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Requirements to assessment and forms of assessment

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LECTURE 12

ASSESSMENT

Aims, functions and types of assessment

Requirements to assessment and forms of assessment

Objects of assessment and evaluation. Ways of assessing

Mistakes, slips and errors. Approaches to error correction

Correcting techniques in writing and speaking

Aims, functions and types of assessment.

Whenever we speak about assessment, we should bear in mind that assessment is a part of evaluation. We evaluate the curriculum, the materials, the educational process and its organization, the teacher’s performance, learners’ performance etc. Evaluation is both qualitative and quantitative, it answers the question how good things are and whether they correspond to the requirements envisaged by national and global standards. Assessment is quantitative evaluation of learners’ performance, it’s giving points according to the national point scale. In foreign literature assessment is often referred as testing, though, strictly speaking, testing is just a form of assessment organized and conducted under special conditions.

The main aims of assessment are, on the one hand, to provide feedback (i.e. to find out how successful learners are and teacher’s performance is and if it’s necessary to introduce certain changes in the teacher’s work and in the organization of the educational process) and to increase learners’ motivation by finding out how successful they are and what kind of changes they are to introduce, if necessary. Assessment is to find out learners’ level of language proficiency by their solving certain communicative tasks. The final mark will depend on how successful they turn out, not only or not mainly on the number of mistakes they have made.

The main functions of assessment are as follows:

· eliciting feedback or diagnostic function (it’s both feedback from learners and feedback from the teacher)

· correcting function (introduce certain changes if necessary)

· testing function (giving marks, certifying to learners’ achievements and informing learners, their parents, authorities etc)

· educational function (educational process is still going on, synthesis of the acquired skills and knowledge takes place while learners perform testing tasks)

· developmental function (developing individual psychological mechanisms and abilities, e.g. operative auditory or visual memory, flexibility of thinking etc; developing learning strategies, developing interest and motivation, developing such traits as self-discipline, the feeling of responsibility etc).

Types of assessment that are distinguished are as follows:

· diagnostic assessment (takes place before a certain period of studies, allows to find out the starting level of skill development and learners’ background knowledge and to make up heterogeneous academic groups, realize the principle of streaming and that of differentiation in choosing teaching strategies;

· formative assessment (takes place during the educational process, establishes feedback as to the success or failure of teaching and learning, allows to introduce necessary changes, to develop skills of self-assessment and self-correction etc)

· summative assessment (after a certain period of studies, at the end of the term, a year, school etc).

Types of assessment are also singled out depending on who assesses:

· teacher assessment;

· peer assessment;

· self-assessment.

Requirements to assessment and forms of assessment

To realize all the aims and types of assessment it should meet some requirements and be characterized by:

· purposefulness (assessment should be aimed at defining the level of competences development (linguistic competences, speech competences, linguosociocultural competences)

· representativeness (assessment should embrace all components of communicative competence)

· objectivity (should use objective ways of assessment according to certain criteria known to learners beforehand)

· regularity(learners should be systematically assessed)

· differentiation (ways and criteria of assessment should correspond to the skill or language aspect that is in focus)

· clarity of instructions (KISS – keep it short and simple).

Forms of assessment may be oral and written, monolingual and bilingual, individual, pair, small group or involve the whole class.

Individual form of assessmentis supposed to bemost objective and most appropriate for final, summative assessment. It allows to assess every learner but takes too much time so not all the learners may be assessed at the same lesson. Besides, other learners may not be actively involved while the teacher talks with one of the learners. That is why this form of assessment is ineffective for young learners. It must be accompanied with frontal forms: to add something to the learner’s utterance, to correct it etc. Individual assessment takes place orally at the lessons or in a written form at the end of the term.

Pair form of assessment is used to check on dialogue skill development but may be effectively employed for other skills as well (e.g. checking the partner’s written paper etc).

Group form of assessment presupposes tasks that are performed as a group, e.g. acting out a text, a role-play etc. All members of a group should contribute to common success and provide for the opportunity to be assessed as a part of a group.

Frontal (whole class assessment) gives a possibility to involve all learners at the same time, high level of activity, high tempo etc. But it may be somewhat superficial and not sufficient attention paid to each learner, so some subjectivity of assessment may take place. That’s why frontal form is mainly used for formative, not summative assessment. Frontal form of assessment may be used as a competition, game, or role-play.

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