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High Stakes Tests In Oman Between Reality And Expectations

High Stakes Tests in Oman between Reality and Expectations

As much as high stake tests are important, they are also stressful in almost all educational contexts. They contribute to the formation of that common stressful atmosphere (I would call it Emergency period) experienced by students almost everywhere. It seems that even in countries where high stake tests are not the only kind of assessment considered (i.e. to determine whether a student can pursue his/her higher studies), they are still viewed (by students and educators) to be vital gates through which students are filtered (according to certain criteria) to the next stages of learning along the educational continuum. People worldwide regardless of their different teaching/learning approaches seem to have agreed that these tests are extremely fundamental in determining the students' future (though there might not be any agreement on their reliability or even validity sometimes). The importance of these tests is doubled or even tripled in contexts where they are the only form of assessment like my context.

This paper sheds some light on one of the most crucial high stakes test in my context which is called the Third Secondary Final Exam. The reason behind choosing this test is that it determines students' future and whether or not they can continue their undergraduate studies. Moreover, it is given at the end of an extremely important learning stage which is the end of high school (secondary school). This paper emphasizes the impact of this test on instruction (strategies of teaching and learning) and students' attitudes. Some recommendations (most of which are suggested by the teachers and students) are also given at the end of the paper for the development and improvement of the current situation.

Detailed description of the high school final test (the focus will be on the English Language test)

At the end of grade 12 or what is called the Third Secondary year (last year in high school), students go through several achievement tests which are considered to be the most crucial events in every student's educational life in Oman. These tests have gained this importance because of the fact that they determine whether a student would join the University (the only governmental University in the country where education is offered for free) or any other private institution (where they have to pay) for undergrad studies. The competition is very strong and only around 2400 students are accepted every year out of a total number of 70,000 students. One of the most important tests given is an English achievement test which is prepared by the Ministry of Education and based on the taught curriculum. All students in the country (at this particular grade) undergo the same test and most probably the same testing conditions since the test is prepared and marked centrally. This exam is designed in order to test a particular curriculum that is strictly followed in all schools in the country be they public or private ones. In order to understand the aims of the test and the skill areas covered and since the test is strictly related to the curriculum, it would really help to have a look at the different parts of the test as opposed to the overall aims of English language teaching in Grade 12. These aims are as follows:

1. To develop students' ability to use the English language appropriately in a variety of real-life contexts.

2. To develop students' language learning strategies and their ability to study English independently.

3. To develop positive attitudes towards the learning of English and other foreign languages.

4. To facilitate access to sources of information, knowledge and skills which use the English language as a medium.

5. To increase the possibility of understanding, friendship and cooperation with other people who speak English.

6. To develop, through the learning of a foreign language, students' self-esteem and self-confidence and to enhance their intellectual and personal development.

The test on the other hand consists of 5 parts which are listening, vocabulary, grammar, reading and writing. For reasons of time and practicality, there is no formal testing of speaking, which is assessed by informal assessment (See Appendix A for detailed information about these parts).Each part in this exam has particular aims which in a way, match with the general aims of the curriculum. The following table shows each part of the test with its intended aims (what the test claims to measure):

In actual fact, there is a statement in the Ministry Test Guide that claims that this test measures the students' mastery over the basic English skills and their readiness to pursue their studies in colleges or universities where English is the medium of instruction.

By now, we should have an idea of what the test is like, what it covers and what it claims to measure. I have actually looked at the test and I have done a quick analysis due to the lack of time. I have found the following:

a - I strongly disagree with the claims mentioned in the Ministry Test Guide because we (At the Language Centre (LC) at Sultan Qaboos University) know more than anyone else what students who have finished their high school are capable of in terms of using the language. Most of the students who join the LC have very poor levels of English and they are usually placed in lower levels (mostly elementary and lower-intermediate). Most of these students are not even able to convey their messages across which really pushes us to question the efficiency of the school curriculum (of English) they have been dealing with for years (9 years). I have also looked at the kind of books and teaching materials used and I was really shocked to have found that the curriculum has not changed a lot from the time when I was a student (11 years a go). I would conclude that most of the previously stated aims and claims need to be rewritten again so as to match with the current curriculum or otherwise, the whole curriculum needs to be changed or upgraded in order to be at the same level with the expected results and intended aims. In other words, the current aims and claims do not make any sense when compared against the curriculum and they actually show a lot of over-estimations and over-expectations of what the current curriculum can achieve.

