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Assessment means judging learners' performance by collecting information about it. We assess learners for different reasons, using different methods to do so, Assessment tasks are the tasks we use for assessing learners. We can assess learners informally or formally. Informal assessment is when we observe learners to see how well they are doing something and then often give them comments on their performance. Formal assessment is when we assess learners through tests or exams and give their work a mark or a grade.
ist all the reasons you can think of for assessing learners formally.
There are several reasons why we might want to assess learners formally:
At the beginning of a course we might give them a test to find out (diagnose) what they know and don't know. This is called a diagnostic test. The information from this type of test helps us decide what to teach and which learners need help in which areas of language.
When learners go to a language school or evening classes, the school may want to know what level the learners are at, so they give them a test. This is called a placement test. We use the information from a placement test to decide what level of class the learners should go into.
After we have finished teaching a part of a course, we may want to find, out how well learners have learnt it. A test for this purpose is called a progress test. A progress test looks hack over a recent block of the syllabus, e.g. a unit from the coursebook, to see how well the learners have learnt what it covered. We use the information from the test to decide if we need to do more work on this area of the syllabus or not, and perhaps to give learners feedback on their strengths and difficulties in this area, Using information from assessment to feed into our teaching and maybe give learners feedback is called formative assessment.
Some teachers prefer not to assess their learners' progress in a term through tests but through pieces of work given throughout the term. They might set a composition in week 2, for instance, a presentation in week 4, an essay in week 6, etc., then base the learner's final mark on the average mark for the pieces of work. Some teachers think that this method of assessment (continuous assessment) gives a truer picture of how well the learner has learnt and is less threatening and more formative than an end-of-course exam. In young learner classes this form of assessment is sometimes called classroom-based assessment.
Another way of assessing learners' work throughout the term is through a portfolio. This is a collection of learners' work done during the course, which the learner puts together during or at the end a course and then presents to the teacher. Often it also contains comments on the work written by the learner or classmates.
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UnltlB Assessment types and tasks
Like continuous assessment, portfolios let learners produce work on an area just after tthasbeen taLight. Putting the portfolio together can also be an opportunity for the learner to revise and improve their work. The portfolio might contain, for example, different kinds of writing, the results of a project or recordings, e.g. a video of an interview or a presentation.
At the end of a term or course, we may give learners a test to see how well they have learnt the contents of the whole course. This kind of assessment is called an achievement test or a summative test. Learners usually receive a score or mark from this kind of testing.
Sometimes learners take tests to see how good they are at language. This kind of test is called a proficiency test. The contents of the test are not based on a course or syllabus that the learner has followed. The test measures the learner's general skill or ability in the language as a whole (e.g. the IELTS test) or a use of it (e.g. English for nurses).
Diagnostic, placement, progress, summative and proficiency tests are all examples of formal testing. They are taken under exam dike conditions with learners at their own desks, working silently and within a time limit, consist of set tasks for which a score is given and are administered by the teacher or an official.
There are many different tasks a teacher can use to assess her learners, e.g. multiple-choice questions, interviews, gap-till (filling in gaps in sentences or texts), table completion for listening, or reading for specific information. The tasks a teacher chooses to use for formal assessment depend on what aspect of language or skills the teacher wants to assess.
Assessment tasks are often described as objective and subjective. The difference between objective and subjective tasks is how much the marker needs to use their own judgement to mark the right answer. In an objective task the marker docs not have to judge whether an answer is right or wrong, or how right or how wrong the answer is, because there is only one answer. Multiple-choice, true/false, gap-fills and matching tasks are all examples of objective tasks.
The advantage of objective tests is that there is no judgement involved in their marking. This means they are quick to mark, and the results are accurate: important features for both teachers and learners. The disadvantages of objective tests are that they are difficult to write and that they do not test real use of the language, but rather the skills or knowledge that language use is based on. We may know which letter to tick, (A, В or C), in a multiple-choice test, of our knowledge of the present tense, but not know how to use the same tense while talking.
In a subjective task the marker needs to use their judgment to decide if an answer is right or how right it is. Examples of subjective tasks are role-plays, essays, interviews, group discussions, compositions. There are many things to mark in tasks- like this. For example, in an essay you could mark grammar and range of vocabulary use, but you could also mark quality of ideas, task achievement, use of register, organisation. The marker needs to decide what aspects of the essay to mark and then how to distinguish, for example, between excellent, good, average and poor use of grammar.
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