Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi
I work as a freelance contractor for the British Foreign & Commonwealth office. I teach Urdu to high profile diplomats that are traveling to Pakistan in a professional capacity.
Location London United Kingdom
Activity
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Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
Allof the perspectives were valuable. I loved the idea of a 'golden thread' which weaves its way through all learning.
Also the fact that global education is local, regional, national and worldwide. . The conversations begin with media at home, through to learning at school and experiences and understanding of global issues,
still working on the different... -
I teach my language in FCDO to high profile diplomats. I agreed the knowledge is quite important as value for students.
It can be a challenge to keep up-to-date as things are constantly changing! There are lots of networks and sources of information and support out there which is really important to know by educaters. Also, the teacher having to do all this... -
I am a FCDO language. Global education is indeed a complex area and there are lots of terms and ideas to explore (global learning, global citizenship education, education for sustainable development.
I teach cultural information and Knowledge and Understanding of the country of languages. I realised it is an important subject that only children even...
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Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
Many many thanks for this comprehensive and interesting course.
I have learned so much; Ideas for summative assessment, planning the assessment at the same time as the course plan, potentially using portfolio assessments too. -
Question no. 6 is most problematic, because its FV is two low 0.07
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Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
Calculating facility values in Excel: many thanks to Professor Barry O’Sulliva,
I really enjoyed it and its very clear to get a clear idea for the students and so do teachers. -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
Do the test tasks encourage students to think like they would in real-life communication?
On the speaking part of our test, students usually have 5-10 minutes to think about their answer to a discussion question and even make notes. So no, this is not generally what would take place in real-life situations.The test tasks encourage students to think...
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Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
It is very useful advice by Professor Barry O’Sullivan.
The information on this course should help me to create tests for my students. Your tests should be based on my students’ interests, and the learning that they’ve done.
If I have finished creating the tests, I will show it to some other people. because I like advice by him, " Don’t just assume that... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I teach all age groups and my experiences are vary.
*- Children are very different from adults. They need lots of attention.
*- At the age of five- to eight-year-olds, even It's their first language, they’re
still learning about the world around them and to speak and write and get
their grammar right.
*- Between the ages of nine and 12, a learner’s... -
Yes I did, but I didn't know the name of this assessment.
It was a nice experience and it doe's help my students, as I gave them a very clear instructions and talk with the students and have clear guidelines on what has to go into the portfolio and how it’s going to be assessed.
Every sample of students' language, written tests, tasks, collaborative work,... -
I use both, sometimes I do it one way, sometimes the other.It depends on the situation as the experts mention in the video above. However, I try to assess more integrated skills than separately.
Assessing integrated or separated skills depends on the purpose of the assessment and on some other factors; such as the level of the students. -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I use both "Proficiency tests and Achievement tests."
I am happy with the above statement;
"Proficiency tests aim to measure general overall language ability. They are not specific to any particular course or textbook. Instead, they are based on a more general idea of proficiency in a language".
An achievement test is related to a specific language... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I always have students complete beginners and needed to reach the C1 level.
Usually their needs are to co-ordinate work on the bilateral relationship.
Background knowledge is always 0.
I plan my lessons, design and develop their assessments, then i find out my students' weaknesses and strengths. -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I was once asked to produce an end-of-term test for a class that I taught at Foreign & Commonwealth Office, where I teach my language.
The course focus was Urdu for diplomates.
The aim was to test students’ ability to communicate in situations that had been covered in the course content, so the primary focus was on speaking and listening.
An achievement... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I plan assessments during the course, as I can get an idea of my students' learning ability.
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I will set goals while making my course plan. I would focus on communicative competence and accuracy in grammar.
I would select both formative assessment and summative test.
It will improve my students's 4 skills including grammar and vocabulary.
