Teaching by Principles: Chapter 22
Language Assessment II Practical Classroom Applications
Assessing, Testing, and Teaching
-A
test is an instrument or procedure designed to elicit performance from learners
with the purpose of measuring their attainment of specified criteria.
-Tests
are almost always identifiable time periods in a curriculum when learners
muster all their faculties to offer peak performance, knowing that their
responses are being measured and evaluated.
-Tests
can be useful devices among other procedures and tasks designed to assess
students.
-Whenever
a student responds to a question, offers a comment or tries out a new word or
structure, the teacher makes an assessment of the student’s performance.
-For
optimal learning to take place, students must have the freedom in the classroom
to experiment, to try out their own hypotheses about language without feeling
that their overall competence is being “judged” in terms of these trials and
errors.
-Informal assessment
˙Informal assessment is
involved in all incidental, unplanned evaluative coaching and feedback on tasks
designed to elicit performance, but not
for the purpose of recording results and making fixed judgments about a student’s
competence.
˙Formative evaluation: assessing
students in the process of “forming” their competencies and skills in order to
help them continue that growth process.
˙Formative assessment
often implies the observation of the process
of learning, as opposed to the product.
˙Our success as
teachers is greatly dependent on constant informal assessment, for it gives
learners information about how they are progressing toward goals and what the
next step in the learning process might be.
-Formal assessment:
˙Exercises or
experiences specifically designed to tap into a storehouse of skills and
knowledge, usually within a relatively short time limit.
˙They are systematic,
planned sampling techniques constructed to give teacher and student an
appraisal of student achievement.
˙These assessment are
sometimes, but not always, summative
as they occur at the end of a lesson, unit, or course and therefore attempt to
measure, or summarized, what a student has grasped.
˙Summative assessments
tend to focus on products of learning: objectively observable performance that
may be evaluated somewhat independent of the process that a student has
traversed to reach the end product.
˙Most formal
assessments are what we ordinarily call tests.
Assessment Constructs
Informal Formal
Formative Summative
Process Product
Recent Development in Classroom
Testing
1.
New Views on intelligence
-Gardner
extended the traditional conceptualizations of intelligence on which
standardized IQ tests are based to five other “frames of mind.”
˙linguistic
intelligence
˙logical-mathematical
intelligence
˙spatial intelligence
˙musical intelligence
˙bodily-kinesthetic
intelligence
˙interpersonal
intelligence
˙intrapersonal intelligence
-Robert
Sternberg’s creative thinking and manipulative strategies
˙All “smart” people
aren’t necessarily adapt at fast, reactive thinking. They may be very
innovative in being able to think beyond the normal limits imposed by existing
tests, and may need a good deal of processing time to enact this
creativity.
˙Other forms of
smartness are found in those who know how to manipulate their environment,
especially other people. Debaters, politicians, successful salespersons, “smooth”
talkers, and con artists are all smart in their own manipulative way.
-Thanks
to these new conceptualization of intelligence, we were freed from exclusive
reliance on timed, discrete-point, analytical tests in measuring language. We
were liberated from the tyranny of “objectivity” and its accompanying
impersonalness.
-Our
challenge was to test interpersonal, creative, communicative, interactive
skills, and in doing so, to place some trust in our subjectivity, our
intuition.
2.
Performance-based testing
-Higher content validity is
achieved as learners are measured in the process of performing the criterion
behavior.
-Performance-based
testing means that you may have difficult time distinguishing between formal
and informal testing.
-If
you do a little less setting aside of formally structured techniques labeled as
“tests” a little more formative evaluation during students’ performance of
various tasks, you will be taking some steps toward meeting some of the goals
of performance-based testing.
3.
Interactive language tests
-The
language version of performance-based testing comes in the form of various
interactive language tests.
-Interactive
testing involves people in speaking, requesting, responding, interacting, or in
combining listening and speaking, or reading and writing than relying on the
assumption that a good paper-and-pencil test-taker is a good overall language
performer.
