Lecture 2 TESTING, ASSESSING, AND TEACHING - Assessment and Teaching - Approaches to language...
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Lecture 2 TESTING, ASSESSING, AND TEACHING - Assessment and Teaching - Approaches to language Testing - Current Issues in Classroom Testing Brown, 2004
Lecture 2 TESTING, ASSESSING, AND TEACHING - Assessment and
Teaching - Approaches to language Testing - Current Issues in
Classroom Testing Brown, 2004 p. 5-17
Slide 2
*In this lecture we are expected to discuss some common
assessment terms such as: - Informal and formal assessment -
Formative and summative assessment - Traditional and alternative
assessment - Norm-referenced and criterion- referenced tests -
Approaches and current issues in classroom testing
Slide 3
1)Informal assessment: is embedded in classroom tasks designed
to elicit performance without recording results and making fixed
judgment about students performance Examples: Responding to a draft
of an essay, advice about how better pronounce a word and showing
how to modify a students note taking to better remember the content
of a lecture. I.Assessment Types:
Slide 4
Informal assessment involves: systematically observing and
monitoring students during the class. interacting with students to
gain a deeper knowledge of what they know, understand and can do.
circulating the classroom and posing questions, guiding
investigations, motivating and quizzing students. providing
opportunities for students to present or report upon their learning
and teaching experiences.
Slide 5
2) Formal assessment: are exercises or procedures specifically
designed to tap into a storehouse of skills and knowledge. They are
systematic, planned sampling techniques constructed to give teacher
and student an appraisal of student achievement. Formal assessment
involves: the use of specific assessment strategies to determine
the degree to which students have achieved the learning outcomes.
individual and/or collaborative tasks that usually attract a
mark
Slide 6
Is formal assessment the same as a test? We can say that all
tests are formal assessment, but not all formal assessment is
testing. Can you elaborate more? (p.6)
Slide 7
3) Formative assessment: evaluating students in the process of
forming their competencies and skills with the goal of helping them
to continue that growth. The key factors to such formation are: -
The delivery (by the teacher). - Internalization (by the students)
of appropriate feedback on performance. - An eye toward the future
continuation (or formation) of learning. Do you agree that: *All
kinds of informal assessment are (or should be formative) ?
(p.6)
Slide 8
Formative assessment: is the practice of building a cumulative
record of student achievement. usually takes place during day to
day learning experiences and involves ongoing, informal
observations throughout the term, course, semester or unit of
study. is used to monitor students ongoing progress and to provide
immediate and meaningful feedback. assists teachers in modifying or
extending their programmes or adapting their learning and teaching
methods. is very applicable and helpful during early group work
processes.
Slide 9
4) Summative assessment: aims to measure, or summarize, what a
student has grasped, and typically occur at the end of a course or
unit of instruction. Example: Final exams in a course and general
proficiency exams.
Slide 10
Summative assessment: assists you to make judgements about
student achievement at certain relevant points in the learning
process or unit of study (e.g. end of course, project, semester,
unit, year). can be used formally to measure the level of
achievement of learning outcomes. can also be used to judge
programme, teaching and/or unit of study effectiveness (that is as
a form of evaluation).
Slide 11
5) Norm-Referenced Tests: the purpose in such tests is to place
test-takers along a mathematical continuum in rank order. Examples:
-Standardized test (SAT) - English as a Foreign Language (TOFEL)
*Such tests must have fixed, predetermined responses in a format
that can be scored quickly at minimum expense. Money and efficiency
are primary concerns in these tests.
Slide 12
6) Criterion-Referenced Tests : are designed to give
test-takers feedback, usually in the form of grades, on specific
course or lesson objectives. Example: - Classroom tests involving
students in one class only and connected to a curriculum. *In these
tests much time and effort are required from the teacher in order
to deliver useful and appropriate feedback (instructional
value).
Slide 13
Compare between Norm- Referenced and Criterion- Referenced
tests.
Slide 14
Alternative to what? Paper & pencil exams Alternatives: lab
work / research projects portfolios presentations research papers
essays self-assessment / peer assessment lab practical classroom
clickers or responder pads Traditional and Alternative Assessment
Table 1.1 highlights the differences between the two
approaches
Slide 15
Traditional AssessmentAuthentic Assessment Generally relies on
forced-choice, written measures 1) Promotes integration of various
written and performance measures Relies on proxy measures of
student learning to represent target skills 2) Relies on direct
measures of target skills Encourages memorization of correct
answers 3) Encourages divergent thinking in generating possible
answers Goal is to measure acquisition of knowledge 4) Goal is to
enhance development of meaningful skills Curriculum directs
assessment5) Assessment directs curriculum Table 1. Traditional vs.
