ICT Literacy & Education in Malta

Lawrence Zammit

Director Technology in Education

Summary

A transformation has been happening around us with the ubiquity of ICT, it is natural that this transformation must be reflected in the way we teach and the way we learn. Such a transformation has been taken up by the government in an effort to offer a wide range of online services to the citizens. Schools have gone through a process by which in a relatively short time-span they have been equipped with an ICT infrastructure. The Lisbon Objectives clearly state that education systems must be modernised to make Europe a world leader in the quality of its education and training systems. ICT literacy is often mistaken for the technical skills required to use ICT equipment. This is a very shallow definition since true ICT literacy requires various other skills whereby users are able to function and think in terms of ICT and apply it effectively in different situations.

In primary schools in Malta, ICT is vertically integrated across the curriculum while in the secondary sector it is regarded as a different subject and geared towards a skills-based exam. Since the introduction of ICT into schools, teacher training has been regarded as a very important factor. It has been constantly targeted by several initiatives of the Education Division all of which help teachers become comfortable with the technology thus enabling them to use it effectively in the classroom.

Primary school teachers have also been provided with a laptop computer on a long-term loan basis, this has helped overcome the lack of access to ICT back when home computers were not as common as they are today. They also enjoy the support of a team of specially trained ICT peripatetic teachers whose task is to help them in their classroom use of ICT.

The Education Division has also contributed towards ICT awareness for the general public. This was done through the collaboration with the Ministry of Investment Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) by making the ICT resources in schools available outside school hours.

The future will certainly hold further development in the way ICT is used and more advanced technology such as portable devices and wireless networking will become cheaper and more readily available, these may offer solutions to difficulties that we have faced such as elevated wired network cost. The methodology of our teaching needs to change, computers and the Internet open up several exciting opportunities for educators who are willing to involve themselves. Collaboration between school administrators, teachers, and students in different countries gives a new and meaningful dimension and helps realise the potential and necessity of ICT in education. 

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EFL Extensive Reading, ICT, and New Literacies by Su-Su Hung

Running head: EFL EXTENSIVE READING

EFL Extensive Reading, ICT, and New Literacies

Su-Su Hung

Washington State University

Abstract

When implementing extensive reading using graded readers with different classes of adolescents studying English as a foreign language (EFL) in Taiwan, I received positive feedback but also observed the repeated existence of a small proportion of students who simply could not be engaged in the program. The experience has propelled me to investigate related research, and the results not only identify efficient implementation guidelines and proper materials for a successful extensive reading program but also confirm the efficacy of extensive reading in developing the English competence of EFL learners and fostering a positive attitude towards pleasure reading. Furthermore, sociocultural perspectives of literacy underscore the need for developing new literacies in this era of rapidly evolving Information and Computer Technology (ICT). The realization initiates exploration into the increasingly important role of ICT in the development of new literacies. The results of investigation posit its indispensable role and promising benefits to EFL learners, which incline me to propose ways to incorporate ICT into extensive reading. Hopefully, the fusion will result in extensive reading programs that can develop not only English linguistic competence but also new literacies.

EFL Extensive Reading, ICT, and New Literacies

Introduction

I have been interested in the effects of extensive reading because Krashen (1982) advocates that it is a great source of comprehensible input. When I taught English as a foreign language (EFL) in Taiwan, I applied extensive reading in the intermediate level English reading course for three successive years to altogether five classes of students. Although I did not conduct empirical studies to obtain scientific findings regarding the effects of extensive reading, informal collection of data had supported me with substantial positive feedback and thus encouraged me to implement it year after year to different classes of students. Interestingly, there were almost always two small proportions of extreme cases, usually five to ten percent of a class of around 50 students. On one extreme were the students who had read much more than the requirement and thus earned a score over 100. One student had even accumulated over 200 points of extensive reading score. On the other extreme were those who had read too few books to earn the minimum passing score of 60.

However, my logical explanation concerning the extreme cases of both my earnest and inert readers had been restricted to their high and low interest in reading in English until learning from Lee (2007) and Moje and Lewis (2007), who open up a sociocultural window to literacy for me. The view afforded by sociocultural perspectives of literacy has directed me to ponder the role that multimodal texts, such as Web pages and videos, might play in youngsters’ literacy development and also their influence in youngsters’ reception of traditional linear printed texts. Consequently, I cannot help wondering if my past inert extensive reading participants were learners whose thirst for literacy could not be quenched by printed books.

In this paper, I will first depict what a traditional EFL extensive reading program is by sharing the implementation guidelines and proper materials informed by related literature. Next, I will summarize several empirical study findings that posit extensive reading to be efficient in developing EFL literacy. With my vision broadened by sociocultural perspectives of literacy, I will then redefine literacy to encompass the facets that have gradually emerged with ubiquitous Information and Computer Technology (ICT). Acknowledging the change in literacy, I will discuss the role of ICT in the development of new literacies and propose possible methods to incorporate ICT into extensive reading so that it will contribute to fostering new literacies in EFL learners of the 21^st century.

Extensive Reading

Krashen’s (1982) advocacy of providing learners with comprehensible input via extensive reading has been supported by research findings (Asraf and Ahmad, 2003; Bell, 2001; Mason and Krashen, 1997; Lao and Krashen, 2000; Rodrigo, Greenberg, Burke, Hall, Berry, Brinck, Joseph, and Oby, 2007; Tanaka, 2007). These studies shed light on basic implementation guidelines and proper reading materials, the combination of which illustrates what extensive reading is. In addition, they posit the potential of extensive reading in improving EFL learners’ English competence.

