perform to evaluate the improvement and production of our students, on a daily basis, are enfolded in the concept of assessment. These vary in the manner and diversification that our students need so that us, teachers, may be able to make decisions about the best way to help them in the teaching/ learning process, or instructional decision-making.

One step that must be considered is the initial diagnostic assessment.Through it, we may identify the language proficiency of the students, their strengths and weaknesses in the academic performance, their achievement and mastery considering course goals.

COPING WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES

CHOOSING A TEXTBOOK

CHOOSING A TEXTBOOK AND OTHER PRINTED MATERIALS
by Curtain, H & Pesola, CA (1994)

As teachers of English as a foreign language, choosing a textbook becomes a prime mission at any level we teach. The following reflection, based on Curtain and Pesola´s article and my own insights, intends to cover the relevant aspects in this choice.

Selecting the textbook is a very important duty that us teachers of English as a foreign language have as our responsibility. The situation varies in the diverse levels of teaching, mainly due to the changing needs of the students in the diverse levels. Most of the material we have comes from abroad, and has been made for learners of English as a second language who live in an English speaking environment, which is certainly, not our situation. In our Costa Rican schools, we teach English as a foreign language in a Spanish speaking environment, and only in some areas of the country, English is a second language spoken on the streets, heard on radio stations,written on local newspapers, church bulletins, and varied information for tourists.


At present, primary schools may have a syllabus that can be easily followed at the first levels, but there is a need of support in the higher levels. Therefore, materials developed for elementary schools that have been prepared by professionals are required. Some publishers offer such professionally developed text series that may be adapted to the teacher´s needs when they are age-appropriate and contemporary. Thus, books that include hands-on, integrated learning that fulfill students´needs and interests and the syllabus, shall be the best choice.

In the next level, the secondary, there are particular characteristics and learning needs. We have to clarify that in U.S.A., middle schools run from grades five to eight, and high schools include levels nine to twelve. Conversely, in Costa Rica, the secondary includes levels from seven to eleven and in the technical schools there is level twelve. The situation is that students in the lower secondary levels will enjoy hands-on, integrated learning, while the higher levels need books developed for their age and interests, along with supplementary materials and activities.

CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING TEXTBOOKS AND OTHER PRINTED MATERIAL

When we look for books for our students, there are some recommended criteria we must consider.

Goals

Goals should be clearly stated, compatible with local programs, with carefully developed scope and sequence for the level. Thus, materials must reflect authentic use of the target language and culture so students can really express themselves.

Communication

Among the organizing principles, communication rather than grammar must prevail. Work with grammar must focus on function, not on analysis. That is why the use of English in student´s materials and experiences must be encouraged in the activities, reflecting an understanding of the use of physical response strategies and immersion methodology.Books must provide opportunities for meaningful, purposeful language use that helps develop a base to build reading and writing skills.

Culture

Culture must be integrated to the materials giving emphasis on experiencing rather than learning about it. The situations and language presented must be culturally authentic, promoting appreciation to the value and richness of cultural diversity.

Subject Content and Thinking Skills

Subject content must be appropriate for the level. There must also be suggestions for interdisciplinary content and activities. All materials must be conductive to develop higher order thinking skills.

Bias

All illustrations and texts must be free of racial, gender, and cultural bias. At this point, I may add that us teachers of English within the Caribbean culture, find this aspect of much relevance, but difficult, because we belong geographically to America and our access is mostly to books published in U.S.A. Naturally, we find cultural and sometimes, even political bias in some of the available printed materials. Although we have access to European textbooks, and materials of other continents, too, this is not so commonly incorporated into our classrooms.

Flexibility

Materials must be easily adapted to the program models and designated class time providing options for students with diverse learning styles.

Physical Characteristics

All the materials must be durable, being able to withstand handling over a period of time. We have had awful experiences when in the second month of the school year, textbooks come apart as if they were loose-leaf paper in need of a ring binder! Then, too, the presentation has to be colorful, visually attractive, with proper illustrations and photographs, and well organized use of space and font size, to make it easily readable.

