Cultural Bias in the Assessment of English Learner Students - Essay Example

Cultural bias in the assessment of English language learner Table of contents Introduction 2. The role of culture in English teaching and learning 3. Conclusion 4. Literature review 1. The purpose of this paper is to identify cultural bias issues in the assessment of English language learner students. Cultural bias plays a very important role in many occasions during learning process. It is evident that some "people learn a second or foreign language in order to read and study its literature" (Lessard-Clouston). It is necessary to take into account cultural features of language learning. "Culture and communication are inseparable because culture not only dictates who talks to whom, about what, and how the communication precedes, it also helps to determine how people encode messages, the meanings... Culture...is the foundation of communication" (Lessard-Clouston). English language countries have many rich cultural traditions and features that must be reflected in the assessment of English language learner students and other parts of the learning process. It is also pay attention to the students of different cultures who study English as the second foreign language and their possibilities to understand English through its culture expressed in the language and to compare their native cultures with the English one. It helps to make the learning interesting that improves the results of English language learner students' assessment. 2. It is better to consider the role of culture in English teaching and learning on the examples of some concrete countries cultures of which differ from that of English. The examples of Russia and Japan show considerable features in English language learning and teaching. "Native speaking English language teachers are very much needed in Russia and in most cases they are met with traditional Russian hospitality, get a decent pay according to Russian standards and receive good evaluations and references" (Millrood). Cultural features of Russia influence the teaching process and assessment. English lesson in Russia has some features. "A lesson usually has three-stages, including homework check up, presentation of the new material and reinforcement of the new material" (Millrood). So the students' assessment can consist of their activities results during these stages of the lesson and a pupil can get more marks than one. "In pairs and small groups learners need a very detailed description of what they are supposed to do, otherwise tending to work individually and/or waiting to be asked by the teacher and to give the prepared answer" (Millrood). In pair and group activities in Russia learners must follow the teacher's instructions, and their assessment directly depends on task performance accuracy according to it. "Whole-language approach is not universally supported. A good lesson is considered to be competence-building. In every lesson, the teacher is expected to organise balanced activities in learning lexis and grammar, as well as in speaking, listening and reading" (Millrood). The learners' assessment is tightly connected with their skills of taking part in these balanced activities. In Russia "a lesson is usually result-oriented and it is the result, which is considered primary, not the activity, which may be very motivating and activating the learners" (Millrood). So, good assessment and a positive result are the main orients of the English language lesson in Russia. "At the end of the lesson, each learner usually gets a mark on a five-point scale with a detailed comment from the teacher" (Millrood). This kind of assessment of a five-point scale form doesn't reflect the whole depth of learner's knowledge and cannot be considered as the objective assessment of learning results. In Russian schools "a lesson is usually declared as communicative though in reality, teachers and learners spend a lot of time dealing with grammar structures, bilingual exercises and text understanding" (Millrood). Because of that the learners' assessment is often developed as their ability to learn grammar and its application in doing exercises rather than a complex of the language knowledge and skills. At the reasons listed above "native speakers of English fail as teachers in Russia consist in their lack of knowledge about the Russian teaching culture" (Millrood). The English language learning process in Japan has also its features. "English teaching in Japan has traditionally emphasized methodology and materials. This assumes that if the language is taught in the "correct" way or in an easily assimilated form using the latest materials and techniques, learning will necessarily take place" (Offner). In Japan the teaching and learning process is carried out on more technical base than in Russia, and the learners have more possibilities for learning. "Another approach has been to place emphasis on motivation of the students and then assume that once a strong desire to learn the target language has been instilled, the students will naturally succeed" (Offner). So, the motivation of learning English forces learners to grow their success. The main goal of English learning in Japan is speaking. "The initial goal then, is not accuracy of use (though this might come later), but is to communicate. The focus and measure should be on the ability to get one's ideas across, not on how correctly something was said or how many grammatical mistakes were made" (Offner). So, the assessment of English language learning in Japan is biased to the learners' ability to speak, to express ideas in English rather than use of grammar rules: "standard "rules" play a secondary role allowing each way to be colored by the speaker's personality and distinctive character. Using the target language, then, is to create something new and unique and is not simply a copy of redundant patterns" (Offner). Creative using of English and learners' skills of expressing their minds in English are highly assessed in Japan - ability to create is one of the character features of the Japanese. "As a living language it is constantly changing, however minutely, and students should be encouraged to experiment with it. This enables them to get a feel for the "boundaries" that mark the limits of the ways they can use the language and still