Papers by Kris Van den Branden
Language Testing, 2017
University entrance language tests are often administered under the assumption that even if langu... more University entrance language tests are often administered under the assumption that even if language proficiency does not determine academic success, a certain proficiency level is still required. Nevertheless, little research has focused on how well L2 students cope with the linguistic demands of their studies in the first months after passing an entrance test. Even fewer studies have taken a longitudinal perspective. Set in Flanders, Belgium, this study examines the opinions and experiences of 24 university staff members and 31 international L2 students, of whom 20 were tracked longitudinally. Attention is also given to test/retest results, academic score sheets, and class recordings. To investigate the validity of inferences made on the basis of L2 students' scores, Kane's (2013) Interpretation/ Use Argument approach is adopted, and principles from political philosophy are applied to investigate whether a policy that discriminates among students based on language test results can be considered just. It is concluded that the receptive language requirements of university studies exceed the expected B2 level and that the Flemish entrance tests include language tasks that are of little importance for first-year students. Furthermore, some of the students who failed the entrance test actually managed quite well in their studies – a result that entails broad implications concerning validation and justice even outside the study's localized setting.
Behaviour-tracking technology has been used for decades in SLA research on focused practice with ... more Behaviour-tracking technology has been used for decades in SLA research on focused practice with an eye toward elucidating the nature of L2 automatization (e.g. DeKeyser, 1997; Robinson, 1997). This involves longitudinally capturing learners' judgments or linguistic production along with their response times in order to investigate how specific skills become automatic over time. However, previous research in this area has been conducted mostly in laboratories (i.e., in vitro), sometimes with artificial languages, thereby compromising ecological validity of the findings. Building on this work, this article reports on a one-month study in which learners' (N = 126) behaviour was tracked while they practised two constructions of English grammar (varying in complexity) using mini-games that involved some time pressure and were embedded in meaning-focused reading and discussion activities in class. Feedback was randomly varied between participants. Multilevel statistical analyses of accuracy and response time suggest that practice helped to develop automaticity, and that rule complexity and metalinguistic feedback played a role. The methodological innovation of this study consists of the application of in vitro experimental research techniques in in vivo L2 learning contexts and of the use of statistical mixed effects models to account for the complexity of real-life tracking data.
Journal of Research in Reading, 2010
This semi-longitudinal study examined the development of narrative writing quality of young Turki... more This semi-longitudinal study examined the development of narrative writing quality of young Turkish second language learners in mainstream Dutch-only education, and the impact of student-level and classroom-level predictors of narrative writing quality, using hierarchical linear modelling. Writing samples of 106 third graders and 111 fourth graders of seven Flemish primary schools were collected at the beginning and at the end of the school year. Measures included one holistic primary trait judgement, and six objective indices of text quality. Student-level predictors included age, SES and home language, while the classroom-level predictor focused on the home language pattern of the classroom. There was a significant mean growth for each index in each grade, but effect sizes differed from quite large for content and word level indices over moderate for sentence level indices to small for the text level index. Home language (Turkish) had a significant negative effect on all but one variables, particularly in Grade 4, while the negative effect of low SES was much more limited. A supplementary negative effect was found for homogeneity of classroom population. Implications of the study highlight the importance of student and classroom characteristics in writing achievement as well as the need to consider the poor performance of Turkish children.