Support Materials

Look for a valuable teacher´s manual, with abundant relevant activities,suggestions, plans, clear instructions. Other materials such as charts, flash cards, maps, pictures, filmstrips, videos and CD´s with voices of native speakers in songs, conversations or stories must be relevant and effective.

Budget

All materials must be affordable. There is no sense in selecting materials that in the end are not affordable to our community, being them students, parents and administrators of the institution.

Our mission is significant when choosing a textbook. I invite the readers to consider these criteria next time we have to select one.

Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon

69. CHAINS

In 1929, there was a Hungarian writer who published a volume of short stories, being one of them "Chains" or "Chain-Links." The story dealt with the problems for future generations within the field of network. It described a theory about people on Earth being closer. According to Karinthy´s theory, there was a random interconnection, and highly caotic, because technological advances in communication and increased and expanded density of humans resulted in an increased and expanded network of friends or acquaintances, making the current social distance smaller.Thus, anyone, anywhere, using the network of acquaintances, could contact any selected person using no more than five individuals.

After Karinthy´s short story became popular, his theory served as inspiration for other productions. One of them was John Guare, who wrote a play, and later a film, in which the phrase "six degrees of separation" became popular. Moreover, varieties of films and TV series like J.J.Abrams´,"Six Degrees," the TV series that describes the life of six New Yorkers who are not aware about how their decisions affect each one until they meet one another. Let me admit that this TV series was how I knew about this theory for the first time.

In addition to the productions mentioned above, two scientists from the Microsoft Company, Eric Horvitz and Jure Leskovec, developed a study where any two people are connected for not more than 6,6 degrees of separation.

Furthermore, in the early nineties, college students in the U.S.A. developed a game called, "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," where the challenge was to link celebrities to Kevin Bacon, and later, to link themselves to him through an acquaintance of the actor or someone who had worked with him. In fact, in the year 2007, Kevin Bacon himself, launched a web site, "sixdegrees,org," to inspire people to give charity online, connecting people to accomplish something good.

I would like to highlight the concept of all being connected to accomplish something good, hoping that we learn from this theory and from Kevin Bacon. That is why I invite you to watch the video, "Six degrees of Kevin Bacon, CBS."

68. PRIORITY AREA

Presentation is a relevant aspect in any instructional material that we review. Nevertheless, as we review instructional materials, we must be alert not to believe presentation stands as the priority, over content, as some publishers might erroneously believe. Thus, we must focus on presentations that align instructional components, organization, readability, and ease of use, in the student resources as well as in the teacher resources.

STUDENT RESOURCES

Students who find material that is not well integrated, or the items are very simple, consider it dull, even when it contains colorfull illustrations and it is easy to read.

Attractive features may be misleading.

Some features are used to highlight certain information that may be confused with main ideas, when they are not, or they emphasize questions that help to remember, and not to think or apply the subject. That is why they may be misleading the students.

Effective Instructional Materials Integrating Reference Aids

These materials include glossaries, maps, graphic organizers, pictures, index, bibliography. If they have clear instructions and are well integrated to the student materials and the teacher´s guide, they may be effective.

Teacher Resources

Usually, teacher resources include a teacher guide with much information where the publishers take almost all the decisions in tegards to planning, evaluating, testing, activities, and others. Due to this is the relevance of evaluating the quality and significance of those decisions.

The following is a list of the most important aspects we have to evaluate.

-Easy to use components and materials

-Materials to support lesson planning

-Guidance on teaching procedures

-Enough relevant content related to each topic

-Suggested individualized study for diverse learning abilities/disabilities and learning styles

-Resources to build effective relationships with parents and members of the community, reinforcing values and ethical items

-Cultural highlights

Alignment

The instructional materials must be aligned with the syllabus as well as one to the other. Teachers must evaluate the following.

