TABLE OF CONTENT

No.

CONTENT

PAGE

1.0

INTRODUCTION

2.0

INSIGHTS GAINED IN DESIGNING, CONSTRUCTING AND USING

A TEST OR AN ASSESSMENT TASK IN THE ESL PRIMARY
CLASSROOM

1-2

3.0

SUGGESTIONS ON ALTERNATIVE WAYS IN WHICH THE TEST OR

ASSESSMENT TASK COULD BE DESIGNED OR USED

2-3

4.0

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

1.0 INTRODUCTION
For this assignment, I have prepared a lesson plan to teach a language skill or
language content including a test or an assessment task to assess the language skill or
language content that I have selected to teach. The language skill that I chose is grammar
and the lesson was on the topic Good Values and the grammatical item taught was the
articles the and zero article. I also have take considerations the suggestions for
improvement I made in the previous task in order to make my assessment more effective.
Therefore, while I was designing, constructing and after using the assessment, there are
some insights gained during all the stages of designing, constructing and using a test or an
assessment task in the ESL primary classroom.
2.0 INSIGHTS GAINED IN DESIGNING, CONSTRUCTING AND USING A TEST OR AN
ASSESSMENT TASK IN THE ESL PRIMARY CLASSROOM.
I have learned a lot in order for this project to finish or complete. There are many
insights gained from designing and constructing an assessment for the pupils of year 4 Aktif.
One of the things that I have learned is to take into account the authenticity of the materials
used for the assessment. Authenticity means the language being assessed is used in ways
that are appropriate and relevant for the young learners (McKay, 2006). This means that the
content of the test instrument used must be connected to the pupils real world situation or
pupils daily conversation. As a teacher, we must ensure that the materials, content and
context that we used are close to pupils daily lives so that the pupils can easily relate on
what the teacher have taught them to their real life situation. Thus, it will make the learning
becomes more meaningful to the pupils.
Besides that, I also learned that as a teacher, we need to consider the validity of the
assessment that we are going to assess. According to Brown & Abeywickrama (2010), they
stated that a valid test should measure on what it proposes to measure. The principle of
validity means that the teacher must test or assess only on what the teacher have taught
their pupils and what the teacher aims to test. The assessment is valid when it is used to test
on something that has been taught before. For example, in my lesson plan the topic and the
content is about the use of the article the and zero article. Therefore, for the assessment to
be valid, it must test on the use of the article the and the zero article only, do not include the
article a and an in the test. Furthermore, teacher also needs to remember that the type of
test used in assessment must have been exposed to the pupils before they take the test. For
example, if the pupils have never been exposed to activity such as fill in gaps, then the
teacher should not use the activity of fill in gaps as the instrument to test the pupils.

Otherwise, the assessment done by the teacher will not be valid in term of the results of the
pupils.
Other than that, the teacher must also take into consideration of the principle of
practicality in the making and during assessing the pupils. Practicality refers to the logistical,
down-to-earth, administrative issues involved in making, giving and scoring an assessment
instrument (Brown & Abeywickrama, 2010). In regard to practicality, we as the teacher
should think about time, place, people, equipment, cost, scoring and giving feedback. We
could use a series of questions like how long the test will last, where the test will be held,
how many human recourses is needed, whether the test needs extra equipment (LCD,
sound system, etc.), how much it will cost, how to evaluate pupils performance, how long
and how much pupils can get feedback. In this case, I used worksheets as the instrument to
assess the pupils. I printed out one copy and photocopied for free using the machine
provided in school. So basically using worksheet for the assessment is very cost-saving.
Moreover, the fill in the gaps activity is actually easy to be administered by the teacher.
There is no need for extra human resources or other equipment for the assessment to be
carried out. Thus, when the assessment is carried out, I had no problem to administer the
process alone without any help. Overall, practicality is one of the principles that we as a
teacher must need to consider in designing, constructing and using an assessment task in
the ESL primary classroom.

3.0 SUGGESTIONS ON ALTERNATIVE WAYS IN WHICH THE TEST OR ASSESSMENT

TASK COULD BE DESIGNED OR USED
Eventhough the lesson plan was designed with a deep consideration based on the
principles of language assessment, there are always room for improvement. After the
assessment was conducted, I found out that there are other alternative ways in which the
test or assessment task could be done.
One of the instruments used in the assessment was a story. By using the story Jack
and The Beanstalk, the pupils were asked to fill in the blanks with the correct articles the or
zero articles. Another alternative way is that I could use dialogues instead of story. It is
because the language used in the story like Jack and the Beanstalk is not very authentic to
the pupils. A dialogue is more authentic than a story because the language used in the story
might not be used by the pupils in their daily conversation. So the language used in a story
might not be familiar to the pupils. Although story can be interesting, dialogues can be more
relatable for the pupils. By using dialogues, pupils can relate the content to their real life
situation and their daily conversation.
2

Moreover, based on the lesson, I provided the pupils with the worksheets and told
them to fill in the blanks. Another alternative way for this is to provide them with a word bank
or choices to choose from. The pupils in the class of year 4 Aktif were mostly average and
below average. So it is probably best to provide a word bank in either case. I may choose to
supply more words than will be necessary to fill in the blanks to make the test more
challenging. This will force my pupils to choose the best answers rather than matching ten
words with ten blanks.
Lastly, I think that teacher could also give feedback to the pupils during the
development stage. I noticed that during the practice stage, I did not discuss with the pupils
the answers for the activities in their practice stage. I personally think that it is better if the
teacher take some time to discuss the answers with the pupils so that they can still learn
from their mistakes and be prepared before they get into the assessment stage. Through
feedback, pupils can know what their strengths and shortcomings are and where to make
improvement. Teachers can give pupils guidance and assistance through feedback to make
sure pupils are on the right track, hence making it possible for teachers to know the pupils
needs better. This can also be used to prepare a better lesson plan and assessment in the
future lesson.
4.0 CONCLUSION
In conclusion, assessment is a crucial tool in the language learning. Assessment is a
way for teachers to evaluate the pupils performance level on what have been taught and
also to evaluate the suitability of the teachers method and strategies used in a lesson.
Therefore, it is crucial for teachers to carefully assess the pupils so that both teacher and
pupils can improve on their quality of teaching and learning. Moreover, every assessment
made must be carefully design and construct with consideration of the principles of language
assessment. The teacher must not ignore the principles and design the assessment without
taking into account all the principles of language assessment. The principles are the
guidelines in designing the most effective and suitable assessment for the pupils and
teachers.

References

Brown, H.D. 2004. Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices. White
Plains, NY: Pearson Education.
Brown, H. D. & Abeywickrama, P. (2010). Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom
Practice. White Plains, NY : L Pearson Education.

Mckay, P. (2006). Assessing young learners. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

APPENDICES