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Papers by Ivana Vidakovic

This volume establishes how English language constructs were measured in Cambridge English examin... more This volume establishes how English language constructs were measured in Cambridge English examinations over the period 1913 to 2012. An addition to the Studies in Language Testing series, this volume provides an overview of English language testing over the last century, with coverage of key theoretical and practical aspects of the assessment of reading, listening, writing and speaking skills. It includes examples of the Cambridge English exams, old and new, and is the first volume to describe in a systematic way the different theoretical influences which have shaped the development of the constructs underlying Cambridge English exams in the last 100 years.

The overarching aim of the ILEC (International Legal English Certificate) Speaking assessment sca... more The overarching aim of the ILEC (International Legal English Certificate) Speaking assessment scales revision was to provide a better instrument for measuring candidate performance, which should have a positive impact on all users of test results – test takers, as well as Universities and prospective employers. This paper discusses the trialling stage of the revision process where the focus was to determine if the revised ILEC Speaking assessment scales are functioning adequately. The findings are based on Multi-Faceted Rasch analysis and qualitative rater feedback.

The paper investigates lexical development of L2 learners of English using written responses to S... more The paper investigates lexical development of L2 learners of English using written responses to Skills for Life writing examinations across ﬁve proﬁciency levels. In this way, the paper also explores the validity of Skills for Life Writing examinations from a lexical perspective by ascertaining how well they differentiate between language proﬁciency levels. This is done by analysing the use of individual words and lexical bundles (extended collocations) in candidates’ written responses to examination questions. Vocabulary frequency measures have been found to be insufﬁciently robust for capturing the differences between proﬁciency levels (see Read & Nation 2006, Schmitt 2005), possibly because single-word frequencies are not the only measure of lexical mastery. Therefore, an investigation of multi-word units, such as collocations and lexical bundles, has been called for.

This chapter investigates the frequency with which Manner and Path of motion are expressed in Eng... more This chapter investigates the frequency with which Manner and Path of motion are expressed in English and Serbian by native speakers and also explores language-specific and universal factors influencing L2 acquisition in this domain. It reveals that Manner information is systematically omitted from speech by Serbian controls in certain contexts in their L1, which places Serbian, originally classified as a satellite-framed language, closer to the verb-framed end of the typological continuum. When speaking in their L2, English learners of Serbian and Serbian learners of English at lower intermediate, upper intermediate and advanced proficiency levels are clearly influenced by their L1 in terms of Manner mention, but the interplay of L1 and L2 influences is also attested. The universal tendencies in reference to Path, originating from world knowledge about motion and problem-solving abilities, are discussed, as well as implications for L2 acquisition, teaching and research on language and cognition.

Editorial Notes, Jan 1, 2010

The aim of this thesis is to shed light on the nature of adult second language acquisition, facto... more The aim of this thesis is to shed light on the nature of adult second language acquisition, factors guiding the acquisition and the ways in which these factors interact. This is achieved through exploring how English learners of Serbian and Serbian learners of English acquire another way of expressing dynamic spatial relations (motion) in a second (foreign) language.

Talmy (1985) divides languages into: a. satellite-framed, typically encoding Path in satellites and Manner in motion verbs (e.g. The bottle ﬂoated out) and b. verb-framed, typically encoding Path in motion verbs and Manner, if expressed at all, outside the verb (e.g. La botella salió ﬂotando – The bottle exited ﬂoating). English and Serbian were both classiﬁed as satelliteframed languages within Talmy’s typology. However, recent research revealed that Serbian differs to a certain extent from English as to where Manner and Path are typically expressed (Filipovic 2002), and as to the frequency of expression of Manner. Therefore, Filipovic (2002) reclassiﬁed Serbian placing it midway in the continuum satellite framed>Serbian>verb-framed.

The contribution of the non-acquisition part of the thesis resides in providing further support for the reclassiﬁcation of Serbian, based on the analysis of the spoken mode of language use and systematic examination of attention to Manner (as reﬂected in the frequency of Manner mention). The ﬁndings show that: a) when they want to express Manner in boundary-crossing situations (e.g. entering, exiting, crossing), Serbian native speakers most frequently opt for the verb-framed pattern of expressing Path in the verb and Manner outside it when using their mother tongue, and b) they omit Manner information considerably more frequently than English native speakers when speaking in their mother tongue, even when Manner is not inferable from the context.