-Alignment within instructional components in general

-Alignment within student materials

-Alignment within teachers materials

Organization of Instructional Materials

Order and clarity are significantly important throughout the format and structure of the instructional materials. Any teacher must be able to use the instructional materials easily as long as the contents are placed in a way that they are well organized and easy to read, through the use of visuals and typographical design. Clearly organized materials support the following.

-Access to content

-Visible structure and format
-Objectives or content outline aid content organization
-Visual cues signal content and organization
-Layout organizes content with sensible groupings and consistent structure

A logical organization of content and activities results in an effective teaching/ learning process. It must be unified and consistent to support the flow of information.

Readability of Instructional Materials

Readability of instructional materials depends on narative and visual elements that make the material attractive to the students, easy to understand, and appropriate to his/her abilities. Thus, it depends on the following.

-Coherent language style

-Typographycal presentation features
-font style forms and emphasizes words and ideas
-Text spacing separates and groups words, sentences, paragraphs, and sections
-Simplicity avoids extraneous and redundant information and focuses attention
-High, but not sharp, contrast supports separation of letters, words, and sections
-Text and visual focus information and concepts

SOME INSIGHTS ON INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

THE FOLLOWING ARE ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS 66 TO 70 ASKED BY PROF. DR. HERNANDEZ

66. SUGGESTED FEATURES ON THE TEACHER´S MANUAL:

According to the Florida Department of Education, Bureauof Curriculum and Instruction, a Teacher´s Manual can be a strong selling point as long as it is well designed. If it is well organized and it includes the following basic features, it will be easily adapted and used in the classroom.

Practicality:

This feature refers to qualities such as how clearly it is written, if it is easy to use, if it is cheap enough to buy it, and if it will be used on several occasions.

Clearly, a Teacher´s Manual must be a useful tool for the teacher, and it is fundamental that it has a clear layout so we can read it and use it easily. A complicated manual will never be used by the teacher. Its cost is also an issue to be considered, for in many bookstores, what I have seen is that acquiring a Teacher´s Manual is conditioned to the amount of textbooks you buy.


Alignment:

The contents and activities have to align to student materials, for this is the most elemental reason for obtaining the Teacher´s Manual.

Coverage:

The manual should have enough content for teachers to dedicate time for preparing lessons. it should explain procedures in teaching, cultural aspects, answers, a plan for each lesson, enough content for each topic, and information about what may be more difficult for students and how to explain these.

Readability:

It should be easy to understand the manual, and the objectives and instructions should be clear.

Methods:

Methods for students to learn the subject, activities for large and small groups, different learner contexts and learning styles should be includd.

Assessment:

The manual should include ways to evaluate the learning.

Management:

Support to classroom management, such as outlines to plan and organize the courses, units, and lessons, should be included in the manual.

From my own experience, some of the textbooks that we use in Costa Rica are not always published along with the teacher´s manual, or it is difficult to obtain it. In some cases, salespersons visit our schools and offer to give a teacher´s manuals and CDs that come as compliment of the instructional materials if the teacher sells certain amounts of books. Really, they are not giving anything for free, because the teacher has to work selling the books, collecting the money, and delivering it to the salesperson.

67. TECHNOLOGY CHANGES

Visual presentation has become very important, almost as relevant as the contents.Specialization features, such as graphic design, photography, and typefaces. These and titles of materials have become relevant.

The advances in technology have brought many innovations that could be used in the teaching process. Nowadays, many of our students have small gadgets like music reproducers, be these mp3s, iPods, small CD players, or their cell phones, which could be used for exposing our students to standard English songs or conversations. The students operate their cell phones for so many functions like filming short videos, taking pictures, passing images, songs, messages, to each other, just in seconds. Two other changes have been the access to cable TV and the use of DVD players to watch films. They also are members of social communities like chats in the web, Twitter or Facebook, where they can easily communicate with English speaking people all around the world. If we could only convince them to use standard English ! Those students who do, really outstand in our classes, and they recognize it is due to their constant exposure to the target language. They seem to acquire faster mastery of the language and a higher self-esteem.

