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 IE
R i c h m o nP
d ublishing
Itr
19 Berghem
BlytheRoad
Mews
E
L o n d o nW 1 4 0 H N
Il-
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 D-
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
E
transmittedin any form, electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recordingor otherwise,
withoutthe prior permissionin writing of the publishers. tr-
However,the pub.lisher
'photocopiable',
grantspermissionfor the photocopyingof those pagesmarked
for individualuseor for usein classestaughtby the puichiser only. Under
E
no circumstances
may any paft of this book be photocopiedfor resale.
E
ISBN:84-294-5067-X
Depbsito
Printed
legal:M-45897-2002
in Spainby Palgraphic,
S.A.
DI:
rl'1
Design JonathanBarnard j
Layout CeckoLimited
CoverDesign CeoffSida,ShipDesign
":
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 rl'1
I
Dedication
To my father- a greateducator.
Dl
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Di
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l-
b
t-- Contents
L-
r
l--r

f--r

r--r rNrRoDucloru:
Theproblemof evaluating
L
-
PartA: Assessment,
testing,evaluation
L cHAprER 1 Why do we assess students'learning? 7
r-a
r
r--r
cHAprER 2 What'sthe difference
andevaluation?
betweentesting,teaching 9

L-
r--I
CHAPTER3

CHAPTER4
Whatdo we assess?
Testing:
Whatmakesa'good'testgood?
15
18
L-
r---
CHAPTER5 Whatformsof testingandevaluation should 30
we use?
L-
r--r
L- PadB: Gettingdatafor assessment

r
r-l

a--t
cHAprER
5
cHAprER
7
Testing
techniques
Testing
for grammarandvocabulary
techniques
for reading
andlistening
54

43
L:
r--r
cHAprER
8 Testing
techniques
with no correctanswers 48

L:
L-tl
PartC: Assessment
cHAprER 9 Assessing
speaking
andwriting 49
L: cunprrn'10 Assessing
procedures
andattitudes
r
r-Jl 57

a-t PartD: Assessing

overtime
l:
r-.rl
csnpre
R11 Continuous
assessment 69
csnpreR
12 Formative
evaluation
L:
a-L. cHnpreR
13 Summative
assessment:
Appraisals
and
72
75
t:
l--l
performance
reviews

l-
a--f
coNclusroN:
Timefor a change? 85

l:
L.J
PHOTOCOPIABLE
PACES 87
l--
a-tJ
CLOSSARY

F U R T H ERRE A D I N C
94
96
L_
L,t
INDEX 95
l---
r
r
IJ

a-J

L-
r
a-J

r-J

1:
lJl

L:
1-

t--
r-t

L-
r-.I
 F-a
lLz

f-
Richrnond
Handbooks
for Teachers: 4

Anintroduction I-

,-

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

_v
_v
-v
T
-,_1

L
L- -
INTRODUCTION
f---r Theproblemof evaluating
L'
l---r

L
l--r
"Whoisthisbookfor?" One of the jobswe arealwaysaskedto do asteachersis to assess
our students.
!-{ In otherwords,we arerequired to sayhow good- or bad- theyare.5o any
L-
-
teachercanbenefitfrom a bookon testing.
lf you areinterested in findingout something abouttestingandapplyingit to
l_
l--t yourclasses, thenthisisthe bookfor you.lf you areinterested in improving
L.
r---r
testingtechniques
for you.However,
you alreadyuseandinitiating newwaysof testing,thenit is
if you wanta totallytheoretical
r bookisn'tfor you.
exposition of testing,thenthis

r
l-Jr
Evaluating yourstudentsis intendedfor the teacherof secondary-level students,
andthe practicalideascontained withinit areappropriate
for teenagers, but
L--r
couldeasilybe adaptedfor olderstudents. youngchildren,
Testing however, is a
L'
r---a differentmatterandbeyondthe scopeof thisbook.
L-
l---r
) seEnru tNTRoDUcrtoN
To rEAcHtN; ENcLtsH
To IHTLDREN
rN THEsAMEsERrEs

L-
t-,
"ldon'tknowaruTthingEvaluatingyour Studentsstarisby lookingat what we assess
and how we assess
abouttes-ting
andI don't it, andtriesto agreesometerminology:
whatisthe differencebetweentesting
L:
l-.-r
underrtand
theterms." andteaching,evaluation andassessment,measuring andjudging?
(cxnprEns
1-3)
L:
a--t

L: "Howdolknowif Thetraditional
'good'?" wayto assess
hasbeenthroughusingtests.Language testingis

r
L-t
a tesffs an academic
areawith a vastliterature,
verymanytheories,
lotsof statistics
and
itsown journals.Thereis not enoughroomhereto covertestingin greatdetail,
a-t
so we will lookat the basics:whatyou needto makea testgood(cnnprrn 4).
L:
r--- And we will seethat it isdifficultfor anyteacher
or schoolto writea 'good'test.
L:
a--- "Aretheredifferent
tqpesof Perhaps
the biggestdifferencebetweenour old ideasabouttestingand newer
L:
a--t
on?" onesaboutevaluation
te*.ingandeualuoti isthat we havemoved,asteachers
awayfrom memorisation
andprofessionals,
andtowardshelpingstudents to learn:the procedures
L-
a-,
theyuseandthe attitudes theybringto the class. Evaluation is biggerthanjust
testing.cHAprER 5 looksat the differentformsof testingandevaluation.
L:
a-t Thereareso manyabilities andskillsthat students haveto learn,evenin a single
L:
l----,-
subjectlikea foreignlanguage.
are important
How do we put themalltogether?
andwhichskillscanwe affordto ignore?Oneway of thinking
Whichskills

L:
a---
aboutthe problemisto usethe staffroomasa parallel.
dangerous game:lmagineyourstaffroom,andallthe teachers
Youcouldtry thisrather
in it. One (rather
L: drasticl)wayof startinga discussion aboutevaluation wouldbe to arrangeall

r
L-
the chairsin a semi-circle.Youthensayyouwantthe teachers to seatthemselves
in orderof ability,with the 'best'teachersittingin the chairat oneend,andthe
r 'worst'teachersittingin the
.--'f

chairat the otherend.

W Therewould,of course, be hugeuproar!Howdo youassess who is bestandwho
L-
l-'r
isworst?Butat leastallthe problems
the argument. Forexample,
involved
someteachers
withassessment
areexcellent
wouldcomeup in
at theirsubjectbut
l:
.-t
hopeless at paperwork.Somehavebrilliant
on. Arebrilliantideasworthmorethanclass
ideasbut can'tcontrola class, andso
controlor subject-area excellence?
l--
V

L-
)-t

L:
f-Jr

L-
r---
 F-
Theproblem
Introduction: of evaluating .1|-

E
"Ihis is alltheoretical. ln orderto assess
learnersandlearning, we needsomedataaboutthe student.
How can I put ideos about e Can he/she usethe components of language - grammar, vocabulary,
and
testing i nto pr actice?" pronunciation?(cunprpn6)
.E
e Canhe/sheusethe language itself- in reading, writing,listening
and
speaking?(csnPreRs7 -9) _l-
e Howdoeshe/shelearnmosteffectively and canthat becomepartof testing?
(cxnprrn10) F
"Andshould Ikrtthe lf we areinterestedin the student'sdevelopment, we needto assessthe student
>
attheendofthe overa
students periodof time.CHAeTERS 11 nruo12 lookat coxtttluousnssrssuerurand .E
or
Uear, twice
a Ueor,or FoRMATvE EVALUATToN:how we can record the progress
student's in both language
moreofi.en?" learning
andin the skillof learningitself. tr-
At somepoint,oftenthe endof a course,we haveto put a labelon the student:
whatarehis/herstrongor weakpoints?In the past,bothteacherand student _u
wouldstepbackand let a testdecide.We both surrendered responsibility.
E
"lf testlnqis onindiuidual Thisisimpossible
if you takeon the roleof assessor
alone.Butthereare31 tl-
howcan/ assess peoplewho canhelpeachstudent:the teacher,the student,and all the student's
actiuittl,
a c/ossof30?" peers.lt is possible largeclasses,
to evaluate but onlyif we re-examine .E
lf we do everything
responsibilities. for the students,
why shouldthey botherto
do it for themselves?In the caseof compositions,we mayspend30 minutes E
markingworkthat the studentwrotein ten. And everymistakethat we find is
something thestudentdidn'tfind,or didn'tbotherto find. tr-
"HowcanI getstudents It istimethatwe, asteachers,
calledon the studentsto sharethe responsibility
.E=
rnoreInvolued
inthe for theirassessment:howeverhardwe try,we can'tlearnit for them!cHnpren
process?" looksat howthiscanbedone.Sharing
ossessment responsibilities
meansthat bothwe andthe
13 tr=
haveto change.
students Changeisa verythreatening thing.lt meanswe haveto -f-
andwe allworrythatwe won't be asgoodaswe usedto be.
learnnewskills,
,F
"Howdo I usethisbook?" Testingas problemsolving
ThequotebelowisfromArthurHughes,in Testingfor Language Teachers
,E
(page5). He seesthe language testnot assomething we canwriteand saythis ,F
is how it is done,but asa problemto be solved.
Language testersaresometimes askedto say what is the best testor the best E
testingtechnique. Suchquestionsreveala misunderstanding of what is involved
in thepracticeof languagetesting.ln fact thereis no besttestor besttechnique. tr-
Theassumption that hasto be madethereforeis that eachtestingsituationis
uniqueandso setsa particulartestingproblem.lt is the tester'siob to provide
tr=
the bestsolutionto that problem. E-
Thesameistrueof allevaluation: thereis no 'right'answer.Thereis onlya
problem, andthe answerto that problemwill almostcertainlybe differentin >
yourschoolwith yourstaffandyourstudentsthan in a schooldown the road.
Thisbookwilltry to explainthe concepts and giveyou someideas.But, D
inevitably, you mayviewmanyof the ideasin this bookas 'idealistic', describing
a'perfectscenario'. lt is up to you to usewhat you can,adaptwhat you canand >
omitwhatyou knowyou can'tdo in yoursituation.Likeall problems that affect
lotsof people,anysolutionwill be the resultof talking,arguingandfinal
D
Thismighttakesometimeto do, but we owe thisto the students.
agreement.
Our assessments mayaffecttheirlivesfor yearsto come.
>
l

.T
I-

.>
v
E
b
h
l_
l--I

L-
pARTA Assessment,
testihg,evaluation
r--r
L-
r--r
L-
=\<

S.
r
r-- -
1,
cHAPTER
L-
r-.r
Whydo weassess
students'learning?
r
r---t
L-
4..-
Therearemanygroupswho havean interest in assessing
a student'sabilities:
L-
r--r
teachers, headsof departments, parents,
governments and,of course,the students
themselves. However, we allsharethe samefour mainreasons for assessment:
L: ... to comoare students witheachother
r
V

r--rl
... to seeif students meeta oarticular
. . . t o h e l pt h es t u d e n tl'esa r n i n g
standard

1:
r-I
... to checkif theteaching programme is doingitsjob.

l-
L.t
Writea [ist of the typesof tests(notjust foreign[anguages)
givenin your
l: T A s K school.Whyaretheygiven?Whichgroupis eachoneprimarity aimedat?Who
r
L-1]

L-f
arethe resultsfor?
studentsteachersheadsof departments parentsgovernmentsothers
l:
a-.-l

1_:
L.I
1 To comparestudents
with eachother
lf yourstudents
university
wantto entera university
hasto select
whichstudents
to studya popularsubject,
it takes.lt decides
the
on a comparative basis,
l-
L-.tl
e.g. it wants thetop
goodyearof candidates
20% of candidates.
maybe compared
Butthere ais problem: A
consistency.
with a weakyear:thisyear'stop 20%
l: maynot be asgoodaslastyear'stop 20%. However, it is stillthetop 20% that
hasbeencalled'rationing
L-t
getthroughtheexam.Thisapproach the carrots':
l-
.J
however wellallthecandidates perform, onlythe top 20% getthrough.

L:
-.-,-
Althoughthissystemmayappearunfair,it is stilloftenusedby governments
parents to judgethequalityof a school.
and

l_
g
To seeif students Largeorganisations, likethestate,or international
examining boards, have
t:
g
meeta particular
standard
certainstandards
necessarily
of proficiencythat studentsmustmeet.Thesestandards
reflecttheteachingprogramme that the studentshavefollowed:
do not

l: differentschoolsmayusedifferentbooksor syLLABUsEs. Sotheselarge

r
l-J
organisationshaveto settheirown standards or criteria,andseeif the student
r canperformat thislevel.
L- Othersmaller organisations,likeindividualschools,canalsoseta particular

r standard based on theirown individually-agreedcriteria.

a4

More frequently,
though, schoolswillbasetheirassessment on theirown
a5
teaching programme. Theyanalyse whatthestudents coverin class,andthen
l:
a-tl
assess whetherthe students havelearnedit, oftenby givingan ACHTEVEMENT TEsr.

1--
.1

l--
a--t

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

Testers differoverwhatan AcHTEVEMENT resrshouldactuallycover.lt could

testeither:
.l-
... the overallobjectives of the syLLABUS (e.g.in English,
the abilityto express past
time,or the abilityto writein a varietyof styles), or .D=
... the individualitemson thesvLlneus (e.g.in English,
the pastsimple, or writing
advertisements). I-
Anotherreasonfor assessment is initialplacement. We cananalyse the students'
abilitiesin orderto seewheretheyfit intothe system.Forexample, if the school P
hasrestrictions on spacein classes, theymaybe placedaccording to what
l!-
percentage theyget (e.g.the top 10% go into the top class). Alternatively, there
maybe ceftaincriteria the students areexpected to meet.lf oneclass .tr-
concentrates on writingwhileanotherspecialises in grammarrevision, the
students' classwill be determined by theirsuccess according to thesecriteria. D-

To helpthe student's Whetherwe assess proficiencyor achievement, we cananalyse the student's .uE
learning in a diagnostic
abilities way.Instead of usingthe assessmentto gradethe
student, we useit to seewherethestudentneedsmorehelp.Forexample, the Jf-
studentgetsan excellent gradein writingan adveftisement,but makesmany
errorsin the grammarsection, especiallyin the presentsimplethirdperson-s. .E
we maythendecide to givehim/heradditional helpandteaching in thisarea.
,E
To checkif the Butsuppose allthe studentsgetexcellentgradesin writingadvertisements,
teachingprogramme all makemanyerrorsin the present simplethirdperson-s.we maythendecide
but ,E
is doingits job to alterthe wholeteaching programme to giveallthe students
additional
help .E=
andteaching in thisarea.
On a largerscale, if teachers
andinspectors identifya commonproblemacross all .E:
schools',a government maydecideto alterthe wholeof itseducation
programme.
!l:
Summary
,E=
Thereare,aswe shallseein thisbook,manywaysof assessing students.But
probablythe mostcommonmethodof assessment is a test. .u
c pRoFtctENcyrEsrsexamine a generalstandardin ability,regardlessof the
teachingprogramme. .E
c ACHTEVEMENT TESTSexamine whetherstudents
taught,eitherby testingspecific syLLABUs
cando whattheyhavebeen
itemsor generalobjectives.
r
c PLACEMENTTESTS area mixtureof the abovetwo, depending on what criteria E
we useto placethe student.
v
-1

c DlAcNosrlcrEsrsusePRoFtcrENcy or AcHTEVEMENT
TEsrs to analyse strengthsand
-z
weaknesses in the studentor theteachingprogramme itself. P
-_1.
.P
Thinkof two differentteststhat you knowwetLa tanguage test or othertest
rlA .g K that is usedin yourschool"andoneof anothersubjector abil.ity(tikedriving).
-1
-v
-1
Is the test basedon the teachingprogramme
or not? -D-
Whosetsthe tesfs standards/criteria? .1

How are the resuttsused?To comparestudents?To assessthe teaching Dz

programme? Forotherreasons? .1.
v
_1.

I-
-v
I

1
-v
,Jr

.>'
b
h
L_
CHAPTER
2
l---
What'sthe differencebetween
L-
r--.r
testitrg,teachingandevaluation?
r
r--r
L-
L-

L
-
What is testing? Everytimewe askstudents to answera question to whichwe alreadyknowthe
L answer,we aregivingthema kindof test.Muchof whatwe do in classis,in
r--
r fact,testingstudents'
He goes
knowledge.
to the cinema.They...?
Herearesomeexamples.

r
l---
Finda word in the text that means'angry'.
On the tape,wheredoesJohn tell Susan
r he wantsto visit?
r--I
What is the main ideaof paragraphthree?

r Dictation:write down the following...

l-.t

That'sthat part of the lessonfinished.Whatdo you think we'regoingto do next?

r
l---

r
L,'I

L-t Testingandteaching
L:
L-tl
Turningperformance
L:
a-, into numbers
Testinghas,traditionally,
measured
o We choosesomerepresentative
the results
samples
of studentperformance.
of language.
l-: et We measure whethera studentcanusethesesamples.

r
g
o We thentry to quantifythisby turningit intoa markor grade.
L-' e We keepa recordof thesemarksandusethisto givean endassessment.
l:
r--I
Overtime,alltestingtheory(whether languages or shampoodevelopment)
has
traditionally
beenbasedon a semi-scientific
L:
l-tl 1 Measurethe performance.
procedure,namely:

l- 2 Do somethingto affectthe performance.

r
r--t

r--.!l
3 Measurethe performance
Applyingthistraditional
againandcompare
testingprocedure
the difference.
or modelto languagelearners has
L:
a-t
meantthat the languagelearneristreatedasa kindof plant.We measure
plant,applythe newfertilisetandthenmeasure
the
the plantagainto seewhateffect
L:
a-t
the fertiliserhashad.As language we applya (pmcEmrNr)
teachers, test,teach,and
then givean ACHTEVEMENT TEsr
to seehow muchbetterthe studentsare.
l:
L.t In otherwords,testingisgenerally concernedwith eruunnennrroru,
that is,turning
l- oerformance into numbers.

r
a.4

Plants Languagelearners

r
a--J
Stage'l plant
measure testthe present
simple
a--J
Stage2 addfertiliser teachthe present
simple
lj
a5
Stage3 measure
plantagain testthe present simpleagain
l:
)-tJ
comoarethe difference comoare the difference

l-
a-J

lj
]a

l--
r.-r

1-
l"--
 -
It4
the differencebetweentesting,teachingand evaluatjon?
__l9tt
f-

Testingactivitiesand Teachingandtestinggo hand-in-hand. We oftenaskquestions to checkthat the F

teachingactivities haveunderstood
students whatwe havesaid.Equally, we sometimesaska
to find out whetherwe needto teacha point.We instinctively
question know )r-
why we aska question:whetherit isto teachor to testsomething.
F
the followingtwo exercises.
Compare
.I-
Exercise I
P
Fill the gap with an appropriate form of the verb.
a John Franceeveryyear since 1993. (visit) I-
b John Francelast year. (visit)
.tr-
Exercise 2
Il-
In groups,discussthe differencesbetweenthe wo sentences.
a John hasvisited Franceeveryyearsince 1993. D-
b John visited Francelast year.
Il-

Exercise1 assumes that the students havesomeknowledge and asksthemto "[!E

proveit. lt is clearlya testingactivity.Notethat if the studentsget the right
answer, we don'tknowwhy theywrotethat answer.lt may be a guess,or it .F
just
might soundright.
l-
Exercise2 asksthe students a question aboutthe language. In otherwords,it is
askingthemto formulatea ruletheycanusein othersituations - a generalisable
.L-
theory.lt is alsotryingto increase theirawareness of how the language works.lt
istryingto help them learn:it is a teachingactivity.
On the other hand,some .L-
teachers wouldsaythat peopledon't needto knowwhy it is right,theyjust
needto get it right. Jll-
Let'scompare two moreexercises.
"u
Exercise 3
.ttr
Composition:A Summer'sDay at the Beach(150words)
D:
Exercise 4
Readthe following two compositionsentitled A Summer'sDay at the Beach'.
.E
\fhich do you prefer and why? .tr-
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. .,tr
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
E
right order?Vhat would help you do this? Discussyour ideaswith another group. P
Homework: write your own compositionon the sametheme (150 words).
*

Usingthesameideasaswe outlinedabove,Exercise 3 isclearlya test:it wantsthe

tr-
.1
studentto showuswhathe/shecando. Exercise 4, on the otherhand,clearlytries D.-
to makethe studentmoreawareof what he/sheistryingto do: it triesto increase
_1
awareness beforegivingthe task.lt triesto helpthe studentto learn. I-
.-1
.P
4

10 -*
1

P
v
1
I

b What's
the difference
between
testing,teachingandevaluation?
Lr*-
L-
r--- Teachingor testing? : Sometimes, though,teachers canget confused aboutwhethertheyareteaching
' or testing.We canthinkwe areteaching
L-
r-..-
whenwe areactuallytesting.

