Language Learning and Achievement

Language Learning and Achievement

Janpha Thadphoothon


The aim of this paper is to explain what 'achievement' is and how achievement should be articulated in the context of foreign language learning.

What does it mean when we say we have achieved a particular aim?

It may mean that we have succeeded in doing something or causing it to happen. A student may wish to get the IELT score of 6.5 or 7 after finishing a language course. If he or she have got that score, it can be said that his or her aim has been achieved. Having a sense of accomplishing something brings us satisfaction; on the other hand, having a sense of failing in doing something brings us dissatisfaction. When we feel pleased after accomplishing something, we tend to develop positive attitudes towards it. We would love to do it again. If we are unsuccessful, we tend to avoid it. One success leads to another. By the same token, one failure leads to the next. Successive failures lead to the state of feeling indifferent towards that failure or being helpless. However, how success or failure is measured is up to many factors.



Different students have different aims. In learning a language, some students’ aim may be limited such as being able to pronounce a word ‘education’ or passing the final test; others may be to be able to write a short story or a novel. In fact, people have a variety of needs, and each need has different levels. Human needs therefore are of dynamic.

What are human beings’ basic needs?

Our basic needs may include foods, clothing, medicines, fuel, and shelters. These basic needs are of the same as those of the beasts. Such things are necessary for any life forms to function properly. Higher forms of needs are feelings called security, acceptance, autonomy, self-esteem, love, or self-actualization.

How can we tell that a particular student has achieved something?

Institutions have set up objectives in advance and means to achieve such objectives have provided. Ideally, it is to directly observe each student. The practical way to do that is to observe the student indirectly. We have to infer from the student’s levels of performance in a test. The good test therefore must be valid and reliable. In short by inferring from the test, we know whether the student has achieved the set objectives satisfactorily or not. Good, fast, and cheap are three characteristics of any ideal tests, which all institutions are looking for but they are difficult to find.

What about the student? How can he or she know if he or she has achieved something? Many students will say that they feel satisfied or dissatisfied with their test scores. In this regard this sort of feeling has been programmed by the society through the institutions. The scores [in numerical forms --- more sacred if expressed with two or three-digit decimals] obtained have significant implications because they can be used as instruments for doing something else such as getting jobs, promotion, or more education. What about his or her needs? Apart from the basic necessary of life, his or her real needs are vague, mostly controlled by the society. It is difficult to free oneself from such societal bondage. Few men have tried, for example, Thoreau who suggested that the only way to know oneself is to take time to listen to oneself. He wrote: “ If a man does not keep pace with his companions perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.” His point is that few of us examine ourselves closely enough to know what drummer we are marching to. Many of us simply join the bandwagon, very few dare deviating. True, it is happier. But are we aware that even that feeling which we call ‘ happy’ has been subtly controlled?

It has been recognized that testing has both overt and covert effects on test takers. In addition to having to pay lots of money for the course and the test fee, many students end up feeling desperate in life. After two semesters of learning English, even in Australia, their English has not reached the satisfactory level that the Institutions have set.


As far as formal or semi-formal education is concerned, we have been marching with the majority in the first place. Following the majority is more secure: get good grades, have good jobs, get married and settle down in a small town, and forget about things.

Don’t worry if you fail. The majority has invented mountains of explanations to be accounted for. Maybe you IQ is below average, your need more inspiration, you need more practice, you are too young or too old, you need more equipment, etc.

The society directly and indirectly governs the institution. The institution, in similar manners, controls the teacher who, in turn, imposes such agreements on the students.

Achievement and Belief

In psychology, one of the needs is called need for achievement. It follows that anyone has carried with him or her this noble faculty is likely to succeed in education, career and life in general. Some psychologists explain that people with higher social status are different from those from the lower social status in values and beliefs associated with achievement. The higher status group is of the belief that: (1) one can manipulate the physical and social environment to his or her own advantage, (2) the belief that one need not subordinate his or her own need to the family group, and (3) the belief that one should forgo short-term satisfactions and rewards in the interest of long-tern gains (Rosen, 1959).



I have raised this issue to remind us that the notion of achievement can be viewed in different dimensions. To be successful, it seems that one must be persistent. William Hickson urged us to try and try again:

         

“ ‘Tis a lesson you should heed,

Try, try again.

If at first you don’t succeed,

Try, try again.”



One, however, should not take the advice literally. It is essential also to be prudent. Considering Emerson’s suggestion for reality check, ” Foolish consistency is the hobgoblins of little minds.”



