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Eualua,ting
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Stud,ents

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AndyBaxter

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IE
R i c h m o nP
d ublishing
19 Berghem
Mews
BlytheRoad
L o n d o nW 1 4 0 H N
O Andy Baxter1997
P u b l i s h ebdy R i c h m o nP
d u b i s h i n@
g
F i r s pt u b l i s h e1d9 9 7
All rightsre.served.
llo paft.of thisbook may be reproduced,storedin a retrieval systemor
transmittedin any form, electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recordingor otherwise,
withoutthe prior permissionin writing of the publishers.
However,the pub.lisher
grantspermissionfor the photocopyingof those pagesmarked
'photocopiable',
for individualuseor for usein classestaughtby the puichiser only. Under
no circumstances
may any paft of this book be photocopiedfor resale.
ISBN:84-294-5067-X
Depbsito
legal:M-45897-2002
Printed
in Spainby Palgraphic,
S.A.

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Design
JonathanBarnard
Layout
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l l l u s t r a t i o n s C e c k oL i m i t e d& J o h np l u m b

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Dedication
To my father- a greateducator.

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Contents

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rNrRoDucloru:
Theproblemof evaluating
PartA: Assessment,
testing,evaluation
cHAprER
1
Why do we assess
students'learning?
cHAprER
2
What'sthe difference
betweentesting,teaching
andevaluation?
CHAPTER3
Whatdo we assess?
CHAPTER4
Testing:
Whatmakesa'good'testgood?
CHAPTER5
Whatformsof testingandevaluation
should
we use?

cHAprER
5
cHAprER
7
cHAprER
8

Testing
techniques
for grammarandvocabulary
Testing
techniques
for reading
andlistening
Testing
techniques
with no correctanswers

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PartC: Assessment
cHAprER
9
Assessing
speaking
andwriting
'10
cunprrn
Assessing
procedures
andattitudes

a-t

PartD: Assessing
overtime

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15
18
30

PadB: Gettingdatafor assessment

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csnpre
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csnpreR
12
cHnpreR
13

54

43
48

49
57

Continuous
assessment
Formative
evaluation

69
72

Summative
assessment:
Appraisals
and
performance
reviews

75

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coNclusroN:
Timefor a change?

85

PHOTOCOPIABLE
PACES

87

CLOSSARY

94
96
95

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F U R T H ERRE A D I N C
INDEX

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Richrnond
Handbooks
for Teachers:
Anintroduction

I,-f-

presents
Thisseries
keyissues
in English
Language
Teaching
today,to herpyou
keepin touchwith topicsraisedin recenteducational
reforms.Thebooksall
containa mixtureof analysis,
development
work, ideasand photocopiabre
resources
for the classroom.
The keynotethroughoutis what is practical,
realisticandeasyto implement.
Our aim is to providea usefulresource
which
will helpyou to developyourown teachingandto enjoyit more.
while eachof the bookshasbeenwrittenfor the practising
English
Language
Teacher
in the primaryor secondary
environment,
they arealsosuitable
for
teachers
of languages
otherthan English,
aswell asfor teachers
of youngadults,
traineeteachers
andtrainers.
All classroom
activities
(frombeginners
aredesigned
for lower-level
classes
to
lowerintermediate)
astheseform the majorityof classes
in both primaryand
secondary.
Mostof themcan,however,be easilyadaptedto higherlevels.
Thebooksallcontain:
e a sectionof photocopiable
activitiesand templates.Theseareeitherfor
immediate
classroom
use(somewith a littleadaptation
to suityourclasses)
or for usethroughoutthe year,e.g.assessment
recordsheetsor project
workplanners.
e regulardevelopment
tasks.Theseaskyou to reflecton yourteachingin the
lightof whatyou havejust read,and someaskyou to try new ideasin the
Theyareall intendedto makethe ideasin the booksmoreaccessible
class.
to
you asa classroom
teacher.
c an indexof topics/activities.
As mostteachers
dip into or skimthrough
resource
books,thereis an indexat the backof eachbookto helpyou find
the sections
or ideasthat you wishto readabout.
e a comprehensive
glossary.
As one of the mainprinciples
of the booksis ease
of use,the authorshavetriednot to usejargonor difficultterminology.
where
thishasbeenunavoidable,
the word/termis in sMALL
cAptrAls
and is explained
in theglossary
at the back.Likewise,
we haveavoidedabbreviations
in these
books;
theonlyoneusedwhichis not in currenteveryday
English
is 11,i.e.
the students'
mothertongue.
Althoughall of the ideasin thesebooksarepresented
in English,
you may need
to explainor eventry someof them,at leastinitially,
in the students'11.Thereis
nothingwrongwith this:L1 canbe a useful,efficientresource,
especially
for
explaining
methodology.
Newideas,whichmaychallenge
the traditional
methodsof teachingand learning,
canbe verythreatening
to bothteachers
and
students.
So,especially
with lower-level
classes,
you canmakethemless
threatening
them.Thisis not wastingtime in the English
by translating
class,as
theseideaswill helpthe students
to learn/study
moreefficiently
and learnmore
in the longterm.
English

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INTRODUCTION

Theproblemof evaluating

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"Whoisthisbookfor?" One of the jobswe arealwaysaskedto do asteachersis to assess

our students.
In otherwords,we arerequired
to sayhow good- or bad- theyare.5o any
teachercanbenefitfrom a bookon testing.
lf you areinterested
in findingout something
abouttestingandapplyingit to
yourclasses,
thenthisisthe bookfor you.lf you areinterested
in improving
testingtechniques
you alreadyuseandinitiating
newwaysof testing,thenit is
for you.However,
if you wanta totallytheoretical
exposition
of testing,thenthis
bookisn'tfor you.
Evaluating
yourstudentsis intendedfor the teacherof secondary-level
students,
andthe practical
ideascontained
withinit areappropriate
for teenagers,
but
couldeasilybe adaptedfor olderstudents.
youngchildren,
Testing
however,
is a
differentmatterandbeyondthe scopeof thisbook.
)

seEnru tNTRoDUcrtoN
To rEAcHtN; ENcLtsH
To IHTLDREN
rN THEsAMEsERrEs

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"ldon'tknowaruTthingEvaluatingyour Studentsstarisby lookingat what we assess

and how we assess
abouttes-ting
andI don't it, andtriesto agreesometerminology:
whatisthe difference
betweentesting
underrtand
theterms." andteaching,evaluation
andassessment,
measuring
andjudging?
(cxnprEns
1-3)

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"Howdolknowif Thetraditional
wayto assess
hasbeenthroughusingtests.Language
testingis
'good'?"
a tesffs
an academic
areawith a vastliterature,
verymanytheories,
lotsof statistics
and
itsown journals.
Thereis not enoughroomhereto covertestingin greatdetail,
so we will lookat the basics:
whatyou needto makea testgood(cnnprrn
4).
'good'
And we will seethat it isdifficultfor anyteacher
or schoolto writea
test.

"Aretheredifferent
tqpesof Perhaps
the biggestdifference
betweenour old ideasabouttestingand newer
te*.ingandeualuoti
on?" onesaboutevaluation
isthat we havemoved,asteachers
andprofessionals,
awayfrom memorisation
andtowardshelpingstudents
to learn:the procedures
theyuseandthe attitudes
theybringto the class.
Evaluation
is biggerthanjust
testing.cHAprER
5 looksat the differentformsof testingandevaluation.
Thereareso manyabilities
andskillsthat students
haveto learn,evenin a single
subjectlikea foreignlanguage.
How do we put themalltogether?
Whichskills
important
are
andwhichskillscanwe affordto ignore?Oneway of thinking
aboutthe problemisto usethe staffroomasa parallel.
Youcouldtry thisrather
game:lmagineyourstaffroom,andallthe teachers
dangerous
in it. One (rather
drasticl)wayof startinga discussion
wouldbe to arrangeall
aboutevaluation
the chairsin a semi-circle.
Youthensayyouwantthe teachers
to seatthemselves
in orderof ability,with the 'best'teachersittingin the chairat oneend,andthe
'worst'teachersittingin the
chairat the otherend.
Therewould,of course,
be hugeuproar!Howdo youassess
who is bestandwho
isworst?Butat leastallthe problems
wouldcomeup in
involved
withassessment
Forexample,
the argument.
someteachers
at theirsubjectbut
areexcellent
hopeless
at paperwork.Somehavebrilliant
ideasbut can'tcontrola class,
andso
on. Arebrilliant
ideasworthmorethanclass
controlor subject-area
excellence?

Theproblem
of evaluating
Introduction:

"Ihis is alltheoretical. ln orderto assess

we needsomedataaboutthe student.
learners
andlearning,
- grammar,
e
language
he/she
the
components
of
vocabulary,
put
ideos
about
Can
use
I
and
can
How
"
(cunprpn
pronunciation?
6)
testing i nto pr actice?
e Canhe/sheusethe language
writing,listening
itself- in reading,
and
-9)
(csnPreRs
7
speaking?
e Howdoeshe/shelearnmosteffectively
and canthat becomepartof testing?
(cxnprrn
10)

"Andshould
we needto assess
in the student's
development,
Ikrtthe lf we areinterested
the student
period
11 nruo12 lookat coxtttluousnssrssuerur
attheendofthe overa
of time.CHAeTERS
and
students
progress
we
twice
a
how
can
record
the
student's
in
language
or
or
FoRMATvE
EVALUATToN:
both
Ueor,
Uear,
moreofi.en?" learning
andin the skillof learningitself.
At somepoint,oftenthe endof a course,we haveto put a labelon the student:
whatarehis/herstrongor weakpoints?In the past,bothteacherand student
wouldstepbackand let a testdecide.We both surrendered
responsibility.

"lf testlnqis onindiuidual Thisisimpossible

if you takeon the roleof assessor
alone.Butthereare31
howcan/ assess peoplewho canhelpeachstudent:the teacher,the student,and all the student's
actiuittl,
largeclasses,
to evaluate
but onlyif we re-examine
a c/ossof30?" peers.lt is possible
lf we do everything
for the students,
why shouldthey botherto
responsibilities.
In the caseof compositions,
we mayspend30 minutes
do it for themselves?
markingworkthat the studentwrotein ten. And everymistakethat we find is
thestudentdidn'tfind,or didn'tbotherto find.
something

"HowcanI getstudents It istimethatwe, asteachers,

calledon the studentsto sharethe responsibility
howeverhardwe try,we can'tlearnit for them!cHnpren
inthe for theirassessment:
rnoreInvolued
13
process?" looksat howthiscanbedone.Sharing
responsibilities
meansthat bothwe andthe
ossessment
haveto change.
Changeisa verythreatening
students
thing.lt meanswe haveto
learnnewskills,
andwe allworrythatwe won't be asgoodaswe usedto be.
"Howdo I usethisbook?" Testingas problemsolving
ThequotebelowisfromArthurHughes,in Testingfor Language
Teachers
(page5). He seesthe language
testnot assomething
we canwriteand saythis
is how it is done,but asa problemto be solved.
Language
testersaresometimes
askedto say what is the best testor the best
Suchquestionsreveala misunderstanding
testingtechnique.
of what is involved
in thepracticeof languagetesting.ln fact thereis no besttestor besttechnique.
that hasto be madethereforeis that eachtestingsituationis
Theassumption
uniqueandso setsa particulartestingproblem.lt is the tester'siob to provide
the bestsolutionto that problem.
thereis no 'right'answer.
Thesameistrueof allevaluation:
Thereis onlya
problem,
andthe answerto that problemwill almostcertainlybe differentin
yourschoolwith yourstaffandyourstudentsthan in a schooldown the road.
and giveyou someideas.But,
Thisbookwilltry to explainthe concepts
you mayviewmanyof the ideasin this bookas 'idealistic',
inevitably,
describing
lt is up to you to usewhat you can,adaptwhat you canand
a'perfectscenario'.
omitwhatyou knowyou can'tdo in yoursituation.Likeall problems
that affect
lotsof people,anysolutionwill be the resultof talking,arguingandfinal
Thismighttakesometimeto do, but we owe thisto the students.
agreement.
mayaffecttheirlivesfor yearsto come.
Our assessments

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pARTA Assessment,
testihg,evaluation

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cHAPTER
-

Whydo weassess
students'learning?

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Therearemanygroupswho havean interest

in assessing
a student's
abilities:
parents,
governments
teachers,
headsof departments,
and,of course,
the students
themselves.
However,
we allsharethe samefour mainreasons
for assessment:
... to comoare
students
witheachother
... to seeif students
meeta oarticular
standard
. . . t o h e l pt h es t u d e n tl'esa r n i n g
... to checkif theteaching
programme
is doingitsjob.

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givenin your
Writea [ist of the typesof tests(notjust foreign[anguages)
school.
Whyaretheygiven?Whichgroupis eachoneprimarity
aimedat?Who
arethe resultsfor?
parentsgovernments
studentsteachersheadsof departments
others

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1 To comparestudents
with eachother

lf yourstudents
wantto entera university
to studya popularsubject,
the
university
hasto select
whichstudents
on a comparative
it takes.lt decides
basis,
problem:
it
wants
20%
is
A
e.g.
thetop
of candidates.
Butthere a
consistency.
goodyearof candidates
maybe compared
with a weakyear:thisyear'stop 20%
maynot be asgoodaslastyear'stop 20%. However,
it is stillthetop 20% that
getthroughtheexam.Thisapproach
hasbeencalled'rationing
the carrots':
perform,
wellallthecandidates
however
onlythe top 20% getthrough.
Althoughthissystemmayappearunfair,it is stilloftenusedby governments
and
parents
to judgethequalityof a school.

To seeif students
meeta particular
standard

Largeorganisations,
likethestate,or international
boards,
have
examining
certainstandards
of proficiency
do not
that studentsmustmeet.Thesestandards
reflecttheteachingprogramme
necessarily
that the studentshavefollowed:
mayusedifferentbooksor syLLABUsEs.
differentschools
Sotheselarge
haveto settheirown standards
organisations
or criteria,andseeif the student
canperformat thislevel.
likeindividual
Othersmaller
organisations,
schools,
canalsoseta particular
based
on
their
individually-agreed
standard
own
criteria.
frequently,
though,
willbasetheirassessment
on theirown
More
schools
programme.
Theyanalyse
coverin class,
andthen
teaching
whatthestudents
whetherthe students
havelearnedit, oftenby givingan ACHTEVEMENT
TEsr.
assess

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.EE
students'learning?
Whydo we assess
.-\.-/----./

Testers
differoverwhatan AcHTEVEMENT
resrshouldactuallycover.lt could
testeither:
(e.g.in English,
... the overallobjectives
of the syLLABUS
the abilityto express
past
time,or the abilityto writein a varietyof styles),
or
(e.g.in English,
... the individual
itemson thesvLlneus
the pastsimple,
or writing
advertisements).
Anotherreasonfor assessment
is initialplacement.
We cananalyse
the students'
in orderto seewheretheyfit intothe system.Forexample,
abilities
if the school
hasrestrictions
on spacein classes,
they maybe placedaccording
to what
percentage
theyget (e.g.the top 10% go into the top class).
Alternatively,
there
maybe ceftaincriteria
the students
areexpected
to meet.lf oneclass
concentrates
on writingwhileanotherspecialises
in grammarrevision,
the
students'
classwill be determined
by theirsuccess
according
to thesecriteria.

To helpthe student's
learning

To checkif the
teachingprogramme
is doingits job

proficiency
Whetherwe assess
or achievement,
we cananalyse
the student's
in a diagnostic
way.Instead
abilities
of usingthe assessment
to gradethe
we useit to seewherethestudentneedsmorehelp.Forexample,
student,
the
gradein writingan adveftisement,
studentgetsan excellent
but makesmany
errorsin the grammarsection,
especially
in the presentsimplethirdperson-s.
we maythendecide
to givehim/heradditional
helpandteaching
in thisarea.
Butsuppose
getexcellent
allthe students
gradesin writingadvertisements,
but
all makemanyerrorsin the present
simplethirdperson-s.we maythendecide
programme
to alterthe wholeteaching
to giveallthe students
additional
help
in thisarea.
andteaching
if teachers
On a largerscale,
andinspectors
identifya commonproblemacross
all
government
schools',
a
maydecideto alterthe wholeof itseducation
programme.
Summary
Thereare,aswe shallseein thisbook,manywaysof assessing
students.
But
probablythe mostcommonmethodof assessment
is a test.
c pRoFtctENcy
rEsrsexamine
a generalstandardin ability,regardless
of the
programme.
teaching
c ACHTEVEMENT
TESTS
examine
whetherstudents
cando whatthey havebeen
taught,eitherby testingspecific
syLLABUs
itemsor generalobjectives.
c PLACEMENT
TESTS
area mixtureof the abovetwo, depending
on what criteria
we useto placethe student.
c DlAcNosrlc
rEsrsusePRoFtcrENcy
or AcHTEVEMENT
TEsrs
to analyse
strengths
and
weaknesses
in the studentor theteachingprogramme
itself.

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Thinkof two differentteststhat you knowwetLa tanguage

test or othertest
that is usedin yourschool"andoneof anothersubjector abil.ity(tikedriving).
programme
Is the test basedon the teaching
or not?
Whosetsthe tesfs standards/criteria?
How are the resuttsused?To comparestudents?To assessthe teaching
programme?
Forotherreasons?

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CHAPTER
2

What'sthe differencebetween
testitrg,teachingandevaluation?

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What is testing?

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Everytimewe askstudents
to answera question
to whichwe alreadyknowthe
answer,we aregivingthema kindof test.Muchof whatwe do in classis,in
fact,testingstudents'
knowledge.
Herearesomeexamples.
goes
He
to the cinema.They...?
Finda word in the text that means'angry'.
On the tape,wheredoesJohn tell Susan
he wantsto visit?
What is the main ideaof paragraphthree?
Dictation:write down the following...
That'sthat part of the lessonfinished.Whatdo you think we'regoingto do next?

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Testingandteaching

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Turningperformance
into numbers

Testinghas,traditionally,
measured
the results
of studentperformance.
o We choosesomerepresentative
samples
of language.
et We measure
whethera studentcanusethesesamples.
o We thentry to quantifythisby turningit intoa markor grade.
e We keepa recordof thesemarksandusethisto givean endassessment.
Overtime,alltestingtheory(whether
languages
or shampoo
development)
has
traditionally
beenbasedon a semi-scientific
procedure,
namely:
1 Measurethe performance.
2 Do something
to affectthe performance.
3 Measurethe performance
againandcompare
the difference.
Applyingthistraditional
testingprocedure
or modelto language
learners
has
meantthat the languagelearneristreatedasa kindof plant.We measure
the
plant,applythe newfertilisetandthenmeasure
the plantagainto seewhateffect
the fertiliserhashad.As language
we applya (pmcEmrNr)
teachers,
test,teach,and
then givean ACHTEVEMENT
TEsr
to seehow muchbetterthe studentsare.
In otherwords,testingisgenerally
with eruunnennrroru,
concerned
that is,turning
into numbers.
oerformance

a.4

Plants

Languagelearners

Stage'l

plant
measure

testthe present
simple

Stage2

addfertiliser

teachthe present
simple

Stage3

measure
plantagain
comoarethe difference

testthe present
simpleagain
comoare
the difference

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It4

the differencebetweentesting,teachingand evaluatjon?

__l9tt

Testingactivitiesand
teachingactivities

fWe oftenaskquestions
to checkthat the
andtestinggo hand-in-hand.
Teaching
we sometimes
whatwe havesaid.Equally,
haveunderstood
aska
students
question
know
to find out whetherwe needto teacha point.We instinctively
whetherit isto teachor to testsomething.
why we aska question:
the followingtwo exercises.
Compare

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Fill the gap with an appropriate form of the verb.

Franceeveryyear since 1993.
Francelast year.

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Exercise I
a John
b John

(visit)

(visit)

Exercise 2

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In groups,discussthe differencesbetweenthe wo sentences.

a John hasvisited Franceeveryyearsince 1993.
b John visited Francelast year.

1 assumes
havesomeknowledge
and asksthemto
that the students
Exercise
proveit. lt is clearlya testingactivity.Notethat if the studentsget the right
we don'tknowwhy theywrotethat answer.lt may be a guess,or it
answer,
just
might soundright.
2 asksthe students
a question
aboutthe language.
In otherwords,it is
Exercise
- a generalisable
askingthemto formulatea ruletheycanusein othersituations
theirawareness
of how the language
works.lt
theory.lt is alsotryingto increase
help
learn:
it
is
hand,
to
them
a
teaching
activity.
On
the
other
some
istrying
wouldsaythat peopledon't needto knowwhy it is right,theyjust
teachers
needto get it right.
two moreexercises.
Let'scompare
Exercise 3
Composition:A Summer'sDay at the Beach(150words)
Exercise 4
Readthe following two compositionsentitled A Summer'sDay at the Beach'.
\fhich do you prefer and why?
Underline all the words and ideasrelating to summer.Underline all the words
and ideasrelating to the beach.Put a tick next to the parts you like in eachessay.
Put a crossnext to the parts you don't like in each essay.
If all the paragraphsgot accidentailyjumbled up, could you put them back in the
right order?Vhat would help you do this? Discussyour ideaswith another group.

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Homework: write your own compositionon the sametheme (150 words).

*

Usingthesameideasaswe outlinedabove,Exercise
3 isclearlya test:it wantsthe
studentto showuswhathe/shecando. Exercise
4, on the otherhand,clearlytries
to makethe studentmoreawareof what he/sheistryingto do: it triesto increase
beforegivingthe task.lt triesto helpthe studentto learn.
awareness

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1

What's
the difference
between
testing,teachingandevaluation?

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Teachingor testing?

: Sometimes,
though,teachers
canget confused
aboutwhetherthey areteaching
' or testing.We canthinkwe areteaching
whenwe areactuallytesting.
: Thisis particularly
truewhenwe try to teachthefourskills:
reading,
writing,
speaking
and listening.
Herelanguage
teachers
facea majorproblem.We don't
I reallyknowenough;
thatis,thereareno clearrulesaboutgoodlistening,
: readingandotherskills.
All we havearesomerathergeneralised
ideassuchas
skimming
andscanning,
andthesearenot detailed
enoughto helpusworkout
an effectiveand progressive
programme.
teaching
In otherwords,whenfacedwith a skillthat is difficultto teach,suchasgood
listening,
we normally
answer
thisproblem
in oneof two ways.Eitherwe give
the students
lotsof opportunities
to showwhattheyknowsowe canseeif they're
improving.
We askthemto read,writeor listento textsof increasing
linguistic
complexity
andhopetheykeepthesamegeneralresults
or evenimprove;
or we
the complexity
of the questions.
; keepthe sametextsandincrease
Thisis a bit likea doctorsaying
your illness
I don'tknowwhatcaused
or why
you'regettingbetter,but yourtemperature
is goingdown. All we cando to
teachthe four skillsisexposestudents
to language
andtaketheirtemperature
via testingto seeif they'regettingbefcer.
Or we substitute
the skillthat isdifficultto teachwith onethat is easyto teach.
Whilethe rulesfor skillsarenotveryclear,we do havesomeverygoodrulesfor
gf&mmdrandvocabulary,
whichmakesthemeasierto teach(however,
writinga
grammar/vocabulary
testcanbecomplex,
aswe shallseelater).Sowe
sometimes
believe
we areteaching
or testinga skill,whenreallywe are
or testinggrammar
or vocabulary.
Forexample,
manyspeaking
tests
. practising
grammarrevision:
aredisguised
theycanbecomean oraltestof grammar.
They
don'ttestrealspeaking
skills
suchasinterrupting
withoutcausing
offenceat all.
Why isthis?Because
plant
thesemi-scientific modelof testingwhichwe looked
at earlierhassomemajorproblems.
Thenextpartcovers
theseproblems.

Problemswith testing

Problem1: Skillsintonumbers
On pnce9, we sawthattestingis basedon an ideafromscience:
measure,
make
, changes,
measure
againandcompare.
Oneproblemwiththescientific
modelisthatnot everything
cannecessarily
be
measured
in thisway.Therearesomethingswe caneasilytestin thisway,e.g.
-s.
the present
simplethirdperson

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Butotherskillsaremoredifficult
to measure.
How,for example,
canwe quantify
a student's
abilityto makeusefulcontributions
to the class?
o First,we wouldhaveto define'useful'and'contribution'
in a wavthatwe
couldmeasure
them.
c We coulddefine'useful'
as'successfully
explaining
something
to another
student'.
c We coulddefine'contribution'
put to the wholeclass
as'answering
a question
by the teacher'.
e We couldnow counthow manytimesa studentsuccessfully
answered
a
questionandthe majorityof the restof the classunderstood.
teacher's
Theproblemwith thisisthatwe arenow measuring
how manytimesa student
'successfully
answered
questionandthe majorityof the restof the
a teacher's
Thisisnot necessarily
classunderstood'.
the samethingasmakinga useful
contribution
to theclass.
77

ar<
S-

between
testing.teachingandevatuation?
What'sthe djfference
Il-

so therearetwo dangerswhenassessing
skillsthat aredifficultto measure.
e We maytakesomething
we all understand
andre-define
it to makeit
measurable;
but, in doingthis,we maychangethe verythingwe aretrying
to measure.
e lf something
is too difficultto measure,
we leaveit out of the test- evenif
the skillis veryimportant.
In the end,we arriveat a position
wherewe areonlymeasuring
the easilymeasurable,
ratherthan assessing
the performance
we aretryingto improve.

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Listento yourcotleagues
having(11)conversations
in the staffroom.
Whatpercentage
of their naturatspoken[anguage
consists
of fut[ sentences?
Whatpercentage
consists
of sentence
fragments
[inkedby intonational
devics
and ums and ers?
Howoftendo you teachstudents
to speakin fragmented
sentences?

Otherproblems
with testing

Problem2: Resultsversusprocesses,
whatversuswhy
Anotherproblemwith thissemi-scientific
systemof euRrurrrnrrvr
mensunrmerur
is
that it doesnot recordeuAlrrArvF
onrR.Measuring
will tell usif the planthas
grown,but not why (orwhy not).lt givesus information
aboutthe results,
but
doesn'ttellusanythingaboutthe process.
pnce10),we wouldgeta muchbetterideaof the
In the exampleessay(sEe
from Exercise
student's
abilities
4, because
we couldseesomeof the processes
behindthe work,e.g.we couldlookat wherethe studentputtheticksandcrosses
in the essays,
andthenseeif andhowthesewerereflected
in his/herown essav.

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Problem3: Standardisation
andodd results
A thirdproblemwith the scientific
modelisthatthefertiliser
givento the plant
mustalwaysbe the same,or the results
cannotbecompared.
we mustremovethe
variables
in orderto assess
the success
of the programme.
lt isdifficultto seehow
thiscanworkin teaching.
ln schools,
alltheteaching
wouldhaveto bethe same,
or we couldn'treallycompare
the progress
of individual
students.
Thismodelof
testingthereforeleadsto ratherauthoritarian
teacher-proof
methodologies.
Thescientific
modelis alsomoreinterested
in generaltrends,andstrange
individual
resultsareoftenignored.Forexample,
imaginethat in a listening
test
allyourstudentsget9OT",but yourbeststudentonlygets10%. Forus as
it isthat one odd resultthat we wouldwantto investigate.
teachers,

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- perhaps
choosea coursebook
the oneusedin yourschool- andsetectat
random:threelisteningexercisesthreereadingexercisesthreespeaking
exercises.
Whatis the purpose
of eachexercise?
Is it
...testinggrammarorvocabu[ary?(e.g.t+/r8rown-theonenqetc.)
... testingthe student'sunderstanding?
(e.g.via multipte-choice
questions
aboutinformationin the texb information
gaps;etc.)
... teachingthe studentto read/tisten/speak
better?(e.g.Doesit includeadvice
abouthowto improvereadingor tistening,pnctisingintenupting,etc.)
..- teachingthe studentto study?(e.g.Doesit teachclassroom
tanguage?
Does
it hel.pthe studentto find answers
to their ownquestions?,
etc.)

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What's
the difference
between
testing,teaching
andevatuatjon?
w

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Testingandevatuation

The relationship
betweentestingandevaluation
is similarto the relationship
betweenthe cunnrculum
andthe svlLaeus
Thesvllnsusis a setof itemsfor the teacherto coverin a term.Butthe syLLABUs
- the cunnrculurvr.
is partof a biggermethodological
scheme
A language
teachingprogramme
is not onlywhatyou cover(thesvllnaus),
but alsohow you
coverit (theclassroom
procedures),
andalsowhy you coverit (theeducational
approachor rationale
behindyoursyLLABUs
andclassroom
procedures).

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Evaluation

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In thisbook,we will seeevaluation

aswiderthantesting.Evaluation
seestesting
asa usefultool, but alsothinksthereareotherimportantcriteriafor assessing
performance.
someone's
we wantto assess
students'
abilityto usethe present
simple,but we alsowantotherinformation
abouttheir(language)
learning,
e.g.
ei Canthey usea dictionary?
e Do theyactuallyusethe targetlanguage
in class(e.g.for chatting)?
c Are theirnoteswellorganised?
c Do theycontribute
to groupwork?
e' Arethey well behaved?
lf we comparethisto the syLLABUS{uRRtcuLUM
diagram,
we canseea
(simplified)
similarity:

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evaluation

Problems
with testing:
Canevaluation
solvethem?