Implementation Guidelines

For example, Asraf and Ahmad’s (2003) and Rodrigo’s et al. (2007) studies explicitly provide basic implementation guidelines for extensive reading. Although stated in different wording, both programs stress guidance, encouragement, the freedom to choose texts at learners’ independent reading levels, and a relaxing classroom atmosphere where the extensive reading proceeds regularly. In fact, these researchers utilize the commonly cited principles of implementing extensive reading—the top ten principles sketched out by Day and Bamford (2002). These principles include (1) easy reading materials, (2) a variety of topics, (3) freedom of choice, (4) reading as much as possible, (5) reading for pleasure, information, and general understanding, (6) reading for the reward of reading, (7) fast reading speed, (8) individual and silent reading, (9) teacher’s orientation and guidance, and (10) teacher being a role model. Moreover, Pilgreen (2000), after reviewing a number of successful extensive reading programs, highlights conducting undemanding follow-up activities as one essential factor for an extensive reading program to succeed. It is indeed true that all the successful extensive reading programs I have reviewed contain follow-up activities, for instance, writing book reports and giving oral presentations (Bell, 2001), writing short summaries and keeping a personal reading log (Mason & Krashen, 1997), and discussing the reading and writing two short essays (Lao & Krashen, 2000).

Proper Reading Materials

The basic implementation guidelines foreground the importance of providing learners with interesting reading materials that they can comfortably comprehend independently so that they read fast and enjoy reading. Most of the reviewed research studies (i.e., Asraf and Ahmad, 2003; Bell, 2001; Mason and Krashen, 1997; Tanaka, 2007) used graded readers, which are simplified stories written with systematic control over lexicon and syntax to result in progressive difficulty and complexity throughout different levels of readers. Nevertheless, authentic novels were used successfully in other studies (i.e., Lao and Krashen, 2000; Rodrigo et al., 2007). This logically suggests that it is not just reading a lot that counts. Reading proper materials is also important, and both simplified and authentic materials seem to be appropriate for extensive reading if they meet the relevant implementation guidelines.

As to possible reasons why both simplified and authentic texts should be proper extensive reading materials, Crossley, Louwerse, McCarthy, and McNamara’s (2007) study provides some justifications. They used Coh-Metrix, a program that computes readability of texts, to examine several linguistic aspects of authentic and simplified texts. The results indicate that authentic and simplified texts have their respective advantages and disadvantages for English learning. On one hand, simplified texts facilitate English learning because they contain more coreferential cohesion, common connectives, and frequent and familiar words. On the other hand, they are not beneficial to English learners because they have less diversity in parts of speech, causality, and complex logical operators. Insufficient use of the aforementioned results in unnatural language and thus does not facilitate comprehension. In brief, the findings lead to the conclusion that though English learners need to learn with simplified English texts, they should benefit from the exposure to the authentic texts that match their language proficiency. The findings also rationalize the use of graded readers and authentic novels in different successful extensive reading studies I have reviewed.

Effects of Extensive Reading

Several empirical studies indicate that extensive reading is effective in upgrading reading comprehension, accelerating EFL learners’ reading speed, increasing acquisition of vocabulary, improving writing in English, and fostering positive viewpoints of pleasure reading in English. First of all, Tanaka (2007) explored the effect of extensive reading on roughly 113 students in their first year of a public high school in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. The control group was the other half of the same year group in the same school. The extensive reading materials were 38 short passages whose topics accorded with the students’ interests. The percentage of unknown words in each passage was carefully controlled not to exceed 5%. The instructor also introduced graded readers and encouraged experimental participants to read them. Altogether, only 18 students read graded readers. The reading comprehension test results favored only those 18 students. The other participants, who read the 38 short passages but not any graded readers, also improved in reading comprehension, though not significantly better than the control group. As for reading speed, the experimental group performed significantly better than the control group no matter whether they had read graded readers or not.

Second, a similar demonstration of improvement in reading comprehension after reading graded readers was found by Bell (2001). Bell subjected one group of elementary level EFL learners in Sana'a, Yemen to an extensive reading program of graded readers and another group of the same level to an intensive reading program in which they read short passages and did tasks aimed at helping them to learn the vocabulary, grammar, and rhetoric patterns woven in the passages. After about a year, he used a modified cloze test and a comprehension test of multiple choice and true/false questions to measure increases in comprehension as well as reading speed. Students who had read graded readers posted significantly higher gains in not only comprehension but also reading speed than those who had done intensive reading. In other words, in addition to confirming Tanaka’s (2007) finding that reading graded readers could have a positive effect on English reading comprehension, Bell’s finding pointed to its favorable effect on reading speed.

Third, Lao and Krashen (2000), like Bell (2001), also found that extensive reading accelerated reading speed besides increasing vocabulary and interest in pleasure reading. They conducted extensive reading with freshmen in a Hong Kong university. Six experimental classes were assigned five authentic novels and chose the sixth one to read, while two control groups had speaking, writing, listening, and reading in the traditional English class. The outcome favored the experimental students. They exhibited an increase in reading speed and vocabulary acquisition over a semester (14 weeks). The escalation of reading speed was equivalent to an increase from 235 to 327 words per minute. As to the growth in vocabulary, when it was translated into vocabulary size, the result was an increase from 17,000 words to 20,000 words. These students also thought more positively of pleasure reading in English than those in the control groups. Their findings are worthy of attention mainly owing to the different choice of reading materials. Unlike the other studies in which graded readers were used, the participants read authentic novels and achieved improvement in reading speed, vocabulary, and interest in pleasure reading.