be understood" (Offner). Experimental attitude to English makes learners more skilled and less fearful in using English for their special needs. So, the goal for English language learning assessment in Japan is the learners' ability to speak, discuss and express themselves in English. The learners must be active for their successful learning. "The students need to be aggressive, putting in as much effort as they expect to get out of it. This means that students need to actively participate in the classroom by asking questions and joining in discussions and other communicative tasks or exercises" (Offner). The learners' assessment depends on their own activity during a lesson, classroom activity participation and their communicative skills display. "Students need to understand that they must become fully involved in the communication process with others in English to gain competence in it, even if it is foreign and confusing to them. Interaction, and thus communication, in the target language is essential to their progress" (Offner). So the assessment process in Japan is less formal than in Russia as Japanese learners are involved in self-assessment by monitoring their progress through their interaction and communication in English. It is also important that learners may connect their English learning with their own experience and interests that increases their growth and progress: "it is important that the learners choose topics that are relevant to them. The students will find learning more enjoyable and, as a result, easier if they focus on the things that relate to their personal experiences and interests" (Offner). Thus, the results and assessment of their learning are better as they have interest and motivation. "When doing an exercise that requires much talking and exchanging of ideas, it is most important that the students focus on the doing of the exercise, that is using the language, rather than on the completion of the task which is only a by-product of the effort" (Offner). So, in Japan the main role plays the assessment of learner's individual work on his own level. While in Russia "learners' freedom for self-expression in the classroom should be restricted or else the class may get completely out of control" (Millrood), in Japan learners' self-expression plays very important role in their assessment as it activates learners' skills of speaking and prevent their fear to join discussion with a foreigner. There is cultural bias in the assessment of English language learner students. In Russia correct use of grammar and correct exercises performance are usually assessed, in Japan flexible and vivid self-expression in English are usually higher assessed than in Russia. Nowadays Japan is more tightly connected with the English culture and learners' motivation is higher: "Japan truly is changing, in that more Japanese with differences live here now" (McKenna). In Russia traditionally a lesson is more teacher-centered, and learners' assessment depends on their ability to follow teacher instructions that is characteristic for lessons in Russia and for Russian culture in general. 3. The examples shown above indicate that there is cultural bias in the assessment of English language learner students. The cultures of teaching and learning in different countries and cultures are quite different, so the criteria and methods of assessment are also different. Approaches to the teaching, learning and assessment methods depend on historical and cultural traditions of a country, its priorities and values, its developed traditions in teaching and learning. 4. In this paper five sources were used. The first is "Towards an Understanding of Culture in L2/FL Education" by Lessard-Clouston. The paper develops cultural approach to English language teaching. It underlines the idea of cultural education as the part of English language education. "This article addresses these issues by working towards an understanding of culture in L2 and FL education. The article helps to understand the place of culture in language education and assessment. The second article used is "How Native English Speakers Can Be Better English Teachers in Russia" by Millrood. It shows the features of teaching and learning process in Russia and methodical approaches to English language lessons. The article covers organization of a lesson in Russia, Russian learners' expectations of teachers, Russian teachers' professional beliefs, helping Russian teachers to develop, general interests of Russian teachers of English, coral reefs in Russian school education and how to overcome them. The third article used is "Teaching English Conversation in Japan: Teaching How to Learn" by Offner. It shows the teaching language learning features in Japan, the approaches needed for teaching and learning English in Japan. The fourth article used is "Coping with problems caused by stereotypes in Japan" by McKenna. The author writes: "I think I'll use my own experience as a starting point for talking about stereotypes. I'd like to use the initial images I had of Japan which I encountered when I was growing-up in Belfast, Northern Ireland" (McKenna). The fifth article used is "Improving Teacher-Student Interaction in the EFL Classroom: An Action Research Report" by Snell. "This action research project attempted to explore this problem and sought to create a more interactive teacher-class interchange in one class of Japanese adult English learners" (Snell). References Lessard-Clouston. (May 1997). Towards an Understanding of Culture in L2/FL Education. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. III, No. 5. (http://iteslj.org/) McKenna. (July 1999). Coping with Problems Caused by Stereotypes in Japan. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. V, No. 7. (http://iteslj.org/) Millrood. (January 1999). How Native English Speakers Can Be Better English Teachers in Russia. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. V. (http://iteslj.org/) Offner. (March 1997). Teaching English Conversation in Japan: Teaching How to Learn. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. III, No. 3. (http://iteslj.org/) Snell. (April 1999). Improving Teacher-Student Interaction in the EFL Classroom: An Action Research Report. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. V, No. 4. (http://iteslj.org/) Read More