Testing

I have some opinion about Testing. This comes from my own experience from school, and teaching and testing students in CTA, reading about testing, and also learning alternative approaches to testing.

The objective of this exercise is to take a closer look at testing and come out with an unbiased information, and take educated decision.

Let me analyze this using Six Thinking Hats.

White: the facts

Given to students to know how much they learned about the materials.

Students prepare for the test before the test, and take the test on the test day.

The teachers correct the papers and give marks, letter grade, or both.

Yellow: the advantages

It gives students the opportunity to review / study the materials.

It gives the teachers opportunity to give feedback to the students and hence the parents.

The feedback gives students the opportunity to learn what they missed.

Black: the disadvantages

It is stressful.

It is about pushing forgettable facts into the short term memory, vomiting in the test, and forgetting right after the test. Meaning, most students do not know most of what studied for the test after few weeks. Hence the long term learning because of testing is small.

Though the test gives the students opportunity to learn what they missed, most students do not because they get busy with getting good marks in the next test.

Teachers do not use test scores to help the students learn what they missed. We just move on with next lesson.

Red: Emotions

Puts too much pressure on the students and parents.

Marks do not reflect actual learning.

Does not help with long term learning.

The amount of time and resource used for testing can be used for active learning.

Green: Alternatives

Consider formative assessment.

Consider a mix of formative and summative assessments.

Consider "demonstrate your learnig" approach to assess and give mark and grades.

Consider giving marks based on their completed projects, active participation in the class, and demonstration of acquired skill/knowledge.

Blue: Recommendation

This does not change my opinion about testing. We need to seriously look at how we test, and make it effective for our students.

An example of how kids acquire language

Saravanan, my co-volunteer in Evergreen Tamil school, told me a story or part of a story from "Diary of a wimpy kid". There is a language acquisition lesson here..

A kid and the parents were somewhere. They meet with someone who spoke español only. The parents were wondering what to do. The kid starts talking in español.They were surprised to see this kid talk in español because the kid never spoke español before, did not go to español class etc. But, the kid went to a daycare which was run by an español person.

We are familiar with how well and fast kids acquire their first language (L1). How did this kid acquire español so well? What is the language acquisition concept behind it?


Professor Dr. Kumar of SJSU says “for someone to acquire a language two conditions must be met:

1. ability to acquire a language

2. surrounded by linguistic environment.

”

Dr. Krashen goes to next level and says "you acquire a language when you understand the message in a low anxiety environment".

Now, we can connect the above 3 pieces together and see how this kid was able to acquire español without any lessons/school/syllabus/test/etc.


Natural ability - is already there. We are born with natural ability.

Surrounded by linguistic environment - the caretaker was conversing in español with these kids and others all day.

Understand the message - I am sure the caretaker was giving simple and easy to follow instruction for the kids to follow.

Low anxiety environment - the kid need not have to memorize anything, nor take a test.


The lesson and hence is: let's surround our students with lots of Tamil language as much as we can
in that 90 minutes; and also try our best to remove the anxiety from them in the class.

Books on Language Education

By 2008, I attended couple of teacher trainings arranged by CTA. I learned some teaching techniques. In 2008 I attended a training by Mrs. Vyjayanthi Raman (PUSD), and Dr. Kumar (SJSU).

Dr. Kumar explained the basics of language education. He talked about Language skill vs Literacy skill, the challenges of teaching Tamil to the kids in the diaspora etc. That was exciting. We need to learn this. Got interested in learning more on language education. Mrs. Vyjayanthi told us a story in French without using a single word in Tamil or English. We all could understand that story. How was that possible. She said that technique was called TPRS.

So, I have two things to learn; basics of language education, and TPRS. I am sure there is more to it. These two ideas were appealing to me and I felt these are very relevant to us.

Where do I start? Need to learn from the books and other resources. Which book shall I read? Dr. Kumar mentioned some of the books he wrote, and one of them is Beyond Methods.

 

I bought this book and started reading. I got the idea somewhat. I am a software developer by profession and I could read and enjoy technical books. But, this was my first book outside my area of expertise. In addition, my English knowledge is limited. So, it was not that easy for me to grasp the full idea from this book. I had to read few times. Then I understood the basics. My favorite chapter in this book is Maximizing Learning Opportunity. This is a great book.

Mrs. Vyjayanthi talked about TPRS. So, I bought the book on TPRS written by the developer of this method. Wow, we can teach so much language just using stories! This is great! We don’t need to put the kids through the drill of memorizing vocabulary and grammar rules, and doing all those worksheets, etc? Much better then!