Mason and Krashen (1997) performed three successive extensive reading experiments with various groups of college students in Japan, and the outcomes bear similarities with most of the aforementioned studies. Participants in the experimental groups chose what they liked to read from a bank of graded readers, while the control groups received traditional instructions. The findings indicate that extensive reading can increase EFL learners’ interest in reading in English, which is comparable with Lao and Krashen’s (2000) finding, and performance in English as measured by pre- and post cloze tests, and a reading comprehension post test, which are revealed by both Tanaka’s (2007) and Bell’s (2001) studies. Moreover, extensive reading participants improved significantly in writing in English.

The reviewed studies convey the notion that as long as an extensive reading program is conducted by following the implementation guidelines well, EFL learners are likely to benefit from it. Among the guidelines are the principles of providing learners with reading materials that they can comprehend with ease and are interested in reading. On condition that a text fulfills the criteria, either graded readers or authentic novels should be appropriate materials because they offer different advantages to EFL learning.

New Literacies in Extensive Reading

What is missing in the reviewed research articles is attention to the changes in literacy in the 21^st century. As pointed out by quite a few researchers (e.g., Al-Othman, 2003; Evans, 2005; Fecho and Meacham, 2007; Lankshear & Knobel, 2006; Smolin & Lawless, 2003; Warschauer & Ware, 2008), young people of this century have frequent contacts with Information and Computer Technology (ICT). They use cell phones and iPhones. They send e-mail and text messages. They take advantage of the search and communication functions of the World Wide Web. All of the examples above indicate that students today interact with discursive texts that are different from traditional linear printed texts. Moreover, their interactions with discursive texts via ICT have changed the nature of traditional literacy. The fact thus underscores the essentiality of including the opportunities for them to nurture new literacies in an extensive reading program, the lack of which might have explained why some of my inert students just could not be motivated to read books at all.

New Literacies and ICT

To understand the relationship between new literacies and Information and Computer Technology (ICT), it would be helpful to first adopt the expanded definition Fecho and Meacham (2007) ascribe to reading and then ponder over the definition of new literacies shared by Lankshear and Knobel (2006). Fecho and Meachan deem reading in the 21^st century “as the ability to make meaning of that which can be read. As such, gestures, moods, sounds, art, weather conditions, and the like can be read, in that we can interpret meanings from them” (p. 167). This expanded definition of reading is encompassed in the conception of new literacies elaborated by Lankshear and Knobel. They first establish the concept that new does not have to be technological (p. 26). Rather, newness includes “participation,” “distributed expertise,” “collective intelligence,” “collaboration,” “dispersion,” and “sharing” (p. 60). They further define literacies as “socially recognized ways of generating, communicating and negotiating meaningful content through the medium of encoded texts within contexts of participation in Discourses (or as members of Discourses)” (p. 64). The definition subjects the nature of literacies to changes with time, for “socially recognized ways” and “medium of encoded texts” evolve through time. Apparently, what has been evolving quickly with time in this century is technologies. Technologies have, in turn, facilitated the manifestation of the characteristics of newness proposed by Lankshear and Knobel. Therefore, although what is new does not have to be technological, ICT certainly plays an essential role in new literacies today.

Affirming the importance of ICT in the development of literacy in the 21^st century, Smolin and Lawless (2003) illustrate four kinds of ICT literacy: technological literacy, visual literacy, information literacy, and intertextuality. They, quoting from U.S. Department of Education (1997), define technological literacy as “the ability to use computers and other technology to improve learning, productivity and performance” (p. 571). As for visual literacy, they use the definition from the International Visual Literacy Association (1998) and state that it is “the ability to understand and produce visual messages” (p. 571). They then identify information literacy as “the ability to find, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize information” (p. 571). Smolin and Lawless’s explanation of intertextuality presents it as drawing connections among the present multimodal text on a topic that students are exploring with relevant prior multimodal texts to achieve an understanding that does not arise from a vacuum (p. 572). These assorted literacies that ICT is capable of supporting substantiate the role of ICT in the development of new literacies.

Like Smolin and Lawless (2003), Luke (2003) also perceives the impacts of ICT on literacy. The perception impels Luke to implicitly stress incorporating the development of new literacies into academic curricula. Advocating “new hybrid methodologies and theories” (p. 402) in research, Luke explains that modern texts, which refer to such multimodal texts available via new media as hypertexts, games, and text messaging, “have muted into complex, hybrid semiotic systems that have made new demands on reading and writing, viewing, social exchange, and communication” (p. 401). Such new demands on literacy certainly imply their legitimate position in academic learning.

Some scholars explicitly advocate incorporating ICT into content area learning for several reasons. First, embracing the notion of facilitating learning with students’ funds of knowledge, Marsh (2005) urges including media in early education because children as young as those in the nursery schools already have experience with computer games and mobile phones. Second, Kress (2003) explains a fundamental difference between printed texts and images—telling and showing (p. 152). Printed texts tell ideas, while images show them. They are both texts but require different pathways to comprehension, which should be taught explicitly. Accepting this idea, Bearne (2005) concludes that because children, having interactions with multimodal texts, might think multidimensionally, teaching instructions must involve multimodality. Fourth, Caskey (2008) specifically identifies integrating electronic literacies into academic instruction for struggling adolescent readers because these are likely to be what they can and like to read and thus reading them will contribute to building up confidence. Although adolescent EFL learners are not necessarily struggling readers, their English reading competence is normally much lower than that of English native speakers. In other words, linguistically they resemble struggling adolescent English native speakers. Therefore, it seems reasonable to assume that introducing them to the kinds of electronic literacies they are familiar and comfortable with will increase chances of experiencing successful comprehension.

