Integrated Writing Task

My plans for a dissertation topic revolve around the use of integrated writing tasks. These exam items, used in ESL assessment, require students to write about a reading and listening passage. We are now piloting the use of integrated writing tasks at our center.

Reasons Why We Want to Implement the Integrated Task

• Every semester we inevitably deal with cases of unintentional plagiarism due to students whose summary, paraphrase, and quoting skills are weak
• Most of our students are planning to attend university in the USA and need to learn English for Academic Purposes (EAP) which involves writing from sources
• Integrated writing tasks are now part of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) which many of our students want to take and "pass"

Differences Between the TOEFL's and Our Integrated Tasks

• Our integrated tasks are used in connection with our Level Achievement Tests in order to assess students' readiness to move on the next class level whereas the TOEFL is used to assess readiness for university study which our program only assesses in an indirect form through level advancement
• Our implementation of the integrated tasks will assess student ability from novice to low advanced, namely our Levels 1 through 5; the TOEFL is designed to assess a narrower band of language ability, namely the ability of students in our Levels 4 and 5
  
• The TOEFL tasks are rated individually, but the integrated tasks will likely become part of our holistic portfolio score, or maybe even a subset portfolio score for fluency (non-draft) writing

In order to properly implement these tasks for our own center, I'm conducting a literature review of relevant studies. The first:

• Cumming, A., Kantor, R., Baba, K., Erdosy, U., Eouanzoui, K, & James, M. (2005). Differences in written discourse in independent and integrated prototype tasks for next generation TOEFL. Assessing Writing, 10, 5-43.
  
• This study analyzed a variety of textual features of prototype integrated tasks versus the current independent writing tasks. It suggests that integrated tasks encourage the use of a greater variety of vocabulary and greater use of source ideas. The independent tasks are better at eliciting more language and at developing better arguments from examinees.
  
• I hope to be able to use this study as a model for the quantitative analysis of my dissertation research. Like the Cumming et al. study, I will examine a variety of discourse features and how they differ between responses to our independent and integrated tasks; I will also plan to look at these language features as they differ across our 5 proficiency levels.
  

I'll add more studies as I read them.

Blog is Back

A new blog for a new program - robblog: IP&T, instructional psychology and technology.

This week I returned to school after about a year's absence. Last spring, I defended my thesis, completed my Master's program and began a full-time teaching and administration position. It was during this year that I eventually decided to apply to a PhD program with my current university. Although I had never considered this option before, there were several reasons to consider applying to the program here.

1 - Kimberly is already working on her PhD here, so we'll be here for 2 or 3 more years, regardless of my job.

2 - I have already taken several applicable credits to this PhD program when I was an MA and while I was a faculty member.

3 - Doing my PhD here (while I am working full-time) will reduce the time that Kimberly and I have to be poor grad students. We can begin looking for a permanent position as soon as leave Utah, rather than having to spend 3-4 years somewhere else while I pursue a PhD after she finishes hers.

4 - I already know a few faculty members here in this program, and I think they would be willing to support my current research as a dissertation topic.

5 - As a faculty member, tuition is free for me. So long as I am willing to work classes around my work schedule, I shouldn't have to pay a cent to complete my PhD here.

Altough programs in Hawai'i, California, Montreal, and even New Zealand look interesting, it certainly makes more sense to do my degree here. So, I applied early this year and I was accepted. And this term (while I am off teaching for 7 weeks), I'm overloading on courses so that I can complete my coursework requirements as soon as possible.

And although it's been about a year since I was last in school, and about a year since I last kept a blog, one of my professors suggested I start up again, so here it is - robblog: IP&T