r
r-..r
: Thisis particularly
speaking
truewhenwe try to teachthefourskills:
and listening.
I reallyknowenough;
Herelanguage teachers
reading, writing,
facea majorproblem.We don't
thatis,thereareno clearrulesaboutgoodlistening,
L- : readingandotherskills.

tr skimming andscanning,
All we havearesomerathergeneralised
andthesearenot detailed
an effectiveand progressive teaching programme.
ideassuchas
enoughto helpusworkout

r
t,

In otherwords,whenfacedwith a skillthat is difficultto teach,suchasgood

r
r-.- listening,we normally answer thisproblem in oneof two ways.Eitherwe give
the students lotsof opportunities to showwhattheyknowsowe canseeif they're

r
l--t
improving. We askthemto read,writeor listento textsof increasing linguistic
complexity andhopetheykeepthesamegeneralresults or evenimprove; or we

r
vl
; keepthe sametextsandincrease the complexity of the questions.
Thisis a bit likea doctorsaying I don'tknowwhatcaused your illnessor why
r
a-,J
you'regettingbetter,but yourtemperature is goingdown. All we cando to
teachthe four skillsisexposestudents to language andtaketheirtemperature
r
l-J

via testingto seeif they'regettingbefcer.

r
3--tt

a-t
Or we substitute the skillthat isdifficultto teachwith onethat is easyto teach.
Whilethe rulesfor skillsarenotveryclear,we do havesomeverygoodrulesfor
L:
l--
gf&mmdrandvocabulary,
grammar/vocabulary
whichmakesthemeasierto teach(however,
testcanbecomplex, aswe shallseelater).Sowe
writinga

L: sometimes believe we areteaching or testinga skill,whenreallywe are

r
)--t . practising or testinggrammar
aredisguised grammarrevision:
or vocabulary. Forexample, manyspeaking
theycanbecomean oraltestof grammar.
tests
They

r don'ttestrealspeaking
Why isthis?Because
skillssuchasinterrupting
plant
withoutcausing
thesemi-scientific modelof testingwhichwe looked
offenceat all.

r
l-a
at earlierhassomemajorproblems. Thenextpartcovers theseproblems.
r--l

L-
r-.-
Problemswith testing Problem1: Skillsintonumbers
On pnce9, we sawthattestingis basedon an ideafromscience:
measure, make
L:
L-J
, changes,measure againandcompare.
Oneproblemwiththescientific modelisthatnot everything
cannecessarilybe
L-
]-1, measured in thisway.Therearesomethingswe caneasilytestin thisway,e.g.
-s.
L-
.J
the presentsimplethirdperson
Butotherskillsaremoredifficult to measure.How,for example, canwe quantify
L-
a-----
a student's abilityto makeusefulcontributions
to the class?
o First,we wouldhaveto define'useful'and'contribution' in a wavthatwe
L:
r--{ couldmeasure them.
c We coulddefine'useful' as'successfully
L- explaining something to another

r student'.
L.-

' c We coulddefine'contribution' as'answeringa question put to the wholeclass

r
l_--

by the teacher'.
e We couldnow counthow manytimesa studentsuccessfully answered a
r
l-:t
. teacher'squestionandthe majorityof the restof the classunderstood.

r :
l _. -
Theproblemwith thisisthatwe arenow measuring how manytimesa student
'successfullyanswered questionandthe majorityof the restof the
a teacher's
l.-a
:
, classunderstood'. Thisisnot necessarily
the samethingasmakinga useful
L-
a-4
: contribution to theclass.

L-
t-A
77
L-
a-4

L-
 ar<
S-
What'sthe djfference testing.teachingandevatuation?
between
Il-

so therearetwo dangerswhenassessing skillsthat aredifficultto measure. t-

e We maytakesomething we all understandandre-define it to makeit
measurable; but, in doingthis,we maychangethe verythingwe aretrying F
to measure.
atL
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 easily-
measurable, ratherthan assessing the performance we aretryingto improve. I>
I-
Listento yourcotleagues having(11)conversations in the staffroom. E
Whatpercentage of their naturatspoken[anguage consists of fut[ sentences?
Whatpercentage consists of sentence
.tr-
fragments [inkedby intonational devics
and ums and ers? .tr-
Howoftendo you teachstudents to speakin fragmented sentences?
E
Otherproblems Problem2: Resultsversusprocesses, whatversuswhy E
with testing Anotherproblemwith thissemi-scientific systemof euRrurrrnrrvr mensunrmeruris
that it doesnot recordeuAlrrArvF onrR.Measuringwill tell usif the planthas .E
grown,but not why (orwhy not).lt givesus information aboutthe results, but
doesn'ttellusanythingaboutthe process. Il-
In the exampleessay(sEe pnce10),we wouldgeta muchbetterideaof the
IL-
student's from Exercise
abilities 4, becausewe couldseesomeof the processes
behindthe work,e.g.we couldlookat wherethe studentputtheticksandcrosses
in the essays,andthenseeif andhowthesewerereflected
.u|
in his/herown essav.
I-
Problem3: Standardisation andodd results
A thirdproblemwith the scientific modelisthatthefertiliser givento the plant
D=
mustalwaysbe the same,or the results
variablesin orderto assess the success
cannotbecompared.
of the programme.
we mustremovethe
lt isdifficultto seehow
tr'=
thiscanworkin teaching. ln schools,
or we couldn'treallycompare
alltheteaching
the progress
wouldhaveto bethe same,
of individual
students. Thismodelof
^u
testingthereforeleadsto ratherauthoritarian teacher-proof methodologies. .L-
Thescientific modelis alsomoreinterested in generaltrends,andstrange
individual resultsareoftenignored.Forexample, imaginethat in a listening test
.F-
allyourstudentsget9OT",but yourbeststudentonlygets10%. Forus as
teachers, it isthat one odd resultthat we wouldwantto investigate.
-D-
-v
.-.-1

- perhaps the oneusedin yourschool- andsetectat

s choosea coursebook _1

TA K random:threelisteningexercisesthreereadingexercisesthreespeaking
.v
_1
exercises. Whatis the purpose of eachexercise? Is it .v
...testinggrammarorvocabu[ary?(e.g.t+/r8rown-theonenqetc.) 4
... testingthe student'sunderstanding? (e.g.via multipte-choice questions Uz
aboutinformationin the texb information gaps;etc.) _-1

... teachingthe studentto read/tisten/speak lz

better?(e.g.Doesit includeadvice
abouthowto improvereadingor tistening,pnctisingintenupting,etc.)
..- teachingthe studentto study?(e.g.Doesit teachclassroom llz
tanguage? Does
it hel.pthe studentto find answersto their ownquestions?,etc.) .P
<
1?
.U
-v
-v
U What's
the difference
between
testing,teaching
andevatuatjon?
w

l-- Testingandevatuation
L-
r---
r
r-er
The relationshipbetweentestingandevaluation
betweenthe cunnrculum andthe svlLaeus
is similarto the relationship

L-
ts
I
Thesvllnsusis a setof itemsfor the teacherto coverin a term.Butthe syLLABUs
is partof a biggermethodological
teachingprogramme
scheme- the cunnrculurvr.
is not onlywhatyou cover(thesvllnaus),
A language
l_-.
but alsohow you
L- coverit (theclassroom procedures),andalsowhy you coverit (theeducational

r approachor rationale behindyoursyLLABUs andclassroom procedures).

l--

Evaluation
r In thisbook,we will seeevaluation
l---
aswiderthantesting.Evaluation seestesting
asa usefultool, but alsothinksthereareotherimportantcriteriafor assessing

r
r-.t performance.
someone's we wantto assessstudents' abilityto usethe present
simple,but we alsowantotherinformation abouttheir(language) learning,
e.g.
r--r
r
r---
ei Canthey usea dictionary?
e Do theyactuallyusethe targetlanguage
r
l-,-t
c Are theirnoteswellorganised?
c Do theycontribute
in class(e.g.for chatting)?

L-
t--t
to groupwork?
e' Aretheywell behaved?
L-
r-.f
lf we comparethisto the syLLABUS{uRRtcuLUM diagram, we canseea
(simplified)
similarity:
L-
a-,

L- curriculum
r evaluation
r--I

r-t

I 6";
'.\-7-
r
r-I

r
a--] Problemswith testing:
Canevaluation
Problem1: Skillsinto numbers
Evaluationis not limitedto numbers or justgivingstudents
marks.Insteadof

r
l--t
solvethem? tryingto countor measure a student's
abilityto makeusefulcontributions
class,we cansimplyjudgewhetherhe/shemakesa contribution
words,you canbe subjective aswellasobjective.
to the
or not. In other

L-
)-t Butwhenwe makejudgements, we mustrealise thatotherpeople,including
L-
|-D
teachersand students,
sometimes
maynot agreewith whatwe think.Evaluation
we will haveto justify,negotiateand possibly
meansthat
modifyour opinions.
L-
a-,
We may needmorethanonejudge- we mayevenneeda jury.

I
.--.J
Problem2: Resultsversusprocesses, whatversuswhy
In additionto EttuiurRnrtoru,
evaluation looksfor tlumrrunrroru:How did you learn
L] that?why did you writethat?we aredoingsomething with the student,rather
r
IJ
than doingsomething to the student.lf we hadto assess Miguel'sperformance
a--c overthe year,wouldwe ratherhavehisessayfrom Exercise 3 (sEepnce1o),or his
L-
a-t
essayfrom Exercise
what, but Exercise
4 with hisnotesstapledto the backof it? Exercise
4 tellsus what,how, andwhy.
3 tellsus

L-
t4
In addition,by askingthesequestions, we will learna lot of extrainformation:
... whatthe studentthinkshelsheis learning
l:
)-J
... whatthe studentthinksiseasyldifficult
L:
a -
... whatthe studentenjoys/hates doingin class
13
L:
r
l-_-t

l-
I
 FU
tlz
andevaLuation?
What'sthe differencebetweentesting,teaching

I-
... wheretheteaching programme andthe studentdon'tmeet t:
... wheretheteaching programme needsto be re-designed.
In otherwords,we canusethe assessmentprocedure to developand improve IL
: notonlythestudent, butalsotheteachingprogramme, andeventhe school.By
- and more JP
evaluatingprocedures we gainmoreinformation
andattitudes,
- thanby simplylookingat testresults.
usefulinformation >
Problem3: Standardisation andodd results >
doesnot wantto removethe variables
Evaluation in the assessment process.
is interested
Evaluation in odd results asit is exactlythiskindof resultthat may I-
illuminate
something aboutthe learning process. Equally, it doesnot want
teacher-proofmaterials
andmethodologies. Instead,evaluation triesto includeas
f-
manypeopleas possible, because all information is seenas possibly usefulfor
F-
improvingthe designof a teachingprogramme.
I-
Who evaluates? As we willseein cHRprrR4, writinga goodtestisan extremely complextask,
andrequires not onlya lot of timeandresources, but alsosomeexpedise in D-
statistical Forthisreason,
analysis. it tendsto be largeorganisations suchas
governments anduniversities thatwritebigtests,mainlybecause theyneedto E
keepthesameNoRM-REFERENcED standards yearafter!ear. C, srr pnce31
With evaluation,however, we aretryingto helpthe studentto learn.Evaluation .E-
is notjustan assessment, butan aidto learning. Thismeansthatthe more
peoplewho areinvolved in the process, the betterthe processis.
.tr-
Summary
E
As we haveseenin thischapter, to teachstudents skillswhicharedifficultto r=
we
teach, either ask them lots of questions (i.e.effectively micro-tests)
to seeif
they'reimproving or we substitute theskillthat isdifficultto teachwith onethat is r=
easyto teach.
in a skillwhichis difficultto measure,
D=
To assess students we eitherre-defineit to
make it measurable; but possibly change whatwe aremeasuring or we leaveit tr=
out of the testand measure onlythe easily-measurable.
Testing alsolooksat thegeneral, ratherthanthe individual. Individuals,
whether .tr-
theyareteachers or students, arevariables that haveto be removedfromthe
assessment process. lndividuals areturnedinto eunrurrrnrrvr datalikeresults;
and
.tr-
euALtrATrvE onrn,likeprocesses or attitudes, arestatisticallyremoved. .tr-
b
Whocanevatuate languagelearners?
T A s K Theheadof yourschoolhasdecided to developa newassessment systemfor
.--.4
>
the endof the nextschootyear.He/She hasaskedyou to providea list of atl --4

the peoplewho mighthaveusefulinformation abouta student's[anguage P

learningabitity.Makean appropriate the fotlowingquestions.
[ist,then consider 4

Whatinformation coutdeachgroupprovide?
P
4
Giventhe systemasit existsnow,whowouldactual.ty be consutted? .D=
Whatinformationwouldyou get us'ingthe presentsystem?
flz,
Whatinformation giventhe presentsituation?
wouldbe missing,
Wh'ichpartsof the missinginformationarethe mostimportantto incl.ude? -v
Canyouthink of anywaysof incorporatingtheseimportantareasinto the -
present
systemwithoutneedingto re-design procedure?
the wholeassessment .P
1
74
.U
-v
.V
=
t
I

?:?_ CHAPTER
3
1- Whatdo weassess?
f
l---

L-
l---

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

I
l-_r T A s K
what do you think eachof the foLlowing
Thinkof youranswers
questions
is actualtytesting?
beforeyoulookat the keybelow.
lj
l-I
i1
1 Hegoesto the cinema. They...?
L- 'angry,.
2 Finda wordin the text that means

r
l---
3 0n the tape,wheredoesJohnte[ Susanhe wantsto visit?
,-t 4 Whatis the mainideaof paragraphthree?
L-
r-.t
5 Dictation:writedownthe fottowing...
6 That'sthat partof the lesson
finished.whatdo youthink we'regoingto
L-
r-,t do next?

L:
a-'t

L: rcv
1 Thisistestinggrammar (usingthepresent
r simplethirdpersonplural).
---J

2 Thisistestingvocabulary (recognising thatfuriousisa synonym of angry).

r-rr
3 Thisistestingthe student's
L-
l-t
abilityto listenfor detail.
4 Thisistestingeitherlistening
for general meaning or inferring
froma text.
L-
a-f
5 Thisistestinggeneral ability(writing,reading,
listening, pronunciation,
spelling,
etc.).
L: 5 Thisistestingtheirabilityto inferlessonphasingfromtheirprevious
r
l-.]

learningexperience.

r
a-,-J so we alreadytestthe students on a widerangeof skillsandabirities.

r
a-t Message
andmedium However,questions
canhavemorethanoneanswer.Forexampre:
a-, Miguel, wheredoesthe presidentof the lJnitedstateslive?
Teacher:
l_
a-.f
Miguel(1):He livesin London.
Miguel(2):He live in the WhiteHouse.
|; Miguelgivesthe teachera problemhere.Hisfirstansweris grammatically
r but factuallywrong.Hissecondanswerisgrammatically
correct.Whichansweris better?
correct
wrongbut factually

r
l-t

Theanswerto thisquestionislt depends why youaskedthe questionLanguage

r
l-_!
teaching isconcerned with bothmessage andmedium.lf we aretestingthe third
person-s,Answer1 mustbe correct. on the otherhand,we arealsotryingto
a--'
teachstudents to communicate in a differentlanguage.Thegrammatical mistake
lj
L'
thatMiguelmakesin Answer2 doesnotstopcommunication of the idea.
Language two different'correctnesses':
l- teachers
i.e.the message
haveto balance
andthe rightformof expression
the rightidea,

r
l-f of thatidea,i.e.the medium.

r 15
aa

r
 Whatdo we assess?
t
"-/-
>1

>
.-I

Which language Language components versuslanguageuse

abilitiesdo we test? Anothercommondistinction iswhetherwe assess the individual itemsthatwe
(grammar, tz
put togetherto makea sentence,i.e.the componentsof a language
vocabulary, or
pronunciation); whether we how
assess the student putsthese
(i.e. Ill
components togetherwhentheyactuallyusethe language the four skillsof
speaking, reading
listening, andwriting). v
Otherskillsof usinglanguage v
We needto uselanguage appropriate
that is socially (e.g.formalversus informal
vocabulary,etc.).We needotscouRsE SKILLs: makingwhatwe sayfit what has >.
been saidbefore (e.g.
/ saw John. He said he wasgoingto the cinema,not / saw
lohn. JohnsaidJohnwas going...).We need srRnreclc too, suchas how
SKILLS, I-
to taketurnsin speaking,get information from a text,listenfor gist,etc.
I-
Language learningskills f-
e the abilityto usea dictionary
of unknownwords
e the abilityto work out meanings I-
e learningmetalanguage suchasaskingthe teacherWhat'sthepasttenseof !-
thatverb?etc.
I-
Generallearningskills
c contributing to, andworkingin,groupsin class tr-
c the abilityto knowwhat you knowandwhatyou stillneedto learn tr:
you don't know
for findinginformation
e, strategies
in tests,etc.
ei followingthe instructions E
I-
Otherbehavioural or socialskills
Manyteachers wouldsaythatoneof the primaryskills for anylearneristhe >
to staysittingin his/herchairworking
ability,for at leastpartof the lesson,
ratherthanwandering aroundanddisrupting the class. >
shouldwe includein ourassessment?
Whichof theseabilities >
How muchshouldeachskillbe worth?
And,if theyareincluded,how shouldwe recordourassessment? F
areto markor record.
Thistakesus on to how easyor difficultthesescores >
Othercriteriafor As we havealreadyseen,thereis alsoa problemabouthow to markor >
i nclusion:Easy/difficult recordanswers.
to markor record Assessments asnumbers(gap-fills,
that giveresults multiple-choice, etc.)are v
veryeasyto record.We cansimply write the (or
results nnw scoREs) on a pieceof
*
paper,or we canconvertthisnumberinto a percentage, a markout of twentyor
_-4
an A-E grade. *
thereareways,aswe shallseelater(in cHnprER
Similarly, 9), of markingwriting, 4
althoughtheseare much more complex aswe are not counting correctresults, *
but judgingthe qualityof a pieceof writing.We shallalsoseethat the same 1

systems canbe usedfor otherabilities, likespeaking and behaviour. P

However,whenwe wantto assess, e.g.the student's contributions to the class, -1

problem.This will almost certainly

mean we will have to write
P
we have a bigger
4
P
*
16
P
4
f-4
*
= Whatdo we assess?
{
=
{_ notes.Notesaremoredifficultto record:differentteachers
will writedifferent
t--r-
amountsaboutdifferentthings.lf we wantthisinformation
L-
l--r haveto havefilesfor eachstudent.
to be kept,we will

L-
r--- Summary
L-
u l a n g u a g ec o m p o n e n t s
t-
ranguage use l a n g u a g ec o m p e t e n c i e s
( g r a m m a rv, o c a b u l a r y , ( r e a d i n gw, r i t i n g , (socio-linguistd i ci ,s c o u r s e
pronunciation) l i s t e n i n gs, p e a k i n g ) andstrategic ompetencies)

l:
l-e

L-
1.' l e a r n i n gs k i l l s 'truth'or'fact'

L-
g

l-
r-.' 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
L-
l-r-

t--
)-a
ASSESSMENT

L-
a5
t h i n g st h a t a r e e a s y
L_
a--f
to mark or record

L_
t-f
t h i n g st h a t a r e
easy to test
t h i n g st h a t a r e
l_:
t-.J
What we typically assess easyto teach

L-
a-1I
a g e n e r a li m p r e s s i o no f t h e 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 el)e a r n e r s t u d e n ta s a l a n g u a g eu s e r
lj
l-t
a g e n e r a il m p r e s s i o no f t h e
L-
l--r
s t u d e n ta s a m e m b e ro f t h e c l a s s

l-
a-/'

L:
a-t
Thinkaboutyourcurrentsystemof evatuating
a studentat the endof theyear.
Which of the skilts mentionedabove are includedin your current
L:
a--
assessmentsystem? Whichof the skillsarenot inctuded? Canyouthinkwhy
they arenot included?
L-
f-J' Is onetypeof skittmorevaluable than another? Forexamp[e, it getshigher
t_
a--,f
marks,or determinesthe studenfsassessment?
Howarethesemarksrecorded?
L_
.-t Whichskiltsareforma[lyassessed (i.e. you recordthe informationon the
L:
l-t
studenfsrecords)?
Whichskittsdo think aboutwhenassessingthe student,but arenot recorded
L:
l-t
officiatty?
Doesyourpresent systemwork?Dothe goodstudents getthroughandthe bad
L:
r-
.-!]
ones fait?
So howdoesyoursystemdefinea goodlearner?
In ourschool,a goodlearnerissomeone
whocan...
Finishthe sentence
betow:

l_
1--t

L:
t"
J--t
77

L:
 a<
F

ls
CHAPTER
4
Testing: a 'good'testgood?
Whatmakes
F

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 v
in a testwilldependon how important the resultisto the student.lf you wantto >
knowwhethera studentknowssevenvocabulary itemsreferringto transport,this
is a simpletestto write.Theresultisn'tveryimportant.Forexample: tr
\frite five more words in the samecategory: E
car, bus, -t -, -t E
Butif you aregoingto usethe testto decidewhethersomeone
t-
will repeata
schoolyear,or will be ableto go to university
or not,the testobviously needsto F
be muchbetter.Thesekindsof examarenormally writtenby internationalexam
boardsor by the state,simplybecause theyareso complicated to makeandscore. F