Other scholars’ notions concerning changes in modern literacies suggest the irreversibility of this ICT trend and consequently the need to prepare children today for future literacies. Leu and Kinser (2000) have detected the necessity to merge literacy instruction with ICT because of three sociocultural factors. The first factor is global economic competition, which renders it crucial for employees to make effective use of information and communication. This includes accessing information quickly, evaluating it appropriately, and using it to solve problems efficiently. Undoubtedly, our present students, who are future employees, must be equipped with such literacy competences. The second element is government policies. Awareness of global economic competition has propelled governments worldwide to put emphasis on upgrading their citizens’ levels of literacy, which inevitably includes ICT literacy. Finally, technologies themselves are evolving rapidly. What was uncommon five years ago, for example, the use of Internet and e-mail, is ubiquitous today. The same is true for the meaning of literacy, which depends on the contexts it is situated in, and the contexts nowadays are closely intertwined with rapidly changing technologies. These sociocultural factors make it indispensable to fuse literacy with ICT. Warschauer and Ware (2008), after elaborating on the radical alternation that ICT has caused to literacy, equate ICT access and literacy to “the new print literacy of the 21^st century” (p. 228). The metaphor further compares those who cannot use ICT effectively to the people who could not read in the 20^th century and, therefore, posits the unalterable trend of ICT literacy.

In brief, traditional literacy has expanded to new literacies due to fast evolving ICT and its pervasive status in the modern world. Sociocultural factors associated with globalization, government policies, and the speedy advancement of technological science mandate the undeniable need for ICT literacy in the 21^st century. Therefore, an extensive reading program that is devoted to fostering EFL literacy should investigate ways of incorporating ICT literacy.

Weaving ICT with Extensive Reading

Although not aiming at investigating the bond between extensive reading and new literacies involving ICT, Al-Othman’s (2003) study indirectly encourages incorporating ICT in extensive reading. The reason is that the findings bear connection with Lao and Krashen’s (2000) finding that extensive reading improves reading speed. Al-Othman implemented two tests, an Online Speed Reading Test and a simulated TOEFL Reading Subtest, to 25 post-graduate students enrolled in an ESL program in Kuwait after they took a background questionnaire survey. The survey results identified 12 of them as being familiar with using the computer while the others were not. Examining the association between the two test results revealed a strong positive correlation (r = 0.92) between reading speed and performance on the Reading Comprehension subtest of Computer-Based Test (CBT) of TOEFL, and those who demonstrated high reading speed were those who were familiar with using the computer. If using the computer often is compared to reading printed texts much, the study results suggest that extensive ICT reading is likely to increase reading speed, and a higher speed of reading on computer screens can have positive effects on computer-based reading comprehension tests.

While the implication of incorporating ICT in extensive reading is discerned from Al-Othman’s (2003) article, Pino-Silva’s (2006) study directly urges integrating ICT in extensive reading. Pino-Silva subjected his participants to a Web-based extensive reading program that had evolved from a paper-based extensive reading program he started more than 10 years ago. Participants read Internet articles issued by journals such as Discover, Scientific American, and Newsweek. The follow-up activity was filling in a worksheet and then posting it on the online Yahoo Group set up for this purpose. The participants’ responses to an open-ended questionnaire indicate that they felt they had learned new vocabulary and appreciated the flexibility of choosing what and when to read and the fact that the Internet offers access to hundreds of new and interesting magazine articles. They also liked being able to have frequent contacts with the instructor because of the Internet. Pino-Silva, therefore, concludes that extensive reading on the Internet is a pedagogical approach that is worth developing.

ICT Extensive Reading

The legitimacy of incorporating multimodal ICT texts in an EFL extensive reading program being established, the next concern is what is available for EFL learners. Smolin and Lawless (2003), in the process of illustrating various literacies supported by ICT, which are technological literacy, visual literacy, information literacy, and intertextuality, deliver the notion that teachers are not supposed to simply give some examples and then instruct students to surf the Internet. Instead, they should pre-select what is suitable for the ages of their students and exclude irrelevant and inappropriate sources to maximize students’ successful autonomous interactions with ICT. The Web sites Coiro (2003) describes in her article to illustrate how Web-based texts, being nonlinear, interactive, and multimodal, are different from traditional printed texts may serve as starting points for finding appropriate sources for particular learners. My exploration of several Web sites exemplified by Coiro has led to the discovery of one PBS Web site and the identification of two shared by Coiro as promising extensive reading sites for EFL adolescent learners. They are summarized below.

PBS Kids Go (http://pbskids.org/go). PBS Kids Go provides various activities such as watching film clips, making cards to e-mail to someone, and playing assorted interactive games. Targeted at children of English as a native language, the linguistic levels should be comfortable for EFL learners of intermediate English competence and appropriately challenging to those of lower levels, and the knowledge required for successful interactions to carry out all the tasks should be common sense to EFL adolescent learners. Although instructions for playing the games are provided, a skillful game player can figure it out without reading them. This should at least motivate struggling EFL learners who are familiar with video and computer games to reinforce their ICT literacy on an all English interface and, hopefully, lead to their attempt to read and understand further.

UNICEF Voices of Youth (http://www.unicef.org/voy/index.php). This site belongs to the United Nations Children’s Funds. Its areas of focus include HIV/AIDS and children, child survival and development, child protection, basic education and gender equality, and policy advocacy and partnerships. There are video clips produced by children, a discussion board where children from different parts of the world share their responses to some topics and receive feedback from peers who have access to the World Wide Web, articles to read, and radio stories by young people from around the world. All the features guarantee chances to practice comprehending multimodal texts. Designed for children to participate in human rights issues concerning them, the English level should be appropriate to EFL learners of intermediate proficiency and comfortable to those at the advanced level. Besides providing opportunities to practice with multimodal literacy extensively, this Web site has the function of broadening readers’ understandings of the social contexts in which reading comprehension takes place (Coiro, 2003, p. 462). Instead of being limited to their familiar social contexts, EFL young learners will know about the lives and issues surrounding other young people in different parts of the world.

