6 Assessing productive and interactive skills Personal refl ection

Guidelines for preparing tasks: productive skills
Are the task instructions:
• clear enough to assessees on what exactly they will need to do;
• presented in simple language (or images) that all assessees 
understand;
• clearly presented on the page or screen in a way that attracts 
attention;
• presented in a standard and consistent way across tasks?

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Assessing productive and interactive skills 
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Are expectations clear to assessees in terms of:
• the addressee (e.g., writing to a friend or to an employer);
• type of writing or speaking required: text/speech type and function;
• time available for planning;
• time available for writing or speaking;
• number of words required;
• scoring focus (criteria);
• weighting of criteria?
Are expectations realistic in terms of:
• the kinds of language elicited;
• language functions (e.g., do assessees actually need to narrate/
describe/apologise/explain, etc. as intended in the task design);
• interaction (e.g., does the task actually involve the kinds of 
interaction between assessees intended in the task design);
• organisation (e.g., do successful assessees organise their presentations 
in the way intended in the task design)?
Is there a clear focus? 
• Avoid giving assessees too much freedom in deciding what kind of 
response to give: this results in each assessee carrying out a 
different task using different kinds of language.
Are tasks familiar to assessees?
• Are the tasks similar to those that assessees carry out in the real world?
• Have assessees carried out similar activities in class before?
Are tasks realistic for assessees?
• Can assessees at this level be expected to produce the type of 
text or speech event required?
• Will assessees at this level be able to produce the length of output 
required in the time available?
• Can the task realistically be accomplished adequately in the time 
or number of words specifi ed?
• Does adequately accomplishing the task require as much time or 
as many words as is specifi ed?
Do the topics: 
• fall within the assessees’ life experience or world knowledge;
• avoid sensitive issues (e.g., war, death, serious disease, politics, 
religion);
• avoid consistently favouring one group of assessees over another 
(e.g., consist of three tasks focused on sports)?

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