"Sophot is a goodtest?" A goodtesthasthefollowingqualities: F

. . . i t i sv a l i d
. . . i t i sr e l i a b l e
tr
... it is practical F
... it hasno negative (negative
effectson the teachingprogramme ancrwnsH).
F
t-
Vatidity F
t-
Therearethreemaintypesof validity:
VALIDIry
CONTENT
F
CONSTRUCT
VALIDIW t-
FACEVALIDIry
F
Beforereadingthe sectionsbelow,lookat the threetypesof vaLidityabove
T A s K andhavea guesswhateachtypeof vatiditymeans. F
"Whotis content
uoliditu?" coNrENr
vALtDtw
meansDoesa testtestwhat it ls supposedto test?
F
Forexample, if we wantto testwhethera classof beginners canproduce
examples of the presentsimplefor describingroutines,
we mustmakesurethat:
... the questions areon the present
simplefor routines(andnot,for example, tr
presentsimplefor future)
... we testthe verbsthat beginnersarelikelyto know
t-
... we askthe students to producethe answer, and not iustrecognise
the F
answerby,say,usingmultiple-choice.
I-
18
F
l-
U t a k eas' g o o d ' t e sgt o o d ?
W: h a m
Testing

L -

1_^ In otherwords,the questions we askmustbe a representative sampleof a

L-
f---
beginner's wholeabilityto producethe present simplefor routines.
It is easierto makethe contentof a testvalidwhenwe aretryingto testsmall
L-
r---
itemslikethese.Butcorurerur
testinga student's
vALrDrry
globalabilities,
is moredifficultto assure
asin a pRoFtctENcy rrsr. ) seE
whenwe are
pnci8
IJ
l- Letus lookat a typical(lower)intermediate examof generalEnglish. What
test- andtherefore
lJ
l-
structures do examsat thisleveltypically
representative of a levelof knowledge of Englishin general?
assume are

L-
l-.e
... modalverbscan,must,don'thaveto
... presentperfectwith for
ljr-.t ... futurewill vsgoingto

r
L-t
... -edvs -ingadjectives
... -ingformafterverbsof likingandenjoyment
... too + adjective/ not + adjective + enough
L-
r-t
... simplepassives, etc.
Yetit couldtesta numberof otherthings,e.g.
ljrJ . .. topic/comment e.g.Thatcar- it wasawful.
r ... colloquial
sentences,
English,e.g.He getson my neNes.

r ... compound
a---. nouns,e.g.tablelegvsthebackof thebook
... speedof delivery, e.g.average numberof wordsperminute
t-t
... average sentence length
L:
l-i)
... turn-taking in conversationskills.

L-
a-.,
In otherwords,a test,especially
Sowe mustchoosea selection
a testof general English, cannottesteverything
of thingsto testthatwe thinkarerepresentative
L- of a student's abilityin knowing/using a (particular partof) language.

r
a-4,
Note:Someskillsaremoredifficultto testthanothers.Testingthe passive
easier than,say,testingturn-taking in conversation. Similarly,
typesareeasierto writethanothers,e.g.youcanlistento English
somequestion-
for days
is

L. withouthearinganyoneusereportedspeech, but it appears in lotsof tests;not

r
a-,f
in orderto testreported speech,butsimplybecause it is usefulfor testingthe
a-, student's abilityto manipulate the tensesystem and(inquestions) wordorder.
L: Theyareveryeasyquestions to write.

r
a-t]

"What is construct . coNsrRucr

vAltDrry
meansDoesthe testfesfwhat it'ssupposedto testand

r
a-1'
val.idltt1?" nothingelse?
Normallywe try to testoneof the following:
r
a-

... grammar (i.e.structure,

vocabulary andpronunciation)
|-, ... skills(i.e.reading, writing,listeningandspeaking).
L:
a-t
Butit is sometimes verydifficultto testoneof thesewithoutalsotestingothers.
L-
r
a-t

Lookat the foltowingtest question,thencompare youranswerwith the notes

l-c T A .g K on page20.
l: Fill the gapwith an appropriateverb in the correcrform.
r
a.--J

1) Mr Smith normally a red Mercedes.

r
a-4
Whatmustthe studentknowin orderto answer this questioncorrectly?
What
exacttyarewe testing?
)-!,

l-
)-.t'l.

L- 19
L:
a---J

L-
 F-
l-
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: F
... be ableto readand understand the instructions.
We areassuming that helshe
understands the vocabulary
@ppropriate, verb,form). E
... havesomereadingskills(e.g.he/shemayspeakEnglish, but be illiterate).
- l-
... knowthe required vocabularyandguesswhattheteacher wants.We may
be tryingtotestif the studentknowsthe verbdrive,buthe/shecouldusethe >
verbhaveor havegot.
... knowthetensesystem. We wantthe 3rd person-s. h
... alsoknowwhata 'Mercedes'is- we areusingassumed culturalknowledge
whichthe studentmaynot have.Suppose in theircountry'Mercedes' isa =
makeof bike.Wouldwe acceptrides?
. . . alsoknowsometeacher-shorthand. We assume that if we writenormally,the t-
studentwill knowthatwe wanta present simple.Butthestudent couldwrite
any of the followingcorrectanswers:drove,usedto drive,will drive,has E
driven,shouldhavedriven,etc.(Althoughthe word ordershouldhelpthem
to choose.)
F
So if the studentanswers: I-
1 Mr Smith normally pvig a red Mercedes.
F
How correctisthis?How manymarksdo we givehim/her?
1 markfor form?(thethirdperson-s form is right) F
1 markfor fillingthe gap?(he/sheunderstood the instruction)
0 marksfor appropriacy? (theverbiswrong) F
"What is
t
faceualiditg?" FACE vAlrDlrymeansDoesthe test appearto testwhat it is tryingto test?
Forexample, imagine thatwe do lotsof research andwe findthat,amazingly, F
the sizeof a student'sfeet is related
directly to language aptitude.We
learning
is a betterpredictor
find that shoe-size of levelthanour own eLAcEMENTrEsr. t
lf thisweretrue,it wouldmakesensefor usto throwawayour eLACEMENT TEST F
and insteadsimplyaskstudentsWhat'syourshoesize2Students, andparents,
wouldimmediately complain
becausethereis no apparent linkbetween shoesize F
and languageability.
In otherwords,thereisa kindof psychologicalfactorinvolved The
in testing. F
test mustappearto havesomething to do with the skillyou aretryingto test.
F
How to maketestsvalid: Beforeyou writea test,writedownwhatyou wantto test. F
Contentvalidity c Do you wantthe studentsto recognise
or producethe answer?
c Remember that oneform (e.g.structureor vocabulary item)mayhavea *
numberof different meanings.
E.
e Remember that eachstructureor vocabulary
itemmayhavea numberof
differentforms(singular,
plural;questions,
negatives, etc.;1st,2ndpersons, etc.), E
lf you aretestinga syLLABUs,seewhat percentage of the syLLABUsisgivento each
skill,form and meaning.lf you arewritinga generaltest,decidefor yourself F
whichskills,etc.aremostimportant.Youmayfind it usefulto fill a chartlikethe
one belowandon PHorocoPtAaLE pRoe1. F
Followthisprocedure. t
e Makea listof the teachingitemson the syllneus. An itemmightbe the
presentsimple,invitingor a vocabulary
area. E
e Thenlookat the amountof timethe syLLneus or coursebook suggests E-
spending on eachitem.Dividethisby thetotalnumberof course hoursor
F
20
E
I-
t
t-
Testing:
Whatmakes
a'good'testgood?
a- --/
--

l- coursebook units,multiplyby 100andthiswilltellyouwhatpercentage of

r
r--r
the courseeachitemrepresents.
you aredevisinga test/tests
(Thismethodis,of course,relevant
for the wholesyLlneus.)
onlyif

r
r---
e Thenlookat what formsof eachitemyou havecovered,
Item:presentsimple
e.g.

L-
lb
1 2nd/ 3rd person?singularlplural? questions/statements/negatives/
.st/
shortanswers?
r-a Item:vocabulary for food
ljr-- Singular/plurals? spelling?associated structures
likeunlcountables?.etc.
Item:inviting
L-
l--
Whichexponents?Whichanswers?(e.g.yes,t,d love to.)

L-
r-t
Item:skim-reading
What lengthof text? What speed?Whattext type?
l:
Lrr
o Thendecideif the svlLnsus expects the students
simplyto be ableto recognise
theseitemscorrectlyused,or to be ableto producethem.
L-
l-t
Youcanfill out a kindof grid,e.g.
l: Syllabus
item What exactly Percentage

r
r Recognise Produce Number of
arewe teaching? of syllabus //x /lx itemsin test
t-J Grammar: all persons,
rtakments,
L- presentsirnp[e questions,negatiues t3 I /50
r
4

a-t] Vocabu[ary:
andshoti ansuers
countable/ unco untoble
L- food slngular/plural q
2/50

r
l-!-
Communication/fu
nction: inuiting 5 3/50
a-t, inuitatiorts occeptinq/ refusinq
L-
r
a--
TIP

rr
L-r]
when you havecompleted
questions

timecoveringthe present
the chart,you shourd

simple,
recommends
try andmakethe numberof
and markson eachitemmatchthe percentages.
that yourcompletebeginnersyLLABUS
lmagine,for example,
that you spend15%of thte
andtellsyouthatthe students shouldbe able

r
t4

a-t
suggested
the correctforms.you thenlookat the testandfind that 50%of
to recognise
the questions
relateto the present
answers.
simple, andit includes
Thereis a clearmismatch
gap-fills
betweensyLLABUS
with no
L-
]-t
andtest.

How to maketestsvalid: lnstructions

L-
a--1)
Construct
validity Theeasiestway in a monolingual
classroom
of removing
anycomplications
with
L: instructionsisto writethemin thestudents'
testinstructionsareclassroom-authentic
own language. on theotherhand,
itemsof the targetlanguage, andthe
L' abilityto understand them becomes importantif the studentsareto take

r internationalexams.A usefulhalf-waypointis to put both Ll andtarget-

l-!

languageinstructions side-by-side,
andto movegradually towardsthe target

r
l-t
language onesovera numberof years.

r
l-:t
Remember to tell the studentshow manymarks,or what percentage
totalscore,eachitem/section
of allocatingan appropriate
of their
is worth.Thisgivesthe studentthe responsibility
amountof timeandeffortl
l:
r
4

It
27
L-
L-"-
r-
 =
t a k eas ' g o o d ' t e sgt o o d ?
W: h a m
Testing
r-

Testingtwo thingsat the sametime v

Lookat eachquestionandcheckwhatyou aretryingto test.We canlimitthe
studentto makesurewe aretestingonlythe partwe wantto test,e.g. +
P
I Normally, Mr Smith a red Mercedes.
) Normally, Mr Smith a red Mercedes.(drive) v
v
we mustdecideif we aretestingdriveor -s. lf we givethem
In the lastexample,
drive,we aretesting-s;if we don't,perhaps
we shouldgivea half-markfor v
drive,asthe studenthaschosenthe rightvocabularyitem.
)-
Remember thatdroveisalsocorrect.lf morethanoneteacheris markingthe
you
exam, will needan answerkeyandmarkingguidewith allthepossible t-
) sersconeR
answers. peae26
RELtABtLtw
F
whenyou havewrittenyourtest,checkit with otherpeople- native
Howto maketestsvalid: lf possible,
In general speakers, andotherstudents.
otherteachers, youshouldtrialit with
ldeally, F
anotherclassat the samelevel,andseeif it givesresultswhicharesimilarto
othertestresultsandthe teacher's gut reaction.
lf you can'ttrialallof it, givethe !-
otherclasshalfof it, e.g.everyotherquestion. )-
checkthat yourtestlookslikeit is testingwhatyou intendit to test.
Finally,
i> serrncr vALlDtwpnoe20 v
Forallthesereasons,choosing someform of otnecr rEsrNc(srepnce30) will
normallyautomaticallygiveyou a morevalidtest(if the instructionsare v
understood).
easily
t-
F

Retiabitity I-

t-
Therearetwo mainformsof reliabilitv:
TESTRELIABILITY

RELIABILITY
SCORER t-
"Whatis testreliabilitq?" TEsrRELIABTLTry
meanslf it waspossibleto give the samepersonthe same
testat the sametime, wouldthe resultbe the same?
lmagineyou wantto seehow wellpeoplecanplaydads.Youaskthemto hit the
t-
bulls-eye.How manydartswouldtheyneedto throwto convince you of their
*
levelof dartplaying?
Three?Five?Ten?Forthisexample, we will choosefive.
you wantto testif a student'knows' the presentsimple.How
Now suppose *
manyquestions wouldyouask?We chosefivefor darts,so,if we wantto test
the thirdpersonhe,we wouldneedfivequestions or testitemslike: *

He to the cinema every day. (eo)

On Tuesdays,h _ to go to the cinema. (like) E-
F
Note:Because of coltreruT
vALrDtry,
we haveto givethemthe baseverbor we are
alsotestingvocabulary. +
I-
22
*

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

b
l-- Butwe can'tassume thatthe studentknowssheaswellashe.so we would
needfiveshetestitemsaswell.And whataboutplurals? And names,aswellas
l_
r---
pronouns? And alsothings,possibly bothconcreteandabstract.In fact,we
r
f---
wouldneedfivetestitemsfor eachof the following:
I you he she it tohn building
l_-
l-
we you they lohn and Mary ideas
In addition,thereareat leastfourformsof the present
L-
l_
questions,negatives andnegative
questiontags,yes/noanswers,
questions.
etc.
simple:statements,
Tomakeit simple,we willexclude

r-.-t Thismeansthat,to testwhetherthe studentknowsthe present simple,we

l_
r-.-
wouldtheoretically needto askthe following:

r
g
12 subjects
|/ you/ he/ she/ it/we/ you/ they
x 4 forms
affirmative/
x 5 examples
of each

l:
r-t John/building negative/q
uestion/
l:
V John& Mary/ideas question
negative
l:
a-----
Thisgivesusa testwith 12 x 4 x 5 or 24Oquestions.
L-
a4
Remember that herewe areonlytestingstructure. Thepresent simplecanhave
manydifferent meanings, apartfromroutineactions,
L:
l-.- ... universal truths(Thesun risesin the East.)
including:

L:
a-t]
... commentary or presenthistoric(Jones shootsandhe scores!
... futures(Yourtrainleavesat sixa.m.tomorrow.).
2 - 1!)

L: lmagine we wantedto testroutineactions andthesethreeotherdifferent

r
a-J

t-t
meanings
However,
at the sametime,we wouldneed240x 4 questions
we haveto realise that thisistotallyimpractical.
- 960 in total!
Sowe haveto
L'
i4
compromise
240 possible
andselect
questions
someof the possible questions
we mightask10 or 20.Theproblem
we couldask.out of the
iswhich10 or 20 do
L- we ask?We musthopethat the samplewe chooseis representative.

rr
a-t''
Letusimaginetwo students:
knows220 answers
20/20because
A andB.A onlyknows20 answers
out of the240.lt istherefore
we onlyaskthe20 questions
possible
out of the240.B
thatluckyA mightscore
helsheknows,butunlucky B might
)-c score 0/20 because we askhim/heronlythe20 questions he/shedoesn't know.
L-
a-r,
Soherewe areaskingHow representative
the questions possible? Civenour resources,
is our selectionof questions
therewill alwaysneedto be a
out of all

L:
a-,
compromise betweenmakingourtestlongenoughto be reliable butalsoshort
enoughto be practical.
L- On theotherhand,we mustalsomaketestslongenoughto giveenough
r_
V

a-!-
samples to measure. Forexample,
pieceof writingis longenoughto require
we can'ttestparagraphing
paragraphs;
skillsunlessthe
andwe can'ttesttalking
L- skillsunless thereistimeto talk,interrupt, request information, andsoon.

r
l-!l
Sometimes we alsoneedto maketaskssufficiently you
complex. can'ttesta

r
a-t
student's
decision
Of course,
abilities to compare
in a two-minute
two possible
conversation
therehasbeena lot of research
choices andmakean informed
abouttheirsummer holidays.
on resrRELtABtLtry
and how to
L: measure it, but it isallextremely complex andtime-consuming. lt is unrealistic
to

r_ expectschools to havethe timeand resources to makea testtotallvreliable.

Llt

a-tA

L-
rL-
l--if
23

l-
 ac
.1

: h a tm a k e sa ' g o o d 't e s tg o o d ?
T e s t i n gW
!-
. Instead,it may be bestto acceptthat almosteverytestwe designwill have _Y
lt will simplybe a guideto the teacher
: limitedreliability. whenit comesto giving
: a finalassessment of anystudent's And,
abilities. if we arehonest,if we thinka _Y
' studenthasunder-performed in our reliabletest,we areoftenstilltemptedto -
. finda few marksand helpthempassanyway! P
l1
How to make Get enoughexamPles
testsmorereliable c Seenumberof questions andcomplexity above. y
---3

o Givethe studentsfreshstads.lf theydon't likethe essaytopicor question

type,or if theyfeeltheyaremakinga messof thisquestion, theymaynot +
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 _F
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 t-
how to change channelsand how to record a programmeon a different
channel from the one she is watching. (250 words) t-

l-

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 t-
one they are watching. \frite a short note explaining how to do it.
(75 words) F
b r$(/ritea short postcard to an aunt to tell her how your holiday is going.
(75 words) t-
c During the school holidays, you and your parentshave moved to a new F
house in a different part of your city. You are writing to a friend who is
'$7rite
away with his/her parents on their summer holidays. one F
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-

v
As you cansee,the tasksareverysimilar;but TestB givesthe studentthreefresh
attemptsat the sametask,and alsoallowsyou to testa widerrangeof social
andtext tyPes.
styles,audiences,
E
Testingtechniques
Makethem:
e varied- don't useonlyonetechnique to measure.Forexample,don'tusejust E-
but alsoothertechniques
gap-fills, suchas multiplechoice.
However,
don't
givethe answerto question10 in question24,e.g. F
!-

24
F
I-

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

L-
t-
It--r
Vrite the appropriarequestionword.
l0 doeshe go on Friday nights?

L-
r--r
Fill the gap with the appropriate form
of the verb.
24 $flhere he _
l-
r--=
on Tiresdaymornings? (go)
l-J

o familiar- the studentsmay not performweil

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

r
r-t

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

r-.I false(F)
or nor given (NG).
L-
r-t

l:
r.i Instructions

l: Makethem:

r
1--q
o clear
a4
c at the appropriatelevelof language. Teachers
rarelyteachthe wordgapo(
suitableto beginners,
l:
a--J Remember
but theyoftenusethemin the testinstructions.
to usethe students' L1 if necessary.
rf not,you maybe testing
L-
a-1.
theirinstruction-readingskillsinstead of whatyou areactuallytryingto test.

L: Restrictthe task

r
a-1t

r--r
Allthestudents

Computers
shouldhavethesamechance.
Lookat thefollowing
compositions.

L:
r
IJ
How can computershelp us?

r
a-J How can compurershelp peopleat work?
How can computershelp the police,{ire and ambulanceservices

r
a-J in emergencies?

a.,-!] obviouslythe lasttaskis the mostrestricted andwill allowyou to seediffering

L-
a-c
abilitybetterthanthe first.rn addition,if you giveu g.n.rui topic
studenthasno ideas,you aretestingcreativity
andthe
as*.ll u, engliih.
L]
r--t
g) seEcoNsrRucr vAltDtry (pncr19)ih"y ,"y needa freshstart(sEe pnce24).

L:
|-t]
Keepconditionscomparable

L-
.-t
Makesuretwo differentgroupstakethe testunderthe sameconditions.
instructions mustbe the.same.Do you pausethe tapebetweenprays?
The
How rong
L- for? ls theredistracting
backgrorndnoise?can theycheat?Do you givethema

r minuteto let themfinishafterTime'sup!, or do you saypensdownnow!?

