No abstract

No assessment is entirely free of bias. This paper presents findings concerning the way raters in the research group evaluate the extent to which they are influenced by various types of rater bias when grading their students’ written compositions. The sources of bias covered in the article include the teacher’s knowing the student writer and his or her proficiency in English, the difficulty of the writing task, distressful content likely to trigger the rater’s emotional reaction, the test taker’s views clashing with those of the rater, students’ progress, and the like. The data were gathered by the participants in the study via a questionnaire. In addition, the researcher’s interpretation of the respondents’ answers was verified through interviews. Although the two research methods and self-evaluation have their drawbacks, the results reveal interesting, relevant and important information on aspects which make written composition assessment less reliable and valid. The findings confirm the need to raise raters’ awareness of the causes of bias to which they are most susceptible, bringing them closer to effectively addressing the problem of assessment bias. The research involving eleven lecturers teaching Language in Use at the Department of English and American Studies at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, is a part of a much larger project based on the author’s PhD thesis.

V članku avtorica analizira in ovrednoti dva zgleda razčlenjevalnih meril za ocenjevanje razlagalnih/utemeljevalnih sestavkov, in sicer Meril Holly L. Jacobs et al. (1981) in Navodil za ocenjevanje Vicki Spandlove et al. (1990). Avtorica prispevka je obravnavana merila izbrala zato, ker so med učitelji in učiteljicami še vedno zelo priljubljena. Pri pretresanju dobrih in slabih plati meril se osredotoča na lastnosti opisnikov. V skladu s priporočili Splošnega evropskega jezikovnega okvira/SEJO (2001: 205–207) ugotavlja, do kakšne mere so dorečeni, jasni, kratki in neodvisni. Analiza razkriva, koliko sta si zgleda meril podobna in v čem se razlikujeta, obravnava njune dobre in šibke plati in pripelje do zaključka, da bi učitelji in učiteljice morali navodila za ocenjevanje kritično ovrednotiti, po potrebi izboljšati in prilagoditi izobraževalnemu kontekstu, v katerem delujejo, preden jih začnejo uporabljati.

Uvodni in zaključni odstavek zaslužita posebno pozornost, saj močno vplivata na učinek celotnega pisnega sestavka. Naloga uvodnega odstavka je, da napove glavno misel sestavka, pa tudi, da pri bralcu zbudi zanimanje in ga tako prepriča, naj prebere celotno besedilo. V zaključku pisec bralca še enkrat spomni na glavno temo sestavka, hkrati pa poskrbi za zaključne misli, ki bodo bralcu ostale v spominu tudi potem, ko besedilo odloži. Članek obravnava težave, s katerimi se pri pisanju uvodnih in zaključnih odstavkov srečujejo dijaki in študentje angleščine. Razdeljene so v tri skupine: motnje v koherenci, neustrezna dolžina in neustrezen slog. Članek vsebuje tudi tipe vaj, s pomočjo katerih lahko študentje opisane težave uzavestijo in postopno odpravijo.