As an English teacher, having my own blog provides me with a space where I can express my opinions and insights, or simply provide with information for colleagues or students. It makes me use the new technology and practice using it, making mistaskes and corrections, add ing images even from my own pictures, videos, sounds, to a degree I just keep surprising myself because of the diversity of possibilities in these presentations. I still have much to learn, but actually, I am enjoying it. I hope the reader does, too.

STUDENT PRODUCED VIDEOS: TWO APPROACHES

The following is a comment about an article published in the FORUM Magazine, which is a recommendation by Prof. Dr. Gilberto Hernández.

Nathaniel Carney and Patrick Foss, Japan, are authors of the article, "Student Produced Videos: Two Approaches," published in the English Teaching Forum, issue Number 2, 2008.

COMMENT:

Videos have become a form of expression and communication, such as videos posted in YouTube, or vlogs (video-based blogs), those sent by SKYPE, and others. Since producing a video by students was thought to be a motivating and self-empowering activity for the L2 learners, two instructors created a learner-centered project-based activity for a short-term intensive English program for college in Japan.

For these activities, time and cost considerations included digital video technology and editing softwares. They required a light, powerful digital video camera (at a lower cost than years before) and free time-efficient video editing software. They found these two softwares as the best found at the time:

-Microsoft´s MovieMaker (included in XP and Vista operation systems);
-Apple´s iMovie (included in the OSX operation system)

Having chosen the latter one, they connected their digital video camera to a Macintosh via a firewire cable. The computer, then, imported the videos automatically. It broke these videos into "clips" - segments of video created every time the user pressed "pause." These clips could be modified, too. After trying the software themselves, the two instructors gave each group instructions on how to use it. All students had access to one digital video camera and one computer.They had to acquire the following skills: writing, directing, acting in and editing a movie.

The general objectives for these video projects were:

1. Each student should use as much English as possible;
2. Students should learn as much about filmmaking as possible.

The specific language objective was:

- Students should learn and practice various debating language.
Added to these objectives were four rules students had to follow.

VIDEO PROJECT N° 1:
The first approach for this activity included eight students that had to work in pairs to make four short films. Through processes of negociation, students proposed the following videos:

-The ethics of cloning (as news report);
-Robot ´s work vs human work (drama);
-electronic surveillance (drama);
- electric cars (drama).

The instructor´s role was to instruct camera operation and use of iMovie software, to be present during most negiciations, to print a shooting, rehearsal, editing schedule, check in regularly with each group, and to help editing the film. In fact, the instructor helped mostly in editing.

All students were filming, acting, rehearsing, and editing at the same time. They were done before due time.

VIDEO PROJECT N°2:
The second approach for this activity included eight students that had to work together in a longer film. On the first day of class, they received some questions on the scientific/ethical theme of the relationship between animals and humans, and for homework, they had to think of one or two specific stories that could be the focus of the drama. On the next class, students negociated the final selection, as well as who had the responsibilities to be directors, writers, costume designers, and set and sound designers, during all the filmmaking process. They used Wiki, which is a free online collaborative website that allows all users with the password to write and edit content on the site, to write the script.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES:

FIRST APPROACH:
Avantages seen with students who worked in Project N°1:
-Each student had the opportunity to learn more about each major aspect of filmmaking.
-Each student had the opportunity to work on multiple English skills.

Disadvantages seen in this group were:
-The instructor was unable to work closely with students who were rehearsing. No one practices pronunciation or intonation.
-Students had little time to create sets or costumes
-On the final video, at times, students/actors were difficult to understand.

SECOND APPROACH:
Advantages seen with students who worked in Project N°2:
-Instructor and students consistently spent time together. Students practicedtheir pronunciation and intonation and body movements.
-Instructor´s feedback was immediate and constant. This showed on the final video.
-This approach proved to be an efficient way to produce a film, where all students had an opportunity to be a leader at times.

