Assessments used in teaching English as a foreign language at elementary schools in Asia: Cases from Korea, Taiwan, and Japan

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Assessments used in teaching English as a foreign
language at elementary schools in Asia Cases
from Korea, Taiwan, and Japan

• Yuko Goto Butler
• (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
• Chinfen Chen
• (National Taipei University of Education, Taiwan)
• Won-Key Lee
• (Seoul National University of Education, South
  Korea)

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Questions

• (1) What are the political, social and
  educational contexts into which English FLES
  (Foreign Language at Elementary Schools) is being
  introduced in each of these countries?
• (2) What types of assessments have been
  administered thus far?
• (3) What challenges do policymakers face in
  evaluating the effectiveness of English FLES?
• (4) What results have been obtained so far in
  terms of students English learning?

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English at Elementary Schools in Korea, Taiwan,
Japan
Korea Taiwan Japan
Dates officially introduced 1997 academic subject 2001 academic subject 2002
Government oversight Strong central gov. initiative General guidelines Based on local choice
Grades that are taught 3rd and beyond 3rd and beyond, but some start from 1st Varies greatly
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Japan English assessments and diversity

• Yuko Goto Butler
• University of Pennsylvania

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Current policy contexts in Japan

• In 2002, MEXT allowed local governments and
  individual schools to conduct foreign language
  activities (which are overwhelmingly English
  activities) based on their own choice
• Introduced as a means of fostering international
  understanding
• In 2006, a sub-panel on foreign language
  education for MEXTs Central Council for
  Education proposed that English should be
  compulsory for the 5th and 6th grade levels
• MEXT has not yet made English compulsory at
  elementary schools
• Tremendous diversity in practice across schools
  and local governments

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Assessments for English Activities

• Assessments are not required by government
  policies
• One can see the effects of English activities
  based on childrens self-assessments and teacher
  observations in select school reports.
• The results of such effects vary from school to
  school.
• Strong need for systematic assessment

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Butler Takeuchi (2006)

• Background
• Substantial variability in practice
• Heated discussions regarding whether or not the
  central governments policy is necessary
• Aims
• To examine communicative skills in English by
  grade levels among students in select schools
• To examine the relationship between
  policy-related factors and students
  communicative skills in English

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Major policy related issues

• At which grade level should English be
  introduced?
• How many hours of instruction should children
  receive?
• What goals should be set for English at the
  elementary school level?
• Should foreign teachers teach English?
• To what extent do the English lessons that
  students receive outside of their schools
  influence their performance?

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Participants

• 6,541 elementary school students in Japan
• 697 3rd grade students
• 1,666 4th grade students
• 2,337 5th grade students
• 1,814 6th grade students
• Enrolled in 28 schools (24 public and 4 private)
• School sizes ranging from schools with less than
  50 students to schools with more than 800
  students
• Various types of schools, including pilot schools
• Instruction ranges from twice per week to once
  per month

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Measurements

• The Junior STEP Silver Test
• Developed by STEP (originally established as part
  of the MOEs English language education policy)
• Designed to measure basic oral communicative
  abilities among young learners of EFL
• The Junior STEP Tests have three levels Bronze,
  Silver, and Gold
• The Silver Test was chosen based on a pilot study
  conducted in 2005 among 5,087 students
• The Silver Test measures basic listening skills
  and word recognition skills among young learners
  who have undergone oral-based instruction at
  school for at least 2 years
• Examining students self-assessments and their
  attitudes towards English activities based on a
  survey

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Result 1

• How do students communicative skills in English
  differ by grade level?

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Performance by Grade Level
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Result 2

• What are the relationships between policy-related
  factors and students communicative skills in
  English?
• Grade level
• Goals of English activities set by schools
• Total hours of English instruction at school
• Frequencies of instruction by foreign teachers at
  school
• Extra lessons that students receive outside of
  their schools

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Multiple regression analysis of variables for
predicting Silver Test scores
B SE B ß t
Grade 1.51 .08 .23 18.05
Goals set by the school .81 .08 .13 10.28
Total hours of English instruction at school .01 .001 .06 4.67
Frequencies of instruction by foreign teachers at school -.40 .05 -.09 -7.36
Extra lessons received outside of school 1.38 .05 .31 25.49
p lt .01
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Correlations between Silver Test scores and
instructional hours
Grade No. of students Total hours of instruction Hours of instruction per week
3 604 -.08 -.09
4 1,448 -.13 -.11
5 2,091 .19 .19
6 1,506 .13 .10
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Conclusions

• The older the students, the higher their Silver
  Test scores became
• The biggest performance gap across grade level
  was found in the subsection on Word Recognition
• In addition to grade level, the number of extra
  English lessons that students received outside of
  their school was an important predictor
• Total English instructional hours at school and
  frequencies of instruction by foreign teachers at
  school was not very influential variables.