Formal, summative testing should probably focus on the goals of a course. Less formal, formative assessment... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
Many of the approaches available to staff provide opportunities for students to contribute to the assessment design, development and quality assurance processes. For example, students can:
1- Help to design guidance that is clear, meaningful and meaningful and effective;
2-Advise about particular difficulties that their peers might have in complying with... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
IELTS:
This qualification
demonstrates that candidates have the language skills to live and work independently in an English-speaking
country or study on courses taught in English at pre-degree level.
C1 Advanced is targeted at Level C1 on the CEFR. It is an in-depth qualification which shows that candidates
have the high-level English language skills... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
Task, construct, rating scale, washback, formative assessment.
yes these words have a general meaning in everyday English.Looking up the words in the ‘A to Z of Language Assessment’ glossary. These words used differently when talking about language assessment
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Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I assess my students and it is in the form of speaking activities sometimes. We have presentations on certain topics, where they get immediate feedback. The questions in class after a topic is completed is also a way to assess their progress. Homework tasks tell us about the progress made by a student. Tests and exams are formal assessments. All these...
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Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
Many many thanks
I have really enjoyed the course so far. It has helped me focus on assessment in the classroom and I have learned many new terms that will help me to define the kind of assessments I carry out in the future. It has been a privilege to learn from the expert educators and from my wonderful colleagues worldwide. I have gained valuable insights... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
My students are in band 5 where they maintain the flow of speech but use repetition, and involve in self correction they manage to talk about familiar and unfamiliar topics but their vocabulary is limited. Though both fluency and accuracy are reasonable , they have problems in complex sentence construction.
• At the next level up, 6.0, They should speak at... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I'm using the zoom app and skype.
I teach in Foreign and commonwealth Office. I use VLE in FCO's portal.
We have teachers access to it and same as students.Its much helpful.
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It is not an exaggeration to say that a great teacher can change a student’s life. The advice of Barry O’Sullivan about assessing grammar and vocabulary has changed my assessing role in teaching.
As some of the most influential role models for developing students, teachers are responsible for more than just academic enrichment. If you want to be a great... -
Any texts (e.g. for cloze tests) should be chosen with level in mind. Yes we need to keep the level of the students in mind to prepare their tests.
I really liked getting help from these tools, the English Profile and Text Inspector.
I am so grateful to you all educators for giving us these informations.
I tried all the sites including English Profile.... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I use all three types of tests but I didn't know that they called C-tests.
The texts used tend to be shorter than in other cloze tests, making them more manageable for the test taker.
Cloze tests are challenging and thus a good way for the learners to think critically. Sometimes we can give a hint within a bracket just after the blank specially when testing... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I have often used matching tasks for testing both grammar and vocabulary, as they are practical convenient for the teacher to develop and mark as well.
They are generally straightforward for the teacher to write and mark, as long as a table or space is provided for the answers to be recorded clearly. -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I agree that "first of all, they can be time-consuming to write. Thinking of suitable distractors to go alongside the correct answer can be tricky, especially if we target a specific grammatical form. We always need to think about what we are testing."
I have used MCQs to test different grammar tests. I think it is is convenient for the test taker. Also it... -
The most recent test I developed was Vocabulary and Grammar focusing
B2 level to C1. It was an achievement test after teaching selected vocabulary & grammar, with practice of selected parallel grammar and vocabulary tasks for a period of month.
I prepared a test using the following rules:
Rule 1: Test comprehension and critical thinking, not just... -
I wouldlike to add this in my comments.
In addition, the downside to None of the Above is that you can’t tell if the learner really knew the correct answer. -
I follow these ten rules for multiple choices.
Rule 1: Test comprehension and critical thinking, not just recall.
Rule 2: Use simple sentence structure and precise wording.
Rule 3: Place most of the words in the question stem.
Rule 4: Make all distractors plausible.
Rule 5: Keep all answer choices the same length.
Rule 6: Avoid double negatives; such as... -
It will be selected a description to suit the context in which baby could clearly decide the grammar point.
can't - There is no one else to look after baby for the described time. Mother usually stays at home with baby.
couldn't - There is some help such as baby sitter to look after the baby. but the day baby sitter was not coming.
shouldn't - Baby is ill... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I agree that many other factors also influence washback. One important factor is teachers. Teachers’ beliefs are so important that the same test can produce different washback in different teachers. This could be because we don’t know enough about the test. If we understand more about a new test, washback is more positive.