This is an easy reader. I did not have to read multiple times. I understood the concept, ideas, and the technique. Still there was a question in mind. If I use this method, how do I know the result will be good? What language education research/study supports this approach?

My search continued. All along I had one question in my mind. I spent about 10 years learning English in school. I could not speak English at all. However, some of my neighbors, even those who did not go to school, could learn Hindi in about 12 months after they moved to Bombay. How is that possible?

Another book by the same author is:

This is a good book to build conversation skill. But, looks like it is more suitable for teenage and adult learners. Sure, we can customize it to young learners.

I continued to read more books. I came across a linguist called Dr. Stephen Krashen. So, I read about him and his work. He talks about 5 hypothesis of language acquisition. That was the first time I came across the phrase “Language Acquisition”. His hypothesis came close to how we acquire our first language. This also answered my question above. So, I read the following book.

This is a small book with lots of technical details. I read this with patience. I understood something now. This is the one I need to understand and follow more. This approach is not without any criticism of course. This alone is not going to solve all our problems. But, explains the concepts, gives an approach, and some techniques. I am sold on this. Dr. Krashen talks highly about TPRS. I remember TPRS from Vyjayanthi’s training and the book. So, I went back and read TPRS book again. This made lots of sense. When I watched Mrs. Vyjayanthi’s training video again, I heard lots of principles of Krashen in her talk.

There was one thing I missed from the TPRS book when I read it first time. In the introduction the author tells why he developed this technique. He says the TPR method developed by Dr. James Asher is great, but students get bored after few months doing just actions. Oh, there is something called TPR? Interesting. Let me read about it. So, I checked out the book from the library.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how much research went into this field using psychology. I started believing I understand a little about language education. I also started believing and agreeing we are doing it all the other way so far. This is the reason I could not speak English even after learning the language for 10+ years in school. The students in our Tamil school are also in a similar situation. We need to change it. What should we do?

These books convinced me that this is what I was looking for and it confirms to the belief of how we acquire a language naturally.

This book is very similar to the Language Acquisition book mentioned above.

Agreed that all these authors will talk only their side of the story and support only their own theories, obviously. So, I wanted to know about the popular methods out there and unbiased opinion of those methods. So, I read this book:

 

After reading this book, I was convinced that Krashen’s comprehension hypothesis though under criticism by other scholars is the way to go for our need. Came across another similar book that gave the opinion of another language expert in a similar way.

You can pick and read the books depending on what you believe or what you want to believe about language education. As N. S Prabhu says there is no one single best method in language teaching. Decide your goal, and pick the approach that helps you reach that goal, and use the techniques of that approach. One cannot really say here is one approach that you can take and teach a language for every situation.

Few other books of interest are:

 There is a belief that Homework is important. We all believe too. Alfie Kohn claims in this book that the homework is an additional burden that does not add any learning value.

I am not sure if I agree with this or not. But, the fact that Finland, one of the top countries in education does not give any homework (or very little) makes me believe Alfie may be right.

In another book The Schools Our Children Deserve, Alfie also claims the tests are not worth the time and investment. I agree with this completely.

Again Finland does not give tests until the age 16 and they are in the top in the world! How is that!

Instead of formal testing, I prefer to do formative assessment.

 Now that everyone talks about how great the education in Finland is, I wanted to find out all the wonderful things they do. They must be working very hard to be in that position, right?

It is quite contrary. They do less and achieve more. They start Kindergarten at the age of 7, they give no (or little) homework, no test until age 16, lots of freedom for teachers, etc.

Wow, How is that possible. So, I wanted to understand. I read this book.

 I understood what they do. Still not convinced with the plan and the result. Still puzzled. So, wanted to know what they do in their classrooms. So, I read this book, and I think I understood.

Less is more.

Student Centered.

Lots of fun

Learning by Doing.

No micro level standardization of curriculum. Plenty of teacher flexibility.

And more.

I still can’t claim I understand Finnish education completely; my knowledge is only though books and youtube. I am really interested in visiting Finland and get the experience in person.

  One of the primary characteristics of Progressive Education is Learning By Doing. You can read this book (not my favorite though) to understand the concept.

Need to engage students with interesting and challenging projects. This book gives lots of ideas for different ages and different skill levels. A good resource.

 

While searching for interesting games, I came across this book. I just bought and started reading. Don’t have much comments on this yet.