L'

r TA s Lookat one of the end-of-year testsfromyourschoot.Howretiabledo you

r K
a-il
thinkit is?Thinkof at leastonewayof makingit moreretiabte
but takingihe
l-t sameamountof time.
L:
,-/t

l--
a--t)
25
L:-
l-t

L:
L'

I
 r<
P
a 'good'test
Whatmakes good?
.-_Jytnn, -F
_1.
l-
"What is scorerreliabilittl?" scoRER meanslf you gave the same test to two different people to
RELTABTLTry
mark, would they give the same score?
-Y
--4
az
Lookat the three answers to exercises below.What kind of test is each
fz
from?What kindof problems will you havewhenmarkingthemfor a) your
b) anotherteacher's
class? class?
a1

a-
Examplel:la 2b 3d 4a 5d
Example2:He Ap to thecinema. a-
Example3: Jonh"gr,t vp andopondo ory4. Tho gvniE ShinninSard
'le
do bridE aro ginrirn+tto hnd' a boaift-rfulda4.Todarl, I no"go to a-
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?' a-

-P
Example 1: Multiplechoicetests
It iseasyto seethat Example 1 is mucheasierto markthanExample 3. ln fact,a ->
computer canmarkExample 1. Butaswe explained in CoNTENTvALtDtTY(pncr18),
multiple-choiceexamsaremuchmoredifficultto write.Andtherearesomeskills- P
likewriting- wheretestingby multiple-choice causes problemswith validity. 1

with multiple-choice examsisthatthe results don't help

P
Anothermajordrawback
1
the studentto learn.Neitherteachernorlearner cangetanyusefulinformation -F
aboutwhy the learner'sanswerwasright/wrong or successful/unsuccessful.
Example 2: Limitedpossibility
tests _k
Thereareonlya limitednumberof possible correct answers for Example 2.
However, aswe sawin corusrRucr (pncr19):
vALtDtry
P
... thereareoftenmorepossible thanwe anticipated
answers whenwe wrote l-
the question
... students cangiveanswers whicharepartially correctand partiallywrong. _+
l-
" Howcanue irnproue Usean answerkeyor a marking guide:givea listof acceptable answers anda
(i.e.
scorerreliabilitgin markingscheme canyougivehalf-marks? lf so,whatfor?).Butif morethan l-
inthesecLses?" oneteacheris markingthe tests,remember that you mayneedseveralmeetings
to add new acceptable to the list,or alterthe markingscheme.For
answers t-
example, alltheanswersbelowarepossible.
t-
Ex.2 He _ to the cinema.
l-
goog/wort/wrlly/has beon/vvrll
havogonofwovldliko to
ff
f-

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

r-
26
t-

-t-
sb Testing: makes
What good?
a'good'test

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

L-
f---
:e
.
TeacherE might saythat this is a good essayfor a beginnerbut bad for an
intermediatestudent.
L:
l--r
"Howcanwe[nprouescorer:Youmayneedmorethan
l_ oneteacherinvolvedin the markingfor two reasons:

u reliabilittlintheseceses?":. first,if morethanoneteacheris administering

the exam,it isveryimportant
that
l-

allthe teachersaremarkingit in the sameway.Second,we arenowjudgingthe

student's workratherthancountingit, andevendancers arejudgedby a panell
L:
r_-
" How canwedo this?"
L-
]--
Themostimportantactionis to negotiate andagreeon the criteriayouwill all
judgethe answerby.Thiscouldbe doneby agreement on pRoFtLtNc pncr49):
(sEe
l:
g
breaking
spelling,
downtheanswers
punctuation,
youwantintoeithertheircomponent
structure,cohesion;or othercriteria,
parts,like
suchasorganisation,
l_
l-J
relevance,
impression.
etc.;andlorBANDTNC (seecncr51):markingaccording to overall
We willreturnto thisin a laterchapter.
l_
V
Someteachers willsaythatthereis no timeto havemeetings or readdocuments to
t--
a5
makesuretheyaremarking
oneteacher ismarking
thetestin thesamewayastheotherteachers.
the sametestin a differentway,everyone's
Butif
timeiswastedl
l_
a-d
Theresults aresimplynotof anyuse,because the results arenotcomparable. so:
... thestudents havewastedtheirclass timedoingthetest
t--
V
... theteachers havewastedtheirtimemarkingthetest
... theschool's administration haswasteditstimerecording the results
L:
a--- ... theschoolisopento complaints fromparents whosechildren willcompare
L:
a-.-^
resultson the way home:I put thesamethingashe did but he gotit rightandt
got it wrong...
I
l--r
Of allthe qualities
expertsunderstand.
of a goodtest,sconrnRELIABILtw
lgnoringscoRER RELIABILrry
is the onlyonethat non-
is a falseeconomyl
L:
r-Jl

L:
a-.- Lookat a currenttest usedin yourschoo[.Aretherectearandunambiguous
T A .g K
L:
V
markinginstructions? Howwouldyouimprove
Nowtry to answera[|'the questions
them?
asif you werethe 'studentfromHe[[l
L-
a-J.
Answeralt the questions as possible!
as unco-operatively
L: a Makesurethat everyanswer you writeis possible;
but

r
a
b either not whatthe teacheractuattywantedyouto write(shewastryingto
test somethingetse);or wjttcausethe teacherothermarkingdifficutties!
l-,I

Howwouldyouchangethe test, but makeit takethe sameamountof time?

L:
r
4

u-]

L-
l_:t
Practicality
L:
r "Whatis practlcolitg?": Perhapsthe mostimportantqualityof anytestis how practical
it isto administer

r
l--'

l- rl
; Whilewe maywantto have1,000questions,
; video-recorder
for a listening
: time,personnel,
space,
or givethestudents theirown
test,we simplydo not havethe resources,
equipment or money.
thatis,

L:
a-.4

L-
t
r_a
27

L-
 a-
_P
VJhat
Testing: a'goodtest'good?
makes -.-
*!-
-1.
y
Readthe fo[owing(ideatised!)list of resourcesrequiredfor writinggoodtests.
Whichdo yourschoolhave?Whichcoutdyourschoolpossibty arrangeor get? _Y
Whichare impossibtefor yourschool to arrangeor get?What effectwiLtthis -
haveon yourschoolstestingsystem? -Y
--e
,-

Time will be neededfor: _v

teachers designingthe test _+
teachers analysingthe results(e.g.how successful pncr36?)
arethe distractors,
it
trialling on samplegroups
teachers markingthe papers P
students doingthe test
_*
Writinga testwhichis validand reliablerequires:
az
who areexperienced
teachers in test-writing
who areexpertstatisticians
teachers
to attendpre-marking
teachers sessions
standardisation E-
to markthe tests
teachers
to answerquestions
co-ordinators answers
aboutalternative -F
Spaceand equipment _v
needto be sittingwheretheycan'tcopy(especially
students in multiple-choice
tests)
theymayneeddifferenttables(e.g.onedeskper person)
y
needgoodaudio-/video
teachers tape-players andpause/replay
with counters buttons
theymayneedcalculators or computers
to recordand analysethe results -v
Money for: -v
extrastaff
extraspace F
extraequipment.
(However, thismoneyis probablynot available.) _v
-+
+
Backwash P

"Whatis backwash?" BACKWASH - sometimes calledwashback - refersto the effectthat a finaltesthas tr

on theteaching programme that leadsto it. Thisis a familiarexperience, andis
alsosometimes calledteachingto the test.
Forexample, the schoolsvr-r-naus/objectivestell the teacherto teachfluency,but t-
theschool's finaltestis,e.g.a multiple-choice grammar andvocabulary test.
j-
Most teachers want theirstudents to pass the test - possibly
the teacherswill
havetheirteaching performance assessed on the basisof the students'success
(or lackof it), thereforemostteachers will teachgrammarandvocabulary rather
thanfluency.
*
Sometimes the effectof thisBAcKWAsH canimprovethe teachingprogramme: this
is calledbeneficial BACKWASH. For example: the school management notices
that )-
students at the endof the teachingprogramme knowtheirgrammarbut cannot
speakthe targetlanguage. Theydecideon radicalactionlTheydropall grammar +
itemsin the testand insteadintroduceinterviews on videoby otherteachers of
the target language. Teachers thereforechange theirteachingto givemore
emphasis to the speaking skill.
F
28
t-

a1
l= Testing: a 'good'testgood?
Whatmakes

l_
L -
we couldalsointroducea conceptsuchasfrontwash.Thisisthe
effectthat new
teachingtechniquesor materials
l-^
L.
introduction
of communicative
haveon the designof tests.Forexample,
teachingmethodorogy and materiarshas
the
undoubtedly
l_
l-
influenced
international
tests.
or changedthJcontentanJemphasis of manylocaland

I
lr

f T A s K
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
response to changes in the syLlaaus?
in
1_
IJ 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
l--
r.---
response to changes
canyouthink of anyexamptes
in the assessment system(i.e.,notlhe svrLnsus)?
wherethe assessment systemhasbeenchanged
L_
IJ
because you - or yourcoursebook - havechanged yourteachingstyr.e?

l_
r
l---
Summary
Giventhe resources we have,we will alwayshaveto makea compromise between
t_
J-...
how reliable
results
a testisandhow practical
not to decidesomeone's
a testis.Forthisreason,
abilities,
we shouldusetest
but moreasonefactorin helpingusto
L-
a--t
assess
a student's
vALlDlry
performance. Testresultsguide,theydo not dictate.
looksat whetheryour testtestswhat you want it to test.TESr REL;AB1Ltry
t_
a--
looksat whetheryourtestresultsaccurately reflectthe student,s
performance.
writing a validand reliable testthat givesresultsyou cantrustrequires
L-
)-t
enormousresources. often sucha testis not practical as manyof the resources
requiredareprobablynot available.
L_- Althoughwe will try hardto makethe test

r
4
asgoodaspossible,
crucialdecisions
we will probablynot be ableto truit in-house
aboutstudents. Therefore we shouldusein-house
a guide,or onlypartof an overallstudentevaluation system.
teststo make
testresults
as

L:
a--a
We shouldalsobe awareof the BA.KWASH effect- arewe teachingthe students
something because it is in the examor because theyreallyneedit to buildtheir
L-
rL-
language knowledge?

.-t

L_
a-,

L:
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.-e

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29
L-
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L-
 F
5 I-
CHAPTER
#
Whatformsof testingandevaluation !-

shoutdweuse? P

]z

v
v
Directandindirecttesting )-

" Whatis directtesting?" rcsrNcmeanswe askthe studentto performwhatwe want to test.

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

to use language.
v
Weuse[anguage in tal.king(speakingand [istening),readingand writing.
Someone canbe good at grammar but unabteto commun'icate in speechor _v
writing.In this case,grammar, vocabularyand pronunciation
tests mustreatty
a[[ beformsof indirecttesting. _v
t-
30
v
.1
-a
a
- Whatformsof testingandevaluation
shoutd
weuse?
I
I
_\_-/__
?;
L.
L-
So we shoutdptacemoreemphasis tests than grammar
on resuttsfromskiLl.s
L-
l--a
andvocabularytests.
Doyou agree?
L:
r-...- Doyouthinkyourschoolagrees?
l_
lr
Howmuchof your students' final assessment is basedon their abitityto
communicate- to useandexperiment with the languagethey havelearned?
l_-
L-{
Howmuchis basedon theirabiLityto manipulate grammarandvocabutary? Do
youagreewith this balance?
L:
r-..-

L:
r-.-r

L:
J.J Norm-referenced
andcriteria-referenced
testing
L-
g

L:
]--J
Thesetermsreferto the way a testis madeandthe way the results
arepresented.
of a test

L:
gl
" Whatis norn-referencedWhenthe resultsof the testcompare
lj
a--t testing?" doesnot giveanyinformation
a studentwith otherstudents.
aboutindividual
performance,
Theresult
onlya comparison
t_:
a-t
with otherstudents'
Forexample,
- fromthat yearandfrom otheryears.
performances
a university wantsto restrictentryto its (science)courses to the
L:
l-f
applicants who havethe bestchance of successfully
completing a course. In the
past,it hasfound- perhaps by trialanderror- that students
who scoredgoy. or
L:
r
ut
morein theirfinalschool
Therefore theyofferplaces
yearexamsarethe candidates
onlyto students
1 6 / 2 0i n t h e i rf i n a sl c i e n ceex a m s .
from your
mostlikelyto succeed.
schoolwho got g0%or

L:
r--- "Whatis criteriareferencedwhen the resulttellsyouabout
whatthe individual
L:
)1
testing?" not comparehim/herwith otherstudents.
studentcando,anddoes
lt describes
certaincriteria
thatthe
L:
a-'
studenthasbeenableto meet.
Forexample,a studentisapplying
for a job whichrequires
the abilityto usea
L-
a4
word-processor.
Theemployer doesnot wanta computer
who cando basicword-processing:
expert,onlysomeone
typing;file-management;simplecut,copy
L:
)-C
andpastecommands. Thestudenttakes a word-processing
courseandthefinal
examteststheseskills.
L:
)-J Theemployerdoesn'tneedto knowif anyoneelseon the course wasbefteror
L- worse.He/shesimplywantsto knowwhatthecandidate cando.

= "So wh.ich
ls better...?' As we sawabove,it isthe stateand largeinternational
a-tA examinationboards
who aremostconcerned
L: with comparingpeople.Thevalueof their

r
.-4
qualifications
example,
depends uponyear-on-year comparison andconsistency.For
manypeoplefeelthat 'examsthesedaysaren'tasdifficultaswhenI
wasat school'.Lackof year-on-year consistency
devaluesthe state'sawards,
like
L: universityplacesand university
meansit isverydifficult
degrees.
However,
to improveor develop
thisneedfor consistency
examsbecause resultswouldn't
- be comparable.
.-r]
Thereis a similarity
herewith DrREcr rEsrNc.g seenncr3o
andrruorRecr
L:
r 31
[:
L--rtl

L:
 !]<
P
we use?
shouLd
Whatformsof testingandeva[uation ---.
+
_1.

by the user:an employercan

rEsrscanbe directlyinterpreted
cRtrERrA-REFERENCED
_v
reada descriptionto discover what the studentcando. y
NoRM-REFERENCED TESTS you canonlyusethe result
arenot directlyinterpretable: --1

by comparing onestudent's resultwith yourpastexperience of otherpeople -v

with the samescore.
y
Forteachers andstudents,it is obviouslymoreusefulfor usto knowwhat a
student can and cannot do so we canwork on the areaswherethereare
problems.
P
However, the stateand otherlargeorganisations needto reduce
-
complexitytheywantsimpleandconsistent measurement. P

Formsof evaluation P

->
Firstwe mustremember the differencebetweensimpletestingandevaluation. In
questions to
I-
thisbook,the term testingis usedwhenwe areaskingthe students
whichwe alreadyknowthe answers. We areusingthe termevaluation to ask _r-
the students questions to whichwe don'tknowthe answers - genuine questions:
Do the studentsfeel they aregettingbetter?Havethey foundthe courseuseful? -F
We earlieridentified severaldifferenttypesof test:pRoncrENcy rEsrs,AcHTEVEMENT
TEsrs,pLACEMENT rEsrsand orncruoslc rESTS(serpnce8). However, in allthesetests, P
we aretestingthe students to seewheretheyfit in to our system andour
We arein control.
criteria.
P
Butevaluation is differentbecause we areaskingquestions to learnaboutthe -v
student's learningprocess and attitudes,
and aboutthe teachingProgramme.
Therearethreecommontermsusedwhendescribing evaluation:suMMAlvE, ^>
and coNcnuENTEVALUATIoN.
FoRMATTvE
!-
"Whatis summative Thisisdoneat the endof (a stageof) a process. In teaching, thismightbe at the .>
euoluotion?" endof a termor a year.In thisway,it is a kindof finalassessment,summarising
l-
what hasbeenachieved throughoutthat course.suMMArvE EVALUAToN looksat
generalfeedback to the teachingprocedure used, so that nextyear's
coursecan
l-
be changedaccording to what hasbeenmoreor lesssuccessful.
t-
"Whotisformative Thisisdoneduringa process so that the processcanbe changedto makeit more
t-
In
eualuation?"effective. this
teaching, might be feedback that a teachergetsto checkhow
successfulthe teachingprogramme is.Thefeedbackfrom the studentscanalso
t-
affectthe teachingprocedure whilethereis stilla chanceto changeit for the
better- to helpthisyear'sstudentsratherthan nextyear's. t-

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

F
7,t
D-

-lr-
II
=
II Whatformsof testingandevatuation
shouldwe use?
--^
>;1
t
I
l--
Puttingthe three You will noticethat there is, in effect, litfle differencebetweentheseterms,
t- together becauseevaluationneverends.suMMATrvE EVALUATToN at the end of a course
t_ informsthe teacher- and students- about how to changethe coursenext time
l---
to make it more successfuland/or more closelyrelatedto the beliefsbehindthe
l--- course.suMMATlvE EVALUAToN will also have implicationsfor the next course:if
there are certainproblemareasthe following coursewill have to be changedto
L-
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
l-
L' i sd o n e .
c coNcRUENT
EVALUAION
triesto keep the processon the desiredcourse.
fJ-
o FoRMATtvE
EVALUATTON
triesto alter the processwhile it is still going on.
L4
e suMMAlvEEVALUAION
triesto assessthe successof the completedprocess.
t_
a-{ Summary
t_
l-_t
In thischapterwe havecoveredthe following.
o rNDrREcr resrstestabilitiesrelatedto the skillwe areinterested
in.
a-tf o DrREcr rrsrstestthe skillitself.
o NORM-REFERENCED examscompareone person'.s performancewith manyothers.
1-l
o CR|rER|A-REFERENCED examsdescribe what one personcando without
a4 comparing themwith others.
o coNcRUENT, FORMATIVEand surunnnlvE EVALUATtolr
t_ describewhenevaluationis
a--.il done:before,during,or after.Butit is importantto remember that evaluation
is not linear,but cyclical.Eachpartinformsthe other.
a4
t-
]-_!,
Thinkaboutwhenandwhyyourschoolevatuates its students.
l-.
l-t Doesit askthe studentgenuinequestionsto improvethe schoofsteaching:
t-
l-
a-----
a duringthe yearor teachingprogramme?
I b at the endof theyearor teachingprogramme?
l--:l Doesit askyou, the teacher,genuinequestionsto improvethe schoo['s
t- teaching:
t-t
I
a duringthe yearor teachingprogramme?
t4 b at the endof the yearor teachingprogramme?
Doesyourschoolexamine newcurricula,syLLeBuses
andassessmentprocedures
l-:t_
beforeimplementing themin orderto checkthey matchthe schoofsaims?
.-tf
Doesyourschoofsteachingprogramme have'officiafaims?
--t_
Why?Whynot?

-!.

-=

-|t

----_

--
-..-,
33
----t-
 r<
Iz

.;!-
-1
.,J

PARTB Gettingdatafor assessment .P

--1
-v
Lz

a-d

6
CHAPTER -v
#
Testing for grammar
technigues -v
andvocabulary .P
)z

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

1 Lookat the fottowing

examples andmatchthemwith the five techniques v
above.Theanswers arein the followingtext.
-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. lz

c Mr Brown normally go to the cinemaon Tuesdays. Right or wrong? ,1

d Mr Tiresdayscinema to on goes Brown normally the

.-
e Mr Brown / normally / go / cinema/ Tuesdays
f They madethat car in Spain. That car ,-
g Mr Brown normally g_ to t cinemao_ Tuesdays. a-

r-
a/,
)1

>z
b for grammar
techniques
Testing andvocabuLary

D
l-. 2 Nowthink of the language
testsyouusein yourschoot.
L-
r--- Whichof thesetechniques
arethe mostcommonly usedfor testinggrammar?
L:
r-.--
Whjchof thesetechniquesare the most commontyusedfor testing
vocabutary?Why?
L:
l-t
Whatprobtems haveyouandotherteachershadusingthesetechniques?

L:
rL-
r---
Testingtechniques:
True/false
and
multiple-choice
questions
True/false
technique
excellent
andmultiple-choice questions areprobablythe mostpopulartesting
foundin teststoday,largelybecause
scoRER RELrABrLrry.
) seeence25
theyareveryeasyto markandhave

t-.-tt However, theypresentseveral problems:

L- ... theyonlytestthe student's abilityto recognisea correctanswer

r
g,
... theremaybe problems in usingtrue/false questions to testgrammar
... thereisa problemwith students guessing the rightanswer
|-,f,
... theyareextremely difficultto write
L-
r-J
... sometimes theyareimpossible to write.

t_
l-----
Let'slookat theseproblems in moredetail.

