Assessment in Language Teaching

Definition of assessment:

Assessment is how we identify our learners’ needs, document their progress, and determine how we are doing as teachers and planners. That being said, how do we know we are doing it right? How do we know that the assessment tools we are using measure what we intend them to?

 

Reasons of Assessment:

Assessment shows the teacher the role of progress testing in the classroom and the importance of matching testing to instruction. I view testing as a tool that can help teachers identify student strengths and weaknesses and evaluate the effectiveness of their programs. I ensure that teachers must design or choose tests that are practical, reliable, and valid.  Assessment is perhaps one of most difficult and important parts of our jobs as teachers. Ideally, it should be seen as a means to help us guide students on their road.

Tools of Assessment:

Assessment measures the learners' progress in learning through the teacher's portfolio that includes various tools  like the following:

1-Oral discussion by the teacher.

2-Written tests done by the teacher.

3- The rate of participation played by the learner in class.

4- The involvement of learners in pair work and group work.

5-The role played by the learner in his group work.

6-Sharing in elicitation in class.

7-Self-expression and critical thinking by the learner.

8-The practical roles played by the learner in class.

9-The roles played by the learner in songs and games.

10-The activities done by the learner inside class .

11- The activities done by the learner outside classroom.

12- The activities done by the learner outside school.

13- The learner's involvement in using technology in class.

14- The tasks done by the learner in his workbook and his homework.

15- The area of the learner's interest in learning.

16- The learner's ability to think, pair, share, apply and analyze.

17- The learner's ability to do synthesis, evaluate and innovate.

18- The area of the learner's dialoguing with himself and with others.

19-Written exercises.

20-Observation forms to register learning outcomes.

21-Rubrics scale for self, pair and group work.

22- Feed-back sheets and observation sheet.

23- Learners' standards register and weekly reports.

24-Lesson plan and how the lesson objectives are connected with activities and assessment and how much the objectives are achieved through the selected methods and the teaching aids.

25- Classroom management and time management.

26- Learners' marks or grades register.

27-A Scope form.

28-The learner's portfolio.

29-Learner"s interaction with the teacher, course, peers and environment.

30-The learner's behavior.

Importance of assessment:

No single procedure can meet the needs of all learners and situations, so we need to remember to incorporate a variety of tools to help our students know how they are progressing and to gauge the effectiveness of our own methodology and materials.
In classroom assessment, since teachers themselves develop, administer and analyze the questions, they are more likely to apply the results of the assessment to their own teaching. Therefore, it provides feedback on the effectiveness of instruction and gives students a measure of their progress. As Biggs (1999) maintains, two major functions can be pointed out for classroom assessment: One is to show whether or not the learning has been successful, and the other one is to clarify the expectations of the teachers from the students .

Evaluation is a process that includes five basic components:

1) Articulating the purpose of the educational system.

2) Identifying and collecting relevant information

3) Having ideas that are valuable and useful

to learners in their lives and professions.

4) Analyzing and interpreting information for learners.

5) Classroom management or classroom decision making.

 

Assessment is a process that includes four basic components:

1) Measuring improvement over time.

2) Motivating students to study.

3) Evaluating the teaching methods.

4) Ranking the students' capabilities in relation to the whole group evaluation.

 

Purpose:

The purpose of classroom assessment and evaluation is to give students the opportunity to show what they have learned rather than catching them out or to show what they have not learned.