We reallyneed tests that include a...
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Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I strongly agree with what Barry O’Sullivan says about the importance of assessing grammar both directly (by itself) and indirectly (as part of the productive skills),because one can manage to perform well in a particular language with just a huge collection of vocabulary, but still in order to become proficient in the language, the knowledge of grammar is...
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Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I have just taught my student modal verbs. For A2-B1 level students I know I will teach students about capacity, obligation..., but for B2 students I will teach prediction.
Using English Grammar Profile Online (EGP) website is so useful for my teaching in the future. -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I use multiple ways to test grammar, such as;
Types of Tests
Multiple Choice Tests. Probably the most common way of testing grammatical knowledge is the multiple choice test. ...
Error Correction. ...
Items to Test Knowledge of Word/Sentence Order. ...
Completion Items. ...
Transformation Items. ...
Word Changing Items. ...
Sentence Combining... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
It is really very useful. The English Vocabulary Profile contains information about phrases, idioms and collocations as well as the words themselves. By leaving the text box blank and selecting one of the levels, you can generate lists of words for each level; but you can also filter these using the advanced search functions, to find out what 'food and drink'...
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Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
It is really excellent to use with my students.
This part of the program provides us with a great deal of feedback, based on the tasks is completed. As well as the results of our language and placement tests, It will be offered useful information and expert advice.
It is really good for students to check their answers against the correct answers. They can... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I usually use flash cards for vocabulary, that are really helpful for the students to learn better. I give a set of words that they will have to put in sentences to give away its meaning.
Different test formats test different aspects of vocabulary.
I make sure that my students ‘know a word’ to check all of the following:meaning and use: this can depend...
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Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
When I was a student I took many vocabulary and grammar test. In Pakistan it is compulsory to have English and Urdu grammar tests.
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules which influences the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given language. It is the systematic study and description of a language, and it helps us to understand... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
When I was a student, I had grammar and vocabulary tests in English and in my own language, It is very important in Pakistan. I teach Grammar and vocabulary throughout my lessons.
Although grammar and vocabulary are traditionally thought of as separate areas of language teaching, new work on word patterns suggests that they can usefully be combined. All words... -
I would like to change my previous answer.
my answer is sometimes.
Language is made up of systems and skills. The four systems of language are grammar, vocabulary, phonology and discourse.Example
The UCLES English proficiency exams explicitly test the four skills and also two systems, grammar and vocabulary.In the classroom
Although most modern... -
I realise my spelling went wrong in my comments.
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I consider vocabulary and grammar as building blocks, not something to test directly. It coverss in the four skills.
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Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I really like the course. The week's progress is so informative. I learned the lower level and higher level process in reading and listening sub skills.In general, our tests are communicative and focus on meaning-making and creating aspects of language rather than discrete forms. If the test in question sets out to give you information about a person's...
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Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
The really important thing is that whatever policy is adopted regarding spelling, the learners must know how the assessment is to be marked in advance. This is part of making a test fair and enabling learners to understand why they have achieved the grades they have.
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Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I will use listening 2 and I will also give to my students the opportunity to listen to the track twice. I think that the main point with assessment is to check what our students are able to get through their listening skills.
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Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
The task and the value of marks are not balanced, as the student is writing four words for one mark and then three words for another one mark.
There should be more questions, because just 2 questions are not enough to assess learners' ability and skills. It is not suitable for A2 level.
If the learner gets part of an answer correct (e.g. they answer Park... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I always make sure that the instructions are clear, so that my students will know exactly what to do. It’s generally a good idea to include an example to avoid any possible misunderstanding.
