Second edition

Reading
Writing
« True/false questions e Yes/no questions Multiple-choice questions Open comprehension questions Information transfer, e.g. table completion Ordering paragraphs Choosing titles for texts or paragraphs « Cloze tests	Copying « Jumbled words ® Labelling 9 Form filling Sentence/dialogue completion ^e Completing the middle/end of a story ^ Story writing ® Picture/diagram description Writing essays/compositions/emaifs/letters/ postcards/reports
listening	Speoking
True/false questions « Yes/no questions Multiple-choice questions e Open comprehension questions Information transfer, e.g. table completion listen and complete the gaps/sentences ® Tick the word/sentence you heard Following instructions for mapping a route/drawing a picture, etc. Choose the adjective/picture/diagram, etc. which best describes what you heard e Dictation	Repeating words/sentences Responding to prompts/functions 0 Describing pictures/objects/films, etc. Giving (short) presentations 9 Discussions ® Interviews ^ Role-play Problem-solving in groups
Grammar	Vocabulary
* Multiple-choice questions 9 Sentence/dialogue completion 9 Transformation exercises ® Error correction & Gap-filling	Labelling Categorising « Word-building Word maps/mind maps (diagrams showing relationships between words in the same lexical set) e Matching a Odd one out ® Finding/giving synonyms / antonyms / definitions / lexical sets

You can check your understanding of the terms in bold in this table in the TKT Glossary.
Unlike formal assessment, informal assessment does not use assessment tasks and is rarely used to give the learner a grade, as that is not the purpose of informal assessment. It is also generally less reliable or accurate than formal assessment. Informal assessment can be carried out by the teacher or the learners. When carried out by the teacher it usually involves the teacher observing the learners or particular learners to find out more about their level, attitudes or learner characteristics.


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Unit 18 Assessment types and tasks

A teacher might observe a class doing group work, for example, to judge their general IbVel of tlddhty work¹ to see howmotivated they
are or how well they work together (collaboration). The teacher might also just focus on how a particular learner is getting on, observing them as they do e.g. written work or pairwork in class. The teacher could use a checklist or take notes to help them remember what they have observed. Informal assessment of this kind helps the teacher learn about the needs of individual learners and about general levels of ability or attitudes in a class. He or she can use this information to shape future lessons.
informal assessment is often used with young learners, as they may not respond well to formal assessment. We can see that informal assessment is formative. It provides the teacher with feedback that can feed into future teaching or could be used to give advice to learners on how to improve in future.
Learners can also carry out informal assessment. They can assess themselves (self-assessment) or one another (peer assessment). They can do this with checklists to guide them. The reason for using both peer and self-assessment is to help learners to understand their language use and performance better, and so become more autonomous. Informal assessment is often followed up by feedback from the teacher to the learners on the strengths and weaknesses of their performance, and suggestions for how to improve.
When a teacher is assessing informally or using formal subjective tests they often use assessment criteria to help with the assessment. These are the general features of a skill which can be used as a basis for judging students' performance. For example, speaking involves the subskills of:
® fluency