Staff profile

Dr Ana Maria Ducasse

Senior Lecturer

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

School of Historical and European Studies

Humanities3, room 224, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

BA(Hons) Monash, DipEd Monash, MA Melb, PhD Melb

Membership of professional Associations

HERDSA . ILTA, ALTAANZ

Area of study

Spanish Studies

Brief Profile

Dr Ana Maria Ducasse graduated from Monash University and gained experience in teaching Spanish, Italian and English as a Second Language. This kindled Dr Ducasse’s interest in Second Language Acquisition, in particular spoken language. Teaching Spanish background speakers sparked her interest in advanced learners and the treatment of culture and identity in the language curriculum.  After teaching in Spain for a year, Dr Ducasse’s work in ESL led to a Masters Degree in Applied Linguistics in which her research focus was language testing and language program evaluation. Her most recent collaborative research projects involve the validation of large scale L2 speaking tests.

Dr Ducasse has also been interviewed on teaching excellence for which she has received the following awards

2011 Vice Chancellor's award for Teaching Excellence (Team leader for Spanish Program application)

2009. Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning.La Trobe University Citation

2009 Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning: Faculty Citation ¨for developing innovative assessment and curriculum practices which develop effective communication skills and engage learners with content in a bilingual subject¨.

 

Research interests

Language and Culture in Society

- Discourse analysis

- Language and identity

- Language testing

- Second language acquisition

Teaching Units

  • SPA123IN7 - Spanish Intermediate 7
  • SPA123IN3/4 - Spanish Intermediate 3/4
  • SPA2AD9 - Spanish Advanced 9.
  • SPA2/3ELC - European Languages in Context (offered bilingually with EST23ELC)

Current PhD Supervision

Communicative practice as a marker of cultural identity in two bilingual contexts: Catalonia and Valencia

Unveiling socio-linguistic capital contained in the ‘cantos’ of current day Tzotzil Mayan midwives practicing in Los Altos de Chiapas, Mexico

Consulting

2011 Professional development in assessment for teachers of Spanish in the Philippines funded by ILTA 2012 Professional development in assessment for teachers of Spanish in Sydney Instituto Cervantes

Recent Publications

Book

Ducasse, A.M. (2010). Interaction in Paired Oral Proficiency Assessment in Spanish: Rater and Candidate Input into Evidence Based Scale Development and Construct Definition, Peter Lang, Frankfurt.

Edited book

El Currículo de E/LE en Asia Pacífico. Selección de artículos del I CELEAP (Manila, 2009)

Book chapters

Ducasse, A. M. &  Brown, A. (2011) 'The role of interactive communication in IELTS speaking and its relationship to candidates’ preparedness for study or training contexts'. IELTS Research Reports Vol 12 www.ielts.org/researchers 

Ducasse, A. M. (2009)  'An empirically based rating scale for interaction in a Paired Test'. In Brown,A. and Hill,K. (Eds.) Tasks and Criteria in Performance Assessment. Frankfurt: Peter Lang (pp 1-22)

Ducasse, A. M.  (2007) ‘How do candidates view interaction in a paired oral’. In Gitsaki, C. ( Ed.), Language and languages : Global and Local tensions’. (pp. 184 – 200). Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Articles

Ducasse, A, M. & Brown, A (2009) Assessing paired orals: Raters’ orientation to interaction. In L. Taylor & G. Wigglesworth (Eds) Pair work in learning and assessment contexts. Language Testing, 26 (3) 423-443

 Conference proceedings

Ducasse, A.M. (2011). Spanish writing: what do raters look for? In  Candel Torres, I. et al (Eds.) ICERI2011 Proceedings CD. IATED:Madrid www.iated.org ISBN: 978-84-615-3324-4

Ducasse, A. M.  (2009) 'Toeing the line: mapping graduate attributes on to assessment in the Humanities& Social Sciences'. HERDSA proceedings USB

Ducasse, A. M. (2008) "La evaluación de la interacción en pruebas orales en parejas: un baremo empírico basado en el discurso de nivel inicial."  ALFAL XV conference proceedings CdROM ISBN 978-9974-8002-6-7

Johnson, E., Loves, M., Quinton, J., Bull, M., Barnes, J. & Ducasse, A.M. (2008).  University of Wollongong, Distributive Leadership Project: 2008 Assessment roundtable thematic groups summary notes for implementation of improved assessment practices. Wollongong: University of Wollongong  Equal members of a group project

Resume

Download Resume

Older Publications

Ducasse, A. M.  (2004), 'La autoevaluación como parte de la nota semestral'. Red electrónica de didáctica del Español como lengua extranjera. RedELE Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia. Invited to submit an article to the inaugural issue.  

Ducasse, A. M.  (2002), 'The place of Grammar in the post VCE language classroom'. Journal of the Modern Language Teachers Association of Victoria  Vol 6:3 pp7-15.  

