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19Компьютерное тестирование в современных электронных образовательных системах как способ повышения качества обучения иностранному языку в юридическом вузе
Боровкова Марина Владимировна,
кандидат филологических наук, доцент, Уральский государственный юридический университет, кафедра русского, иностранных языков и культуры речи E-mail: mborovkova@rambler.ru
Ялаева Наталья Вячеславовна,
кандидат педагогических наук, доцент Уральский государственный юридический университет, кафедра русского, иностранных языков и культуры речи E-mail: yalaeva-nv@mail.ru
Садыкова Наталья Валерьевна,
старший преподаватель Уральский государственный юридический университет, кафедра русского, иностранных языков и культуры речи E-mail: nine999@list.ru
Статья посвящена использованию компьютерного тестирования в системе «INDIGO» как одному из способов повышения качества подготовки специалистов в области права со знанием профессионального юридического иностранного языка. Авторы описывают особенности работы в тестовой системе "INDIGO". В статье рассматривается структура системы и различные виды тестовых заданий. Даются примеры заданий и индивидуальных настроек. Приводятся принципы отбора лексического и грамматического материала на основе терминологического минимума. Авторы представляют статистику выполнения теста, критерии оценивания и статистический анализ по баллам, по шкалам и по ответам. Кроме того, говорится о возможности создания печатных версий тестов с помощью данной системы с возможностью их электронного редактирования с сохранением результатов контроля для дальнейшей работы со студентами. Делаются выводы о возможности оптимизации и интенсификации процесса обучения с помощью данной системы, что, несомненно, приводит к достижению основной цели образования - повышению ее качества.
Ключевые слова: тестовая система «INDIGO»; тесты; качество профессионального образования; педагогическая диагностика; структура теста
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At present, in the epoch of reforms, the pedagogical community faces the task of improving the quality of education, which is one of the priority issues for the society. The quality of education is understood as a complex of characteristics attributed to professional identity [1, p. 14]. They reflect the ability of a specialist to carry out professional activity in accordance with the demands at the current stage of development in the area of the economy, at a certain level of professional success, and with understanding of responsibility for the results of professional activity. The improvement of quality in the sphere of professional education may go on within the following fields: increase in the quality of management, introduction of new educational technologies; development of personal aptitudes; and self-education experience [2, p.2].
In our article we would like to pay special attention to the issue of introducing the information technologies into the educational process as one of the means to achieve the main goal of education - increasing the quality of education, ensuring the harmoniously developed personality exposed to information and communication capacities of modern technologies, particularly to the use of computer-aided tests in modern electronic educational system "INDIGO" for teaching legal foreign languages to students.
From the view of several scholars, such as V.I. Vas-il'ev, N.V. Efremova, V.A. Krasil'nikova, N.V. Yalaeva, A. Hughes, K. Ingenkamp, and D. Cristol, computer-aided testing is one of the most efficient forms of pedagogical diagnostics. It enhances the organization and quality of education [3, p.112], [4, p.115]. Testing differs from the other methods of evaluation due to uniform requirements for selecting grammar and lexical material and for methods of processing and interpreting information as well as to the very process of conducting tests[5, p.212] [6, p.119].
As mentioned above, in order to achieve the quality of teaching foreign languages in the Ural State law University we use "INDIGO" testing system. This system presents a high-tech software complex, which allows to create and edit texts, conduct various types of tests, gather, analyze and to process the outcome. "INDIGO" testing system can be used for many specific pedagogical purposes:
• control testing;
• educational and training testing;
• examination that includes open types of questions with the possibility of writing an essay;
• organization of distance foreign language contests and competitions;
• listening (audition).
A lecturer can create five types of questions within the constructor of the said system:
1. choosing one option from the list;
2. choosing several options from the list;
3. typing texts or digits on the keyboard;
4. matching;
5. giving the right order.
It is necessary to point out that each of the above said types of questions has its individual settings.
By an example of a test developed in the "INDIGO" system at the Department of Russian, Foreign Languages and Culture of Speech of the Ural State Law University, we'll consider the entire process of creating tests.
The main goals of creating a test in a foreign language in "INDIGO" system were:
1) to check the conformance of skills, competence and the expertise of students with the aims of study at a certain level of competence development;
2) to assess the knowledge objectively and independently;
3) to make a statistical processing and analysis of information about the results of education.
The process of creating a test included the following activities: selecting the language material, creating bank of testing tasks, drafting the test structure, and analyzing the results of testing.
The selection of language material for testing was carried out only after thorough analysis of texts, the frequency of the language use and students' mistakes. Besides common language, the terminological minimum was defined. It provided the understanding of legal texts and communication on professional topics [7, p.82].
Lexical material for testing was selected according to following principles:
• thematic principle ("Judicial Systems" and "Legal Professions");
• principle of terminological importance (only terms expressing the most important notions were selected);
• principle of frequency (internet corpus of English language was used ttps://corpus.byu.edu/glowbe/);
• principle of word-building value - the more derivatives, the more reasons to include the term into thesaurus.
