Comments on: Language test masquerading as literacy and numeracy test

By: Jay Mi Tan

Jay Mi Tan — Sun, 01 Oct 2017 00:07:00 +0000

“Bilingual education with the use of the mother tongue in the early years of schooling and simultaneous systematic instruction in English as an additional language work well in minority contexts elsewhere. And, of course, tests designed for the actual population of test takers rather than an imaginary monolingual mother tongue speaker of Standard English”. This excerpt illustrates great solutions, but most often than not, standardised or high-stakes tests are governed by regulated ‘bodies’ who sadly do not understand the significance or implications of the tests. In my opinion, many high-stakes testing or standardised tests to some extent are part of political moves. It is usually the case that the decision making parties involved provide solutions that they “think” are best for all stakeholders. However, the considerations of stakeholders such as test takers and teachers are often neglected, and the “best solutions” often affect the validity and reliability of testing.

By: Hanne Houbracken

Hanne Houbracken — Mon, 04 Sep 2017 00:53:00 +0000

“Meeting the targets for life expectancy, reading and numeracy and employment seems an unlikely prospect at this stage”
– Peter Harris, chair of the Productivity Commission.
Sadly, as with many Indigenous issues in Australia, the government refuses to acknowledge the real problem, which is a combination of factors including issues of historical, health, social and educational disadvantage. Instead of focusing on the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, more attention should be paid to quality education for all. Resources should be available everywhere, especially in already disadvantaged remote communities. Only with equal education, equal literacy and numeracy levels can be achieved.

By: Dodgy data and language misdiagnosis | Language on the Move

Dodgy data and language misdiagnosis | Language on the Move — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 23:39:03 +0000

[…] The obvious explanation is that most ‘LBOTE’ students across Australia are fluent bilinguals but that the situation is different in the Northern Territory, where most ‘LBOTE’ students are not proficient in English. We have discussed previously how NAPLAN testing discriminates against creole speakers in the Norther… […]

By: Khan

Khan — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 22:55:49 +0000

Dear Ingrid,

Very interesting post. I once taught on IELTS preparatory classes in my uni. While teaching them the listening section, I realised the educational and cultural gap between the content of the IELTS listening and the experiences of average Pakistani students. Even if Pakistani students master the listening skills in English , their world is entirely different from the world of the test. I really wonder what exactly they are tested on?

By: Hanna Torsh

Hanna Torsh — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 01:39:01 +0000

I particularly like the point you make about how the language problem isn’t that hard to fix – it needs acknowledgement of the actual language repertoire of the speakers and that the NAPLAN is not designed for them. I would argue that seeing language problems for language problems is always tricky in the Australian context, and that the more we can try to be accurate about what languages are actually being used in the community the better educational policy we can develop. One way to improve the general understanding of language would be to have more language learning going on, whether it be community, indigenous or foreign language learning. Getting away from monolingualism would be a start to a better understanding of where a problem does come from language and where it doesn’t, although of course there are many grey areas as you pointed out with the hearing issues in indigenous communities. It’s interesting that even with regard to English, it is only since the coming of large numbers of international students in Australian universities that Academic English has started to be explicitly taught, that is that it is acknowledged that there are different Englishes. Before that it was all glossed as English and if you didn’t speak “right” at school it was your fault, not that of an education system in which your language was systemically marginalised.

By: Ingrid Piller

Ingrid Piller — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:16:03 +0000

In reply to Suzana Stapar. Thanks, Suzana! I agree - migrant ESL kids come from all kinds of backgrounds, of course - it just didn't all fit into one blog post ;-) Relevant blog posts about how language testing leaves migrant ESL kids behind are available here and here.

By: Suzana Stapar

Suzana Stapar — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 23:54:34 +0000

Dear Ingrid,
I agree with your point of view and support it fully. It is a sad picture that is painted in the article and very dissapointing in the fact that we are letting down one whole generation of children in the indigenous communities. I would only like to add that, even though it looks as if ESL learners in the cities are better off when it comes to language testing, in many instances they do struggle, and with the current migrant cohort, many of them have parents who are illiterate in their first language, and struggle with learning English, too, thus are unable to help their children. I am an ESL teacher and am interested in the language acquisition. I think that a huge number of migrants, recent and long term ones have been marginalised due to their language, and some, sadly, will never learn.