[Generation Gap Essay In Urdu For A Levels
Gildo Santiago
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'Replacement level fertility' is a technical term which seems almost self-explanatory. However there are some important qualifications which make it a more difficult concept than might be supposed. Also, the relationship between replacement level fertility and zero population growth is complicated. The article explains why this is so and thus why, although the United Kingdom's current level of fertility is below replacement level, population is projected to grow for the next thirty years.
PIP: Replacement level fertility is the level of fertility at which a population exactly replaces itself from one generation to the next. In developed countries, replacement level fertility can be taken as requiring an average of 2.1 children per woman. In countries with high infant and child mortality rates, however, the average number of births may need to be much higher. Replacement level fertility is not associated with an unique set of age-specific birth rates. When a country reaches replacement level fertility, other conditions must be met for zero population growth to also be attained. Replacement level fertility will lead to zero population growth only if mortality rates remain constant and migration has no effect. The momentum of past and current demographic trends may also take several generations to work itself out. A change to replacement level fertility therefore leads to zero population growth only in the long run. The size of the population at which population growth levels off will usually differ from the current population size. It follows that fertility level is not, in itself, a reliable guide to population growth, and it is instead better to examine actual or projected population growth directly, then subsequently relating such growth to fertility, mortality, and migration. Sections describe measuring a population's actual fertility level, interpreting cohort measures, interpreting period level measures, and projected population growth in the UK. For all birth cohorts in the UK from 1950 onwards, fertility will or already has been limited to below replacement levels, although population size is projected to grow until approximately 2027. Population in that year is projected to be 4.3 million individuals larger than the UK population of mid-1992.
Q. Why did we change to DLPT5? What was wrong with DLPT IV?
A. Every 10 to 15 years, as our understanding of the ILR, language testing, and the needs of the government change, the DLPTs have been updated. The DLPT5 is just the latest version. The DLPT IV series tests were developed at a time when listening to authentic material was not considered as important as it is today (and it was not as easy to obtain authentic material as it is today). The very short length of the passages in DLPT IV also did not allow the test to cover as many of the aspects of the ILR skill level descriptions as was desired. The DLPT5 specifications address those issues.
Q. Why are scores lower on the DLPT5 than on older DLPTs?
A. No language test is 100% accurate. So when calibrating a language test, the question is always whether the error should be in the direction of being generous or strict. Older DLPTs were calibrated so that the error would be in the direction of being generous. With DLPT5, the post-9/11 emphasis on readiness resulted in a desire to have any error be in the direction of being strict.
Each new generation of DLPTs has incorporated innovations. Sometimes these innovations involve aspects of language proficiency that test-takers had not previously had to deal with on DLPTs, and that may not have been emphasized in training or self-study programs.
Q. If an older DLPT is replaced by a DLPT5, are old DLT scores still valid? And how soon do people have to take the DLPT5?
A. Scores are valid as long as they were in the past, typically one year. If you took the DLPT IV in April of one year, and the DLPT5 rolled out in May, your DLPT IV score is good until the following April, as usual; and at that point you would take the DLPT5.
Q. What range of ILR levels is covered by DLPT5?
A. DLPT5s are available either in a lower-range test that gives scores from 0+ to 3, or in an upper-range test that gives scores from 3 to 4. Some languages have only a lower-range test; some have only an upper-range test; and some have both.
Q. How do I become eligible to take the upper-range DLPT5?
A. To take an upper-range DLPT5, you must have a score of level 3 on the lower-range DLPT5. (Exception: if there is no lower-range DLPT5, a score of level 3 on a lower-range DLPT IV is used.) You do not need to have a score of level 3 on both skills. If you have a 2+ in listening and a 3 in reading, for example, you may take the upper-range test in reading (but not in listening).
Q. What if I take the upper-range test and do poorly on it?
A. The lowest possible score on an upper-range test is a level 3. Test-takers for upper-range tests are all certified to be at least level 3 by the lower-range test; therefore, doing poorly on the upper-range test simply means that you are not above level 3.
Q. Are questions and answers in the target language or in English? Why?
A. In English. The only part of a DLPT5 that is in the target language is the passage on which the questions are based.
Q. Some high-level passages do not seem to have the elevated style I would expect. How do you account for this?
A. The test developers are trained to select passages based on text typology. They consider the text mode (for instance, is the purpose of the passage to persuade, or to inform?), the language features (lexicon and syntax, for example), as well as to consider the functions, content and accuracy components of the skill level descriptions. At high levels there is a great diversity of types of texts and uses of language; for example, level 4 people should understand both formal academic language and slang or non-standard dialect.
Q. Who writes the tests?
A. Each DLPT5 is developed by a team consisting of two or more speakers of the target language (almost always native speakers of the target language), plus a project manager who is an experienced test developer. In addition, each test has several reviewers, at least one of whom must be a native speaker of English.
Q. Why do some languages have a CRT test and some MC tests? Will any have both?
A. The type of test available depends on the size of the population of test-takers. Multiple-choice tests are preferable because they can be scored automatically; however, in order to generate the statistical information needed to calibrate these tests, we need a large number of people (at least 100, preferably 200 or more) to take the validation form of the tests. For languages for which we cannot get this many people to take a validation form, constructed-response tests are developed. Constructed-response tests do not require the large-scale statistical analysis; the disadvantage is that they must be scored by human raters and so take more time and personnel after the administration. Some languages have a multiple-choice test for the lower-range test and a constructed-response test for the upper-range test; these are languages in which there are plenty of potential test-takers at level 3 and below, but very few above level 3. CRT and MC are never mixed on any one single test: each form is either all CRT or all MC.
Q. Will all languages eventually have Computer Adaptive DLPT5s?
A. No. Computer adaptive tests are only possible for multiple-choice tests; at this time it is anticipated that we will have computer-adaptive tests only in the largest-population languages (probably Arabic-Modern Standard, Korean, Chinese-Mandarin, Spanish, and Russian).
Q. How many forms are available in each language? How often are they updated?
A. Most DLPT5s have two forms. Additional forms are under development for some languages. An update schedule for new forms has not been determined, but it is anticipated that forms will be updated more often for the languages with many linguists than for those with few linguists.
Q. Will people be penalized for poor English on the CRT responses?
A. No. As long as the scorers can understand the ideas being conveyed, it does not matter if the examinee uses correct punctuation, spelling, or grammar.
Q. How are raters trained?
A. Raters are employees of the Evaluation and Standardization Directorate at DLIFLC, or, for tests administered to civilians in the intelligence community, the raters are trained directly by experts at the Evaluation and Standardization Directorate. All raters are given a one-day training session in which they learn how to read the scoring protocols and assign levels. Because questions and answers are in English, a rater, once trained, can score tests for any language. After training, new raters begin scoring; the second scorer for the tests they rate is an experienced scorer. Periodic analyses of rater tendencies are conducted, and rater support sessions are provided if raters seem to be slipping. Regular re-norming sessions for all raters are planned.
Q. How is subjectivity mitigated in CRT grading?
A. As described above, there is a protocol for each test specifying the range of acceptable answers for each question. Raters must follow the protocols, and are trained to do so. So for any given test-taker response, any given rater is likely to rate that response the same way. Also as described above, two raters rate independently, and statistics are kept of agreement and rater tendencies, so that raters who are inconsistent are retrained or removed from the rater pool.