Papers by Hossein Farhady
Routledge eBooks, Dec 7, 2022
TESOL Quarterly, Sep 1, 1979
ABSTRACT
TESOL Quarterly, Mar 1, 1982
... is multi-dimensional in this case) of people (who are heterogeneous in this case), language t... more ... is multi-dimensional in this case) of people (who are heterogeneous in this case), language tests will ... TABLE 8 The Results of ANOVA on the Study Measures According to Nationality ... For example, for a program intended to prepare competent speakers, a multiple choice test of ...
TESOL Quarterly, Sep 1, 1978
Language Testing, Jul 1, 1996
This article proposes a text-driven method for the deletion procedure in cloze passages. Contrary... more This article proposes a text-driven method for the deletion procedure in cloze passages. Contrary to the previous methods, the deletion rate suggested in this study is based on the number of the linguistic and discourse structures of a passage. After determining the proficiency level of the subjects, a passage of appropriate length and difficulty with the deletion rate of 7 was developed. Along with this standard cloze, eight different versions were also constructed. The deletion rate of the eight versions was based on the number of linguistic and discourse clues. Following a counterbalanced design, the cloze test forms were administered to 403 subjects majoring in English at different academic levels. The results sug gested that the text-driven method is superior to the fixed-ratio deletion method on some grounds. It was also revealed that the differences among the subjects' performance on different versions of cloze tests were significant. It is concluded that the random deletion method may lead to a paradox between the difficulty and the reliability of cloze tests.
The Modern Language Journal, 1983
International Journal of Assessment Tools in Education
The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of learning-oriented assessment (LOA) on t... more The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of learning-oriented assessment (LOA) on the academic writing ability of EFL students (N:40) during a 12-week in the semester of 2019-2020 academic year in the context of a higher education. Within a pretest-posttest intact group design, the experimental group received instruction following the principles of LOA, and the comparison group received routine procedures for academic writing. This is a quantitative experimental design. The test of normality, Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Mann-Whitney Tests and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test were administered in order to see the significance of the intervention the data for this study included scores of a pretest, several assessments, and a posttest at the beginning, during, and at the end of instruction, respectively. The prompt for both pre and post-tests required participants to write argumentative essays. To rate the writing tasks, we followed the rubrics developed by the testing office of the i...
The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, Oct 1, 2018
Language assessment knowledge (LAK) is essential for EFL teachers in developing sound assessments... more Language assessment knowledge (LAK) is essential for EFL teachers in developing sound assessments and making informed decisions about the progress and achievement of students. It is also essential to have sound measures of teachers' LAK to help them improve their professional accomplishments. To address the issue, this study was designed in multiple stages to develop a test to measure EFL teachers' LAK. First, EFL teachers' needs were identified using an already validated questionnaire (Farhady & Tavassoli, forthcoming). Second, the topics identified through needs analysis were crosschecked with the topics in the assessment textbooks to assure appropriate content coverage. Third, based on the data obtained from needs assessment of 246 EFL teachers and the content of popular language assessment textbooks, a scenario-based LAK test with closed-item formats was developed in six parts, each focusing on one major area of language assessment. Fourth, after having the test reviewed by experts, it was revised and piloted with 50 EFL teachers, necessary revisions were made based on the results of piloting, and the test was finalized and administered to 164 EFL teachers. The data analysis revealed that contrary to teachers' claims in needs assessment, the majority of them had low levels of LAK and they showed willingness to improve their LAK. Further, possible relationships between teachers' LAK and their gender, field of study, educational level, teaching context, and teaching experience were investigated. The findings are presented and implications and applications of the study are explained.
Journal of Language and Communication (JLC), Aug 20, 2021
The purpose of this paper is to make some arguments that learning-oriented assessment (LOA) could... more The purpose of this paper is to make some arguments that learning-oriented assessment (LOA) could serve as an efficient framework to alleviate some of the testing-driven problems in assessing student achievement. More specifically, I will first argue that the undesirable consequences of high stakes and external tests have convinced educators that such tests are no longer efficient for classroom contexts (Rea-Dickins, 2007; Scott et al., 2016). Second, I will present a working framework for LOA and argue that it could be a viable alternative to the often-practiced midterm and final test tradition. Third, I will suggest some LOA-related tasks and argue that they would help teachers feel confident about students' independent performance in online instruction. Fourth, I will discuss the findings of data from graduate and undergraduate students' weekly reflections to demonstrate that they, indeed, develop a positive attitude towards the assessment system, both in real-time and virtual instruction. I will end the paper with the implications of LOA for learner autonomy and self-regulation that would develop mutual trust and confidence between learners and teachers.
