Reflection on the reading in week 10

The article by Alderson (2000) is about the technology in testing. It mainly describes the advantages and disadvantages of the CBTs TOFEL and DIALANG. Compared with traditional paper-and –pencil-based tests, the computer r-based tests do not required the test-takers to be herded in to a room. They can take the tests on their own and in any places.

Besides, the computer-based tests can provide the feedbacks to the test-takers immediately. Another advantage is the test security.

The disadvantages include the need of the training the test-takers of the computer skills and the limitations of which language skills to test.

The author also describe other two technologies—e-rater, which is testing the writing ability and PhonePass, which is testing the speaking ability.

When evaluating the technology, we need to judge it in some aspects, such as the speed of assessments, the validity and the immediate availability of the results.

In the further researches, the author states some problems that need to be investigated, for example, the best way to assess the ability, the most appropriate and meaning clues that can be provided to the test-takers, etc.

In the conclusion, the author said that the key point of technology in testing is that the IT-based assessment can have beneficiary backwash on teaching and learning.

After reading this article, I want to share my own opinions about the IT-based tests I have taken before.

The first one is TOFEL iBT. I took all the four sections on line and generally I think it is much more difficult than IELTS, which is paper-and-pencil based test. First of all, it is much more challenging to read articles on the computer screen, especially for us who have been used to read on the papers. Secondly, typing on the computer is very demanding in the terms of the speed. The test-takers should organize the article and then type it into the computer, what is worse, it is probable for test-takers to misspell the vocabularies when typing too fast. The most important concern about TOFEL iBT is the speaking and listening sections, I think it is dehumanized to speak to a machine. Test-takers may feel uncomfortable and unease. Sometimes when one test-taker is doing the listening section which someone else nearby is doing the speaking section, which will definitely have harmful impact on his or her performance in this section.

There is a store of data for TOFEL iBT, which I think is a disadvantage. After the test-takers take the test year by year, all the data in the store will be run out. So that one item may appear again in different places and different time, which challenge the security of the test.

Reflection on the reading in week 9

I still remember in one movie which I forget the name, the hero said he did not need to work because his father once create a Christmas song and he could inherit the money paid for the copyright by anyone that use it. I do not understand this situation until I read the reading material this week.
It is about the copyrights law in Hong Kong.
Actually I am so surprised to realize that the copyrights thing is such a serious thing, which is not in mainland China. People in mainland China never care about the copyrights. Copying the whole books or download music or movie from website are so common that even no one doubts it. Maybe it is the difference between Hong Kong and mainland China. Haha~
Besides, there are some ambiguous terms in the reading, for example, “reasonable portion of the copyright works” “to a reasonable extent” and “directly connected with” and so on. And all of these make it difficult to follow both for the individual and the lawyers.
In my point of view, the copyright is very important and serious, as teacher said in the class, if you have known that everyone will copy the book, you will definitely stop writing it because you cannot make money from what you have written. People should respect their intellectual rights, which is a symbol of progress of civilization. Protecting the copyright can effectively encourage the creating of great works. And the great amount of good works can also in turn perfect the copyright law.

Reflection on the Liou (1994)

Based on the previous studies, Liou (1994) raised a proposal of using interactive videodisc (IVD) in promoting second language studies in the Department of Foreign Languages at National Tsing Hua University.

At first, the author stated the reasons and motivation of launch this project. The fresh students did not have the enough English proficiency for learning literature in college. So the classes or training for language skills were necessary (“language” rather than “communicating”). However, the courses provided in the Department were not satisfied, the reasons lied that in the first place, no “natural” target language was introduced, secondly, the large size of classes could not provide enough opportunities for the learners and last but not the least, the vast majority of EFL teachers shared the same L1 with learners.

Secondly, the author analyzed the advantages of IVD. Three adjectives were used here—authentic, adaptive, enchanting. Besides, in an IVD language learning lesson, a lot of skills could be developed, such as reading comprehension skill, speaking skill. The learners could also develop active use of language in natural environment, understanding of conversation, etc.

The project used films Ghostbusters in language teaching. 100 conversational turns were chosen for a form function analysis. The course were divided into four units—introduction, adaption of prototype hypertext format, viewing of the film, viewing of the film with instruction. Both the Chinese and English scripts were offered to the students during the learning process. The evaluation was also provided both with soft and hard methods.

The two major criticisms were the layout and the instruction for the Hyperscript.

In the end, the author also raised two important issues, firstly, the design of “template” for layman. Secondly, the development of multimedia courseware would be very consuming.

On this article, I think it is quite useful for inspiring me to do my own action plan. In addition, I found the soft methods used in evaluation part are quite new to me and I think they would definitely very helpful.

I found the project proposed in this article is useful. As a student majored in English, I also encountered the problems raised in the beginning of the article. I studied English literature before and I found it was extremely difficult to read the original works in English. We also watched movies as follow-up to enhance our impression of what we have learned. You know, a lot of novels have movie version, such as Pride and Prejudice, Vanity Fair and so on. However, we never have the instruction like that mentioned in the article, so we just got the plot of the play but never paid much attention to the language. Therefore, in my point of view, if conducted with great care, this project will gain success in promoting the language proficiency of the fresh English major students.