Assessment

The present study seeks to investigate the potentiality of the translation task as a testing method for measuring reading comprehension. To achieve this objective, two types of translation tests, open-ended and multiple-choice tests, and two types of reading comprehension tests, multiple-choice reading comprehension and open-ended cloze tests were developed in this study. The reliability of the tests was computed in order to estimate which translation test was more reliable and valid. Correlation coefficients were run in order to investigate whether translation tests worked as reliable and valid measures of reading comprehension, and to examine the relationship between proficiency in reading comprehension and proficiency in translation. The results indicate that the open-ended translation test is more reliable and valid than the multiple-choice one; translation has a high potentiality to work as a reliable and valid tool to assess reading comprehension; and there exists a high positive correlation between the participants’ proficiency in reading comprehension and their proficiency in translation. The findings of this study might have pedagogical implications for instructors. They may be justified to highlight the role of translation tests and benefit from them in their reading comprehension classes.

Abstract: The widespread use of test scores for different educational and social decision making purposes has made the washback effect of tests a distinct educational phenomenon (Cheng, 1997).The high school third grade final exam in the general educational system of Iran has for long been a high stake test designed to assess the achievement of high school graduates in different school subjects. The present study aimed to investigate the washback effect of this nation-wide exam on EFL teachers’ teaching methodology, assessment procedures, and attitudes towards different aspects of the educational system. For this purpose, a researcher made, validated questionnaire was administered to 160 EFL teachers. The results indicated that the third grade nation-wide final exam adversely affects EFL teachers’ teaching methodology and increases teaching to the test effect quite noticeably as they try to teach according to the content and format of the test. The results further showed an even stronger negative effect of the exam on EFL teachers’ assessment procedures. However, the teachers’ attitude towards different aspects of the educational system was not found to be as strongly affected as the other two variables. The findings of the study are of importance for testing and assessment bureaus in charge of extensive high stake tests development. Moreover, raising teachers’ awareness of the drawback of teaching-to-the test effect of such a high stake test might help them improve their teaching and evaluation practices.

Of the many dilemmas facing the assessment of literary competence, one is the extent to which language should constitute part of the target construct intended to be measured. Some argue for the construct-irrelevance of language and hence recommend that it be eliminated or minimized in favor of an exclusive focus on literary competence. In practice, this does not seem to be the case, as language proficiency considerations seem to creep into assessment, clouding assessment outcomes. The current study sought to examine students' perceptions of the degree to which knowledge of language constitutes part of the construct of literary competence in two departments of English and Persian literature. To this end, a total of seventy students in two poetry courses, one in the English department and the other in the Persian, responded to a questionnaire designed to gauge their perceptions of the extent to which language competence constitutes a component of the literary competence. Data were analyzed through one sample and independent samples t-tests. It was found that language competence is somehow construct-irrelevant in testing literary competence. Interestingly, measurement-invariance was observed regarding Persian and EFL students’ stance on the construct-irrelevance of language in tests of literary achievement and competence.

Some consider assessment in terms of a systematic way of gathering and evaluating information within educational system and particularly higher education. Since, the term ‘’assessment’’ refers and relates to administrative processes, this paper has shed light some consideration on how it can benefit the members of department and program. Program assessment ultimately emphasizes on direction for developing students learning quality and satisfaction of its central role in educational system. Thus, this study aimed to regard goals and purposes, specifically, explore new trends, techniques and procedures which play an important role in this aspect of assessment and also can have influences on outcomes of the academic units. To this end, some of the practical assessment methods were selected to be done on different fields of study in Shahrekord Azad University as well as discussing their description, strengths and weaknesses to expose whether assessments follow the rules and procedures of program assessment to reach the best consequences in assessment of academic units. 

Assessment has been taken to demonstrate that learning is aligned with external standards which is almost related to students’ goals in a curriculum in English language teaching and it plays an integral role in the success of language learning program that is following by so many EFL teachers. Consistency in scoring (mid-term and final exams) highly depends on the way of conducting paper assessment, validation of the process, reliability, experience of teachers, and different interpretation of assessors to make justified decision. Hence, the present study was an attempt to probe Iranian EFL learners’ perceptions toward paper assessment in mid-term and final exams in a language institute. To this end, a total of 100 participants (50 males and 50 females) between ages of 15 to 28 at intermediate level, were selected based on Nelson Proficiency Test. Data were collected through scores of two sequential semesters and a Likert scale questionnaire. The findings of this study indicated that there is a direct positive relation between learners’ viewpoints on paper assessment and their progress. Generally speaking, paper assessment in both formative and summative assessment would be a great progress among female and male English language learners.