-Teachers
need to take the audacious step of making testing truly interactive… a lively
exchange of stimulating ideas, opinions, impressions, reactions, positions, or
attitudes. Students can be actively involved and interested participants when
their task is not restricted to providing the one and only correct answer.
-Oral
proficiency test scoring categories: Table: 22.14.
4.
Traditional and “alternative” assessment
-A
trend away from highly decontextualized (but practical) test designs and toward
alternatives that are more authentic in their elicitation of meaningful
communication.
-Table
22.2: Traditional and alternative assessment
-Traditional
assessment offers significantly higher levels of practicality.
-Considerably
more time and higher institutional budgets are required to administer and
evaluate assessments that presuppose more subjective evaluation, more
individualization, and more interaction in the process of offering feedback.
-The
payoff for the latter comes with more useful feedback to student, better
possibilities for intrinsic motivation, and ultimately greater validity.
Principles for Designing
Effective Classroom Tests
1.
Strategies for test-takers
-Offer
your learners appropriate, useful strategies for taking the test.
-With
some preparation in test-taking strategies, learners can allay some of their
fears and put their best foot forward during a test.
-Before-,
during-, and after-test options: Table 22.3
2.
Face validity
-a
carefully constructed, well-thought-out format
-a
test that is clearly doable within the allotted time limit
-items
that are clear and uncomplicated
-directions
that are crystal clear
-tasks
that are familiar and relate to their course work
-a
difficulty level that is appropriate for your students
3.
Authenticity
-Make
sure that the language in your test is as natural and authentic as possible.
-Try
to give language some context so that the items aren’t just a string of
unrelated language samples.
-The
tasks themselves need to be tasks in a form that students have practiced and
feel comfortable with.
4.
Washback
-When
students take a test, they should be able, within a reasonably short period of
time, to utilize the information about their competence that test feedback
offers.
-Formal
tests must therefore be learning devices through which students can receive a
diagnosis of areas of strength and weakness.
-The
incorrect responses can become windows of insight about further work.
-Teacher’s
prompt return of written tests with their feedback is therefore very important
to intrinsic motivation.
-When
you return a written test, consider giving more than a number or grade or
phrase as your feedback.
-Respond
to as many details in the test as time permits.
-Give
praise for strengths—the “good stuff” –as well as constructive criticism of
weakness.
-Give
strategic hints on how a student might improve certain element of performance.
-Take
some time to make the test performance an intrinsically motivating experience through
which a student will feel a sense of accomplishment and challenge.
-For
learning to continue, learners need to have a chance to feed back on your
feedback, to seek clarification any fuzzy issues, and to set new appropriate
goals for themselves for the days and weeks ahead.
Some Practical Steps to Test Construction
1.
Test toward clear, unambiguous
objectives
-You
need to know a specifically as possible what it is you want to test.
-Carefully
list everything that you think your students should “know” or be able to “do”,
based on the material the students are responsible for.
2.
From your objectives, draw up test
specifications.
-Informal
classroom-oriented specifications give you an indication of (a) which of the
topics (objectives) you will cover, (b) what the item types will be, (c) how
many items will be in each section, (d) how much time is allocated for each.
3.
Draft your test.
-A
first draft will give you a good idea of what the test will look like, how
students will perceive it (face validity), the extent to which authentic
language and contexts are present, the length of the listening stimuli, how
well a storyline comes across, how things like the cloze testing format will
work, and other practicalities.
-The
thematic format of the sections, the authentic language, and the
contextualization add face validity, interest, and intrinsic motivation to what
might otherwise be a mundane test.
-The
essay section adds some creative production to help compensate for the lack of
an oral production component.
4.
Revise your test
-Are
the directions to each section absolutely clear?
-Is
there an example item for each section?
-Does
each item measure a specified objective?
-Is
each item stated clear, simple language?
-Does
each multiple-choice item have appropriate distracters, that is, are the wrong
items clearly wrong and yet sufficiently “alluring” that they aren’t
ridiculously easy?
