Second edition

Formal assessment
informal assessment
Assessment tasks	« tests a examinations	® normal classroom teaching and learning activities * homework tasks
Purpose	to assess overall language ability (proficiency test) « to assess learning at the end of a course (achievement test) to assess learning at the end of part of a course (progress test) з to decide if learners can continue to the next level other, e.g, placement, diagnostic	*■ feedback for the teacher (i.e. to find out how successful our teaching has been) to help the teacher improve procedures or choose different materials or activities for future lessons feedback for learners about what they can do and what they still need to work on
Marking	® learners receive grades (%, A-F, Pass/Faii, etc.)	э teacher keeps records of progress but does not give grades * learners keep records of progress

Look at these examples of formal assessment activities. What areas of language knowledge and/or skills can we assess with the activities? Which activities produce the most reaHife use of language? Which activities are easier or more difficult to mark?


145

	Comments ■
Cloze test {Students complete a text with every nth word blanked out.)	Tests reading comprehension and knowledge of grammar and lexis. May be difficult to mark, as gaps may allow more than one answer.
Gap-fill {Students complete a text with selected words blanked out.)	Tests knowledge of grammar and/or lexis. The teacher has control over which items are tested. Marking can be difficult, as gaps may allow more than one answer.
Reordering jumbled sentences	Tests grammatical knowledge, cohesion and awareness of collocation. Objective task-type, easy to mark.
Sentence transformation {‘Complete the sentence so that it means exactly the same/}	Tests knowledge of grammatical structures and the relationships between them.
Proofreading {Students correct mistakes in a text.)	Assesses learners’ awareness of error. A highly realistic task, which should encourage learners to check their own writing. We can make it easier by indicating where there are errors, or more difficult by asking learners to find the errors themselves and then correct them.
Multiple-choice questions	Can test knowledge of grammar, lexis or other features of language, and comprehension of written or spoken text. An objective assessment type with single correct answers, and therefore easy to mark.
True / False / Don’t know {T/F/DK) questions Information transfer {from text to diagram, table, etc.)	Tests comprehension of written or spoken text. An objective assessment type with single answers, and therefore easy to mark. Adding the ’Don’t know’ option makes it more challenging, as learners search a written text more thoroughly, or listen to a spoken text more attentively. Tests comprehension of written or spoken text. Easy to construct, but may be difficult to mark, as it may allow a range of possible answers.
Matching	Can test lexis, other features of language or comprehension of written or spoken text. Easy to construct and to mark.
Sequencing (text or pictures}	Tests comprehension of written or spoken text. Good for testing understanding and production of narrative. Easy to mark.
Dictation	Can test a wide range of language, i.e. lexis, grammar, listening, writing. A direct test of a complex combination of knowledge and skills, but difficult to mark.
Summary writing	Tests reading, writing and a wide range of language knowledge. A realistic task, but difficult to mark.
Guided writing (in response to input text or a set of instructions}	Tests realistic written communication. Directed and controlled by the input text and instructions, and therefore quite easy to mark.

146

■} П terv i £ W	Tests skills of spoken interaction, Gan provide direct assessment of learners' ability to take part in unplanned dialogue, testing listening, turn-taking and other interactive skills, as well as speaking in long turns (when someone speaks in a conversation this is called a turn).
Information-gap activity (students get missing information from a partner to complete a task)	Tests skills of spoken interaction. Creates a real need for communication. May produce quite controlled language and so be easy to mark, or be more open-ended and therefore subjective in its marking.

Every assessment activity has advantages and disadvantages, For this reason a good
formal test includes a variety of assessment activities. For example, activities such
as multipie-choice or true/false, which test single items, are easy to mark and give us
clear information about specific areas of the learners' language knowledge. However,
such activities, with a single focus, do not tell us anything about the learners' ability
to produce longer samples of language. By contrast, activities such as interviews
or summary writing can give us much more information about learners' language
knowledge or their ability to use the language. But; because these activities test so
many things at the same time, it may be difficult for us to focus on particular areas of a
learner's performance.
Single-focus activities (e.g. multiple-choice, true/false) are very practical to design
and can give us reliable results, but they usually test knowledge about rather than use
of language, and so are rather unrealistic, and can have a negative effect on the way
we teach. Activities that require learners to produce whole texts or longer samples
of spoken language, on the other hand, are far less practical to mark and the results
may not be very reliable. But they enable learners to produce language which is very
similar to the language they need to produce in the real world.
Single-focus activities are very useful for assessing receptive skills, where we want
to check that learners have understood a text. We can best assess productive skills
with extended activities (e.g. summary writing, interview). Although these are less
practical to mark, they have the advantage of putting learners in a situation where
they have to use the language in the same way as in. everyday life.
As mentioned in Unit 18, when we decide between subjective and objective test
types, there are advantages and disadvantages to consider. The solution is often to use
both types of activity.
The formal assessment activities discussed above are used to assess learners on
a single occasion, like a photograph. We can use an informal assessment activity,