L_
a-t'
Theyonlytestthe student's abilityto recognise
Theydo not testthe student's produce
a correctanswer
abilityto or usecorrectlanguage, so it is
L_
l-.Ji
oftenbetterto usethemfor testingpassive skills(i.e.readingand listening).
However,theyareoftenalsousedfor testinggrammarand/orvocabulary. In this
L-
l--
case,remember that you aretestingthe student's abilityto recognisea correct
formor word.Youcannotassume thattheycanactuallyproduceit.
L:
a4

t--
u_'
Theremaybe problemsin usingtrue/falsequestions
We normallyusetrue/false
questions
to testpassive
to testgrammar
skills.lf we usetrue/false-
l:
14
typequestions
to testgrammaror vocabulary,
we areessentially askingthe
students
to markthesentencerightor wrong.Lookat thefollowingexamples.
L_
a4 Testing
vocabulary
L:
a-J
Text: Mr Brown often seesa film at the weekends.
l: F
r-t Q: He normally goesto the cinemaon Ti:esdays. T
L_
1-,r)

L:
l-!J
Note:Thisistesting(recognition
Testing
of) the wordweekends.
whethergrammaris rightor wrong
L-
r-r

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

t-!t
Mr Brown normally go to the cinema on Ti.resdays. x
L-
]s
2 Mark which sentenceis correct(/) :
l--
r
l-i!
a Mr Brown normally go to the cinemaon Tiresdays.
b Mr Brown normally goesto the cinemaon Tuesdays.
I
n
l_
t4

L:
l--

L-
t-, 35
L:
t--

i-=
 F
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 l-

Bydefinition, questions
true/false meanthat the studenthasa 50% chanceof a
correctanswerby guessing. Thismeansthat, if you want to havea passmark,it F
wouldneedto be muchmorethan50% to eliminate chance.
Y
An alternative isto deductmarksfor wronganswers. Butwhat is the meaningof
the finalmarkyou give?Thewronganswersmay be the resultof imperfect 14

understanding, whilethe correctanswersmay be the resultof guessing.

so far,we havelookedat true/falsequestions, ,-
wherethe studenthasa one-or-
the-otheralternative. Theobviousway of reducingthe chances of passing
by
guessing isto givemorethanonealternative answer,as in multiple-choice !-
questions,e.g.
F
Mr Brown normally to the cinema on Tiresdays. F
a) goes b) arrives c) go d) did go
F

Thereisnormally onlyonecorrectpossibility. (wrong)answers

Thealternative
F
are
calleddistractors,
andtherearenormallybetweenthreeandfive possibilities.
F
Theyareextremely difficultto write F
Thebiggestproblemiscreatingwrongalternative answers that lookpossible.
ln the example above,wouldit be legitimate t-
to usegrammatically wrong
alternatives,e.g.wented?Manyteachers feelunhappyaboutpresenting their ,-
students with incorrect
language in casethey somehow,learn'it.
Because we wantthetestto 'looknice',we tendto usethe samenumberof I

distractors
for eachtestitem.However, thereareoften not threeor moreviable
alternatives.Thuswe haveto usea distractor that clearlydoesn'tfit, e.g.arrives. F
Thismeansthat reallythe studenthasto makea choiceof one out of three,
ratherthanoneout of four.Thedistractors that we do usecanoftenshowthe F
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 I

stresspattern:
! l-
Mr Brownnormollydidgoto the cinerno
onTuesdags.
l-
Sometimes true/falseor multiple-choice questionsare impossibleto write
only certainareasof language learningcanbe testedby multiple-choice, t-
e.g.it
isverydifficultto testwritingor speakingin thisway.Butbecause multiple- I
choicequestions areso apparently easyto writeand mark,they get used
moreand more.Teachers maythen startwritingtestswhichavoidareasof
t-
languagethat arenot easilytestedin this way,and, becauseof the BAcKWAsH
effect(serpncr28), suchareasoftenwon't get taught. I-

l-

I
36
t-

t-
-
 Testing for grammar
techniques andvocabulary
.-

L*
:I- (
Testingtechniques: Whereastrue/false
andmultiple-choice
questions gap-filling
testrecognition,
L-
r-.-
G a p - f i l l in g questions
testproduction.
questions.
Therearethreeconsiderations
with gap-filling-type

L-
f-.r
"Shouldue giuea
rj
E_ contextor not?"
contextheremeansDo we putthe language
we use,for example,only singlesentences?
in itsnaturalenvironment,
or do

L-
r--
Fortestingspecific
grammaror vocabulary items,contextis sometimesomitted:

r
r-.- Mr Brown normally to the cinema on Tiresdays.

L-
r-'Jr
You seefilms at the

L-
r
r-4 Thismaycauseproblems aswe haveseenabove,because
morethanoneanswer
maybe possible.

r
,-.tt

f-t
Gap-fills
areoftenusedin longertexts:

L-
IE
On a typicalday,Mr Brown
ft V
at 7.00am.He dressedand

L- then downstairsand his breakfast.Then he to

r
l-l
work in his car.He lunch at 1.00p.m. He homeat 5.00p.m.

rl:
J-Jt
and, after

to bed.
his dinner, television until midnight, when he

f4

L- At higherlevels,
or with longertexts,therearenormallyno gapsin the first

r
u!) twentywordsor paragraph.
we aremoreinterested
Thisisto orientate
in testinggrammar,
the studentin the context.When
we oftenanswerthe firstquestionto

r
t--^
givea guideto the kindof answerwe want.
However, in thegap-fillabovewe havereminded the studentthatthe third
r
-.-,-,
person-s exists,andso the restof the testmaysimplybe testingvocabulary.
----J-

L-
r---
"Shou/d
ue giuea guide
Ls Thisraises
the questionof how much,it any,helpwe shouldgivethe student.
to whottoputinthegap Apartfrom a sampleanswer,the examples
L-
I -
abovegavethe studentno assistance.
or not?" Butwe cangivethe studenta certainamountof helpasto what goesin the gap.
L-
-_- Mr Brownnormallv to the cinema on Tuesdays.(go)
L-
r
}A

L .
You seefilms at the c

L-
---.2
On a typical day Mr Brown get up

L- 7.00am.He dressedand then get

r
l*t)

downstairsand his Bolhave

--{
r
- --
breakfast.

L:
rrq

t
rr
]____.t
37
 --
F.
Testing for grammar
techniques andvocabutary
4.2"V
F

Whento giveassistance depends on threetestingproblems. F

: e, Whenwe aretestingthe student's abilityto transformsomething(e.g.the E-
, infinitiveintothe thirdperson-s;an activeto passive, etc.).
o Whenwe wantto forcethe studentto usea desireditem. E-
' e Whenwe wantto put the sameideain eachstudent's
head,to avoidtesting
originality,or to avoidtestingvocabulary whenwe aremoreinterested in
ts
structure, for example. >
But... noticethatforcingthe studentto usean itemis oftenthe signof a bad
test:sometimes anywordwill fit in the gap,so we haveto limitthe student t-
because we can'twritea goodenoughquestion.lt isthe resultof a scoRER
RELTABTLTryproblem. c serpncr25 F
"Shou/dwechoose specifc In the text above,theteacherhasdecidedwhichwordsshouldbe omitted. F
itemsto begappedor not?" However, an alternative
is a clozetest,wherewordsaredeletednot according
to
whatwe wantto test,but on a regularbasis.
F
F
On a typical day,Mr Brown getsup at 7.00 a.m. He gets dressed
F
then goesdownstairsand hashis . Then he drives to work in
F
car.He haslunch at 1.00p.m. _ drives home at 5.00p.m.
and, after dinner,warchestelevision until midnight, when
ts
goesto bed. i=
F
In thisexample, everyseventh word hasbeendeleted(exceptthe first,in order
to givecontext).Thisisobviously testinga differentskillfromthe previous
t-
gappedtext.Thetheoryisthat anynativespeaker caneasilypredictthe word F
thatfillsthegap.lt teststhestudent's understanding of the wholelanguage.
It alsoassumes that elementary students only knowa simplified versionof the r
language, so it is importantto usea text at the student's levelof understanding.
However, mostteachers changethispureclozeidea,and normallyomit F
approximately everyseventh word,makingit a combination of a gappedtext and t-
a clozetext.sometimes thisisto testa particularitem (e.g. a possessivepronoun,
likehls)andsometimes because the wordis unguessable (e.g.5.00p.m.).Most F
peoplethereforeusebetweeneveryseventhto everytenthword.
A variationon thisisthe C-test. F

F
On a typical day,Mr Brown gersup at 7.00 a.m. He gets dresseda then
F
downstairsa has h breakfast.T hed to
F
w inh car. H hasI ar 1.00p.m.H drives
h at 5.00p.m. a_, after e dinner, w_ television F
midnight, w_ he g_ to b F

F
l-
38
E
ll-
- Testing for grammar
techniques andvocabutary
_-/
=-t

l-- Aftersettingthe context,everysecondword is deletedbut the firstletteris

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

text mustbe at the students'

level.
r-

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

l: T A .g K maketwo copies.Makesureit is at their [eve[.

r
IJ

Fromonecopymakea ctozetest andcountthe numberof gaps.Thenmakea

c-testfromthe othercopybut keeping the numberof gapsthe sameasin the
r
!-J

clozetest, e.g.usejust the first paragraph,

r
l--
Dividethe classinto two groups.GiveGroupA the ctozeversionof the whole
text. GiveGroupB the C-testversion.Marktheir answers.Anysurprises?

r
14

- --
3 Testingtechniques: Whenwe wantto teststudents' abilities
to buildsentences,
we havethe same
L- Bu i l d i n gse n te n ce- s decisionsto makeabouthowmuchwe wantto helpthem,andwhetherto give

r
l--
recognition into themsomecontext.
production Thesimplest levelisoneof recognition
r with maximumhelp.We cando thisby
L-,-

usinga jumbledsentence.

r
l t,-t

Mr TLesdays cinema to on goes Brown normally the

r
l-t

r Answer:Mr Brownnornatlggoes
Of course,
to the cinetno
on Tuesdatls.
we haveto acceptotherpossibilities,
suchas:
r
a4t

0 n Tuesdaqs
Mr Brown nor malltlgoest o thecinena.

r
g

Capitalletterssometimes tellthe studentwhichisthe firstword.lf you haveonly

rr
a-t
onecapitalletterin the sentence,
recognised
Whichever
the purpose
do you giveit a mark(thestudenthas
of the punctuation)or not allocate
you decide,makesureallthe markers/teachers
the firstworda mark?
agree!
Becarefulwith punctuation, e.g.

r
a-,

r
t-
il Mr Tiresdays cinema to on goes Brown normally the
L
r
r-e
Theteacherhasincluded the full-stopto showthe studentthe lastword.But
how do the students knowwhetherthe full-stopis attached to Tuesday, or just

r
r-
anotherelement to put in order?

r-
l-
Thenextlevelof complexity
the students
isslashed
to producecorrectlanguage
omittingfunctionwordssuchaspronouns
sentences or noteexpansion.
ratherthanjust recognise
and prepositions.
Theseask
it, by

r
t-
Mr Brown / normally / go / cinema / Tuesdays
a4-t
l-
t-_ Notethatit is possible
to useunitslongerthana singlesentence,
by slashing
a
ur-
sequenceof sentences.
I1 -_ _
1-_-
lt---
|--e
39
l-
l-. l-

L'
L_"-

l-
I
 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. F

DearSally F

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

?
In thisexample,we haveput verbsor wordsthat the studentsmightneedto
alterin brackets.
Otherwise the students
mightthinkthey haveto usethe words F
astheystand.Youneedto makethisclearin the instructions.
(Remember vou
canusethe student'sL1 for instructions.) F

Expandthe sentences,keepingthe words in the sameorder. F

You may needto add words or changethe form of words in brackets.
F
Mr Brown / normally I (eo) lcinema / Tiresdays.
l-

Testingtechniques: Anothermethodof holistictesting- that is,notjust testinglinguistic F

Transformations
and components but a generalabilityin the targetlanguage - isto seeif studentscan
reformulations takea sentence/meaningandexpress it in a differentway.In otherwords,can F
theyexpressthe sameideabut usingdifferentlinguistic items?
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 studentsaregivenpartof the sentence,whichthey haveto
complete. Notethatit doesn'tneedto bethe beginningof the sentence. F
Anotherpossibility
transformed
isto givethe students
sentence, e.g.
a word or phraseto usein the tr
i:
Rewritethe sentencesusing the given word. Keep the meaning as closeas
possibleto the original. F
He's a doctor. F
. works F
They madethat car in Spain.
F
. was
F

(whichmaybe in the L1)areveryimportantin theseexercises:

Theinstructions F
the studentsmustkeepthe sentence ascloseas possible in meaningto the
lf theydon't understand
originalsentence.
F
this,you will havemanyscoRER
problems
RELfABrLtry (sEEpncE25) asstudents willgiveanswers whichare F
acceptableEnglish
but usedifferentideas,e.g.
F
That car vv?g made in Spain by them.
F

40 F
I-

lL.
-; Testing for grammar
techniques andvocabulary
\-----V
a-
-_4
! Sowe canseethat the majorproblems will be:
-
4- ... avoidanceof the targettest item (worksas),or
E
E-. ... redundantinformation (bythem)included in the answer.
E- Apartfromthese,a furtherproblemwith thisexercise type is that thereare
L-_
E--4 relatively
few itemsthat canbe testedusingthismethod.The mostcommon
5-__ tendto be:
L-{

reportedspeech ' G oa w a y l ' h es a i d . H et o l d. . .

F-._
L..._-
passives Theymadethat carin Spain. Thatcar...
E-_
E4 too/enough too youngto go to thedisco.
They're They'renot..
E-_ comparatives/su
perlatives
r--.- I haveneverseensucha big cake. lt was...
E -
n
E__ modals It isn'tnecessary
to reserve
a room. You...
J-^
E- conditionals Youwon't passif you don'tstudy.
E- Unless...
a-"1
since/for She's
beendrivingsince1993. ...for ...
!l- -
'.--r
!l--- Youwill noticethat mostof thesearemorefrequentlytestedat intermediate or
15
upperintermediate level.Youwill alsonoticethat thesearealsothe itemsmost
t- frequently
taughtat thoselevels.A perfectexampleof sncxwasn?
[_
4
5
Testingtechniques: Editingis increasingly (or a lack
usedin moderntests.Theideaisto find mistakes
r-_ Editing
g of mistakes) in a text.
t_
,---^ Readthe following letter, and mark eachline asright or wrong.
l-
t--
a4 Dear Susie,
I I'm sorry I haven'twritten for ages,
l-:l

L:
6
but I hope I seeyou next week.
That's becauseI'm having party.
C
L'
It'll be on Saturdayafternoonat 3 o'clock on my flat.

t:
4
Noticethat in thisexamplestudents
simplyhaveto chooserightor wrong.Many
L:
l4
examsnow alsoaskfor a correction,
e.g.
L:
t.----, Readthe following letter,and mark eachline as right (/) or wrong (X). If the
t:
a_--..1f
answeris wrong, write either the correct form or the mipsing word.
Showwhere the word is missing by inserting a double slash(//).
L:
a-'.
Dear Susie,
t:
a-e, I'm sorry I haven't written for ages,

t:
a_---E
but I hope I // seeyou next week.
That's becauseI'm having party.
L:
l-:t It'll be on Saturdayafternoonat 3 o'clock on my flat.

t_
a-di[
a

l__
a_--

a-

l-_-
a ,-. 47
=-r
I- -
L--'-

L:
\--J

T
 l<
ts
for grammar
techniques
Testing andvocabutary
:-

"Whotistheualue
of Everymistakeyou find in a student's
workis a mistakethey haven'tfound -
We allwant students
thisexercise?" themselves. to becomemoreresponsible for theirlearning.
Thismayevenbe partof theirassessment. -
An essentialpartof thisresponsibility
isfor eachstudentto lookat his/herwork
-
and
critically, theseexercisesareoneof the bestwaysof encouraging thisprocess.
Thereis a sampleeditingtaskon pHorocoprABLE pAcE2 for you to try with your Y
students. yourstudents
Youcoulddo thisto familiarise with the exercise type
beforedoingthe taskbelow. v
!-
Thiskind of exercise is a veryeasyonefor studentsto write.
T A s K Askgroupsof studentsto writea simitarletter madeup of shortsentences.
*

Ask them to put in betweenfour and six mistakes,each one in a *

differentsentence. Theythen rewriteit, putting eachsentenceon a different
[ineand pass it to the nextgroup,who corrects the sentences.
At the endof
the class,cottectthe besttextsor individualsentences.
*

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

Summary F
Recognise Produce
F
Specificitem - true/false - gapfill
- multiplechoice - transformation/reform
ulation !-
- editingskills - editingskills
(withoutcorrection) (with correction) -
Ceneralability - clozetest
- C-test l-

Discrete item tests:errorhunt *-

T A s K Lookat oneof the booksyou arecurrentlyusing.No bookor printedtext is
*
everperfect(inctuding this one!),andwritersoftenhavea preference
for one
type of exercise. l-
Tryto find examples of the fo[owing.
a a muttiple-choice grammar questionwheremorethan oneof the distractors *
is possibte! 11

b a muttipte-choice questionwhereyou can answerthe questionwithout

read'ing the text l-

c a multipte-choice exercise whichhas a varyingnumberof distractors -

t1
(e.g.sometimes three,sometimes four)
d a purectozetest (i.e. onewhereeverynth wordhasbeencut out, rather
I
lr

than a grammar test wherejust the difficuttwordshavebeenomitted)

-
t-
e a transformation exercise that canhavemorethan oneanswer
f a jumbl.ed sentence whichcanbe put in two differentorders -
lj

g a gap-fittingexercisewherethe writertel.lsyou if contractions(e.g. don'tl

z
countas onewordor two words a-

<

42
!-
z
,z

z
]2.
t
ui
vr'a
ft
6
va CHAPTER
7
-
L-
L,- Testingtechnigues
for reading
L-
L-{
andlistening
L_
l-d

L:
r--

l-_ Sofar we havemainlyconcentrated on testingsinglewords/structures

or single
F
I
sentences. We havelookedat techniques where you:
r-Jl ... sefector matchan answerfromtwo or moreoptions(e.g.true/false and
L:
r-.-
multiple-choice)
... orderwordsto forma sentence
L-
l-Jl
... expandgivenwordsor notesintoa sentence
... transformthe sameideaintoa differentformof expression
L:
a4
... fill a space(possibly
guidedby suggestions, whichisthensimilarto
multiple choice).
L:
l-J. However, manyof thesesameideascanbe usedto testlongerpiecesof
L:
g
language throughreadingor listening.

L-
a4
canyou think of howthesetechniquesarenormally
adaptedfor deaLing
t.-
a--
T A s K longerlistening/reading
texts?whichtechniques
with
woutdbe betterfor reading?
Whichwoutdbe betterfor listening?
Why?
I--
,1

l_
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
l-
L:!j
because, with longertexts,listening requiresstudents to retaina lot of
in theirheads- youwill be testingtheirmemoryratherthantheir
L:
r--
information
listening ability.Listeningtextsthat requirememoryshouldbe veryshort.
t:
L}
lf you wantto uselongerlistening
something
texts,the students'
thattheycando duringthe listening:
taskwill haveto be
(short)multiple-choice
t:
t---
questions, markinga diagram, followinga map,etc.
It is essentialwith multiple-choice
L-
a4 confuse the student,
listening
e.g.multiple-choice
teststhat you do not deliberately
questionsshouldbe in the sameorder
l--
)-1j
asthe text,and not mixedup to trickthe student.
Remember that students mayget lost.lf theymissan answer, they maystillbe
l_
a-'
listening for it whilethetapehasmovedon. In otherwords,by missing one
answer, theyoftenmissseveral followinganswers. Forthisreason,it is normally
L:
a-tA
a goodideato usea numberof smaller textswith clearstartsandfinishes. This
alsogivesthe studenta freshstart.) seE pncE24
l_
.1
1 Selection
L: Whilethe students arereading/listening
to the text,or afterthey haveread/

r
a4
listened
to it, theyselectonerightanswerfromtwo or morepossibilities,

Listen to the text, and choosewhich personthe man is describing.

e.g.

l--
-: 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
Readthe information about the familg and choosewhich holiday best suits them.
L:
aaA

L:
rL:
r--a
43
 techniques
Testing for reading
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
thetypeof exercise givenin tests/books). _t-

2 Matching _-
while the students arereadingor listening
to the text,or afterthey havereador
listenedto it, theymatchone rightanswerfromtwo or morepossibilities, e.g.

I Here are five newspaperarticles(l - 5), and five headlines(A - E). -F

I7hich headlinebelongsto which article?

r_ 2_ 3_ 4_ 5_
-F
2 Here are five letters I - 5, and five answersto them, marked A - E.
Readthem and decidewhich answermarcheswhich letter. -F
1_ 2_ 3_ 4_ 5_

3 Read the following anicle. You will notice that five paragraphshave been
-F
removed (1 - 5). Ar the end of the article you will find five paragraphs
(A - E). u7hich paragraphgoesin which space?
_F
l_ 2_ 3_ 4 5
--F

Therearewaysin whichwe cancomplicate -F

the student's
task,if we wantto.
_!-
Distractors
We canincludeinformation
whichdoesnot havea match,e.g.