Authentic Assessment Methods
Slide 16
Emphasis on developing a body of knowledge 6) Emphasis on
ensuring proficiency at real-world tasks Promotes what knowledge7)
Promotes how knowledge Priority on summative outcomes or product 8)
Priority on the learning sequence or process Emphasizes
competition9) Emphasizes cooperation Targets simplistic skills or
tasks in a concrete, singular fashion 10) Prepares students for
ambiguities and exceptions that are found in realistic problem
settings Provides a one-time snapshot of student understanding 11)
Provides an examination of learning over time
Slide 17
Formative - for performance enhancement Formal - quizzes,
tests, essays, lab reports, etc. Traditional - tests, quizzes,
homework, lab reports. Summative - for performance assessment
Informal - active questioning during and at the end of class
Alternative- presentations, book reviews, peers and self
assessment. Examples of each Assessment Type
Slide 18
Informal: to check, no marks Formal: to test, marks Formative:
ongoing progress, during Summative: at the end, judgment. Norm-
referenced: rank order, money &effort, general skills.
Criterion- referenced: grades, feedback, content and specific
skills.
Slide 19
II.Approaches to language testing: A brief history: 1950s an
era of behaviorism and constructive analysis, testing focused on
specific language elements such as the phonological, grammatical
and lexical contrasts between two languages. 1970s & 1980s
communicative language theories brought a more integrative view of
testing. 1983 tell Today, test designers are challenged in their
quest for more authentic, valid instruments that stimulate real
world interaction.
Slide 20
1)Discrete-point tests: are constructed on the assumption that
language can be broken down into its component parts and that those
parts can be tested successfully. These components are the skills
of listening, reading, writing, speaking and various units of
language of phonology, morphology, lexicon, syntax and discourse.
Such an approach demanded a decontexualization that often confused
the test- taker.
Slide 21
2) Integrative tests: Two types of tests have been claimed to
be examples of integrative tests: (P. 8 & 9) 1. Cloze test: is
a reading passage (150 to 300 words) in which roughly every sixth
or seventh word has been deleted; the test-takers are required to
supply words that fit into those blanks. 2. Dictation: is a
familiar language teaching technique that evolved into a testing
technique. Learners listen to a passage of 100 to 150 words read
aloud by the teacher and write what they hear, using correct
spelling.
Slide 22
Slide 23
Unitary trait hypothesis: which suggested indivisible view of
language proficiency: that vocabulary, grammar, phonology, the four
skills and other discrete points of language could not be
disentangled from each other in language performance.
Slide 24
3) Communicative language testing: Argue that integrative tests
like cloze only tests learners linguistic competence, and they dont
tell us about the learners performance ability. Question for
authenticity was launched, as test designers centered on
communicative performance.
Slide 25
Strategic competence: the ability to employ communicative
strategies to compensate for breakdowns as well as to enhance the
effect of utterances in the process of communication. * Test
constructors began to identify the kinds of real-world tasks that
language learners were called upon to perform. They also cared
about measuring language proficiency and authenticity of
tasks.
Slide 26
Can you compare between paper and pencil tests and
performance-based assessment(p.11) 4) Performance-based assessment:
involve learners in actually performing the behavior that we want
to measure. In interactive tasks, test- takers are measured in the
act of speaking, requesting, responding, or in combining listening
and speaking, and in integrating reading and writing. Paper and
pencil tests do not elicit such communicative performance. Example
of interactive language assessment procedure is an oral
interview.
Slide 27
Current issues in classroom testing *New ways in Intelligence :
Intelligence: was once viewed as only the ability to perform
linguistic and logical- mathematical problem solving. *Gardner
(1983,1999) included five frames of mind in his theory of multiple
intelligences. (p. 12) 1) logical-Mathematical 2) Linguistic 3)
Visual-Spatial 4) bodily-kinesthetic 5) Interpersonal 6)
Intrapersonal 7) Musical
Slide 28
Computer- Based Testing: in such tests the test- taker performs
responses on a computer. Almost all computer- based test items have
fixed, closed-ended responses like the test of English as a foreign
language (TOEFL). Some computer-based tests (also known as computer
assisted or web-based tests) are small scale home-grown tests
available on websites. A specific type of computer-based test, a
computer-adaptive test.
Slide 29
computer-adaptive tests (CAT): test taker receives a set of
questions that meet the test specifications and that are
appropriate for his or her performance level. The CAT starts with
questions of moderate difficulty moving to questions of greater or
equal difficulty. The answers are scored by the computer. The
test-taker can only see one question each time, they cannot skip or
go back to any other question.
Slide 30
** Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Computer- Based
Testing. (p.14-15) **The following websites provide further
information and examples of computer-based and standardized tests:
www.ets.org www.toefl.org www.toeic.com www.ielts.org
www.eslcafe.com
Slide 31
Next week Brown, H. Douglas, 2004. Language Assessment:
Principles and classroom practices. Pearson Education, Inc. Chapter
two: Principles of language assessment (P, 19-41)