b - I have also had a look at the teacher's guide and I could say that there is very little emphasis on communicative skills. Most of the instructions ask students to recall information, memorize vocabulary and perform some other lower-thinking skills. There is not much focus on critical thinking skills (higher thinking skills) like analysis, synthesis or comprehension. Even in writing where students are asked to write a short paragraph about certain topics, students are indirectly being asked to memorize a number of paragraphs they have done in the class with the teacher. Vocabulary is not any different; there is no single instruction asking the students to use what hey have memorized and to put them in sentences. In short, in this test, students are actually re-doing some tasks (exactly similar tasks without any adaptation or alteration!!) that they have previously done in class with their teachers. The only part that has not been done in class is the listening test but again, the questions are full of clues and they are badly written (I actually answered more than 50 percent of the test without listening!).

c – The claim that the curriculum develops the students' ability to use the language in real-life contexts is absolute non-sense. Most of the tasks and activities used in the student's book are not authentic or even semi-authentic. They are not in any way related to the students' life, needs, environment or background. Therefore, most of these activities should be contextualized and some of them at least should be authentic in order to expose the students to how English is used in context. This will also show them how language works and how it should be used which might in turn motivate them or have a positive impact on their negative attitudes towards learning the language (this point will be referred to later).

d – Every English lesson lasts for 45 minutes and most of the teachers use Arabic all the time (I am saying this because I am in touch with a lot of teachers and I always update my information about the situation in schools). They only use English to give some basic instructions like "stand up" and "sit down" and this shows that assessing the speaking during the class time is a complete failure (taking into account that (1) each class has a minimum number of 40 students and sometimes even more (2) teacher's speaking time which usually occupies most of the time. To say the truth, some teachers have informed me that even their English has deteriorated since they joined schools because of the use of very simple spoken English and the lack of in-sessional training.

Description of the situation:

a. Students

Students (in their final year of high school) go through a very hard and stressful time because they have to prepare for the great encounter with the final tests that would determine their future and give them pass cards to success or failure. Families also adapt all their activities so as to meet the situation's requirement. They live under great pressure throughout the academic year so as to provide their children (who are taking these exams) with the perfect atmosphere in which they can study well for the exams. This is the general feeling (among all families and students) about the Secondary Final Tests. I personally think that this has a strong impact on the students' attitudes and aptitudes towards learning in general and learning English in particular (since students usually get the lowest marks in English and this knocks their overall grade down).

Out of my own experience as an English teacher in the University, I have noticed that the majority of students who come from public schools have very bad attitudes towards learning English and I personally believe that this is due to the useless years they spent in schools dealing with this language and the whole procedure of teaching and testing adopted by the Ministry of Education. Students do become good and some of them even excellent after spending a semester in the Intensive English Program at the Language Centre which is really amazing (they are achieving in four months what they could not achieve in 9 years!!).

Another point which is worth mentioning here is that students are actually shocked when they join the language centre and the reason for that is the false images they have drawn about their abilities based on their achievement in the final secondary test. For instance, a student who got the full mark in the final English exam (in school) would think that his English is excellent, but the moment he/she joins the Language Centre, they have a kind of reality shock and they realize that the grade they got in schools means nothing in the University (it could only mean that they have good memories!!). This is also revealed in the placement test's results when some low-scoring students (in the school exam) score high levels (in the University) placement test and vise versa.

After asking some students to compare between what they learned in schools and what they are learning at the Language Centre (LC) now, the majority said they have learned nothing at schools and some of them have mentioned that they have actually been wasting their time studying English at schools because they got nothing out of it. I actually felt like that when I joined the LC as a student and I thought that there were so many things I could have learned in school if the system/curriculum was good enough/different.

b. Instructions

I have mentioned previously that writing the final secondary test is prepared by the Ministry of Education and it is strictly based on the curriculum taught in schools. No extra-curricular tasks or activities are allowed and teachers always feel restricted to the books which are sometimes dull and dead boring. Teachers who fail to abide by the rules and try to bring in tasks from outside are subject to punishment which actually demotivates them and kills their enthusiasm. Therefore, teachers are forced to teach for the test and this turns the students into exam-oriented machines. Students are also trained on test-taking strategies so they could pass easily even when their level of English is next to nothing. Students do not see any point in looking for more information about the language, trying to improve it, trying to use it since they have guaranteed the minimum requirement for passing the exam.

