Tobie van Dyk and I continued this discussion on “Taaldinge”, the language programme on RSG, today.
Interested? Here is the podcast: https://omny.fm/shows/taaldinge/taaldinge-7-mei-2023
We are very pleased with the review that Alan Urmston recently wrote in the Journal of English for Academic Purposes. You can read it here: Book review: Assessing Academic Literacy in a Multilingual Society: Transition and Transformation.
… but only until 31 March!
There is a publisher’s discount on the book that I, John Read and Theo du Plessis have recently edited for Multilingual Matters. It is entitled Assessing academic literacy in a multilingual society: Transition and transformation.
Watch the video and then order the book!
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Singapore Institute of Technology
There is something reassuring for university administrators and decision-makers in using the results of large-scale tests. They seldom worry about their contextual appropriateness, or about their cost, or even enquire about their quality. The large reach of the test in their minds ensures its reputation. As to costs? Well, the argument goes, if students wish to undertake studies at this university, they must be prepared to pay for that privilege. Continue reading
Avasha Rambiritch of the University of Pretoria and I have just written a chapter for a book edited by John Read (Post-admission Language Assessment of University Students, Springer, 2016) that shows how making sufficient information available about the conception, design, development, refinement and eventual administration of a test of language ability — in other words “telling the story of a test” — is the first step towards ensuring accountability for such tests. The test in question, the Test of Academic Literacy for Postgraduate Students (TALPS), is used to determine the academic literacy of prospective postgraduate students. For the full reference, see the bibliography on this site. Continue reading
The assessment of the 11 “home languages” at the end of secondary school in South Africa is patently unfair. That is the finding of a recent investigation that Colleen du Plessis (UFS), Sanet Steyn (NWU) and I report on in an article that has just been published on LitNet Akademies. The Grade 12 exit examinations are high stakes assessments, since the Home Language mark contributes disproportionately to the index on the basis of which access is granted to higher education (or entry into the world of work). They are unfair, because they are not equivalent: in some languages one has a much better chance to pass than in others. Continue reading
Albert Weideman 