CNN Learning Resources (http://literacynet.org/cnnsf). Current news articles are the main texts. Aimed at improving reading comprehension, each article is available in three versions: complete story, abridged story, and story outline. They are always accompanied by an audio reading of the entire article and sometimes a film clip related to the story, both of which provide opportunities to those with strong audio and visual competence to achieve comprehension and also for others to practice listening and visual comprehension. At least one hyperlink to a related Web source is provided to encourage further exploration and reading. As the target users are adults, instead of providing users with intriguing interactive games, the activities are practice with vocabulary, sequencing events, drawing conclusions, and writing individual responses to prompt questions related to the news story. EFL learners of advanced English proficiency should find the content manageable, and it should be challenging to those of intermediate competence.

These Web sites are merely three possibilities out of a plethora. Further exploration will yield more fruitful and appropriate results. As to the suggested learning levels, they are my judgment based on past experience of teaching EFL learners in Taiwan. Although the estimation is grounded in substantial experience, its accuracy awaits verification.

ICT Follow-Up Activities

As informed by the implementation guidelines of successful extensive reading reviewed in the first half of this article, undemanding follow-up activities are one favorable component of extensive reading. If multimodal ICT texts are included in an EFL extensive reading program, the next concern is pertinent follow-up activities that facilitate the development of new literacies. At this point, it should be beneficial to keep in mind words of caution from Coiro (2003). Coiro points out that ICT interactive features can offer so many choices that users are distracted. Consequently, they do not concentrate on one feature for enough time to gain adequate comprehension. These words of caution posit the crucial significance of teachers’ preparation and guidance, which conforms with the ninth of the top ten principles of implementing extensive reading sketched out by Day and Bamford (2002)—teacher’s orientation and guidance.

To design efficacious follow-up activities for ICT extensive reading, teachers can derive inspiration from four sources. The first source is the follow-up activities used in the reviewed extensive reading of printed texts, mostly discussions and writing book reports, summaries, or reading logs. Next is Day and Ainley’s (2008) implementation of literature circles with 22 eleven- to thirteen-year-old middle-school students. The description of their observation and collected data presents literature circles as an activity that encourages students to share their own ideas, opinions, and personal experiences in response to the story they have read. Moreover, a literature circle appears to possess the trait of allowing students to activate their own agency, identity and power because it is completely directed by students themselves in small groups, while a teacher’s major role is assisting and ensuring collaboration among group members. Third, according to Moje and Lewis (2007), for learning to take place, one’s subjectivity and identities, whether they conflict with those existing in the learning contexts or not, must be recognized and accepted. This should not be regarded as risking jeopardizing teachers’ authority if the fourth source, Brown’s (2008) advocacy of taking a sociocultural perspective of expertise, is taken into consideration. From this perspective, all reasonable ideas, regardless of their generators, are contributions to “collaborative meaning making” (Brown, p. 122). In addition, collaboration and the sharing, participation, and collective intelligence associated with it are included in the characteristics that Lankshear and Knobel (2006) attribute to new literacies. In sum, the ideas shared by these scholars direct the design of ICT follow-up activities to be those that provide cyberspace for students to both formally and casually share ideas, collaborate with and learn from one another, and foster autonomy.

Bearing the inspiration depicted above in mind, I suggest designing and setting up online literature circles to complement an extensive reading program that incorporates ICT and fosters new literacies. With the help of the templates Smolin and Lawless (2003) share in their article, a teacher should be able to set up a Web site using Teacherweb (http://teacherweb.com). The template contains the function of supplying links to other Web sites, and this is where a teacher can provide links to Internet sites for extensive reading. In addition, its blog function makes it convenient to set up literature circles among those who play the same game, visit the same Web site, or read the same online article or printed book to share their ideas, opinions, and personal experiences concerning what they have done on line or read. Since students communicate on a blog mainly by writing, such literature circles give them purposes and chances to write in English. The homework feature makes it possible for a teacher to understand whether a student interacts with online resources or reads printed stories regularly by requiring students to submit indication of their work, for example, a worksheet designed to keep students focused on certain tasks and prevent them, especially those participating in ICT reading, from going astray. Finally, the e-mail function facilitates individual contact between a teacher and a student whenever it is preferable.

Conclusion

Research on EFL extensive reading of printed texts provides efficient implementation guidelines. Further examination into proper materials for extensive reading highlights different advantages in using simplified texts, for example, graded readers, and authentic materials. Since their respective characteristics appear to compensate each other, it seems logical to include both in an extensive reading program. Research also posits extensive reading as an effective approach to increasing reading speed and vocabulary, improving reading comprehension and writing in English, and fostering a positive attitude towards pleasure reading. Considering the pedagogy for extensive reading in modern social contexts where ICT, whose texts are authentic, is ubiquitous, we need to ponder deeply over the concept shared by Bearne (2005) that children who have been born into a world of computers and the World Wide Web think differently. This acknowledgement dictates the need to expand the definition of literacy to the new literacies depicted by Lankshear and Knobel (2006). Moreover, the indispensable role of ICT in new literacies entails incorporating them in an extensive reading program so that it will contribute to preparing EFL learners for the actual needs of new era.