-Does
the difficulty of each item seem to be appropriate for your students?
-Do
the sum of the items and test as a whole adequately reflect the learning
objectives?
5.
Final-edit and type the test
-In
an ideal situation, you would try out all your tests on some students before
actually administering them.
-After
careful completion of the drafting phase, a final edit is in order.
-Go
through each set of directions and all items slowly and deliberately, timing
yourself as you do so.
6.
Utilize your feedback after
administering the test
-Take
note of any forms of feedback from your test and use them for making your next
test.
7.
Work for washback
-As
you evaluate the test and return it to your students, your feedback should
reflect the principles of washback. Use the information from the test
performance as a springboard for review and/or for moving on to the next unit.
Alternative Assessment Options
-“Assessment”
is a broad term covering any conscious effort on the part of a teacher or student
to draw some conclusions on the basis of performance.
-Tests
are a special subset of the range of possibilities within assessment.
-In
recent years, language teachers have stepped up efforts to develop non-test
assessment options that are nevertheless carefully designed and that adhere to
the criteria for adequate assessment. Such innovations are referred to as alternative assessment, if only to
distinguish them from traditional formal
tests.
1.
Self- and peer-assessments
-Successful
learners extend the learning process well beyond the classroom and the presence
of a teacher or tutor, autonomously mastering the art of self-assessment.
-Where
peers are available to render assessments, why not take advantage of such
additional input?
-Advantages
of self- and peer-assessment: speed, direct involvement of students, the
encouragement of autonomy, and increased motivation because of self-involvement
in the process of learning.
-Some
ways in which self- and peer-assessment can be implemented in language
classrooms (p. 415-416)
2.
Journals
-Journals
can range from language learning logs, to grammar discussions, to responses to
readings, to attitudes and feelings about oneself.
-Because
journal writing is a dialogue between student and teacher, journals afford a
unique opportunity for a teacher to offer various kinds of feedback to
learners.
-Guidelines
for journal writing (p. 418)
3.
Conferences
-Conferencing
has become a standard part of the process approach to teaching writing, as the
teacher, in a conversation about a draft, facilitates the improvement of
written work.
-Such
interaction has the advantage of allowing one-on-one interaction between
teacher and student such that the specific needs of a student can receive
direct feedback.
-Conferences
are by nature formative, not summative; formative assessment points students
toward further development, rather than offering a final summation of
performance.
4.
Portfolios
-“A
purposeful collection of students’ work that demonstrates to students and
others their efforts, progress, and achievements in given areas.”
-Portfolios
include essays, compositions, poetry, book reports, art work, video- or
audiotape recordings of a student’s oral production, journals, and virtually
anything else one wishes to specify.
-Learners
of all ages and in all fields of study are benefiting from the tangible, hands
on nature of portfolio development.
-Guidelines
for using portfolios (p. 419)
5.
Cooperative test construction
-One of the most productive of the various
alternative assessment procedures sees students directly involved in the
construction of a test.
Assessment and Teaching: Partners
in the Learning Process
-Assessment
is an integral part of the teaching-learning cycle.
-In
an interactive, communicative curriculum, assessment is almost constant.
-Tests,
as a subset of all assessment process, do not necessarily need to violate
principles of authenticity, intrinsic motivation, and student-centeredness.
-Along
with some newer, alternative methods of assessment, tests become indispensable
components of a curriculum.
-Periodic
assessments, both formal and informal, can increase motivation as they serve as
milestones of student progress.
-Value
of assessment in the classroom
˙Assessments can spur
learners to set goals for themselves.
˙Assessments encourage
retention of information through feedback they give on learners’
competence.
˙Assessments can
provide a sense of periodic closure to various units and modules of a
curriculum.
˙Assessments can
encourage students’ self-evaluation of their progress.
˙Assessments can
promote student autonomy as they confirm areas of strength and areas needing
further work.
˙Assessments can aid in
evaluating teaching effectiveness.
