So what happens when a student chooses the incorrect form of the Simple Present on a quiz, not because she doesn't know the "rule," but because she doesn't know that Marcos is a name and not the plural of some unknown-to-her object called Marco?
What is Marcos or Marco anyway? Maybe it's a type of bird, maybe it's a fruit--who knows? Obviously not someone just climbing the ladder of proficiency in regards to the English language--someone who has absolutely no experience with Latin-derived names of Spanish origin. Marcos is. Marcos are. Unless this Marcos is engaging in an undeniably human act in the sentence, has this student really gotten the answer wrong? Does she deserve not to receive a point for applying grammar correctly when, in fact, she quite honestly, absolutely has?
In the wake--and yes, I do not use the term "wake" lightly here--I've been mulling over the finer points of bias in assessment. In fact, just today, one of the other teachers approached me with possible items for her next quiz, and we both identified a number of "biased" questions.
My experience with standardized testing in general (both as a parent and educator) tells me that bias is unavoidable to some extent. However, speaking specifically for the context we're now operating in, what steps can we take to minimize the above?
I thank you Fatima for raising this very important but often ignored issue. Western names have always been a source of confusion to students who are not familiar with the western culture. That is why customising the cultural content of the EFL textbooks is the new-found solution adopted by some publishing houses (OUP for example with the New Headway Plus. I wonder why the name Marcos was not substituted by Ahmed or Salma or any name forms the student’s context. If the purpose was authenticity, well Marcos is Spanish not English. So the teacher could have saved the poor student the dilemma of getting confused by using names that are familiar or universal. I am not sure what you meant by standardised tests as our quizzes need to be consistent but they are not standardised. Perhaps you are referring to the tests generated using the Test Crafter software. Even those tests can be edited and, in my view, changed from MCQs to a variety of question formats, needless to say that some sentences contained in them are totally inappropriate for our context.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I know some Spanish, It never occured to me to look for the meaning of "Marcos." (Your discussion, Fatima, aroused my curiosity to know what Marcos means! In fact, I did some search and found that " in Spanish, the name Marcos means 'Of Mars'- The Roman fertility god Mars for whom March was named..")
ReplyDeleteI can feel the tone of sadness and disappointment in your words, but remember that we are teaching a foreign language to our students and it is not uncommon for a learner of a foreign language to be confronted by issues that are strange-and sometimes even offensive-to his/her culture. We have to admit that learning a language is in a way learning a culture.
When I taught the two units about entertainment activities and sports, I was astonished by the number of names of singers, dancers, actors/actresses and athletes the students knew. (That of course helped me alot!)
On the other hand, one of my students added ing to Greg and Gina to make the progresseive forms! (Fortunately, it was in a classroom activity not in a quiz!)
I agree with Brahim when he said the name Marcos could have been substituted by an Arab name, and I can add to that: why not use a name like George or Tom or any other English name that the students are familiar with? In addition, from my experience as a teacher, I think that an exam paper should be proofread and edited several times - and if by another teacher that would be much better. Even for a quiz , the teacher should step into the student's shoes and try to think in the same way in order to anticipate any problems.
Wafa, I’m sorry to have concerned you on my behalf! :) I actually didn’t use the name Marcos in my quiz (I guess Brahim assumed that I did, although as you can see the above wasn’t indicated anywhere in my post). In fact, my musings were more targeted in preparation for the next quiz--anticipation of potential bias issues, in other words--and also for the midterm, the construction of which is not in my hands.
ReplyDeleteThe misunderstanding reminded me of the much hashed and rehashed discussion of the whereabouts of construction of “meaning” in Rhet Theory. I guess one should never assume that what one is saying is actually being said--and even more importantly, that what one is not saying is not being inadvertently communicated :).
I appreciate what Brahim is saying regarding substitution of more familiar names for the rather clichéd multi-cultural ones that periodically show up in the text/test-crafter, etc. I agree it's a great strategy, and I’ve been substituting a great deal as well since the beginning of the session, but I’m beginning to think that substituting for all contexts may not be a good idea. Sometimes, when an unfamiliar name doesn’t contribute to misperception as long as a little effort at comprehension is made, I think unfamiliar names can actually be useful. What do you think? As you said to me during one of our discussions, these are college students and thus shouldn't be spoon-fed everything. Their minds should be engaged in comprehension rather than searching for predigested formulas for determining the “jawaab” to the relevant item. In fact, it seems that the most significant challenge I’ve encountered so far is the preformed mindset regarding what learning is (e.g., the object is to get that worksheet filled out by any means--be it through copying from others--in order to “get marks”).
On the lighter side, I was tickled pink to read about your student adding -ing to Greg and Gina. One of mine added the same to ‘lion,’ as in “The lioning.” :)