Grammar material was selected according to the themes studied by the students, namely Complex Object, Complex Subject, Participles, Modals, Reported Speech, Tenses, and Prepositions.
Reading tasks were represented by professionally oriented texts on the topics "Judicial Systems" and "Legal Professions". Working with the professional text, a student is acquainted with its structure, linguistic and stylistic peculiarities that facilitates better understanding of a text while reading and adequate interpretation of this text [8, p.62].
We used three types of tasks out of five offered by "INDIGO" system, such as:
1. choosing one option from the list;
2. choosing several options from the list;
3. matching.
The following are the examples of tasks with the choice of one correct answer:
1. Choose the correct grammar form of the verb:
The company___to settle a dispute out-of-
court this week.
• has agreed agreed
is agreed was agreed
2. Choose the best suitable word missed in the sentence:
Most professional barristers are___and usually
work in chambers.
• self-employed employees employers unemployed
The following is the example of a task with the choice of several correct answers from the list:
3. Read the text and choose the statements corresponding to its content:
In England, technically, it is not necessary to have a university degree in law in order to enter the profession, but nowadays most people do because a degree will allow one to move quickly to the next stage. After the academic stage comes the vocational stage - a period of training for the legal career. To qualify as a barrister, one must take a one-year Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) followed by the Bar Final examination. On-the-job training involves a yearlong pupilage at barrister's chambers when you shadow an experienced barrister.
A law degree is required to work as a barrister.
• Both the BPTC and pupilage last for one year.
• During the pupilage, you follow a barrister around the chambers.
• A law degree makes the career faster.
We developed 256 tasks only forty from which were included into sampling. Each student has different tasks from 24 categories on the screen.
The test consists of 24 sections (10 grammar sections, 12 lexical sections and two reading sections). Then we completed a special form with the information about the unique numbers of testing task, the quantity of testing tasks in the element of structure, the quantity of testing tasks in sampling and points that are earned for this task, the type of testing task (one or several correct answers, matching variants).
The next step after forming a structure is settings. They include the type of test (control, educational or poll), time setting for the conducting of a work, mixing the variants of the test (not to mix, to mix all questions or use individual setting for several questions), settings that show the number of mistakes and correct answers in the end of the test, settings for the number of points for each task, etc. There are additional settings for educational tests (explanations while testing, checking the answers, displaying the correct answer, etc.). Besides, it is possible to include the instruction for the test. The more important is that the trainee can personally set the assessment system and has possi-
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bility to edit the tasks. After testing, the student sees the results on the screen immediately. In case the test is a training or educational one, there is a possibility to review the tasks done with mistakes.
The test developed by the lecturers of our department was piloted in the Institute of Justice of the Ural State Law University. Students studying for the specialist diploma were the first ones who cope with it in December of 2018. All the students studying for a bachelor's degree did it in May of 2019/ Control testing based on the "INDIGO" testing system on the topics "Judicial Systems" and "Legal professions" were held in a computer classroom 1152 students took part in the testing.
For processing and analyzing the results of testing, "INDIGO" offers a large amount of various reports that allow the lecturer to analyze the results and pay attention to sections that were particularly challenging for students:
1. Statistics on points: the maximum point for the given category of questions was 2. From the form below we see that the percentage for performance of the task is 55,16, average point for the task is 1,1 out of 2. The easiest task was number 1 (27 correct answers and 7 incorrect answers), the most difficult was task number 2 (10 correct answers and 19 incorrect answers).
Tablel. Statistics on points
Group Grammar. Complex Object. Skills
Q № 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Q type
Total 34 29 36 33 34 26 27 33 252
Right 27 10 15 22 22 15 11 17 139
Partly 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Wrong 7 19 21 11 12 11 16 16 113
Skipped 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
GPA 0,79 0,34 0,42 0,67 0,65 0,58 0,41 0,52 1,1
Max 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2
Percentage 79,4 34,48 41,67 66,67 64,71 57,69 40,74 51,52 55,16
2. Statistics on scales shows the points got by the students, the most and the least number of points.
3. Statistics on answers gives us an objective picture of how students answered the test questions.
The analysis of the results of the test allows us to make a conclusion that the goals set while preparing testing materials have been achieved - the students are able to reproduce the information learned and to use in practice the knowledge got during the study of a discipline.
The ultimate advantage of INDIGO" system of testing control is its close feedback with the developer of the test. The said feedback is represented by the ° block of statistical data and reports on different cri" teria: on the result or on sampling of the results, sep-g arately on the user or a group of students. The pre-~ sented results allow us to make a conclusion about the
academic performance of the students and about the quality of testing tasks. In case there are some infringements on original selection criteria of testing tasks, it is recommended to carry out correctional measures in order to improve the quality of testing materials.