Problem1: Skillsinto numbers

Evaluation
is not limitedto numbers
or justgivingstudents
marks.Insteadof
tryingto countor measure
a student's
abilityto makeusefulcontributions
to the
class,we cansimplyjudgewhetherhe/shemakesa contribution
or not. In other
words,you canbe subjective
aswellasobjective.
Butwhenwe makejudgements,
we mustrealise
thatotherpeople,
including
teachers
and students,
maynot agreewith whatwe think.Evaluation
meansthat
sometimes
we will haveto justify,negotiate
and possibly
modifyour opinions.
We may needmorethanonejudge- we mayevenneeda jury.

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Problem2: Resultsversusprocesses,
whatversuswhy
In additionto EttuiurRnrtoru,
evaluation
looksfor tlumrrunrroru:
How did you learn
that?why did you writethat?we aredoingsomething
with the student,rather
than doingsomething
to the student.lf we hadto assess
Miguel'sperformance
year,
pnce1o),or his
overthe
wouldwe ratherhavehisessayfrom Exercise
3 (sEe
essayfrom Exercise
4 with hisnotesstapledto the backof it? Exercise
3 tellsus
what, but Exercise
4 tellsus what,how, andwhy.
In addition,by askingthesequestions,
we will learna lot of extrainformation:
... whatthe studentthinkshelsheis learning
... whatthe studentthinksiseasyldifficult
... whatthe studentenjoys/hates
doingin class
13

FU

andevaLuation?
What'sthe differencebetweentesting,teaching

tlz

Iprogramme
andthe studentdon'tmeet
... wheretheteaching
programme
... wheretheteaching
needsto be re-designed.
In otherwords,we canusethe assessment
procedure
to developand improve
: notonlythestudent,
butalsotheteaching
programme,
andeventhe school.By
- and more
procedures
andattitudes,
we gainmoreinformation
evaluating
- thanby simplylookingat testresults.
usefulinformation
andodd results
Problem3: Standardisation
process.
Evaluation
doesnot wantto removethe variables
in the assessment
is interested
in odd results
Evaluation
asit is exactlythiskindof resultthat may
process.
illuminate
something
aboutthe learning
Equally,
it doesnot want
materials
andmethodologies.
Instead,
teacher-proof
evaluation
triesto includeas
manypeopleas possible,
because
all information
is seenas possibly
usefulfor
improving
the designof a teachingprogramme.

Who evaluates?

4, writinga goodtestisan extremely

As we willseein cHRprrR
complextask,
not onlya lot of timeandresources,
andrequires
in
but alsosomeexpedise
analysis.
Forthisreason,
it tendsto be largeorganisations
statistical
suchas
governments
anduniversities
thatwritebigtests,mainlybecause
theyneedto
yearafter!ear. C, srr pnce31
standards
keepthesameNoRM-REFERENcED
however,
we aretryingto helpthe studentto learn.Evaluation
With evaluation,
is notjustan assessment,
butan aidto learning.
Thismeansthatthe more
peoplewho areinvolved
in the process,
the betterthe process
is.
Summary
As we haveseenin thischapter,
to teachstudents
skillswhicharedifficultto
(i.e.
questions
we
ask
them
lots
micro-tests)
teach, either
of
effectively
to seeif
or we substitute
they'reimproving
theskillthat isdifficultto teachwith onethat is
easyto teach.
in a skillwhichis difficultto measure,
To assess
students
we eitherre-defineit to
possibly
it
measurable;
make
but
change
whatwe aremeasuring
or we leaveit
onlythe easily-measurable.
out of the testand measure
ratherthanthe individual.
Testing
alsolooksat thegeneral,
Individuals,
whether
or students,
arevariables
theyareteachers
that haveto be removedfromthe
process.
lndividuals
assessment
areturnedinto eunrurrrnrrvr
datalikeresults;
and
onrn,likeprocesses
or attitudes,
arestatistically
removed.
euALtrATrvE

T A

language
learners?
Whocanevatuate
Theheadof yourschoolhasdecided
to developa newassessment
systemfor
hasaskedyou to providea list of atl
the endof the nextschootyear.He/She
the peoplewho mighthaveusefulinformation
abouta student's[anguage
learningabitity.Makean appropriate
[ist,then consider
the fotlowingquestions.
coutdeachgroupprovide?
Whatinformation
Giventhe systemasit existsnow,whowouldactual.ty
be consutted?
Whatinformationwouldyou get us'ingthe presentsystem?
giventhe presentsituation?
wouldbe missing,
Whatinformation
Wh'ichpartsof the missinginformationarethe mostimportantto incl.ude?
Canyouthink of anywaysof incorporating
theseimportantareasinto the
present
systemwithoutneeding
to re-design
procedure?
the wholeassessment

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CHAPTER
3

1-

Whatdo weassess?

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Beforewe canassess
a student's
performance,
we needto decidewhatwe are
goingto assess.
At firstsight,thislookslikean easyquestion.
As foreignlanguage
teachers
we
evaluate
the student's
abilityin a foreignlanguage.
Ejrlier*e g"u" the examples
belowastestquestions
(i.e.theteacherarready
knowsthe answers).

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what do you think eachof the foLlowing

questions
is actualtytesting?
Thinkof youranswers
beforeyoulookat the keybelow.
1 Hegoesto the cinema.
They...?
'angry,.
2 Finda wordin the text that means
3 0n the tape,wheredoesJohnte[ Susanhe wantsto visit?
4 Whatis the mainideaof paragraph
three?
5 Dictation:
writedownthe fottowing
...
6 That'sthat partof the lesson
finished.
whatdo youthink we'regoingto
do next?

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1 Thisistestinggrammar
(usingthepresent
simplethirdpersonplural).
2 Thisistestingvocabulary
(recognising
thatfurious
isa synonym
of angry).
3 Thisistestingthe student's
abilityto listenfor detail.
4 Thisistestingeitherlistening
for general
meaning
or inferring
froma text.

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5 Thisistestinggeneral
ability(writing,
reading,
pronunciation,
listening,
spelling,
etc.).
5 Thisistestingtheirabilityto inferlesson
phasing
fromtheirprevious
learning
experience.
so we alreadytestthe students
on a widerangeof skillsandabirities.

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Message
andmedium

However,
questions
canhavemorethanoneanswer.Forexampre:
Teacher:
Miguel, wheredoesthe presidentof the lJnitedstateslive?
Miguel(1):He livesin London.
Miguel(2):He live in the WhiteHouse.
Miguelgivesthe teachera problemhere.Hisfirstansweris grammatically
correct
but factuallywrong.Hissecondanswerisgrammatically
wrongbut factually
correct.Whichansweris better?
Theanswerto thisquestionislt depends
why youaskedthe questionLanguage
teaching
isconcerned
with bothmessage
andmedium.lf we aretestingthe third
person-s,Answer1 mustbe correct.
on the otherhand,we arealsotryingto
teachstudents
to communicate
in a differentlanguage.
Thegrammatical
mistake
thatMiguelmakesin Answer2 doesnotstopcommunication
of the idea.
Language
teachers
haveto balance
two different'correctnesses':
the rightidea,
i.e.the message
andthe rightformof expression
of thatidea,i.e.the medium.
15

Whatdo we assess?
"-/-

>1
versuslanguageuse
components
Which language Language
itemsthatwe
abilitiesdo we test? Anothercommondistinction
the individual
iswhetherwe assess
(grammar,
of a language
i.e.the components
put togetherto makea sentence,
puts
these
the
student
how
whether
we
assess
or
pronunciation);
vocabulary,
(i.e.
togetherwhenthey actuallyusethe language the four skillsof
components
andwriting).
reading
listening,
speaking,
Otherskillsof usinglanguage
(e.g.formalversus
informal
appropriate
that is socially
We needto uselanguage
makingwhatwe sayfit what has
SKILLs:
etc.).We needotscouRsE
vocabulary,
(e.g.
wasgoingto the cinema,not / saw
he
He
said
/
John.
saw
before
said
been
SKILLS,
too, suchas how
going...).
We
need
srRnreclc
lohn. JohnsaidJohnwas
get information
from a text,listenfor gist,etc.
to taketurnsin speaking,
learningskills
Language
e the abilityto usea dictionary
of unknownwords
e the abilityto work out meanings
suchasaskingthe teacherWhat'sthepasttenseof
e learningmetalanguage
thatverb?etc.

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IGenerallearningskills
c contributing
to, andworkingin,groupsin class
c the abilityto knowwhat you knowandwhatyou stillneedto learn
you don't know
e, strategies
for findinginformation
in tests,etc.
ei followingthe instructions
or socialskills
Otherbehavioural
isthe
for anylearner
wouldsaythatoneof the primaryskills
Manyteachers
to staysittingin his/herchairworking
ability,for at leastpartof the lesson,
the class.
aroundanddisrupting
ratherthanwandering
shouldwe includein ourassessment?
Whichof theseabilities
How muchshouldeachskillbe worth?
how shouldwe recordourassessment?
And,if theyareincluded,
areto markor record.
Thistakesus on to how easyor difficultthesescores

Othercriteriafor
ifficult
i nclusion:Easy/d
to markor record

As we havealreadyseen,thereis alsoa problemabouthow to markor

recordanswers.
etc.)are
multiple-choice,
asnumbers(gap-fills,
that giveresults
Assessments
(or
a pieceof
on
results
nnw
scoREs)
write
the
veryeasyto record.We cansimply
a markout of twentyor
paper,or we canconvertthisnumberinto a percentage,
an A-E grade.
9), of markingwriting,
thereareways,aswe shallseelater(in cHnprER
Similarly,
not
as
we
are
counting
correctresults,
more
complex
much
althoughtheseare
but judgingthe qualityof a pieceof writing.We shallalsoseethat the same
likespeaking
and behaviour.
canbe usedfor otherabilities,
systems
to the class,
e.g.the student's
contributions
However,whenwe wantto assess,
to write
will
have
will
we
problem.
This
almost
certainly
mean
bigger
a
we have

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Whatdo we assess?

notes.Notesaremoredifficultto record:differentteachers
will writedifferent
amountsaboutdifferentthings.lf we wantthisinformation
to be kept,we will
haveto havefilesfor eachstudent.
Summary
l a n g u a g ec o m p o n e n t s
( g r a m m a rv, o c a b u l a r y ,
pronunciation)

ranguage
use
( r e a d i n gw, r i t i n g ,
l i s t e n i n gs, p e a k i n g )

l a n g u a g ec o m p e t e n c i e s
(socio-linguistd
i ci ,s c o u r s e
andstrategic ompetencies)

l-e

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'truth'or'fact'

l e a r n i n gs k i l l s

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l a n g u a g el e a r n i n gs k i l l s

g e n e r a bl e h a v i o u r a l
a n d s o c i a ls k i l l s

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ASSESSMENT

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t h i n g st h a t a r e e a s y
to mark or record

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t h i n g st h a t a r e
easy to test
What we typically assess

t h i n g st h a t a r e
easyto teach

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a g e n e r a li m p r e s s i o no f t h e
s t u d e n ta s a ( l a n g u a g el)e a r n e r

a g e n e r a il m p r e s s i o no f t h e
s t u d e n ta s a l a n g u a g eu s e r

a g e n e r a il m p r e s s i o no f t h e
s t u d e n ta s a m e m b e ro f t h e c l a s s

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Thinkaboutyourcurrentsystemof evatuating
a studentat the endof theyear.
Which of the skilts mentionedabove are includedin your current
assessment
system?
Whichof the skillsarenot inctuded?
Canyouthinkwhy
they arenot included?
Is onetype of skittmorevaluable
Forexamp[e,
than another?
it getshigher
marks,or determines
the studenfsassessment?
Howarethesemarksrecorded?
Whichskiltsareforma[lyassessed
(i.e. you recordthe informationon the
studenfsrecords)?
Whichskittsdo think aboutwhenassessing
the student,but arenot recorded
officiatty?
Doesyourpresent
systemwork?Dothe goodstudents
getthroughandthe bad
fait?
ones
So howdoesyoursystemdefinea goodlearner?
Finishthe sentence
betow:
In ourschool,a goodlearnerissomeone
whocan...

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77

a<

CHAPTER
4

ls

Testing:
Whatmakes
a 'good'testgood?

t:
As we saidin the Introduction,
the easiest
and mostcommonformof assessment
isto givethe students
a test.However,
whilewritinga quicklittletestmayappear
easy,it isverydifficultto writea goodtest.How muchtimeandeffortyou invest
in a testwilldependon how important
the resultisto the student.lf you wantto
knowwhethera studentknowssevenvocabulary
itemsreferringto transport,this
is a simpletestto write.Theresultisn'tveryimportant.Forexample:
\frite five more words in the samecategory:
car, bus, -t

-,

-t

Butif you aregoingto usethe testto decidewhethersomeone

will repeata
schoolyear,or will be ableto go to university
or not,the testobviously
needsto
be muchbetter.Thesekindsof examarenormally
writtenby international
exam
boardsor by the state,simplybecause
theyareso complicated
to makeandscore.
"Sophot is a goodtest?" A goodtesthasthefollowingqualities:
. . . i t i sv a l i d
. . . i t i sr e l i a b l e
... it is practical
... it hasno negative
(negative
effectson the teachingprogramme
ancrwnsH).

v
>

tr
E
E
t-

F
F

tr
F
F
t-

Vatidity

F
t-

Therearethreemaintypesof validity:
VALIDIry
CONTENT

T A

CONSTRUCT
VALIDIW

t-

FACEVALIDIry

Beforereadingthe sectionsbelow,lookat the threetypesof vaLidityabove

andhavea guesswhateachtypeof vatiditymeans.

"Whotis contentuoliditu?" coNrENr

vALtDtw
meansDoesa testtestwhat it ls supposedto test?
Forexample,
if we wantto testwhethera classof beginners
canproduce
examples
of the presentsimplefor describing
routines,
we mustmakesurethat:
(andnot,for example,
... the questions
areon the present
simple
for routines
presentsimplefor future)
... we testthe verbsthat beginners
arelikelyto know
to producethe answer,
... we askthe students
and not iustrecognise
the
answerby,say,usingmultiple-choice.

F
F

tr
t-

F
I-

18

F
l-

Testing
W: h a m
t a k eas' g o o d ' t e sgt o o d ?
-

1_^

In otherwords,the questions
we askmustbe a representative
sampleof a
beginner's
wholeabilityto producethe present
simplefor routines.
It is easierto makethe contentof a testvalidwhenwe aretryingto testsmall
itemslikethese.Butcorurerur
vALrDrry
is moredifficultto assure
whenwe are
testinga student's
pnci8
globalabilities,
asin a pRoFtctENcy
rrsr. ) seE
Letus lookat a typical(lower)intermediate
examof generalEnglish.
What
structures
do examsat thisleveltypically
test- andtherefore
assume
are
representative
of a levelof knowledge
in general?
of English
... modalverbscan,must,don'thaveto
... presentperfectwith for
... futurewill vsgoingto
... -edvs -ingadjectives
... -ingformafterverbsof likingandenjoyment
... too + adjective/
not + adjective
+ enough
... simplepassives,
etc.
Yetit couldtesta numberof otherthings,e.g.
. .. topic/comment
sentences,
e.g.Thatcar- it wasawful.
... colloquial
English,
e.g.He getson my neNes.
... compound
nouns,e.g.tablelegvsthebackof thebook
... speedof delivery,
e.g.average
numberof wordsperminute
... average
sentence
length
... turn-taking
in conversation
skills.
In otherwords,a test,especially
a testof general
English,
cannottesteverything
Sowe mustchoosea selection
of thingsto testthatwe thinkarerepresentative
of a student's
abilityin knowing/using
partof) language.
a (particular
Note:Someskillsaremoredifficultto testthanothers.Testingthe passive
is
easier
than,say,testingturn-taking
in conversation.
Similarly,
somequestiontypesareeasierto writethanothers,e.g.youcanlistento English
for days
withouthearinganyoneusereportedspeech,
but it appears
in lotsof tests;not
in orderto testreported
speech,
butsimplybecause
it is usefulfor testingthe
student's
abilityto manipulate
the tensesystem
and(inquestions)
wordorder.
Theyareveryeasyquestions
to write.

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"What is construct . coNsrRucr

vAltDrry
meansDoesthe testfesfwhat it'ssupposedto testand
val.idltt1?" nothingelse?
Normallywe try to testoneof the following:
(i.e.structure,
... grammar
vocabulary
andpronunciation)
... skills(i.e.reading,
writing,listening
andspeaking).
Butit is sometimes
verydifficultto testoneof thesewithoutalsotestingothers.

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T A .g K

Lookat the foltowingtest question,

youranswerwith the notes
thencompare
on page20.
Fill the gapwith an appropriateverb in the correcrform.
1) Mr Smith normally
a red Mercedes.
Whatmustthe studentknowin orderto answer
this questioncorrectly?
What
exacttyarewe testing?

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19

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T e s t i n gW: h a tm a k eas ' g o o d ' t e sgt o o d ?

l-

Thestudentmust:
We areassuming
the instructions.
... be ableto readand understand
that helshe
the vocabulary
verb,form).
understands
@ppropriate,
but be illiterate).
... havesomereadingskills(e.g.he/shemayspeakEnglish,
vocabularyandguesswhattheteacher
wants.We may
... knowthe required
be tryingtotestif the studentknowsthe verbdrive,buthe/shecouldusethe
verbhaveor havegot.
We wantthe 3rd person-s.
... knowthetensesystem.
'Mercedes'
is- we areusingassumed
cultural
knowledge
... alsoknowwhata
in theircountry'Mercedes'
isa
whichthe studentmaynot have.Suppose
makeof bike.Wouldwe acceptrides?
We assume
that if we writenormally,the
. . . alsoknowsometeacher-shorthand.
Butthestudent
simple.
couldwrite
studentwill knowthatwe wanta present
any of the followingcorrectanswers:drove,usedto drive,will drive,has
driven,shouldhavedriven,etc.(Althoughthe word ordershouldhelpthem
to choose.)
So if the studentanswers:
1 Mr Smith normally

pvig

a red Mercedes.

How correctisthis?How manymarksdo we givehim/her?

1 markfor form?(thethirdperson-s form is right)
the instruction)
1 markfor fillingthe gap?(he/sheunderstood
(theverbiswrong)
0 marksfor appropriacy?
"What is
faceualiditg?"

vAlrDlrymeansDoesthe test appearto testwhat it is tryingto test?

FACE
imagine
thatwe do lotsof research
andwe findthat,amazingly,
Forexample,
feet
is
related
to
language
learning
aptitude.We
a
student's
directly
the sizeof
rEsr.
is a betterpredictor
of levelthanour own eLAcEMENT
find that shoe-size
TEST
lf thisweretrue,it wouldmakesensefor usto throwawayour eLACEMENT
andparents,
and insteadsimplyaskstudentsWhat'syourshoesize2Students,
linkbetween
complain
because
thereis no apparent
shoesize
wouldimmediately
and languageability.
The
involved
in testing.
In otherwords,thereisa kindof psychologicalfactor
to do with the skillyou aretryingto test.
test mustappearto havesomething

How to maketestsvalid: Beforeyou writea test,writedownwhatyou wantto test.

Contentvalidity c Do you wantthe studentsto recognise
or producethe answer?
c Remember
that oneform (e.g.structure
or vocabulary
item)mayhavea
meanings.
numberof different
e Remember
that eachstructure
itemmayhavea numberof
or vocabulary
(singular,
plural;
questions,
negatives,
etc.),
etc.;1st,2ndpersons,
differentforms
of the syLLABUs
seewhat percentage
isgivento each
lf you aretestinga syLLABUs,
skill,form and meaning.lf you arewritinga generaltest,decidefor yourself
whichskills,etc.aremostimportant.Youmayfind it usefulto fill a chartlikethe
pRoe
1.
one belowandon PHorocoPtAaLE
Followthisprocedure.
e Makea listof the teachingitemson the syllneus.
An itemmightbe the
area.
presentsimple,invitingor a vocabulary
e Thenlookat the amountof timethe syLLneus
or coursebook
suggests
on eachitem.Dividethisby thetotalnumberof course
spending
hoursor
20

E
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=

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F
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F
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F

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F
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E.

E
F
F

t
E
E-

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t-

Testing:
Whatmakes
a'good'testgood?
--/

a--

l-

coursebook
units,multiplyby 100andthiswilltellyouwhatpercentage
of
the courseeachitemrepresents.
(Thismethodis,of course,relevant
onlyif
you aredevisinga test/tests
for the wholesyLlneus.)
e Thenlookat what formsof eachitemyou havecovered,
e.g.
Item:presentsimple
1 2nd/ 3rd person?singularlplural? questions/statements/negatives/
.st/
shortanswers?
Item:vocabulary
for food
Singular/plurals?
spelling?associated
structures
likeunlcountables?.
etc.
Item:inviting
Whichexponents?Whichanswers?(e.g.yes,t,d love to.)
Item:skim-reading
What lengthof text? What speed?Whattext type?
o Thendecideif the svlLnsus
expects
the students
simplyto be ableto recognise
theseitemscorrectlyused,or to be ableto producethem.
Youcanfill out a kindof grid,e.g.

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Syllabus
item

What exactly
arewe teaching?

Percentage
of syllabus

Grammar:
presentsirnp[e

all persons,
rtakments,
questions,
negatiues
andshoti ansuers

t3

I /50

Vocabu[ary:
food

countable/ unco untoble

slngular/plural

2/50

Communication/fu
nction:
inuitatiorts

inuiting
occeptinq
/ refusinq

3/50

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Recognise
//x

Produce
/lx

Number
of
itemsin test

TIP
when you havecompleted
the chart,you shourd
try andmakethe numberof
questions
and markson eachitemmatchthe percentages.
lmagine,for example,
that yourcompletebeginnersyLLABUS
recommends
that you spend15%of thte
timecovering
the present
simple,
andtellsyouthatthe students
shouldbe able
to recognise
the correctforms.you thenlookat the testandfind that 50%of
the questions
relateto the present
simple,
andit includes
gap-fills
with no
suggested
answers.
Thereis a clearmismatch
betweensyLLABUS
andtest.

How to maketestsvalid: lnstructions

Construct
validity
Theeasiest
way in a monolingual
classroom
of removing
anycomplications
with

instructions
isto writethemin thestudents'
own language.
on theotherhand,
testinstructions
areclassroom-authentic
itemsof the targetlanguage,
andthe
abilityto understand
them becomes
importantif the students
areto take
international
exams.A usefulhalf-waypointis to put both Ll andtargetlanguageinstructions
side-by-side,
andto movegradually
towardsthe target
language
onesovera numberof years.
Remember
to tell the studentshow manymarks,or what percentage
of their
totalscore,eachitem/section
is worth.Thisgivesthe studentthe responsibility
of allocating
an appropriate
amountof timeandeffortl

It

LL-"r-

27

=
W: h a m
t a k eas ' g o o d ' t e sgt o o d ?
Testing

rTestingtwo thingsat the sametime

Lookat eachquestionandcheckwhatyou aretryingto test.We canlimitthe
studentto makesurewe aretestingonlythe partwe wantto test,e.g.
I Normally, Mr Smith
) Normally, Mr Smith

v
+
P

a red Mercedes.
a red Mercedes.(drive)

we mustdecideif we aretestingdriveor -s. lf we givethem

In the lastexample,
we shouldgivea half-markfor
drive,we aretesting-s;if we don't,perhaps
item.
drive,asthe studenthaschosenthe rightvocabulary
Remember
thatdroveisalsocorrect.lf morethanoneteacheris markingthe
you
will
needan answerkeyandmarkingguidewith allthepossible
exam,
peae26
RELtABtLtw
answers.
) sersconeR

v
v
v
)-

tF

whenyou havewrittenyourtest,checkit with otherpeople- native

Howto maketestsvalid: lf possible,
youshouldtrialit with
ldeally,
andotherstudents.
otherteachers,
speakers,
In general

whicharesimilarto
anotherclassat the samelevel,andseeif it givesresults
gut reaction.
lf you can'ttrialallof it, givethe
andthe teacher's
othertestresults
otherclasshalfof it, e.g.everyotherquestion.

!-

checkthat yourtestlookslikeit is testingwhatyou intendit to test.

Finally,
pnoe20
i> serrncr vALlDtw
choosing
someform of otnecr
rEsrNc(srepnce30) will
Forallthesereasons,
giveyou a morevalidtest(if the instructions
are
normallyautomatically
understood).
easily

)-

v
v
tF

Retiabitity

I-

tTherearetwo mainformsof reliabilitv:

TESTRELIABILITY

t-

RELIABILITY
SCORER

"Whatis testreliabilitq?" TEsrRELIABTLTry

meanslf it waspossibleto give the samepersonthe same
testat the sametime, wouldthe resultbe the same?
lmagineyou wantto seehow wellpeoplecanplaydads.Youaskthemto hit the
you of their
How manydartswouldtheyneedto throwto convince
bulls-eye.
playing?
Three?Five?Ten?Forthisexample,
we will choosefive.
levelof dart
'knows'
you wantto testif a student
the presentsimple.How
Now suppose
wouldyouask?We chosefivefor darts,so,if we wantto test
manyquestions
or testitemslike:
the thirdpersonhe,we wouldneedfivequestions
He

to the cinema every day.

On Tuesdays,h _

t*
*
*

(eo)

to go to the cinema.

(like)

EF

vALrDtry,
of coltreruT
we haveto givethemthe baseverbor we are
Note:Because
alsotestingvocabulary.

+
I-

22
*
JL.

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l_
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W: h a m
t a k eas' g o o d ' t e sgt o o d ?
Testing
--

Butwe can'tassume
thatthe studentknowssheaswellashe.so we would
needfiveshetestitemsaswell.And whataboutplurals?
And names,aswellas
pronouns?
And alsothings,possibly
bothconcrete
In fact,we
andabstract.
wouldneedfivetestitemsfor eachof the following:
you
I
he
she
it
tohn
building
we
you
they
lohn and Mary
ideas
In addition,thereareat leastfourformsof the present
simple:statements,
questions,
negatives
andnegative
questions.
Tomakeit simple,
we willexclude
questiontags,yes/noanswers,
etc.
Thismeansthat,to testwhetherthe studentknowsthe present
simple,we
wouldtheoretically
needto askthe following:

12 subjects

x 4 forms

l:
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l:

|/ you/ he/ she/ it/we/ you/ they

affirmative/

John/building

negative/q
uestion/

John& Mary/ideas

question
negative

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x 5 examples
of each

Thisgivesusa testwith 12 x 4 x 5 or 24Oquestions.

Remember
that herewe areonlytestingstructure.
Thepresent
simplecanhave
manydifferent
meanings,
apartfromroutineactions,
including:
... universal
truths(Thesun risesin the East.)
... commentary
or presenthistoric(Jones
shootsandhe scores!
2 - 1!)
... futures(Yourtrainleavesat sixa.m.tomorrow.).
lmagine
we wantedto testroutineactions
andthesethreeotherdifferent
- 960 in total!
meanings
at the sametime,we wouldneed240x 4 questions
However,
we haveto realise
that thisistotallyimpractical.
Sowe haveto
compromise
andselect
someof the possible
questions
we couldask.out of the
240 possible
questions
we mightask10 or 20.Theproblem
iswhich10 or 20 do
we ask?We musthopethat the samplewe chooseis representative.
Letusimaginetwo students:
A andB.A onlyknows20 answers
out of the240.B
knows220 answers
out of the240.lt istherefore
possible
thatluckyA mightscore
20/20because
we onlyaskthe20 questions
helsheknows,butunlucky
B might
score
0/20 because
we askhim/heronlythe20 questions
he/shedoesn't
know.
Soherewe areaskingHow representative
is our selection
of questions
out of all
possible?
the questions
Civenour resources,
therewill alwaysneedto be a
compromise
betweenmakingourtestlongenoughto be reliable
butalsoshort
enoughto be practical.
On theotherhand,we mustalsomaketestslongenoughto giveenough
samples
to measure.
Forexample,
we can'ttestparagraphing
skillsunless
the
pieceof writingis longenoughto require
paragraphs;
andwe can'ttesttalking
skillsunless
thereistimeto talk,interrupt,
request
information,
andsoon.
you
Sometimes
we alsoneedto maketaskssufficiently
complex. can'ttesta
student's
abilities
to compare
two possible
choices
andmakean informed
in a two-minute
decision
conversation
abouttheirsummer
holidays.
Of course,
therehasbeena lot of research
on resrRELtABtLtry
and how to
measure
it, but it isallextremely
complex
andtime-consuming.
lt is unrealistic
to
expectschools
to havethe timeand resources
to makea testtotallvreliable.

a-tA

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23

ac
.1

T e s t i n gW
: h a tm a k e sa ' g o o d 't e s tg o o d ?

