During the TESOL Arabia Conference hosted at ADU on Saturday Feb 7th 2009, a number of English language professors emphasized the necessity of setting specific standards which will enable English instructors to determine a student’s actual language competency while utilizing technology in the classroom to assist students acquisition of the four language skills; listening, reading, writing, and speaking.
These recommendations were brought up during a conference which was organized by TESOL Arabia and hosted by Abu Dhabi University. In attendance were Mrs. Sandra Zaher, the English Language Institute Director at ADU, and Dr. Ahmed Sadawai, the TESOL Arabia Abu Dhabi Chapter President, along with a large contingent of English language instructors. Mrs. Zaher noted the significance of this conference in that the presenters recommended an expansion of the practical training, focused on the electronic testing of English, for students at an early stage in order to get them more accustomed to this method of testing.
Mrs. Zaher also added that professors should stress the importance of constantly improving and developing teaching methods and to keep abreast with global scientific advancements, and the expansion and changes in the English language due to political, economical, social and cultural changes.
Dr. Ahmed Sadawi noted that the constant change in the English language is a factor which students must be able to deal with from an early stage, beginning from kindergarten until reaching university level. Sadawi added that the next significant step is evaluation and assessment using affective electronic methods such as online level assessments, which have recently been offered in training students for CEPA by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in cooperation with the Ministry of Education.
Peter Davidson, the Deputy Head of TESOL Arabia TEA-SIG, spoke about the advantages and disadvantages of computerized assessment. Amongst the advantages, he listed that it enables the generation of instant results, facilitates the organizing of classroom activities, and makes it possible to conduct comparative performance studies of students. On the other hand, the negative aspects include the fear of technology that some students suffer from whilst dealing with electronic assessments, since they that they are restricted in terms of time and computer speed which will lead them to make mistakes.
Johan Hartzenberg, the CALL Coordinator at ADU, spoke about the alternative in-house e-testing tools which instructors and students are able to utilize at the university. In addition to the e-testing capabilities of these tools, students are also provided with a wide range of training and learning opportunities to improve their language skills through personalized training modules made possible via diagnostic placement. Johan added that this type of assessment provides teachers with a comprehensive database related to the student performance across several exams and exercises, which enable teachers to analyze results in order help students improve their performance. It also motivates students who will constantly be aware of their improvement.
Paul Jaquit from HCT talked about a comparative study regarding student results in the CEPA test which was conducted by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and the Ministry of Education. The study focused on its indications and the individual differences between the students from governmental and private schools. Paul recommended that training students for online tests should be expanded in private schools at a very early stage.
Patricia Ryan Abu Wardeh from Zayed University-Dubai discussed the case against high-stakes listening tests and the difficulties which students face when it comes to the listening aspect of language, due to the lack of training students receive on understanding different accents. Patricia called on academic institutes to provide a healthy academic environment for students that will motivate them to interact with different accents by using technological means such as computers, DVD’s, films, and websites dedicated to the improvement of listening skills. She added that the ability of doing this could be considered a very real challenge that teachers face during the teaching process.
Christine Coombe, the Head of TESOL Arabia TEA-SIG, discussed the place of vocabulary in language assessment and noted the vital role which vocabulary plays during the assessment process. Christine added that students may not have been trained well on the basic vocabulary used in the TOFEL, IELTS, or CEPA, adding that many students may be aware of the meaning of a word, but wouldn’t be able to understand it from the context or even get confused when the meaning is similar to other meanings of words. Christine also recommended the necessity for English teachers to use innovative teaching methods, relying on electronic teaching, where students will be able to train themselves on a self-access basis.
Wayne Jones from ZU-Dubai discussed the challenges that students face in grammar tests and the importance of teaching the rules of grammar to students from an early stage, since grammar is considered to be the basic element of language construction. He called for creative teaching methods of grammar to replace the typical method that often bores students and leads them to neglect learning it.
