ASTRID PAOLA PARADA CABALLERO

INTRODUCTION

When I started reading this chapter I found it interesting because it talks about three

essential components (testing, assessing, and teaching) we as a teachers should keep in

our minds and have a wide knowledge of them in order to help our students to leave

behind those fears, anxieties and self-doubts at the moment of facing a test. This article

also helped to comprehended that assessment is not only about giving a grade but it is

also about encourage students to learn from the weaknesses and strengths guiding their

learning process in an individual way.

there is brief interpretation of some important concepts I found out during my reading

activity.

What is a test?

It is a method of measuring person’s ability, knowledge or performance in

a given domain.

Method

It is an instrument, a set of

techniques, procedures, or

items.

Measure

General ability: Multi-skill

proficiency test

Specific competences: A quiz in

recognizing correct use of definite

article

A test measures…

o Individual’s ability, knowledge, and performance: Testers need to understand who the

test-takers are, what are their experiences & background? How should test-takers

interpret the results? Etc.

o Performance: It means competence, the knowledge about the language NOT the one’s

ability to perform a language( writing, listening, reading etc.)

o Domain: It means overall proficiency of the language.

ASSESSMENT & TEACHING

o Assessment: It is an outgoing process, the teacher subconsciously makes an assessment of

the student performance while he/she answers a question, offers a comment, tries to speak

or produce something new during the class.

A good teacher never ceases to assess Ss.

o Teaching: It provides the opportunities for learners to listen, think, takes risks, set goals, and

process feedback from the coach to improve in their learning process. It also provides

observation in students’ performance. OBSERVATION=TEACHER INSTRUCTION.

INFORMAL & FORMAL ASSESSMENT

o Informal assessment can be:

o Formal assessment:

-Incidental, unplanned comment and

responses.

-Coaching & spontaneous feedback.

- Give Ss' some strategies suggestions.-Example: very good! Good work! Nice

job!

it is systematic, it means that there are

exercises or procedures designed to be

focused on Ss achievements in terms of skills

and knowledge.

FORMATIVE & SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT

o Formative assessment:

o Summative assessment:

It evaluates Ss in the process of

forming their competences and skills

with the goal of helping them to

continue that growth process

It evaluates SS at the end of the course and its

aims is measure, or summarize what Ss have

understood, how well Ss have accomplished

the objectives.

NORM-REFORMED & CRITERION-

REFORMED TESTS

o Norm-Referenced tests:

o criterion-referenced tests:

In these kind of tests each test-taker's score is interpreted in relation

to a mean(average score, middle score, extent of variance scores).

The purpose is to place test-takers along a mathematical continuum

in rank order.

These kind of tests are designed to give test-takers

feedback.

Teachers spend more time and effort but they show

interest in giving useful feedback to the Ss.

APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE TESTING: A

BRIEF HISTORY

1950s:BEHAVIORISM

1970s &1980s:COMMUNICATIVE THEORIES

Testing focused onspecific language

elements such as the phonological,

grammatical, and lexical contrasts

between two languages.

“The whole of the communicative event was

considerably greater than the sum of its

linguistic elements”

DESCRETE-POINT AND INTEGRATIVE

TESTING

o Discrete-point tests:

o integrative test:

It is based on the believed that language can be

broken down into its components parts ( writing,

listening, reading etc.)and those parts can be

tested successfully.

Cloze test: it taps into all of these abilities(knowledge of vocabulary,

grammatical structure, reading skills and strategies etc.), which were said

to be the essence of global language proficiency.

Dictation test: It is an integrative test because it tap into grammatical and

discourse competencies required for other modes of performance in a

language.

Unitary trait hypothesis: it suggested that language proficiency and the

“four skills” shouldn’t be separated.

COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE

TEACHING & PERFORMANCE-BASED

ASSESSMENT

o Communicative language teaching:

o Performance-based Assessment:

Abandoned arguments about unitary trait

hypothesis.

Bachman &Palmer: strategic competence(the

ability to employ communicative strategies)

Real-world tasks.

It typically involves oral production, written

production, open-ended responses, integrated

performance among skills, and group

performance.

It is time-consuming and expensive but it is worth

it.

CURRENT ISSUES IN CLASSROOM

TESTING

o New views on intelligence:

o Traditional and “alternative”

assessment:

Gardner( 1832,1999)included 5 “frames of mind”

Spatial intelligence.

Musical intelligence.

Body-kinesthetic intelligence.

Interpersonal intelligence.

Intrapersonal intelligence.

o Computer- based testing:

Advantages:

Classroom- based testing.

Self-directed testing on various aspects of the

language(vocabulary, grammar, discourse, etc.)

Practicing for upcoming standardized tests.

Disadvantages:

Lack of security and the possibility of cheating.

Occasional “home-grown” quizzes.

Open-ended responses are less likely to appear.

Human interactive element (oral production) is absent.