!. Instead,it may be bestto acceptthat almosteverytestwe designwill have

whenit comesto giving
lt will simplybe a guideto the teacher
: limitedreliability.
And,
if
we
honest,
if we thinka
are
student's
abilities.
of any
: a finalassessment
' studenthasunder-performed
in our reliabletest,we areoftenstilltemptedto
. finda few marksand helpthempassanyway!

How to make
testsmorereliable

Get enoughexamPles
above.
c Seenumberof questions
andcomplexity
o Givethe studentsfreshstads.lf they don't likethe essaytopicor question
theymaynot
type,or if theyfeeltheyaremakinga messof thisquestion,
performaswell astheycan.Youneedto let themstartagainon a freshtask.
CompareTestA andTestB below.
TestA
!7rite a letter to an aunt who is borrowing your family's house for a
holiday.Tell her how your holiday is going and describewhat there is to do
in the areaif she getsbored. As you are the only personin your family who
knows how the video works, your parentshave askedyou to explain to her
how to change channelsand how to record a programmeon a different
channel from the one she is watching. (250 words)

_Y
_Y
-

P
l1

---3

->
)_*

_F
t-

tl-

TestB
I-

a Some relatives are staying in your house while you are on holiday. You
are the only person in your family who knows how the video works. Your
parentshave askedyou to write a short note telling them how to change
channels and how to record a programme on a different channel from the
one they are watching. \frite a short note explaining how to do it.
(75 words)
b r$(/ritea short postcard to an aunt to tell her how your holiday is going.
(75 words)
c During the school holidays, you and your parentshave moved to a new
house in a different part of your city. You are writing to a friend who is
'$7rite
one
away with his/her parents on their summer holidays.
paragraph from the letter describing what the new part of the city is like,
and telling him/her what there is to do there. (75 words)

t-

F
t-

F
F
t-

v
As you cansee,the tasksareverysimilar;but TestB givesthe studentthreefresh
attemptsat the sametask,and alsoallowsyou to testa widerrangeof social
andtext tyPes.
styles,audiences,
Testingtechniques
Makethem:
e varied- don't useonlyonetechnique
to measure.
Forexample,
don'tusejust
gap-fills,
but alsoothertechniques
suchas multiplechoice.
However,
don't
givethe answerto question
10 in question
24,e.g.

E-

F
!-

24

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I-

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T e s t i n gW: h a m
t a k eas' g o o d ' t e sgt o o d ?
----

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Vrite the appropriarequestionword.

l0
doeshe go on Friday nights?

It--r

Fill the gap with the appropriate form

of the verb.
24 $flhere
he _
on Tiresdaymornings? (go)

lr--=
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o familiar- the studentsmay not performweil

if they haveto rearnnew
question-types
in the middreof the test.studentsshouldhavemet the
question-type
befo.re.
Forexample,
if you normallyonlydo true/falselistening
comprehension
tasks,the foilowingwourdconfusea stldent.

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Listen to the tape and decideif the informadon is true (T),

false(F)
or nor given (NG).

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Instructions

r.i

Makethem:
o clear

r
1--q

c at the appropriate
levelof language.
Teachers
rarelyteachthe wordgapo(
suitableto beginners,
but theyoftenusethemin the testinstructions.
Remember
to usethe students'
L1 if necessary.
rf not,you maybe testing
theirinstruction-reading
skillsinstead
of whatyou areactually
tryingto test.

a4

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LL:
a-1.

Restrictthe task
Allthestudents
shouldhavethesamechance.
Lookat thefollowing
compositions.

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Computers

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How can computershelp us?

How can compurershelp peopleat work?

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How can computershelp the police,{ire and ambulanceservices

in emergencies?

a-J

obviouslythe lasttaskis the mostrestricted

andwill allowyou to seediffering
abilitybetterthanthe first.rn addition,if you giveu g.n.rui topic
andthe
studenthasno ideas,you aretestingcreativity
as*.ll u, engliih.
g) seEcoNsrRucr
(pncr19)ih"y ,"y needa freshstart(sEe
vAltDtry
pnce24).

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Keepconditionscomparable
Makesuretwo differentgroupstakethe testunderthe sameconditions.
The
instructions
mustbe the.same.Do you pausethe tapebetweenprays?
How rong
for? ls theredistracting
backgrorndnoise?can theycheat?Do you givethema
minuteto let themfinishafterTime'sup!, or do you saypensdownnow!?

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Lookat one of the end-of-year

testsfromyourschoot.Howretiabledo you
thinkit is?Thinkof at leastonewayof making
it moreretiabte
but takingihe
sameamountof time.

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good?
a 'good'test
Whatmakes

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"What is scorerreliabilittl?" scoRER

meanslf you gave the same test to two different people to
RELTABTLTry
give the same score?
would
they
mark,

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to exercises
below.What kind of test is each
Lookat the three answers
will you havewhenmarkingthemfor a) your
from?What kindof problems
class?
b) anotherteacher's
class?

Examplel:la 2b 3d 4a 5d
Example2:He Ap to thecinema.
Example3: Jonh"gr,t vp andopondo ory4. Tho gvniE ShinninSard
'le
a boaift-rfulda4.Todarl, I no"go to
do bridE aro ginrirn+tto hnd'
work, bvt I qe to'ho boach.'6vt vvhon'ho ie'drivingin hof c-ar,
ho 9oe Mr9miil,, hie bogg,vvho 9a1him,'Wh1 yv ftot in work?'
1: Multiplechoicetests
Example
3. ln fact,a
1 is mucheasier
to markthanExample
It iseasyto seethat Example
(pncr18),
vALtDtTY
1. Butaswe explained
in CoNTENT
canmarkExample
computer
examsaremuchmoredifficultto write.Andtherearesomeskillsmultiple-choice
problems
with validity.
causes
likewriting- wheretestingby multiple-choice
don't help
with multiple-choice
examsisthatthe results
Anothermajordrawback
cangetanyusefulinformation
the studentto learn.Neitherteachernorlearner
answerwasright/wrong
or successful/unsuccessful.
aboutwhy the learner's
tests
2: Limitedpossibility
Example
for Example
2.
correct
answers
Thereareonlya limitednumberof possible
(pncr19):
vALtDtry
aswe sawin corusrRucr
However,
whenwe wrote
answers
thanwe anticipated
... thereareoftenmorepossible
question
the
whicharepartially
correctand partiallywrong.
cangiveanswers
... students
" Howcanue irnproue Usean answerkeyor a marking
guide:givea listof acceptable
anda
answers
(i.e.
lf so,whatfor?).Butif morethan
scorerreliabilitgin markingscheme canyougivehalf-marks?
that you mayneedseveralmeetings
inthesecLses?" oneteacheris markingthe tests,remember
answers
to the list,or alterthe markingscheme.For
to add new acceptable
belowarepossible.
alltheanswers
example,

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Ex.2

He _

to the cinema.

havogonofwovldliko to
goog/wort/wrlly/has beon/vvrll
ff

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tests
3: Multiplepossibility
Example
to mark.
3 is muchmoredifficult
Example
forms
c Teacher
A mightnoticethat allthe punctuation
andpresentprogressive
are right.
el Teacher
B mightnoticethat all presentsimples
arewrongandthe spelling
isterrible.
C mightthinkthisisverycreative
e Teacher
andfluent.

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good?
makes
Testing:
What
a'good'test

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"Howcanwe[nprouescorer:Youmayneedmorethan
oneteacherinvolvedin the markingfor two reasons:
reliabilittlintheseceses?":. first,if morethanoneteacheris administering
the exam,it isveryimportant
that
allthe teachers
aremarkingit in the sameway.Second,
we arenowjudgingthe
student's
workratherthan
countingit, andevendancers
arejudgedby a panell
" How canwedo this?"

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TeacherD mightcount 17 mistakesin 57 words(i.e.30% wrong).

TeacherE might saythat this is a good essayfor a beginnerbut bad for an
intermediatestudent.

Themostimportantactionis to negotiate
andagreeon the criteriayouwill all
judgethe answerby.Thiscouldbe doneby agreement
pncr49):
(sEe
on pRoFtLtNc
breaking
downtheanswers
youwantintoeithertheircomponent
parts,like
spelling,
punctuation,
structure,
cohesion;
or othercriteria,
suchasorganisation,
relevance,
(see
etc.;andlorBANDTNC
cncr51):markingaccording
to overall
impression.
We willreturnto thisin a laterchapter.
Someteachers
willsaythatthereis no timeto havemeetings
or readdocuments
to
makesuretheyaremarking
thetestin thesamewayastheotherteachers.
Butif
oneteacher
ismarking
the sametestin a different
way,everyone's
timeiswastedl
Theresults
aresimplynotof anyuse,because
the results
arenotcomparable.
so:
... thestudents
havewastedtheirclass
timedoingthetest
... theteachers
havewastedtheirtimemarkingthetest
... theschool's
administration
haswasteditstimerecording
the results
... theschoolisopento complaints
fromparents
whosechildren
willcompare
results
on the way home:I put thesamethingashe did but he gotit rightandt
got it wrong...
Of allthe qualities
of a goodtest,sconrnRELIABILtw
is the onlyonethat nonexpertsunderstand.
lgnoringscoRER
RELIABILrry
is a falseeconomyl

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Lookat a currenttest usedin yourschoo[.Aretherectearandunambiguous

marking
instructions?
Howwouldyouimprove
them?
Nowtry to answera[|'the questions
asif you werethe 'studentfromHe[[l
Answeralt the questions
as unco-operatively
as possible!
a Makesurethat everyanswer
you writeis possible;
but
b either not whatthe teacheractuatty
wantedyouto write(shewastryingto
test something
etse);or wjttcausethe teacherothermarking
difficutties!
Howwouldyouchangethe test, but makeit takethe sameamountof time?

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Practicality
"Whatis practlcolitg?": Perhaps
the mostimportantqualityof anytestis how practical
it isto administer
; Whilewe maywantto have1,000questions,
or givethestudents
theirown
; video-recorder
for a listening
test,we simplydo not havethe resources,
thatis,
: time,personnel,
space,
equipment
or money.

a-.4

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27

a-

a'goodtest'good?
makes
VJhat
Testing:

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-.*!-1.

for writinggoodtests.
required
list of resources
Readthe fo[owing(ideatised!)
or get?
arrange
Whichdo yourschoolhave?Whichcoutdyourschoolpossibty
wiLt
get?
this
your
effect
What
to
arrange
or
for
school
impossibte
Whichare
haveon yourschoolstestingsystem?

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-

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--e

,Time will be neededfor:

the test
designing
teachers
pncr36?)
arethe distractors,
the results(e.g.how successful
analysing
teachers
groups
it
on
sample
trialling
markingthe papers
teachers
doingthe test
students

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Writinga testwhichis validand reliablerequires:

E-

Spaceand equipment

_v

tests)
in multiple-choice
needto be sittingwheretheycan'tcopy(especially
students
theymayneeddifferenttables(e.g.onedeskper person)
buttons
with counters
andpause/replay
tape-players
needgoodaudio-/video
teachers
the results
record
and
analyse
or
computers
to
theymayneedcalculators
Money for:

extrastaff
extraspace
extraequipment.
(However,
thismoneyis probablynot available.)

Backwash
- refersto the effectthat a finaltesthas
- sometimes
"Whatis backwash?" BACKWASH
calledwashback
andis
programme
that leadsto it. Thisis a familiarexperience,
on theteaching
calledteachingto the test.
alsosometimes
tell the teacherto teachfluency,but
the schoolsvr-r-naus/objectives
Forexample,
grammar
andvocabulary
test.
finaltestis,e.g.a multiple-choice
theschool's
pass
possibly
will
to
the
test
the
teachers
students
their
want
teachers
Most
performance
assessed
on
the basisof the students'success
havetheirteaching
will teachgrammarandvocabulary
rather
(or lackof it), thereforemostteachers
thanfluency.
this
the effectof thisBAcKWAsH
canimprovethe teachingprogramme:
Sometimes
BACKWASH.
For
example:
management
notices
that
beneficial
the
school
is called
at the endof the teachingprogramme
knowtheirgrammarbut cannot
students
Theydecideon radicalactionlTheydropall grammar
speakthe targetlanguage.
of
itemsin the testand insteadintroduceinterviews
on videoby otherteachers
language.
Teachers
give
target
more
therefore
their
teaching
to
the
change
to the speaking
skill.
emphasis
28

az

in test-writing
who areexperienced
teachers
who areexpertstatisticians
teachers
sessions
standardisation
to attendpre-marking
teachers
to markthe tests
teachers
answers
aboutalternative
to answerquestions
co-ordinators

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Testing:
Whatmakes
a 'good'testgood?

l_

we couldalsointroducea conceptsuchasfrontwash.Thisisthe
effectthat new
teaching
techniques
or materials
haveon the designof tests.Forexample,
the
introduction
of communicative
teachingmethodorogy
and materiars
has
undoubtedly
influenced
or changed
thJcontentanJemphasis
of manylocaland
international
tests.

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c a ny o u t h i n k o f a n ye x a m p t ews h e r ey o u h a v ec h a n g e ydo u rt e a c h i n g
in
response
to changes
in the syLlaaus?
c a ny o u t h i n k o f a n ye x a m p l ews h e r ey o u h a v ec h a n g e ydo u rt e a c h i n g
in
response
to changes
in the assessment
system(i.e.,notlhe svrLnsus)?
canyouthink of anyexamptes
wherethe assessment
systemhasbeenchanged
because
you - or yourcoursebook
- havechanged
yourteachingstyr.e?
Summary
Giventhe resources
we have,we will alwayshaveto makea compromise
between
how reliable
a testisandhow practical
a testis.Forthisreason,
we shouldusetest
results
not to decidesomeone's
abilities,
but moreasonefactorin helpingusto
assess
a student's
performance.
Testresults
guide,theydo not dictate.
vALlDlry
looksat whetheryour testtestswhat you want it to test.TESr
REL;AB1Ltry
looksat whetheryourtestresultsaccurately
reflectthe student,s
performance.
writing a validand reliable
testthat givesresultsyou cantrustrequires
enormousresources.
often sucha testis not practical
as manyof the resources
requiredareprobablynot available.
Althoughwe will try hardto makethe test
asgoodaspossible,
we will probablynot be ableto truit in-house
teststo make
crucial
decisions
aboutstudents.
Therefore
we shouldusein-house
testresults
as
a guide,or onlypartof an overallstudentevaluation
system.
We shouldalsobe awareof the BA.KWASH
effect- arewe teachingthe students
something
because
it is in the examor because
theyreallyneedit to buildtheir
language
knowledge?

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5
CHAPTER
#

Whatformsof testingandevaluation
shoutdweuse?

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Directandindirecttesting
" Whatis directtesting?"

rcsrNcmeanswe askthe studentto performwhatwe want to test.

DrREcr

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" Whotis indirect t esting?"

of the
rEsrNcmeanswe testthingsthat giveusan indication
tNDtREcr
performance.
student's
theirideas
to seeif theycancommunicate
we talkto students
rEslNG,
In orREcr
practical
to
it
is
not
always
This
obvious,
but
sounds
conversation.
in interactive
do this,e.g.a studentmaybe awaysick,or the classmaybe too big to speakto
if thereisa strictsyLLABUs
to adhereto.
for enoughtime,especially
eachmember
of how well
we wouldfindthingsthatgiveusan indication
rEslNC
In rNDrRrcr
good
uselonger
we
know
that
speakers
For
example,
speak.
can
thestudents
We couldtheninventa testwhere
thanweakspeakers.
or utterances
sentences
with goodspeaking,
e.g.the averagelengthof each
skillsassociated
we measure
the higherthe grade.
the longerthe utterance,
utterance:
to writea
Thesameistruefor writing.We coulddirectlyaskthe students
However,
theremay
numberof texts.Thiswouldtellusabouttheirwritingskills.
(e.g.restricted
markingtime)why we can'taskthe studentsactually
be reasons
we mightgivethema teston linkerwords(e.g.
to performthisskill.Therefore
give
of theirabilityto writewell.
usan indication
etc.).Thismay
however,
a connection
betweenlengthof
above,we areassuming
In theexamples
ability;and linkersandwritingability.
andspeaking
utterance
goodindicator
resrisan extremely
Oneproblemis makingsurethat the rruorRrcr
lf
we
find students
with
we
to
test.
the
skill
are
trying
HtcH
coRRELAToN
has
a
or
are
highscores
on our linkers
test,thisshowslinkers
whocannotwriteachieve
Thiswill makethe testresultinvalid.
not a goodindicator.
a negativeBAcKWAsH
effect(srrpnce28):
rEsrNcalsooftenproduces
tNDrREcr
linkers
ratherthan
teaching
willspendhoursin theclassroom
someteachers
is
in
what
the
test.
that's
writing,because
teaching
rEsrtNc
methods.
Therefore,
cannotexistwhenwe useDlREcr
Theseproblems
possible,
usethem.
whenever

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to tHotnrcr
resrs.Someteacherswoutdarguethat, as
TEsTS
are preferabte
DTRECT
- in otherwords,
weareteachingstudents
teachers,
to communicate
language
to uselanguage.
in tal.king(speaking
Weuse[anguage
and [istening),readingand writing.
good
canbe
at grammar
Someone
but unabteto commun'icate
in speechor
writing.In this case,grammar,
vocabulary
and pronunciation
tests mustreatty
a[[ beformsof indirecttesting.

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shoutd
weuse?
Whatformsof testingandevaluation

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So we shoutdptacemoreemphasis
tests than grammar
on resuttsfromskiLl.s
andvocabulary
tests.
Doyou agree?
Doyouthinkyourschoolagrees?
Howmuchof your students'
final assessment
is basedon their abitityto
- to useandexperiment
communicate
with the language
they havelearned?
Howmuchis basedon theirabiLityto manipulate
grammar
andvocabutary?
Do
youagreewith this balance?

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Norm-referenced
andcriteria-referenced
testing

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Thesetermsreferto the way a testis madeandthe way the results

of a test
arepresented.

" Whatis norn-referencedWhenthe resultsof the testcompare

a studentwith otherstudents.
Theresult
testing?" doesnot giveanyinformation
aboutindividual
performance,
onlya comparison
- fromthat yearandfrom otheryears.
with otherstudents'
performances

Forexample,
a university
wantsto restrictentryto its (science)
courses
to the
applicants
who havethe bestchance
of successfully
completing
a course.
In the
past,it hasfound- perhaps
by trialanderror- that students
who scoredgoy. or
morein theirfinalschool
yearexamsarethe candidates
mostlikelyto succeed.
Therefore
theyofferplaces
onlyto students
your
from
schoolwho got g0%or
1 6 / 2 0i n t h e i rf i n a sl c i e n ceex a m s .

"Whatis criteriareferencedwhen the resulttellsyouabout

whatthe individual
studentcando,anddoes
testing?" not compare
him/herwith otherstudents.
lt describes
certaincriteria
thatthe
studenthasbeenableto meet.
Forexample,
a studentisapplying
for a job whichrequires
the abilityto usea
word-processor.
Theemployer
doesnot wanta computer
expert,onlysomeone
who cando basicword-processing:
typing;file-management;
simplecut,copy
andpastecommands.
Thestudenttakes
a word-processing
course
andthefinal
examteststheseskills.
Theemployer
doesn'tneedto knowif anyoneelseon the course
wasbefteror
worse.He/shesimplywantsto knowwhatthecandidate
cando.
"So wh.ich
ls better...?' As we sawabove,it isthe stateand largeinternational
examination
boards
who aremostconcerned
with comparing
people.
Thevalueof their
qualifications
depends
uponyear-on-year
comparison
andconsistency.
For
example,
manypeoplefeelthat 'examsthesedaysaren'tasdifficultaswhenI
wasat school'.Lackof year-on-year
consistency
devalues
the state'sawards,
like
university
placesand university
degrees.
However,
thisneedfor consistency
meansit isverydifficult
to improveor develop
examsbecause
results
wouldn't
be comparable.
Thereis a similarity
herewith DrREcr
andrruorRecr
rEsrNc.g seenncr3o

31

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we use?
shouLd
Whatformsof testingandeva[uation

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_1.

by the user:an employercan

rEsrscanbe directlyinterpreted
cRtrERrA-REFERENCED
what the studentcando.
to discover
reada description
you canonlyusethe result
TESTS
arenot directlyinterpretable:
NoRM-REFERENCED
resultwith yourpastexperience
of otherpeople
onestudent's
by comparing
with the samescore.
it is obviouslymoreusefulfor usto knowwhat a
andstudents,
Forteachers
do
so we canwork on the areaswherethereare
cannot
and
can
student
problems.
needto reduce
the stateand otherlargeorganisations
However,
measurement.
complexitytheywantsimpleandconsistent

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Formsof evaluation

->
In
the difference
betweensimpletestingandevaluation.
Firstwe mustremember
questions
to
thisbook,the term testingis usedwhenwe areaskingthe students
to ask
We areusingthe termevaluation
whichwe alreadyknowthe answers.
- genuine
questions:
questions
to whichwe don'tknowthe answers
the students
Do the studentsfeel they aregettingbetter?Havethey foundthe courseuseful?
rEsrs,
AcHTEVEMENT
severaldifferenttypesof test:pRoncrENcy
We earlieridentified
pLACEMENT
(serpnce8). However,
in allthesetests,
rESTS
rEsrsand orncruoslc
TEsrs,
andour
to seewheretheyfit in to our system
we aretestingthe students
We arein control.
criteria.
we areaskingquestions
to learnaboutthe
is differentbecause
Butevaluation
and attitudes,
and aboutthe teachingProgramme.
learningprocess
student's
suMMAlvE,
evaluation:
Therearethreecommontermsusedwhendescribing
and coNcnuENTEVALUATIoN.
FoRMATTvE

"Whatis summative Thisisdoneat the endof (a stageof) a process.

In teaching,
thismightbe at the
summarising
euoluotion?" endof a termor a year.In thisway,it is a kindof finalassessment,
EVALUAToN
looksat
throughoutthat course.suMMArvE
what hasbeenachieved
year's
procedure
next
teaching
used,
so
that
course
can
to the
generalfeedback
to what hasbeenmoreor lesssuccessful.
be changedaccording

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"Whotisformative Thisisdoneduringa process

so that the process
canbe changedto makeit more
might
be
feedback
that
a teachergetsto checkhow
In
this
teaching,
eualuation?"effective.
is.Thefeedbackfrom the studentscanalso
the teachingprogramme
successful
whilethereis stilla chanceto changeit for the
affectthe teachingprocedure
better- to helpthisyear'sstudentsratherthan nextyear's.

*Whotis
beforeit starts,in orderto
congruent Lessoftenreferredto, thislooksat the wholeprocess
and evaluation
of the coursematchthe
euoluotion?"makesurethat the aims,methodology
the
statedpurposeand beliefs.Forexample,imagineyour purposeisto increase
to designa courseand a way to evaluate
oralfluency.Youaskteachers
students'
it. Theyreturnit to you andyou noticethat the testsincludewriting:this
isvery
EVALUATIoN
wouldn'tmatchyouroriginalaims.In thisway,coNcRUENr
vALtDtry.
similarto corurrrut
) seepnce18

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Whatformsof testingandevatuation
shouldwe use?
--^

Puttingthe three
together

You will noticethat there is, in effect, litfle differencebetweentheseterms,

becauseevaluationneverends.suMMATrvE
EVALUATToN
at the end of a course
informsthe teacher- and students- about how to changethe coursenext time
to make it more successfuland/or more closelyrelatedto the beliefsbehindthe
course.suMMATlvE
EVALUAToN
will also have implicationsfor the next course:if
there are certainproblemareasthe following coursewill have to be changedto
allow more (or less)time on these;or focus on differentareas.
In other words, the differencebetweensuMMArvE,
FoRMAIvE
and corucRuerur
EVALUAIoN
is not one of how evaluationis done, but when and why evaluation
i sd o n e .
c coNcRUENT
EVALUAION
triesto keep the processon the desiredcourse.
o FoRMATtvE
EVALUATTON
triesto alter the processwhile it is still going on.
e suMMAlvEEVALUAION
triesto assessthe successof the completedprocess.

Summary
In thischapterwe havecoveredthe following.
o rNDrREcr
resrstestabilities
relatedto the skillwe areinterested
in.
o DrREcr
rrsrstestthe skillitself.
o NORM-REFERENCED
examscompareone person'.s
performance
with manyothers.
o CR|rER|A-REFERENCED
examsdescribe
what one personcando without
comparing
themwith others.
o coNcRUENT,
FORMATIVE
and surunnnlvE
EVALUATtolr
describe
whenevaluation
is
done:before,during,or after.Butit is importantto remember
that evaluation
is not linear,but cyclical.
Eachpartinformsthe other.

t]-_!,

l-.
l-t
tla----I
l--:l

tt-t
I

t4

l-:t_

.-tf

--t_

Thinkaboutwhenandwhyyourschoolevatuates
its students.
Doesit askthe studentgenuinequestions
to improvethe schoofsteaching:
a duringthe yearor teachingprogramme?
b at the endof theyearor teachingprogramme?
Doesit askyou, the teacher,genuinequestionsto improvethe schoo['s
teaching:
a duringthe yearor teachingprogramme?
b at the endof the yearor teachingprogramme?
Doesyourschoolexamine
newcurricula,
syLLeBuses
andassessment
procedures
beforeimplementing
themin orderto checkthey matchthe schoofsaims?
Doesyourschoofsteachingprogramme
have'officiafaims?
Why?Whynot?

-!.

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----_
--..-,
33
----t-

r<
Iz

.;!-1

PARTB Gettingdatafor assessment

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--1

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a-d

6
CHAPTER
#

for grammar
technigues
Testing
andvocabulary

-v
-v
.P
)z

.P
we then haveto designways
Oncewe havedecidedwhatwe wantto evaluate,
abilities.
One
of students'
of gettingdatawhichallowusto makean assessment
will
look
at
book
giving
of
the
This
section
is
tests.
methods
common
most
of the
get
data,
to
assessment
in
tests
often
use
that
teachers
techniques
somedifferent
andweaknesses.
theirstrengths
andwill assess
items:normally
Let'sstartby lookingat how we cantestsingleor discrete
of both.Notethat someof these
items,or a combination
grammaror vocabulary
andlistening.
skills,
suchasreading
canalsobe usedto testpassive
Lchniques
in the nextchapter.
andlistening
Thereis moreon testingreading
waysof testingfor grammarandvocabulary:
We will lookat fivepossible
questions
andmultiple-choice
true/false
1 Selection:
2 Gap-filling
- recognition
intoproduction
sentences
3 Building
and reformulations
4 Transformations

_:*
a=

-v
-*

.>
-v
|-

-+

5 Editing

)-

andmatchthemwith the five techniques

examples
1 Lookat the fottowing
following
are
in
the
text.
above.Theanswers

v
-v
1
)1

a Mr Brown normally

to the cinemaon Tiresdays.

)z

i) goes ii) comes iii) go iv) did go

b Mr Brown normally

to the cinemaon Tuesdays.

c Mr Brown normally go to the cinemaon Tuesdays. Right or wrong?

d Mr Tiresdayscinema to on goes Brown normally the
f They madethat car in Spain. That car
to t

cinemao_

,1

.-

e Mr Brown / normally / go / cinema/ Tuesdays

g Mr Brown normally g_

lz

,-

Tuesdays.

a-

ra/,
)1

>z

b
D
l-.
Lr--L:
r-.-L:
L:

for grammar
techniques
andvocabuLary
Testing

2 Nowthink of the language

testsyouusein yourschoot.
Whichof thesetechniques
usedfor testinggrammar?
arethe mostcommonly
Whjchof thesetechniquesare the most commontyusedfor testing
vocabutary?
Why?
Whatprobtems
haveyouandotherteachers
hadusingthesetechniques?

l-t

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t-.-tt

L-

r
g,

|-,f,

Lr-J

t_

Testingtechniques:
True/false
and
multiple-choice
questions

True/false
questions
andmultiple-choice
areprobablythe mostpopulartesting
technique
foundin teststoday,largelybecause
theyareveryeasyto markandhave
excellent
scoRER
RELrABrLrry.
) seeence25
However,
theypresentseveral
problems:
... theyonlytestthe student's
abilityto recognise
a correctanswer
... theremaybe problems
questions
in usingtrue/false
to testgrammar
... thereisa problem
with students
guessing
the rightanswer
... theyareextremely
difficultto write
... sometimes
theyareimpossible
to write.
Let'slookat theseproblems
in moredetail.

l-----

L_
L_
LL:

Theyonlytestthe student's
abilityto recognise
a correctanswer
Theydo not testthe student's
produce
abilityto
or usecorrectlanguage,
so it is
oftenbetterto usethemfor testingpassive
skills(i.e.readingand listening).
However,
theyareoftenalsousedfor testinggrammarand/orvocabulary.
In this
case,remember
that you aretestingthe student's
abilityto recognise
a correct
formor word.Youcannotassume
thattheycanactuallyproduceit.

t--

Theremaybe problemsin usingtrue/falsequestions

to testgrammar

a-t'
l-.Ji

l--

a4

u_'

l:
L_
14

a4

L:
a-J

l:
r-t

L_
L:
LLLl--

We normallyusetrue/false
questions
to testpassive
skills.lf we usetrue/falsequestions
grammar
type
to test
we areessentially
or vocabulary,
askingthe
students
to markthesentence
rightor wrong.Lookat thefollowingexamples.
Testing
vocabulary
Text:

Mr Brown often seesa film at the weekends.