Here are five newspaperarricles(l - 5), and six headlines(A - F).

Vhich headlinebelongsto which article? I

_F

-F
Note:Of course,we couldgiveten headlines.
Alternatively,
we couldaskthefollowingquestion. -F

Here are five newspaperarricles(1 - 5), and six headlines (A - F).

-F
I7hich headline doesnot belong ro any article? -F

I-

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

- _l_
44

L-
;:i
* Testing
techniques
for reading
andlistening
I \-/^\^
>;=--
q_-
*--- Here are five answersfrom a youth magazine,sproblem page (A-E). Below are
m
E-_ _ eight letterssenrin by the readers(l-g). which answer(s)would be
L-q
appropriate for which problems.
E-._ Note: sometimesmore than one answeris possible.
E-rt
E'
t---_
E _.q
t.t
- L

E
T
-_ 5___ 6___ 7 8
Lq
E-

L-
*--
ru- TIP
L_
Lq we automatically
senda signalby the numberof spaces we put for each
5 question.
Theaboveexamplesuggests that therearethreepossible answersfor
E- _
u each.Youcangivethe students
additionalhelpby only puttingthe correct
numberof spaces.
L-
r
r-=-.
il-
t
Problems
Matching
with matchingexercises
exercisesallsharethe sameproblem, whichisthat if the students
L.
r-----q
makeonewrongmatch,theymust,by definitionalsoget anotheranswer
il- wrong.Thiscanbe an evenbiggerproblemwhensettingmultiple-matching
l__ exercises.
Youmayneedto havemeetings to agreeon passmarks:if you aik five
fl - - questions,
for example, one mistakewill meanthe studentgetsonlythreeout of
t--- frvecorrect(i.e.60%- a wronganswerloses4oo/"of the markl).
L:
,_A
As we sawwith truelfalseand multiple-choice
penalise
wronganswers, butthe resulting
questions,you maydecideto
markthendoesn,tmeananything.
L:
r---
Howeveryou decideto treaterror,it is importantthat the markersall igree"on
whetheror howto penalise suchmistakes.
L:
r-4
3 Ordering onceagain,thisdevicecanbe usedfor longerpieces
L: of text.Because of the

r
a-4
mentalload,thisis probablybestreserved
Note:civingthe openingandclosing
for readingratherthan listening.
paragraphs herpsto givecontext.

L:
r
Below you will frnd the opening and closing paragraphsof a personalletter.
You will also seefive paragraphs(A - E) that go in the letter.
tl-4 Readthe paragraphsand decidewhich order they go in.
L-
|-41 lst_ 2nd_ 3rd 4th 5th
L-
E -.4

L:
14
Below you will find five newspaperarticles (A - E).

L:
t- r
Readthe articlesand decidewhich order they go in.

L-
L'
lst 2nd 3rd 4th 5th

L-
r
LI

:
LI

L-
r
a--|

rL-
t-.L a
45
 _!-
for readingandlistening
techniques
Testing
'-/-
_!-

Note:Thesamemarkingproblemexistsaswith matching: if one answeris .F

wrong,then at leasttwo answersare.A correctanswerwill dependon the right
Forexample,
sequence. imaginethe correctansweris: _F

4th D sthE -F
lst A 2nd B 3rd C
L1

andthe studentwrites:
ts
lst 4 2nd6 3rd P 4th, Sthc
-F
How manymistakes hasthe studentmade?lf we markby sight,i.e.asa
_l-
computerwould,onlytwo answers (A andB)arein the correctposition.
However, that EfollowsD. Likematching,one
the studenthasalsoidentified _F
mistakemeansthat the studentonlygetsthreeout of fivecorrectand,again,
you may needto havemeetings to agreeon passmarks. _F

Transforming the Thisis obviouslya testof language production,andthereforewill be bestused -F

sameideainto a for testingspeaking or writing.Theideaisto keepone variable(e.g.the idea,or
differentform the text-type)the same,whilechanging anothervariable(e.g.
the socialstyleor _F
of expression levelof formality).
*F
You are having a party and you are sendingout the printed invitation below. l-
You decideit is too formal to sendto your bestfriend. Using the information
on the invitation, finish this letter inviting her. (50 words) _F
Dear Susie, _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 guidedby suggestions,
Thiscouldbe possibly whichisthensimilarto multiple-
choiceor to expandinggivenwords or notesintoa sentence.
*F
One of the mostfamiliarformsof testinglongertextsisthe openquestion,e.g.
_-
Vhy did Johndecideto buy thebook?
_F

We canhelpthe studentby guidingthemto an answer,

e.g. _F

_F
Vhy did John decideto buy the book?

Becauseit reminded him of

L.

Or,of course, questions,

we couldusesimplemultiple-choice e.g.
_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_

_t-
46
= for reading
techniques
Testing andlistening
\^-
t'1
!

;- Whentestinglongertexts,allthe usualproblems still

with multiple-choice
:- aPply,e.g.the complexity morethanone possible
of the distractors, answerin
!.--rI context,etc.Themostcommonproblem(or solution,if you area student!)is
i- that the longestoptionis oftenthe rightone.
i!-I
Anotherway of guidingthe studentto the answeristo askthemto expand
givenwordsor notesintoa text.We havealreadyseenhow several sentences
i-jl
canbe linkedin contextto usethisdevicefor longerpiecesof text.However,
i
you canalsouseit for longerpieces of writingto put the sameideasinto
l-=r
everyone's heads,aswe sawin resrRELTABTLTry (peae.22),e.g.
:
-=
, Below you will find the opening and closing paragraphsof a personal letter.
t-J
You will seethat the middle paragraphis missing.
i ttrflritethe missing paragraph,including the following information:
L.

- you are visiting her town next month (why?)

t-
l-r - you would like to stay(when?how long?)
H - you will be accompaniedby a friend (who?why?)
l--

I
- your friend hasa specialdiet (what?why?)
l-.-

G
t--
a--,- Summary
g
g
Recognise Produce
* - - gap-filling
1,-t Specificitem true/false
- multiplechoice - noteexpansion
3
L'
- selection - transformation/reform
ulation
I
- matching
LI
- ordering
lI -
Ceneralability l) seecHneren
8 - writing and speaking

!- ) seecrncren 9
Lf,

!- lf we wantto teststudents' abilityto understand longertexts,we mustdecideif

L--
we wantthemto understand particularitemsin the text,or the ideabehindthe
a- text. lf youranswers dependon particular formsor individual
structural piecesof
L.'a vocabulary, remember you areactually testingsingleitems,and not the students'
tI - abilityto dealwith longtext.
l-
I

L-a
Lookat a typicaIskillstest fromyourschool.
l__ T A .g K Howmanyquestions test readingandlisteningskitts(skimming.
listeningfor
a< gist,etc.)?Howmanyfreshstarts(rnce24) doesa studentget in:
a1
a) the readingsection? b) the Listening section?
I
l-- Howmanydifferenttext-types(newspapers, tetters,posters,signs,etc.) does
l-
I
the studentread?HowmanydifFerent text-types(news,songs.chat-shows,
etc.) doesthe studentlistento or lookat?
lt '
Howmanydifterenttechniques do the studentsusein the test?
l-, r
Is the test fair?Doesit test the skittsor do'hidden'grammay'vocabutary
t_ questions atsoappear?
l-i r
!-
!
l-..
l-
I

|
L4
47
I

t_. .
)*1

l-
t_
L-.

l-
I
I
 -\

_F
Testing
techniques
with nocorrect -F
answers P
L1

L-
Sometimes we maynot wantto restrictthe numberof possible
answersasthere
maywellbe manydifferentandcorrectpossibilities;andscorersmaymarkthese -F
in differentways.Thistypeof question
canbe usedasa teachingdevice,or a
promptfor askingthe students whattheythinkandwhy.Thistakesus intothe -F
worldof TLLUMTNATToNandevaluation,ratherthan eruume
RnrroNandtesting.
-F
1 Choosing
a title In thistypeof question, the studentreadsa text andthensuggests
a good -F
title,or illustration,
or someotherway of showingtheirunderstanding of the
text asa whole,e.g. _F

Readthe descriptionof winter below.Imagineyou are a publisher.\fhich _F

of the four photoswould you chooseto illustratethis text?\[hy?
-F
l-

Rankingand Thisrelates
to the student's
personal
beliefs,
e.g. -F
orderingpreferences
Readthe following four descriptions(A - D) of the photograph. -F
which one describesit best?Put the paragraphsin order of preference. :-

1(best) 2 3 4(worst)

L-
Therecanobviouslybe no correctanswer(althoughyou mayhavea hidden
agendato makestudents awareof goodwriting).you canextendthisquestion T-
by askingExplainwhy you think it is the best/worstdescription.
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
studentscan,for example,reada text andshowtheirunderstanding -F
by justifying
theiranswers.Remember, however,not to marktheseanswersfor grammatical l-
accuracyor closeness
to youropinion,asthisis not whatyou aretesting.
L.

prcr3. Devisea shortreadingtaskaround

Lookat the TVguideon PHoTocoIIABLE _F
T A S l,( it, whichhasno correctanswer.
compareyourideaswith thoseon plcr95.

-I-
48

LI
J
-j

-j

PARTC Assessment
-a
--2
+--

- CHAPTER
9
-
.--
Assessing
speaking
andwriting
i.-- -

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
a-4
students to learnaswellsimplyto testthem.Byshowingthe students how we
a_ -,
assess,theydevelopthe criteriato evaluate theirown work.
we will nowlookat formsof assessment whichtry to includestudents
in the
;+- judgingof theirwork.
:
t-t
a
i--

i
Profiting
andanalyticmarkingschemes
L -

L---4 As we sawin scoRER (see

RELtABtLtry ence26), onemajordifficultyin evaluating
language useiseliminating
scorersubjectivity.
Manyteachers markoraland
v-.-t writtenwork by impression:
theyreadit withoutconcentratingon any particular
partsuchasgrammar, andinsteadgiveit a gradebasedon the generaleffectof
L -
thecomposition or speaking.
i
+-
However, aswe haveseenon pnce26, differentteachers
maynoticedifferent
4 things.so assessors
havelookedfor awayof helpingthemstandardise their
3
L.-
marking.
!
4 one ideato makescoringmorereliable isto breakdownan overallimpression
L.-
markintoa numberof sub-skills.
In thisway,we canpunish,say,spelling
errors,
!
!
whilerewarding
accuracyin grammar. Someof thesesub-skills
maybe linguistic
(structures,
vocabulary,
etc.),but othersmaynot be (relevance,
hand-writing,etc.).
*
d

{g
I--
Youaretryrngto assess a pieceof writtenwork.
N<
i
l--
T A .g K whichof the areasin the charton the nextpagedo you think arelinguistic.
andwhicharenon-tinguistic, that is, whichcoutdbejudgedby a studentas
I
wetlasa teacher?Complete the charl.
,-.)
!
c
a-4
tg4

a---
I

49
I
I
r _--

l--
l---
I
I
!
 -I!-
andwriting
sPeaking
Assessing
.=-'\--
_r<

Teacher Teacher
-F
only and student
L-

handwriting
socialstyle
appropriate -t-
layout
-Y
organisation
L1
interest
spelling
I,
a convincing argument
rangeof vocabulary _t-
relevanceto the tasksetor title
useof linkingwords _-t-
nr rnrfr raiinn
^F
paragraphing
accuracyof tenses L-

useof rhetorical
devices
_F
easy
ideas to understand
-F

Analyticmarkingschemes Bothpnonles
andANALylc
MARKTNG
sCHEMES
try to breakdowncommunication _F
intoa numberof differentareassothat bothteacher andstudent canseewhere
theyaresuccessful andwherethe reader/listener hasdifficulties
in L-
th,et uat hou understanding.Examples of suchareasaregrammar, vocabulary,relevance,
re ende'd-.
/ punctuation,adequacy, andsoon. -F
,Qe/P-vat'zce :
Ade4ua'ca I In thisbook,we will makea distinctionbetweenmarking schemes andpRoFrLEs. t-
e[%trry'a We willdefinea markingscheme aswhereyoujusthavean impression markfor
eacharea,marked,e.g.out of 5. Soa studentmightgetthemarkon the leftat _F
pcrtctua&U---
the endof a composition.
Tota't'7s
Whilethisscoreis lesssubjective,the studenthasno definition
of whatthe __E
for example, 'adequacy'.
teachermeans, by
_-!-
P ro f i l i n g We wantto givethe students moreinformation, suchaswheretheirproblem
you
areasareor how to improve.Thismeans candiscuss the problemtogether _!-
knowingthatyou meanthe samething,or thata student canre-read the
composition thinkingof howto improve thisonearea.
_t-
A pnorrre
. then,is not so mucha score.lt is morelikea referenceto a description
of -F
the person's -
ability a descriptionwhichis givento thestudent.Thetechnical term
for eachof thesedescriptions isa oescRtpton.Therearenormally betweenthree _!-
andfivelevels.An example for usingvocabulary in speech/writingmightbe:
l-
3 Complete understanding with appropriate vocabulary
and f ew, i-f any, circumlocut.ions *
a nr^^-.i h^ rUl lnl qF e^ l- ^ | ^ -^Ll U U U i^^-l - ^
Z lvled.llf ll9 ugDIJa LC vn ea ensaDcr .vi r r q r n n : " 1 ri r n
r q=! n/ l nJ tr val nJ rr . i r qrLl e- a

vocabulary or circumlocutions -F
1 Meaning not fully cl-ear or ambiguous because of
restric ted/ inappropriate vocabulary _l-
0 Vocabulary so restricted that the meaning cannot be
_]-
understood

-1-

-I-
50
Lz

Lz
 Assess'ing
speakjng
andwriting
E
n -\_-.---\-
>*1
E
t-- - Thiscouldbe givento the studentin both L1 andthe targetlanguage (afterall,it
L_--
r1$c6Luu.l u\r, is authentic-to-the-classroom
!!
O\c.qt\er-o\. language),but you mightwantto simplifythe
in_
:-,--q Ianguage or conceptsasappropriate. Thusa student's essaymightbe giventhe
E- Re'Q,,ra,ttce 3 PRoFTLEon the left.
-_ A/e4aacg 2
:{---l
Notethat here,the 'total'is simplyan artificial
devicefor record-keepingand/or
1rammar 4
3_
Vocaba/atg 1 diagnosis.What is moreusefulisthat the students canlookat the DEscRrproRS,
r---
fuac&tat&a4- ''/15 seein generaltermswhattheirproblems are,andthendiscuss themwith the
kay',: teacherasking,e.g.for specificexamples wheretheteacherfoundthe useof
t-.-
vocabulary inadequate.once students arefamiliarwith the processandthe
:t_
d-Jl
vocabulary, olderstudentscanperhaps, aftersomepractice sessions,
startto
discusseachother'scompositions. Thisis an exampleof assessment that teaches.
3-_
i-4
i! Ba n d i n g BANDTNcis similarto pRorrur.rc,
but we will defineit in thisbookaswherethe
*g---- -
numbersor gradesassigned pointto DEscRrproRs and relateto levelsof ability.For
5-_
eachskill,therearenormallynineor ten bands,representing approximately 100
*---.| hoursof tuitioneach.So,for example, Speaking Band1 will normally be:
L-
]|-.-
zJ
bano 1
*-- In
t--- Cannot so n
v se qa ^k i-ho F:r-al- - *I *r -n-g. u
. age of, a- F
tr lI e^ a s t ,
airroq _..*_ -...press1on.
Fhic in
5--
{---
I
:5- * whereasBand10 will be:
i-t

5-. -, -otrel
:t----- Nal-'wo qnpekar .
. rr oEAq.gf q L - aU
q nU
n rr ^ n vr iv:rF o lrrqr Lgty rLnU
l-
:! rtrnrpdicFahlp rnnrrF in ro:l rui rmr La L s .
lrryue
t_*
ta-,.
:t-
:l
{__
t---t Between Band1 andBand10 willbe otherdescriptions thatcoverthe rangeof
?-
1--_
abilities
betweencomplete beginner andnativespeaker.
'i-t
A aRNo describesan abilitylevelin anyoneskill,andtherefore a writinganruD,
for
example, wouldincludeinformation concerning relevance, adequacy,grammar,
iL-

5- vocabulary andpunctuation at different lt islikea'global'pRoFtLE.

levels.
4
t4
4
t__ "Howwouldwe Thestudentwouldhandusa composition,
for example.We wouldreadit and
r--'tf
usebands?" handit backto thestudentwiththecomment: Band3. Thestudentwouldthen
,a
referto a copyof the anNos
andreadthefollowing(in Ll andlorEnglish):
AL-

l-t, Band 3
i
The reader can see that. the writer has tried to
a-4 organise t.heir writ.ing to help understanding, but
.t
this is either done very simply or, where more
'i4
vCvOr LmLnt l; e
r ex^ vo !r Va qt ar rn_i -e* a_ I i o n iq *: I_l_- _
a .m. .hpFL 6e ^U , fLl t-Irea Ir ea dr (n]^e-f may
: need to re-read parts several_ times before fully
'J,
understanding the connections and di_stinctions. There
: ero erya u
fram n ie
- *u r-rlappropr]-acles, rnaccuracres, or
=; circumlocutio::s in vocabulary and/or grammar, buE t.he
overall idea is still c1ear.
:

we couldthenencourage the studentto find examples

of circumlocutions,
or
+-
a the studentcouldtry andproveto usthat the essaywasreallya Band4.
1
t--1
57
:
L----z

*4
 andwriting
speaking
Assessing
^--V
--lh

IE
Thesekindsof sRNos andDEscRrproRsaredesigned to coverlinguistic
ability
rangingfromcomplete beginners
to near-native
speakerin approximately nineor
ten steps.A jumpfromoneanNoto another,e.g.from Band3 to Band4, may
thereforerepresenta jumpof 100 hoursor a wholeacademic year.However,
teacherscanshowprogress duringtheyearthroughusinghalf-bands, like3+,
3/4 and4-. L1

TIP L-
BANDs areextremely usefulto parentsandotherteachers because theydescribe
generally l-
whatthe studentis ableto do in the targetlanguage: a goodexample
of cRrrrRrnREFERENCTNo.
l, sEE pncr31
However, somestudentswill not havea flat pnonlr- in otherwords,someof
their(writing) mightbe Band2 (e.g.grammatical
sub-skills accuracy), andother
sub-skillsmightbe Band5 (e.g.relevance to the taskset,interest, organisation,
etc.).In thesecases,
usingRnortes of differentsub-skills
will be morehelpfulfor t-
teachers, andparents.
students
l-
with profiles
Problems pRoFrLEs andanxostry to standardise - and makecomprehensible - the criteria
andbands we useto judgea pieceof student's work.We aretryingto makethe sub.iective lE

asobjective aspossible. Remember that sconrnRELtABtLtry (serpnce25) is very

importantasit isthe easiest areafor students and parents to (mis!)understand.
Consequently, oncemorethanoneteacher is involved in givingscores, the l-

system willonlyworkif thereisdiscussion, training andnegotiation to definethe

meanings of the termsusedand moderate teachers' scores. L.

Suchmoderation is bestdoneby groupsof teachers lookingat or listening to

sample work anddiscussing theirassessments. Forexample, if you haveseveral
language teachers in yourschool, youcanhavea shortmeetingto discuss t-
what scores you gave,andwhy.lf you noticethatyou constantly give,say,a
BAND onehigherthaneveryone you
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
canstandardise theirscores. However, the generaltheoryis that,onceyou have l-
hadmoderation sessions, anyfour trainedpeoplewill givethe samerangeof
resultsasanyotherfour people. L.

