6 Assessing productive and interactive skills Personal refl ection

participants involved, not just the person being assessed.
Unfortunately, no assessment task is entirely satisfactory. Each 
format has its own weaknesses. Rather than searching for one ideal 
task type, the assessment designer is better advised to include a 
reasonable variety in any test or classroom assessment system so that 
the failings of one format do not extend to the overall system. 
The tables provided on the website (www.routledge.com/cw/rial) 
outline a number of broad categories of task, each of which is open to 
a good deal of variation. Some of the attractions and pitfalls of each 
are described. These tables are only intended to be expressive of the 
variety of options open to the assessment designer. Ultimately, the 
range of task types is only limited by the imagination of the designer.
Task review
As in 
Chapter 5
, I suggest some generic guidelines for use in reviewing 
test material. Again, these may not apply in every context for 
assessment, but could be adapted and extended for use in item writer 
guidelines and quality review.