 

This book gives plenty of ideas to use flashcards to teach a language in a fun way. Used some of the activities. This free book is a good resource

 

நன்றி
லோகு

Testing ...

Hats Analysis of Testing.

About Testing:

• vomiting of memorized and forgettable facts.
• the skill tested by the tests cannot of used in real life
• test scores does not reflect real skill
• distraction from real learning
• Time used for testing is useless - Linda Darling-Hammond (Stanford)

Alternatives:

•     Project based assessment
•     Creative problem solving
•     California is moving towards new assessment standard.

References:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G_vWcS1NTA

Sample Test 1: Take this test and answer the questions below.

1. El concierto que se llevó a cabo en el salón de la escuela terminó. 2. El maestro le dio un libro a cada uno de los estudiantes. 3. El libro tenía preguntas. 4. Luego el maestro los llevó a la exposición. 5. Había 16 salas de exhibición. 6. Cada habitación tenía una ciudad capital y una bandera.


Q1: ¿Dónde ocurrió el concierto?


Q2: ¿Qué aprendieron los estudiantes en cada habitación?


How did you do? Were you able to answer the questions correctly? Do you know Spanish? Then how were you able to answer these questions correctly?

What are we testing here? Language skill or test taking skill? Are we testing the meaning? Are we testing the writing skill or copy-paste skill?


Sample Test 2:

Toma el cuaderno. Toma el lápiz. Dibuja una línea a la izquierda y a la izquierda. Dibuja una línea de arriba hacia abajo. Ahora conecta estas líneas.


What are we testing here? Language skill or test taking skill?


நோட்டு புத்தகத்தை எடுக்கவும். பென்சிலை எடுக்கவும். இடது வலமாக ஒரு கோடு வரையவும். மேலிருந்து கீழ் ஒரு கோடு வரையவும். இப்போது இந்த கோடுகளை இணைக்கவும்.


What are the differences between Test 1 and Test 2? One can do really well in Test 1 without knowing Spanish. Test 1 is bit complex though. Test 2 is simple, but you cannot complete the test without knowing the language. This is what I am talking about. Let us do formative assessment!

நன்றி
லோகு

The Win-Win in teaching Tamil to kids in the diaspora

Win-Win

Our students ask “why should I learn Tamil?” This is a great question and important question too. We adults have our own answer, but it does not seem to satisfy the students. If students think, even if they don’t ask, “if I give so much of my time and effort, what is in there for me” they are not unreasonable. So, what is our response to this very fundamental question? The win-win paradigm comes to my mind.

The kids here have too many things in their plate. Let us be sensitive to their needs and see how we can make them feel they are winning and also learn Tamil. An ideal situation would be that the students get plenty of conversation opportunity at home and they come and develop their literacy skill at school. But, the reality is different.

This writeup looks at this issue and tries to make a proposal to address these concerns. The students feeling that they are getting something is a win. If they acquire Tamil then it is a win-win.

Here is age based proposal.

Age Group	What they enjoy	What we can do
3-4	Play, play, and play. What else can we expect from these little kids!	Let them play in the class and let the medium of instruction be Tamil
5-7	They are still playful. But they enjoy stories, games, and songs.	If these kids can understand, recite, and act out a story in Tamil, what else do we need from them!
8-10	Want to enjoy something. Want to learn a new skill.	Stories, movie songs, create something.
11-15	Want to learn a new skill. Want to develop cognitive skill.	Teach a life skill. Let them produce something using their creative skill. Let them use their critical thinking skill.

The chart above is based on my rough understanding of what they enjoy doing.

“The kids don’t care about learning another language; they just want to have fun!” - Dr. Krashen. So, let us give them what they want and let us do that in Tamil. Dr. Krashen also says “when the kids are enjoying something in a Target language, they forget that it is in a different language.”

Conclusion

Do what the kids think are important to them and using Tamil as medium of instruction. That is progressive; kids learn the best when they are involved in real life situations that are meaningful and important to them.

Stories, Stories, and Stories

How does the language acquisition take place? How to make it effective?

To develop language skill, one must get lots of input that is comprehensible, compelling, rich, close to real life and contextual, fun, and also have a good moral value. To speak and write, one needs to retain the language for long time, it should be easy to recall, easy to say it, and should be fun too. What language material provides all these? Stories, Stories, and Stories.

(மொழி கற்க)

யாமறிந்த வழிகளிலே

கதைகள் போல

இனிதாவது எங்கும் காணோம்.

