Martin Walker

Designing Tasks – Language Issues

So you think you can write questions, eh?

And mark schemes?

Make you very crossword

Think about setting task for aquatic insect (4,6)

Araucaria

Araucaria araucanaThe monkey puzzle tree

Pond skater

Differentiate Carrier and Technical and/or subject-specific Language

• Carrier Language can be defined as the language used by the teacher to set a task or test, rather than that involved in teaching new concepts

• It is important to make Carrier Language as accessible as possible, whilst acknowledging the need for awareness of appropriate technical terms or linguistic structures

Show how the same word can be both Carrier Language and Technical Language in different contexts

• “Locate” can in most instances be changed to “find” but in Geography it is a subject-specific term that cannot be modified

• “Hard” and “soft” are everyday words, but in Science, “hard water” and “soft water” are subject-specific terms

• In History, a candidate should be aware of the term “primary evidence” but might be confused if this were changed to “first hand information”

Understand the purpose of source materials. Be careful when modifying original sources

Source B The creation of India in August 1947 was followed by the granting of independence to Burma in January 1948. In May 1948 Britain left Palestine. In all these areas Britain was no longer able to maintain order and the advantages gained from empire were far outweighed by the costs. Strategic arguments for holding these parts of the Empire seemed irrelevant. As Hugh Dalton, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, commented on Palestine, ‘you cannot have a secure base on top of a wasps’ nest’.

Adapted from D REYNOLDS, Britannia Overruled, 2000

Reading Age (in years)

Financial Times TES‘A Tale of Two Cities’ (Dickens)‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’ (Lee)‘Lord of the Flies’ (Golding) ‘Kes: A Kestrel for a Knave’ (Hines)

Reading Age (in years)

Financial Times TES‘A Tale of Two Cities’ (Dickens)‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’ (Lee)‘Lord of the Flies’ (Golding) ‘Kes: A Kestrel for a Knave’ (Hines)

17½ 17 13 11½11 10½

SIR Paul McCartney wept openly as he serenaded his bride after their wedding yesterday.

The Beatle, 69, plugged in his guitar at the reception to sing a ballad he had written to seal his love for US heiress Nancy Shevell, 51.After the wedding at a London register office, he said: "I feel absolutely wonderful."Ecstatic Sir Paul, – married for the third time — then told as he clutched new bride Nancy Shevell's hand how she made him feel "terrific".Macca paid tribute to his American heiress "soulmate" after the newlyweds emerged from their register office ceremony and were showered with confetti.Crowds of fans cheered as the Beatles legend raised his bride's hand in triumph before the couple headed to a star-studded reception at his nearby mansion.Hundreds of wellwishers had gathered there at the gates. Asked how he felt, Macca declared: "Terrific, thank you — I feel married."

Revealed: how lobbyists were paid to facilitate meeting with Liam Fox Political lobbyists were paid thousands of pounds to help a Dubai-based businessman arrange a secretive meeting with, which the defence secretary claims came about only after a chance meeting in a restaurant.Invoices seen by the Guardian show that Harvey Boulter, the private equity boss at the heart of the growing controversy engulfing Fox, was paying £10,000 a month to lobbyists for help that included brokering the meeting with Fox through Adam Werritty, who claimed to be an "adviser to the Rt Hon Dr Fox MP".This latest revelation comes as Fox finally admitted on Sunday that it had been "wrong" for him to meet Boulter, a commercial partner of the Ministry of Defence, in Dubai's five-star Shangri-la hotel without any officials present."I accept that it was a mistake to allow distinctions to be blurred between my professional responsibilities and my personal loyalties to a friend," he said. "I am sorry for this."Fox's apology to the prime minister came two months after the Guardian first asked him to explain his relationship with Werritty, who appears to have been operating in Fox's shadow for a decade.

Which is which?

Any surprises?

Flesch Ease measure

Score Notes90.0–100.0 easily understandable by an average 11-year-old student60.0–70.0 easily understandable by 13- to 15-year-old students0.0–30.0 best understood by university graduates

Rudolf Flesch & Peter Kincaid US Navy 1975

Complex Language

This plainer version removes empty phrases such as “given that” and is more elegant and easier to grasp.

Passive Voice

The passive voice of a verb tells us that:

rather than

Something is being done

Someone is doing something

The passive voice can be a difficult structure for some readers to grasp. The passive voice is one of the last syntactic structures to develop and is thereforeoften not acquired in children with language difficulties.

Example of Passive Voice Active Voice Used

subject - verb - object

The house was sold by an estate agent An estate agent sold the house

The show was watched by a large audience

A large audience watched the show

The invisible man can’t be seen You can’t see the invisible man

Dinner is taken at 7 o’clock We eat dinner at 7 o’clock

The solution is to change the passive to the active form wherever possible.

This can mean that the person carrying out the action becomes more of a focus thanthe examiner might have wanted, nevertheless it will help weak readers.

