Reading and writing comprehension in the mother tongue in the Romanian national assessment – objectives, tests, results (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Bilingualism, 2010
In recent years, similarly to other educational contexts in the European Union and other parts of the world, early foreign language programs have become widely spread in Hungary. This article looks into the relationship between Hungarian learners' reading skills in English as a foreign language (L2) and in their first language (L1) Hungarian. We analyze data from two quantitative cross-sectional studies to explore how they interact. In the first one, participants were representative samples of Hungarian students (n > 4700 in Grade 6 and n > 3900 in Grade 8; age 12 and 14, respectively). Besides their proficiency in reading comprehension in L2, their reading skills were also tested in the mother tongue. The other study involved a representative sample of eighth graders (n = 247) in one particular county of Hungary (Baranya). This enquiry tapped into learners' proficiency in reading comprehension in English and in Hungarian, but besides reading, their listening comprehension and writing skills were also assessed in the two languages. Both studies found evidence for the interdependence hypothesis: a close relationship was found between L1 and L2 performances. However, relationships between L2 skills proved to be stronger than those between L1 and L2 as well as between L1 skills.
International Journal of Bilingualism, 2010
In recent years, similarly to other educational contexts in the European Union and other parts of the world, early foreign language programs have become widely spread in Hungary. This article looks into the relationship between Hungarian learners' reading skills in English as a foreign language (L2) and in their first language (L1) Hungarian. We analyze data from two quantitative cross-sectional studies to explore how they interact. In the first one, participants were representative samples of Hungarian students (n > 4700 in Grade 6 and n > 3900 in Grade 8; age 12 and 14, respectively). Besides their proficiency in reading comprehension in L2, their reading skills were also tested in the mother tongue. The other study involved a representative sample of eighth graders (n = 247) in one particular county of Hungary (Baranya). This enquiry tapped into learners' proficiency in reading comprehension in English and in Hungarian, but besides reading, their listening comprehension and writing skills were also assessed in the two languages. Both studies found evidence for the interdependence hypothesis: a close relationship was found between L1 and L2 performances. However, relationships between L2 skills proved to be stronger than those between L1 and L2 as well as between L1 skills.
Romanian language in preparing and evaluating students
Diversitate si Identitate Culturala in Europa, 2019
Assessing students' skills in the Romanian language graduation exams has become a topic of discussion for a large part of the population. Students, parents, and assessors hear about this topic during the simulations of these exams, during regular or special sessions. Most of the time the difficulty of the exam is not given by the complex assessment of the previously taught contents, but by the ambiguous tasks of the subjects in the exams. We therefore, intend on the one hand, to make a pragmatic analysis of the topics proposed for the national exams and on the other hand, to compare them with the exercises in the alternative textbooks, which should be effective tools in preparing students for the graduation exams. The aim of this study is to identify at least some of the system's errors and to suggest a series of solutions that will help teachers to better prepare their students for the graduation exams (both 8th and 12th graders).
THE CALCULATION OF CUT OFF SCORE IN ROMANIAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE PRETEST AND EXAMINATIONS
STUDIA UNIVERSTAS BABES-BOLYAI. PHILOLOGIA, 2017
The Calculation of Cut off Score in Romanian as a Foreign Language Pretest and Examinations. While our educational and professional lives have been deeply influenced by our language abilities, companies and institutions rely more and more on formal evidence of these. Thus, organisations issuing language certificates have a great responsibility, related to the quality of the tests that they apply and the validity and reliability of the examinations. An essential element in this whole process is the cut off score, which needs to be set in relation with the purpose of the examination, the structure and the input of the test and the characteristics of the test taking population. The calculation of the cut off score in relation with these factors became central to the examination process for Romanian as a foreign language at Babeș-Bolyai University. The way in which this is set was decided in preparation for the auditing process with ALTE (the Association of Language Testers in Europe), an audit which our suit of examinations passed successfully. We apply the method of contrastive groups, based on the expertise of the test takers' teachers and on the students' results for every component of the examination and of pretest. Thus, the limit of passing/failing an examination is not set beforehand and just applied to each examination, all relevant factors being, instead, considered. The procedure we implemented for the calculation resulted in a higher reliability of the test takers' results and also of the tests in the long term. REZUMAT. Calcularea scorului cut off în pretstările și examenele de română ca limbă străină. Parcursul educațional și viața profesională ne sunt profund influențate de abilitățile noastre lingvistice, în același timp, diverse companii și instituții bazându-se tot mai mult pe dovezi formale ale acestora. Organizațiile care emit certificate lingvistice au, astfel, o responsabilitate foarte mare, legată de calitatea testelor pe care le aplică și de validitatea și fiabilitatea examenelor. Un element esențial în tot acest proces este scorul cut off, care trebuie să fie stabilit în 1 Lecturer, Ph.D, at the Department of Romanian language, culture and civilisation, Faculty of Letters, Babeș-Bolyai University. She teaches Romanian as a foreign language, working mainly with the students in the preparatory year, but also with other categories of public. She is especially interested in the assessment of Romanian as a foreign language, being involved in the process of creation, administration and marking of the examinations. As a researcher, her interest is mainly directed to the domain of assessment and to that of integral linguistics. dina_vilcu@yahoo.co.uk
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