- Preparing for TOEFL iBT speaking tasks - An investigation of the iBT-ed journeys of Chinese test-takers
- Skilled Migration and Global English: Language, Development and the African Professional
- SPINE: Student performance in national examinations (2007-2010, ESRC/DFID)
- Cog-Pro: The cognitive processes of taking IELTS academic writing task one (British Council with its IELTS partners, 2008-2009)
- Socialisation and identity in learning in applied linguistics (SAIL)
- PRO-CLIL: Providing guidelines for CLIL implementation in primary and pre-primary education & evaluation components
- Student Identity, learning and progression (SILP): with specific reference to the affective and academic impact of IELTS on 'successful' IELTS students
- Ethiopia English language improvement programme (EELIP)
- Teachers into researchers
- Classroom assessment of English as an additional language : Key Stage 1 contexts
SPINE: Student performance in national examinations - The dynamics of language factor
Funder: ESRC, DFID
Principal Investigator: Professor Pauline Rea-Dickins
Project team: Dr Guoxing Yu, Dr Oksana Afitska
Contact: P.Rea-Dickins@bristol.ac.uk
Summary:
This three-year project investigates the impact of the language of examinations and media of instruction in secondary schools on examination performance. The research is taking place in Zanzibar where, as in many schools in sub-Saharan Africa, learners are acquiring subject knowledge and understanding through a language that is not their first language. This collaborative project will draw on expertise in both Zanzibar and the UK, in order to provide insight into factors that impact on learners' demonstration of subject knowledge and understanding through five inter-related and progressively focused longitudinal studies. These are intended to lead to innovation in examination design and guidelines for implementation through a parallel process of top-down and bottom-up consultation involving key stakeholders (e.g. policy makers, examination developers, teachers).
Cog-Pro: The cognitive processes of taking IELTS academic writing task one
Funder: British Council with its IELTS partners (Cambridge ESOL, IDP Australia)
Principal Investigator: Dr Guoxing Yu
Project team: Professor P. Rea-Dickins, Dr R. Kiely
Contact: Guoxing.Yu@bristol.ac.uk
Summary:
This new research project, supported by a grant from British Council and IELTS Research aims to understand candidates' cognitive processes in taking IELTS Academic Writing Task One (AWT1) which uses graphs as test input. In particular, it will explore: any differences in the candidates' cognitive processes due to different AWT1 prompts, the extent to which cognitive processes are affected by candidates' graphicacy (Wainer 1992: 16) and writing abilities, and influenced by test preparation practices and whether influences, if any, are related to the effects of the different prompts, candidates' graphicacy and writing abilities.
Socialisation and identity in learning in applied linguistics (SAIL)
Funder: Pedagogical Research Fund for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies in Higher Education (Phase 3 -2007/08)
Director: Dr Richard Kiely
Project team: Dr Richard Kiely, Jim Askham
Contact: R.Kiely@bristol.ac.uk
Summary: This study aims to document the student learning experience in a contemporary interaction-rich and technology-aware HE curriculum in TESOL/Applied Linguistics, and understand this experience in terms of current theoretical accounts of identity and socialization in learning. The aims can be articulated as follows:
A. To explore postgraduate learning in applied linguistics from a socialisation and identity formation perspective;
B. To document the particular experiences of international students on a one-year HE programme;
C. To inform on the design of the wider postgraduate curriculum and strategies for its effective realization.
PRO-CLIL:Providing guidelines for CLIL implementation in primary and pre-primary education evaluation component
Funder: EU Comenius 2.1 Action of the Socrates Programme
Principal Investigator: Dr Richard Kiely
Project team: Dr Richard Kiely, Professor Pauline Rea-Dickins, John Clegg
Contact: R.Kiely@bristol.ac.uk
Summary: This project is an evaluation of the PRO-CLIL project, implemented in four European countries. PRO-CLIL aims to increase young children's exposure to foreign languages and to improve the quality of teaching through the implementation of CLIL in primary and pre-primary education. The evaluation examines the innovative processes involved in the implementation of the project in a collaborative, embedded way, so as to inform on the effectiveness of the various initiatives, but also on the factors which promote and impede effectiveness.
