“BUT I KNOW THE WORD IN ENGLISH, JUST NOT IN GERMAN!” - THE UNFAIRNESS OF VOCABULARY -TRANSLATION TESTING AND LISTS

Authors

  • Laura Buechel Zurich University of Teacher Education, Zürich, Switzerland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46827/ejel.v7i1.4147

Keywords:

vocabulary, translation, teacher training

Abstract

Due to convenience and expectations from parents, learners and other levels of schooling, Vocabulary-translation lists and test tests are one of the most frequent teaching and testing formats used in Swiss primary and lower secondary schools. This style of testing in ELT is, however, is fraught with problems ranging from the unfairness to learners who do not speak the local language (here German) at home, to the measures of what constructs are actually being assessed through such tests. Such tests are a frequent topic of discussion and discord in pre and in-service teacher training. In this paper, reasons for not using such tests and suggestions for alternative list forms and test types serving similar purposes are presented.

 

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Author Biography

  • Laura Buechel, Zurich University of Teacher Education, Zürich, Switzerland

    Laura Loder Buechel has been a teacher trainer in Zurich for over twenty years. She is originally from the US and holds an undergraduate degree from LaSalle University in Philadelphia, her MA from Northern Arizona University and her PhD from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. Her main joy in life is practicing what she preaches. She is an editor of Babylonia, the Swiss journal of language teaching and learning (https://babylonia.online/). You can read more about her work here: https://phzh.ch/personen/laura.loder.

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Published

2022-01-31

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 1 (2022)

Section

Articles

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