1. Higher School of Economics Department of Foreign Languages
EAP assessment:
Challenges and trends
Svetlana Bogolepova
Associate Professor
Higher School of Economics
Department of Foreign Languages
Высшая школа экономики, Москва, 2017

2. Outline 1. EAP: features 2. Components of ESP ability.
3. Features of academic discourse.
4. Recent trends and research.
5. Principles of good assessment.
6. Proposed scheme.

3. EAP: features - goal-oriented
- needs analysis (content relevant to context)
- fixed period
- adult learners
- various fields
(A. Gilette

4. EAP: features Robinson (1991): EAP = study skills
Study skills (Richards et al., 1992): abilities, techniques and strategies which are used when reading, writing, or listening for study purposes (e.g. using the dictionary, guessing from context, interpreting graphs, note-taking, summarising)
focus on form → focus on strategies
+ Academic literacies: cultural knowledge required for success in academic communities (Hyland&Hamp-Lyons, 2002)
Robinson P. ESP today: A practitioner's guide. London: Prentice Hall, 1991.
Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics. Pearson Education, 2002.
Hyland K. &Hamp-Lyons L. EAP: issues and directions. Journal of English for Academic Purposes №1. pp

5. Components of Specific Purpose Language Ability
Language knowledge
Grammatical (vocabulary, morphology, syntax, phonology)
Textual (cohesion, organisation)
Functional (ideational, manipulative, heuristic, imaginative)
Sociolinguistic (varieties, registers, idiomatic expressions, cultural references)
Strategic competence
Assessment (evaluating the communicative situation, the appropriateness of response)
Goal setting (how to respond to a communicative situation)
Planning (elements of language + background knowledge to reach the goal)
Control of execution (organising the elements to carry out the plan)
Background knowledge
Douglas D. Assessing Languages for Specific Purposes. CUP, p. 35.

6. Features of Academic Discourse
Features of academic discourse (esp. writing):
- high lexical density (high proportion of content words in relation to grammar words)
- high nominal style (actions and events are presented as nouns)
- impersonal constructions
Hyland K. English for Academic Purposes. An advanced resourse book. Routledge, p. 13.

7. Recent Trends - increased variety of tools and techniques
- detailed study of consequences
- understanding of the unity of assessment and learning
- tailored assessment (context + students' needs)
- erosion of boundaries
- new understanding of psychometric characteristics and teachers' role
- understanding of learning and assessment as social acts
Stoynoff S. Looking backward and forward at classroom-based language assessment // ELT Journal. OUP, Vol. 66/4. p

8. Static vs Dymanic Assessment
Static Assessment
Dymanic Assessment
- focuses on the outcome of past development
- looks at mature abilities
- examiner neutral and disinterested
- little or no feedback
- forgrounds future development
- looks at the abilities which are still maturing
- examiner = interventionist
- specific form of feedback — mediated assisstance
Lantolf J., Poehner M. Dynamic Assessment of L2 Development: Bringing the Past into the Future. Journal of Applied Linguistics. Equinox Publishing, Vol p

9. Dynamic Assessment
Base: Vygotskian sociocultural principles of learning
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
Mediation:
prompts
hints
leading questions
examples
demonstrations
Shrestha, Prithvi and Coffin, Caroline (2012). Dynamic assessment, tutor mediation and academic writing
development. Assessing Writing, 17(1) pp. 55–70.
Feedback on draft, two sessions, implicit and explicit

10. Recent Research
Seviour M. Assessing academic writing on a pre-sessional EAP course: Designing assessment which supports learning // Journal of English for Academic Purposes №18. pp
Formative + summative in coursework essay development
Jefferey R. Using feedback comments to develop a rating scale for a written coursework assessment // Journal of English for Academic Purposes №18. pp
Rubrics development based on feedback

11. Principles of good assessment
- explicit criteria, familiar methods and tasks (transparency)
- assessment aims = learning outcomes = competencies (criteria-referenced scales → validity, reliability)
- based on real academic practices (validity)
- rater training → consistent scoring (rater reliability)
- regular monitoring and interventions if necessary
- student involvement (peer- and self-assessment)
- achievement assessment at the end of the period (best performance)
- feedback for improvement
- results reported in understandable manner
Hyland K. English for Academic Purposes. An advanced resourse book. Routledge, p. 302.

12. Proposed Scheme * - more detailed and precise assessment criteria
Language
Strategies/ study skills
Competence
Ongoing assessment (60%) +
+ (in progress)*
Summative assessment (40%) -
+ (the result)
* - more detailed and precise assessment criteria
Course paper: support on the course + academic supervision

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