today, with rapid advancement of industry and technology, many concerns about the adverse consequences threaten human life. The objective of this research is to investigate environmental education as an implement to reduce and evaluate the environmental consequences of petrochemical products based on the hierarchical analysis. The methodology was a survey of a statistical group involving 30 managers and experts in the petrochemical industry. The tool for the survey has consisted of a questionnaire with a pair scale-single response. In this model, the validity of the research was confirmed by the Delphi method and obtaining the opinion of experts in the field of occupational health and reliability of the questionnaire calculated by the inconsistency rate (less than 0.1). First, three criteria including environmental impact, destruction of the natural environment, impacts on individual health, and the most important harmful effects of each criterion were identified. Among the three main criteria, the most influential factor is the environmental impact criterion with a relative weight of 0.670. The criteria for the destruction of the natural environment and health effect of petrochemical workers with a relative weight of 0.260 and 0.699, respectively, are in the next priority. The water pollution parameter with a relative weight of 0.602 is the most important among the 5 sub-criteria. The parameter of effects on the biological environment with a relative weight of 0.373 among the 3 sub-criteria, and the parameter of the respiratory system with a relative weight of 0.417 among the 5 sub-criteria have the greatest effect, respectively

This study aimed to assess the quality of Persian translation of Orwell's (1949) Nineteen Eighty-Four by Balooch (2004) based on House's (1997) model of translation quality assessment. To do so, 23 pages (about 10 percent) of the source text were randomly selected. The profile of the source text register was produced and the genre was realized. The source text profile was compared to the translation text profile. The result of this comparison was dimensional mismatches and overt errors. The dimensional mismatches were categorized based on different dimensions of register including field, tenor, and mode. The overt errors which were based on denotative mismatches and target system errors were categorized into omissions, additions, substitutions, and breaches of the target language system. Then, the frequencies of occurrences of subcategories of overt errors along with their percentages were calculated. The overt errors and dimensional errors were analyzed carefully. The dimensional mismatches as well as a large number of major overt errors such as omissions and substitutions indicated that the translation was not in accordance with the House's view stating that literary works needed to be translated overtly. In other words, mismatches on different levels of register showed that the cultural filter was applied in translation and the second-level functional equivalence required for overt translation was not reached. As a result, the Persian translation of Nineteen Eighty-Four did not fulfill the criteria to be an overt translation. Instead, this translation tended to be a covert one.

The present study has been conducted with the purpose of exploring the relationship between EDBI staff's General English proficiency and their technical English Writing as well as the way each ESBP and GE courses affect their writing skill. The kind of the study is quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test, being conducted among EDBI staff in Tehran Branches and Headquarters. In data collection two standard tests were used, namely Preliminary English Test (PET) for homogenous subjects, and also the level of their GE progress at the end of the treatment, and Business English Certificates (BEC) test Level B1, to measure their technical writing skill with appropriate validity and reliability. The findings indicate that: 1) there was a correlation between subjects’ general English proficiency and their business writing proficiency; 2) teaching writing of banking texts significantly improved EDBI staff’s General English; 3) teaching writing of banking could significantly improve EDBI staff’s Business English proficiency; 4) teaching writing of banking could significantly improve EDBI staff’s Business English proficiency more than GE proficiency.

These days the use of portfolio assessment is very popular. If it is believed that students at all levels should be doing more than studying for tests; teachers should be doing more than teaching to tests; students should take a more active role in the learning process; and, then the portfolio assessment is an idea worth exploring.. The aim of this study was to introduce portfolio assessment into our classrooms for improving students' reading comprehension. To achieve this goal, the researcher adopted the quasi-experimental design comprising the pretest-treatment-posttest paradigm. Two classes were selected as the experimental and control groups from Cambridge Institute in Sari. They were 52 female students. The only difference between the two groups was integrating portfolio into learning for the experimental group. The result of this study indicated that portfolio assessment did not have a significant effect on the students' reading skill.

The purpose of the present study was two-fold: (a) First, it examined fairness of Special English Test (SET) of Iranian National University Entrance Exam (INUEE) by analyzing Differential Item Functioning (DIF) with reading comprehension section of this test (b) second, it explored test takers’ attitudes towards possible sources of unfairness and DIF. In the quantitative part of the study the data from 10000 test takers (6820 females and 3180 males) were analyzed for gender DIF using Mantel-Haenszel (MH) technique. It was revealed that only 6 items in the reading comprehension skill showed DIF. Further analysis manifested that the effect size of DIF for all six items were category A or negligible. Moreover, qualitative interview results indicated that learners generally considered the test a fair one while some potential sources of bias such as topic familiarity, multiple-choice format of the test, topic interest, passage length, and complex structure of test items were mentioned.