Student identity, learning and progression (SILP): with specific reference to the affective and academic impact of IELTS on 'successful' IELTS students
Funder: British Council / IELTS Joint-funded Research Programme
Project Director: Dr Pauline Rea-Dickins
Research Team: Dr Richard Kiely, Guoxing Yu
Contact: P.Rea-Dickins@bristol.ac.uk
Summary: The institutional use of IELTS for university admissions reflects an implicit claim for a student's language development and growth. The extent to which such potential is realized, or not, can therefore be considered a consequential validity issue of the IELTS examination. To date, there has been relatively little focus in IELTS impact studies on the different IELTS profiles of 'successful IELTS students'.
This research - framed as a post-IELTS impact study - will track over a 9 month period the possible affective (emotional, motivation, confidence) and academic impact of IELTS results in terms of students' sociocultural experiences of learning once they have gained admission to an institution, with specific reference to the IELTS profile of students in the four language skills areas.
Ethiopian English language improvement programme (EELIP)
Funder: Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA)
Project Director: Dr Pauline Rea-Dickins
Research Team: John Clegg, Dr Richard Kiely
Contact: P.Rea-Dickins@bristol.ac.uk
Summary: In Ethiopia education is delivered in the child's mother-tongue until Grade 9 (in some regions Grade 7) when English becomes the medium of instruction. The objective of the EELIP is to update the English language ability of all Ethiopian teachers. This project involves the development to two Handbooks for Ethiopian Teachers with the focus on English language development and classroom English language use.
Teachers into researchers
Funder: LTSN Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies
Research Director: Dr Richard Kiely
Research Team: Gerald Clibbon, Helen Woodfield, Dr Pauline Rea-Dickins, Dr Catherine Walter (Institute of Education, London)
Contact: R.Kiely@bristol.ac.uk
Summary: A Pedagogy/methodology project which involves an in-depth evaluation of a specific pedagogic strategy to develop the Applied Linguistics research skills of English language teachers, funded by the Language, Linguistics and Area Studies (LLAS) subject area of the Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN) of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).
This research report examines the implementation of a series of innovations in a research methods course in a postgraduate programme (Masters) for teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). The specific innovations are a new assessment format which centred on the writing of a critique on a published research study, and a series of oral presentations based on the written critique (post assessment) to peers. The data include a series of questionnaire studies, interviews and an impact trail to the dissertations completed at the end of the programme. In addition to contributing to an evaluation of these innovations, the research informs wider debates relating to the skills development in research methods, and the role of such skills in the professional development of teachers.
Final report (Word, 831Kb)
Classroom assessment of English as an additional language : Key Stage 1 contexts (ESRC Major Research Grant R000238196, 1999-2003)
Funder: ESRC Major Research Grant R000238196, 1999-2003
Project Director: Dr Pauline Rea-Dickins
Research Team: Jane Andrews, Dr Sheena Gardner (University of Warwick)
Contact: P.Rea-Dickins@bristol.ac.uk
Summary: This research focused on young learners of English as an Additional language (EAL) in key stage 1 (5-7 years) of the National Curriculum for England and Wales and was based in schools with a high density of learners with EAL. It investigated (1) teacher assessment practices to identify and describe the range of assessment activities in the support of learners with EAL; and (2) how teachers: i) perceive the purposes and focus of assessment; ii) design and implement assessment activities in preparing learners with EAL to access the National Curriculum; and iii) interpret and use EAL language scales and National Curriculum levels in their assessment practices.
The research adopted a broad socio-cultural approach which emphasised the need to understand assessment practices and the language learning potential of these practices within the social and cultural context in which it takes place. This theoretical approach led to a methodology in which assessment was studied in depth within the ecology of the classroom, within a relatively small number of schools, and one in which assessment practices were analysed from an interactional perspective through the analysis of classroom discourse.