Q:

He normally goesto the cinemaon Ti:esdays.

1-,r)

l-!J

Note:Thisistesting(recognition
of) the wordweekends.
Testing
whethergrammaris rightor wrong

r-r
t-!t

]s

I Is this sentenceright (/) or wrong (X)?

Mr Brown normally go to the cinema on Ti.resdays.

2 Mark which sentenceis correct(/) :

a Mr Brown normally go to the cinemaon Tiresdays.
b Mr Brown normally goesto the cinemaon Tuesdays.

l-i!

l_
t4

L:
Ll--

t-,

L:
t--

i-=

35

=\---

I e s t i n gt e c h n i q u efso r g r a m m aar n d v o c a b u t a r y

!-

Thereis a problemwith studentsguessingthe right answer

Bydefinition,
questions
true/false
meanthat the studenthasa 50% chanceof a
correctanswerby guessing.
Thismeansthat, if you want to havea passmark,it
wouldneedto be muchmorethan50% to eliminate
chance.
An alternative
isto deductmarksfor wronganswers.
Butwhat is the meaningof
the finalmarkyou give?Thewronganswersmay be the resultof imperfect
understanding,
whilethe correctanswersmay be the resultof guessing.
so far,we havelookedat true/falsequestions,
wherethe studenthasa one-orthe-otheralternative.
Theobviousway of reducingthe chances
of passing
by
guessing
isto givemorethanonealternative
answer,as in multiple-choice
questions,
e.g.
Mr Brown normally
a) goes

l-

Y
14

,-

!F

to the cinema on Tiresdays.

b) arrives

c) go

F
d) did go

Thereisnormally
onlyonecorrectpossibility.
(wrong)answers
Thealternative
are
calleddistractors,
andtherearenormallybetweenthreeandfive possibilities.

Theyareextremely
difficultto write
Thebiggestproblemiscreatingwrongalternative
answers
that lookpossible.
ln the example
above,wouldit be legitimate
to usegrammatically
wrong
alternatives,
e.g.wented?Manyteachers
feelunhappyaboutpresenting
their
with incorrect
students
language
in casethey somehow,learn'it.
Because
we wantthetestto 'looknice',we tendto usethe samenumberof
distractors
for eachtestitem.However,
thereareoften not threeor moreviable
alternatives.
Thuswe haveto usea distractor
that clearlydoesn'tfit, e.g.arrives.
Thismeansthat reallythe studenthasto makea choiceof one out of three,
ratherthanoneout of four.Thedistractors
that we do usecanoftenshowthe
studentthe correctanswer,
e.g.arrivesmay remindthe studentthat a final-s is
required.
It is almostimpossible
to writedistractors
that arenot somehowcorrectin certain
circumstances,
andthiscanoftenleadto arguments
with studentsaboutthe
context.Thisproblemcanbe avoidedin readingor listening
textsby supplyinga
context,butthisis moredifficultto do whentestingcontext-free
grammaror
vocabulary
items.Forexample,
thisis a possible
sentence
in English,
with this
stresspattern:

Mr Brownnormollydidgoto the cinerno

onTuesdags.

t,I

F
F
!)!I

ll-

Sometimes
true/falseor multiple-choice
questionsare impossible
to write
only certainareasof language
learningcanbe testedby multiple-choice,
e.g.it
isverydifficultto testwritingor speaking
in thisway.Butbecause
multiplechoicequestions
areso apparently
easyto writeand mark,they get used
moreand more.Teachers
maythen startwritingtestswhichavoidareasof
languagethat arenot easilytestedin this way,and, becauseof the BAcKWAsH
effect(serpncr28), suchareasoftenwon't get taught.

tI

tIl-

36

t-

t-

Testing
techniques
for grammar
andvocabulary
.-

L*
:I-

Lr-.-

Lrj
f-.r
E_

Lr--

r-.-

LL-

Testingtechniques:
Gap-filling

"Shouldue giuea
contextor not?"

Whereas
true/false
andmultiple-choice
questions
gap-filling
testrecognition,
questions
testproduction.
Therearethreeconsiderations
with gap-filling-type
questions.
contextheremeansDo we putthe language
in itsnaturalenvironment,
or do
we use,for example,only singlesentences?
Fortestingspecific
grammaror vocabulary
items,contextis sometimes
omitted:
Mr Brown normally

to the cinema on Tiresdays.

You seefilms at the

r-'Jr

r
r
r-4
,-.tt

Thismaycauseproblems
aswe haveseenabove,because
morethanoneanswer
maybe possible.
Gap-fills
areoftenusedin longertexts:

f-t

LL-

On a typicalday,Mr Brown

IE

r
l-l

rl:
J-Jt

then

ft

at 7.00am.He

downstairsand

work in his car.He

and, after

dressedand

his breakfast.Then he

lunch at 1.00p.m. He
his dinner,

to

homeat 5.00p.m.

television until midnight, when he

to bed.

f4

L-

r
r
r
u!)

t--^

-.-,-,

At higherlevels,
or with longertexts,therearenormallyno gapsin the first
twentywordsor paragraph.
Thisisto orientate
the studentin the context.When
we aremoreinterested
in testinggrammar,
we oftenanswerthe firstquestionto
givea guideto the kindof answerwe want.
However,
in thegap-fillabovewe havereminded
the studentthatthe third
person-s exists,andso the restof the testmaysimplybe testingvocabulary.

----J-

Lr---

LL-_LI -

"Shou/d
ue giuea guide
Ls Thisraises
the question
of how much,it any,helpwe shouldgivethe student.
to whottoputinthegap Apartfrom a sampleanswer,the examples
abovegavethe studentno assistance.
or not?" Butwe cangivethe studenta certainamountof helpasto what goesin the gap.
Mr Brownnormallv

to the cinema on Tuesdays.(go)

}A

You seefilms at the c

L .

LL-

On a typical day Mr Brown

get up

7.00am.He

get

---.2

r
r

dressedand then

l*t)

downstairsand

--{

his

Bolhave

breakfast.

- --

L:
rrq

rr
]____.t

37

-F.
for grammar
Testing
techniques
andvocabutary

4.2"V

Whento giveassistance
depends
on threetestingproblems.
: e, Whenwe aretestingthe student's
abilityto transformsomething(e.g.the
infinitiveintothe thirdperson-s;an activeto passive,
,
etc.).
o Whenwe wantto forcethe studentto usea desireditem.
' e Whenwe wantto put the sameideain eachstudent's
head,to avoidtesting
originality,
or to avoidtestingvocabulary
whenwe aremoreinterested
in
structure,
for example.
But... noticethatforcingthe studentto usean itemis oftenthe signof a bad
test:sometimes
anywordwill fit in the gap,so we haveto limitthe student
because
we can'twritea goodenoughquestion.lt isthe resultof a scoRER
c serpncr25
RELTABTLTry
problem.
"Shou/dwechoose
specifc In the text above,theteacherhasdecidedwhichwordsshouldbe omitted.
itemsto begappedor not?" However,
an alternative
is a clozetest,wherewordsaredeletednot according
to
whatwe wantto test,but on a regularbasis.
On a typical day,Mr Brown getsup at 7.00 a.m. He getsdressed
then goesdownstairsand hashis

and, after

EE-

ts
>
t-

F
F
F
F
F

. Then he drives to work in

car.He haslunch at 1.00p.m. _

drives home at 5.00p.m.

dinner,warchestelevision until midnight, when

goesto bed.

In thisexample,
everyseventh
word hasbeendeleted(exceptthe first,in order
to givecontext).Thisisobviously
testinga differentskillfromthe previous
gappedtext.Thetheoryisthat anynativespeaker
caneasilypredictthe word
thatfillsthegap.lt teststhestudent's
understanding
of the wholelanguage.
It alsoassumes
that elementary
students
only knowa simplified
versionof the
language,
so it is important
to usea text at the student's
levelof understanding.
However,
mostteachers
changethispureclozeidea,and normallyomit
approximately
everyseventh
word,makingit a combination
of a gappedtext and
(e.g.
a clozetext.sometimes
thisisto testa particular
item
pronoun,
a possessive
likehls)andsometimes
(e.g.5.00p.m.).Most
because
the wordis unguessable
peoplethereforeusebetweeneveryseventhto everytenthword.
A variationon thisisthe C-test.

F
ts
i=
F
tF

r
F
t-

F
F
F

On a typical day,Mr Brown gersup at 7.00 a.m. He gets dresseda

downstairsa

hasI

car. H

inh

at 5.00p.m. a_,
midnight, w_

breakfast.T

has h

after e
he g_

hed

ar 1.00p.m.H
dinner, w_
to b

then

to
drives

television

F
F
F
F
F
l-

38

E
ll-

Testing
techniques
for grammar
andvocabutary
_-/

=-t

l--

Aftersettingthe context,everysecondword is deletedbut the firstletteris

given.lt hasthe advantage
for the teacherthat manymorequestions
canbe
askedin a muchshorterspace.
once again,you haveto makedecisions
about
how to treatunguessable
(names,
words
times,etc.).Remember
that thisis a
language
exercise
andnot a testof students'
intellectlRemember
alsothat the
text mustbe at the students'
level.

L-

r
r
f-a

l---

r-

l:

T A .g K

r
r
r
r
Lr
r
r
r
r
r
IJ

!-J

l--

14

- --

3 Testingtechniques:
Bu i l d i n gse n te n ce- s
recognition
into
production

l--

L-,-

Finda text that you cangiveto yourstudents(at leasttwo paragraphs),

and
maketwo copies.Makesureit is at their [eve[.
Fromonecopymakea ctozetest andcountthe numberof gaps.Thenmakea
c-testfromthe othercopybut keeping
the numberof gapsthe sameasin the
clozetest, e.g.usejust the first paragraph,
Dividethe classinto two groups.GiveGroupA the ctozeversionof the whole
text. GiveGroupB the C-testversion.Marktheir answers.
Anysurprises?
Whenwe wantto teststudents'
abilities
to buildsentences,
we havethe same
decisions
to makeabouthowmuchwe wantto helpthem,andwhetherto give
themsomecontext.
Thesimplest
levelisoneof recognition
with maximumhelp.We cando thisby
usinga jumbledsentence.

l t,-t

Mr

l-t

on

goes

Brown

normally

the

Of course,
we haveto acceptotherpossibilities,
suchas:
0 n Tuesdaqs
Mr Brown nor malltlgoest o thecinena.

r
g

Capitalletterssometimes
tellthe studentwhichisthe firstword.lf you haveonly
onecapitalletterin the sentence,
do you giveit a mark(thestudenthas
recognised
the purpose
of the punctuation)
or not allocate
the firstworda mark?
Whichever
you decide,makesureallthe markers/teachers
agree!
Becarefulwith punctuation,
e.g.

rr
a-t

a-,
r
t-

to

Answer:Mr Brownnornatlggoes
to the cinetno
on Tuesdatls.

a4t

r
L
r
r

TLesdays cinema

Mr

il

r-e

r-

rr
lt-

Tiresdays

cinema

to

on

goes Brown

normally

the

Theteacherhasincluded
the full-stopto showthe studentthe lastword.But
how do the students
knowwhetherthe full-stopis attached to Tuesday,
or just
anotherelement
to put in order?
Thenextlevelof complexity
isslashed
sentences
or noteexpansion.
Theseask
the students
to producecorrectlanguage
ratherthanjust recognise
it, by
omittingfunctionwordssuchaspronouns
and prepositions.
Mr Brown / normally / go / cinema / Tuesdays

a4-t

l-

Notethatit is possible
to useunitslongerthana singlesentence,
by slashing
a
of sentences.
sequence

t-_
ur-

I1 -_ _
1-_-

lt--|--e

39

ll-.

L'
L_"-

l-

l-

t-

T e s t i ntge c h n i q u e
f osr g r a m m aarn dv o c a b u l a r y

Contextcanbe addedby usingdifferenttext types,e.g.

DearSally

I / sorryI I I (notwrite)/ for ages.I / (iustcomeback)/ holidayin Tirrkey.

In thisexample,
we haveput verbsor wordsthat the studentsmightneedto
alterin brackets.
Otherwise
the students
mightthinkthey haveto usethe words
astheystand.Youneedto makethisclearin the instructions.
(Remember
vou
canusethe student's
L1 for instructions.)
Expandthe sentences,
keepingthe words in the sameorder.
You may needto add words or changethe form of words in brackets.
Mr Brown / normally I (eo) lcinema / Tiresdays.

Testingtechniques:
Transformations
and
reformulations

Anothermethodof holistic
testing- that is,notjust testinglinguistic
- isto seeif studentscan
components
but a generalabilityin the targetlanguage
takea sentence/meaning
andexpress
it in a differentway.In otherwords,can
theyexpress
the sameideabut usingdifferentlinguistic
items?

?
F
F
F
F
l-

F
F
l'-

completethesentences
sothat the meaningis ascloseaspossibleto the
original.

He'sa doctor.He worksag a doofor.

t-

Theymadethat carin Spain.That carnrag nadeiz Spain.

t-

tr
In thisexample,
the students
aregivenpartof the sentence,
whichthey haveto
Notethatit doesn'tneedto bethe beginning
complete.
of the sentence.
Anotherpossibility
isto givethe students
a word or phraseto usein the
transformed
sentence,
e.g.

tr
i:

Rewritethe sentencesusing the given word. Keep the meaning as closeas

possibleto the original.

He's a doctor.

F
.

works

They madethat car in Spain.

F
F

was

(whichmaybe in the L1)areveryimportantin theseexercises:

Theinstructions
the students
mustkeepthe sentence
ascloseas possible
in meaningto the
lf theydon't understand
originalsentence.
this,you will havemanyscoRER
pncE25) asstudents
(sEE
problems
RELfABrLtry
willgiveanswers
whichare
English
but usedifferentideas,e.g.
acceptable

F
F
F
F
F

That car vv?g made in Spain by them.

40

F
F
IlL.

-;

for grammar
Testing
techniques
andvocabulary
\-----V

a-

-_4

Sowe canseethat the majorproblems

will be:
... avoidance
of the targettest item (worksas),or
... redundant
(bythem)included
information
in the answer.
Apartfromthese,a furtherproblemwith thisexercise
type is that thereare
relatively
few itemsthat canbe testedusingthismethod.The mostcommon
tendto be:

4E
E-.

EL_
E--4
5-__
L-{

reportedspeech

' G oa w a y l ' h es a i d .

H et o l d. . .

passives

Theymadethat carin Spain.

Thatcar...

E4

too/enough

They're
too youngto go to thedisco.

They'renot..

E-_

comparatives/su
perlatives

I haveneverseensucha big cake.

lt was...

E__

modals

It isn'tnecessary
to reserve
a room.

You...

conditionals

Youwon't passif you don'tstudy.

Unless...

since/for

She's
beendrivingsince1993.

...for ...

F-._
L..._-

E-_
r--.E
n
J-^

E-

Ea-"1

!l- '.--r

Youwill noticethat mostof thesearemorefrequentlytestedat intermediate

or
upperintermediate
level.Youwill alsonoticethat thesearealsothe itemsmost
frequently
taughtat thoselevels.A perfectexampleof sncxwasn?

!l--15
t-

[_
4
5

r-_
g

Testingtechniques:
Editing

Editingis increasingly
(or a lack
usedin moderntests.Theideaisto find mistakes
of mistakes)
in a text.

t_

,---^
lt--

Readthe following letter, and mark eachline asright or wrong.

a4

Dear Susie,

I'm sorry I haven'twritten for ages,

l-:l

L:
6

C
L'

t:
4

L:
L:
l4

t.----,

t:
a_--..1f

L:
a-'.

t:
t:
a-e,

a_---E

L:
l-:t

t_

but I hope I seeyou next week.

That's becauseI'm having party.
It'll be on Saturdayafternoonat 3 o'clock on my flat.

Noticethat in thisexamplestudents
simplyhaveto chooserightor wrong.Many
examsnow alsoaskfor a correction,
e.g.
Readthe following letter,and mark eachline as right (/) or wrong (X). If the
answeris wrong, write either the correct form or the mipsing word.
Showwhere the word is missing by inserting a double slash(//).
Dear Susie,
I'm sorry I haven't written for ages,
but I hope I // seeyou next week.
That's becauseI'm having party.
It'll be on Saturdayafternoonat 3 o'clock on my flat.

a-di[
a
l__

a_--

a-

l-_a

,-.

=-r

I- L--'-

L:
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47

l<

ts

for grammar
andvocabutary
techniques
Testing

:-

"Whotistheualue
workis a mistakethey haven'tfound
of Everymistakeyou find in a student's
We allwant students
to becomemoreresponsible
for theirlearning.
thisexercise?" themselves.
Thismayevenbe partof theirassessment.
partof thisresponsibility
isfor eachstudentto lookat his/herwork
An essential
exercises
are
one
of
the bestwaysof encouraging
thisprocess.
and
these
critically,
pAcE
2 for you to try with your
Thereis a sampleeditingtaskon pHorocoprABLE
yourstudents
with the exercise
type
Youcoulddo thisto familiarise
students.
beforedoingthe taskbelow.

v
!-

T A

is a veryeasyonefor studentsto write.

Thiskind of exercise
Askgroupsof studentsto writea simitarletter madeup of shortsentences.
Ask them to put in betweenfour and six mistakes,each one in a
Theythen rewriteit, putting eachsentenceon a different
differentsentence.
pass
the sentences.
At the endof
it to the nextgroup,who corrects
[ineand
the class,cottectthe besttextsor individualsentences.

*
*

*
F

or theywill
Note:Don'tmakethemallputthesamenumberof mistakes,
simplybe lookingfor,say,five mistakes.

:-

Summary

Specificitem

Ceneralability

Recognise

Produce

- true/false
- multiplechoice
- editingskills
(withoutcorrection)

- gapfill
- transformation/reform
ulation
- editingskills
(with correction)
- clozetest
- C-test

F
!l-

T A

item tests:errorhunt
Discrete
Lookat oneof the booksyou arecurrentlyusing.No bookor printedtext is
this one!),andwritersoftenhavea preference
for one
everperfect(inctuding
type of exercise.
of the fo[owing.
Tryto find examples
grammar
question
wheremorethan oneof the distractors
a a muttiple-choice
is possibte!
questionwhereyou can answerthe questionwithout
b a muttipte-choice
the text
read'ing
whichhas a varyingnumberof distractors
exercise
c a multipte-choice
four)
three,sometimes
(e.g.sometimes
d a purectozetest (i.e. onewhereeverynth wordhasbeencut out, rather
test wherejust the difficuttwordshavebeenomitted)
than a grammar
exercise
that canhavemorethan oneanswer
e a transformation
sentence
whichcanbe put in two differentorders
f a jumbl.ed
g a gap-fittingexercisewherethe writertel.lsyou if contractions(e.g. don'tl
countas onewordor two words

**

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11

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]2.

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CHAPTER
7

Testingtechnigues
for reading
andlistening

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F
I

Sofar we havemainlyconcentrated
on testingsinglewords/structures
or single
sentences.
We havelookedat techniques
you:
where
... sefector matchan answerfromtwo or moreoptions(e.g.true/false
and
multiple-choice)
... orderwordsto forma sentence
... expandgivenwordsor notesintoa sentence
... transformthe sameideaintoa differentformof expression
... fill a space(possibly
guidedby suggestions,
whichisthensimilar
to
multiple
choice).
However,
manyof thesesameideascanbe usedto testlongerpiecesof
language
throughreadingor listening.

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canyou think of howthesetechniques

arenormally
adaptedfor deaLing
with
longerlistening/reading
texts?whichtechniques
woutdbe betterfor reading?
Whichwoutdbe betterfor listening?
Why?

,1

a4

Generalpoints:Reading Manytechniques
for testinglistening
canalsobe usedfor testingreading.But
a n dl i s t e n i n g
not allthe techniques
for testingreadingcanbe usedfor listening.
Thisis
because,
with longertexts,listening
requires
students
to retaina lot of
information
in theirheads- youwill be testingtheirmemoryratherthantheir
listening
ability.Listening
textsthat requirememoryshouldbe veryshort.
lf you wantto uselongerlistening
texts,the students'
taskwill haveto be
something
(short)multiple-choice
thattheycando duringthe listening:
questions,
markinga diagram,
followinga map,etc.
It is essential
with multiple-choice
listening
teststhat you do not deliberately
confuse
the student,
e.g.multiple-choice
questions
shouldbe in the sameorder
asthe text,and not mixedup to trickthe student.
Remember
that students
mayget lost.lf theymissan answer,
they maystillbe
listening
for it whilethetapehasmovedon. In otherwords,by missing
one
answer,
theyoftenmissseveral
followinganswers.
Forthisreason,it is normally
a goodideato usea numberof smaller
textswith clearstartsandfinishes.
This
pncE
alsogivesthe studenta freshstart.) seE
24

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1 Selection

Whilethe students
arereading/listening
to the text,or afterthey haveread/
listened
to it, theyselectonerightanswerfromtwo or morepossibilities,
e.g.
Listen to the text, and choosewhich personthe man is describing.
Listen to the text, and draw the route they take on the map.
Read the letter, and choosewhich of the four letters is the best answer to it.

14

L:

Readthe information about the familg and choosewhich holiday best suits them.

aaA

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43

.------

techniques
for reading
Testing
andlistening

Therearethousands
of possible
waysof usingselection.
However,
the bestways
will be the onesthat matchreallife.Forexample,
we readreviewsof computer
gamesbeforewe buyoneor we choosea pen-friend
from a selection
of letters.
Few,if any,peoplereadallthe horoscopes
to selecttheiridealstar-sign
(often
givenin tests/books).
thetypeof exercise

2 Matching

while the students

arereadingor listening
to the text,or afterthey havereador
listened
to it, theymatchone rightanswerfromtwo or morepossibilities,
e.g.
I Here are five newspaperarticles(l - 5), and five headlines(A - E).
I7hich headlinebelongsto which article?

r_

2_

3_

4_

2_

3_

4_

2_

3_

-F

-F

-F

5_

3 Read the following anicle. You will notice that five paragraphshave been
removed (1 - 5). Ar the end of the article you will find five paragraphs
(A - E). u7hich paragraphgoesin which space?
l_

_-

5_

2 Here are five letters I - 5, and five answersto them, marked A - E.

Readthem and decidewhich answermarcheswhich letter.
1_

_t-

Therearewaysin whichwe cancomplicate

the student's
task,if we wantto.
Distractors

-F
_F
--F
-F
_!-

We canincludeinformation
whichdoesnot havea match,e.g.
Here are five newspaperarricles(l - 5), and six headlines(A - F).
Vhich headlinebelongsto which article?

_F

Note:Of course,
we couldgiveten headlines.
Alternatively,
we couldaskthefollowing
question.
Here are five newspaperarricles(1 - 5), and six headlines (A - F).
I7hich headline doesnot belong ro any article?

-F
-F

-F
-F
I-

Multiplematching
Multiplematchingmeansthat morethanoneansweris possible.
Theredoesnot
haveto be a one-to-onematch.Therecouldbe one-to-many
matches,
or manyto-onematches.

_l-

L.

44

- _l_

L-

;:i
*

Testing
techniques
for reading
andlistening
\-/^\^

>;=-q_*---

Here are five answersfrom a youth magazine,sproblem page (A-E). Below are
eight letterssenrin by the readers(l-g). which answer(s)would be
appropriate for which problems.

m
E-_ _

L-q

E-._

Note: sometimesmore than one answeris possible.

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TIP
we automatically
senda signalby the numberof spaces
we put for each
question.
Theaboveexamplesuggests
that therearethreepossible
answers
for
each.Youcangivethe students
additionalhelpby only puttingthe correct
numberof spaces.

L-

Problems
with matchingexercises
Matching
exercises
allsharethe sameproblem,
whichisthat if the students
makeonewrongmatch,theymust,by definitionalsoget anotheranswer
wrong.Thiscanbe an evenbiggerproblemwhensettingmultiple-matching
exercises.
Youmayneedto havemeetings
to agreeon passmarks:if you aik five
questions,
for example,
one mistakewill meanthe studentgetsonlythreeout of
frvecorrect(i.e.60%- a wronganswerloses4oo/"of the markl).
As we sawwith truelfalseand multiple-choice
questions,
you maydecideto
penalise
wronganswers,
butthe resulting
markthendoesn,tmeananything.
Howeveryou decideto treaterror,it is importantthat the markersall igree"on
whetheror howto penalise
suchmistakes.

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3 Ordering

onceagain,thisdevicecanbe usedfor longerpieces

of text.Because
of the
mentalload,thisis probablybestreserved
for readingratherthan listening.
Note:civingthe openingandclosing
paragraphs
herpsto givecontext.

a-4

tl-4

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Below you will frnd the opening and closing paragraphsof a personalletter.
You will also seefive paragraphs(A - E) that go in the letter.
Readthe paragraphsand decidewhich order they go in.
lst_

2nd_

3rd

4th

5th

-.4

14

t-

Below you will find five newspaperarticles (A - E).

Readthe articlesand decidewhich order they go in.

lst

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

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45

_!-

'-/-

for readingandlistening
techniques
Testing

_!Note:Thesamemarkingproblemexistsaswith matching:
if one answeris
A
are. correctanswerwill dependon the right
wrong,then at leasttwo answers
imaginethe correctansweris:
Forexample,
sequence.
lst A

2nd B

3rd C

4th D

sthE

.F
_F
-F
L1

andthe studentwrites:
lst 4

2nd6

ts
3rd P

4th,

Sthc

hasthe studentmade?lf we markby sight,i.e.asa

How manymistakes
(A andB)arein the correctposition.
computerwould,onlytwo answers
that EfollowsD. Likematching,one
the studenthasalsoidentified
However,
gets
student
only
threeout of fivecorrectand,again,
that
the
mistakemeans
to agreeon passmarks.
you may needto havemeetings

the
Transforming
sameideainto a
differentform
of expression

will be bestused
production,
andtherefore
a testof language
Thisis obviously
(e.g.the idea,or
variable
idea
is
keep
one
to
or writing.The
for testingspeaking
(e.g.
the socialstyleor
anothervariable
the text-type)the same,whilechanging
levelof formality).

-F
_l-

_F
_F
-F
_F
*F

You are having a party and you are sendingout the printed invitation below.
You decideit is too formal to sendto your best friend. Using the information
on the invitation, finish this letter inviting her. (50 words)

_F

Dear Susie,

_L-

l-

I'm sorry I haven'twritten for ages,but I hope I'll seeyou next week ...

_F
5 F i l l i n ga s p a ce

to multipleguidedby suggestions,
whichisthensimilar
Thiscouldbe possibly
givenwordsor notesintoa sentence.
choiceor to expanding
e.g.
One of the mostfamiliarformsof testinglongertextsisthe openquestion,

*F
_-

Vhy did Johndecideto buy thebook?

e.g.
We canhelpthe studentby guidingthemto an answer,
Vhy did John decideto buy the book?

_F
_F
_F

Becauseit reminded him of

L.

questions,
e.g.
we couldusesimplemultiple-choice
Or,of course,

_F

tfThy did John decideto buy the book? Becauseit ...

a) was cheap.
b) reminded him of a book he had when he wasyounger.
c) was the right size.

-F

d) looked interesting.
t_

46

_t-

for reading
andlistening
techniques
Testing
\^-

t'1
!

Whentestinglongertexts,allthe usualproblems
still
with multiple-choice
aPply,e.g.the complexity
answerin
of the distractors,
morethanone possible
context,etc.Themostcommonproblem(or solution,if you area student!)is
that the longestoptionis oftenthe rightone.
Anotherway of guidingthe studentto the answeristo askthemto expand
givenwordsor notesintoa text.We havealreadyseenhow several
sentences
canbe linkedin contextto usethisdevicefor longerpiecesof text.However,
you canalsouseit for longerpieces
of writingto put the sameideasinto
(peae.22),
everyone's
heads,aswe sawin resrRELTABTLTry
e.g.

;:!.--rI

ii!-I

i-jl

l-=r

:
-=
,

Below you will find the opening and closing paragraphsof a personal letter.

t-J

You will seethat the middle paragraphis missing.

ttrflritethe missing paragraph,including the following information:
- you are visiting her town next month (why?)

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L.

tl--

- you would like to stay(when?how long?)

- you will be accompaniedby a friend (who?why?)