This is much easier for learners to understand if the Active Voice is used

Identify two faults that have been made in the design ofthe experiment shown, describing in each case how thefault can be corrected.

Identify two faults in the design of this experiment.Describe how to correct each fault.

Subordinate clauses

This could be written as: ‘Mr. Walker sat down’.You try writing then “unwriting” one

Sentence Type

The Sentence Contains Example

Simple One subject and one verb She walked to school

Compound Two or more simple sentences joined together with connectives such as “and”, “but”, “because”

She walked to school but went home on the bus

Complex A main clause and one or more subordinate clauses

Mr. Walker, the man from Durham who had arrived by taxi and was out of breath, sat down.

(The subordinate clause is: ‘the man from Durham who had arrived by taxi and was out of breath’.)

Complex language vs complex sentences - rhetoric

What is difficult here?

What General Weygand has called the Battle of France is over: the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say: This was their finest hour '.

Complex language vs complex sentences - rhetoric

I am Sam

I am SamSam I am

That Sam-I-amThat Sam-I-am!I do not likethat Sam-I-am

Do you likegreen eggs and ham

I do not like them,Sam-I-am.I do not likegreen eggs and ham.

Would you like themHere or there?

I would not like themhere or there.I would not like themanywhere.I do not likegreen eggs and ham.I do not like them,Sam-I-am

Would you like themin a house?Would you like themwith a mouse?

I do not like themin a house.I do not like themwith a mouse.I do not like themhere or there.I do not like themanywhere.I do not like green eggs and ham.I do not like them, Sam-I-am.

Ellipsis (leaving words out)

This is much easier for candidates to understand if it is written in the following way:

The negative

The negative can be a very difficult concept for some learners. It can almost always be avoided.

Avoid negative (‘not’) or partly negative (‘only’) expressions wherever possible. If a negative is essential to the question, try to phrase the question so that it ends in the word “except”.

Try this

Which option would you not take if you did not want to confuse the student by failing to not use the negative?

Modify and simplify the language whilst retaining the level of conceptual difficulty of the question

Q1 If a student were provided with three painted metal rods, one of which was known to be made from brass, one from magnetised steel and one from non-magnetised steel, describe how, without scratching the paint, the student could identify each of the rods.

Q1 A student has three metal rods•One is made from brass•One is made from magnetised steel•One is made from non-magnetised steel

The student is not allowed to scratch the paint on the rods.

Explain how the student could find out what each rod is made of.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Modify Instructional Language

• There is a hierarchy of instructions from ‘write down’ to ‘evaluate’

• Examiners know that choosing certain words makes increasing demands on the candidate

• Examiners are careful in choosing the appropriate instruction word to fit their requirement and the mark scheme

• An American Educational Psychologist called Benjamin Bloom researched the hierarchy of educational objectives and published what is now known as ‘Blooms Taxonomy’ in 1956

Modify Instructional Language

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Knowledge

observation and recall of informationknowledge of dates, events, placesknowledge of major ideasmastery of subject matter

Question Cues:list, define, tell, describe, identify, show, label, collect, examine, tabulate, quote, name, who, when, where, etc.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Comprehension

understanding informationgrasp meaningtranslate knowledge into new contextinterpret facts, compare, contrastorder, group, infer causespredict consequences

Question Cues: summarise, describe, interpret, contrast, predict, associate, distinguish, estimate, differentiate, discuss, extend

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Application

use informationuse methods, concepts, theories in new situationssolve problems using required skills or knowledge

Questions Cues: apply, demonstrate, calculate, complete, illustrate, show, solve, examine, modify, relate, change, classify, experiment, discover

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Analysis

seeing patternsorganisation of partsrecognition of hidden meaningsidentification of components

Question Cues:analyse, separate, order, explain, connect, classify, arrange, divide, compare, select, explain, infer

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Synthesis

use old ideas to create new onesgeneralise from given factsrelate knowledge from several areaspredict, draw conclusions

Question Cues:combine, integrate, modify, rearrange, substitute, plan, create, design, invent, what if?, compose, formulate, prepare, generalise, rewrite

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Evaluation

Evaluation is concerned with the ability to judge the value of material (statement, novel, poem, research report) for a given purpose. The judgments are to be based on definite criteria.. Learning outcomes in this area are highest in the cognitive hierarchy because they contain elements of all the other categories, plus conscious value judgments based on clearly defined criteria.

Question Cues:appraises, compares, concludes, contrasts, criticizes, critiques, defends, describes, discriminates, evaluates, explains, interprets, justifies, relates, summarizes, supports.

Show an appreciation of the hierarchy of instructional verbs

Identify the reasons that Britain went to war in 1939.

Evaluate the causes of the Second World War.

is very different from…

Writing Task - Inform/Explain

Write to explain your choice of ideal holiday destination.

Write to explain your choice of ideal holiday destination.

Using the Mirror of Nature,touching the silence of who we are and responding to

life from that place. This experience inspires the

WildQuest vision of Retreats and Adventures