Successful minds can wait. Whatever things one wishes to achieve, one must do other things first. H. W. Longfellow wrote in A Psalm of life as follows:



            “ Let us, then, be up and doing,

            With a heart for any fate;

            Still achieving, still pursuing,

            Learn to labour and wait.



What is English achievement?





I have gathered the following relevant literature, simply to help me, hopefully, solving some aspects of this problem.



Looking up the word ‘Achievement Test’ in the Collins English Dictionary, I found out that the word is a noun referring to a test designed to measure the effects that learning and teaching have on individuals.



Next I searched the Internet and found two texts as follows.



Angus (2001) makes the distinction between two kinds of tests: achievement tests and ability tests as follows:



“A distinction should be made between achievement tests and ability (IQ) tests. Achievement tests purport to identify what a student has learned academically. IQ tests have a more ambitious goal of attempting to estimate an individual's learning potential i.e. what they are capable of learning.”



According to Power (2001), achievement tests, in general, are usually more formal, designed to show mastery of a particular syllabus (e.g. end-of-year tests, school-leaving exams, public tests) though similar (re-syllabus) to progress tests. Rarely constructed by classroom teacher for a particular class.



In addition, I asked the ILTA (International Language Testing Association) via the academic discussion list called ‘LTEST-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU, which I have been it’s member for two years and a half. The question I have posted was:



“ I have a big trouble defining the term ‘ English Achievement’ in my thesis.   What’s the notion of this term?’



I have received two replies. The first is from Fred Davidson, an associate professor from the University of Illinois. I have met him at the international conference in Bangkok two years ago. The second is, unexpectedly, from Prof. Lyle Bachman, Director of English as Second Language Placement Examination (ESLPE), University of California.



According to Davidson:



            “ A classical definition of ‘achievement’ would be mastery of taught material.

               That is, achievement refers to demonstrated control of a syllabus or set of

Objectives, as for example in a final examination at the end of a course or set of courses.’



However, Fred thinks that the term, quite a bit, gets mixed up with the term ‘proficiency’, which refers to general mastery of skills over time.



Prof. Bachman agrees that the terms ‘ achievement’ and ‘ proficiency’ are often used in very unclear ways, and sometimes synonymously. He suggests I read chapter 3 of his book, Fundamental Considerations in Language Testing or chapter 2 in Alan Davies’ 1990 book, Principles of Language Testing. I followed his professional advice by reading Davies’ book.



Davies (p. 20) distinguishes four test uses: achievement (or attainment), proficiency, aptitude, and diagnostic. The different uses can be distinguished in terms of time and content. According to Davies, the achievement test:



            “ ...refers back to previous learning and is concerned solely with that:

  achievement tests are typically used at the end of a period of learning...”



the proficiency test:



            “ ... is also interested in what has been learnt but in a much more vague way.

 Unlike the achievement test the proficiency test exhibits no control over

 previous learning; instead it establishes generalization on the basic of typical

 syllabuses leading to entry and is more directly related to what it attempts to

 predict, namely, performance in the language under test on some future

 activity....”





Moreover, I have read McNamara’s section 4 of his new book, Language Testing. He defines that achievement tests are tests which aim to establish what has been learned in a course of instruction, whereas, proficiency tests aim to establish a candidate’s readiness for a particular communicative role, e.g. in a work or educational setting (McNamara, p. 131).



Based on above literature, it is recognized that a test given by a course administrator or a teacher by the end of the semester often refers to as an achievement test, whereas, most standardized tests, e.g. TOEFL, IELT, GMAT, are referred to as proficiency tests.

   

I, therefore, define that the students’ English achievement refers to their English knowledge and/or skills that they have previously learnt from a particular program/course or set of programs/courses, which is measurable indirectly via the use of school-based tests or alternative assessment.



What if certain individual students have rather low self-esteem and are only satisfied with limited achievement?



References



Davies, Alan. (1990) Principle of Language Testing. Oxford, Basil Blackwell Publisher.



LTEST-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU (Accessed 29 July, 2001)



McNamara, Tim. (2000) Language Testing: Oxford Introductions to Language Study, Widdowson, H. G. (Series Ed.), Oxford, Oxford University Press.



Power,Ted. Methods of Language Testing & Assessment Reasons for testing i.e. the objectives of test-types, http://www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/esl0704.html (accessed on 25/07/2001 12:37:44 PM)



W.A. Angus, Using Achievement Tests, Diagnostic (Achievement) Tests, and Tests of Intelligence with ESL Populations, http://www.psychtest.com/ESLtest.htm (accessed on 25/07/2001 12:19:59 PM)



Rosen, B. C. (1959). “ Race, Ethnicity, and Achievement Syndrome,” American Sociological Review 24(1995), 47-60.