- your friend hasa specialdiet (what?why?)

l-r

l-.-

t--

Summary

a--,-

Recognise

Produce

Specificitem

- gap-filling
- noteexpansion
- transformation/reform
ulation

Ceneralability

l) seecHneren
8

*
1,-t

3
L'
I
LI

lI -

true/false
multiplechoice
selection
matching
ordering

- writing and speaking

)

!Lf,

seecrncren 9

lf we wantto teststudents'
longertexts,we mustdecideif
abilityto understand
we wantthemto understand
particular
itemsin the text,or the ideabehindthe
piecesof
text. lf youranswers
formsor individual
dependon particular
structural
you areactually
vocabulary,
remember
testingsingleitems,and not the students'
abilityto dealwith longtext.

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Lookat a typicaIskillstest fromyourschool.

Howmanyquestions
test readingandlisteningskitts(skimming.
listeningfor
gist,etc.)?Howmanyfreshstarts(rnce24) doesa studentget in:
a) the readingsection? b) the Listening
section?
Howmanydifferenttext-types(newspapers,
tetters,posters,signs,etc.) does
the studentread?HowmanydifFerent
text-types(news,songs.chat-shows,
etc.) doesthe studentlistento or lookat?
Howmanydifterenttechniques
do the studentsusein the test?
Is the test fair?Doesit test the skittsor do'hidden'grammay'vocabutary
questions
atsoappear?

!!

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47

-\

Testing
techniques
with nocorrect
answers

_F
-F
P
L1
L-

Sometimes
we maynot wantto restrict
the numberof possible
answers
asthere
maywellbe manydifferentandcorrectpossibilities;
andscorers
maymarkthese
in differentways.Thistypeof question
canbe usedasa teachingdevice,or a
promptfor askingthe students
whattheythinkandwhy.Thistakesus intothe
worldof TLLUMTNATToN
andevaluation,
ratherthan eruume
RnrroN
andtesting.

-F
-F
-F

1 Choosing
a title

In thistypeof question,
the studentreadsa text andthensuggests
a good
title,or illustration,
or someotherway of showingtheirunderstanding
of the
text asa whole,e.g.
Readthe descriptionof winter below.Imagineyou are a publisher.\fhich
of the four photoswould you chooseto illustratethis text?\[hy?

-F
_F
_F
-F
l-

Rankingand
Thisrelates
to the student's
personal
beliefs,
e.g.
preferences
ordering

-F

Readthe following four descriptions(A - D) of the photograph.

-F

which one describesit best?Put the paragraphsin order of preference.

:-

1(best)

4(worst)
L-

Therecanobviously
be no correctanswer(althoughyou mayhavea hidden
agendato makestudents
awareof goodwriting).you canextendthisquestion
by askingExplainwhy you think it is the best/worstdescription.

T-

t-

3 Personalisation

Youcanalsousepersonalisation,
whichwill meanthat answers
will be different
for eachdifferentstudent,e.g.

I-

L.

Read the four advertisementsfor multi-media computers.

!7hich do you find the mosr persuasivefor your family,s needs?\[hy?

t-

L.

Summary
students
can,for example,
reada text andshowtheirunderstanding
by justifying
theiranswers.
Remember,
however,not to marktheseanswersfor grammatical
or closeness
accuracy
to youropinion,asthisis not whatyou aretesting.

-F
l-

L.

T A S l,(

prcr3. Devisea shortreadingtaskaround

Lookat the TVguideon PHoTocoIIABLE
it, whichhasno correctanswer.
yourideaswith thoseon plcr95.
compare

_F

-I-

48

LI
J

-j
-j

PARTC Assessment
-a
--2
+--

.-i.--

CHAPTER
9

Assessing
speaking
andwriting

t_^

so far,the majorityof the techniques

we haveseenhavebeenmainlyones
wherewe turnthestudent's
abilities
intosomething
we cancount.However,
we
shouldremember
thattherearesomeabilities
that cannotbe counted,and
therefore
mustbejudged.Assessment
canandshouldbe usedto helpthe
students
to learnaswellsimplyto testthem.Byshowingthe students
how we
assess,
theydevelopthe criteriato evaluate
theirown work.
we will nowlookat formsof assessment
whichtry to includestudents
in the
judgingof theirwork.

._a-4

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:
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i--

Profiting
andanalyticmarkingschemes

i
L -

As we sawin scoRER
(see
RELtABtLtry
ence26), onemajordifficultyin evaluating
language
useiseliminating
scorer
subjectivity.
Manyteachers
markoraland
writtenwork by impression:
they readit withoutconcentrating
on any particular
partsuchasgrammar,
andinsteadgiveit a gradebasedon the generaleffectof
thecomposition
or speaking.
However,
aswe haveseenon pnce26,
differentteachers
maynoticedifferent
things.so assessors
havelookedfor awayof helpingthemstandardise
their
marking.

L---4

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+4
3
L.-

one ideato makescoringmorereliable

isto breakdownan overallimpression
markintoa numberof sub-skills.
In thisway,we canpunish,say,spelling
errors,
whilerewarding
accuracy
in grammar.
Someof thesesub-skills
maybe linguistic
(structures,
vocabulary,
etc.),but othersmaynot be (relevance,
hand-writing,
etc.).

!
4
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T A .g K

Youaretryrngto assess
a pieceof writtenwork.
whichof the areasin the charton the nextpagedo you think arelinguistic.
andwhicharenon-tinguistic,
that is, whichcoutdbejudgedby a studentas
wetlasa teacher?
Complete
the charl.

c
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49

-I!-

.=-'\--

andwriting
sPeaking
Assessing
_r<

Teacher
only

Teacher
and student

handwriting
socialstyle
appropriate

-F
L-

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layout
organisation
interest

-Y
L1

spelling

I,

argument
a convincing
rangeof vocabulary
relevance
to the tasksetor title
useof linkingwords

_t-

_-t-

nr rnrfr raiinn

^F

paragraphing
of tenses
accuracy
devices
useof rhetorical
understand
easy
to
ideas

L-

_F
-F

MARKTNG
sCHEMES
try to breakdowncommunication
andANALylc
Analyticmarkingschemes Bothpnonles

th,et uat hou

re ende'd-.

,Qe/P-vat'zce

/
:

Ade4ua'ca I

e[%trry'a
pcrtctua&U---

Tota't'7s

andstudent
canseewhere
areassothat bothteacher
intoa numberof different
hasdifficulties
in
andwherethe reader/listener
theyaresuccessful
vocabulary,
relevance,
Examples
of suchareasaregrammar,
understanding.
punctuation,
andsoon.
adequacy,
schemes
betweenmarking
andpRoFrLEs.
In thisbook,we will makea distinction
markfor
aswhereyoujusthavean impression
We willdefinea markingscheme
eacharea,marked,e.g.out of 5. Soa studentmightgetthemarkon the leftat
the endof a composition.
the studenthasno definition
of whatthe
Whilethisscoreis lesssubjective,
'adequacy'.
for example,
by
teachermeans,

_F
L-

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t-

_F

__E
_-!-

P ro f i l i n g

moreinformation,
suchaswheretheirproblem
We wantto givethe students
you
the problemtogether
areasareor how to improve.Thismeans candiscuss
canre-read
the
knowingthatyou meanthe samething,or thata student
thisonearea.
thinkingof howto improve
composition
to a description
of
A pnorrre
. then,is not so mucha score.lt is morelikea reference
given
whichis
ability a description
to thestudent.
Thetechnical
term
the person's
isa oescRtpton.
Therearenormally
betweenthree
for eachof thesedescriptions
in speech/writing
for usingvocabulary
An example
mightbe:
andfivelevels.

_!-

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3 Complete understanding with appropriate

and f ew, i-f any, circumlocut.ions
a
Z

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ll9

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vocabulary

or

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n
v ea ensaDcr .vi r r q r n n : " 1

vocabulary

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ri r n
r q=! n/ l nJ tr val nJ rr . i

r qrLl e- a

-F

circumlocutions

cl-ear or ambiguous because of

1 Meaning not fully
restric ted/ inappropriate
vocabulary
0 Vocabulary
understood

so restricted

that

the meaning cannot

_lbe

_]-1-I-

50
Lz
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Assess'ing
speakjng
andwriting
-\_-.---\-

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O\c.qt\er-o\.

Re'Q,,ra,ttce 3
2
A/e4aacg
1rammar
4
Vocaba/atg 1
fuac&tat&a4- ''/15
kay',:

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3-_
i-4
i!

*g---- 5-_
*---.|

Banding

Thiscouldbe givento the studentin both L1 andthe targetlanguage

(afterall,it
is authentic-to-the-classroom
language),
but you mightwantto simplifythe
Ianguage
or concepts
asappropriate.
Thusa student's
essaymightbe giventhe
PRoFTLE
on the left.
Notethat here,the 'total'is simplyan artificial
devicefor record-keeping
and/or
diagnosis.
What is moreusefulisthat the students
canlookat the DEscRrproRS,
seein generaltermswhattheirproblems
are,andthendiscuss
themwith the
teacherasking,e.g.for specific
examples
wheretheteacherfoundthe useof
vocabulary
inadequate.
once students
arefamiliarwith the process
andthe
vocabulary,
olderstudents
canperhaps,
aftersomepractice
sessions,
startto
discuss
eachother'scompositions.
Thisis an exampleof assessment
that teaches.
BANDTNc
is similarto pRorrur.rc,
but we will defineit in thisbookaswherethe
numbersor gradesassigned
pointto DEscRrproRs
and relateto levelsof ability.For
eachskill,therearenormallynineor ten bands,representing
approximately
100
hoursof tuitioneach.So,for example,
Speaking
Band1 will normally
be:

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bano

Cannot
airroq

so n
v se qa ^k

In

i-ho

F:r-al- -

. age
*I *r -n-g. u

of,

a- F
tr

lI e^ a s t ,

_..*_ -...press1on.

Fhic

in

:5- *
i-t

whereasBand10 will be:

5-. -,
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t_*

Nal-'wo

qnpekar

rtrnrpdicFahlp

-otrel
rnnrrF
lrryue

.
.

rr oEAq.gf q L -

in

ro:l

aU
nU
n rr ^ n vr iv:rF o lrrqr
q

Lgty

rLnU

rui rmr La L s .

ta-,.

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'i-t

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4

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r--'tf
,a
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:

+a

Between
Band1 andBand10 willbe otherdescriptions
thatcoverthe rangeof
abilities
betweencomplete
beginner
andnativespeaker.
A aRNo
describes
an abilitylevelin anyoneskill,andtherefore
a writinganruD,
for
example,
wouldinclude
information
concerning
relevance,
grammar,
adequacy,
vocabulary
andpunctuation
at different
levels.
lt islikea'global'pRoFtLE.
"Howwouldwe Thestudentwouldhandusa composition,
for example.
We wouldreadit and
usebands?" handit backto thestudent
withthecomment:
Band3. Thestudentwouldthen
referto a copyof the anNos
andreadthefollowing(in Ll andlorEnglish):
Band 3
The reader can see that. the writer
has tried
to
organise t.heir writ.ing to help understanding,
but
this is either done very simply or, where more
vCvOr LmLnt l; e
r ex^

vo !r Va qt ar rn_i -e* a_ I i o n

iq

a .m. .hpFL 6e ^U ,
*: I_l_- _

need to re-read parts several_

understanding the connections
ero
fram
n ie
- *u
erya u
r-rlappropr]-acles,
circumlocutio::s
in vocabulary
overall idea is still
c1ear.

fLl t-Irea

Ir ea dr (n]^e-f

may

times before fully

and di_stinctions.
There
rnaccuracres,
or
and/or grammar, buE t.he

we couldthenencourage
the studentto find examples
of circumlocutions,
or
the studentcouldtry andproveto usthat the essaywasreallya Band4.

1
t--1

:
L----z

*4

57

andwriting
speaking
Assessing
^--V
--lh

IE

Thesekindsof sRNos
andDEscRrproRs
aredesigned
to coverlinguistic
ability
rangingfromcomplete
beginners
to near-native
speaker
nineor
in approximately
ten steps.A jumpfromoneanNoto another,e.g.from Band3 to Band4, may
thereforerepresent
a jumpof 100 hoursor a wholeacademic
year.However,
teachers
canshowprogress
duringtheyearthroughusinghalf-bands,
like3+,
3/4 and4-.

L1

TIP
BANDs
usefulto parentsandotherteachers
areextremely
because
theydescribe
generally
whatthe studentis
ableto do in the targetlanguage:
a goodexample
pncr31
REFERENCTNo.
of cRrrrRrn
l, sEE
However,
will not havea flat pnonlr- in otherwords,someof
somestudents
mightbe Band2 (e.g.grammatical
their(writing)
sub-skills
accuracy),
andother
mightbe Band5 (e.g.relevance
sub-skills
to the taskset,interest,
organisation,
etc.).In thesecases,
usingRnortes
of different
sub-skills
will be morehelpfulfor
teachers,
students
andparents.

Ll-

tl-

with profiles
Problems
andbands

- and makecomprehensible
pRoFrLEs
- the criteria
andanxostry to standardise
we useto judgea pieceof student's
work.We aretryingto makethe sub.iective
(serpnce25) is very
aspossible.
Remember
asobjective
that sconrnRELtABtLtry
importantasit isthe easiest
areafor students
parents
and
to (mis!)understand.
oncemorethanoneteacher
Consequently,
is involved
in givingscores,
the
willonlyworkif thereisdiscussion,
system
training
andnegotiation
to definethe
meanings
of the termsusedand moderate
teachers'
scores.
is bestdoneby groupsof teachers
Suchmoderation
lookingat or listening
to
work
anddiscussing
sample
theirassessments.
Forexample,
if you haveseveral
youcanhavea shortmeetingto discuss
language
teachers
in yourschool,
you gave,andwhy.lf you noticethatyou constantly
what scores
give,say,a
you
BAND
onehigherthaneveryone
else, will in futurehaveto reduce
your
BANDTNc
by 1, evenif thishurts!
ldeally,eachteachershouldreadllisten
to the student's
workoncefor each
pRoFrLE:
oncefor an adequacy
score,oncefor a grammarscore,etc.lf possible,
several
teachers
shouldread/listen
to eachpieceof student's
work so that they
theirscores.
canstandardise
However,
the generaltheoryis that,onceyou have
hadmoderation
sessions,
anyfour trainedpeoplewill givethe samerangeof
resultsasanyotherfour people.
you canusethemfor allthe language
Onceyou havethesepRoFrLES,
teachingin
yourschool including
thestudents'
mothertongue.
will saythat you won't havethe timeor resources
Of course,practicality
for each
eachpieceof work,but the principle
teacherto assess
of moderation
isstillessential
if the schemeisto workacross
teachersand/ora school.

"Howofi.enshould
wehaue Youdon't needto havecontinualmoderation
meetings.
Forexample,
at the start
moderation
sessions?" of the schoolyear,you shouldhavea coupleof meetings
and lookat the work of
andweakstudents.
a few good,average
Youshouldagreeamongeachother
for eachpieceof work.
whichsnNois appropriate
once you havedonethis,youcanthenusethe anNos
for everypieceof (written)
workfor everystudentin the schoolfor the wholeyear(although
a coupleof
sessions
extramoderation
duringthe yearwill,of course,
improveconsistency).

lE

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52

*
1

tz

<-q

Assessing
speaking
andwriting

-1
Theadvantages
areobvious:if allthe teachers
areusingthe samemarking
scheme
and(roughly)
thesamecriteria,
yourcoupleof moderation
sessions
have
beenan excellent
investmenfl
studentsmovingbetweenyearsor between
teachers
shouldno longerbe a problem.
pRoFuEs
andsnNtos
canandshouldbe
; sentto parents
who will seethat thereis a coherentand principled
systemof
. evaluation
in theschool.

"=
--.4

+{

"Hou do rJoucreate
Uour :
oun profles/bands?" .
:
:
:
'

*
1
--

ManybooksandexamboardsakeadyhavepRortEs
that you canusefor your
class.
Alternatively,
youcouldwriteyourown individual
onesforyourown class,
or allthelanguage
teachers
in theschool- including
theteachers
of the L1couldgettogether
to writeonesetfor the school;
or you couldwritethemwith
yourclass- thiswillgivethemgoodpractice
in writingand givethema stakein
the descriptions.
Thiswill alsoencourage
themto markeachother'swork.

-.t,

: Example
1: Writinga setof general
profilesfor the wholeschool
Step'l
Decide
on the 'Crunch
Point':themostcritical
pointof assessment.
or important
ln someschools,
thiswillbe at theendof schooling
whenthe students
leave.
Alternatively,
it maybe a problemyearwithinthe school,whereresultsare
consistently
disappointin
g.
Step2
Discuss
anddecide
on themainproblems
the students
arehavingat the Crunch
Point:writingessays/letters,
speaking,
individual
pointsof grammar,
etc.
Step3
Writeotscntprons
and/orpRoFrLEs
that describe
whatthe perfectstudentcando
at the CrunchPoint.checkthattheseDEScRrproRS
coverthe problems
vou
identified
at Step2.
Step4

_-.-

_-f

.J

Writeoescnrprons
thatdescribe
whata newstudentintothe schoolcando. This
willprobably
beverylittleor nothing.
Avoidusingsubjective
wordslikesatisfactory
fto whom?)or adequate(to what
purpose?).

-_-

Step5
Decidehow manyway-stages
you want:G-3or G-5.you shouldalwayshavean
(i.e.
. evennumber G-3= 4 stages),
otherwise
teachers
andstudents
will choose
the middleonebecause
it iscautious.
FourstagesprobablymeansbetterscoRER
RELIABILtry
anddifferentteachers
will
be morelikelyto givethe sameresult(because
therearefewerto choosefrom).
six stagesmeansyoucanshowgreaterstudentprogress.
lt is moremotivating
for students
to seemovement
thanbeingstuckon the samescorefor a year
or more.

-4t

-^
-4

-t

Step6
Eachteacherbringssamples
of students'
work- probablywritingor a videoof
the classspeaking andchooses
students
who aretypicalat eachlevel.A group
of teachers
assess
the students
usingthe pRoFtLEs
andseeif theyagreewith each
other.ThepRoFrLEs
reflectwhatthe schoolis tryingto teachunj *'" purposeof
(corucnuerur
the assessment
evnlunrroru).

-!t

--t

-jt

--!t

---4

-4

53

-\-/-

andwriting
sPeaking
Assessing
I\

of a profiletemplate
Example
althoughdifferentnationalities,
school
Most pnorteswill havea similarstructure,
and ageswill needto adaptthemto fit theirlocalsituation.
subjects
3 Meaning completely
mistakes
t

rf lrgaa -l lnl l ir v

-^

-'-4erqf
ulluL!

ood

with

understood

n
l r vo
uf

\r
d
s eeJ s
y rn i

fu ue

SOme

OCCaSiOnal-

L-

fr qr4rr li

-1
v

r-l ear

anri /nr

amtri ortotts necause

of

t-

Reader needs to re-read or ask for

errors.
explanation
and/or further
clarification
No evidence
0 Meaning unclear.
use or understand the target

that the student

language

can

will remainthe same,but you

With a G-5 scale,the top and bottomdescriptors
These
grey
skillpoints.
and
intermediate
14to addshades
of
now haveScales
you
areasof difficulty
specific
canbe usefulandshouldinclude
scales
additional
of the importance
the students'awareness
identifiedat Step2. Thisthen raises
(setpnce28),will leadto better
throughBACKWASH
of thesepoints,and hopefully,
teachingandlearning.
sothat
havecopiesof the PRoFtLES
Note:Thiswill onlyhappenif the students
they canseewherethey are(un)successful.
Example2: Writinga setof specificprofiles
at a microYoucouldalsowritea setof specificprofilesto try to solveproblems
individual
level.Theycouldevenaddress
level,suchaswritingat intermediate
level.Oncea problemlikethis
tasks,likeWritingpersonallettersat intermediate
apparent:
becomes
thesewill be the mostcommonproblems
... decideon the keyindicators:
studentshaveat thislevelwith thistask
with
with layout;problems
e.g.problems
... try to grouptheseproblems,
grammar,etc.
of difficulty
to yourassessment
... writeeachgroupin a list,rankedaccording
for useaspRoFrLrNG.
opscRtproRs
... divideyourlistintofouror sixhorizontal

of profiling
Advantages

tL.

insignificant

di f f lcul- ti es
T
IM
i s qal re
f rn
r vi n o
f

L-

Diagnostic/teaching
to seewherethey needto improve
actuallyallowsthe students
UsingpRoFrLEs
on the bottomof their
theirwork. lf a teacherwritesGood,a big improvement
not
know
how
they
have
improved.
On the
do
for
students
essays, example,
pnortrs
you cansit downwith a studentandexplainwhereyou
otherhand,with
had a problemandwherehe/shewassuccessful.
Of course,the studentcanthentry and proveto you by pointingto examples,
the level.In thisway,evaluation
wherehe/shehasachieved
placesin the essay,
process
or
of negotiation.
Students
will begin
becomesa sharedresponsibility,a
essays
and,moreimportantly,
learnhow
to learnhow to evaluateotherstudents'
to edittheirown work beforegivingit in to mark.

L-

L.

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L.

t-

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r_L-

t-

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L.
L-

L-

t-

I-

t-

TIP
to marktheirworkusingthe nRoFTLES
it in.Thisisa
beforehanding
Askthe students
pncr59) | suspect
on coNFtDENcE
MrNcs.(sEe
that mostteachers
variation
think
thiswith the students
is goingto be verydifficult.
lt neednot be.
that discussing

f-

t--

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54
La-

iil

Y;

andwriting
Assessing
speaking

?.
d

L"

L:
il---

t-

L.
I--

E-

l---

ts
l_tl
I

Profiling and oral skills

: Notes,bandsandscoresfromobserving
the studentin class
goingon in class.
: Theteacher
in theactivities
shouldnot alwaysbe involved
Teachers
whatis goingon, buildingup
alsoneedtimeto stepbackandobserve
, observations
No oneknowsthe
andnotesaboutthestudents
asindividuals.
' students'abilities
andwatchingthe
to performin classbetterthanthe teacher,
of
peers
bestindicator
with
in
the
target
language
is
the
their
: studentsinteract
; theirabilityin the targetlanguage.
using
: Letus callthesetalkingskills;inotherwords,interactive
communication
andlistening.
speaking

l--

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,
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t-

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a

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t

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,-

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al--

"Howcanoe ossess Teachers

traditionally
to
askedstudents
to readaloud,or do guidedroleplays
'
- readby the teacher,
talkingskills?" assess
speaking;
anddid lotsof listening
comprehensions
- to assess
or givenon audio-or video-cassettes
listening.
r However,
teachers
wouldspendtheirtimebetterin observing
the students
interact
Theresultof the listening
thanin givingdailylistening
comprehensions.
listenin thisway isto
comprehension
tellsyouverylittle.Theonlytimesstudents
announcements,
theradio,or perhaps
the phone.lf thestudentdoesn't
understand,
theteacher
doesn'tknowwhy.
(structures?
o ls it because
vocabulary?)
of the levelof linguistic
complexity?
o ls it because
of thequalityor audibility
of thetape?
o ls it because
of thecomplexity
of thequestions?
(serpncr36) in the listening
o ls it because
of the inefficiency
of the distractors
questions?
comprehension
Assessing
issomething
we do allthetime.In fact,
students
throughobservation
we oftenchangeor overif examresults
don't matchour observed
assessment,
ridetheexamresult.
e.g.
Whatisdifficult
isto formalise
thisinformalprocedure,
sometimes
a student's
fluencycanimpress
usso muchthatwe don'tnoticehow
manystructural
mistakes
he/sheis making.
pRoFrLrNc
canhelp.We canchoose
oneaspect
of talkingskillsastoday'scriterion,
alone.This
andwatchtheclass
to measure
theirperformance
on thiscriterion
performance
gut feelingabouta student's
will hopefully
breakdowna general
intoa numberof pRopte
assessments.
possible
students'
Herearesome
areaswhereyoucouldnoteindividual
contributions.
o How accurate
Theirspelling?
istheiruseof structures?
Theirpronunciation?
o Do they usea widerangeof structures?
Linkers?
Vocabulary?
(e.g.formal,
e Cantheyvarytheirlanguage
appropriate
sothatit issocially
friendly,
etc.)?
o Cantheyinterrupt,
in
carryon a naturalconversation
taketurns,andgenerally
the targetlanguage?
o Aretheircontributions
the rightlength?On the rightsubject?
o How muchof a strainis it to listento them?
And,morearguably:
e Do theycontribute
frequently
to the classor do theyavoidparticipation?
e Do they havegoodideas?

,-t

l-

l_1--tA

l'
l--

L-t
L--t

ll -'t-.1

lI

55

--'--

-+-

andwriting
speaking
Assessing

-!-

We saidabovethat a student's
Whichdo we choose?
fluencycanhidehis/her
Butthismaybe a goodthing.We maywantto encourage
mistakes.
structural
accuracy.
Thisiswhy it isvitally
fluency,andnot worryaboutstructural
make
sure
that
our
assessment
criteria
aresetvia coNcRUENr
importantto
pnce
(srE
should
EVALUATToN 33) in otherwords,why,whatand how we assess
matchthe aimsof our teachingprogramme.
pRoFrLEs
andanruos.
Youcanfind
As with writing,we canusemarkingschemes,
setof pnortEs
thesein books,but it is betterif you usea standard
agreed
your
teachers
in
school.eRoFTLES
couldbe the samefor
betweenallthe language
Polish,
etc.Theseshouldthenbetranslated
andsentto allthe
French,
Spanish,
students(andtheirparents).
to breakdowntalkingskillsintosub-skills
Usingenorlrsandotherschemes
students
overtime:we will returnto this
meansthat you will haveto assess
AssEssMer.rr
in Chapter11.
coNrrruuous
whendiscussing
5ummary
learnaswellas
canbe usedto helpstudents
We haveseenherehow assessment
pRortuttc
MARKTNc
scHEMEs
and
areusedto assess
testthem.Bothnrunlrnc
pRoFrLrNG,
givesstudents
for writingandspeaking.
however,
especially
students
moreinformation.

we listedsomepossible
areaswhereyoucouldnoteindividuaL
In this chapter,
contributions.
students'
in yourschool- don't
teachers
Arrange
a meetingwith the otherlanguage
forgetto inctudethe teachersof the students'11. If this is not possible,
Takea copy/copies
IAGE
of pxorocopnBLE
4.
imagineyouarein sucha meeting.
Whatwoutdyouaddto the List?Whatwouldyouput in the gaps?
Ustedarethe mostimportant?
In youropinion,whichof the sub-skitts
of the teststhat the schooluses,whichdo youthinkthe
Fromyourknowtedge
schootthinksarethe mostimportant?
Howoftenin a schoolyearwoutdyouwantto focuson eachsub-skill?
makea photocopiable
checklist(or addto this tist)
Withthe otherteachers,
on the areaswhich are of
that you can use in classthat concentrates
students,
administration
andparents.
impoftance
to yourschool's
Canyouatso
students'
contributions?
turn this list into a chartfor recording

L.

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s
L-

CHAPTER
1O

procedures
Assessing
andattitudes

rE-

L.
L.
L.
l--

l-.a

rr
L-

Traditionally,
teachers
havejudgedstudents,
throughtests,assessments,
analysis
of theirwork,andso on. However,
aswe haveseenin thisbook,it isvery
difficultto measure
a student's
abilityaccurately.
In the end,thereis onlyone
personwho knowshowmuchtheyarelearning:
the student.
Earlier
in thisbook,we lookedat rruorRecr
pncr30
versusDrREcr
rEsrNC.i-1,seE
supposewe extendthisconcept
to assessment.
We havetwo choices:
interpret
dataaboutthe students
to assess
theirabilities
or involvethemin their
assessment.

r-_-l

r--

L.
L:
a-4

r
l--

L:
LL:
L:
L:
L:
L:
L:
L:
t:

T A

what arethe advantages

of involvingstudents
in their ownassessment?
Whatproblems
canyouforesee
for thesepeopl.e?
the student
the teacher
teachers
of othersubjects
parents
the schoo['s
administratio
n
the schoo['s
resources

V;t

at

a-4

a.--

t-f

Reason
1: Thereal
question

Thereis reallyonlyonequestion
thatcanassess
a learner:
Do you feelyouhave
improved?
(honestly)
lf the learner
thinkshelsheis better,andthe teacher
doesn't,
who is right?lf thelearner
(honestly)
thinkshe/sheis no better,but the
teacherdisagrees,
who is right?
In the Introduction,
we emphasised
thatlearning
isan individual
action- youcan
studyin groups,butyoucan'tlearnin groups.lmprovement,
or lackof it, is
therefore
whatthelearner
feels.of course,
theymaynot saywhattheyreallythink
astheymay:
... be lyingto getextramarks
... thinkthatyouwantthemto saytheyhaveimproved
... not wantto lookstupidin frontof theirfriends
... not wantto looktoo clever
in frontof theirfriends.

Reason
2: lt'syourjob
to teach...

