Posts Tagged ‘assessment’

Self-access book now available on Amazon as Kindle version

Sunday, May 8th, 2011

The book that Noemi Lazaro and I wrote on ‘Language Learning and Teaching in the Self-Access Centre. A Guide for Teachers’ is now available as a Kindle download for 7 pounds. You can download the book here, or read about it here.

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Below you can find the table of contents:

Contents
Introduction

1 The rationale for SACs
How ca SACs benefit language learning and teaching?

2 Linking classroom and SAC
How can the classroom and the SAC be successfully linked?

3 The challenges of SACs
What are some of the challenges faced by SACs?

4 Cultural aspects of ILL
Is Independent Language Learning suitable for all cultural contexts?

5 Activities in the SAC
What types of activities are the most common in SACs?

6 Materials for the SAC
What kind of materials are used in the SAC?

7 Online resources
What kind of online resources are available for independent learning?

9 Advising and learner training
What other types of support are offered in SACs?

10 Assessing learning
What types of assessment can be conducted in the SAC?

11 Managing a SAC
What are the key elements for managing a SAC?

12 Schools without a SAC
How can elements of a SAC be introduced in a classroom?

Bibliography

Dynamic assessment and autonomy

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

It is interesting that, to the best of my knowledge, there have been no studies that have used dynamic assessment to measure autonomous learning. Dynamic assessment is a procedure that has its origins in Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development and that integrates assessment with instruction. The assessment involves interaction between the assessor and the learner, during which the assessor offers help to the learner with task completion. In this way it is a measure of a learner’s ability to learn, not a static measure of the outcome of that process. The score on a dynamic assessment may be expressed as the difference between the initial performance and the final performance, or the score on the final performance only. Additional measures include learners’ ability to transfer what they have learned to other situations and their ability to complete the task independently. DA is thus future-oriented and learner-oriented and takes into account both the individual and his interaction with the environment. It could thus very well be an excellent way to investigate the independent aspect of autonomous learning, especially if changes in this ability could be measured over time (for example, before and after a course or using a particular resource such as a self-access centre). Has anyone used DA in relation to autonomy?

Here are a couple of useful references:
Matthew E. Poehner (2008). Dynamic Assessment. A Vygotskian Approach to Understanding and Promoting L2 Development. Springer: Educational Linguistics , Vol. 9. ISBN: 978-0-387-75774-2

Poehner, M. E., & Lantolf, J. P. (2005). Dynamic assessment in the language classroom. Language Teaching Research, 9(3), 233-265. doi: 10.1191/1362168805lr166oa.

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