Innovation in Language Learning

The teaching of higher-order thinking skills has been identified as an important educational goal and studies within language learning indicate that these skills have an influence on language learning [1, 2, 3]. While there are indications that assessment tasks in online courses often focus on lower-order thinking skills [4], little is still known about if and how thinking skills are assessed in online EFL courses. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate the use of higher-order thinking assessment in these courses. Based on the revised version of Bloom’s Taxonomy [5], assessment tasks used in EFL courses at Swedish universities have been classified into higher- and lower-order thinking tasks. The analysis of the data proved that three of four courses included more assessment tasks focusing on higher-order thinking than on lower-order thinking. However, a significant difference was detected between literature and linguistic modules. These differences seem to be partially based on the different assessment formats used in literature and linguistic modules. An investigation of literature and linguistic teachers’ views on higher-order thinking skills, reveals small differences in how these skills are understood. The present study provides insight into how thinking skills are assessed and developed in online language courses.

[1] Soodmand Afshar, Hassan, and Hossein Movassagh. 2014. On the relationship among critical thinking, language learning strategy use and university achievement of Iranian English as a foreign language majors, The Language Learning Journal, 45: 382-98.

[2] Alcón, Eva Guzman 1993. High cognitive questions in Nns group classroom discussion: do they facilitate comprehension and production of foreign language?, RELC journal, 24: 73-85

[3] Yang, and J. Gamble. 2013. Effective and practical critical thinking-enhanced EFL instruction, ELT Journal, 67: 398-412.

[4] Boitshwarelo, B., Reedy, A. K., & Billany, T. 2017. Envisioning the use of online tests in assessing twenty-first century learning: a literature review, Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning, 12(1). doi:10.1186/s41039-017-0055-7

[5] Anderson, Lorin W, and David R Krathwohl. 2001. A Taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing (Allyn and Bacon: Boston).