Thetraditional
testingsystemputsno responsibility
on the student.Thestudent
isaccustomed
to the teachersayingif helsheis goodor bad.Many students
approach
testshopingthat,thistime,theywill be lucky.Formanystudents
assessment
issomething
thatteachers
do to them,ratherthansomething
teachers
do with them.
However,
if we seeevaluation
aspartof theteachingprocess,
we canuse
assessment
to helpstudents
learntheirstrengths
andweaknesses
andplantheir
learningbetter.We canencourage
themto becomeself-critical
andto takemore
responsibility.
Thismaysoundimpossibly
idealistic
but,aswe shallsee,we
alreadydo thisto someextent,andit canbe donequiteeasilywith a bit of
planning(seebelowandespecially
prce75).
trueof RppRnrsnls,

rJl

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)-4

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)-'.
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57

+
andattitudes
Procedures

jttting

.F.

3: Not all
Reason
learningfollowsthe
plan
teacher's

don'talwayslearneverything
we teach.On theother
It isobviousthat students
they
hand,it mustalsobe truethattheylearnthingswe don'tteach,otherwise
theyhadn'theardin class.
wouldneverbe ableto createa sentence
job istraditionally
to:
Theteacher's
mayhaveproblems
with a language
itemor text
... predictwherestudents
to learntheseproblemareas
... planhow to helpstudents
in theseareasanddecidewhatto do next.
students'ability
... assess
However,thisleavestwo areas.
c Whataboutthe problems
theyhavethatwe haven'tanticipated?
c, Whataboutthe learning
theydo that we haven'tanticipated?
Letus lookat thesein moredetail.
they havethat we haven'tanticipated
Problems
findsthe (majority
of the)classhasa problemin an
lf the teachersuddenly
he/she
will
normally
do
one
of the following.
area,
unexpected
e Makea noteandteachthe itemin the future.
c Do a quickexposition
of the itemin question.
Thismightrangefrom
or mimingan unknownword,to writingrulesandsubstitution
translating
tableson the board.
(e.g.an
c Tellthe students
it'snot important
to ignorethe itembecause
in
text).
unknownword a skimmed
it hasbeen
in anyformaltestbecause
Theseitemswill probablynot be included
them.
that the studentshavealreadymastered
assumed

J-F
-L-L-

-tts
-F
-L*t-

-[-l.F

-tI-t-

Learningthey do that we haven'tanticipated

abouta text,thismightmean
On the otherhand,if a studenthasa question
EFFEcr.
that he/shemay be readyto learnit. Let'scallthisthe sALtENcy
whenlearning
a foreignlanguage,
of suddenly
We haveall hadthe experience,
or construction
beingusedtimeandtime
noticingan unknownword,phrase
sticksout or becomes
salient.Thismightbea wordthe
again.lt suddenly
teacherusesallthe time (e.g.Brilliant!or Yourturn);or a wordor phrasefroma
We asksomeonewhat it means,andwe continueto
songor TV advertisement.
weeks.
of
Thenthe word seemsto disappear.
it
for
a
couple
notice
thatword
Thiswouldimplythat theremaybe a timewhen,for usasindividuals,
lt seems
obvious
thatthiswouldbethe idealtime
extra-noticeable.
issuddenly
However,
the itemandso respond
to theirinsight.
there
to teachthe individual
aretwo oroblems.
o What is suddenly
for oneindividual
will probably
for the
salient
not besalient
startedto hearthe word wouldin
wholeclass;if a beginnerhassuddenly
(e.g.the teacheralwayssaysVincente,
whatwouldyou
sentences
conditional
explain
it,
to
the
the
teacher
teacher
may
that
asks
say
thisistoo
and
say?),
learn
it
later.
and that they'll
advanced
o What the individualis readyto learnwill probablynot fit in with the teacher's
skimming,
plan.lf the teacheris practising
anda studentaskswhata
word means,the teacherwouldprobablytellthemthe wordwasn't
pafticular
they arepractising
importantbecause
skim-reading.

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58
Lz
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procedures
Assessing
andattitudes

L*

of theseitems
Evaluation
noneof thesesalientitemswill be included
in anyformaltest,because
Obviously,
student's
abilityto
theyareunlikelyto be on the syllabus.
However,
the individual
questionandworkout language
problems
isa vitallanguagefor him/herself
in
learningskill- perhaps
the mostimportantskillof all.lf we arereallyinterested
personal
learningprocesses
the student's
andattitudes,
theseitems- the student's
- shouldbe recorded
learningsyllabus
andthe studentgivencredit.

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How canwe get this

datafrom the student?

We will now lookat varioustechniques

for gettingthiskindof datafromthe
student.Someof theseideasarebasedon whatwe alreadvdo. Othersarea bit
moreunfamiliar.

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Readthe Listof techniques

in the tabtebelow.Tickthe correstboxes.
Alreadydo it i Triedit already Neverheardof it

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a--

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a-t

a-t

Confidencerating
Checklists
Learnedlists
Learner
diaries
Redesign
and analysea class
Self-reports

Student
tests
Lilntcs

1 Confidence
rating
isto include
Oneverysimpleandquickoptionopento theteacher
coNFTDENcE
MrNcsin anytest.Bysimplyaddinga columnof numbers
nextto anytest,you
will be ableto compare
whatthestudent
thinkshe/shecando with whatthe
studentcanactually
do, e.g.

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Write a suitableform of the verb (oneword only) in eachspace.

Contractionscount asoneword.
Then for eachanswer,tick oneof the numbers0-6.
Tick 6 if you arecompletelysurethe answeris correct.
Tick 4 if you think the answeris probablycorrect.
Tick 2 if you arenot confidentaboutthe answer.
Tick 0 if you haveno ideaor areguessing.
(go)
l) He
to the cinemaeveryday.
6 4 2 A
(like)
2) On Tuesdayhe _
to go to the cinema.
6 4 2 0

r-

Thiswill giveyou veryusefulinformation

for futureAppa,lrtALs.
Peoplewill tend
to fall into the followingcategories:

a-t)

Confident(6/4)

(2/0)
Unconfident

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Self-aware

No self-belief

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Over-confident

Self-aware

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59

ts
procedures
andattitudes
Assessing

A.
of thestudent,
thisisanotherexample
of
Apartfromgivingyoua pRoFrLr
job
is
asteachers to encourage
to
asteaching.Partof our
assessment
students
(or lackof them),andto helpthemworkon
becomemoreawareof theirabilities
nnINGS
helpsthemto develop
coNFTDENcE
Completing
thoseareas,
thisskill.
who arefamiliarwith enNos
and pRortEs
that students
canalso
Note:Remember
giving
it
to
Every
in their
before
to
the
teacher
assess.
mistake
theiressay
assess
theyhaven'tbeenableto findthemselves.
On gettingthe
essayissomething
theycompareit with theirown andteacherandstudent
assessment,
teacher's
or issues
arising.
discuss
anyproblems
TIP
Thisisa simplemodelthatwe canusemoregenerally.
a task.
1 Civethe students
complete
thetask.
2 Thestudents
on the task.
assess
theirown performance
3 Thestudents
performance
on the task.
the students'
4 Theteacherassesses
5 Theymeetandcompareassessments.
if necessary.
5 Theteachercanthenchangethe teachingprogramme
(e.9.via usefulitemsto
canchangetheirlearningprogramme
7 fhe students
planin theirnextneRnntsnl).
in theirlearning
include
2 Checklists
we meana version
of thesyLLABUs
suitable
for students.
Bya 'checklist',
Thissvllneus:
(butnot necessarily)
version
bea simplified
...may possibly
linguistic
terms(e.g.present
simplefor routineactions)
... will usetheteacher's
(e.g.
give
goesto the cinema).
Mondays
he
normally
an example
On
.. . will also
needto givestudents
theseconcrete
examples
thatyouwill probably
Remember
itemsyouwantto teach,or of howyou measure
a sub-skill.
of the language
vocabulary:
we haveto teachthemit.
do not shareour teaching
Students
limitourselves
we do not necessarily
to linguistic
that by syLLABUs,
Remember
items.We couldalsoinclude:
... languagelearningskills:findinga word in a dictionaryin 30 seconds
lessonnotesso thatstudentcanfind item in 30
... learningskills:organising
seconds
items:worksin groupsresponsibly
andwithoutcausingdisruption
... behavioural
per termor fewer.
two homeworks
skills:misses
... schooling

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"Whqshouldstudents To plantheirlearningandto let the studentsknowwhichpartsof the

you thinkarethe mostimportant.
We can'texpectthe studentto
havechecklists?" syLLABUs
everysinglethingwe teachthem.Fromourown experiences,
we
remember
use.Soit is important
knowthat we forgetthingsthat we do not regularly
that,e.g.we thinkthe presentsimpleis more
that we tellthe students
Thisallowsthemto prepare
importantthantypesof transport.
theirown
andtheirrevisiona vitallearning
learning
skill.
theirown performance
To allowthemto assess
andprogress.

l-

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60
tL.

Assessinq
andattitudes
orocedures

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" Hou do wedo checklists?"At the startof the newschoolyear,we cangivethe students
a listof whatthey
: areexpected
to learn.Theteachermaywellneedto go throughthe listwith the
to makesurethat theyunderstand
students
the itemson the list.
the listcouldbe in 11,although
it isobviously
betterto writeit in
r Of course,
- remember
if possible
languagel
it isgoodclassroom-authentic
I English
: Nextto thislistyou couldadda gridof boxesfor self-or negotiated
. assessment.
at the top, e.g.
Clearlystatea setof marksanddefinitions
6 T am verlz

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TIP
lf youask
for thiskindof exercise.
Alwaystry andgiveevennumbers
choose
the
to self-assess
theywill normally
the students
on oddnumbers,
m i d d l eo n e .

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4 Very good
3 Good
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andgo for 3.

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for
Page62 showsan exampleof a checklist
that mightbe appropriate
elementary
students.
programme,
manyof the itemswill be
Notehow,at the startof anyteaching
themasit gives
to include
newto the students,
but it isimportant
completely
then
themsomething
to tickoff astheygo throughthe year.Thechecklist
who
motivates
the students
becomes
a visiblerecordof progress,
and,hopefully,
(enct
70)
for
more
details.
KEEprNc
REcoRD
ability.
sEE
areimpressed
by theirlearning

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67

>.
--\--

procedures
andattitudes
Assessing

b-

checklist
Example
6 | am verysureaboutthisitem.
4 | will get thisitem rightmoreoftenthan I will get it wrong.
2 | will get thisitemwrongmoreoftenthan I will get it right.
0 | haveno ideawhatthisitemis.

F
F
*
*

Confidence
rating:

Verbforms:

simple:
to be +
Present

My nameis Juan.

Present
simple:to be ?

Areyou English?

simple:to be Present

He isn'ta doctor.

Present
simple:routines+

On Tuesdays,
he goesto
the cinema.

?
Present
simple:routines

Do youcomeherea lot?

Present
simple:routines

I don't likegoingtodiscos.

ts

t:
F
F

fields:open
Vocabulary
jobs

doctor,police officer,etc.

tr

food and drink

cheese,
cof-fee,
etc.

shopsand places

cinema,home,supermarket,
elc.

f ields:closed
Vocabulary
adverbsof frequency

How often?,always,often,elc.

pronouns:
subject/object/ l, me,my, her, etc.
poss.
Pronunciation:

tL.

tL.

/e/ vs /n/

catvscut

/t/ vs /i:/

chip vs cheap

/k/ vs /t/ vs /p/

piCKvs hiT vs liP

l-

l-

skills:
Learning
notesto findanswerin 30 seconds
organising
language
on the posterin
learning
andusingthe classroom
the classroom
to group-and classwork
contributing
dictionary
in lessthan30 seconds
findinga wordin a bilingual
doingallthe homework

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procedures
Assessing
andattitudes

. 3 Learnedlists
tell the teacherwhatthe students
Theyalso
thinktheyhavelearned.
; Checklists
thinktheyaregoodor badat. We can
; tell the teacherwhatthe students
. investigate
thisareaof assessment
furtherthroughusinga 'learnedlist'- we
' simplyaskthe students
whatthey(thinkthey)havelearned.
But remember
that the students
will probablyneedprompts,asstudents
and
teachers
oftenhavedifferentwaysof describing
the samething.Youmaywant
: to givestudentsconcrete
items(formsand meanings?)
examples
of the language
. you want to teach,or concrete
you
measure
examples
of how
a sub-skill.
Askingthemto writedownwhattheyhavelearnedcanthenbe usedin different
, ways,e.g.as partof:
(pnce
... a coNTrNuous
AssEssMerur
procedure
59)
(eac;.72)
... the checklist
revision
procedure
... a learner
diary(below)
portfolio
(pncr73).
... a
4 Learner
diaries
Everylesson,
or week,the students
makean entryin a diarydescribing
their
learning
that lesson/week.
Thediarycansimplybe pagesaddedto the backof a file,or it couldbe a
templatedesigned
by the teacher.
Theweekly/monthly
entrymaycover:
(e.g.vocabulary
... listsandexamples
of whatthestudenthascovered
items/structu
res)
(e.g.paragraphing)
... tips,ideasandchecklists
of whatthestudenthascovered
... notes,insights,
cultural
tips,setphrases
. . . c o m m e n tasb o u t h ec l a s s .
Notethatthe diaryshouldideally
feeltheyhave
coverwhatthe students
learned,
ratherthanwhattheteacher
Thisis a
thinkstheyhavedonein class.
difficultskillfor a studentto learn,andit mayrequire
awareness
raising
by the
teacherto makethestudents
writeaboutwhattheythinkandfeel.
lf we agreethat students
we teachthemin class,
by
don'tlearneverything
(extracts
occasionally
reading
from)theirdiaries,
canassess
the mismatch
teachers
betweentheirteaching
learning.
Theextracts
will alsotellus
andtheirstudents'
whattheyhavelearned
whatthe
that hasnot been(overtly)
taught.Bycomparing
studenthaslearnedwith whatwe havetaught,we cangaina lot of useful
pnce32)of the teaching
(seE
programme.
information
for the FoRMATvE
EVALUATToN
Bydefinition,
diaries
personal
Youshouldtherefore
arenormally
andprivate.
set
clearguidelines
youwill haveto thediaries.
abouthow muchaccess
Thediariescouldeitherbe collected
and read,say,twicea term.Readtwo or
threeeachweekend,
to readthirtydiariesl
or youwillhaveoneweekend
you cantell the classthat you will not readthe diariesbut will ask
Alternatively,
the studentsfor extracts
or copiesof pagestheywouldliketo showyou.
Thesepages,or the wholediaryif not private,canconstitute
partof a porbfolio
pnce73).Havea lookat theexample
(sEe
pagefor a learner
of a sample
diaryon
pHorocoprABLE
pACE
5. Usethisasa modelfor usein yourclass/school.
you can
Note:Byaskingstudents
whattheirproblems
werefromprevious
classes,
(seipnce67).
buildup an 'agenda'
or clinics
of thingsto discuss
in futureclasses

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63

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procedures
andattitudes
Assessing

aa lesson(vialearnedlists)
5 Re-design/analyse
andthe effectyou arehaving
One way you canevaluatestudents'progress
process
withthe students.
uponit isto sharethe lesson-planning
Initially,
this
Butif it istruethatlearners
learnthingswe don't
mightseema bit threatening.
teach,anddon'tlearnthingsthatwe do actually
teach,it mightbe
consciously
worthaskingthemwhatthey havelearnedandhow they(thinkthey)have
it.
learned
arenot normally
askedthesequestions,
Onceagain,students
sotheywillfindit
give
you
answer
won't
vocabulary
an
they
knowthe
of teaching,
difficultto
lesson-planna
i nngd,s oo n .
youcan:
in the lastfew minutes
However,
of a lesson,
... askthemwhattheythinktheyhavelearned
the lesson
... askthemto re-design
sothatit wouldbe morehelpfulnexttime
you teachit.
plan,e.g.
version
Handthe students
a (simplified)
of yourlesson

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on board;think of e g?oy+
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chart of tho c,lass'sfavovy'ftoe7or1(e)

t TKTSUW*TION: sfs road tho rrl"s 4 wg!1in yovys

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olioat wordE aboft {oolball

5 TKkCTlCr'. ete in yo.uysrowrilo Taraflh so that i+ gSv< tho rulez

o{ {oo'Fball
b ,XTTNSION: <t< in,yovpcwy'to tho wlc-s4 (anothorof) thotr
favovr:io9port9
in
7 LOAKNINA4W4KUNLSS: st<,in g{oyl vwito vylezof Oy}ich loEcons
Qhool

9+9vwi+o yonalhu if thoso rul<4aro brokon

Youcouldthenaskquestions
similar
to thefollowing.
o Rankthe partsof the lessonin the orderyou enjoyedthem.

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o Whichbitswerethe mostuseful?
o Wheredid you speakmost/least?
c Didyou prefermovingaround,workingin groupsor workingby yourself?
c, Didyouallspeakthe sameamountor didsomespeakmorethanothers?
o lf you hadthe lesson
again,howwouldyouchangeit?Why?
o Wouldyou havelikedthat classif it hadbeendonein yourL1?
o Wouldyou havelearned
anything/more/less
if it hadbeendonein yourL1?
thinkaboutthe language
Thiswill makethe students
learning
andteaching
it
is
an
awareness-raising
process.
process,
Onceagain,
askingthe students
to
thinkaboutwhattheydo in classandhow the process
couldbe mademore
How the students
respond
usefuland/oreffective.
shouldgiveyou a strongidea
a lesson,
abouthowtheyapproach
andhowtheythinktheylearn.

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procedures
andattjtudes
Assessing
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6 Self-reports
whenit comes
As teachers
we oftentakeresponsibility
awayfromthe students
Theycanthen put allthe onusof evaluation
on to us,andso they
to assessment.
ratherthanblamingthe person
canblamethe teacherfor theirlackof progress
- themselves.
Whatwe need,then,is a way of
mostdirectlyresponsible
students
to
encouraging
takeon theirown evaluation.
lf we let themplayteacher,
we cango onestagefurtherandaskthemto write
theirown reports.
Thismaycausethe usualproblems
of:
goodreports?
TrustWilltheyabusethisopportunity
andsimplywritethemselves
... oftentheyareharderon themselves
or othersthanthe teacher.
... results
mustbe negotiated
andagreed.
Reliability:
How canwe moderate
theirreports?
... setup moderation
groupsaswe do for teachers.
... results
mustbe negotiated
andagreedusingthesamecriteria
aswe do.
Threat:Theteacherfeelsnervousaboutgivingthe students
so muchpower.
... remember
the students
areequallyunused
to powerandequallynervous.
... it istimethe studenttook responsibility
for badwork,ratherthanthe teacher.
... everymistake
the studentcan'tor won'tfind,theteacher
hasto. lt saves
time!
Whatmighta studentreportlooklike?As similaraspossible
to the school's
existing
one.

Lookat the reportyourschootcurrentty

uses.
Whatkindof information
is required?
Arethereanypartsthat students
for themse[ves?
Why?
coutdnot complete
Are there any partsthat studentscouldnot be taught to comptetefor
themsetves?
Why?

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7 Student-written
tests
Likestudentreports,manyteachers
mightbeworriedaboutaskingtheirstudents
to writetheirown tests.How usefulwouldthe results
be?Won't theycheat?
Won'ttheyjustaskeasyquestions?
It is easyto understand
why teachers
mightaskthesequestions,
but thisis
because
theyarethinkingof the results
of the test,ratherthanthe evaluation
(andlearning)
opportunities
thisprocess
offers.
lmaginethat GroupA writesten questions
for GroupB. In traditional
testing,
you wouldrecordthe results
purposes,
you would
of CroupB. Forevaluation
lookat the work of GroupA. Students
don't knowverymuchabouttesting
theory.Theywill thereforealltendto writequestions
whichareeithernot
reliable
or not valid,e.g.onequestion
mightbe:

lHe

to the cinema.

Theteachercanthenexplainthat the answercouldbegoes/went/will

go/has
been/willhavegone/wouldliketo go/is addicted,elc.Thestudentsarethen in
wheretheymustdemonstrate
a position
theirunderstanding
of the meaning
of
in orderto limitthe otherstudents'
the structure
Forexample,
if they
answers.
65

D-

Accpssino
nrocedures
and att'itudes

.F
aretryingto testthe presentsimple,they mustshowroutine'.
...
... on Tuesdays
and alsochoosea livingperson(theteacher?)
to makesurethat the other
studentsdon't usethe pastsimple.Thisstillallowsfor variousanswers,
sothey
may needto includethe verb(go),and possibly
limitthe numberof wordsthat
the otherstudentscanwrite in the space(oneword only,contractions
countas
oneword).Thisalsohelpsthem learnand betterunderstand
instructions
in the
targetlanguage(e.g.suitable).Thisgivesus:

,-F

ts
-k

Write a suitableform of the verb in the gap (one word only; conuactions
count as one word).

ts

l) On Tiresdays,Luisa normally _

to the cinema.

(go)

Thisstillleavesseveralpossible
problems:
they couldstillwritewent.Butthen
they andthe othergroupwill haveto argueaboutexactlywhat we wantthem
to discuss:
the possible
meanings
of thisstructure.
Thisis an extremelypowerful
learningdeviceas it:
... forcesthemto thinkaboutmeaningaswellasstructure
... teachesthem usefultest vocabulary(gap,suitableform of verb, etc.)
... teaches
themusefultestconventions,
suchas 'contractions
countasoneword'
... showsthemthe importance
of reading
the testrubric/instructions
... teaches
themto lookfor the answerthe teacher/tester
wants.
Whiletheyarediscussing
the questions,
the teacherhasan opportunityto assess
theirlevelof knowledge,
theircontributions
to the group,andso on.All this
information
is extremelyuseful:in a test,you seewhat the studentthinksthe
answeris,but not why the studentthinksthat is the answer.
Thestudentsmay
conducttheirdiscussion
in L1- thisisvalidasthe resultis in English.
Hereyou
seenot onlythe result,but alsothe process.
Usefulinformation
gatheredfrom listening
to thesegroupsat work shouldbe
- wordfor word, if possible
- and usedasa concreteexamplewhen
recorded
doingneennrsnls.
) seEpnce75
Theteachercanalsocollectthe testsand copythem,andaskthe students
who
wrotethemto put them in theirporffolio.i, seeence73
Variation
Civethe students
the subjectof the test.
Eachstudentcanwriteone questionon a slipof paper,e.g.
)tudent A:

Mr 1rown normally
a) go

66

b) goee

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to the cinemaonTueodaye.
c) qone

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andattitudes
Assessing
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(or writesthem
the questions
theseandthen photocopies
Theteachercollects
themto the class'
on anotherpieceof paper)and distributes
Thestudentsthen answerall the questions.
he/shewrote.
Theypassthe paperto the nextstudent,who marksthe question
Theypassthe papersagain,and marktheirquestionagain'
Theycontinue
to do thisuntileverypaperhasbeenfullymarked(i.e.with 30
students,
they passthe paperon 30 times).
Thefinalstudenttotalsthe marks:powerl

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theydon't
arenot verygoodat writingtestsbecause
We saidabovethat students
we wantto keeptheseskillsto ourselves?l).
knowmuchaboutit (or is it because
theywrote:
One additionalstepafterthe testcouldbe to rankthe questions
... whichwasthe best?Why?
Why?
... whichwasthe mostdifficult?
Why?
... whichwasthe mostconfusing?
How?Why?
for anotherclass?
... wouldyou changeanyof the questions
learning
and language
theirthoughtprocesses
Apartfrom helpingyou to assess
what
understanding
like
skills
learning
useful
develop
will
help
them
to
skills,
this
wants.
the examiner
you cansavetimenextyearby usingthesein
Keepcopiesof the bestquestions:
anytestsyou haveto write!
BANDS,
markeachother'swrittenworkviaPRoFILES,
can,of course,
Note:Students
pnce
vocabulary.
grammar
(set
and/or
well
testing
49) as
as
etc.
8 Clinics
A
to the students.
Theideaof a clinicis to handovera smallpartof the svLLABUs
is
month)
of
each
last
class
(e.g.
of
the
minutes
last
2O
the
sectionof a lesson
aswe saidabove
that the studentsraise.Remember,
to questions
dedicated
pncr
is
5B),whentheyaskthequestion
rrrecr(srE
the SALIEN6Y
whendiscussing
the timeto teachit.
to eachotherandthe svrl,qsus.
will be totallyunrelated
Most of thesequestions
aboutthe svLlnaus.
to questions
Theycanrangefrom grammarto information
too.
be quitecomplicated,
Theycansometimes
language
aboutlanguage,
Askif they haveany questionsand/orcomments
likethe
board
on
the
these
write
programme
and
or the teaching
learning,
andgo
most
interesting
jointly
decidewhicharethe
Then
agendafor a meeting.
asnecessary.
or askingfor explanations
throughthem,explaining
youshouldsaytheyaretoo
you cannotanswerimmediately,
lf therearequestions
the
agendafor thenextclinic
on
write
them
and
for
instant
answer,
complicated an
fromthe lastone.
questions
to outstanding
Stadeachclinicwith answers
session.
Thepowerof clinics:a story
typical
askedme how to useiust.Beinga boringly
In oneclinic,my students
startedmy stocklessonon iust andthe presentperfect,as
teacher,I immediately
whentheysaidNo.no. Theother
in l've justseenhim. I hadjustfinished,
of iust'.1 had no idea no one hadeveraskedme thisbefore.I put it
meanings
on the agendafor the nextclinic:I neededa weekor two to work out how to
explainor ignorethe other14 uses!
67

=-----

f|t-

procedures
andattitudes
Assessing

Aclinicsarealwaysinteresting
asstudents
asksomeunusualand insightful
questions.
Of course,eachindividual
is interested
in differentthings,so cliniccannot
be
included
teaching
in a formaltest.However,
we canmakenotesabout
goodideasand/orinteresting
explanations
and usetheseaspartof anyone
individual's
assessment.

A-

Summary
we lookedat why we shouldinvolveourstudents
In thischapter,
in assessment.
1: Do you feelyouhaveimproved?
Reason
How canwe find out if how they see
matcheshow we seetheirprogress?
theirprogress
2: lt'syourjob to teach... Traditionaltesting
Reason
putsno responsibility
on the
assessment
is
something
student
thatteachers
do to them,ratherthan
teachers
something
do with them.
Reason
3: Not all learningfollowsthe teacher's
plan.Students
both have
problems
andalsodo learningthat we haven'tanticipated.
We havealsolookedat involvingthe studentin the procedures
of evaluation
by using:
ratings
1 Confidence
2 Checklists
lists
3 Learned
4 Learner
diaries
5 Redesign
and analyse
a class
6 Self-reports
7 Studenttests
8 Clinics
All of thesetechniques
attemptto lookat studentdatain a non-traditional
way:
theyareconcerned
with developing
the students'
awareness
of theirown abilities
andhowtheylearnbest.Theyallinvolvedelegating
powerand responsibility
to
The
the student. teachercannotevaluate
the student's
learning
attitudes
and
procedures
withoutreleasing
somepower.Thisis because
we canonlyevaluate
theseattitudes
andprocedures
by askingand involvingthe student.
- for bothteacherand student- and we needto
Thismayall be new behaviour
for the occasional
be prepared
disasterl
However,
noneof theseideasaretotally
newto anyteacher- we alldo themalreadyto someextent,e.g.
c '1Confidence
ratings

fn class,
we alreadysayto studentsAreyou sure?
e 2 Checklists
We alreadyrecycle
syLLABUs
itemsin laterlessons
to remindstudents
of what
they'velearned.
c 3 Learned
lists

*
*

F
F
,}F
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-tF
F
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lk

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F

by sayingWhatdid we do last lesson?

We alreadystartclasses
_!-

T A

Lookdownthe tist aboveagain,andtry andthink of thingsyou atready

do
that involvethe sameskitlsandconcepts.
Nowlookat eachtechniqueand
try to think of waysyou canbuitdon yourexistingpractice- whatthe
studentsarealreadyfumil.iarwith. Howcanyou detegatemoreresponsibitity
to the student?

_!-F
-l_\-

68

-F

Lz

t_
4

L
L

PARTD Assessing
overtime

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1,1,
cHAPTER

Continuous
assessment

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L15

la

"Whatis continuous It is no differentfromanyotherformof assessment

- it simplyrefers
to how
youtestor evaluate
assessnent?"frequently
are
Theresults
of these'samples'
the students.
collected
overa periodof timeandthe studentisassessed
on notjustone
performance,
but manypedormances.
Thisraises
thefollowingissues.
c How oftenshouldwe samplethe students?
e Which'performances'
shouldwe sample?
c How do we put allthe differentresults
togetherintoa singleassessment?

a-a
a-o

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6

t-_
t-!D

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l-o

TIA .g K

Answer
the threequestions
abovefor yourschoofscurrentsystem.
Answerthe three questions
and
for your experience
as a) a schoolchitd;
b) a university
student.
Hastherebeenanychange?

