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Types, forms and techniques of assessment in ELT
In the teaching process the summative and formative types are distinguished. Summative assessment often takes place at the end of a unit, module, or the whole course. The focus tends to be on the mark and the idea is to evaluate how well a student has learned what has been presented. Formative assessment takes place during a course, module or unit. The focus is more on gathering data about students’ progress and using this data to help them improve language and fill in communicative gaps. In the teaching process the summative assessment is supported by the formative assessment data. We assess students at different stages and provide feedback that they can use to improve, re-draft or change what they are currently working on, but also to help them in their future learning (often referred to as feed-forward).
There are four stages in organizing classroom assessments: 1) planning assessment; 2) collecting data on students’ learning through the assessment; 3) making judgments about students’ performance, or evaluation; 4) providing appropriate feedback.
Within assessment correction and organizing feedback are differentiated. Where the lesson makes use of accurate reproduction and drilling techniques, it needs to be carefully organized, during this stage, students’ errors and mistakes will be corrected almost instantly.
Organizing feedback occurs when learners have already finished a task. The teacher gives feedback to let the learners know how well they have performed in the course of activity (during the activity the teacher has picked up some of the students’ mistakes
and has put them on the blackboard; now he is asking the students opinion about correctness).
There is a distinction between two different kinds of feedback. Content feedback concerns an assessment of how well students have performed the activity as an activity is more important than a language exercise; e.g. when students have completed a role-play the teacher first discusses with students the reasons for their decision in the simulation. Form feedback tells the students how well they have performed linguistically, how accurate they have been.
During the teaching process assessment eventually leads to evaluation. Evaluation is used as a final judgment about students’ level of performance which has been measured by using different tools. Evaluation refers to the extent to which the teaching/learning
objectives, stated at the beginning o f a school year, term or lesson have been achieved. This judgment is formally expressed in numbers and per cent or marks, grades or informally in scores or points, which eventually can be converted into marks.
In Uzbekistan evaluation at schools, lyceum and college is organized in the frame of five-score (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) marking. Assessment conducts within: 1) current control, 2) intermediate, or interval) control, 3) final control. But it is necessary to indicate here also preliminary control, because its role is important for organizing the ELT process.
The process of assessing students’ performance is done by using variety of ways, techniques and forms. There are many techniques or activities of language performance in ELT. Dictation exercises, strip stories, tests and written assignments are all examples of different types of techniques and activities suitable for English language learners. Simple dictation exercises require students to write down a passage read aloud by the teacher. These exercises offer an assessment of students' listening and writing skills. Strip stories require students to organize a short passage into the proper order after it has been taken apart and reorganized. Strip stories test reading comprehension and narrative awareness.
Testing is the most widely spread technique used for assessing students in the classroom. There are different tests: multiple choice, matching, true-false, fill-in-the-blanks tests, cloze and dictation procedures; assay exams; oral interview - but also tests differing in scope and structure from these well-known options. Technological development has led to a number of new language testing formats, including computer-based and computer-adaptive tests, audiotape-based oral proficiency interviews, and web-based testing.
A communicative test approximates to real language use in the real world. For example, dictation and cloze tests are considered as non-communicative types, while role-play, letter and essay writing, following instruction, problem-solving, oral interview are communicative tests. But, for example, cloze tests provide a good way of gauging a student’s written, reading, grammar and vocabulary performances.
Multiple choice tests and written assignments are good ways of assessing vocabulary, reading comprehension and writing skills.
Thus, language tests are simply instruments or procedures for gathering particular kinds of information, typically information having to do with students’ language abilities. Tests have a variety of formats, length, item types, scoring criteria, and media.
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