Starr Ackley

This study investigated the impact of a critical view of variation in English on developing a critical view of variation in Arabic among Bahraini trainee teachers. The main focus was to clarify whether or not these critical views of world Englishes transfer to and develop critical views of Arabic as a first language. Bahraini trainee teachers, from the English specialization, participated in focus group discussions and completed an authors-developed survey. Interestingly, the results revealed positive criticality of Arabic as a consequence of training in world Englishes. Most noticeably, participants showed a critical view towards identity as speakers of a Bahraini variety, and developed new understanding of variety in the Arabic language from exposure to variety in English. The results suggest important implications for the diglossic situation in Arabic, the codification of varieties in Arabic, the balance between Arabic and English, bilingualism, and for language choices made in t...

This chapter discusses major contributions in research and professional assessment development and reviews key classifications in young language learner assessment (YLLA). Using the five-level metric (close, immediate, proximal, distal, and remote) by Ruiz-Primo et al., the authors classify assessments as curriculum aligned or non-aligned. Inequalities limiting access to learning and to opportunities for achievement (economic status, pre-primary education, digital environment) are linked to the five metrics. They review international examinations for YLLs (Cambridge, TOEFL, Pearson) and measure their alignment with an interactive and performative-enacted curriculum. Recommendations are given for separating external assessments as local or international in washback phenomena, for the inclusion of national assessment specialists in the research paradigm, and for greater attention to language assessment literacy in teacher training. The authors predict that increases in distance and di...