Key Issues in English for Specific Purposes in Higher Education, 2018
Using corpus-based data to access authentic materials for instructional purposes has been receivi... more Using corpus-based data to access authentic materials for instructional purposes has been receiving increasing attention in language education (Barnard R, Zemach D, Developing materials for language teaching. In: Tomlinson B (ed) Materials for specific purposes. Continuum, London, pp 306–323, 2003). However, despite considerable advancements in corpus-based vocabulary studies (Coxhead A, TESOL Q 34(2):213–238, 2000; TESOL Q 45(2):355–362, 2011), not much has been accomplished regarding the selection and incorporation of grammatical structures in ESP/EAP materials (Kennedy G, An introduction to corpus linguistics. Longman, London/New York, 1998). One reason might have been, in addition to the complexity of analyzing a corpus for grammatical structures, the common belief that different disciplines in ESP/EAP utilize different and diverse grammatical structures (Hyland K, Engl Specif Purp 4:149–161, 2002). Therefore, this study was designed to shed some light on the issue and to identify the most significantly frequent grammatical structures in ESP/EAP disciplines. To this end, first, a taxonomy of ESP/EAP disciplines was prepared using information from the literature on the history of classifications of science branches and existing ESP/EAP taxonomies. Cross checking the taxonomy with the university majors, a list of 6 macro disciplines with 29 micro disciplines and 399 university majors was prepared. Second, using a few software, a 150-million-word corpus that was collected from authentic ESP/EAP materials on these disciplines was analyzed for grammatical structures. Third, common grammatical structures with significant frequencies in each field were identified using Chi-square statistics. The findings revealed that contrary to the common expansionist view that ESP/EAP fields use diverse grammatical structures, many disciplines use a set of limited number of grammatical structures. The findings are promising for developing instructional materials and designing teaching strategies.
Within the last few decades, there have been multidimensional advancements in language assessment... more Within the last few decades, there have been multidimensional advancements in language assessment. Some of the advancements have been in the direction of developing theoretical models of the construct of language ability, others in the line of measuring that construct, and still some others towards materializing the outcomes of measuring the defined construct. These developments can be attributed to three major areas of inquiry, namely, applied linguistics, psychometrics, and edumetrics. The purpose of this paper is to make certain arguments about the necessity of an eagle’s eye perspective on language assessment. First, it is argued that most of the developments in language assessment have been rooted in the above-mentioned disciplines, each of which has benefited from the findings of intra-disciplinary areas. Second, it is argued that most language ability models have been based on intra-disciplinary rather than inter-disciplinary perspectives. In fact, some of the inadequacies of...
This article reflects upon foreign-language education in Iran. Contrary to its political and hist... more This article reflects upon foreign-language education in Iran. Contrary to its political and historical reputation in the world, Iran has not been well presented regarding its educational system in general and its foreign-language education in particular. Of course, a critical assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the Iranian education system requires an in-depth analysis of its structure that goes beyond the scope of this article. However, I will attempt to provide some basic information about the educational system in Iran before the 1979 Islamic revolution, in order to set the background for a description of the post-revolutionary system of foreign-language education in this country. The article ends with a discussion of the problems in EFL education in Iran, along with some suggested solutions. Historical Overview
Reading through reading : general english for university studetns , Reading through reading : gen... more Reading through reading : general english for university studetns , Reading through reading : general english for university studetns , مرکز فناوری اطلاعات و اطلاع رسانی کشاورزی
Reading through interactions , Reading through interactions , مرکز فناوری اطلاعات و اطلاع رسانی ک... more Reading through interactions , Reading through interactions , مرکز فناوری اطلاعات و اطلاع رسانی کشاورزی
Within recent advances in education, teachers are expected to be aware of and apply effective pro... more Within recent advances in education, teachers are expected to be aware of and apply effective procedures of instruction and assessment to enhance learning. This requires teacher education programs to provide opportunities for teachers to improve their knowledge in different areas, including assessment knowledge, to meet the new challenges. To help EFL teachers to improve their language assessment knowledge (LAK), the first step is to have information on their present status of LAK. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the LAK needs of EFL teachers. Fulcher’s needs assessment questionnaire (2012), expanded by some open-ended questions, was administered to 246 EFL teachers to explore their perceptions of the importance of major issues in language assessment and the level of their own knowledge. The findings revealed that the majority of the participants considered the major topics in language assessment as either essential or important to be included in language assessmen...
Reading through reading , Reading through reading , مرکز فناوری اطلاعات و اطلاع رسانی کشاورزی
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Papers by Hossein Farhady