Principled Development of Workplace English Communication Part 1: A Sociocognitive Framework (original) (raw)
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This study examines the sociocognitive variables that influence the strategy choices of two international students in academic programs in the United States. The term "sociocognitive" refers to the interaction between an individual and his or her sociocultural context, as defined by Bandura (2001). In this definition, an individual cognitively responds to social and cultural elements through strategies that are intended to exert some measure of control over his or her environment. This cognitive response manifests in the setting of goals and the implementation of strategies to reach those goals. In the case of international students studying in the United States, the goal is ultimately to obtain a degree, which itself entails the successful integration of the student into an academic program through the acquisition of an appropriate style of English and a certain level of academic literacy. Despite extensive research, there have been few syntheses of cognitive and sociocul...
The journal of writing analytics, 2021
• Background: An expanded skillset is needed to meet today's shifting workplace demands, which involve collaboration with geographically distributed multidisciplinary teams. As the nature of work changes due to increases in automation and the elevated need to work in multidisciplinary teams, enhanced visions of Workplace English Communication (WEC) are needed to communicate with diverse audiences and effectively use new technologies. Thus, WEC is ranked as one of the top five skills needed for employability. Even so, results of employer surveys report that incoming employees lack communication competency (National Association of Colleges and Employers [NACE], 2018). To address this issue, with a focus on WEC teaching and assessment, we describe a framework used to guide the design of WEC modules. We suggest that conceptual frameworks can be used to inform the design process of the module. In • Conclusions: This article illustrates the application of the IDAF to inform the design and development of WEC modules. This article contributes to the literature on WEC and complex assessments of hard-to-assess constructs more generally by offering a way of thinking about designing, assessing, and then evaluating the design and assessment of interactive educational modules for teaching complex communication knowledge and approaches.
Determining the Oral Construct of the Test of English Communication Skills (TECS)
Exit tests to measure and inform new graduates of their oral and written communicative abilities are non-existent. This paper is our attempt to determine the oral construct of the exit test through a study involving graduating students and workplace professionals. Information regarding oral tasks, minimum standards and quality expected from new graduate employees were gathered through interviews and discussions with the human resource personnel from various industries. Based on the information gathered, a pilot test of group oral interaction was designed and administered to a group of four graduating students. The interactions of the group were video-recorded and were then assessed by professionals from various specialisations based on their respective criteria of assessment. The professionals' responses, comments and suggestions to interview questions posed were noted. The results were analysed to establish the different categories of criteria being applied by the professionals...
Validating the revised Test of Spoken English against a criterion of communicative success
Language Testing, 1999
A communicative competence orientation was taken to study the validity of testscore inferences derived from the revised Test of Spoken English (TSE). To implement the approach, a sample of undergraduate students, primarily native speakers of English, provided a variety of reactions to, and judgements of, the test responses of a sample of TSE examinees. The TSE scores of these examinees, previously determined by official TSE raters, spanned the full range of TSE score levels. Undergraduate students were selected as 'evaluators' because they, more than most other groups, are likely to interact with TSE examinees, many of whom become teaching assistants. Student evaluations were captured by devising and administering a secondary listening test (SLT) to assess students' understanding of TSE examinees' speech, as represented by their taped responses to tasks on the TSE. The objective was to determine the degree to which official TSE scores are predictive of listeners' ability to understand the messages conveyed by TSE examinees. Analyses revealed a strong association between TSE score levels and the judgements, reactions and understanding of listeners. This finding applied to all TSE tasks and to nearly all of the several different kinds of evaluations made by listeners. Along with other information, the evidence gathered here should help the TSE program meet professional standards for test validation. The procedures may also prove useful in future test-development efforts as a way of determining the difficulty of speaking tasks (and possibly writing tasks).
Sociocognitive Perspectives on Language Use and Language Learning (review)
Canadian Modern Language Review/ La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes
Rob Batstone's edited volume is a valuable resource for exploring the connection between social and cognitive factors in second language acquisition (SLA). Chapters in this volume argue that social and cognitive factors are not two different phenomena but two sides of the same phenomenon. The volume will help readers appreciate the variety of paradigms (sociocognition, complexity theory, varionist, socialization, communities of practice, and sociocultural theory) that are already working from a sociocognitive perspective in SLA. Most chapters are written by well-known scholars in SLA. Each chapter argues for the critical importance of dissolving the artificial distinction between social and cognitive factors when studying the process of second language (L2) learning in formal and non-formal educational settings. Unfortunately, the object of study in SLA research has been parsed into two unrelated sides by most SLA theories: either exclusively cognition or exclusively the social ...
This article reports on the insights gained from a case study concerning the willingness to communicate (WTC) in English among three L1 Thai speaking university students in Bangkok. The study was conducted from a Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST) perspective in an attempt to explore WTC as a situationally emergent behavioral intention, rather than as a generalized trait-like disposition. The main goals were two-fold: to account for the changes in WTC in situ and to yield insight into what a CDST perspective has to offer classroom based research and pedagogy. The research participants completed three data collection sessions. In sessions 1 and 2, the participants completed group speaking tasks, with each task being varied in the content, the degree of structure, and the linguistic resources required. Following the speaking activities, each participant reviewed a video recording of the task and subsequently input responses regarding their willingness to speak English on a per-second time-scale. The data was input into a special ‘idiodynamic’ software (MacIntyre & Legatto, 2010; Mercer, 2015) designed to account for rapidly changing affect. Afterward, stimulated recall interviews were conducted. In session 3, follow-up semi-structured interviews were held to yield further insight into the personal language learning histories and perspectives of the participants. The Interview data were thematically coded and triangulated with the micro-scale dynamic data to produce a diverse ‘typology’ of factors affecting each participant’s WTC in English. Furthermore, an attempt was made to model the relationships of the identified WTC factors. It is argued that the methods employed in the case study yielded nuanced and pedagogically relevant data concerning the complex nature of WTC as a behavioral intention; however, the study also illuminated a number of methodological challenges inherent in the CDST paradigm, as well as broader implications concerning what the perspective might contribute to our understanding of the relationship between individual differences and situational context.
In this study, the investigator sought to explore the perceptions and attitudes of Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners towards the use of Socially Mediated Testing (SMT) in their English learning process. The primary aim was to identify the factors that significantly influence their learning experience when using SMT. The research process began with in-depth interviews of 50 EFL learners, aiming to gain a qualitative understanding of their thoughts and experiences with SMT. Based on the insights obtained from these interviews, the researcher developed a questionnaire tailored to capture the nuances of these learners' experiences. This questionnaire, consisting of 25 items, was then distributed to a larger sample of 475 EFL students. In the end, the researcher was able to identify four variables after using exploratory factor analysis to identify the factors. The 25item questionnaire was then given to 785 EFL students, who chose each item on a Likert scale. The factor structure of the instrument was verified by the researcher using structural equation modeling (SEM). To determine if the suggested model matched the data, the researcher used the measurement with the best fit. The fit indices were estimated using the original EFA structure, which contained four factors and 25 elements. As a result, the researcher created a model that can be used as a respectable foundation for SMT research that will take place in Iran in the future, where such specific insights are unavailable in this politically distinct EFL setting.
Theory and Data in Spoken Language Assessment
… Conference on Spoken …, 2004
Spoken language performance depends on both psycholinguistic processing in the individual and on communicative uses of language in dialogue or discussion. A social-communication view of language emphasizes that the spoken form of a language is used in social ...