Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemRater consistency and judgment in the direct assessment of second language writing ability within the certificates in spoken and written English( 1998)The introduction of competency-based models of language and literacy education in Australia has, to a large degree, coincided with an increased emphasis on direct assessment as the most common means of evaluating second language writing ability within the Adult Migrant English Program. The key problem in directly assessing writing ability is having two or more raters arrive at a similar judgment or rating for the same piece of writing. While there is a long tradition of research on rater consistency and judgment in the holistic assessment of writing ability, similar research on the direct assessment of second language writing ability within the context of competency-based language and literacy education is almost non-existent. This study aims to determine the degree to which the performance criteria designed to assess second language writing ability within the Certificates in Spoken and Written English can ensure acceptable levels of rater consistency, and to describe the decision-making behaviours and strategies used by raters when reading for the purposes of assessment. The think-aloud verbal reports of six experienced ESL raters assessing three texts written by intermediate level adult ESL learners were transcribed and subjected to a rigorous interpretive analysis. In terms of rater consistency, analysis of raters verbal reports indicated that while there was generally a high degree of rater consistency at the overall performance or text level there was considerably tess agreement at the level of individual performance criteria. Analysis of the data revealed that raters adopted distinctive styles or approaches to reading for the purposes of assessment and that raters interpreted and applied the performance criteria statements in a range of different ways. These findings have significant implications not only for the development of competency-based assessment procedures but also for the training of raters. v11
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ItemHuman capital : a case study of the AMEP( 1995)This study is an investigation of the Human Capital Approach to education in Australia. It examines whether or not the Commonwealth Government is steering education towards the incorporation of policies that invest greater emphasis and resources into human beings as contributors to economic productivity than it invests in their cultural and aesthetic value. The study incorporates the philosophies of the Human Capitalists and how successive Commonwealth and State Governments apply these philosophies in education policy formulation - particularly the provision of English language to adult migrants through the Adult Migrant Education Program in Victoria. The methodology used is a questionnaire of closed and open-ended questions distributed to AMEP teachers. The researcher duly followed up the questionnaire with interviews of four AMEP teachers in an endeavour to shed more light on the reasons behind the responses given by teachers in the questionnaire. The researcher undertook an analysis of the responses in order to investigate whether or not the Commonwealth Government gives primacy to economic objectives of the migration program over its social, cultural and linguistic objectives. The findings are that the AMEP teachers surveyed believe that the Commonwealth Government does emphasize economic objectives over all other objectives of the migration program. A Human Capital approach to education, reflected in the application of Economic Rationalism, is apparent in Australia's education system according to AMEP teachers surveyed and that such has been the case since the late 1970s. The literary works of Schultz, Smith, Dawkins, Piore, Crittenden, Benovat, Green, Pusey, Kennedy, Marginson and Grubb are included in this study. These works form the literature review of the Human Capital approach. As well, the Reports chaired by Karmel, Williams, Kirby, Fitzgerald and Campbell, and a variety of Commonwealth Reports and Working Party Papers into various aspects of education in Australia are represented in an investigation of the application of the Human Capital approach to education in Australia's main education policies. The findings of this research are that the Human Capital approach to education is influencing the AMEP and that this has wider implications for the national education system in Australia. Almost all AMEP teachers surveyed believe the AMEP no longer follows its own National Plan, in which it spells out its aims and objectives, but pursues the Commonwealth Government's primary objective of pursuing the economic aims and benefits of the migration program.
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ItemLearning literacy : a case study of the development of English literacy skills in two adult ESL students( 1997)This minor thesis reports on the findings of a study done of two adult international students of English as a Second Language. The study attempts to outline the issue of difficulties experienced by these students while learning to write in English in preparation for tertiary studies in Australia. The main aim of the study was to attempt to illustrate that international students need to be instructed by their teachers in how to write in the genre required for tertiary study. An attempt was made to measure the language level of the two students to determine how thoroughly prepared they were in the genre they were mainly required to write in their tertiary study. For these two students, this genre was business report writing. It was realised that although the two students had received practice in responding to General English writing tasks, they had not been taught how to write business reports. This conclusion was drawn through the study in which qualitative techniques of research and text analysis were used. Firstly, the students were given a series of reading and writing tasks to perform to determine their levels of English at the start of the study. At the end of the study there was a similar set of tasks for the students to perform. Secondly, the students and two of their teachers were interviewed. The students tried to reveal their perception of what their English Language intensive courses had taught them. The teachers who had taught these students attempted, through their responses to the interview questions, to outline the objectives of the courses they had delivered Thirdly, the students' attempt at writing report genres in their tertiary study was commented upon. At the end a short business report was selected as the target text and this was analysed. Systemic functional grammar was drawn upon to analyse the target text. The analysis of this model text was used to compare the analyses of the responses of the students to business report writing tasks. A summary of the findings is presented in this thesis and comparisons made in order to come to a conclusion that there does exist a need for overseas students intending to go on to further tertiary study to be taught explicitly through deconstruction of model texts by the teacher. The genre of the model text has to be directly related to the tertiary course of study that the students are going to follow. The students need to be provided with close guidance by their teachers, and constant practice of the genre is required.