The Language Centre has been complaining about the students' English for years (those who come from schools). Sometimes, teachers have to start with the students from zero (teaching them the basics as the students know nothing about the language) and here, somebody would question the usefulness of teaching English in schools and whether it is cost-effective or not (since the students are exposed to something like 850 hours of English in different school levels and they are still very weak in English when they join the University). The number of hours of English students are exposed to in schools are distributed as follows:

1. Elementary = 220 hours

2. Preparatory level (lower high school) = 250 hours

3. Secondary level (upper high school) is divided into:

a. Science Stream= 340 hours

b. Arts Stream= 420 hours

Another point is that although this test is an achievement test within the school environment, the University looks at it as a proficiency test because only students who get 80% or above (in this test) are accepted/enrolled in the University. The reason for that is the fact that there is no proficiency exam that determines the acceptance of students to the University. The University should consider multiple-assessment to make the final decision on whether to accept students or not because depending merely on one test (the final secondary test) is not adequate and is not a true indicator of the students' proficiency.

Conclusion

From this brief overview on the Final Secondary Test, it is very clear that this test is not doing what it is supposed or designed to do and this is not only because of the content of the test. It is rather because of the current curriculum of English adopted in schools. The situation is very critical and an immediate response from the governmental bodies in charge is desperately needed. I have been thinking about the situation for a long time and I have come up with some recommendations that might help improve the current situation and these are:

1. The University should consider designing its own proficiency test (or entrance test) because relying on the final secondary grade does not reflect any aspect of the students' proficiency. Moreover, a proficiency test would not function well on its own, so multiple-assessment should be considered to make the final decision on whether to accept students to the University or not because depending merely on one test (the final secondary test or the proficiency test) is not adequate and is not a true indicator of the students' proficiency.

2. There is a lack of communication between the Ministry of Education (responsible for schools in Oman) and the Ministry of Higher Education (responsible for colleges and Universities whether private or governmental). This gap should be bridged and these two governmental bodies should start to communicate, discuss problems, try to find solutions and work hand in hand for the sake of educational development in the country. These two ministries should complement each others since they are working at different (usually subsequent stages) along the same educational line.

3. The high school final test (final secondary test) should be designed again in cooperation with the Universities and the colleges of education. Prior to the stage of writing a new test/s, needs analysis should be conducted (interviewing teachers and students in schools and colleges and asking them for suggestion to improve the test) so as to ensure the relevance between the test and the educational environment (curriculum, students, teachers, teaching methods…etc).

4. Students' achievement/ability could not be measured by one test. Other factors like timing of the study, type of teaching (lecturing, seminars…etc), learning materials, teaching environment, size of class; all these are very important factors that could affect the students' performance in a studying situation. Therefore, relying on the final secondary test to determine whether a student can join the university or not is not logical at all and it does not make any sense.

About the Author

Rashid Al Maamari

BA in English for English Specialists from Sultan Qaboos University (2001)

MA in ESP from the University of Warwick (2003)

Teaching English Language in the Language Centre at Sultan Qaboos University since 2001

Office Tel: +968 24142854

Mobile: +968 99378100

E-mail: rashidm@squ.edu.om

so how will i not be bored on a 5 hour bus ride?

my school bus is carrying 20 people, including me, to chicago.
i am so exited, except for the fact that i will be there for 5 hours. fun.

Card game, handheld game (DS, PSP), MP3 player, portable DVD player, etc. Not much else you can do other than sleep.

Exit 31 @ Shaggy's 7-6-2009 Bored Beyond Belief

Original Tunnel Commission Members Clark And Clarey Reflect On Group's 13-Year History
Sut Clark has a unique way of measuring traffic congestion in Coronado. The retired Naval Lt. Commander, who lives in the vicinity of Third Street and Orange Avenue, often walks from the commissary at NAS North Island to his home.