Adopting
socio-cognitive validation framework, the present paper focuses on the syntactic and lexical complexity of listening comprehension subtests in three B2-level examinations: The City Guilds ...international examination in English, The First Certificate in English, and the General Matura in English. By analysing and interpreting the results obtained from different automated tools, the research aims to determine to what extent the three subtests are comparable. The results of the study suggest the unreliability of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) as a sole mechanism for test comparisons.
The paper addresses the treatment of negation-related phraseological units in two specialised monolingual dictionaries (the Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms and the Oxford Idioms ...Dictionary for Learners of English). The research is based on a database consisting of 595 phraseological units that are listed in the two dictionaries as negative or co-occurring with negation. Following the well-established distinction between inherently negative lexical items (e.g. nobody, nowhere) and non-negative lexical items licensed by negation and other polarity licensers (e.g., anybody, yet), the paper examines the dictionary entries to determine to what extent this dichotomy is presented in the dictionaries' introductory sections as well as on the level of concrete dictionary entries. The negative or the polarity-sensitive status of a phraseological unit is established by analysing the corpus data obtained from three British English corpora (the BNC, the enTenTen 2012, the UkWaC), and one American English corpus (the COCA). The data analysis shows that the divide between negative and polarity-sensitive phraseological units is not clearly and consistently presented in the two analysed dictionaries, and this may result in a dictionary user's wrong comprehension and usage. The paper puts forth a practical and user-friendly solution in the form of a tripartite model of classification that builds on theoretical considerations as well as real language use and that may be readily adopted by lexicographers.
The paper examines the results of the CEFR alignment project for the Slovenian national examinations in English. The authors aim to validate externally the standard-setting procedures by adopting a ...socio-cognitive model of validation (Khalifa & Weir, 2009; Weir, 2005) to analyse the scoring, context and cognitive validity of three reading subtests: the Slovenian B2 national examination and the international examinations FCE and CAE, aligned with B2 and C1 respectively. The relative comparability between the three subtests is determined by analysing the results of tests that have been administered to a group of 80 test-takers (expected CEFR level: B2). The placement of the test-takers also reveals to what extent the judgements of the Slovenian panellists about CEFR levels coincide with those reported for FCE and CAE. The study thus also explores whether the high degree of agreement between the judges on the alignment panel can be solely attributed to their adequate and precise understanding of CEFR descriptors – which is directly mirrored in their setting of the cut scores and relating the examination to relevant CEFR levels – or whether it can also be ascribed to their shared educational, national and cultural background. The answers to these questions are paramount because they reveal the descriptive adequacy of CEFR descriptors and because different interpretations of CEFR levels can significantly affect national testing policies and, consequently, language teaching and testing.
The paper addresses the treatment of negation-related phraseological units in two specialised monolingual dictionaries (the Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms and the Oxford Idioms ...Dictionary for Learners of English). The research is based on a database consisting of 595 phraseological units that are listed in the two dictionaries as negative or co-occurring with negation. Following the well-established distinction between inherently negative lexical items (e.g. nobody, nowhere) and non-negative lexical items licensed by negation and other polarity licensers (e.g., anybody, yet), the paper examines the dictionary entries to determine to what extent this dichotomy is presented in the dictionaries‟ introductory sections as well as on the level of concrete dictionary entries. The negative or the polarity-sensitive status of a phraseological unit is established by analysing the corpus data obtained from three British English corpora (the BNC, the enTenTen 2012, the UkWaC), and one American English corpus (the COCA). The data analysis shows that the divide between negative and polarity-sensitive phraseological units is not clearly and consistently presented in the two analysed dictionaries, and this may result in a dictionary user‟s wrong comprehension and usage. The paper puts forth a practical and user-friendly solution in the form of a tripartite model of classification that builds on theoretical considerations as well as real language use and that may be readily adopted by lexicographers.
Task difficulty is an important but complex phenomenon in Applied Linguistics, for which there is relatively little empirical research. This article discusses approaches to defining task difficulty ...and focuses on objective task difficulty derived from ratings of performances and on difficulty derived from an error count in the performances, thus taking errors as indicators of writing task difficulty. Errors are described in terms of the Scope–Substance error taxonomy in writing performances from the Slovene General Matura examination in English. The most frequent errors are located at word and phrase level. Generally, error frequency decreases as writing proficiency increases, but some error types do not conform to this trend. This is the case for punctuation errors, which gain prominence at higher levels of mastery. The results of this study are relevant for assessment, particularly for rating scale development or revision, and for rater training. They are equally relevant for teaching, since knowing sources of difficulty in tasks is a prerequisite for effective pedagogical action. More generally, if applied to performances based on a wider range of tasks, viewing errors as indicators of difficulty can lead to a better understanding of difficulty‐generating task features.
