Hello
dear audience
My name is Zuo Hongshan
I’m from College of
Foreign Languages & Cultures
Sichuan University
In this talk
I will going to focus on
assessment in language teaching
we will cover the following points
in this talk
What is assessment
When we hear the word assessment
the term testing pops
into our mind
There is still another word
evaluation
Let’s look at the three terms
First testing
It often takes the pencil and paper
form and it is often done
at the end of a learning period
such as unit test
mid term test
semester test etc
Assessment involves collecting information
or evidence of a learner’s learning progress
and achievement over a period of time
for the purpose of improving teaching
and learning
Evaluation involves
making an overall judgment
about one’s work
or a whole school’s work
According to experts
it can be concerned with
a whole range of issues
in and beyond language education
for instance
lessons courses
programs and skills
can all be evaluated
As you can see
the term evaluation is quite general
and testing is very specific
while the concept assessment
lies between the two
Therefore
we will use the term assessment
in this talk
What are the purposes of assessment
in foreign language teaching
First to discover learners
weaknesses in the learning
Second To discover learners achievements
third To evaluate the existing curriculum
number 4 To check upon teachers performance
number 5 To provide the basis for further planning
of teaching
that is
what to teach next
Number 6 To qualify students for certain programs
Next To provide the basis for correction
Number 8 To provide learners
with a sense of accomplishment
and in this way motivate learners
and provide an incentive for learning
Finally To foster students’ ability to learn
Assessment is often divided into
summative assessment
and formative assessment
Summative assessment
is mainly based on testing
It is done mostly
at the end of a learning period
or the end of a school year
Formative assessment is based
on information collected
in the classroom
during the teaching process
therefore it is sometimes termed as
classroom assessment as well
There are various ways
to gather students learning information
First Teachers observations
Teachers observations of the students
overall performance or achievement
can be quite accurate and fair
Number 2 Continuous assessment
For example
tests done at regular intervals
such as weekly tests
monthly tests and etc
Number 3 Self-assessment
and peer assessment
that is assessment
done by the students themselfs
or by their classmates
Number 4 Project work
Project work requires students
to complete a set of tasks
designed to explore a certain idea
or concept
to eachers can assess students performance
in doing the project
Finally Portfolios
A portfolio is a purposeful collection
of materials
assembled over a period of time
by a learner
to provide evidence of skills
abilities and attitudes
It is agreed that assessment means
to discover
how well learners know things
or can do things
But how well is well
Depending on different assessment purposes
and the stage at which the assessment is made
assessment can be made according to
different criteria or references
including Criterion referenced assessment
and norm-referenced assessment
First Criterion referenced language assessment
is based on a fixed standard
or a set criterion
Normally
the national or local educational authority
set this standard
or criterion
For example
here is part of the Rating Scale
for IELTS speaking test
band 9
It includes four aspects
in assessing English speaking performance
First fluency and coherence
Secound lexical resource
Number 3 grammatical range and accuracy
and number 4 pronunciation
If the test taker
can meet the criteria described here
he or she will be given the score 9
It is a typical criteria-referenced test
Norm referenced assessment
is designed to measure
how the performance of a particular student
is compared with the performance of other students
whose scores are given as the norm
In Norm referenced testing
there is no pre set standard
to measure performance
Instead of having a mark scheme
that was defined beforehand
Test take us are compared with others
who take the same exam
Let’s take CET 4 as an example
This year’s CET 4
might be very difficult
while last year it was far easier
Xiao Wang took the test last year
and his raw score was 80
He took it again this year
and because the test was more difficult
he got 70
Can we say he performed worse this year
No we cannot say so
because the two tests are not
of the same degree of difficulty
and it is invalid
to compare the raw test scores
The comparison would be valid
if we convert the raw scores
into norm-referenced scores
according to this formula
X stands for an individuals raw score
Mean refers to the mean score that year
SD is standard derivation
while 70 and 500 are two constants
In norm-referenced assessment
a students achievement is interpreted
with reference to the achievement
of other students
Students can be organized into
an order quickly
based upon their level
of attainment in the test
This is very efficient in selecting students
who are qualified
for a certain program
Individual-referenced assessment
is based on how well the learner is performing
compared with his or her own previous performance
For example
if a student could only say a few words
in English before the course
and now after several weeks’ study
he is able to speak
with some fluency
although there is some inaccuracy
we can say
that he has made great progress
Assessment in language
should be based on the following principles
First assessing authentic use of language
in reading
writing
speaking
and listening
Number 2 assessing language
in a variety of contexts
Number 3 assessing the environment
the instruction
as well as the students
Number 4 nassessing processes as well as products
Number 5 analyzing patterns of errors
in language and literacy
Number 6 using clear and reliable standards
when assessing reading
writing and content knowledge
Number 7 making assessment
an ongoing part of every day teaching
that is
try to use formative assessment
whenever possible
It is ideal if assessors
can follow all the principles
But in reality
it is very difficult to achieve all these
In constructing a test
we should pay attention to several apsects
First the purposes of the test
to ensure that
it tests what it is supposed to be testing
for example the achievement of the objectives
of a piece of the curriculum
Number 2 what type of test is it
is it Aptitude tests
Progress tests
Achievement tests
or Proficiency tests
Number 3 the objectives of the test
to make sure that
that the content of the test items
is relevant to specific objectives
of a program or curriculum
Number 5 the content of the test
what is being tested
and what the test items are
Number 5 writing of the test items
which involves item analysis
in order to clarify
item discriminability
and item difficulty
Item discriminability refers to
whether the test item can discriminate
high achievers from low achievers
item difficulty is concerned with
how difficult the test item is
Numer 6 which is very important
that is the validity and reliability of the test
Number 7 the format of the test
its layout instructions
and method of completion
Number 8 the timing of the test
How long the test will take
Number 9 the scoring of the test
Test items can be designed
in various formats
A test whose items are designed
in different formats
tends to have more validity
and reliability than a test
that is designed in a single format
for instance
all the items are in multiple choice format
these are test formats
which are often used language testing
Questions & answers
True or false questions
Multiple choice questions
Gap filling or completion
Matching tasks
Dictation
Transformation
Translation
Essay writing
Interview ect
Language testing is a very important research area
in applied linguistic
You can read more
to gain more understanding of language testing
It’s the end of this talk
Thanks