“…In their critique of the misuse of proficiency criteria in the guidelines of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), Deygers, Zeidler, Vilcu, and Carlsen (2018) (see also Fulcher (2004) and North (2014)) lamented that the B2 level in CEFR is used in most European universities as the cutoff level, without taking into account the empirical data or performing a needs analysis on students. Deygers et al found this practice to be problematic because such an arbitrary cutoff used by universities hinders access to equal opportunities for students across contexts, and thus mask students’ needs as well as target language demands by following norm-driven labels.…”
Section: Research Agendas and Research Tasksmentioning
confidence: 99%
“… Research task 4 Investigate the extent to which in-house university language test scores are being used justly or unjustly, and compare the academic performance of students who score just below the cutoff with that of students who score just above it. Building on work by Winke and Zhang (2019) and Deygers et al (2018), who sought to ascertain whether proficiency criteria have been used justly in testing individuals across diverse contexts, applied linguists in English-dominant countries that have large international student populations might want to investigate whether cut-off scores have been used validly. More often than not, these international students are offered provisional admission and expected to enroll in high tuition English as a second language (ESL) classes.…”
Section: Research Agendas and Research Tasksmentioning
The growing concern for ethics in applied linguistics may be attributed to attempts to stem the rising incidence of ethical lapses in order to ensure that the core ethical principles of (1) respect for persons, (2) yielding optimal benefits while minimizing harm, and (3) justice are preserved. Following a brief historical review of this topic, and building on the growing commitment to carry out ethical applied linguistic research, we map out seven research tasks that will enhance our understanding of how to extend this expanding research agenda. By inviting applied linguists to evaluate their methodological practices and those of their peers, we also argue for the need to develop the ethical dispositions of emerging applied linguists, with a view to create a more robust field.
“…In their critique of the misuse of proficiency criteria in the guidelines of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), Deygers, Zeidler, Vilcu, and Carlsen (2018) (see also Fulcher (2004) and North (2014)) lamented that the B2 level in CEFR is used in most European universities as the cutoff level, without taking into account the empirical data or performing a needs analysis on students. Deygers et al found this practice to be problematic because such an arbitrary cutoff used by universities hinders access to equal opportunities for students across contexts, and thus mask students’ needs as well as target language demands by following norm-driven labels.…”
Section: Research Agendas and Research Tasksmentioning
confidence: 99%
“… Research task 4 Investigate the extent to which in-house university language test scores are being used justly or unjustly, and compare the academic performance of students who score just below the cutoff with that of students who score just above it. Building on work by Winke and Zhang (2019) and Deygers et al (2018), who sought to ascertain whether proficiency criteria have been used justly in testing individuals across diverse contexts, applied linguists in English-dominant countries that have large international student populations might want to investigate whether cut-off scores have been used validly. More often than not, these international students are offered provisional admission and expected to enroll in high tuition English as a second language (ESL) classes.…”
Section: Research Agendas and Research Tasksmentioning
The growing concern for ethics in applied linguistics may be attributed to attempts to stem the rising incidence of ethical lapses in order to ensure that the core ethical principles of (1) respect for persons, (2) yielding optimal benefits while minimizing harm, and (3) justice are preserved. Following a brief historical review of this topic, and building on the growing commitment to carry out ethical applied linguistic research, we map out seven research tasks that will enhance our understanding of how to extend this expanding research agenda. By inviting applied linguists to evaluate their methodological practices and those of their peers, we also argue for the need to develop the ethical dispositions of emerging applied linguists, with a view to create a more robust field.
“…Often, educational policy is a combination of both: a regulatory framework is developed at a national level, and individual institutions decide on policy measures within these constraints (Ball et al, 2012). In Europe it is not uncommon for university admission language requirements to rely on national guidelines, which can be refined or adjusted consistent with local needs (Deygers, Zeidler, Vilcu, & Carlsen, 2018). In this study, we will consider the case of Flanders, the northern part of Belgium where Dutch is the only official language.…”
Section: Policy In Practice: the Case Of Flanders Belgiummentioning
confidence: 99%
“…In the CEFR, six levels of L2 proficiency are identified, and presented as three dyads, ranging from the beginner level A1 through the advanced C2. In Flanders and throughout Europe, B2 is typically required for university admission (Deygers, Zeidler, Vilcu, & Carlsen, 2018). The B2 level is comparable to ACTFL Advanced Mid (ACTFL, 2016) and refers to an adult L2 learner who can understand the main ideas of complex texts, interact fluently and spontaneously with native speakers, produce clear and detailed texts, and develop a sustained argumentation (Council of Europe, 2001, p. 24).…”
Section: Policy In Practice: the Case Of Flanders Belgiummentioning
Research in the field of Language Assessment Literacy (LAL) shows that university admission officers and policy makers are not generally well-versed in matters of LAL. Only very few studies to date have traced why this may be the case, however, and in the field of language testing few studies to date have reported on how university admission language requirements are set. Nevertheless, because of the impact of test use on university admissions, developing such knowledge is essential to the progress of LAL as a discipline. This paper reports on a qualitative study that includes all university admission policy makers in one context (Flanders, Belgium). The analyses of the interviews show that the concerns and ideas of LAL scholars and those of university admission policy makers may differ substantially. Real-world policy is determined by pragmatism and compromise and policy makers, even at universities, may fail to consider empirical findings. Because this study shows that the view of policy makers can be quite dissimilar from the traditional approach taken in the LAL literature, the authors argue that it may be as beneficial to encourage policy literacy among language testing professionals, as to expect LAL from policy makers.
“…There are some recent studies discussing the importance of rubrics in L2 writing assessment (e.g. Deygers et al 2018;Fleckenstein et al 2018;Rupp et al 2019;Trace et al 2016;Wesolowski et al 2017;Wind et al 2018). They commonly consider rubrics as significant tools for measuring L2 learners' performances and suggest that rubrics enhance the reliability and validity of writing assessment.…”
The literature on using scoring rubrics in writing assessment denotes the significance of rubrics as practical and useful means to assess the quality of writing tasks. This study tries to investigate the agreement among rubrics endorsed and used for assessing the essay writing tasks by the internationally recognized tests of English language proficiency. To carry out this study, two hundred essays (task 2) from the academic IELTS test were randomly selected from about 800 essays from an official IELTS center, a representative of IDP Australia, which was taken between 2015 and 2016. The test takers were 19 to 42 years of age, 120 of them were female and 80 were males. Three raters were provided with four sets of rubrics used for scoring the essay writing task of tests developed by Educational Testing Service (ETS) and Cambridge English Language Assessment (i.e., Independent TOELF iBT, GRE, CPE, and CAE) to score the essays which had been previously scored officially by a certified IELTS examiner. The data analysis through correlation and factor analysis showed a general agreement among raters and scores; however, some deviant scorings were spotted by two of the raters. Follow-up interviews and a questionnaire survey revealed that the source of score deviations could be related to the raters’ interests and (un)familiarity with certain exams and their corresponding rubrics. Specifically, the results indicated that despite the significance which can be attached to rubrics in writing assessment, raters themselves can exceed them in terms of impact on scores.
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