Here is some references from “Talk Like TED” book.

இனிய  கதைகளை கேட்கும் போதினிலே

இன்பத் தேன் வந்து பாயுது  காதினிலே!

A language teaching method called TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) was developed and is being used widely to teach a second language.

Benefits of Stories to Preschool Age Kids (3-5)

Geethapriya Thiagarajan

Basic speech skills. in preschool, your child is learning critical language and enunciation skills. By listening to you read, your child is reinforcing the basic sounds that form language. It is very important pre-literacy activity at this age. As a preschooler, your child will likely begin sounding out words on his own.

Better communication skills. When you spend time reading to your child, they’ll be much more likely to express themselves and relate to others in a healthy way. By witnessing the interactions between the characters in the books you read, as well as the contact with you during story time, your child is gaining valuable communication skills.

Enhanced concentration and discipline. Preschoolers  may initially squirm and become distracted during story time, but eventually they’ll learn to stay put for the duration of the book. Along with reading comprehension comes a stronger self-discipline, longer attention span, and better memory retention.

What books to use

Selecting the right book is important. This is a challenge in teaching Tamil to kids in the diaspora. We need to choose books that are comprehensible and compelling. Meaning the language should be easy to understand, and the story should be interesting to the age group. The learners' age group and the language skill are usually varying. Hence the challenge. Among the available story books in Tamil either they are comprehensible or interesting. We need books that are both comprehensible and compelling.

The language should be such that the kids know most of the words (about 75%) already. This is to ensure they do not find the book difficult. The remaining 25% can be new words. With the comprehension of the 75%, they will acquire the remaining 25% with ease.

A Case Study

I was looking for a story book in Spanish when I started learning Spanish few years ago. I looked for books in the library. There are lots of books available. I found only few books interesting. This is because the books that are at my language stage is not interesting to my age, and the books suitable for my age is not written for my stage. My search continued and I came across a book called "Pobre Ana". This book was written by Dr. Blaine, the developer of TPRS, for high school students. Ok I can accept that; I can wear high schooler hat :) 

Started reading the book. I found the book easy to comprehend. It is a 40 pages book with about 10 chapters. There are no pictures. It would have been nice if it had pictures. But, it is okay since this is written for high school kids. I was able to read and complete the full book in one short. Of course, I had to make few visits to Google translate to understand some words and phrases. I even translated this book to Tamil. 

Dr. Blaine sure knows Language acquisition.

Let me do the book review with the picture I gave above.

Input:
- comprehensible input: yes, the whole book is written in present tense, it uses lots of cognates, and simple and day to day words.
- compelling input: yes. it has some story and moral
- rich and real life/contextual: it is about a story of a 15 year old girl who visits Mexico and learns an important life lesson.
- value: there is a moral in the story too.
- fun: I wouldn't say the story is fun for my age. But, as a first time learner of Spanish, I found the book fun to read. I read the book several times.

Output: I can visualize some of the situations in the story and recall the associated sentences. When I need to use with a Spanish speaker, I am able to recall the sentence and use as a template instead of constructing the whole sentence. Constructing the sentence is not that easy for beginning learners. I remember the story and the sequence. If I had to tell the story in Spanish, I do not have to struggle for the content.

Can you imagine a first time language learner reading a 40 pages book? That is the power of stories.

நன்றி

லோகு

Why can't learning a language be fun?

In schools, colleges, and community language schools, the language is taught in a certain way. Is it fun? If not, Why can't it be fun?

Is it not possible to acquire a language involving in fun activities? Should language teaching be really so strict with dictation, grammar rules, worksheets, etc?

When we lived in Bangalore, our son would talk to us in Tamil and in Kannada with his friends outside. He was just 3 years old. We did not speak Kannada. How was the 3 year old able to acquire Kannada without going to school and by just playing with other kids outside!

Why the schools are making it hard for the students?

To learn a language we have to give them comprehensible and compelling input. But, "my friends at USC is determined to make language learning incomprehensible and not compelling" says Dr. Krashen.

I am fully convinced a better way to teach them is to involve them in fun and meaningful activities. The progressive education says "kids learn the best when they are involved in real life situation that is relevant, meaningful, and important to them".

Why do we need to put them thru a complicated system. கனியிருப்ப காய் எதற்கு!

They are not interested in marks, grammar rules, and literature. It is our job to give them a good learning experience and opportunity to learn to speak, read, and write Tamil.