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"Howoftenshould
we As teachers,
we alreadyassess
the students
on everysinglethingtheydo or say:
picture
of thatstudentin ourminds;
somplethe
students?" we areconstantly
building
up a
or a pRoFrLE

we could'place'themwithoutgivingthema formaltest.Thesimple
difference
with a formalsystemof corurrruuous
isthat we keepformalwritten
ASsEssMENT
records
of the students'
abilityto perform.
How oftenwe makenotesabouttheirperformance
will largelydependon the
of 40
sizeof the class.lt is moredifficultto form a mentalpictureof sixclasses
thanto makeextensive
notesabouta singleclassof fifteenstudents.
students
in the amount
A formalsystemof coNrrruuous
AssESsMENT
maymakea difference
lotsof small
will
be
better
to
do
we test.lf we areassessing
over,say,ayear,it
test.
ratherthanlotsof assessments
assessments
the sizeof a formalend-of-year

"Which'performances'
to be a
Throughout
thisbookwe havelistedthe differentskillsrequired
language
learneranduser.Whichskillsyou needto formallyassess
should
wesonple?" successful
will onlypartlybe yourchoice:the state,yourschool,andyourHeadof
information,
aswillthe student's
Department
will requirecertainassessment
you
parents.
aniveat a personal
Youmaywellwantto addothercriteriato help
in groupwork,or usingthe
decision
concerning
eachstudent,
suchasparticipation
targetlanguage
whenthe teacherisn'tlooking.Suchitemsmaynot beformally
required,but mayreflecta studentattitudethat leadsto betterperformance.

f.4

a-assessment
Continuous

A-

"Howdoue putatlthe Onceagain,thestate,yourschool,andyour Headof Department

you
mayrequire
assessment
information
in
way.
However,
results
to
compile
a
standardised
different
likeallformsof
intoa assessment,
thefinalbalancebetweena strongperformance
in oneareaanda
together
judgement.
in anotherwill largelydependon the teacher's
singleassessment?"weakperformance
givepriorityto:
In general,
use(talkingandwritingskills)ratherthanlanguage
... language
components
(testson individual
structural
items,vocabulary,
etc.)
of directtesting(e.g.writingletters)ratherthan indirecttesting(e.g.
... results
editingtexts)
thatareseenasvaluable
finalassessment
process
... elements
in the student's
(i.e.the weightingwill probablydependuponBAcKWAss
from the state's
process)
assessment
learning
... thestudent's
strategies,
make
e.g.the abilityto useresources,
him/herself
understood,
makeanalogies,
etc.
Howeveryou collatethe information,
the mostimportantthingis to keep
that allowyou to makethe finaldecision.
Thisbringsuson to
the records
record-keeping.

Record-keeping

Thesebenefitsaremost
Everyteacherbenefitsfrom good record-keeping.
obviouswhenthe studentmovesto anotherteacher,eitherin a yearor when
movingfromyearto year.
Thisis alsowherethe enormousdifference
betweenNoRM-REFERErucro
and
testingappears.
cRrrERrA-REFERENcED
NoRM-REFERrruceo
resultsmay be usefulto
andeventhe state,who aredealingwith vastnumbers
employers
of peopleand
needa kindof selective
shorthand.
Butknowingwhethera studentis in thetop
or bottomquarterof the classdoesnot helpthe teacherto helpthe student.
Letus lookat how we treatthesevariousformsof assessment
overtime.This
- our teaching
sectionwill lookat assessing
the studentvis-a-visthe sylLeeus
targets.We cando thisthrough:
... testsovertime
andchecktests
... mini-tests
overtime.
for the samepurpose.+, seecxnpreR
We canalsousechecklists
12

1 Testsovertime

We haveseenin the firstpartof thisbook how difficultit isto writea validand

reliable
formaltest.However,
testsarestillprobablythe mostcommonform of
Evenif they areneithervalidnor reliable,
assessment.
they stillhavegreatrecr
vAlrDrry.
sre
nncr
20
Many
schools,
teachers,
students
and parentsactuallylike
f)
tests.Why isthis?

+P
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E
L.

+.t-}A:

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F
F
F
F
F
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F
AF
F

TA

Imaginethat at the momentyourschoolassesses

its students
ontyon an endof-yeartest whichcomprises:
... a gap-filltest of vocabulary
grammar
test
... muttipte-choice
questions
for both tisteningand reading
... ten mul.tipLe-choice
comprehension
... a writingtest of a personalletter describingyoursetfto a penfriend,
you changeyourtest?Howwouldyou changeit? Lookat the roteson
Woul.d
71 and, for each role, decidea) whetheryou would changeit and
IAGE
b) howyouwouldchange
it.

j-

!-

+
!]l_\-

73

l)1

L
L--

assessment
Continuous

r
r
rr
rL:
r

Rotesfor task
Ministerof Education
A cleverstudentwhois goodat atl subjectsbut is hopeless
at languages
and
mayhaveto repeatthe yearbecause
of his poormarksin language
tests
A teacherwhois goingto retirenextyear
A schoolHeadwhohasjust beenpromoted
andwantsto 'shakeup'the school
parentof the targetlanguage
A native-speaker
whosechitdgot only 60%in
the [asttest.

r--

It seemsdifficultto imaginethat we canavoidgivingtests,eventhoughwe

knowthat thereareseverelimitations
theirresults
maybe.The
on how accurate
important
thing,then,isto:
... makethe testasgoodas possible
process
... try to makethetestashelpfultothe teaching
aspossible
... usethe results
in an intelligent
way.

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2 Mini-testsand
checktests
overtime

a-.'

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a-'.

)-.O

Why isthis?
Many schools
stillusea largeend-of-year
testasa 'finaldecider'.
Perhaps
it is because
teachers
liketo havetheiropinionsconfirmedby some
otherobjectivedecision-making
tool.
Butthismightbe unfairbecause
a finaltestdoesnot helpthe studentlearn.lt is
bettertogivetestsearlyand often.Thisgivesstudents
the information
they
need:how hardthey haveto work andwhichareastheyhaveto work on. lt also
givesthemchance
to improve.
Soinsteadof givingone largeend-of-year
test,it is betterto divideit intoa
numberof smallermini-tests.
the
Forexample,insteadof settingthe students
given
100questions
taskof answering
in an hour,we cansetthem20 questions
in the lastten minutes
theterm.
overfiveclasses
throughout

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"Whu shouldwedo this?"

e lt giveseachstudentthe chance
andbuildup theirskills.
to seetheirprogress
e lt encourages
the studentto reviewhis/herworkfromtimeto time.Thefirst
inclusion
in a testwill
thingswe forgetarethingswe don'tuse- occasional
keepthemsimmering
in the student's
head.
c Giveeachtesta differentfocus,so that you canbuildup a kindof
listof the student's
componential
abilities.
c lt givesweakerstudentssomething
to aimfor and givesthemlotsof fresh
pncE
starts.) sEe
24
c lt helpsstudents
goals.
morerealistic
setthemselves
c lt creates
moredialoguebetweenteacherandstudentaboutwhatthey
aredoing.
- we could
Youcanbasethe mini-testitemson itemsin the student's
checklist
part
of the
callthisa checktest.
Youshouldkeepa recordof thesetestsas
process.
coNTrNuous
AssEssMENr
Results
shouldalsobe givento the studentto
keepin theirporffolio.) seepncE73

5ummary
of
Thischapter
hasdealtwithcorurrNuous
AssEssMerr
andlookedat frequency
whatwe should
alltheresults.
testing,
testandhowto record
7t

|E'-

a-

Formative
evaluation

E
P
P

performance
Sofar,we havelookedat waysof recording
the student's
to use
through:
itemson the svLlaaus,
... testsovertime
andchecktests
... mini-tests
overtime.
thatwe arealsointerested
Butremember
in the student's
attitudes
to language
We haveseenin thisbookhow we canaskstudents
and learning.
realquestions:
aboutwhathasworkedfor them,andabouthow muchtheyfeelthey have
learned.
In otherwords,we haveattemptedto involvethe studentin the
procedure.
andassessment
teaching

1 Profilesovertime

E
*
P

aA-

cannotonlybe doneonceor twiceayear.lfit isto benefit

Thisinvolvement
programme,
andtheteaching
we mustbuildthisco-operation
the student
and
intothefoundations
responsibility
of the assessment
procedure
continuously
EVALUAToN:
overtheyear.Thisiswhat is meantby ronmnrrvE
continuous
mutualfeedback.
mustalsobe recorded.
Thiskindof information
Apaftfrom learnerdiaries,
pRoFrLEs
we canalsouse
andchecklists
in a continuous
way,aswellasstudent
porffolios.

(sreencr49) isthat theycanbuildup a picture

of pRoFrLEs
Oneof the advantages
overa term,the student's
overtime.Forexample,
writingprofile(based
on 0-5)
mightbeasfollows:

!-

Task:

Relevance

Adequacy

Crammar

Vocabulary
Punctuation
'Profile'

IAL-

.}]:-

't

10

11

1t

1t

11

P
P
L1

Thistellsboththeteacherandthe studentthat - in general- he/sheis learning

- mostlynon-linguistic
how to organise
essays
better(relevance
andadequacy
Themarksfor vocabulary
andgrammarvarymore,but how much
skills).
progress
expectovera term?Remember
canwe realistically
that a nativespeaker
wouldget'5',so '3' isverygood.
of our observation
We couldrecordthe results
of theirwritingandtalkingskills
pRcE
on PHorocoptnele 5.

overtime
2 Checklists

72

(srrpncr50),the students
checklists
As we sawwhendiscussing
areaskedto
in differentareasof the syllabus.
theirconfidence
assess
you shouldalsoincludedifferenttimesfor assessment.
on the checklist,
By
makingthe students
lookat theirchecklists
again,we keepthemthinkingabout

L-

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>2

t4

Formative
evaluation
-

l_
---a

the contentof the course.Butchecklists

self-assessment,
not onlyencourage
theyalsobuildconfidence
andguidestudents.
Thefirsttimewe askfor self-assessment,
will probablywrite'0'.
the students
'2's
'0's.
Thesecondtime,therewill be a mixtureof
At the endof theyear,
and
thereshouldbe mainly'4'sand '6's.Thisletsthe studentsseesomeelementof
progress
overthe year,whichhopefullymotivates
themmore.
On the otherhand,checklists
canalsohelpwith problems
of over-confidence,
or
whenstudents
realise
that in facttheydon't understand
something
aswellas
theythoughttheydid.Forexample,
will andgoingto appearon the checklist.
one ortwo students
haveatheorythatgoingto is usedforthe'nearfuture'and
willis usedfor the 'farfuture'so theymarkthe itemsas '6' because
theythink
theyarecompletely
confident.
Theythenlearnin classthat theirexplanation
is
wrong,so laterin the yeartheychangetheir,6' to a'4,.
Example
checklist
overtime(basedon page52).

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6
4
2
0

I
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I

s4

I
I
I
I

am very sure about this item.

will get this item right more ofren than I will get it wrong.
will get this item wrong more ofren than I will get it right.
haveno idea what this item is.

r--

Confidence rating:
Time:l2
3 4 5

Verb forms:

Presentsimple: to be +

My nameisJuan

Presentsimple: to be ?

Are you English?

Presentsimple: to be-

He isn'ta doctm.

Pres.simp. routines f

On Titesdays,
he
goesto the cinema.

Pres.simp. routines ?

Do you comeherea lot?

Pres.simp. routines -

I don'tlike goingto discos.

--_
^

-;-

3 Studentportfolios
,4

-i,
4

-4,

-'

-,
4

J-

-)
--_,-.

Artistskeepalltheirbestpieces
of work in a portfolioso that theycanshow
otherpeoplethe rangeof whattheycando.
Portfolios
canalsobe usedby students
to keeppiecesof workwhichtheythink
bestrepresents
them.of course,mostof thiswill be writtenwork(homework,
essays,
testscores,
projectwork,etc.),althoughvideo-andaudio-cassettes
could
alsobe included.
In thisway,the porffolioconceptis morepowerfulthana simpletestresult,
because
it showsnot onlywhatthe studenthasdone,but alsogivestheteacher
insight
an
intothe student's
mind:he/sheis proudof thispieceof work,but not
thatone.In thisway,the teachercanseewhatthe student's
setsof valuesare:
wherethe studentthinkshe/shehasmadeprogress,
andwhat helsheseesthe
strengths
andweaknesses
asbeing.lt is,in away,a variantof testcoNFTDENcE
nnING.) serence59
Portfolios
arealsoan excellent
linkbetweenthe schoolandthe parent,allowing
parents
to seesamples
of the children's
bestwork,whilealsobeinga showcase
for the school's
teaching.
parent
The
canalsobecomeinvolvedin helpingthe
childdecide
whatgoesin - thusbecoming
paftnerin theschool's
a negotiating
process.
assessment
73

;<

-V
-.\-v

evatuation
Formative

.!:
---1.

Guideto settingup a portfolio

that a portfoliois builtslowly:you don'twantto haveto go back
It is important
to the students
that
of workhuntingout the goodstuff.Explain
throughold pieces
whentheythinktheyhavedonea goodpieceof work,theyshouldput it in the
portfolio.Youshouldalsoexplainthat they maywant to reviewthe contentsfrom
more
timeto time.Afterall,whatthe studenttakesout of the porffoliois possibly
that items
thanwhat he/sheputsin. We canassume
important
to theteacher
that pointor moved
meansthatthe studentfeelshe/shehascovered
removed
is
learning
the
snurNcy
EFFEcT
over.i' srr pnce58
language
pastthatstageof

E
P
.-2.

-.'1

)z

P
-*

Privacy
you shouldagreehow privatethe porffolioshouldbe.
As with learnerdiaries,
you
with the student,you maywant to ask
to
formal
evaluations
When
come
the studentto selectitemsfrom the portfolio,ratherthan showyou the whole
the learnerto
is,in itself,a vitalstageas it requires
thing.Thisselection
and self-awareness.
someform of self-assessment
demonstrate
possiblecontents
Portfolios:
results
... test/mini-test
lessons
donein English
fromlanguage
or othersubjects
... markedhomework
(may
group)
part
have
been
written
as
of
a
project
work
...
... audio-cassettes
... video-cassettes
lyrics,
etc.the studenthasfound/readlunderstood
articles/texts/song
... interesting
... compositions
from a learnerdiary
... pages/extracts
lists
. .. checklists/learned
peers,or self,e.g.BANDtNcs/pnortlrs
by teachers,
reports/evaluations
... previous
lesson
analyses
... lesson-redesigns;
previousschoolyears,previous
nERFoRMANcE
REVIEWS,
of previous
... results
etc.
schools,
Summary
nssrssnnrrur,
thisis
In thischapterwe havelookedat waysto useFoRMATtvE
We
investigated
use
of:
mutualfeedback.
the
continuous
e profiles
overtime
e checklists
overtime
e studentprofiles.

!-

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.}-

a-EE>I:>.b>1

*
>:<

*
lr_

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TA

s, K

Thinkof a studentwhoyou havetaughtfor a longtime andwhomyou know

verywett.Thinkof the workthe itudent hasdonerecenttyand decidewhich
itemsyou woutdinctudein the porlfolioif you werethat student.
Whatwoul.dtherebe mostof in the portfotio?Why?
Why?
Whatwouldbe missing?
your
introducethe ideaof portfol.ios
to your students.Compare
If possible,
puts
portfoLio.
in the
ideaswith whatthe student

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74
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CHAPTER
13

Appraisa[s
Summativeassessment:
and performance
reviews

ttttL-,1

!--

Appraisats

t-

rl

a person's
to evaluate
Moreand moreorganisations
areusingAppRntsALS
performance,
whetherthe personisa teacher,
a policeofficeror a factoryworker.
with a superior,
Thenppnnrsnl
is normallyan interviewor a seriesof interviews
past,presentandfuture- theirwork,theirproblems,
andcoversthe employee's
a document
Theresultis normally
theirattitudes,
andtheirplansandambitions.
- oftencalleda eERFoRMANCE
REVTEW
containingbotha reviewof the pastanda
planfor the future.Thisis a negotiated
document- it is agreedandsignedby
bothsides.
Whichof the plans
Thisdocument
isthenusedasa basisfor the nextinterview:
werefulfilled?Whichplansweren't?Why?Why not?Thetwo sidesagreehow
to updatethe reviewandthe plans,and then signthe documentagain.
is likea photograph
of a personat one
REVTEW
Sowe canseethat a eERFoRMANCE
- or appraisee
- has
particular
time.lf we wantto seehow the employee
developed,
we canlookat the seriesof reviews.
REVTEW
with the
Letus imaginethat a teacheris aboutto havea eERFoRMANcE
A
headteacher:what evidence
wouldthey liketo haveto showthe appraiser?
reportsof, say,justtwo of
teacherdoesn'twantto bejudgedon the observation
in the
Teachers
wantthe schoolto thinkabouttheircontribution
theirlessons.
of
theirlevelof knowledge
staffroom,theirwork on variousschoolprojects,
theirsubject,
andso on.

t-

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4

l,__--

TA

Coverthe tist betow.

interviewwith the Headof your
Imaginethat todayis the dayof yourAppRAIsAL
you
schoot.He/Shehasaskedyou to bringany informationor documents
year.
you
What
woutd
have
done
over
the
or
work
think are useful, showthe
youtake?Compare
yourideaswith the list betow.

l-.-

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--t-

Observationreports
} Materials
written
e Bestlesson
plans
I

-tt

in that year
thingsyou haveachieved
Listof interesting/successful
e Listof meetin
gslseminars/conferen
ing coursesattended
ces/ti'ain
e Results
of yourstudents'work
0 Examples
of yourstudents'work
e

-t

-il

1-

---r-

75

_-\--

reviews
andperformance
Appraisals
assessment:
Summative

F-

b0
O

listof booksyou havereadoverthe academic

Reading
year
aboutyourwork
Quotesfromcolleagues

fromsuperiors
Notes/letters
or parents/students
praising
yourworkduringthe
vear
e ldeasfor nextyear'swork
el (Anticipated)
Criticisms
of the pastyear'swork andexplanations
for teachers,
lf nppRnrsRr-s
aresuitable
they areequallysuitable
for students.
And
- is it representative
we shouldassess
students
usingthe samerangeof evidence
to judgea studenton the resultof two tests?

?
-t-

E-

>..|
tF
lk

reviews:Why,who,when,
Performance
andwhat?

f!-

b.b-

Why do performance
reviews?

- theyare
A traditional
testingsystemputsno responsibility
on the students
'good'
'bad'.
to theteacher
tellingthemif they are
accustomed
or
Many
testshopingthat,thistime,theywill be 'lucky'.Formany
students
approach
then,explaining
theirprogress,
providing
students,
evidence
andhavingto
theteacher
of theirskills,
convince
evenplanning
the areastheywantor needto
workon - thesewillallbe newconcepts.
willmakethemthinkaboutwhattheyhavedone,
However,
theseconcepts
and,perhaps,
whattheyhavelearned
how theyapproached
the learning
task.lt
produces
an agreedplanfor futureaction againmakingthe
also,of course,
in the process.
studentawareof his/herresponsibility
prnponirnANcE
that
Fromthisit is obvious
REVIEWs
arenot iustan assessment
process,
process.
but alsoan educative

E.
.F
!L-

L-

F
L-

teachers
did reviews
of performance.
Butaswe haveseenin this
Who doesperformance Traditionally,
book,oneof the purposes
of thiskindof evaluation
isthat it encourages
reviewS?
to be awareof theirown progress:
students
theirattitudesandthe way they
learn.As students
becomeincreasingly
skilledandconfidentin assessing
performance,
we canaskthemto assess
themselves
or eachother.Forexample,
caneasilyreadandanNlo/pRonLe
students
eachother'sessays.
) srr nnce49
however,
Remember,
thatwhenthey begin,they mayneedmoderation
to make
giving
the samegrade.Surprisingly,
suretheyareall
studentsnormallyunderForthisreason,it is oftenbetterto let students
estimate
theirabilities.
startby
non-linguistic
criteria(e.g.organisation,
assessing
handwriting,
interest,
etc.),
wheretheiropinioncarries
the sameweightasthe teacher's.
of course,
students
couldbe assessed
Eventually,
on theirabilityto assess
their
As we haveseen,someexamsalreadytestwhattheycall
own workaccurately.
editingskills- findinggrammatical
mistakes
or missing/redundant
vocabulary
in
varioustextswrittenby otherstudents.
Thereis no reasonwhy thiscouldn'tbe
'adequacy
to assessing
extended
of content','completion
of task'andother
skills.
semi-linguistic

F
L-

lb

76

reviews
andperformance
Appraisats
assessment:
Summative

_-t

-nt-

Example
(viaanNos)
theirown talkingand
At the endof term,I askeda classto assess
the bandtheyhadchosenwith me.
writingskills.Theythencameanddiscussed
One student,though,had
Mosthadunderestimated
by one BAND.
themselves
aboutit, but still
We
talked
givenhimselfa veryhighbandfor speaking.
disagreed.
I askedhimto go andtalkto anotherstudent,and get a second
that he
opinionfrom him.He askedme WhatshallI talk about?| suggested
explained
the problemto the student,andthenhe shouldaskthe studentto
bandhim.Fiveminuteslater,the secondstudentcameup to me,sadlyshaking
hishead.He agreedwith me.Thefirststudentlookedunhappy,but whatcould
he say?He hadbeenjudgedby hispeers.
is learning
to changethe way we see
Thebiggestproblemfor usasteachers
are.lt
whattheir'results'
Teachers
areaccustomed
to tellingstudents
assessment.
negotiate
have
to
professionally
to
threatening suddenly
willfeeldifficult and
at 'Teacher'
with an individual
student.
And students
too maywellbe surprised
asa padner-in-learning
consulting
or counselling
themabouttheirper{ormance
maypreferto avoidresponsibility.
Students
ratherthanfigureof authority.
institution
studentand educational
we will all- teacher,
Thisis a new process:
learn
from
but we will
haveto go veryslowly.We mayexpectto makemistakes,
theseandlearnnewskills.

--t
-1
-4
-5
-=

-=

or suMMAlvE EVALUAIoN
REVTEWS
may be part of either the FoRMATTvE
Whento do performance eERFoRMANCE
pnce
(srE
process
betweenthesewill be whatto do with
32).Themaindifference
reviews

However,
the result.Thereviewnormallylooksat continuingperformance.
elementby finishingthe reviewwith the
teachers
canadda summative
negotiation
of a finalgrade.

I
I

What to coverin a
performance
review

l-,J
I

:
II

evidence
Appraisal
process:
at the endyou want an agreed
interviewis a negotiated
An nppRRrsRt
you
However, andthe studentmayhaveverydifferentideasabout
document.
Areasthat youthinkareimportantmay not seem
his/herperformance.
importantto him/her,andviceversa.
examples
Soit is importantthat boththe teacherandthe studenttakeconcrete
the
interview.
of whattheywantto talkaboutto

l,_--I
I

--

T A .'9 K

Coverthe section
areavaitable
for you to useas evidence?
Whatdocuments
your
below.
with
the
list
betowandmakea [ist.Thencompare [ist

-Vl

,--/

areavailable
someor all of the followingdocuments
Possibly
Results:
'formaltests'or minitests
thatyou havemade,suchas
... of variousassessments
and
markedusinganruos
or writtenor oralclasswork
... from bitsof homework,
PROFILES

4l

- especially
plansthat the
previous
REVTEWS
eERFoRMANCE
... of the student's
studentmadein the past.(Note:you mayhaveto get thisfrom another
the teacherwho taughtthemlastyear.)
teacher- possibly

-=--:
4z

4-t

77

reviews
Appraisals
andperformance
assessment:
Summative
.--J-

-\

Copiesof:
pRoFttEs
you use.
andchecklists
suchasBANDs,
... 'official'documents,
your pointsbetter.
work itselfto illustrate
... the student's
Notes:
... thatyou madeaboutthe studentthat aroseduringclinics
lessons
wereanalysing
or redesigning
... fromwhenstudents
... aboutthestudentin general.
evidence:
Thelearner's
Sowhat wouldwe likethe
fromthe learner.
We will alsoneedvariousrecords
interview?
studentto bringto an RppRRtsnl

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tr

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woutdwe [ikethe studentsto bring- apartfromtest

Whatjnformation
Writea list of
the studenfsperformance?
resutts- that woutdhetpus assess
of informationavai[abte.
usefuIsources
yourlist with the fist we gavewhentalkingaboutstudentportfotios
Compare
yourtist with the list you gavewhentatkingabout
73. Nowcompare
on eAGE
on pner77.
the teache/sevidence

!-

b-

L.

L-

F-

An example
in an appraisal:
Stages

L-

L-

"Whenshould
Youwill almostcertainlyneed
I Thiswill dependon the purposeof the AppnnrsAL.
year:a suMMATrvE
EVALUATToN
of the year's
do the appraisol?" to do oneat the endof eachacademic
with largeclasses
it is obviously
impossible
to haveten or 15
work.However,
in eachyear.
minuteswith eachstudentin the lastcoupleof lessons
'rolling
in otherwords,
it is bestto havea systemof
appraisals',
Forthisreason,

L.

D:-

you do oneor two studentswhilethe restof the classdoesother

in somelessons
work.lf you followthissystemallthroughthe year,you canusethe lasttwo or
to havea quickwordwith the studentswho havethe oldest
threeclasses
REVTEW.
Askthemif theywant to add anythingto theirrecordsor
eERFoRMANCE
you want to include.
tellthemof anynewinformation

L--

Example
In the examplebelow,a teacherhasa classof 30 students(St1- SLIO).Each
of one houreach.Therearetwo termsof 15
week,theyhavethreelessons
weekseach.
At the startof the thirdweek,the teacherstartsa systemof interviewingtwo
perclasswhilethe restof the classdo projectwork.Theymainlytalk
students
aboutwhattheyhavedonebeforethiscourse,how goodthe studentthinks
what his/herinterests
are,and other'gettingto knowyou'
he/sheis at (English),
- aslearnerandperson- areas.Afterthey haveall beeninterviewed,
the teacher
pncr67) wherecommonproblems
aredealtwith,
and questions
hasa clinic(see
on duringthe yearis given.
anda summaryof whattheywill concentrate

Lr

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\78
>.

>:
,-))

Summative
reviews
assessment:
andperformance
Appraisats

L_t-4)

FromWeek10,the teacherhasa secondroundof shorterinterviews

with each
student,amendingplansnow that the informationfrom the wholeclassis
At the endof term,the teacherhasa shortquestion-and-answer
available.
followedby a mini-achievement
session,
test.
ln Week8 of the secondterm,the teachergivesthe classthe yearlyAqHIEVEMENT
rEsr.Aftermarkingthe test,the teacherhasanotherroundof interviews
with the
students
to givethemfeedback
and lookat individualproblemareas.The
teacherre-teaches
the mostcommonproblems
and givesa mini-teston theseat
the endof term.Thestudents
who aremuchstrongeror weakerthanthe restof
the classarethen interviewed.

7
i

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4

Term 1

4
l_----.

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Term 2

Lesson2

Lesson1

Lesson 2

Week
I
2
3

St3/4

St5/6

St9/10

Stl l/12

StI5/16

St17/18

St2U22

St23l24

St27l28

St29/30

Clinic I

Clinic 2

YearlyAchievement Test
Stl/St2

St3/4

S15/6

St7/8

St9/10

Stl l/12

Stl3/14

St15/16

Stl7l8

Stl9/20

St2Il22

St2ll22

St23l24

St25126

St27l28

l4

St27l28

St29/30

Mini-test

l5

Test

l0

St3/4

ll

St9/10

L2

Stl5/16

l3

Mini-appraisalswith'difficult cases'

t4

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4:

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a.
L-/D.

7
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=
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7)
I

ldeally,it is bestto givethe 'bigtest'earlyso that studentshavea chanceto

lookat theirperformance
and modifyit. Youcanthen identifythe most
problems
common
the studentshaveand re-teachthem.Youcantheninclude
thesein a mini-test
at the endof termto checklearning.
ls this'cheating'?
ldon'tthinkso.Ourjob is surelyto helpthe students
to learn,ratherthan
to
try andtrip themup throughtrickytestsl
It is importantto havean earlyinterviewwith eachstudentto setgoalsand
establish
possible
problems
earlyin the year.Thisis fairerasit givesthe
studentplentyof warningasto wheretheirstrengths
and,moreimportantly
in thiscase,theirweaknesses
are.Thesecanbe put in theirlearningplan.
Youcandevotethe lastfew lessons
with 'problem'students,
to interviews
i.e.
thosewho aremuchweaker,muchstronger,
or thosewith behavioural
or
otherproblems
that needto be established
in theirfinalnppRersnl.
'big
By puttingthe
test'beforethe finalAppMtsALs,
thissendsa clearmessage
to the studentthat theirperformance
in the testonly represents
a partof their
totalassessment.
Thisis a goodexampleof methodological
beneficial
pnce28). lf you havefinalnppnnrsns
(sEE
BAcKWASH
beforethe 'big test'
students
will assume
that the testis moreimoortantthanthe interview.
79

Ul,<

---

ncereviews
Appraisats
andperforma
assessment:
Summative

-1.

r-2.

gathered
to usethe information
It is important
in the interviews
in a kinda
you
where
points
clinic
tell
the
class
major
summarising
the
whichhavecome
up. lf youdon'tdo this,theymayseethe interviews
ashavingno pointandthe
maybe lost.Formoreinformationon clinicssrr pnoe
BAcKWAsH
beneficial
67.

