Testing and assessing are different. But a teacher should both test and assess.
We can ‘test’
competence, knowledge and specific items.
But we ‘assess’
someone’s performance and ability, giving us a general understanding.
In other words,
we test reading, listening, grammar and vocabulary but
we assess writing and speaking. Of course, when we’re testing
and assessing, it’s important that we know what we want to test.
When you’re
testing, it’s very important that your learners know what is being
tested.
·
A test needs to test what it’s supposed to
test. So if you’re testing grammar, make sure that you really are testing
grammar and not general knowledge! This
is called ‘validity’;
·
A good test must also be reliable. This
means that if the same learner sat the test on
different days, the result should be the same;
·
The instructions must be clear too. This is called ‘reliability’;
·
‘Backwash’ or ‘washback’ is another
feature of a test. It refers to the effect a test has on classroom learning and
teaching. So does it have a good effect on the teaching and learning that takes
place before the test?
·
Another important point to be considered is ‘discrimination’.
Good learners should always be able to score higher than weaker ones;
Before
you set your test make sure you:
·
tell your learners when it will be;
·
give your learners plenty of time to study;
·
do some test preparation in lesson time;
Here are some
examples of writing and speaking tasks for A2 and B1
level:
·
A2 writing task: A blog post about your home town
·
B1 writing task: A report about an environmental
problem
·
A2 speaking task: A presentation of a poster about an
endangered animal
·
B1 speaking task: A presentation about your hero
You also need to
write criteria for your tasks. Give your criteria to your learners and ask them
to think about these while they are doing their work.
Here are some
simple examples that you may be able to adapt to your learners and their
task.
It’s not very useful for our learners to be told that their work was ‘good’
or ‘OK’. They need to know where they can improve. If we have clear
marking criteria for writing and speaking, then learners can easily
see areas that need attention.
When you have chosen your categories, you need to write your criteria.
These criteria will depend on your situation and your learners. For
example:
- For spelling, you may expect every word to be correctly spelled or you may not. This will depend on the age and level of your learners.
- For grammar, perhaps one of your classes has covered most English grammar aspects. So you might expect this class to use a range of grammatical features, but not other classes.
- For vocabulary, you might want your learners to reproduce the lexical sets that you have focused on in their lessons.
It’s a good idea to start by writing three criteria for each category
– best, medium and not so good.
Here are examples for vocabulary, using a scale of ‘OK’, ‘Good’ and ‘Very
good’ – but you may choose to use numbers or letters instead.
By using portfolio assessment you are matching assessment
to your teaching. It also helps learners to develop awareness of their own
learning.
A learner’s portfolio is a collection of their work which they put
together themselves. This work has a special purpose because it provides
evidence that the learner can do certain things. So, for example, if a learner
is able to write an email, then there should be an example of an email they’ve
written in their portfolio. A portfolio builds up over a period of time as
learners add and remove pieces of work.
You can encourage them to give their reasons for including a piece of work
and to reflect on its good points and areas for improvement.
Links:
http://cambridgeenglishteacher.cambridge.org/pages/view/927795
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