Onceyou havethesepRoFrLES, you canusethemfor allthe language teachingin

-
yourschool including thestudents' mothertongue. _F
Of course,practicality will saythat you won't havethe timeor resources for each L-
teacherto assess eachpieceof work,but the principle of moderation isstillessential
if the schemeisto workacross teachersand/ora school. l-

"Howofi.enshould
wehaue Youdon't needto havecontinualmoderation meetings.
Forexample, at the start -
moderationsessions?" of the schoolyear,you shouldhavea coupleof meetings
and lookat the work of
L1
a few good,averageandweakstudents. Youshouldagreeamongeachother
whichsnNois appropriate for eachpieceof work.
J-
once you havedonethis,youcanthenusethe anNos for everypieceof (written)
workfor everystudentin the schoolfor the wholeyear(although a coupleof J-
extramoderationsessions duringthe yearwill,of course,
improveconsistency).
f-

_f-
52 z
*
1
tz
<-q Assessing
speaking
andwriting

-1
Theadvantages areobvious:if allthe teachersareusingthe samemarking
"= scheme and(roughly)thesamecriteria, yourcoupleof moderation sessions
have
--.- beenan excellentinvestmenfl studentsmovingbetweenyearsor between
teachersshouldno longerbe a problem. pRoFuEsandsnNtos canandshouldbe
4 ; sentto parentswho will seethat thereis a coherentand principled
systemof
. evaluation
in theschool.
+{

"Hou do rJoucreate ManybooksandexamboardsakeadyhavepRortEs

* Uour : that you canusefor your
oun profles/bands?" . class.Alternatively,
youcouldwriteyourown individual onesforyourown class,
: or allthelanguageteachers in theschool- including theteachersof the L1-
1
: couldgettogether to writeonesetfor the school; or you couldwritethemwith
-- : yourclass- thiswillgivethemgoodpractice in writingand givethema stakein
'
the descriptions.
Thiswill alsoencouragethemto markeachother'swork.
-.t,
: Example 1: Writinga setof general profilesfor the wholeschool
J
Step'l
J Decide on the 'Crunch Point':themostcritical or important pointof assessment.
ln someschools, thiswillbe at theendof schooling whenthe students leave.
A Alternatively,
it maybe a problemyearwithinthe school,whereresultsare
consistentlydisappointing.
_-.-
Step2
Discuss anddecide on themainproblems the students arehavingat the Crunch
Point:writingessays/letters,speaking, individual pointsof grammar, etc.
J Step3
_- Writeotscntprons and/orpRoFrLEs that describewhatthe perfectstudentcando
at the CrunchPoint.checkthattheseDEScRrproRS coverthe problems vou
-f identified
at Step2.
Step4
.J
Writeoescnrprons
thatdescribe whata newstudentintothe schoolcando. This
-- willprobably
beverylittleor nothing.
Avoidusingsubjective
wordslikesatisfactory
fto whom?)or adequate(to what
_- purpose?).
Step5
-4t
Decidehow manyway-stages you want:G-3or G-5.you shouldalwayshavean
-^ (i.e.
. evennumber G-3= 4 stages), otherwiseteachersandstudents will choose
the middleonebecause it iscautious.
-4 FourstagesprobablymeansbetterscoRER RELIABILtry
anddifferentteachers will
be morelikelyto givethe sameresult(because therearefewerto choosefrom).
-t
six stagesmeansyoucanshowgreaterstudentprogress. lt is moremotivating
J for students
to seemovement thanbeingstuckon the samescorefor a year
or more.
-!t
Step6
Eachteacherbringssamples of students'work- probablywritingor a videoof
-
the classspeaking andchooses studentswho aretypicalat eachlevel.A group
--t of teachersassess
the students usingthe pRoFtLEsandseeif theyagreewith each
other.ThepRoFrLEsreflectwhatthe schoolis tryingto teachunj *'" purposeof
-jt the assessment(corucnuerur
evnlunrroru).

--!t
53
---4

-4
 andwriting
sPeaking
Assessing
-\-/- I\

Exampleof a profiletemplate L-

Most pnorteswill havea similarstructure,

althoughdifferentnationalities,
school
t-
and ageswill needto adaptthemto fit theirlocalsituation.
subjects
L.
3 Meaning completely understood with insignificant
mistakes \r
t rf lrgaa -l lnl l ir v -^ -'-4erqf ood d
z ulluL! s eeJ s
y rn i fu ue SOme OCCaSiOnal-

di f f lcul- ti es L-
-1
T IM
f i s qal re
f rn
r vi n o nof
lrvu rf qr4rr li v r-l ear anri /nr amtri ortotts necause of
errors. Reader needs to re-read or ask for t-
clarification and/or further explanation
L-
0 Meaning unclear. No evidence that the student can
use or understand the target language
L.

With a G-5 scale,the top and bottomdescriptorswill remainthe same,but you L-

now haveScales 14to addshades of greyandintermediate skillpoints.

These
additionalscalescanbe usefulandshouldinclude specific you
areasof difficulty L-

identifiedat Step2. Thisthen raises

the students'awarenessof the importance
of thesepoints,and hopefully, throughBACKWASH (setpnce28),will leadto better
teachingandlearning. L.
Note:Thiswill onlyhappenif the students havecopiesof the PRoFtLES
sothat
they canseewheretheyare(un)successful. t-

Example2: Writinga setof specificprofiles L-

Youcouldalsowritea setof specificprofilesto try to solveproblems at a micro-

L-
level,suchaswritingat intermediate level.Theycouldevenaddress individual
tasks,likeWritingpersonallettersat intermediate level.Oncea problemlikethis L-
becomes apparent:
... decideon the keyindicators:thesewill be the mostcommonproblems
studentshaveat thislevelwith thistask
with layout;problemswith r_-
... try to grouptheseproblems, e.g.problems
grammar,etc.
L-
... writeeachgroupin a list,rankedaccording to yourassessment of difficulty
... divideyourlistintofouror sixhorizontalopscRtproRsfor useaspRoFrLrNG.
t-

of profiling
Advantages Diagnostic/teaching L-
UsingpRoFrLEs actuallyallowsthe studentsto seewherethey needto improve
theirwork. lf a teacherwritesGood,a big improvement on the bottomof their L.

for
essays, example, students do not know how they have improved.On the
otherhand,with pnortrs you cansit downwith a studentandexplainwhereyou L-

had a problemandwherehe/shewassuccessful.
L-
Of course,the studentcanthentry and proveto you by pointingto examples,
placesin the essay,wherehe/shehasachieved the level.In thisway,evaluation t-
becomesa sharedresponsibility, or a processof negotiation. Studentswill begin
to learnhow to evaluateotherstudents' essays and,moreimportantly, learnhow I-
to edittheirown work beforegivingit in to mark.
t-
TIP
f-
to marktheirworkusingthe nRoFTLES
Askthe students beforehanding it in.Thisisa
variation MrNcs.(sEe
on coNFtDENcE pncr59) | suspectthat mostteachers think t--
thiswith the students
that discussing is goingto be verydifficult.
lt neednot be.
L-
54
L-

a-
iil
#
Y; Assessing andwriting
speaking

?.
d

L" Profiling and oral skills : Notes,bandsandscoresfromobserving the studentin class

L:
il---
t-
: Theteacher
Teachers
shouldnot alwaysbe involved
alsoneedtimeto stepbackandobserve
in theactivitiesgoingon in class.
whatis goingon, buildingup
, observations andnotesaboutthestudents asindividuals.No oneknowsthe
L.
I-- ' students'abilitiesto performin classbetterthanthe teacher, andwatchingthe
E-
l--- : studentsinteractwith their peers in the targetlanguage is the bestindicator
of
ts
l_-
; theirabilityin the targetlanguage.
: Letus callthesetalkingskills;inotherwords,interactive communication using
tl
I
speaking andlistening.
l--
r--..
, "Howcanoe ossess Teachers traditionallyaskedstudents to readaloud,or do guidedroleplays to
t_- '
L'
talkingskills?" assess speaking; anddid lotsof listening comprehensions - readby the teacher,
a-
t_-
a_-----
or givenon audio-or video-cassettes - to assess listening.
t- r However, teachers wouldspendtheirtimebetterin observing the students
L-
r
a--4
t-
interact thanin givingdailylistening
comprehension
announcements,
understand,
the
theteacher
radio,or
comprehensions.
tellsyouverylittle.Theonlytimesstudents
perhaps
doesn'tknowwhy.
the phone. lf
Theresultof the listening

the
listenin thisway isto
student doesn't

r
L-
o ls it because of the levelof linguistic complexity? (structures?vocabulary?)
f----.
o ls it because of thequalityor audibility of thetape?
a
o ls it because of thecomplexity of thequestions?

r
t--
o ls it because of the inefficiencyof the distractors (serpncr36) in the listening
comprehension questions?
L4
I- Assessing students throughobservation issomething we do allthetime.In fact,
s--4 if examresults don't matchour observed assessment, we oftenchangeor over-
!

t-_
ridetheexamresult. Whatisdifficult isto formalise thisinformalprocedure, e.g.
Lf
sometimes a student's fluencycanimpress usso muchthatwe don'tnoticehow
!-
manystructural mistakes he/sheis making.
a.-4
t
pRoFrLrNc canhelp.We canchoose oneaspect of talkingskillsastoday'scriterion,
andwatchtheclass to measure theirperformance on thiscriterion alone.This
will hopefully breakdowna general gut feelingabouta student's performance
= intoa numberof pRopte assessments.
L.
I
I
Herearesome possible areaswhereyoucouldnoteindividual students'
lJ
contributions.
t- o How accurate
11
istheiruseof structures? Theirpronunciation? Theirspelling?
I- o Do they usea widerangeof structures? Vocabulary? Linkers?
,4 e Cantheyvarytheirlanguage sothatit issocially appropriate (e.g.formal,
,-
t_- friendly,etc.)?
- o Cantheyinterrupt, taketurns,andgenerally carryon a naturalconversation in
l_- the targetlanguage?
L":
a-4
o Aretheircontributions the rightlength?On the rightsubject?
l- o How muchof a strainis it to listento them?
l__ And,morearguably:
l--:
r-4
e Do theycontribute to the classor do theyavoidparticipation?
frequently
a- e Do theyhavegoodideas?
l--
,-t
l-
l_-
1--tA
l'
l-- 55
-
L-t
L--t
ll -'-
t-.1
l-
I
 andwriting
-+-
speaking
Assessing
--'--
-!-
Whichdo we choose? We saidabovethat a student's fluencycanhidehis/her L.
mistakes.
structural Butthismaybe a goodthing.We maywantto encourage
fluency,andnot worryaboutstructural accuracy.Thisiswhy it isvitally L1
importantto make sure that our assessment criteria
aresetvia coNcRUENr
(srEpnce -
EVALUATToN 33) in otherwords,why,whatand how we assess should L1

matchthe aimsof our teachingprogramme.

L4
As with writing,we canusemarkingschemes, pRoFrLEsandanruos. Youcanfind
thesein books,but it is betterif you usea standard setof pnortEs agreed L-
betweenallthe language teachers in your couldbe the samefor
school.eRoFTLES
French, Spanish,Polish, etc.Theseshouldthenbetranslated andsentto allthe L.
students(andtheirparents).
Usingenorlrsandotherschemes to breakdowntalkingskillsintosub-skills
meansthat you will haveto assess students overtime:we will returnto this
whendiscussing coNrrruuous AssEssMer.rr
in Chapter11.
l-
5ummary
We haveseenherehow assessment canbe usedto helpstudentslearnaswellas l-
MARKTNc
testthem.Bothnrunlrnc scHEMEs
and pRortuttc
areusedto assess
especially
students pRoFrLrNG,
for writingandspeaking. however,givesstudents
moreinformation.

L-
In this chapter,we listedsomepossible
areaswhereyoucouldnoteindividuaL
students' contributions. L.

Arrange a meetingwith the otherlanguageteachers in yourschool- don't

forgetto inctudethe teachersof the students'11. If this is not possible, L-

imagineyouarein sucha meeting. Takea copy/copies of pxorocopnBLE

IAGE4.
L.
Whatwoutdyouaddto the List?Whatwouldyouput in the gaps?
In youropinion,whichof the sub-skitts Ustedarethe mostimportant?
Fromyourknowtedge of the teststhat the schooluses,whichdo youthinkthe
l-
schootthinksarethe mostimportant?
Howoftenin a schoolyearwoutdyouwantto focuson eachsub-skill? L-

Withthe otherteachers, makea photocopiable checklist(or addto this tist)

l-
that you can use in classthat concentrates on the areaswhich are of
impoftance to yourschool's students,administrationandparents. Canyouatso
l-
turn this list into a chartfor recording students'
contributions?
L-

l-

L-

L-

L-

l-

r-

56 _r
L-

jz
s CHAPTER
1O
-
L-
rE- procedures
Assessing andattitudes
L.
l--

L.
l-.a

L.
rr Traditionally,

difficultto measure
havejudgedstudents,
teachers
of theirwork,andso on. However,
a student's
throughtests,assessments,
aswe haveseenin thisbook,it isvery
abilityaccurately.
personwho knowshowmuchtheyarelearning:
analysis

In the end,thereis onlyone

the student.
r-_-l
Earlierin thisbook,we lookedat rruorRecr
versusDrREcr rEsrNC.i-1,seEpncr30
L-
r-- supposewe extendthisconcept to assessment. We havetwo choices: interpret
dataaboutthe students
L.
a-4 assessment.
to assess
theirabilities
or involvethemin their

L:
r
l-- T A s K
what arethe advantages
Whatproblems
of involvingstudents
canyouforesee
in their ownassessment?

L:
V;t the student
for thesepeopl.e?

L-
6
the teacher
teachersof othersubjects
L:
at
parents
the schoo['s
administratio
n
L:
a-4
the schoo['s
resources

L:
a.--

L:
t-f
Reason1: Thereal
question
Thereis reallyonlyonequestion
improved? lf the learner
thatcanassess
(honestly)
a learner:
Do you feelyouhave
thinkshelsheis better,andthe teacher
L:
rJl
doesn't, who is right?lf thelearner
teacherdisagrees, who is right?
(honestly)thinkshe/sheis no better,but the

L:
]4
In the Introduction, we emphasised thatlearning action- youcan
isan individual
L:
f-_-.-
studyin groups,butyoucan'tlearnin groups.lmprovement,
therefore whatthelearner feels.of course,
or lackof it, is
theymaynot saywhattheyreallythink
t:
)-4
astheymay:
... be lyingto getextramarks
l:
)4
... thinkthatyouwantthemto saytheyhaveimproved
... not wantto lookstupidin frontof theirfriends
l:
a4
... not wantto looktoo clever in frontof theirfriends.
l*
rL:
)-'.
Reason 2: lt'syourjob
to teach...
Thetraditional
isaccustomed
approach
assessment
testingsystemputsno responsibilityon the student.Thestudent
to the teachersayingif helsheis goodor bad.Many students
testshopingthat,thistime,theywill be lucky.Formanystudents
issomething thatteachers do to them,ratherthansomething
l-.- teachersdo with them.
L: However, if we seeevaluation aspartof theteachingprocess, we canuse
t
l-4
assessment to helpstudents learntheirstrengths
learningbetter.We canencourage
responsibility.
andweaknesses
themto becomeself-critical
Thismaysoundimpossibly
andplantheir
andto takemore
l:
a1
idealistic
but,aswe shallsee,we
alreadydo thisto someextent,andit canbe donequiteeasilywith a bit of
L: planning(seebelowandespecially prce75).
trueof RppRnrsnls,

r
t 57

r
r--

l-
 +
jttting andattitudes
Procedures
.F.

Reason3: Not all It isobviousthat studentsdon'talwayslearneverything

we teach.On theother J-
learningfollowsthe hand,it mustalsobe truethattheylearnthingswe don'tteach,otherwisethey
teacher'splan wouldneverbe ableto createa sentence theyhadn'theardin class. -F
Theteacher's job istraditionally
to:
-L-
... predictwherestudentsmayhaveproblems with a language
itemor text
... planhow to helpstudents to learntheseproblemareas -L-
in theseareasanddecidewhatto do next.
students'ability
... assess
However,thisleavestwo areas. -t-
c Whataboutthe problems theyhavethatwe haven'tanticipated? ts
c, Whataboutthe learning theydo that we haven'tanticipated?
-F
Letus lookat thesein moredetail.
-L-
Problems they havethat we haven'tanticipated
lf the teachersuddenly findsthe (majority of the)classhasa problemin an *t-
unexpected area, he/she will normally do one of the following.
-[-
e Makea noteandteachthe itemin the future.
c Do a quickexposition of the itemin question. Thismightrangefrom -l-
or mimingan unknownword,to writingrulesandsubstitution
translating
tableson the board. .F
c Tellthe students to ignorethe itembecause (e.g.an
it'snot important
in
unknownword a skimmed text). -t-
Theseitemswill probablynot be included in anyformaltestbecause it hasbeen I-
assumed that the studentshavealreadymastered them.
-t-
Learningthey do that we haven'tanticipated
On the otherhand,if a studenthasa question abouta text,thismightmean .}-
that he/shemay be readyto learnit. Let'scallthisthe sALtENcy
EFFEcr.
We haveall hadthe experience, whenlearning a foreignlanguage, of suddenly
noticingan unknownword,phrase or construction beingusedtimeandtime L-

again.lt suddenly sticksout or becomes salient.Thismightbea wordthe

teacherusesallthe time (e.g.Brilliant!or Yourturn);or a wordor phrasefroma L-

songor TV advertisement. We asksomeonewhat it means,andwe continueto

l-
noticeit for a couple of weeks. Thenthe word seemsto disappear.
Thiswouldimplythat theremaybe a timewhen,for usasindividuals, thatword L.
issuddenly extra-noticeable. lt seems obvious thatthiswouldbethe idealtime
to teachthe individual the itemandso respond to theirinsight.
However, there L-
aretwo oroblems.
L-
o What is suddenly salient for oneindividual will probably not besalient for the
wholeclass;if a beginnerhassuddenly startedto hearthe word wouldin
L4
conditional sentences (e.g.the teacheralwayssaysVincente, whatwouldyou
say?),and asksthe teacher to explain it, the teacher may say that thisistoo L
advanced and that they'lllearn it later.
o What the individualis ready to learnwill probablynot fit in with the teacher's Lz

plan.lf the teacheris practising skimming, anda studentaskswhata

pafticularword means,the teacherwouldprobablytellthemthe wordwasn't I-

importantbecause theyarepractising skim-reading.

l-

1-

I-
58
Lz

jz
L procedures
Assessing andattitudes

L*
L_-
Evaluationof theseitems

L:
r--r
Obviously,noneof thesesalientitemswill be included
theyareunlikelyto be on the syllabus.
However,
in anyformaltest,because
the individual student's
abilityto
L:
r-q
questionandworkout language
learningskill- perhaps
problemsfor him/herself isa vitallanguage-
the mostimportantskillof all.lf we arereallyinterestedin
L:
l-
the student'slearningprocesses
learningsyllabus
andattitudes,
- shouldbe recorded
theseitems- the student's
andthe studentgivencredit.
personal

L:
r-l
How canwe get this We will now lookat varioustechniques
for gettingthiskindof datafromthe
L:
r--
datafrom the student? student.Someof theseideasarebasedon whatwe alreadvdo. Othersarea bit
moreunfamiliar.
L:
l-_-t

L-
r--l Readthe Listof techniques
in the tabtebelow.Tickthe correstboxes.
L: T A .9 K
l.4 Alreadydo it i Triedit already Neverheardof it
L:
V
Confidencerating
Checklists
L:
at Learnedlists
L:
a4
Learner
diaries
Redesign
and analysea class
L:
a--
Self-reports

L_-
a1
Student
tests
Lilntcs
L-
.---.-
L:
a--) 1 Confidence rating
l-
a-t
Oneverysimpleandquickoptionopento theteacher isto include
MrNcsin anytest.Bysimplyaddinga columnof numbers
coNFTDENcE
nextto anytest,you
L:
a-t
will be ableto comparewhatthestudent
thinkshe/shecando with whatthe
studentcanactually do, e.g.
,:
a--.-
Write a suitableform of the verb (oneword only) in eachspace.
L-
a_---- Contractionscount asoneword.
L:
a--
Then for eachanswer,tick oneof the numbers0-6.
Tick 6 if you arecompletelysurethe answeris correct.
L:
)4
Tick 4 if you think the answeris probablycorrect.
Tick 2 if you arenot confidentaboutthe answer.
L:
a-,4
Tick 0 if you haveno ideaor areguessing.
l) He to the cinemaeveryday. (go) 6 4 2 A
L-
|t-.o 2) On Tuesdayhe _ to go to the cinema. (like) 6 4 2 0
L-
I

L- Thiswill giveyou veryusefulinformationfor futureAppa,lrtALs.

Peoplewill tend

r-
a-t)
to fall into the followingcategories:
Confident(6/4) (2/0)
Unconfident
L-
r- Answerright Self-aware No self-belief
L:
rr Answerwrong Over-confident Self-aware

59

L--)

L:
a,-

l-
 ts
procedures
Assessing andattitudes
A.

Apartfromgivingyoua pRoFrLr of thestudent, thisisanotherexample of L-

assessment asteaching.Partof our job is

asteachers to encourage students to
becomemoreawareof theirabilities (or lackof them),andto helpthemworkon .ts
thoseareas, Completing coNFTDENcE nnINGS helpsthemto develop thisskill.
.t-
Note:Remember that studentswho arefamiliarwith enNos and pRortEs canalso
assesstheiressaybefore givingit to
to the teacher assess. Every mistakein their LJ

essayissomething theyhaven'tbeenableto findthemselves. On gettingthe

assessment,
teacher's theycompareit with theirown andteacherandstudent u
discussanyproblems or issuesarising.
.t-
TIP
Thisisa simplemodelthatwe canusemoregenerally.
ts
1 Civethe students
a task. F
2 Thestudents completethetask.
.t-
3 Thestudents theirown performance
assess on the task.
4 Theteacherassesses performance
the students' on the task. F
5 Theymeetandcompareassessments.
.5-
5 Theteachercanthenchangethe teachingprogramme if necessary.
7 fhe students canchangetheirlearningprogramme (e.9.via usefulitemsto
include planin theirnextneRnntsnl).
in theirlearning
L.

