Proofread your exam
EFL learners may feel less comfortable questioning the language of an exam and may be less able to work out on their own how any mistakes should be corrected.
Case Studies
Case studies are probably the most likely question type to bias against EFL students. A number of the exams reviewed use case studies; the length of these ranges from one paragraph to 12 pages. There is a variety of practice in relation to case study questions. On some exams case studies are:
- read for the first time in the exam.
- given to students in advance of the exam. Clean copies of the case study are issued with the exam paper. Students are not allowed to bring their own copies of the case or any notes into the exam.
- given to students in advance of the exam. Students are allowed bring their annotated case studies and accompanying notes into the exam and are required to turn these in with the exam paper.
The reading load of case studies is very likely to have a negative impact on EFL students’ performance on an exam due to their slower reading speed. This is even true if they have been given the case study to read in advance. Case study questions require that students repeatedly refer back to the case study and their notes while they write. EFL students will require more time for this reading than will native speaker students.
Marking Criteria
It is always easier to complete a task when you know what is expected of you and how your achievement will be evaluated. The same is true for students sitting exams. Rather than keeping marking criteria under lock and key assessment specialists generally agree that examinees should be made aware of these as early as possible in the teaching and learning cycle.
What can you do?
- Make your marking criteria public.
- Indicate clearly whether or not language, grammar and spelling will affect the mark and how. Will you take points off for poor grammar? If yes, how many?
- Discuss what the exam will look like in class and indicate how the various sections or tasks will be weighted and marked.
- Explain how the exam fits in with any other assessment in the module or programme.
- For first year students in particular, ensure that they understand the marking system, e.g. 70+ is a distinction and 40 is a pass mark. The numbers in the UK marking scheme represent very different achievement levels than in most other countries.
After the Exam
The following are some suggestions for mini-action research reviews of your exams and students’ performance. While the suggestions below are not intended to be particularly rigorous or scientific, the hope is that they may help you identify areas where changes or research might be beneficial.
Time
You may wish to examine whether time and speed are a factor affecting your students’ results. When marking, monitor the length of answers in relation to the quality of answers. If a pattern emerges in which poor answers are clearly associated with shorter answers, you may need to consider whether allowing students more time to write longer (more contentful) answers might result in more marks being awarded.
You could also check answer length against the amount of time students spend on the exam by asking the students or the invigilator to record the time that each student finishes the exam and leaves the room. (Assuming they are allowed to leave when they are finished.)
Language Difficulty
Several exam papers allow or require students to bring in annotated case studies, pre-prepared notes and/or calculations. Students are then required to hand these in with their exam paper when they leave the room.
Review the annotated texts from international students asking the following questions. How marked up are the texts? Are they covered with first language translations? If so, this is a key signal that students may be having difficulty with basic reading comprehension. Students reading heavily translated texts are often reading something quite different in meaning and tone than students reading entirely through English.
If it is technical terms in particular that are marked up, consider that many of the translations may be incorrect or off the mark as technical vocabulary often is not included or not well defined in bilingual dictionaries.
These types of reading and vocabulary problems cannot be solved by making changes to the exam paper. They can be alleviated by actions that you and students can take prior to the exam. Some examples of these are outlined in the next section.