-1
.z
_--2

-P
-2

T A .g K

of inteMewsgivenon page79.
Lookat the schedute
Thinkaboutthe structureof yourschootyearandthe sizeof a typicalctass
you haveto teach.Wouldthe schedute
lookverydifferentin yourcase?
Writea planfor nextyear.

-1

v
J

_v
-1

_!-

"Whot happens
inthe As the majorityof the interviews
will haveto be quiteshort,it is veryimportant
prepared.
fully
interuiew?"
sides
are
Teachers
with
that
both
shouldprovidethe students
approisal
the following.
meeting
... the datesof the appraisal
... a briefagenda
previous
plan
... a copyof thestudent's
plan
... a blankoutlinefor the next
fromthe (term's)
workthat arerelevant
... anyscores
records
... attendance
usedto measure
of anycriteria
the student's
work.
... copies
to signtheseandsuggesttheirown
It maybe usefulto askthe students
complex,
butdoesn'tneedto be,e.g.
agendaitems.Thissounds

f
-1

_!-1

_!-!_:.a

_,1.

F
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-t-

ExampleAgenda

_1

-t-

To:Mipol
Apprai3alInterview date:Ith IW1

L-

I would like to talk about:

Youwould like to talk about:

I lovr handvwihng
2 4ovr'pogtc,ard'Yomowork
3 \ovr i,tini-+q+ roevlt on fre<. sinTlo

I
2
3

Your last plan saidyou would look at:

Ideasfor your next plan:

I qovr handvwrhng
2 iovr proson+siffiplo qvoghon
{oymg

I
2

of gpanich
3 +elk|;bonglish'in
t
Jne<inetJad

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Your resultsso far this term

-.-

Checktests

Marks

fr<

tvhrch Mini-to<t
*pnl Mini-to<t

11/7o
17/7o
1o/7o

Lz

Your homeworkaverageis
Attendancethis year: 57

classes
out of

=-.

bo

Pleasefill in the ggpsand renrrn this to me.

Rememberto bring any work you want to show me, aswell asyour copy of the
speakingand writing profi.lesin casewe needto look at them.
Thank you.
pRcr7.
Thereis a blankAppMrsAL
agendaon pHorocoprRst_E

L-

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-_rt<

80
Lz

)1

a-)

reviews
andperformance
Appraisats
Summative
assessment:
-\_--

etz

Appraisal
day

=
4
:*r)

=;

" What shouldthe teacher Prepare

threekeytopics
do onthedau?" Theinterview
to think
unrealistic
isnotverylong,sotimeislimited.lt is probably
that you cancovermorethanthreemajorpointsin the interview,evenif the
prioritise:
whichthree
Youmusttherefore
studenthashundreds
of problemareas.
Language
to the student'sperformance?
thingswouldmakethe biggestdifference
more/less?
andsoon.
Participating
items?Behaviour?
Morehomework?

---

Prepare
threekeyquestions
Youmayhavethreethingsyou wantto say,but you shouldnot haveyour
- afterall,you haven'theardthe student's
pointof view
prepared
conclusions
yourconclusions,
threekeyquestions
yet.Sodon't prepare
but insteadprePare
that will makethestudentthinkaboutthat area.

=4
-:-l

r--=

Not: Yourhandwritingis terrible.

But: Did you knowyou may be losingmarksbecauseI can'treadyouranswers?
Not: Stopspeakingyourown languagewhenyou'reworkingin groups.
Bul: How canI bandyourspeakingwhenyou neveruseEnglishnaturally?

!-t

r
l4

yourevidence
Prepare
or
Thestudentmaynot be awarehe/shehasthe problemyou wantto discuss,
examples
Youwill thereforeneedconcrete
maydenyhe/shehasthe problem.
in class which
piecesof work,or examples
of specific
eventsthat happened
youcanuseas'evidence'.

t>4

TIP
fileson eachstudent,askthemto keepthis
lf you don'twantto keepmassive
to you the
to handin theirporbfolio
in theirportfolios.
Cet the students
evidence
'bad'bitsof
not
keep
may
hand,
students
previous
lesson.
On the other
the
work!Youmayneedto keepthesefor theml

,tt

tlt-t

t-

yourlesson
Prepare
You
youwill needsomeuninterrupted
timeto do the interview.
In the lesson,
groups
to workon their
e.g.getting
will thereforeneedto prepare
activities,
projects,
that the restof the classcando withoutaskingyou for helpor
will meanallthe
information.
lt isbestto havegroupwork:silentreading
you
andespecially
the
and mightmake
canhearyourconversation
students
shy.
studentinterviewee

rE

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U]

t'
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-2
I

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L-at

The interview:
procedure
Suggested

e Makesurethatthe restof the classcannothearthe interview- it maymake

the studentshyor embarrassed.
e Sitnextto the studentsothat you canlookat examples
of worktogether.
e Produce
a cleancopyof the agenda,andquicklyoutlinethe stages.
- afterall,we aretalking
e Usethe students'
L1to makethemfeelcomfortable
not doingan oralinterviewlOn the otherhand,if
abouttheirperformance,
allthe betterl
of usingEnglish,
the students
arecapable

V,

a'
L _.

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l._- -

7
|-)

81

l<

reviews
Appraisats
andperformance
assessment:
Summat'ive

I-

.\_/V

le compareyouragendawith the individual

student's.rf he/shehaswritten
prepared
he/she
hasn't
nothing,
the interview.lmmediately
stopthe interview
anotherdate.Thereis no point negotiating
andre-schedule
plansif the
studenthasn'teventhoughtabouthis/herresponsibilities
in the process.
lf
problem,makeit clearto the studentthat the reviewis itsel{
thisis a persistent
partof his/herassessment.
e Askhowthe (term)hasgone.
to his/herplanor verydifferent?
... Hasit beensimilar
... In whatways?
... Whatis he/shehappywith?
... Whatis he/sheunhappy
with?
is he/shehaving?
... Whatproblems
eitherby asking(someof) yourthreequestions,
Agreeor disagree,
or by
pointingout examples
in his/herwrittenwork or classroom
behaviour
that
his/herviews.
confirmor contradict
Note:Thestudentmayconcentrate
on thingsyou had not predicted.
lf more
arise,dropsomeor all of yourthreepoints.
importantor usefulissues
c Askwhatthe studentthinksyou shouldbothwriteas his/hergoals(a
maximumof three).Writethem(if you agree- negotiateif you don't)on the
planin wordsthat areassimilaraspossible
to the oneshe/shesuggests.
That
way therecanbe no misunderstanding:
it alsogivesyou someideaof the
problems
wayof describing
students'
andbuildsup yourstudent-based
vocabulary.
e Askif there'sanythingelsehe/shewouldliketo say,e.g. Whichbitsof the
lessons
do you enioymost/least?
Do you likethe coursebook?
How do you
geton with otherpeoplein the class?etc.Treathim/heras a colleague
a workissue.
discussing
c Getthe studentto signanddatethe sheet,therebymakinga commitment.
e Youshouldlaterphotocopy
thisfor his/herporffolio.
problems
andpossible
Possible
solutions
"Whotif the students Roleplay
or showa videoof a typicalAppnarsAL
interviewin front of the whole
can't underslandthe classbeforecarryingout the firstone.Thiswill givethemsomeideaof the
of the interview.
conceptof app rais als?" structure
Makesurethefirstinterviewees
are'strong'personalities,
because
the restof the
classwill askthemwhathappened,
andyou will needthesefirstinterviewees
to
givepositive
feedback
to the restof the class.lf you can,videothe interviewto
classwhatinterviews
showa (different)
arelike.

tz

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-blr-

l-

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"Whotif the students Thisis almostcedainto happenthe firstfew timesyou haveinterviews.

that,for moststudents,
the ideaof beingconsulted
cannotidentifgtheir Remember
is new to them.
strengthsand Theyarebeingaskedto takeon new responsibilities.
weaknesses?"Herearesomepromptsyou canuseto helpstudentsduringthe interview.
Ask:
e lf theyhada testtomorrow,whatwouldthey be mostworriedabout?
e What wouldbe easy?
e Whatdo theydo whenthey'reworkingin groups:
... giveideas?
..; do thewriting?
... put otherpeople's
ideasintocorrectEnglish?
82

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revjews
and performance
Appraisals
Summative
assessment:
-

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L+

rr
rr
lrr
l--

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L.
l_
l:
l_
L.
l:*:
LJ.

Who isthe bestin theirgroupor class?How do they know?

e lf theyarethe best,what arethey 'best'at? (Thisshouldgivetheman ideaof
differentskillsandabilities.)
e Tellthemoneareatheyaregoodat; askfor others.
e Askthemhow theyknowif they'vegot better- apartfrom testsand
homeworkmarks.lf theycan'tsay,askthemwhichstudentthey think has
improvedmostoverthe (term).Askthemwhy.
0

"Whatif the students Theymayhavedifficultyin expressing

this is not the kindof
theirideasbecause
languagevocabularyareawe oftenteach.
don'thaueenough
to express
theirideas?" Do the interviews
- liveor on
in thestudent's
L1;or roleplay
-'sample'AppursAL
Treattheseas listening
video/audio-tape
interviews.
present
interviews
Afterall,AppnnrsAL
and
new/usefullanguage.
comprehensions
Remember
to include
the
opportunity
for realcommunication.
arean excellent
for reviewing.
for planningaswellasthe language
language
for the language
usedin the interview:
Remember
thattherearethreepossibilities
Teacher

Student

6.

a)

L'I

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b)

L2

L1

c)

L2

L2

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ln addition,somepartsof the interviewcanbe in the L1 and otherpartsin

the L2 (i.e.English).

"WhottfIdon't It is a well-knownfactthat svr-Lneuses

Many
expandto fill the time available!
will lookat the exampleaboveand sayI haven'tgot enoughtime to
haue
enoughtine?"teachers
Iet alonededicateall thattime to reviews.ltis truethat
teachthe syLLABUs,
to remember
the following.
reviews
do takeup a lot of time.Butit is important
o AppRArsAL
interviews
opportunityfor realteacher-student
arean excellent
How oftennow do yourstudentshavethe chanceto speak
communication.
(bytfreteacher
only,
is donein English
withyou?lf the interview
one-to-one
you areproviding
of
themwith thousands
andthestudent),
or by theteacher
language-learning
opportunities.
e Whichever
you use,therearealsothousands
of mutuallearning
language
themto think
Byencouraging
andstudent.
opportunitiesfor bothteacher
From
you aremakingthe classes
moreefficient.
aboutandplantheirlearning,
plans,you will be ableto decidewhichitems
andthe students'
the interviews
on; and
canbe droppedandwhichyou needto concentrate
on the syLLABUs
you will be ableto assess
yourwholeteachingprogramme
and makeit more
the students'own languagelearningprocesses.
efficientby matching
c Thereis an old saying:Civea man a fish,and you feedhim for a day; teacha
work in a similarway.lt is
manto fish,andyou feedhim for /ife.nppnntsnls
yourself
else
thanteachsomeone
andeasier
alwaysquicker
to do something
howto do it. Butin the longterm,it is betterto makethemindependent.
Who knows,in the longterm,you mayevensavetime.As we haveseenin
canbeginto marktheirown - or eachother'sthisbook,students
compositions;
theyevencanwriteand markeachother'stestsand exercises.
83

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reviews
Appraisats
andperformance
Summative
assessment:

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5ummary
AppRAtsALS
andPERFORMANCE
REVTEWS
partof our workinglife.We
arebecoming
havelookedat why we do them,who doesthem,whentheyaredoneandwhat
they consistof.
Thefollowinglistdetails
someof theinformation
youcouldusewhendoingan
for yourstudents:
appraisal
c results
of 'formal'tests
e, results
of 'mini-tests'
- bothresults
e records
homework
of the student's
andfrequency
e recordsof the student's
attendance
e copiesof the student's
workdisplaying
the student's
strengths
e copiesof the student's
workdisplaying
the student's
weaknesses
e copiesof any relevantenxosandpRoFrLEs
o copyof the courseobjectives,
svLLRBUs,
etc.
- goodand bad- in class
e notesconcerning
the student's
contributions
c notesconcerning
preferred
the student's
learning
styleandstrategies
e resultsof previous
eERFoRMANcE
REVtEws.

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systemin yourctass?
Canyou startit this year
or wi[[ you haveto wait ti[[ nextyear?If you want to set one up, plan
the fottowing:
... howto organise
the jnteMews
... whatto askstudents
to bring
... whatto bringyourself.
Good[uck!
If you don'twantto set oneup,whynot?

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CONCLUSION

Timefor a change?
ln thisbook,we havelookedat assessment:
how we asteachers
decideif a
studentisgoodor badat English.
We haveseenthat traditional
testscanbe very
accurate
andeffective
waysof measuring
a student's
abilities;
but we havealso
seena goodtestrequires
in termsof time,personnel,
an enormous
commitment
expedise
andmoney.Mostschools
do not havethoseresources,
andso the kind
of testwe areableto writewill neverbe sufficientlv
accurate
to makeimoortant
decisions
abouta student's
future.
T h i n k. . .
Yourjob depends
on yourabilityin English.
Wouldyou want a decision
made
aboutyouremployability
basedon yourschool's
currenttest?
lf it'snot goodenoughfor us,it maynot be goodenoughfor them...
Also,we wouldn'twantour abilityassessed
on the basisof two classroom
obseruations.
Thereareotherimportantskillsandotherwaysto measure
them.
lf it'snotgoodenoughfor us,it maynot be goodenoughfor them...
Eachassessment
procedure
is,then,a problemthat we haveto solve.Thereis no
idealor perfectsolution.Evaluation
isaboutjudgement:
all we cando isto look
at a widerangeof evidence
abouta student's
ability,listento variousinterested
parties,
balance
allthe factsandopinions
We musthope
andmakea decision.
that thatjudgement
isfair,andwe mayhaveto justifyour decision
at a later
date.We mustbe accountable:
to the school,to the parent,to the stateand,
mostimportantly,
to the student.
lf you havereadthisfar,you maythinkthat thisall soundsa bit idealistic
and
impracticable.
Letus lookat thesetwo problems
separately.
"ls lt idealistic?" lf the ideasin thisbookareidealistic,
we arethensayingthe following.
el Our testsarebestway we canthinkof to evaluate
performance.
a student's
el A studentshouldonlybe assessed
viaformaltests.

e We canaccurately
turn a student's
intoa setof numbers.
abilities
c Thewaya studentlearnsis lessimportantthanthe abilityto remember
facts.

e As teachers,
we aremoreinterested
in testingknowledge
than helpingthe
studentto learn.
e Onlyteachers
performance.
canevaluate
e The mark13/20is moreusefultothe studentandtheiroarentsthana
descriptive
PRoFtLE
or BAND.

C.,
7
7
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" Isit imnrocticable?"lf the ideasin thisbookareimpracticable,

we arethensayingthe following.
e We wouldratherspendten minutesmarkingthe mistakes
in a student's
composition
thantalkingto the studentfor ten minutesabouthis/herlearning
problems.
c The30 minutes
wouldgiveusa betteridea
theyspendwritingthiscomposition
of theirabilities
thanthe 15 minutes
theyspendwritingtheirleamerdiaries.
e All students
will intentlystudyour corrections
on theircompositions
andwill
learna greatdealfromthem.
85

?/
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Conctusion

.c<
e we will makea noteof allthe corrections
we makeon compositions
so that
what
we havea recordof
the student's
learningtargetsare.
e Themultiple-choice
testwe writeis a bettertool for helpingstudents
to learn
testtheywritefor eachother.
thanthe multiple-choice
g A recordof students'
workbookexercise
scores
tellsus morethanwhat a
studentputsin theirporffolio.
Do you agree?

I
I

T A

Thelastchapterof this bookended:... students

canbeginto narktheirown- or
eachother's- compositions;
theyevenconwite andmarkeachother'stestsand
wil[ nowsayButthat'simpossible!
Someteachers
exercises.
If youagreethatthis is impossibte,
writein eachboxwhyyoufeelthis.
compositions

tests

exercises

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Nowlookat yourreasons.
Cananyof your reasons
be overcome
by teaching
to do thesetasks?Howdid you learnto do thesetasks?
the students

Lt.E-

is goingto takeup timethat you

Teachingand evaluation One lastworrymightbe that allthisevaluation
shouldspendteaching.
" ls eualuation
what they
now more Well,in someways,it is.Students
areonlyableto learnby realising
newitemsas beingnew.Theyneedto
important than te aching?" don't knowandby recognising
with newlanguage
experiment
to seewhereit is rightor wrong.No teacherwill
everbeableto correcteverything
a studentwrites,saysor, moreimportantly,
We alreadyrelyon the studentsbeingcleverenoughto knowthat
understands.
theydon't know- we relyon themsayingl'm sorry,but I don't understand.This
is howwe learn:by askingquestions.
studentsrarelysayI don't understand.
Theythink that by
Unfodunately,
the teacherwill thinkthey areslowor
admittingtheirlackof understanding,
stupid.Sotheyjustkeepquietandhopethe teacherdoesn'tchoosethemto
answerthe question.

"WLrA
theyfeargettingthe answerwrong,andtheyfearthat the teacherwill
isthis?" Because
notethisandgivethema badmark.Theyarenot usedto teachers
askingthem
In otherwords,theydon't sayanythingbecause
realquestions.
theyseethe
questions
astests.
teacher's
ln thisway,testingmayactuallybe preventing
learningin our schools.
Timefor
a change?
86

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Thetop beautyshowto find the wortd's
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10.00 NewsandUlhather
10.15 GameShowHour
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11.15 Film:Ghostbusters
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when
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F=
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Gtossary
TESTS
ACHIEVEMENT

ANALYTICMARKINGSCHEMES

APPRAISALS

(on wnsxencx)
BACKWAsH
BANDING

cLrNrcs

RATINGS
CONFIDENCE

EVALUATION
CONGRUENT

VALIDITY
CONSTRUCT
CONTENTVALIDITY
ASSESSMENT
CONTINUOUS

TESTING
CRITERIA-REFERENCED

CURRICULUM

DESCRIPTOR

TESTS
DIAGNOSTIC

TESTING
DIRECT

SKILLS
DISCOURSE

ENUMERATION

FACEVALIDITY
EVALUATION
FORMATIVE

xtcx/low

94

coRRELATIoN

tThesetestwhetherstudents
cando whattheyhavebeentaught,eitherby
itemsor generalobjectives.
syLLABUs
testingspecific
Thesetry to breakdown markingintoa numberof differentareasso that both
teacherandstudentcanseewheretheyaresuccessful
andwherethe
hasdifficultiesin understand
reader/listener
ing.
past,presentandfuture- theirwork,their
A systemof reviewing
a person's
problems,
etc.-leadingfromandto negotiated
theirattitudes,
targets.
Theeffectthat a finaltesthason the teachingprogramme
that leadsto it teachingto the test.
but normally
Thisis similarto pRorttt'tc,
describes
the wholerangeof abilityin
language.
Each
anNo
number
refers
to
and relates
the target
both oEscnrproRs
to
describes
levelsof ability.A aRNo
an abilitylevelin anyoneskill,andthereforea
writingbandwouldincludeinformation
concerning
relevance,
adequacy,
grammar,
etc.
Handingovera smallpartof the syllabus
to the students.
A sectionof a lesson
(e.g.partof the lastclasspad eachmonth)is dedicated
to questions
that the
visitingthe doctor.
studentsraise,likepatients
Theselet you comparewhatthe studentcanactuallydo with what he/shethinks
he/shecando.
beforeit starts,in orderto makesurethat the aims,
Thislooksat a wholeprocess
methodology
andevaluation
of the coursematchthosestated.
Doesthe testtestthe skillsand itemsit'ssupposed
to testand nothingelse?
Doesthe testtestthe skillsanditemsthat it'ssupposed
to test?
Thisis no differentfromanyotherformof assessmentit simplyrefersto how
you testor evaluate
frequently
the students.
Thestudentis assessed
on not just
but on manyperformances.
one performance,
Theresulttellsyou aboutwhatthe individual
studentcando, anddoesnot
lt describes
comparehim/herwith otherstudents.
certaincriteriathat the
studenthasbeenableto meet.
that arestudiedin schools,
Thesubjects
andthe procedures
andapproaches
usedto teachthem.Thisis usuallydecidedby the state.
levelsof abilities
description
One of several
for eachsub-skill,
e.g. 3 Complete
appropriatevocabulary
understandingwith
and few if any circumlocutions.
TheseusepRoFrcrENcy
or AcHTEVEMENT
TEsrs
to analyse
strengths
andweaknesses
in the studentor the teachingprogramme
itself.
Thismeanswe askthe studentactually
to performthe skillwe wantto test.
rEslNG.
ComparerNDrREcr
Makingwhatwe sayfit whathasbeensaidbefore,or what is stillto be said,e.g.
I sawJohn.He said...,not I sawJohn.Johnsaid...
methodusedin testingof turningperformances
In general,
the semi-scientific
results.
into numbers
or
Doesthe testappearto testwhat it'stryingto test?
Thisisthe evaluation
gainedduringa process
doneandfeedback
so that the
process
canbe changedto makeit moreeffective- to helpthisyear'sstudents
ratherthan nextyear's.
goodindicator
ls the testan extremely
of the skillwe aretryingto test?

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TESTING

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the student, askingHow did you learn that? Why did you write that?
Testingthings relatedto the skillwe want to test in order to give us an indication
of how the studentwould performif they did the skillitself.CompareDtREcr
TESTING.

NoRM-REFERENCED
TEsrlNG

Usingtestresults
to compare
the studentwith otherstudents
from that yearand
from otheryears.Theresultdoesnot giveanyinformation
aboutthe student's
individual
performance,
instead
it compares
him/herto the norm.
PERFoRMANCE
REVIEW
An interviewwith a superior
leadingto a documentcontaining
botha reviewof
the past,aswellasa planfor thefuture.Thisis a negotiated
document- it is
agreedandsignedby bothsides.
PLACEMENT
TEsrs
Usedto put the studentintoa classor leveldepending
on certaincriteria.
PRoFlclENcY
rEsrs
Thesetesta generalstandard
abilityregardless
of the teachingprogramme.
PROFILES
Thesebreakdownmarkingintoa numberof differentareasso that bothteacher
and studentcanseewheretheyaresuccessful
andwherethe reader/listener
has
pRoFrLEs
difficulties
in understanding.
Compare
BANDS.
haveseveraldescriptions
of
abilities
for eachsub-skill.
Thetechnical
termfor eachof theseis a ogscnrproR.
DATA
QUALITATIVE
lnteresthereis not so muchin numerical
results,
but insteadin the process.
MEASUREMENT
QUANrlrArlvE
In general,the semi-scientific
methodusedin testingof turningperformances
into
numbersor results.
RAW
scoREs
Pureresults
givenasnumbers,
beforewe converttheminto a percentage,
or a
markout of twenty,or an A-Egrade.
REcoGNlrloN
vs PRoDucrloruSometestsmakestudents
actively
supplyan answer(e.9.a gap-fill);whileothers
simplyaskstudents
to recognise
whichansweris right(e.g.multiple-choice).
EFFECT
SALIENCY
Theexperience,
whenlearning
a foreignlanguage,
of suddenlynoticingan
unknownword,phrase
or construction
beingusedtimeandtime again.lt
suddenly
becomes
noticeable
or 'salient'
for a coupleof weeksandthenseems
to
disappear.
scoRER
RELIABILITY
lf you gavethe sametestto two differentpeopleto mark,wouldtheygivethe
samescore?ls the markingobjective
or subjective?
srRArEclc
sKlLLs
Suchashow to taketurnsin speaking,
get information
from a text,listenfor gist,etc.
suMMArlvE
EVALUATIoN Thisis evaluation
doneandfeedback
gainedat the endof (a stageof) a process.
It looksat generalfeedback
to the teachingprocedure
used,so that nextyear's
coursecanbe changed
according
to what hasbeenmoreor lesssuccessful.
SYLLABUS
Theoutlineof the course.
Thiscanbe decidedby the schoolmanagement,
government,
individual
teacher
or by the courseboox.
TEsrRELIABILITY
lf it werepossible
to givethe samepersonthe sametest(or a differentversionof
it) at the sametime,wouldthe resultbe the same?
vAuDrw
SeecorusrRucr,
CoNTENT
and rRcevALtDtw.
KEY
To tesr, plcg48
Herearethreepossibilities.
1 Tellthe students
to imaginetheyarein BritainandthattheirTV is broken:theycanchooseonlyone
channel
to watchallevening.
In groups,
theyagreewhichchannelthey
wouldchoose,
andsaywhy.
2 Erase
the namesof someprogrammes,
leavingonlythe descriptions.
Askthe students
to thinkof
namesfor the programmes.
appropriate
3 Askthe students
to suggest
whichprogrammes
peoplemightwatch,e.g.an elderlycouple,a
specific
12-year-oldgirl.
95

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Furtherreading

7'/

Englishto ChildrenRichmond
Publishing
1997
House,S An lntroductionto Teaching
children.
Chapter14looksat waysof evaluating
Teachers
CUP1989
Hughes,A TestingforLanguage
and suggestions
for furtherreading,
guideto issuesin languagetesting,with exercises
aswell
A practical
to beginners.
whichexplainstatistics
usefulappendices
Press
1989
Appraisal
and Assessment
OpenUniversity
H & Elliott,J (eds) Rethinking
Simmons,
contributors
coversa widerangeof issues,
arguingthat 'teacher
of articlesby international
Thiscollection
linked.'Everypagewillgetyouthinking.
areinextricably
andpupilassessment
appraisal

H
--1

v,
)

>-)

_)

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_)

Indexof topics
(numbersin bracketsreferto photocopiable
pages)
formativeevaluation,
32
tests,8
achievement
freshstarts,24
54
a lesson,
analysing
49, 50
anafyticmarkingschemes,
gap-filling,37
general,75
appraisals:
holistic
testing,40
appraisal
agenda,80, (7)
TS
stagesin an appraisal,
illumination,
73
proced
ures/attitudes:
assessing
improving scorerreliability,
27
clinics,67
indlrecttesting,30
50
checklists,
jumbledsentences,
39
rating,59
confidence
learnedlists,53
learnedlists.53
a
redesigning
andanalysing
learnerdiaries,63,(5)
lesson,64
questions,
limitedpossibility
25
55
self-reports,
makingtestsreliable,
24
tests,55
student-written
making
tests
valid,
20
talking
skills,
55
assessing
matching,44
28
backwash,
mini-tests,
77
57
bands,
questions,
multiple-choice
25,35
39
sentences,
building
multiplematching,44
questions,
multiplepossibility
25
C-test,38
60, 72
checklists,
norm-referenced
testing,37
77
checktests,
note-expansion,39
choosingatitle,48
48, (3)
openanswerquestions,
clinics,57
45,48
ordering,
clozetest,38
confidencerating,59
performance
reviews,76
evaluation,
3-J
congruent
personalisation,
48
constructvalidily,19
placement
tests,8
contentvalidity,78
planninga test,21, (1)
assessment,
69
continuous
practicality,
27
testing, 3 7
criteria-referenced
proficiency
tests,8
profiles,
49,50,72
descriptors,
50-54
tests,8
diagnostic
question
types(seetesting
directtesting,30
techniques)
36, 44
distractors,
rankingpreferences,
48
41,
editing, (2)
readingand listeningtests,43
enumeration,9
70
record-keeping,
evaluation:general,13-14
redesigning
a lesson,
54
33
evaluation,
congruent
reliability:general,22
formativeevaluation,32
scorerreliability,26
32
evaluation,
summative
testreliability,22
73
testingandevaluation,
saliencyeftect,58
facevalidity,20
scorerreliability,25
47
fillinga space,
96

HI
55
self-reports,
43
selecting
answers,
slashed
sentences,
39
73
studentoorffolios,
student-written
tests,55
summative
evaluation,
32
testreliability,22
testtypes,8
testingandevaluation,
73
9-77
testingandteaching,
testingovertime,70
testingtechniques:
buildingsentences.
-19
C-test,38
choosing
a title,48
clozetest,38
editing,41, (2)
fillinga space,
47
gap-filling,37
jumbledsentences,
39
questions,
limitedpossibility
25
matching,44
multiplechoice,
26,35
multiplematching,44
questions,
multiplepossibility
25
noteexpansion,
39
openanswers,
a8, (3)
45, 48
ordering,
rankingpreferences,
48
reading
andlistening,
43
selecting
43
answers,
slashed
sentences,
39
transformations,
40, 46
questions,
true/false
35
transformations,
40, 46
questions,
true/false
35
typesof testing:
criteria-referenced,
37
directandindirect,
30
40
holistic,
norm-referenced,3l
validity:general,
78
construct.
79
content,78
face.20

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