Written inquiries, which are more frequent and have less of a focus on complex thinking, are issues at school. Students are not taught how to respond to questions found in High-Level Thinking Skills (HOTS) tests, hence, their thinking abilities are generally weak. The issue for teachers is that neither they nor anyone else has been able to create…

Rating scales for writing assessment are critical in that they determine directly the quality and fairness of such performance tests. However, in many EFL contexts, rating scales are made, to certain extent, based on the intuition of teachers who strongly need a feasible and scientific route to guide their construction of rating scales. This study…

This research aimed to study current situations, problems and needs for the development of an English teaching evaluation model focusing on task-based learning to develop English writing ability and creative thinking in the language; to create the development of the English teaching evaluation model, implement and evaluate the model designed. The…

The nature of discourse within classrooms strongly predicts students' ability to think about, around, and with text and content (i.e. comprehension and critical-analytic thinking). However, little is known about the nature of classroom discourse in remote, rural South African schools, a context in which students face well-documented language…

While research on high stakes testing continues to expand, little is known about how the use of student test scores to evaluate teachers is affecting physical education (PE). A proportionate, stratified random sample of physical educators in New York State was drawn (n = 489) to survey them about their district's practices and their attitudes…

In the literature of second language teaching and learning, the use of students' first language (L1) has been an issue of debate for many years. Despite the changing state of teaching and learning aspects over the years, the belief that L1 should not be used in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms has stood the test of time.…

Testing is an issue of increasing importance. While for many teachers language learning should be communicative; in fact, they expect their students to provide evidence of their knowledge. Thus, there is a clear mismatch on the approach to language teaching and language testing. As a consequence, there is an evident need change the testing…

A new "controlled assessment" model was introduced in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2009. This paper describes a research project that explores teachers' experiences of this new assessment model in General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) level modern foreign language (MFL) speaking assessment. Focusing on teachers'…

This article explores ways in which learners' achievements can be assessed and reflected in both the domains of linguistic performance and subject-content learning. The content and language integrated learning (CLIL) approach adopted by the authors is one in which language learning and content learning are truly integrated and where neither…

Assessment is central in education and the teaching-learning process. This study attempts to explore the perspectives and views about quality assessment among teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), and to find ways of promoting quality assessment. Quantitative methodology was used to collect data. To answer the study questions, a…

Research Findings: Multitiered instructional frameworks are becoming a recommended approach for enhancing prevention and intervention efforts targeting early literacy and language skills. However, few studies to date have studied the feasibility of tiered oral language interventions before kindergarten; therefore, this pilot study explored the…

This research investigates the extent to which indices of social justice and democratic rights are expressed in Israel in the crucial national English matriculation exam, as perceived by Palestinian Arab high school pupils studying for these exams and their English teachers. The research employed Critical Theory as a paradigm, case study as a…

Within the context of Taiwan, where growing numbers of universities seek teaching excellence and better English learning outcomes, passing a designated English test has been imposed on thousands of university students as one of their degree requirements. This educational policy has become feasible only after the debut of the indigenous General…

This study investigated the washback of the General English Proficiency Test on English learning in Taiwan. The research sites were the applied foreign language departments of a university of technology and an institute of technology. The latter required day-division students to pass the first stage of the test's intermediate level or the…