Do Proper Accommodation Assignments Make a Difference? Examining the Impact of Improved Decision Making on Scores for English Language Learners

Does it matter if students are appropriately assigned to test accommodations? Using a randomized method, this study found that individual students assigned accommodations keyed to their particular needs were significantly more efficacious for English language learners (ELLs) and that little difference was reported between students receiving incomplete or not recommended accommodations and no accommodations whatsoever. A sample of third and fourth grade ELLs in South Carolina (N = 272) were randomly assigned to various types of test accommodations on a mathematics assessment. Results indicated that those students who received the appropriate test accommodations, as recommended by a version of a computerized accommodation taxonomy for ELLs (the selection taxonomy for English language learners accommodations; STELLA), had significantly higher test scores than ELLs who received no accommodations or those who received incomplete or not recommended accommodation packages. Additionally, students who were given no test accommodations scored no differently than those students that received accommodation packages that were incomplete or not recommended, given the students' particular needs and challenges. These findings are important in light of research and anecdotal reports that suggest a general lack of systematicity in the current system of assigning accommodations and a tendency to give all available accommodations regardless of individual child characteristics. The results also have important implications for how future accommodation research should be structured to determine the benefits of particular accommodations and accommodation packages. This study would suggest that control and treatment groups should be assembled based on specific student needs in order for direct comparisons to be made.     

Are Accommodations for English Learners on State Accountability Assessments Evidence-Based? A Multistudy Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The objectives of this two-part study were to: (a) investigate English learner (EL) accommodation practices on state accountability assessments of reading/English language arts and mathematics in grades 3–8, and (b) conduct a meta-analysis of EL accommodation effectiveness on improving test performance. Across all distinct testing programs, we found that at least one EL test accommodation was provided for both test content areas. The most popular accommodations provided were supplying students with word-to-word dual language dictionaries, reading aloud test directions and items in English, and allowing flexible time/scheduling. However, we found minimal evidence that testing programs provide practitioners with recommendations on how to assign relevant accommodations to EL test takers’ English proficiency level. To evaluate whether accommodations used in practice are supported with evidence of their effectiveness, a meta-analysis was conducted. On average, across 26 studies and 95 effect sizes (N = 11,069), accommodations improved test performance by .16 standard deviations. Both test content and sampling design were found to moderate accommodation effectiveness; however, none of the accommodations investigated were found to have intervention effects that were statistically different from zero. Overall, these results suggest that currently employed EL test accommodations lack evidence of their effectiveness.     

Mean Effects of Test Accommodations for ELLs and Non‐ELLs: A Meta‐Analysis of Experimental Studies

The objective was to examine the impact of different types of accommodations on performance in content tests such as mathematics. The meta‐analysis included 14 U.S. studies that randomly assigned school‐aged English language learners (ELLs) to test accommodation versus control conditions or used repeated measures in counter‐balanced order. Individual effect sizes (Glass's d) were calculated for 50 groups of ELLs and 32 groups of non‐ELLs. Individual effect sizes for English language and native language accommodations were classified into groups according to type of accommodation and timing conditions. Means and standard errors were calculated for each category. The findings suggest that accommodations that require extra printed materials need generous time limits for both the accommodated and unaccommodated groups to ensure that they are effective, equivalent in scale to the original test, and therefore more valid owing to reduced construct‐irrelevant variance. Computer‐administered glossaries were effective even when time limits were restricted. Although the Plain English accommodation had very small average effect sizes, inspection of individual effect sizes suggests that it may be much more effective for ELLs at intermediate levels of English language proficiency. For Spanish‐speaking students with low proficiency in English, the Spanish test version had the highest individual effect size (+1.45).     

对不同水平英语学习者语用能力的研究——以中国英语学习者的拒绝言语行为为例

语用能力和语言能力的关系一直备受关注。为了证实语言能力的水平是否会影响语用能力的发展,笔者以两组不同语言层次的中国英语学习者（高中二年级学生和英语专业大二学生）为例,调查了他们的语用能力。结果显示,大二学生在语用语言能力上更接近目标语;在社会语用能力上,两组学生在接近目标语上都存在一定差异,但大二学生取得的进步稍微大些。     

Goals or horizons—the conundrum of progression in English: or a possible way of understanding formative assessment in English

This article examines how the principles of formative assessment might be applied to the curriculum subject of English. It takes as its starting point the problematic nature of progression in the subject and suggests that it may be better to understand progression as heading towards a horizon rather than a clearly defined goal. The article argues this by exploring the potential constraints of what might be considered goal models of progression and contrasts these with the affordances offered by those approaches that view progression as towards a horizon. In particular it suggests that, in order to understand how to progress, pupils need to acquire the guild subject knowledge of their teachers by being apprenticed into the same community of interpreters. The article situates this discussion within wider concerns about how teachers scaffold and regulate the learning process for their pupils.     