Povzetek
Težavnost nalog je pomemben, a zapleten pojav v uporabnem jezikoslovju, o katerem je razmeroma malo empiričnih raziskav. Prispevek obravnava pristope k opredeljevanju zahtevnosti nalog pri preverjanju pisnega sporočanja. Osredinjen je na njihovo objektivno zahtevnost, ki izhaja iz točkovnih ocen pisnih izdelkov in iz števila napak v izdelkih, kar pomeni, da napake obravnava kot kazalec zahtevnosti nalog. Napake opredeli po taksonomiji obseg‐vsebina in jo uporabi za ocenjevanje pisnih izdelkov na izpitu iz angleščine na slovenski splošni maturi. Najpogostejše napake se pojavljajo na ravni besed in besednih zvez; večinoma se njihova pogostnost zmanjša z naraščanjem pisne zmožnosti, vendar nekatere vrste napak ne sledijo temu trendu. Tak je primer napak v rabi ločil, ki so pogostejše na višjih ravneh znanja. Rezultati študije so pomembni za ocenjevanje, predvsem za razvoj in prenovo ocenjevalnih lestvic, pa tudi za usposabljanje ocenjevalcev. Dognanja so pomembna tudi za poučevanje, saj je razumevanje razlogov za zahtevnost predpogoj za učinkovito pedagoško delo. Širše gledano lahko napake uporabimo kot kazalec zahtevnosti tudi pri drugih vrstah nalog in s tem izboljšamo prepoznavanje in razumevanje tistih lastnosti nalog, ki prispevajo k njihovi zahtevnosti.
This paper presents a study which investigates the reading strategies employed by Slovenian EFL students whose classroom context is influenced by a high-stakes, curriculum-aligned national ...examination. The findings show that there are only minor differences between strong and weak students in their use of reading strategies. The results are discussed in light of the washback effect and the development of the reading skill/strategies in the classroom. The discussion suggests that educators should be aware of the limitations of high-stakes examinations, and introduce reading tasks not directly linked to such examinations, in order to minimise their potential negative effect in the classroom.
Este artículo presenta un estudio sobre las estrategias de lectura de los estudiantes eslovenos de ILE cuyo contexto del aula está influido por el examen nacional de alto impacto, añadido al currículo. Los resultados muestran que hay solo diferencias mínimas
entre los estudiantes competentes y los incompetentes en el uso de las estrategias de lectura. Los resultados se discuten a la luz del efecto rebote y el desarrollo de la habilidad/las estrategias de lectura en clase. La discusión propone que los educadores deberían ser conscientes de las limitaciones de los exámenes de alto impacto e introducir tareas de lectura indirectamente relacionadas con tales exámenes para minimizar su potencial efecto negativo.
In
this paper, we present a diachronic and synchronic analysis of raising and
extraposition constructions in the historical
Brown Corpus
and the more contemporary
English Web Corpus
2015
.
We begin ...by establishing two diachronic facts: first, raising constructions are
used much more frequently than their semantically equivalent extraposition
variants, and second, the distribution of raising and extraposition remains –
rather exceptionally in comparison to other structures allowing for
finite/non-finite variation – diachronically consistent from the beginning of
the 20th century to 2015. We then supplement this unique diachronic
distribution with an analysis of the most recent corpus data, which shows that
the choice between the two semantically equivalent constructions is governed by
distinct structural factors unique to each construction. Concretely, we show
that the raising construction is frequently used as a relative clause, whereas
the extraposition variant generally resists such a syntactic role. By contrast,
we show that a prominent factor in favour of extraposition relates to the
negative marker, which is placed with similar frequency both in the matrix and
in the embedded clause of the extraposition construction in contrast to the
raising variant, which uses the negative marker almost exclusively in the
matrix clause. Lastly, we show that extraposition constructions contain modal
verbs in the matrix clause more frequently than the raising variants and we tie
this observation to the idea that the clausal composition of the extraposition
construction is structurally more suited for expressing tentativeness.
U ovome radu predstavljamo dijakronijsku i
sinkronijsku analizu konstrukcija s uzdižućim predikatima (
raising predicates
) i konstrukcija s ekstrapozicijom u povijesnoj
bazi
Brown Corpus
i suvremenijoj
English Web Corpus 2015
.
Počinjemo utvrđivanjem dviju dijakronijskih činjenica: 1. uzdižuće (
raising
) konstrukcije koriste se puno
češće od semantički ekvivalentnih inačica s ekstrapozicijom, i 2. distribucija
uzdižućih konstrukcija i ekstrapozicije – prilično iznimno u usporedbi s drugim
strukturama koje dopuštaju varijaciju finitno/nefinitno – dijakronijski je
dosljedna od početka 20. stoljeća sve do 2015. godine. Ovu jedinstvenu
dijakronijsku distribuciju potom dopunjavamo analizom suvremenijega korpusa
koja pokazuje da izborom između ovih dviju semantički ekvivalentnih konstrukcija
upravljaju različiti strukturalni čimbenici svojstveni svakoj od njih.
Konkretno, pokazujemo da se uzdižuća konstrukcija često koristi kao relativna
rečenica, dok se inačica s ekstrapozicijom u toj sintaktičkoj ulozi rijetko
javlja. Nasuprot tomu pokazujemo da se istaknut čimbenik u korist
ekstrapozicije odnosi na oznaku niječnosti koja se podjednako često smješta i u
glavnu i u uklopljenu rečenicu u slučaju konstrukcije s ekstrapozicijom,
nasuprot uzdižuće inčice u kojoj se oznaka niječnosti javlja gotovo isključivo
u glavnoj rečenici. Konačno, pokazujemo da konstrukcije s ekstrapozicijom češće
sadrže modalne glagole u glavnoj rečenici nego li uzdižuće inačice te tu
opservaciju povezujemo s idejom da je rečenična struktura konstrukcija s
ekstrapozicijom strukturalno prikladnija za izražavanje
nesigurnosti/uvjetnosti.
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