Good implementation of corporate governance principles is considered as an important component for stability and soundness of a financial institution. An extensive body of literature has reviewed the effects of corporate governance on the performance of corporations. The majority of these studies have found more corporate values for implementing the principles. Therefore, the assessment of compliance with corporate governance principles is a critical factor for external inspectors to ensure long-term sustainability of any economic organization. Based on these, this research aims to introduce a mechanism for assessing corporate governance in Iranian banks. This mechanism helps to calculate points for ranking of any banks compared to other banks and with regard to the compliance with four corporate governance principles: accountability, responsibility, transparency and fairness. To this end, and based on corporate governance principles, a set of measurements, elements and sub-indices have been introduced that some of them are estimated. The value domain for each of sub-indices is determined with respect to the published information by the bank. This paper has introduced 153 sub-indices, 17 elements and 3 measures that explain corporate governance. These are all valued and altogether in the form of a suitable model, make possible to calculate the Corporate Governance Index (CGI) in a usury-free bank.

Writing is one of the four skills of language learning, especially, one of the skills of practical communication in a communicative approach. The purpose of this research is to evaluate and analyze writing activities of the writing sections of secondary high school English textbooks, grades 10th, 11th and 12th, so-called vision 1, 2, 3. The theoretical framework of this research, a descriptive-analytical and qualitative method, was based on Kern's (2007) and Harmer’s (2004) model and continuum of writing activities. The writing activities of these vision books were divided into three major categories of controlled, guided and free writing and fifteen more sub-categories. The exercises and activities of the writing section of these six-volume English textbooks, so-called vision 1,2,3 were counted on and the average and percentage of each category were calculated based on Kern’s (2002) and Harmer’s (2004) model and continuum of writing. The findings of this research indicate that the categories of controlled writing and copying, the first item of Kern’s continuum, are the dominant writing tasks in these books. Activities concerning the guided, and especially the free writing activities in these books are rarely seen or they have not been much carefully regarded. In the communicative approach, regarding the goods and the existing requirements, the teaching of writing is generally concerned with free writing tasks. Therefore, to enhance and promote practical communication skills as an aim of a communicative approach, free writing skills are inevitable. The findings of this research point out that English teachers can reinforce and enhance their students’ practical communication abilities in their classes by using freestyle exercises and hence, cover the shortcomings of the books.

In this article I review principles and practical aspects of language assessment in foreign language (FL) learning, more specifically with a focus on Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and other contexts in which computers are used as a means for distance learning and for language assessment (Computer-Aided Assessment - CAA). Assessment constitutes an essential dimension of learning experiences and it is an aspect of most formal processes of language teaching and learning. Language assessment may involve language testing, as well as other procedures and instruments such as observations, performance tasks, portfolios and self-evaluation, and by combining information from various sources of assessment one is able to obtain more valid and reliable results. I draw on the literature on CALL and on language assessment, and on data collected within the scope of the Teletandem Brazil Project: foreign languages for all (henceforth TBP), to support my position on principles that may or may not characterize language assessment in the context of teletandem interactions. CAA is defined as any type of activity in which computers are used to support a process of assessment apart from and beyond their simple function to store and transmit information. CAA helps faster assessment, increases the quality and quantity of information detected and maximizes the provision of feedback about language assessment processes. In the TBP project, undergraduate students from a Brazilian university interacted with students from universities abroad, by means of computer programmes for synchronous communication, microphones and webcams. Besides the claims about CALL from the literature, I make reference to teletandem interactions in both EFL and Portuguese as a foreign language, considering occasions in which teletandem agents evaluate each other linguistic performances. I also analyse a questionnaire for evaluation in teletandem, which does not focus on language assessment but rather on the experience of interacting in the teletandem context and on the tools used for communication. No clear distinctions were found to exist between CAA and more traditional procedures for language assessment. Principles for CAA seem to combine traditional bases for language assessment and testing with a number of pedagogical principles that underpin distance learning. Nevertheless, CALL and CAA can contribute in various aspects of language education, especially when large numbers of learners are involved in teaching and learning processes. However, these principles do not characterize a new paradigm in language assessment, since the linguistic criteria on which teletandem agents base their evaluation are very similar to criteria that underpin language assessment and testing by means of paper-and-pencil tests, for example. I conclude the article indicating the need for further investigation and the establishment of principles for language assessment in electronic contexts.

