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How teachers' perceptions affect the academic and language assessment of immigrant children
Publication . Figueiredo, Sandra; Martins, Margarida Alves; Silva, Carlos Fernandes da; Simões, Cristina
Recent research evidences inconsistencies in teachers' practice regarding skills assessment of L2 students.
Scientific evidence supports that less experienced teachers have lower orientation toward multiple task-tests for
non-native students. Research questions: Whether school teachers as having different teaching training and
unequal teaching experience with non-native students perceive differently a four-skills scale. Purpose of the study:
This study intends to analyse the importance degree between the four skills/tasks: reading, writing, speaking and
listening, in the perspective of school teachers. Method: 77 teachers, aged 32-62, with (and without) experience in
teaching and adapting materials for immigrant students, divided into six groups according to their scientific
domain. Assessment tools included a scale for judgement of four academic tasks adapted from the original
“Inventory of Undergraduate and Graduate Level: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening Tasks (Rosenfeld,
Leung & Ottman, 2001). Main Findings: 1) different degrees of importance attributed by teachers on tasks that
should be included in academic and language test for immigrant students; 2) perceptions of teachers are
determined by predictors in this order: scientific domain, experience with multicultural classes and lower
prediction from teaching service and age; 3) different results between american and portuguese samples answering
the same questionnaire.
The big four skills: Teachers’ assumptions on measurement of non-native students cognition
Publication . Figueiredo, Sandra; Martins, Margarida Alves; Silva, Carlos Fernandes da; Nunes, Odete
The four-skills on tests for young native speakers commonly do not generate correlation incongruency concerning
the cognitive strategies frequently reported. Considering the non-native speakers there are parse evidence to
determine which tasks are important to assess properly the cognitive and academic language proficiency
(Cummins, 1980; 2012). Research questions: It is of high probability that young students with origin in
immigration significantly differ on their communication strategies and skills in a second language processing
context (1); attached to this first assumption, it is supposed that teachers significantly differ depending on their
scientific area and previous training (2). Purpose: This study intends to examine whether school teachers (K-12) as
having different origin in scientific domain of teaching and training perceive differently an adapted four-skills
scale, in European Portuguese. Research methods: 77 teachers of five areas scientific areas, mean of teaching year
service = 32 (SD= 2,7), 57 males and 46 females (from basic and high school levels). Main findings: ANOVA
(Effect size and Post-hoc Tukey tests) and linear regression analysis (stepwise method) revealed statistically
significant differences among teachers of different areas, mainly between language teachers and science teachers.
Language teachers perceive more accurately tasks in a multiple manner to the broad skills that require to be
measured in non-native students. Conclusion: If teachers perceive differently the importance of the big-four tasks,
there would be incongruence on skills measurement that teachers select for immigrant puppils. Non-balanced tasks
and the teachers’ perceptions on evaluation and toward competence of students would likely determine limitations
for academic and cognitive development of non-native students. Furthermore, results showed sufficient evidence
to conclude that tasks are perceived differently by teachers toward importance of specific skills subareas. Reading
skills are best considered compared to oral comphreension skills in non-native students.
The parental investment effect on immigrant children at schools: Employment and specialization of parents as an explaining variable for tasks achievement in second language
Publication . Figueiredo, Sandra; Martins, Margarida Alves; Silva, Carlos Fernandes da
The present research study examines how family environment has an impact on immigrant children’s task performance considering the Socioeconomic Status (SES) of parents, but focusing two dimensions of the immigrant SES specificities (APA, 2012): the professional situation and related educational background (employment and specialization professions/work of parents). Economically disadvantaged families (parents unemployed or whose job is unspecialized) may be a predictor of different performances in a second language (L2), involving deficits for parental investment and for specific cognitive skills in childhood and adolescence. 108 learners of Portuguese as a L2, aged 8 to 17, from lower to middle socioeconomic backgrounds, completed four language and verbal reasoning tasks in European Portuguese: verbal analogies, semantic associations, picture identification and morphological extraction. A series of MANOVAs indicated that learners from lower socioeconomic backgrounds perform worse in the four administered tasks due to their parents' unemployment situation but students whose parents had unspecialized jobs performed better than those whose parents had specialized jobs. Unskilled jobs were confirmed as related to higher immigrant parental investment. Educational and cognitive implications will be discussed concerning how the participants differed in the tasks.
Cognitive systems evolution: Immigrant last generations and cognitive mapping changing
Publication . Figueiredo, Sandra; Martins, Margarida Alves; Silva, Carlos Fernandes da
There is little evidence on the correlation between immigration effects and the evolution of the mind and
cognition, especially concerning children. Last generations of young immigrants are expected to experience adaptive
strategies to respond to the school environment in order to achieve success. Specifically concerning the new language
learning in the diversity of the host countries (plus the diversity of the countries of origin and home languages/cultures), it
should be analyzed how the human cognitive aptitude (language aptitude and problem solving) is being reorganized in terms
of thought, concepts and cultural orientations previously developed in a certain native culture. The native culture (aspects of
the nationality and of the home language) is mentally associated to concepts and generates the self-regulation which implies
consciousness in a home culture as a reference. How does it works for new immigrants that were separated (including cases
of forced immigration) from their unique cognitive reference? Different cognitive achievements and language deficits would
be constrained in their natural development and differences in academic achievement are expected. This lead to implications
for the biological hypothesis of critical period concerning the new waves of immigration and ethnic differentiation in current
generations. Age would be considered along with other unexpected variables such as nationality. The present study examines
populations’ differences – ethnic and age – on specific language and cognitive tasks considering immigrant students in
Portuguese schools (M=13 years old; SD= 2,7) with origin in different world areas: Western Europe, Eastern Europe,
African countries, Latin America, Asia (Indian Asia) and China and with different home languages and cultures. Data
showed a variability of groups’ achievements in cognates, text recall, lexical recall and dichotic listening tasks. Disparities
among the minorities will be discussed considering educational and ethological implications. Population evolutionary
characteristics might be concluded from those disparities.
The new immigrants’ generation in portuguese classes: Disproportionate relationships and group-specific issues in academic development
Publication . Figueiredo, Sandra; Martins, Margarida Alves; Silva, Carlos Fernandes da
The present study examines nationality group effect on language proficiency considering six groups
of Portuguese immigrant students (M=13 years old; SD= 2,7): Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Portuguesespeaking
African countries, Latin America, Asia and China. This research aims to verify whether students from
different nationalities evidence similar difficulty levels in tests on language skills. Results of MANOVA showed
that nationality groups differed in a significant manner, in particular, two groups – South Asia (Meridional) and
Latin America. The Asian group evidenced more difficulty in vocabulary and verbal reasoning when compared
to other nationality groups. Higher scores were attained by the Latin American group whose language of testing
had common features with the home language and therefore showed more overlapping. The influence of the covariable
"Languages spoken at home" on the results was also confirmed, which suggests that nationality is a less
strong predictor compared to the number of languages spoken at home.
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Funding agency
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Funding programme
SFRH
Funding Award Number
SFRH/BPD/86618/2012