大学英语自主学习形成性评估实证研究

自主学习要求学习者监控学习进程和评价学习效果,传统的终结性评估不适用于自主学习。构建了适用于自主学习的形成性评估模式,该模式由"学习档案袋评价""教师评价"及"学生自评和他评"构成。经过在两个教学班级一学期的教学实验,结果表明:通过对学生自主学习过程的监控和管理,形成性评估激发了学生语言学习的动机和兴趣,促进了学生学习策略形成,有效培养了学生自主学习能力。     

Universal Design for Learning: Preparing Secondary Education Teachers in Training to Increase Academic Accessibility of High School English Learners

Although the concept of universal design for learning (UDL) is well understood in the world of architecture and in the area of special education, its use to increase the academic performance of high school English learners (ELs) is not widely explored. To reduce this void, this article presents an overview of the UDL concept and its principles, applies UDL to classroom instruction and assessment of high school ELs, and offers suggestions on how UDL can be infused in preparation programs for secondary education teachers. This article also provides an example of how a school system has integrated UDL into its educational framework to increase academic accessibility for all.     

商务英语信函翻译中的变通

商务英语信函作为国际贸易往来重要的交流方式之一,有其自身的特点和规律,因此在翻译中应讲究一定的方法和技巧。本文从变通翻译技巧入手,探讨这一方法在商务英语信函翻译中的应用。     

Performance of English Language Learners as a Subgroup in Large-Scale Assessment: Interaction of Research and Policy

Factors that contribute to the performance gap between subgroups and mainstream students deserve special attention. Different subgroups are faced with different sets of challenges. To understand and control for factors leading to the performance gap between subgroups and mainstream students one must clearly understand the issues specific to each subgroup. This paper focuses on assessment and performance issues for English language learner (ELL) students as a subgroup. Identifying factors affecting the performance gap between ELL and non-ELL students may help gain insight into assessment issues for other subgroups of students as well as strengthen assessment of this group.     

中国英语学习者自我修正行为的实证研究

本文通过对中国英语专业学生自我修正行为的实证研究,发现英语水平较低的学习者的自我修正主要集中在相同修正和错误修正上,修正结构类型主要是即时修正。本研究能为教学提供一些启示：教师一方面应鼓励学生自我修正,同时也要有意识地注意学生的自我修正,发现学生对语言知识掌握情况,从而调整改进教学。     

大学英语学习者英语交际使用焦虑感研究

通过对某高校191名非英语专业学生调查发现,大学英语学习者在使用英语进行交际时均有某种程度的焦虑感。学生的焦虑感与他们所感知的英语使用信心、英语学习动机和使用英语的愿望等因素呈负相关。这种焦虑感的产生主要是受学生英语水平和对所论及的话题熟悉程度限制等因素所致。在大学英语教学中应着力提高学生的英语水平,增强学生的学科知识,以降低他们在英语使用中的焦虑感。     

单项元学习能力与学习英语水平的相关分析

在调查的基础上，分析了英语学习的元学习能力的差异对学习水平的影响，认为元学习能力应成为外语学习和教学不可缺少的组成部分，同时提出了提高英语学习的元学习能力的建议。     

Accommodations for Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing in Large-Scale, Standardized Assessments: Surveying the Landscape and Charting a New Direction

Students who are deaf or hard of hearing (SDHH) often use test accommodations when they participate in large-scale, standardized assessments. The purpose of this article is to present findings from the Third Annual Survey of Assessment and Accommodations for Students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing. The big five accommodations were reported by at least two-thirds of the 389 participants: extended time, small group/individual administration, test directions interpreted, test items read aloud, and test items interpreted. In a regression analysis, language used in instruction showed the most significant effects on accommodations use. The article considers these findings in light of a more proactive role for the National Survey in providing evidence for the effectiveness of accommodations with SDHH.     

The Use of Generalizability (G) Theory in the Testing of Linguistic Minorities

We contend that generalizability (G) theory allows the design of psychometric approaches to testing English-language learners (ELLs) that are consistent with current thinking in linguistics. We used G theory to estimate the amount of measurement error due to code (language or dialect). Fourth- and fifth-grade ELLs, native speakers of Haitian-Creole from two speech communities, were given the same set of mathematics items in the standard English and standard Haitian-Creole dialects (Sample 1) or in the standard and local dialects of Haitian-Creole (Samples 2 and 3). The largest measurement error observed was produced by the interaction of student, item, and code. Our results indicate that the reliability and dependability of ELL achievement measures is affected by two facts that operate in combination: Each test item poses a unique set of linguistic challenges and each student has a unique set of linguistic strengths and weaknesses. This sensitivity to language appears to take place at the level of dialect. Also, students from different speech communities within the same broad linguistic group may differ considerably in the number of items needed to obtain dependable measures of their academic achievement. Whether students are tested in English or in their first language, dialect variation needs to be considered if language as a source of measurement error is to be effectively addressed.