I always make sure that my students must understand what the criteria are. For example, we want to determine the weighting of the different tasks and questions. Are we... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I completely agree with the internet offers that there we can find a huge amounts of freely accessible listening resources, including some graded materials. Sometimes they also include ready-made tasks, but yes if the internet connection is slow or not stable, it can be risky to listen directly from the Internet during a test thats why I tried to create my own...
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Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
Listening is processed in real life. It means learners listen to somebody or a recording once. Therefore, the test should be graded from easy to difficult tasks and also using a variety of task-types.
The tasks in a listening test should be set from simple level to complex. This will be easy for students to complete the task.
I use multiple choice questions... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
Since couple of years, I have created my own listening audio files with the memo recording and also voice recordings to use different people's voices. I prepared the text for them to record, I recorded these listening materials and used in my class rooms, it was so effective for my students to listen different tones and voices. I have prepared those according...
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Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
The listening tests I have developed for my students: I include the first three sub-skills listed above.
one part was for listening for gist, because listening for gist is a general understanding. Students do not have to understand every word, the idea should be clear enough.
Listening for specific information: students focus on the main point; key words... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
Most of the problems that encountered are the differences of accent, intonation, stress as they are learning a foreign language.
So to be familiar with those accent, intonation and stress, I ask my students to watch some dramas, news or some documentaries to get into habit of listening a new language.
Listening is very important to be able to speak or to... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
Listening is clearly a very important part of communication; we listen, then we respond, but how do we know when to respond?
A real life listening activity:
Discussing progress on a course in a tutorial. Lower order processing by the students allows the decoding of utterances and higher order processing allows the student to make connections between these... -
They are all insightful and useful resources from tips to choose the right texts, selecting the most appropriate tasks to scoring efficiently. I'll incorporate them when I'm developing tests in the future.
I like the idea of having more than one person developing and checking the tests. From experience, it's more time consuming because we often disagree... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I have chosen;
The Aptis and the Cambridge Young Learners TestsAptis has 5 tasks -
1 -gap fill
2- Order the sentences
3- Multiple choice.
4- Information transfer.
4- Matching the topics to the given paragraphs.
Yes they are based on real life activities.Cambridge test was divided into 3 sets - pre A1, A1 and A2.
The pre-A1 set had a... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
The students from my country are not familiar with the topics discussed in the articles. The texts can be used in a classroom as the teacher will be there to scaffold and support students with some additional informations but not for test purposes.
I have never noticed any unsuitable or culturally biased task in the material I've used so far, but I think... -
I am impressed by this. I have been using these tools in my teaching. They are so interesting and useful. I'll use them not just for assessment purposes but also for teaching the language skills in general.
The reading level tool is useful. The other text inspector scores such as vocd were confusing to me.
I put in a short essay that I'd written and got... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
When assessing the difficulty level of the test I would consider the sentence structures vocabulary and the length of the text.
I usually think about content, grammar structure, vocabulary, and if the text is relevant to students.
Authenticity is also important, because it seems to me that the more authentic the material, the more interested students are... -
When assessing the difficulty level of the test I would consider the sentence structures vocabulary and the length of the text.
I usually think about content, grammar structure, vocabulary, and if the text is relevant to students.
Authenticity is also important, because it seems to me that the more authentic the material, the more interested students are... -
All types of texts are appropriate to assess the reading skill include the abstract from a journal article, financial report, the hotel brochure and the description of a process, but depends on the learners' need.
Example:1: It is suitable for level 3-4, adult learners. The reason is that they can read articles from newspapers.
Example 2: It is good for... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
*-I give a screening assessments or a task to my students at the start of their course to determine which students are at risk of struggling with reading. They are not used to diagnose specific skill gaps; rather, they help to identify them who need diagnostic assessments, as well as who may require supplemental intervention. Screening assessments should be...
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Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I have read three types of reading last week; skimming, scanning, and intensive reading.
I am editor of one journal, called "Aabgeenei", and it publishes monthly, It becomes online on the 1st of each month, so I had to do the proofreading and it was my careful and intensive reading.