Itl International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2006
Itl International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2012
Issues, Research and Practice, 2015
The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, 2012
Issues, Research and Practice, 2009
Issues, Research and Practice, 2009
Issues, Research and Practice, 2009
Issues, Research and Practice, 2009
INTED2016 Proceedings, 2016
Scientific research clearly states that you only learn a language after long and repeated practic... more Scientific research clearly states that you only learn a language after long and repeated practice and that a lot of practice in a variety of contexts is needed [1, 2, 3]. In reality, however, adult immigrants trying to master the language of their new country often lack opportunities to practise their language skills outside their regular second language (SLA) courses. Consequently, they may fail to develop the language proficiency they need to integrate and fully participate in their new society. Lack of societal participation, in turn, may limit their opportunities to further practise and develop their SLA skills. In order to break that vicious circle, practice opportunities should be created outside the classroom. The use of ICT offers great potential in this respect by providing learners with the opportunity to practise autonomously, related to learning goals they determine themselves. In response to the above findings, a widely accessible and learner-oriented online platform was developed with the support of the European Integration Fund. NedBox.be wants to offer a wide group of learners of Dutch as a second language (DSL) a fun, non-academic way of practising their Dutch language skills during their leisure time. In this paper the main assumptions and challenges while developing the platform will be exemplified and the unicity of the platform in the field of ICT and technology enhanced language learning will be demonstrated. A first requirement of the platform was that it would be accessible and attractive for a wide audience of adult learners in their free time: high-educated as well as low-educated learners, with and without computer skills, and with various interests and needs. Next to the challenge of the broad accessibility, another challenge was to incorporate some of the main characteristics of a powerful task-based language learning environment [4, 5], such as supportive feedback and authentic interaction, into the digital environment. We will illustrate how both challenges were met by choosing for a diversified corpus of topical, appealing and authentic news items as the starting point of a range of functional, real-life tasks from which learners can choose following their own interests, needs and level of proficiency. We will further demonstrate the unicity of the platform by a range of features the learners can control themselves, such as subtitles, hints, help and support options including captions, glosses, visual aid… To ensure that the learners can interact with fellow users of the platform, but also with native speakers, the possibilities of social media are explored by means of a lively Facebook community on which, for instance, written products can be posted and results of polls can be consulted. NedBox.be was developed in close cooperation with its future users. The paper will provide a brief outline of the different activities that were organized in function of a successful application of a human-centred design approach in order to capture the needs of the people who were going to use the platform. The paper will also discuss future user research with low-educated learners and learners with low digital literacy skills in order to gain greater insight if and under which conditions ICT and technology enhanced language learning can be a lever or an extra threshold for this group of learners.
Throughout the world, equity and excellence in education is a major issue of concern. Internation... more Throughout the world, equity and excellence in education is a major issue of concern. International comparative studies such as those carried out by OECD (PISA) have launched a worldwide debate on the effectiveness of educational systems (macro level), schools (meso level) and teachers (micro level) in terms of enhancing equity and excellence. Inspired by the OECD research and spurred by national policy-making, quantitative and qualitative research studies have recently been conducted in different parts of the globe ...
Ga onmiddellijk naar paginanavigatie. As of July 1st 2010, only records submitted with full text ... more Ga onmiddellijk naar paginanavigatie. As of July 1st 2010, only records submitted with full text will be accepted in the academic bibliography. more info. Error: You do not have the rights to download this document. Paginanavigatie. ...
ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2015
ABSTRACT While the available research literature appears to support the implementation of task-ba... more ABSTRACT While the available research literature appears to support the implementation of task-based language teaching (TBLT) in Western countries, few studies have been conducted to investigate its impact on classroom practice in Asia, especially in comparison with the presentation-practice-production (PPP) approach which many Asian teachers still favour. The current study explores the differential effects of the PPP approach and a task-based approach on Vietnamese students’ writing performance and self-regulation while writing descriptive and argumentative paragraphs. The study involved 138 students of English Language Studies at a university in Vietnam. Results show that both approaches are effective in enhancing students’ text quality. The students in the PPP condition had significantly higher scores on linguistic accuracy in the immediate posttest than the students in the TBLT condition. Conversely, students in the TBLT groups had significantly higher scores on lexical diversity in the immediate posttest than the students in the PPP condition. With regard to self-regulation, the students in the TBLT condition had significantly higher scores on the immediate posttest than the students in the PPP condition .
Sustainability, 2015
In this article, "sustainable education" is reconceptualized, drawing on the insight that educati... more In this article, "sustainable education" is reconceptualized, drawing on the insight that education runs on the energy of students, teachers and all other stakeholders involved. Sustainable education systems are defined as systems in which students' natural energy for learning is renewed (rather than depleted) and no talent gets wasted. Students' energy for learning is geared towards the acquisition of crucial competences for the 21st century (including the competence to make their own lives work and to make life on the planet work), which they can deploy and further develop on a long-term, sustainable basis. For this to happen, education systems need to be built upon strong, up-to-date curricula and to design classroom activity based on cutting-edge knowledge on what drives human learning. To this end, school teams' joint energy for educating needs to be tapped and renewed, and assessment needs to be primarily used to further improve the quality of education.
Toegepaste Taalwetenschap in Artikelen, 2008
Toegepaste Taalwetenschap in Artikelen, 1997
Perspectives from Applied Linguistics and Cognitive Psychology, 2001
... On the basis of these studies, Van Avermaet and Gysen (2006) suggest that second language cur... more ... On the basis of these studies, Van Avermaet and Gysen (2006) suggest that second language curricula should be derived from needs ... potential of recasts to foster second language acquisition by alerting language learners to new forms in the language (Oliver, 1995; Tarone & ...
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Papers by Kris Van den Branden