This document discusses assessing language teachers' target language skills, particularly their students' writing. It describes a research group that aims to describe how teachers use language professionally, create a language course for teaching students, and design a language assessment for teacher trainees. The document also discusses existing research on classroom language and outlines functional areas of classroom language use. It proposes using a diagnostic tool to assess teachers' language skills and describes challenges in assessing writing and providing feedback.

1. Language teachers'
target language skills:
assessing students' writing.
Tatiana Ershova
tatiana.a.ershova@gmail.com

2. Language Teachers'
Target Language (LTTL)
Alexey Korenev (Moscow University)
Carolyn Westbrook (Southampton Solent University)
Tatiana Ershova (Moscow University)
Yvonne Merry (Southampton Solent University)
Describe how teachers use the language for
professional purposes inside and outside
classroom (their Target Language Use
Domain);
Create a language course for students at
pedagogical universities (pre-service teachers);
Design a language assessment for pre-service
teachers.
LTTL research group

3. ELT classroom is a special environment in
which “language is supposed to be
simultaneously the medium and the object
of instruction”.
(Freeman, Katz, Gomez & Burns 2015).

4. Prof. Anthony Green, Granada, October 2014)

5. A learner needs at least a C1* level of
language to work as a teacher of English
A learner with C1 of language can work
as a teacher of English
* depends on the context
≠

6. Existing research:
▪ Classroom Interaction (Van Lier 1988)
▪ Pedagogic functions of language (Jarvis and Robinson 1997)
▪ Critical Classroom Discourse Analysis (Kumaravadivelu 1999)
▪ Turn taking and sequence (Seedhouse 2004)
▪ Exploring classroom discourse (Walsh 2011)
▪ LPATE and its impact (Coniam and Falvey 2013, Drave 2013)
▪ English-for-teaching: rethinking English proficiency in the
classroom (Freeman, Katz, Gomez and Burns)

7. managing the classroom
understanding and communicating lesson content
assessing students and giving them feedback.
English-for-teaching: rethinking English proficiency in the classroom
(Freeman, Katz, Gomez and Burns, 2015)
ElTeach functional areas of
classroom language use:

9. OCLA — a diagnostic tool for teachers
Procedures:

10. Do you ever perform
any of these tasks in English?
Do you think future teachers
should be trained to perform
these tasks in English?
Needs Analysis

11. Assessing writing is
challenging

14. Wolfe, Edward W., and Brian Feltovich. "Learning To Rate Essays: A
Study of Scorer Cognition." (1994).
Expanded model of scorer cognition:

15. True/False

16. LTTL: Assessing writing &
Giving feedback
http://blogs.longwood.edu/483sp13/page/8/
Content-focused assessment
Language-focused assessment
+
Feedback

17. Language-focused assessment micro-skills:
Linguistic error detection
Identification between its type and nature
Distinction between an 'error' and a 'mistake'
The use of an appropriate error-correction technique

18. • direct & indirect
• focused & unfocused
• metalinguistic
(error codes & metalinguistic comments);
• reformulation
Typology of written
corrective feedback (Ellis, 2008):
Language Teachers Target Language Copr.

19. Direct
Language Teachers Target Language Copr.
Ellis, Rod. (2009). Corrective Feedback and Teacher Development.
L2 Journal, 1(1). Retrieved from:
http://escholarship.org/uc/item/2504d6w3
Indirect

20. Focused - correcting specific type of errors
(e.g. verb forms, articles)
Unfocused - correcting all errors in the
text.
Language Teachers Target Language Copr.
Ellis, Rod. (2009). Corrective Feedback and Teacher
Development. L2 Journal, 1(1). Retrieved from:
http://escholarship.org/uc/item/2504d6w3

21. Metalinguistic
Ellis, Rod. (2009). Corrective Feedback and Teacher
Development. L2 Journal, 1(1). Retrieved from:
http://escholarship.org/uc/item/2504d6w3

22. You are given a piece of writing. Provide the author
with direct written corrective feedback.
Exercise 1.1

23. Correct the errors in the piece of writing below using
unfocused indirect corrective feedback locating the errors .
Exercise 1.2

24. Chose the right error code to indicate
the error committed in each of the phrases below.
Error Codes:
Gr. - grammar
Sp. - spelling
WW - wrong
word
Frag. -
fragmentation
Prep. -
preposition
Tense - wrong
tense use
Art. - use of
articles
Exercise 1.3
Language Teachers Target Language Copr.

25. Provide the author of the following piece of writing with
indirect corrective feedback focused on the verb forms.
Exercise 1.4

27. Let's Risk It!

28. Types of feedback
Written
Oral (teacher-student conference)
Audio/video recorded
...

29. Multiple matching (essay+feedback)

30. Feedback reconstruction

31. Final comment: what
should it be like?

32. Guiding principles of
written teacher commentary.

33. Guiding principles of written teacher
commentary:
Teachers should provide both encouragement &
constructive criticism through their feedback.
Teachers should not respond to every single problem on
every single student draft.
Teachers should take care to avoid ‘appropriating’, a
student’s text.
Teachers should consider their written feedback as part of
an ongoing conversation between them and each of their
students.
(Ferris & Hedgcock, 2005, p.190)

34. Assessment

35. Thank you for your attention!
tatiana.a.ershova@gmail.com