I was skimmed and scanned my social media that covers; previous lessons,... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I believe that reading and listening aren't passive any more because through which the learners can improve their productive skills as well.
Reading and listening involve receiving information and so they are called the receptive skills.
The receptive skills are those skills where meaning is extracted from the spoken or written discourse. These skills are... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
Richard and you have discussed very well the week's content and clarified the terminology used in week one's education.
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Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
Many many thanks to the expert educators for insightful teaching of how to assess the two productive skills. Got an in depth understanding on the two areas.
Review on the week one is so helpful. -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
My students are required for their exam to write presentations, their personal experiences- holidays, family, house etc, and to give and ask informations.
I ask them to write about current news, they really enjoy writing about news. -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
1-Task 3: This task is achievable to my students.
2-Band 6. My students can address all parts of the task, although some parts may be more fully covered than others.
3- My students need to address all parts of the task. Presents a clear position rather the relevant position.
4- Presents extend and supports main ideas rather than relevant main ideas.
To... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I work on my own. Idid not have any opportunity to discuss such an issue.
I have strong feeling of a standardisation meeting can help me and my colleagues, because its a good idea to to maintain consistence as well as further practice. -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I did not know ....The Aptis writing scale is more holistic while IELTS scale is very analytical. The Aptis is more convenient for teachers. Accuracy in assessing Aptis is holistic; IELTS is analytic. IELTS requires more analytic than Aptis.
I use both types of scale to mark my writing depending on the tasks they do.
but usually I use analytical rating... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I enjoyed the test. I was interested in Travel Club task.
There I had to share my experiences with three members based on their questions.
Language functions were giving informations, expressing excitement, sharing experiences etc.
The set up was informal but as the task had asked to respond in sentences, the responses became formal. The test takers have... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
1- I have written sms, what's app messages, emails, shopping list as well as
articles for my journal, comments in others' posts, poems and some
notes for research for my articles, lesson plans, social media posts,
messages to my colleagues.
2_. I ask my students to write about their past; for example, their past
... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
*-Feedback is very important for the students to check their speaking ability.
*- Looking at the differences between a student’s current level and the next level on the scale helps me (as a teacher) to give focused feedback.
*-At the next level up, students should begin talking about unfamiliar topics. In addition to their simple vocabulary, I encourage my... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
A- This week I have written emails, Social media posts, whats' app messages, Twitter, shopping lists, answers to questions on telegram, lots of social media, articles and poetry to read to audience in our meetings and ect.
B- My students have written basically academic texts. Prepare their presentations, write description on some images, Topic related... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
*-My students' level ranges from 3 in lexis and grammar.
*-At the next level up, 4. Student should be able to talk about familiar topics an convey basic meaning on unfamiliar topics also start formulating someone else's ideas in their own words.
*-In my feedback, I need to help them to improve their vocabulary for precise expressions and for the right use of... -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I agree with Mr Barry O'Sullivan. Assessing in groups can be very effective, while students are speaking naturally.
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Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
Time.
we really need to listen students' speaking. -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I try to assess during the lesson. I make notes on the learners mistakes and their problem areas.
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Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
1-We just need to be aware of this complexity when designing a test of speaking.
2- If there is a big group of students. I could assess students in groups, or we could record them speaking and listen to the recordings later.
3- Mainly my teaching involves one to one basis. So its not difficult to assess them. -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I can tailor the lessons to each learners needs.
I prepare my lessons according to the students' individual needs. Most of my students are familiar with the A1 – C2 rating. -
Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
I usually use all formats.
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Lecturer Mudassera Abbasi made a comment
Describing something: For example, describing a picture.
Comparing things:It encourages students to compare and contrast two different things.
Giving some personal information:
Giving some descriptions.
Telling stories about their holidays, etc. -
Teaching to test makes the student focus on only things which will come into the exams but teaching to construct helps the learner to learn more about the course so will prefer teaching to construct in my class so my learners can lead for the future and not only exams, but students need to concentrate on their tests as well to get good marks.