Disadvantages found in this group were:
-There was an unequal learning due to the division of labor for the video production.
-Some students were not involved at all in certain tasks.
-There was an unequal length of speaking roles where some students practiced more than others, (although all were present during these rehearsals) at memorizing, acquiring more vocabulary, grammatical structures, and paralinguistic skills.

These two approaches to student video production proved thatthis is a motivating and self-empowering activity where students acquire communicative and technical skills for these times.

PRIORITIES FOR EVALUATING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

PRIORITIES FOR EVALUATING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
by Prof. MSc. Orietta Vélez Dumani

Evaluation for Selection.

Evaluating instructional materials includes several aspects, sucha s the evaluation for selection of these. According to Patricia Byrd, evaluating and selecting textbooks is a process that varies. There are some settings in which the teacher decides on the books he/she wants to use, as is the case of some universities in USA, where teachers select the texts, order them through the bookstore in campus, and then use them in their classes. In other cases, the Ministry of Education decides about the curriculum and the texts that are used all around a country. Also, there are places where there are groups of people, such as members from the boards of education and administrators give a list of recommendations. Although the English teachers seldom participate in such decisions, it is important to know how to influence in the process of deciding which materials will be used.

The Fit Between Curriculum and Texts.

According to Byrd, fundamental considerations for selecting materials must address a fit between the materials, the curriculum, the students and the teachers. These are requirements that publishers ought to consider if they want their material to be bought by powerful buyers. Nevertheless, this fit is hard to achieve for smallergroups. That is why the materials are not completely congruent with the pedagogical goals of the syllabus.

The Fit between Students and Texts.
To be able to obtain a proper adjustment between the students and the texts, Byrd says that the latter ones have to cover the students´s needs in:
- content, being interesting, useful, with explanations that students understand.
- examples that are suitable for the lives and interests of the students.
- enough variety of exercises and tasks.
- well constructed presentation and format.

The Fit Between Teachers and Texts.
Byrd also says that there must be a proper adjustment between the materials and the teachers so they will use them. These aspects ought to be considered:
- contents that teachers find useful to obtain their goals, that fit their knowledge-base, for teachers must have the adequate English to understand the - examples usable for the teacher.
- enough exercises and tasks that cover different learning styles, with instructor´s manual and answer key.
- presentation and format providing teaching opportunities.

Textbook analysis in the implementation process includes the same aspects mentioned above.

Analysis For Implementation.
It is relevant to know the resources in the textbook well before the teaching process begins to utilize it thoroughly. In the initial reading of a textbook, the teacher should consider the following aspects:
- presentation and format to know the way it is organized.
- content or information in each unit.
- practices given, their relation to the content and connections between activities.
- evaluation provided.
- support for the teacher such as instruction manual.

Analysis of the Content of the Textbook.
ESL/EFL textbooks tend to have either of these two contents:
- the linguistic content;
- the thematic content.
In content-based materials, topics are clearly visible, but in other materials, teachers need to look past the linguistic content to encounter the themes that are being included.

Finally, Byrd recommends sites where we can find text reviews such as:
- TESOL journal,
-the TESOL Quarterly,
-newsletters or journals of regionasl affiliates of TESOL.

CHALLENGES IN REVIEWING CONTENT

When we review the content of instructional materials, several challenges emerge.

-There are controversies in regards to what the best approach is because there are many beliefs concerning teaching methods or because of the educational policies that vary from one state to another (in USA). The content may be inaccurate because of the treatment that is given to a topic, there are errors in the facts or disproven concepts in the material.

-Analysis of the content may be misleading. Publishers have to show a correlation between the requirements of the educational curriculum and their material, but some only cross-check particular requirements with finding the vocabulary (key words) in the headings, indexes, titles, texts, or glossaries, and this does not mean that the contents are matching the desired requirements of education.