6 Assessing productive and interactive skills Personal refl ection

wait time 
for
 
learners (the time between putting a question and expecting a response; 
Walsh, 2011). Especially in the beginning stages of learning, learners may 
need a good deal of time to formulate a response to teacher questions. 
Teachers may, perhaps incorrectly, interpret silence as error. They are 
naturally reluctant to spend a long time waiting for an answer from an 
individual learner as this can be uncomfortable for the learners and slow 
the pace of a lesson. However, if questions are put to the whole class, time 
for formulation allowed for all and then learners chosen at random to 
respond (Wiliam, 2011, suggests a lottery system involving student names 
written on sticks), then all learners may be engaged in fi rst formulating a 
response and then suggesting alternative answers. This provides more 
information for the teacher than traditional individual questioning 
because it provides evidence about more members of the class.
Meddings and Thornbury (2009) recommend a fi ve-point strategy 
for the treatment of the successful or unsuccessful use of linguistic forms 
in the classroom that refl ects current thinking. It includes 
retrieval
, 
repetition
, 
recasting
, 
reporting
and 
recycling
. Retrieval involves taking 
note of what a learner has said or written and implies fl agging this unit 
of language for attention. This may be done by a teacher, by other 
learners or by the learner who produced it. Reporting and repetition 
(orally or in writing) focus the attention of learners on what was said or 
written, inviting them to think about it and what it communicates (or is 
intended to communicate). Learners may report back to the class things 
that have been said or written by other students, or the teacher may 
select them and write them on the board for general consideration. 
Recasting involves rephrasing learner language in a form that is more 
like the target language. This does not have to suggest that there is a 
single ‘correct’ way to express the speaker’s or writer’s ideas, but suggests 
alternatives that are more target-like. These alternatives can be suggested 
by other learners who may take collective decisions about which they 
think are the most appropriate. Or an alternative may be suggested by 
the teacher: ‘This is how I would express your idea.’ The more the 
teacher involves other learners in making judgements about correctness 

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