My limited scale of research on EFL extensive reading, new literacies, and ICT has uncovered only one study (Pino-Silva, 2006) that incorporated ICT in extensive reading. Apparently, although the role of reading traditional printed texts extensively in EFL has been discussed and studied for decades, little has been done to link it with developing new literacies by incorporating ICT. This definitely suggests the demand for future research. Hopefully, future research findings will generate specific guidelines that guarantee the efficacy of extensive reading in EFL pedagogy and in developing new literacies to provide future EFL learners with a chance to acquire English more accurately and efficiently than their present and past counterparts and obtain the new literacies that will enable them to exceed their predecessors.

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An Overview: Testing Vocabulary

OVERVIEW: TESTING VOCABULARY

Hesti Wahyuni Anggraini (20102506077)

A.      Introduction

Learning a language, especially English, means that learners are required to master either language skills or language aspects. Here, vocabulary that is viewed as an essential aspect of language as it makes any sense of how to communicate without vocabulary mastery. On other hand, language emerges first as words. Even in our first language, we are continually learning new words, and learning new meanings for old words.

At first, the roles of a word in language learning are highly recommended due to the fact that words have different functions in a variety of forms. Words can be added to, or combined, to form new words. As it is a unique part of language, words may look and/or sound the same but have quite different meanings; then, it is used in different situations for different effects.

Besides, knowing a word means effective communication, either in spoken or written communication. Here, it requires the learners to figure out of how to use appropriate word in appropriate meaning, how to pronounce a word properly in a certain context, and also to recognize different types of English between American and british version (Jonathan, 2011).

Vocabulary development is crucial from a theoretical and practical standpoint. Experts agree that vocabulary is central to the language learning process.  Generally, it is recognized that a solid vocabulary is necessary at every stage of a learner’s language development.  Folse (2003) points out that you can get by without the correct syntax or grammar, but not vocabulary, without syntax, meaning is hindered; but without vocabulary meaning is impossible (p. 1). 

From a practical standpoint, educators cite that lexical knowledge is important in the development of other language skills. The lack of needed vocabulary is the most common cause of students’ inability to say what they want to say during communication activities (Charlisle & Katz, 2006: 669-693).  Then related to language skill, tests of vocabulary often provide a good guide to reading ability (Hiebert, 1990).

Besides, a good knowledge of English vocabulary is important for everyone who wants to use language, so that it is viewed that it is often to test vocabulary. At first, it can be said that vocabulary testing is necessary and even reasonable. It is due to that words are basic term in language learning, the units of meaning from larger units, such as sentence. In learners’ viewpoints, vocabulary acquisition can be seen as a more conscious language learning process. Even for those who are in the advanced level of language learning, they are still aware of the problems of words limitation. Here, teachers of language should recognize how much the importance of vocabulary learning, instead of grammatical competence. So, it can be said that vocabulary as a priority area of language learning, so that it requires vocabulary testing to see learners’ progress and to see how far it fits with communication needs.

To say, it is important that the test maker must be aware of what he/she is doing when testing vocabulary. In this paper, it comes up with of why to test vocabulary, what to test vocabulary, and how to test vocabulary.

B.       Body

1.      Reasons to Test Vocabulary

There are possible reasons of why to give vocabulary test. The most important consideration is that to find out it the students have learned the words which were taught, or which they were expected to learn in order that they would like to know their vocabulary learning achievement. Besides, the teachers are eager to know or to find where their students’ vocabularies gaps are in order to prevent misuse of words, so that there will be given specific attention to the area of vocabulary learning. Next, it is essential to recognize that vocabulary testing is reasonably straightforward to place students in the proper class level. In line with this, vocabulary testing, as in TOEFL testing (Test of English as a Foreign Language) implies that direct or indirectly describes students’ vocabulary competence.

In some cases, it can be said that vocabulary testing attempts to give clear description of a measure of learner’s vocabulary, along with the proportion of overall indication toward students’ proficiency. Other reasons of the importance of testing vocabulary is that as a utilizing test as a motivational aspect fro students to learn, to show students their progress in learning some new words, and also to make selected words more necessarily important by doing vocabulary testing.

Then, the reasons why to test vocabulary are obviously from the urgency of feedback, backwash effect, and recycling process (Jonathan, 2011). In terms of feedback viewpoint, testing vocabulary gives such kind of clear following up actions toward students’ vocabulary achievement. Here, feedback is given in order that to diagnose in which students are making errors and even building gaps in using a certain words. Next, in terms of backwash effect, testing vocabulary might give unpleasant result due to the students’ learning knowledge. Last, during the testing vocabulary, the will be recycling processes in the way of what should be learnt and what should be gained by students.

So, having a clear description of this, it is expected to lead teachers of language to the existence of testing vocabulary in terms of teaching and learning process quality.

2.      Kinds of Words to Test

In this part, if the teachers want to test students’ achievement in vocabulary, the vocabulary being tested in evaluation proportion is covered in the classroom activities. 

Deciding which kind of vocabulary to test is another important decision. In this stage, it must be away from the standardized test due to the fact that teachers might teach in single book that can not be generalized toward a certain evaluation process (Hiebert, 1990). In this condition, teachers are the best test-taker toward the known of students’ progress during language classroom activities or in the angle of known of what must be mastered by students.

            Next, if vocabulary is tested in the form of placement test or diagnose test, it is better to come across with the evaluation of what being covered in the course subject. Here, the result of the test can be used to measure how many words are known by the students and to know at what frequency level the students are.

            Then, in terms of proficiency test, it is required to give broadest level of vocabulary level. Thus, it is believed that in this level, vocabulary testing should include a fair a range of words which will provide fair evaluation in any differences, such as, education level and background, students’ level of intelligence, and even the term of proficiency level.

