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<p class="MsoNormal">Hi folks, </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">After many years of talking about this issue, I have lodged my feedback on the ESL exam with VCAA. I have also sent this around to a couple of on-line email discussion lists. (Last time I did this was in relation to the removal of
<i>The Reluctant Fundamentalist </i> from the text list and VCAA then made a change. I not expect to have the same success this time, but it is possible that if enough people give the same feedback, change will happen.
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The VCAA survey is being circulated. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Perhaps this will spark an interest.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Get rid of the note-form summary. The instruction "Do not use complete sentences" is linguistically ill-informed and semantically ludicrous. As soon as a student has
a complete verb, they have a complete sentence. This puts the note form summary at odds with the pieces of writing they are meant to analyse. The writing is persuasive, therefore the whole purpose is to undertake the process of persuading. There is naturally
enough a contention and an intention, and that intention relates to shaping opinion and sometimes actions. The function is centered around effect and thus verbs are necessary. To exorcise verbs is to cut against the whole function of the text and common
sense. This means that ESL teachers spend their time teaching ESL students how to avoid constructing proper sentences for Section C, then spend the rest of their time teaching ESL students how to construct complete sentences for Sections A and B. It is a tremendous
irony that an English exam carries the instruction "Do not use complete sentences".</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">I can see the argument that a note-form may be valid academic task. But that does not explain the emphatic instruction “Your response must be in note form. Do not use
complete sentences.” I simply do not see why you can note have a note form summary which includes complete verbs. I know examiners are then duty bound to reward those students who have managed to sidestep verbs and see look less favourably upon writing where
they use their eagle eyes to spy a verb. It gets into the realm of the ridiculous when teachers argue that the writing can have verbs, but not full stops and capital letters, because it is the punctuation that makes the sentence complete. This is not what
I want to be talking to ESL students about. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Section C was too long for ESL students. Students doing English only have to do one task in this section, but ESL student have to do two. Getting the two tasks done in
the time and processing all of the written information means that students who possibly could demonstrate skills in the tasks will have been burdened by the reading load. The decoding aspect of the task was too onerous and detracted from the text user, text
participant and text analyst aspects of critical reading.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Greta Caruso</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:"Rockwell Light""><img width="434" height="39" id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image001.png@01CDB8E3.162F7BB0" alt="Description: Description: Description: cid:3409834952_8763038"></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:"Rockwell Light""><br>
</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:"Rockwell","serif""><br>
<span style="color:#002F5B">355 Station Street, Box Hill, Victoria, Australia 3128<br>
T: +61 3 9896 1706 </span><span style="color:#002E5A"><br>
</span><span style="color:#002F5B">E:</span><a href="mailto:caruso.g@kingswoodcollege.vic.edu.au"><span style="color:blue">caruso.g@kingswoodcollege.vic.edu.au</span></a></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt; color:black"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt; font-family:"Rockwell","serif""><a href="http://www.kingswoodcollege.vic.edu.au/"><span style="color:blue">www.kingswoodcollege.vic.edu.au</span></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:"Rockwell","serif"; color:#002F5B">CRICOS Provider 00150G</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.5pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; color:#1F497D">----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<br>
<b>Confidential: </b><br>
The information in this message and in any attachments may be confidential. <br>
If you are not the intended recipient of this message, you must not read, forward, print, copy, disclose, or use in any way the information this message or any attachment contains.
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</span><span style="color:#1F497D"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:"Rockwell Light"; color:black"><img border="0" width="434" height="39" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.png@01CDB8E3.162F7BB0" alt="Description: Description: cid:3409834952_8763038"><br>
</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:"Rockwell","serif"; color:black"><br>
</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:"Rockwell","serif"; color:#002F5B">355 Station Street, Box Hill, Victoria, Australia 3128<br>
T: +61 3 9896 1706 </span><span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:"Rockwell","serif"; color:#002E5A"><br>
</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:"Rockwell","serif"; color:#002F5B">E:</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:"Rockwell","serif"; color:black"><a href="mailto:caruso.g@kingswoodcollege.vic.edu.au"><span style="color:blue">caruso.g@kingswoodcollege.vic.edu.au</span></a></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt; color:black"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt; font-family:"Rockwell","serif"; color:black"><a href="http://www.kingswoodcollege.vic.edu.au/"><span style="color:blue">www.kingswoodcollege.vic.edu.au</span></a></span><span style="color:black"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:"Rockwell","serif"; color:#002F5B">CRICOS Provider 00150G</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.5pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<br>
<b>Confidential: </b><br>
The information in this message and in any attachments may be confidential. <br>
If you are not the intended recipient of this message, you must not read, forward, print, copy, disclose, or use in any way the information this message or any attachment contains.
<br>
If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately and delete or destroy all copies of this message and any attachments.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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