Using the Interlanguage approach, the main, acquisitionrelated part of the thesis examines how lower-intermediate, upper-intermediate and advanced learners express motion at a given stage of the acquisition process, how their linguistic means develop and what factors inﬂuence the acquisition. According to this approach, which has proved fruitful for analysing the acquisition process of beginners, learners’ interlanguage and its development over time are systematic. This systematicity cannot be directly related to either the ﬁrst or the second language. The acquisition paths exhibit similarities across different (ﬁrst – L1, and second – L2) language pairings, being inﬂuenced mostly by universal, and only marginally by language-speciﬁc factors, since the interlanguage of beginners is syntactically and
semantically a very simple system. Previous studies on higher-level learners, whose interlanguages are more complex syntactically and semantically, document mostly
language-speciﬁc inﬂuences. The present thesis set out to investigate whether universal characteristics of learners’ development persist among learners beyond the beginning stage, or whether only language-speciﬁc inﬂuences hold sway, how all of them manifest and what their scope is. Since the learners examined are beyond the beginning stage, the over-arching hypothesis was that languagespeciﬁc inﬂuences would be stronger than among beginners and acquisition paths not so homogenous, yet factors other than ﬁrst or second language may bring out similarities in the interlanguages and acquisition paths of learners with different ﬁrst and second languages.

One of the contributions of the present thesis resides in showing that even the interlanguage of learners beyond the beginning stage shows similarities unrelated to the ﬁrst or second language, and also that it exhibits a rich interplay of both language-speciﬁc (L1/L2) and universal factors. For example, both English and Serbian learners mostly prefer the satellite-framed, English pattern (e.g. run into X ) to the verb-framed pattern favoured by Serbian native speakers when using their L1 (e.g. go running into X ). In this way, learners resort to the economy-of-form strategy (the term first used in Vidakovic 2006) opting for a pattern that is more economical by being shorter, syntactically simpler and thus easier for processing (production/understanding). It is in the domain of linguistic attention to Manner that a language-speciﬁc inﬂuence (L1 inﬂuence) is at its strongest at times, being clearly visible even among the advanced English and Serbian learners. In addition, the ﬁndings reveal that L2 learners undergo not only linguistic reorganisation, but also a change in the degree of linguistic attention to Manner (increasing/decreasing frequency of Manner mention) with increasing proﬁciency levels.

Besides theoretical implications for the ﬁeld of second language acquisition, this thesis has also practical implications for teaching the linguistic devices expressing dynamic spatial relations in the two languages.

Cognitive processing in second …, Jan 1, 2010

This paper shows how insights from cognitive linguistics in general and a cognitive linguistic ty... more This paper shows how insights from cognitive linguistics in general and a cognitive linguistic typology in particular can be implemented in applied cross-linguistic studies of second language acquisition. Talmy’s (1985) typology of languages is the chosen framework for our analysis. We contrast the lexicalization patterns of English and Serbian, which are used to map universal cognitive categories within the domain of motion onto surface expression. We demonstrate how the two languages differ within this particular typological framework and highlight the effects of the relevant typological differences on the ways languages are learned and taught. We argue that including the typological perspective espoused here in translation and second language teaching provides new ways in which to tackle some persistent difficulties for learners and practitioners in those fields.

Books by Ivana Vidakovic

"This volume sheds light on how approaches to measuring English language ability evolved worldwid... more "This volume sheds light on how approaches to measuring English language ability evolved worldwide and at Cambridge over the last 100 years. The volume takes the reader from the first form of the Certificate of Proficiency in English offered to three candidates in 1913, a serendipitous hybrid of legacies in language teaching from the previous century, up to the current Cambridge approach to language examinations, where the language construct to be measured is seen as the product of the interactions between a targeted cognitive ability based on an expert user model, a highly specified context of use and a performance level based on explicit and appropriate criteria of description.

This volume:
•chronicles the evolution of constructs in English language teaching and assessment over the last century
•provides an accessible and systematic analysis of changes in the way constructs were measured in Cambridge English exams from 1913- 2012
•includes copies of past Cambridge English exams, from the original exams to the current ones, as well as previously unpublished archive material.

Measured Constructs is a rich source of information on how changes in language pedagogy, together with wider socio-economic factors, have shaped the development of English language exams in Cambridge over the last century. As such, it will be of considerable interest to researchers, practitioners and graduate students in the field of language assessment. This volume complements previous historical volumes in the series on the development of Cambridge English exams, as well as titles which investigate language ability constructs underlying current Cambridge English exams."

Editorial Notes, Jan 1, 2010

Cognitive processing in second …, Jan 1, 2010