Here, teachers are asked to recognize which words teachers expect the students to recognize (i.e., passive or receptive vocabulary) and also which words teachers expect students to use (i.e. active or productive vocabulary) (Hiebert, 1990: 79). 

The mind seems to store words neither randomly or in the form of a list, but in a highly organized and interconnected fashion — in what is often called the mental lexicon. Here is the description of how vocabularies are organized.

Figure 1. How Words Are Organized

Research shows that learners can recognize more words than they can actually use.  There is a place for both in foreign or second language assessment. Another dichotomy is whether to test high frequency words or more specialized technical vocabulary.  It is clear that high frequency words are so important that anything teachers and learners can do to make sure they are learned is worth doing.  Then, the 2000 most frequent words of English as high frequency words is extremely useful particularly for Ss who want to go on to academic study (Nation & Hwang, 1995).

Another thing to focus on is that most vocabulary tests that are based on the component model just focus on one part: comprehension of meaning, production of meaning and also word association (Read, 1993).

When one just component of vocabulary is being tested, it is possible to use large sample of vocabulary testing items, and the best it can represent students’ vocabulary mastery.

To say, it can be seen that different vocabulary test are dependent on the vocabulary knowledge, the preference of particular knowledge, and the interest toward the vocabulary itself. In this case, kinds of vocabulary testing are also influencing students’ quality in reading, writing, speaking, general language proficiency as well toward students’ academic achievements (Laufer, 1978).

To sum up, the testing vocabulary comes on the purpose of more material needs to be covered. Then, it is in the form of testing different levels of learning and scoring.

3.      Ways to Test Vocabulary

After that, what comes in the next part is that how to construct the testing vocabulary items. Here, the test-taker should determine the term of (1) separated from skills?; (2) discrete point or integrative items?; or (3) focus on lexis or contextualized meaning? These three parts might influence the test items should be give later on. Then, these three considerations dependently focus on the students’ needs toward what should be tested. Moreover, these three terms reflect what kind of good formats during the vocabulary testing. In other words, instructional approaches can be the things that should be covered.

Then, how to test the vocabulary achievement are as in he following explanation:

¡  Deciding how we test vocabulary is related to how we teach it. 

l  Students should not simply memorize long lists

l  Instead present vocabulary in context 

l  When testing vocabulary, avoid testing words in isolation.

¡  Another decision teachers have to make is whether to test it discretely or embedded in other skill areas.  Discrete vocabulary testing assesses a word as an independent construct (Read, 1993) in which looks at assessing a student’s knowledge at the word level. Here, embedded vocabulary testing looks at vocabulary as part of a larger construct. In this condition, teachers look at the students’ use of vocabulary as it pertains to a text that the student has produced such as a written essay or spoken text.

Next, the terms of item numbers are as the following explanations:

¡  When deciding on the number of items to include, it is important to understand the concept of test reliability.  Reliability refers to the degree of consistency of test scores.  In general, the more items on a test, the more reliable it is considered to be.

¡  As far as vocabulary tests are concerned, Nation (2001) recommends a minimum of 30 items for a reliable vocabulary test. The number of items will depend on the format you choose.

Then, it discusses about the decision of the test used. Many issues come into play. First, it deals with the test validity.  Here, content validity is that we test what we teach, how we teach it.  In this stage, select only those that students have had experience with. Teachers are not allowed to introduce new format in a testing situation because it impacts on a serious violation of test validity.  Second, it impacts on practicality & washback should be considered when choosing a format.  Here, teachers are expected to select formats that are easy to mark and interpret results. Besides, the format used during the test should also have a positive washback effect on teaching and learning. As Nation (2001) puts it “answering the item should provide useful repetition of the vocabulary and perhaps even extend learners’ knowledge” (p. 373).

Moreover, an important dimension of vocabulary testing is concerned with the role of context.  Some formats are context-independent as they present Ss with words in isolation and require them to select meanings for the words without reference to any linguistic context (Read, 1993: 5).  In context-dependent vocabulary tests students need to make use of contextual clues. 

Although it is generally accepted that context can provide Ss with much needed information about a word to help them understand it, noted scholars in the field of vocabulary (Folse, 2003; Laufer,  1978) point out the limitations involved with contextual clues. In EF/SL texts, we provide rich clues to facilitate language comprehension but in the real world they are rarely if ever present to the same degree. 

There are common vocabulary testing format. They are:

a.        Vocabulary Testing: Recognition

Here, the vocabulary testing for recognition purpose happens if (1) more material needs to be covered: (2) different levels of learning; (3) little time for scoring; (4) not interested in evaluating how well a test taker can formulate a correct answer; and (5) a large number of test takers.

n  Multiple choice items (Liu, 121)

For example:

The flight attendant asked the passengers to ______ attention to the safety demonstration.

a. give     b. devote     c. pay     d. lend

From this format, there would be weaknesses, like (a) tricky or too picky; (b) difficult to test attitudes towards learning: (c) limited knowledge toward the options only; (d) difficult to construct at higher levels; (e)  more than on possible answer; and (f) possible grammatically.

n  Error-recognition items (Liu, 129)

For example:

Directions:
In this part of the test, each sentence has four words or phrases underlined. The four underlined parts of the sentence are marked (A), (B), (C), and (D). You are to identify the ONE underlined word or phrase that should be corrected or rewritten.

Tennis is such interesting game that people all like to play it.

n  Pairing and matching items

For example:

Tangle means…

a.       A type of dance

b.      A tropical forest

c.       A confused mass

d.      A kind of fruit

The weaknesses of this item are: (1) not communicative; (2) difficult to test attitudes towards learning; (3) diverse connotations; (4) guessing (25% chance); and (5) one word class at a time.

n  Gap-filling items

For example”

Fill in the blanks by using the appropriate word!