It is necessary to note that testing aimed at checking the knowledge does not cover all the spectrum of functional options allowing to solve a great number of tasks which "INDIGO" system implies. For example, flexible mechanism of the system's settings offers to combine the tasks from different format of files including audio and video files, attach references to files from internet as well as to create a file storage for the exchange of study materials. Owing to it, this test system is easily adapted to the peculiar demands of educational process within the limits of a specific task class. The system can be used to form the individual educational trajectories, incorporating the idea of individualization and differentiation of education which leads to improving the quality of teaching foreign languages.
The possibility to generate paper-and-pencil tests provides the conducting of test without computers with the remaining option to make an output of several variants with keys. All types of reports can also be printed for keeping or further analytical processing.
The results of working with the "INDIGO" system allow to state that its use helps improving the quality of teaching foreign languages in law school, intensifies the self-study work and motivates the students to learn professional foreign language. Stuffing the tools of the system with methodical and educational materials and creating the resource base with the elements of interactive communication defines the complex of activities based at improving the quality of teaching professional foreign-language communicative competence.
Литература
1. Общеевропейские компетенции владения иностранным языком: изучение, обучение, оценка / под общ. ред. К.М. Ирисхановой. - М.: Московский государственный лингвистический университет, 2005. - 248с.
2. Садков В.Г., Силаева О.А., Брехова Т.Б. Система управления качеством высшего образования в регионах России //https://quality.eup.ru/ MATERIALY5/sadkov.html
3. Ялаева Н.В. Компьютерное тестирование как средство интенсификации обучения английскому языку в юридическом вузе: дис. канд. пед. наук. -Екатеринбург, 2003. - 233 с.
4. Hughes, Arthur Testing for Language Teachers (Cambridge Language Testing Library) Cambridge University Press, 2003. - 255p.
5. Ингенкамп К. Педагогическая диагностика/ Ингенкамп К.; пер. с нем. - М. Педагоги-ка,1991-240 c.
6. Cristol, Denis. Former, se former etapprendre a i'erenumerique. ESF Editeur, 2014. - 225 p.
7. Вишнякова Н.Г. Определение состава и объема терминологического словаря-минимума для неязыкового вуза / Н.Г. Вишнякова // сб.:
Вопросы теории и методики преподавания иностранных языков на неязыковых факультетах педвузов. - М., 1989. - С. 81-98. 8. Боровкова М.В. Лингвостилистический статус текстов юридической интерпретации и юридического толкования (на материале немецкоязычных и русскоязычных текстов): Монография. - Екатеринбург: Изд-во ЕАСИ, 2010. -208 с.
COMPUTER-AIDED TESTING IN MODERN ELECTRONIC EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS AS A MEANS OF IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES IN LAW SCHOOL
Borovkova M.V., Yalaeva N.V., Sadykova N.V.
Ural State Law University Russia
The article is devoted to the use of computer-aided testing in "INDIGO" system as one of the ways to improve the quality of specialists' education in the sphere of law with the knowledge of professional legal foreign language. The authors describe the specific features of work within "INDIGO" testing system. The given article examines the structure of the system and different types of testing tasks. It presents examples of exercises and individual settings. The authors describe the principles of selecting lexical and grammar material on the basis of terminological minimum. The authors reveal the statistics of test performance, the assessment criteria, and the statistical analysis based on points, scales, and answers. Besides, the article states that there is a possibility to create a printed version of texts with the help of the said system, to edit them electronically, and to save the results of the test for the future work with students. The authors draw conclusions that it is possible to optimize and intensify
the educational process with the help of this system. The said will definitely lead to the achievement of the main aim of education - the improvement of its quality.
Keywords: "INDIGO" testing system, tests, quality of professional education, pedagogical diagnostics, text structure.
References
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3. Yalaeva N.V. Computer testing as a means of intensifying the teaching of English in a law school: dis. Cand. ped sciences. Yekaterinburg, 2003. - 233 p.
4. Hughes, Arthur Testing for Language Teachers (Cambridge Language Testing Library) Cambridge University Press, 2003.— 255 p.
5. Ingenkamp K. Pedagogical diagnosis / Ingenkamp K .; trans. with him. - M. Pedagogy, 1991-240 p.
6. Cristol, Denis. Former, se former etapprendre a l'érenumérique. ESF Editeur, 2014. - 225 p.
7. Vishnyakova N.G. Determination of the composition and volume of the terminological minimum vocabulary for a non-linguistic university / N.G. Vishnyakova // Sat .: Issues of theory and methods of teaching foreign languages at non-linguistic faculties of pedagogical universities. - M., 1989. - P. 81-98.
8. Borovkova MV The linguostylistic status of texts of legal interpretation and legal interpretation (based on the material of German and Russian texts): Monograph. - Yekaterinburg: Publishing house of EASI, 2010. - 208 p.