Ducasse, A. M.  (2000). 'Lexis over grammar'. Quaderns Digitals: Revista de Nuevas Tecnologías y sociedad Número 25. Monográfico sobre Lenguas Extranjeras

Learning and Teaching Seminars at La  Trobe University 

Ducasse, A.M(2010) What, speaking? A graduate capability? CLTC 2010

Ducasse, A.M (2009) Creativity and learning with integrated learning tasks

Ducasse, A.M (2008) A small group peer assessment task for an oral presentation LTU Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Colloquium Poster

Ducasse, A.M (2008) Connecting with peers: trialling peer collaboration in a university language program. Faculty learning and teaching seminar series

Ducasse, A.M (2007) The challenge of disciplinary teaching LTU Annual Good teaching day

Ducasse, A.M (2005) The changing face of Language Learning LTU Annual Good teaching day

Ducasse, A M (1999) Pairs for oral presentations LTU Annual good teaching day

Accepted abstracts

Testing L2 speaking in the advanced classroom by focussing on listening: Peer assessment of content in language proficiency ALTAANZ November 2012 University of Sydney

Conference papers

Negotiating e‐identity in a bilingual subject. The Future of eLearning: Collaboration, Engagement and Practice June 2012 University of Melbourne

Spanish writing: what do raters look for? ICERI 2011 Madrid Toeing the line: mapping graduate attributes on to assessment in the Humanities & Social Sciences. HERDSA the Student Experience 2009 Darwin

La evaluación de la interacción en pruebas orales en parejas: un baremo empírico basado en el discurso de nivel inicial", ALFAL XV 2008 Montevideo

"Learners’ perceptions: learning language and culture", ALAA 'Critical dimensions in Applied Linguistics', University of Sydney 2008

“Candidate Awareness of Performance Features of  Spoken Interaction in Peer-peer Test Performance” 29th Annual Language Testing Research Colloquium: Exploring diverse methodologies and conceptualizations in language testing research Barcelona 9th -11th June 2008

“The partner” in paired interaction in peer-peer speaking test performance” Paper presented at The socio cognitive aspects second language teaching and learning” conference held at the University of Auckland April 2007

¨ Raters and non verbal communication. Such a nice gesture: paired interaction in oral test discourse¨ Paper presented at Monash 2nd Discourse Symposium “'Discourse: Constructing Society and Text' November 2006

“Defining the construct for an empirically based rating scale for paired oral interaction Paper” paper presented at AAAL/ACLA Montreal. June 2006

“An empirically based rating scale for interaction in a paired oral test” Paper presented to the 28th Annual Language Testing Research Colloquium Melbourne.” Language Testing and Globalisation - Asia Pacific Perspectives”. June 2006

“How Do Candidates View their Interaction in a Paired Oral?” Paper presented to ALAA, Brisbane. “Language and languages: global and local tensions”. July 2006

“What elements of ‘speaker engagement’ in paired interaction, as observed by candidates and raters, are evident in paired discourse data?” Paper presented at University of Melbourne School of Languages Post Graduate Conference “In between wor(l)ds - transformation and translation”. August 2006

¨Such a nice gesture: paired interaction in oral test discourse¨ Paper presented at Monash Discourse Symposium “'Discourse: Constructing Society and Text'. November 2006

'Is there any correspondence between what candidates say and what raters attend to in a paired oral test task?' Inaugural Symposium in Discourse Analysis Monash, 2005

. 'Cultural identity in a Spanish language text books'. Paper presented to 2nd Barcelona /La Trobe conference, La Trobe, 200.

'Paired oral assessment'. Paper presented to ALTE conference. European Language Testing in a Global Context, held in support of the European Year of Languages. (Pombreu, Barcelona, 2001). 'Self evaluation for advanced Spanish students'. Paper presented University of Melbourne School of Languages Post Graduate Conference Melbourne, 1999

'Teresa's communication skills'. Paper presented to ILAS/AILASA conference La Trobe, 1999.

Seminars

Departmental seminar on OSP research, 2012  March: Spanish writing: what do raters look for?

Observaciones laterales en las pruebas orales La Trobe Spanish Program Departmental Seminar May 2009

Interaction in paired oral proficiency in Spanish. The University of Melbourne School of Languages Seminar series Ph D completion seminar August 2008

El gesto en la interacción en segundos idiomas y cómo influye en las pruebas orales. La Trobe Spanish Program Departmental Seminar. May 2008

“´Mi pareja´: el aspecto social de las pruebas orales.” La Trobe Spanish Program Departmental Seminar. April 2007

Candidates’ view of interaction in a paired oral. The University of Melbourne School of Languages PhD Confirmation Seminar series. March 2006 “Como fluye: interacción entre parejas en una prueba oral” La Trobe Spanish Program Departmental Seminar.  October  2006

La escala de interacción La Trobe Spanish Program Departmental Confirmation Seminar.  October 2005

Scoring interaction in a paired oral: Development and Validation of rating scales in a Spanish L2 paired oral   The University of Melbourne School of Languages Seminar series. March 2004

Research projects

2011 with Dr Annie Brown (Australian Council of Educational Research) as principle investigator . Relating candidates' performance on the TOEFL iBT™ test Speaking and/or Writing sections to their performance on real-life academic tasks’. ETS grant

2009 IDP Australia grant collaborating with Dr Annie Brown. ‘The role of interactive communication in IELTS speaking and its impact on candidates’ preparedness for study or training contexts’.  IELTS grant 

2008 Distributive Leadership Project (DLP): Faculty Scholar 'Toeing the line on graduate attributes'. - A project that targets the improvement of assessment practices by stimulating reflection, by domain experts, and results in action across a faculty

Invited Workshops

  • 2008 Conducted workshops on aligning assessment and graduate capabilities at La Trobe University
  • 2008 Conducted workshops on aligning assessment and graduate capabilities at University of Wollongong
  • 2009 Conducted workshops of benchmarking LOTE in European and Asian studies at La Trobe to CEFR

Conference organising:

  • Manila 2011 on committee CE/LEAP II
  • Manila 2009 organizing committee for I Congreso de Español como Lengua Extranjera en Asia Pacifico CE/LEAP I
  • Sydney 2008 organizing committee for  national symposium on assessment in Australian Higher Education - part of an ALTC/ Carrick funded Distributive Leadership Project