The _____ is the room in a house where we prepare meals. (answer: kitchen)

n  Cloze/Modified Cloze (Hughes, 144)

For example:

John ______ works ______Monday ______Friday

The weaknesses are:

1.                  To tests student’s understanding of the whole language.

2.                  To chance all word types to be tested.

3.                  To be crucial in understanding the context.

4.                  To be difficult to test attitudes towards learning.

5.                  To be impossible to guess for some words.

6.                  To be able to test student’s IQ rather than language proficiency.

7.                  To bias or difficult for some students.

n  Guessing meaning from context

For example:

Please ____ the window. It is hot.

Another example is:

Unlike the guitar, the fiddle has four strings on a fingerboard without frets.

The characteristics of this item are:

1.        To test contextualized knowledge.

2.        To be crucial context.

3.        To be communicative and authentic.

4.        To be positive backwash.

5.        To be difficult for some students (bias).

6.        To test various types of word relationships

b.        Vocabulary Testing: Production

n  Completion items (Hughes, 143)

For example:

Fill in the blanks by using the appropriate word!

The _____ is the room in a house where we prepare meals. (answer: kitchen)

n  Transformation items (Liu, 131)

For example:

Fill in the blanks by using appropriate form.

I (use) _________ skirt now. But, yesterday I (use) ___________ trouser.

The characteristics of the test item:

1.        It is not very communicative (without context)

2.        Clues will limit the answers

3.        It is difficult to test attitudes towards learning

4.        Some context may be added

5.        Instructions are essential

6.        Few aspects might be assessed (word classes, synonyms, antonyms…)

n  Paraphrase (Hughes, 143)

For example:

Say it in your own words.

Movement: __________________.

n  Table completion

For example:

Complete the table with positive, negative and neutral adjectives!

Positive	Negative	Neutral

The characteristics of this item are:

1.        To test language structure.

2.        To test word-building.

3.         To test all word types.

4.        To be not communicative at all.

5.        To use but not language usage.

6.        To be difficult to test attitudes towards learning.

n  Combination and addition items

For example:

Draw lines connecting the pairs of opposites.

A	B
brave	awake
female	expensive
cheap	succeed
asleep	cowardly
fail	male

n  Items involving the changing of words

For example:

Answer the blanks by using the appropriate words.

Her  _______ face reflects that she sings _____________. (beauty)

n  Single Selection

For example:

Someone was (playing/singing) the tune and for a moment you were happy to go (along/away) with what seemed a reasonable idea.

The types of this item are:

1.        They are authentic and communicative

2.        Words are part of a broader context

3.        Knowledge is limited to options provided

4.        It encourages guessing (50%)

5.        It is difficult to design but easy to mark

In addition, five characteristics to measure communicative vocabulary are:

1.        The test must provide more context than only a single sentence.

2.        The items must assess lexis within a limited number of semantic fields.

3.        The test taker should understand what the communicative purpose of the task is.

4.        He or she should also know who the intended audience is.

5.        He or she must have to focus on meaning and not form to answer correctly.

6.        Recognize is not sufficient.  The test taker must be able “to produce grammatical responses.”

Then, what should be considered after doing the test of vocabulary is the way of assessing vocabulary of the learners. Here, one of viewpoints of assessing vocabulary came from the perspective of whether students know the meaning and usage of a word based on the individual’s semantic units. Second, it refers to the vocabulary assessment are in the term of content of language-use task. Next, the other perspective is that to assess vocabulary mastery toward students’ vocabulary learning, while other see vocabulary assessment as proficiency and achievement test.

In this case, Read (2000) identified three continua for evaluating vocabulary assessments; they are (a) discrete—embedded; (b) selective—comprehensive, and (c) contextualized—decontextualized. They represent dimensions that are not only conceptually interesting but also derived from careful analyses of existing tests.

In the discrete-embedded, this addresses whether vocabulary is regarded as a separate construct with its own separate set of test items and its own score report, which is the discrete end of the continuum, or whether vocabulary is an embedded construct that contributes to, but is not regarded as separate from, the larger construct of text comprehension.

In the selective-comprehensive part, it is clear that it sees the relationship between the sample of items in a test and the hypothetical population of vocabulary items that the sample represents. In other words, generally, the smaller the set of words about which we wish to make a claim, the more selective the assessment.

The last, in the term of contextualized-decontextualized, vocabulary assessment to the degree that textual context is required to determine the meaning of a word. Any word can readily and easily be assessed in a decontextualized format. But simply assessing a word in a contextualized format does not necessarily mean that context is required to determine its meaning. In order to meet the standard of assessing students’ ability to use context to identify word meaning, context must actually be used in completing the item.

C.    Conclusion

Knowledge of vocabulary is important to use, and it is useful to be able to test from various point of view. They are knowledge of word meaning, knowledge of word form, and knowledge of how to guess the meaning of unknown words from the context.

Evidence shows that semantically related items are 'stored together'. Items are arranged in a series of associative networks, a large 'master file', and various information about spelling, phonology, syntax and meaning.

Knowing a word, then, is the sum total of all these connections — semantic, syntactic, phonological, morphological, cognitive, and cultural. It is unlikely, therefore, that any two speakers will 'know' a word in exactly the same way.

Although once viewed as an enabling skill of secondary importance to the four main language skills, vocabulary instruction has now come into its own. As such, it is crucial that this important language development skill is assessed validly and reliably.

To accomplish validity and reliability, several important issues need to be taken into account and decisions need to be made about how best to assess vocabulary in the classroom. Whatever decision is made, however, teachers must be responsible to make their vocabulary assessment varied and meaningful.