Background: The affectivity system is a complex dynamic system, thus, it needs to be seen as a whole-system unit that is best studied by analyzing four profiles: self-destructive (low positive affect, high negative affect), low affective (low positive affect, low negative affect), high affective (high positive affect, high negative affect), and self-fulfilling (high positive affect, low negative affect). Our purpose was to examine individual differences in psychological well-being and self-regulatory strategies (assessment/locomotion). Additionally, we investigated if the effect of psychological well-being on self-regulatory strategies was moderated by the individual’s type of profile. Method: Participants (N = 567) answered the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule, Ryff’s Scales of Psychological Well-being, and the Regulatory Mode Questionnaire. We conducted a Multivariate Analysis of Variance using age as covariate and Structural Equation Modeling in a multi-group for moderation analysis. Result: Individuals with a self-fulfilling profile scored highest in all psychological well-being constructs and locomotion and lowest in assessment. Nevertheless, matched comparisons showed that increases in certain psychological resources might lead to profile changes. Moreover, while some psychological well-being constructs (e.g., self-acceptance) had an effect of self-regulatory mode independently of the individual’s profile, other constructs’ (e.g., personal growth) effect on self-regulation was moderated by the person’s unique type of profile. Conclusions: Although only theoretical, these results give an idea of how leaps/changes might be extreme (i.e., from one profile at the extreme of the model to the other extreme), while other might be serial (i.e., from one profile to another depending on matching affective dimensions).

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the effective components on assessment the quality of educational services in education and provide a model for it. Methodology: This study in terms of purpose was applied and in terms of implementation method was qualitative. The research population was articles of related to research and management experts in the field of educational services in Tehran, which according to the principle of theoretical saturation, number of 10 people of them were selected as the sample by purposive sampling method. The research tool was a semi-structured interview that lasted 30 to 45 minutes for each person and its structure and internal validity and its external reliability was confirmed. Data were analyzed with coding method in NVIVO software version 10. Findings: According to the analysis, the main theme of assessment the quality of educational services in education had 44 free themes in the form of 9 sub-themes including research activities, teachers, curriculum, school physical environment, learning resources, learning process, cultural-religious activities, cultural activities and sports activities. Conclusion: According to the results, to improve the quality of educational services in education can be done by improving the sub-themes and free themes of each of them until provide a basis for improving and promoting the education system.

Through a descriptive Ex Post Facto research design, the relationship between teacher reflection and classroom management, the predictive power of teacher reflection components regarding classroom management, and classroom management strategies used by high and low reflective teachers were examined. To this end, 113 EFL teachers completed the Attitudes and Beliefs on Classroom Control (ABCC) Inventory (Martin et al., 1998b) and teacher reflection inventory (Akbari et al., 2010). The results of the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient showed that there was a significant positive relationship between teachers’ reflection and their sense of classroom management. Moreover, a multiple regression was run whose findings revealed that practical and critical components of reflection are the best predictors of teachers’ sense of classroom management. Twenty teachers were also interviewed and the thematic analysis of the interview showed that high reflective teachers used different kinds of management strategies, for their students’ social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties using proper pedagogical planning and techniques of teachers’ teaching style, expertise, and experience in better assessment of the students in the classroom.

INTRODUCTION: Nowadays, due to population growth and resource constraints, cities are more vulnerable towards the crisis. Reducing the vulnerability of urban land use, with utilizing new approaches of crisis management such as passive defense, can be useful in creating a secure environment in cities. This is of the most important goals, planners and city managers are going to implement in cities; and how to deal with natural disasters, is of the major concerns of societies. This study aimed to evaluate city vulnerability in Mahabad City, Iran, based on the passive defense approach. METHODS: In this applied descriptive-analytical research, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model was used to analyze the data, and Geographic Information System (GIS) software was used to draw the maps. Then, to clarify the positive and negative features, or the opportunities and the threats, the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) technique was applied. FINDINGS: Based on the AHP model, the highest records were given to vital factors such as networks, fuel storage, water, and electricity, while the lowest records were given to higher education centers. Moreover, based on the SWOT analysis, the most important weaknesses of Mahabad City were as the compact and dense texture of the city, the low width of the most of the passageways, and the aggregation of major activities in the city center. CONCLUSION: Research results show that in Mahabad City, there is no comprehensive plan to secure citizens. Urban planning by relevant institutions and administrative councils does not fit the physical and human components of the city.

With numerous variables mediating the way learners interact with teacher corrective feedback (TCF), one may not comment on its efficacy before such intervening variables are adequately addressed and learners’ attendance to TCF is ensured. Among those variables, motivation is one of the most prominent ones largely affecting the degree to which students benefit from TCF. Draft-Specific Scoring (DSS), a scoring system giving learners’ a reason to notice TCF by rewarding them for the revisions they make through a flexible system of scoring, was implemented to investigate if TCF could help learners improve their use of subordinate clauses. To do so, two groups of students studying English Language Literature at the University of Tehran, consisting of 55 participants who were randomly assigned as treatment and control groups, were studied. The results of the gain analysis indicated an improvement for both groups over time in the total number and accuracy of the subordination clauses used; however, the treatment group significantly outperformed the control group. While the two groups did not differ in their use of noun clauses, the DSS group was found to outperform the non-DSS group regarding the adverb and adjective clauses. This indicates that motivation to attend to teacher feedback is of great importance if TCF is to be effective.