2 Checklists L.
Bya 'checklist', we meana version of thesyLLABUs suitable
for students.
Thissvllneus: L-

...may possibly (butnot necessarily)bea simplified version

t-
... will usetheteacher's terms(e.g.present
linguistic simplefor routineactions)
.. . will alsogive an example (e.g.
On Mondays he normally goesto the cinema).
Remember thatyouwill probably needto givestudents theseconcrete examples
of the language itemsyouwantto teach,or of howyou measure a sub-skill.
Students do not shareour teaching vocabulary:we haveto teachthemit.
t-
Remember that by syLLABUs,we do not necessarilylimitourselves to linguistic
items.We couldalsoinclude:
... languagelearningskills:findinga word in a dictionaryin 30 seconds
... learningskills:organising lessonnotesso thatstudentcanfind item in 30 t-
seconds
... behavioural items:worksin groupsresponsibly andwithoutcausingdisruption .F
... schooling skills:missestwo homeworks per termor fewer.
L.

"Whqshouldstudents To plantheirlearningandto let the studentsknowwhichpartsof the l-

you thinkarethe mostimportant.
havechecklists?" syLLABUs We can'texpectthe studentto
remember everysinglethingwe teachthem.Fromourown experiences, we l-

knowthat we forgetthingsthat we do not regularlyuse.Soit is important

that,e.g.we thinkthe presentsimpleis more
that we tellthe students ts

importantthantypesof transport. Thisallowsthemto prepare theirown

learning -
andtheirrevisiona vitallearningskill. L.

To allowthemto assess theirown performance andprogress. t-

|.

I-
60
t-

L.
L Assessinq andattitudes
orocedures

l-
L
r:_-
" Hou do wedo checklists?"At the startof the newschoolyear,we cangivethe students a listof whatthey
: areexpected to learn.Theteachermaywellneedto go throughthe listwith the
L-
rr students
r Of course,
I English
to makesurethat theyunderstand
the listcouldbe in 11,although
if possible- remember
the itemson the list.
betterto writeit in
it isobviously
it isgoodclassroom-authenticlanguagel
: Nextto thislistyou couldadda gridof boxesfor self-or negotiated

rr . assessment. Clearlystatea setof marksanddefinitions

6 T am verlz srrre
at the top, e.g.

about Chis item.

l_-

L-
l--
4 T wiII
d o 1- i l-
oet
r^rrnn
t.his
a
ifo- -:a'^t- nnrs 9f;gn than I will

L:
a-J
2 T w !i rI!I o
y eeu f fe hr -ir rS rF^-
!LglLL "w-! ^9 l-l -V *^-e
rtlvIc ofcen than: wiii

L:
ddl il-
: u
r! ti Y- rLr uF.
Y v u

r
g
0 f have no idea what this it.em is.

L:
a--

L-
)-t
TIP
Alwaystry andgiveevennumbers lf youask
for thiskindof exercise.
L-
It
the students to self-assess
on oddnumbers, theywill normallychoosethe
m i d d l eo n e .
L-
)-1

L:
4.4
5 Excell-ent

L:
l--
4 Very good
3 Good
l_
r-.-l 2 Nof verlr oood

L: 1 Terrible

=
]1

: andgo for 3.
Almosteverystudentwillcompromise
a--t

L:
a-,,
Page62 showsan exampleof a checklist that mightbe appropriate for
elementarystudents.
L:
l- Notehow,at the startof anyteaching programme, manyof the itemswill be
L: newto the students,
completely but it isimportant themasit gives
to include

r
.-O
themsomething
becomes
areimpressed
to tickoff astheygo throughthe year.Thechecklist
a visiblerecordof progress,
by theirlearning
and,hopefully,
ability.
sEE REcoRD
motivates
KEEprNc(enct70) for
then
the students
more
who
details.
L-
)-t

l--
rL:
.,4

a,--.-

L:
r
r
[:
67
 >.
procedures
Assessing andattitudes
--\--
b-

checklist
Example v
6 | am verysureaboutthisitem. F

4 | will get thisitem rightmoreoftenthan I will get it wrong. F

2 | will get thisitemwrongmoreoftenthan I will get it right.
0 | haveno ideawhatthisitemis. *

*
Verbforms: Confidence
rating:
F
to be +
simple:
Present My nameis Juan.
simple:to be ?
Present Areyou English?
ts
simple:to be -
Present He isn'ta doctor. F
simple:routines+
Present On Tuesdays,he goesto F
the cinema.
simple:routines
Present ? Do youcomeherea lot?
t:
-
simple:routines
Present I don't likegoingtodiscos. F

fields:open
Vocabulary F

jobs doctor,police officer,etc. tr

food and drink cheese,
cof-fee,
etc. F
shopsand places cinema,home,supermarket,
elc.
F
f ields:closed
Vocabulary
t-
adverbsof frequency How often?,always,often,elc.
L.
pronouns:
subject/object/ l, me,my, her, etc.
poss. t-
Pronunciation: L.

/e/ vs /n/ catvscut l-

/t/ vs /i:/ chip vs cheap

l-
/k/ vs /t/ vs /p/ piCKvs hiT vs liP
}-
skills:
Learning
I.
notesto findanswerin 30 seconds
organising
learning language
andusingthe classroom on the posterin L.

the classroom
l.
to group-and classwork
contributing
L-
findinga wordin a bilingual
dictionary
in lessthan30 seconds
doingallthe homework L.

L.

f-

I.
62
l-

l-
L procedures
Assessing andattitudes

b
L-
r---
. 3 Learnedlists

L: ; Checklists tell the teacherwhatthe students thinktheyhavelearned. Theyalso

rl_
l--
; tell the teacherwhatthe students
. investigate thisareaof assessment
' simplyaskthe students
thinktheyaregoodor badat. We can
furtherthroughusinga 'learnedlist'- we
whatthey(thinkthey)havelearned.

rr
But remember that the studentswill probablyneedprompts,asstudents and
teachers oftenhavedifferentwaysof describing the samething.Youmaywant
: to givestudentsconcrete examples of the language items(formsand meanings?)
. you want to teach,or concrete examples of how you measurea sub-skill.
l--l Askingthemto writedownwhattheyhavelearnedcanthenbe usedin different
L-
f-rf
, ways,e.g.as partof:
... a coNTrNuous AssEssMerurprocedure (pnce59)
L-
r--
... the checklist revision procedure(eac;.72)
... a learnerdiary(below)
L:
a1
... a portfolio (pncr73).

L:
LJ 4 Learner diaries
l:
a-t-
Everylesson,
learning
or week,the students
that lesson/week.
makean entryin a diarydescribing their

l_
|--i)
Thediarycansimplybe pagesaddedto the backof a file,or it couldbe a
templatedesigned by the teacher. Theweekly/monthly entrymaycover:
l--
a-- ... listsandexamples of whatthestudenthascovered (e.g.vocabulary
l_ items/structu res)

r
)--
... tips,ideasandchecklists
... notes,insights, cultural
of whatthestudenthascovered
tips,setphrases
. . . c o m m e n tasb o u t h ec l a s s .
(e.g.paragraphing)

L*
)-t
Notethatthe diaryshouldideally coverwhatthe students feeltheyhave
L:
l--
learned, ratherthanwhattheteacher thinkstheyhavedonein class.
difficultskillfor a studentto learn,andit mayrequire awareness
Thisis a
raising by the
L:
)-D
teacherto makethestudents
lf we agreethat students
writeaboutwhattheythinkandfeel.
don'tlearneverything we teachthemin class, by
l;
a--
occasionally reading (extracts from)theirdiaries,
teacherscanassess the mismatch
betweentheirteaching andtheirstudents' learning.
Theextracts will alsotellus
L:
|-_t)
whattheyhavelearned that hasnot been(overtly) taught.Bycomparing whatthe
studenthaslearnedwith whatwe havetaught,we cangaina lot of useful
L:
.-t)
information for the FoRMATvE EVALUATToN(seEpnce32)of the teaching programme.
L:
a-o
Bydefinition,diaries
clearguidelines
arenormally personal
abouthow muchaccess
andprivate. Youshouldtherefore
youwill haveto thediaries.
set

l-.
r-
Thediariescouldeitherbe collected and read,say,twicea term.Readtwo or
threeeachweekend, or youwillhaveoneweekend to readthirtydiariesl
L:
J-t)
you cantell the classthat you will not readthe diariesbut will ask
Alternatively,
L:
t-
the studentsfor extractsor copiesof pagestheywouldliketo showyou.
Thesepages,or the wholediaryif not private,canconstitute partof a porbfolio
L: (sEepnce73).Havea lookat theexample of a sample pagefor a learner diaryon

r
l-it
pHorocoprABLE pACE5. Usethisasa modelfor usein yourclass/school.
Note:Byaskingstudents
buildup an 'agenda'
whattheirproblems
of thingsto discuss
werefromprevious
in futureclasses
classes,you can
(seipnce67).
or clinics
L:
t-rt

L:
l---
t-.
63
-
t-/'

L_
t-t
l-
I
 l<

procedures
Assessing andattitudes
-.\--
a-
>z
5 Re-design/analyse a lesson(vialearnedlists)
One way you canevaluatestudents'progress andthe effectyou arehaving *
uponit isto sharethe lesson-planning processwiththe students.Initially,
this
mightseema bit threatening. Butif it istruethatlearnerslearnthingswe don't >2
consciously teach,anddon'tlearnthingsthatwe do actually teach,it mightbe
worthaskingthemwhatthey havelearnedandhow they(thinkthey)have ,z

learned it.
l\*
Onceagain,students arenot normally askedthesequestions, sotheywillfindit
difficultto giveyou an answer - they won't knowthe vocabulary of teaching,
L.
lesson-planna i nngd,s oo n .
However, in the lastfew minutes of a lesson, youcan: !-

... askthemwhattheythinktheyhavelearned
... askthemto re-designthe lesson
sothatit wouldbe morehelpfulnexttime ts
you teachit. .L-
Handthe students a (simplified) of yourlesson
version plan,e.g.
F
?[envveg:
M1 le<son
L-
1 WkKMeK: alThaboton board;think of e g?oy+
fur oach lcltor
7 MINALT: Troduooa olae( chart of tho c,lass'sfavovy'ftoe7or1(e) L.
fph/bar
t TKTSUW*TION: sfs road tho rrl"s 4 wg!1in yovys L.
olioat wordE aboft {oolball
5 TKkCTlCr'. ete in yo.uysrowrilo Taraflh so that i+ gSv< tho rulez L.

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

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

Youcouldthenaskquestions similar to thefollowing. l*

o Rankthe partsof the lessonin the orderyou enjoyedthem.

t*
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? lE

o Wouldyou havelikedthat classif it hadbeendonein yourL1?

o Wouldyou havelearned anything/more/lessif it hadbeendonein yourL1?
t-
Thiswill makethe students thinkaboutthe language learning
andteaching
process.Onceagain, it is an awareness-raising
process, askingthe students
to
L.
thinkaboutwhattheydo in classandhow the process couldbe mademore
usefuland/oreffective. How the studentsrespond shouldgiveyou a strongidea t*
abouthowtheyapproach a lesson,
andhowtheythinktheylearn.
l-

\-

6t,
L

L.
.
; procedures
Assessing andattjtudes
--,,-

+?t
L-
r
6 Self-reports
As teachers we oftentakeresponsibility awayfromthe students whenit comes
to assessment. Theycanthen put allthe onusof evaluation on to us,andso they
r
f-.-

canblamethe teacherfor theirlackof progress ratherthanblamingthe person

l--- mostdirectlyresponsible - themselves.Whatwe need,then,is a way of
L:
l-
encouraging students to
lf we let themplayteacher,
takeon theirown evaluation.
we cango onestagefurtherandaskthemto write
L:
l-
theirown reports. Thismaycausethe usualproblems of:
TrustWilltheyabusethisopportunity goodreports?
L_ ... oftentheyareharderon themselves
andsimplywritethemselves
or othersthanthe teacher.
L- ... results mustbe negotiated andagreed.

r
.4
Reliability: How canwe moderate theirreports?
a-4 ... setup moderation groupsaswe do for teachers.
L- ... results mustbe negotiated andagreedusingthesamecriteria aswe do.

r
f -"r
Threat:Theteacherfeelsnervousaboutgivingthe students
... remember the students areequallyunused
so muchpower.
to powerandequallynervous.

I ... it istimethe studenttook responsibility

... everymistake
for badwork,ratherthanthe teacher.
the studentcan'tor won'tfind,theteacher hasto. lt saves
time!
l:
a--r{-
Whatmighta studentreportlooklike?As similaraspossible to the school's
existing one.
L-
rL-
a-.1| Lookat the reportyourschootcurrentty
Whatkindof informationis required?
uses.

a-4
Arethereanypartsthat studentscoutdnot complete
for themse[ves?
Why?
L-
r
)--^

a-t
Are there any partsthat studentscouldnot be taught to comptetefor
themsetves?Why?

L-
r 7 Student-written tests
6

Likestudentreports,manyteachers mightbeworriedaboutaskingtheirstudents
a_---6
to writetheirown tests.How usefulwouldthe results be?Won't theycheat?
l: Won'ttheyjustaskeasyquestions?

r
l-l

It is easyto understand mightaskthesequestions,

why teachers but thisis

r because theyarethinkingof the results

(andlearning)
of the test,ratherthanthe evaluation
thisprocess
opportunities offers.

r
a--,
lmaginethat GroupA writesten questions
you wouldrecordthe results
for GroupB. In traditional
of CroupB. Forevaluation purposes,
testing,
you would

r lookat the work of GroupA. Students don't knowverymuchabouttesting

theory.Theywill thereforealltendto writequestions whichareeithernot
r reliableor not valid,e.g.onequestionmightbe:

r
r lHe to the cinema.

r Theteachercanthenexplainthat the answercouldbegoes/went/will go/has

been/willhavegone/wouldliketo go/is addicted,elc.Thestudentsarethen in
L: a position
wheretheymustdemonstrate of the meaning
theirunderstanding of

r in orderto limitthe otherstudents'

the structure Forexample,
answers. if they

65
f'
L'
tA

I
 D-
F
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 F
may needto includethe verb(go),and possibly limitthe numberof wordsthat
the otherstudentscanwrite in the space(oneword only,contractions countas ts
oneword).Thisalsohelpsthem learnand betterunderstand instructionsin the
targetlanguage(e.g.suitable).Thisgivesus:
-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) F

tr
Thisstillleavesseveralpossible problems: theycouldstillwritewent.Butthen
theyandthe othergroupwill haveto argueaboutexactlywhat we wantthem F
to discuss: the possible
meanings of thisstructure.Thisis an extremelypowerful
learningdeviceas it: F
... forcesthemto thinkaboutmeaningaswellasstructure F
... teachesthem usefultest vocabulary(gap,suitableform of verb, etc.)
... teaches themusefultestconventions, suchas 'contractions countasoneword' F
... showsthemthe importance of reading the testrubric/instructions
... teaches themto lookfor the answerthe teacher/tester wants. -L-
Whiletheyarediscussing the questions, the teacherhasan opportunityto assess lE
theirlevelof knowledge, theircontributions to the group,andso on.All this
information is extremelyuseful:in a test,you seewhat the studentthinksthe l-
answeris,but not why the studentthinksthat is the answer. Thestudentsmay
conducttheirdiscussion in L1- thisisvalidasthe resultis in English.
Hereyou A-
seenot onlythe result,but alsothe process.
Usefulinformation gatheredfrom listening to thesegroupsat work shouldbe
recorded - wordfor word, if possible - and usedasa concreteexamplewhen
doingneennrsnls. ) seEpnce75 F
Theteachercanalsocollectthe testsand copythem,andaskthe students who F
wrotethemto put them in theirporffolio.i, seeence73
Variation b-
Civethe students
the subjectof the test.
>.
Eachstudentcanwriteone questionon a slipof paper,e.g.
ts
)tudent A: Mr 1rown normally to the cinemaonTueodaye.
a) go b) goee c) qone d) been

Sludpnl E: Siu lil&t ^ut$alhirr7. tnal@ ne4atbrl l-

9vdowt C: M1 f*hor/dnvo/ard Wrc;Ao<

Sft dP4J>. S/* tnfia4atqa. (Lae)

\-

--
66

>1
s procedures
Assessing andattitudes
\-/--\-^

L
L-- Theteachercollectstheseandthen photocopiesthe questions (or writesthem
themto the class'
L: on anotherpieceof paper)and distributes

r
1--- e Thestudentsthen answerall the questions.

rr O Theypassthe paperto the nextstudent,who marksthe question he/shewrote.

c Theypassthe papersagain,and marktheirquestionagain'
e Theycontinue to do thisuntileverypaperhasbeenfullymarked(i.e.with 30
they passthe paperon 30 times).

rL.
students,
Thefinalstudenttotalsthe marks:powerl
l--l
TIP

r
l-.-l We saidabovethat students arenot verygoodat writingtestsbecause
knowmuchaboutit (or is it because
theydon't
we wantto keeptheseskillsto ourselves?l).

r
a--

J-t
One additionalstepafterthe testcouldbe to rankthe questions
... whichwasthe best?Why?
theywrote:

t
l-'c
... whichwasthe mostdifficult?
... whichwasthe mostconfusing?
Why?
Why?
L1 ... wouldyou changeanyof the questions for anotherclass?How?Why?

r
a-t

l--o
Apartfrom helpingyou to assess
skills,
thiswill
the examiner
helpthem
wants.
to
theirthoughtprocesses
develop useful like
skills
learning
learning
and language
what
understanding

L"
1--O Keepcopiesof the bestquestions: you cansavetimenextyearby usingthesein
L anytestsyou haveto write!

r markeachother'swrittenworkviaPRoFILES,
BANDS,
l -

Note:Students can,of course,

etc. pnce
(set 49) as well as testinggrammar and/orvocabulary.

r
a--tD 8 Clinics
L_ Theideaof a clinicis to handovera smallpartof the svLLABUs to the students. A

r sectionof a lesson (e.g.the last 2O minutes of the lastclassof each month) is

tJ

dedicated to questions that the studentsraise.Remember, aswe saidabove

a-
whendiscussing the SALIEN6Y rrrecr(srE pncr 5B),whentheyaskthequestion is
L" the timeto teachit.
Most of thesequestions will be totallyunrelated to eachotherandthe svrl,qsus.
.' to questionsaboutthe svLlnaus.
a--)- Theycanrangefrom grammarto information
L,
l {
Theycansometimes be quitecomplicated,
Askif they haveany questionsand/orcomments
too.
aboutlanguage, language
L-
a-4)
learning,or the teaching programme
jointly
and write these on the
most
board likethe
interesting andgo
agendafor a meeting. Then decidewhicharethe
l: throughthem,explaining or askingfor explanations asnecessary.
lf therearequestions you cannotanswerimmediately, youshouldsaytheyaretoo
.:
for
complicated an instantanswer, and write them on the agendafor thenextclinic
session.Stadeachclinicwith answers to outstanding questions fromthe lastone.
=
6
Thepowerof clinics:a story
L: In oneclinic,my students typical
askedme how to useiust.Beinga boringly
f
)-1)
teacher,I immediately startedmy stocklessonon iust andthe presentperfect,as
in l've justseenhim. I hadjustfinished,whentheysaidNo.no. Theother
L-
t----)
meanings -
of iust'.1 had no idea no one hadeveraskedme thisbefore.I put it
on the agendafor the nextclinic:I neededa weekor two to work out how to
L: explainor ignorethe other14 uses!

f:
rr: 67
 f-
|t-
procedures
Assessing andattitudes
=-----
A-
clinicsarealwaysinteresting
asstudents asksomeunusualand insightful A-
questions.Of course,eachindividualis interested
in differentthings,so clinic-
teaching cannotbe includedin a formaltest.However, we canmakenotesabout *
goodideasand/orinteresting explanations and usetheseaspartof anyone
individual's
assessment. *

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

_!-
Lookdownthe tist aboveagain,andtry andthink of thingsyou atready
T A s K that involvethe sameskitlsandconcepts. Nowlookat eachtechniqueand
do
-F
try to think of waysyou canbuitdon yourexistingpractice- whatthe
studentsarealreadyfumil.iarwith. Howcanyou detegatemoreresponsibitity -l-
to the student?
_\-

-F
68

Lz
t_
4

L
L
L-4

L. PARTD Assessing
overtime
l---

L-
l---

L.
I

L:
rL.
l--
-
1,1,
cHAPTER
Continuous
assessment
r--

L-
)-]
L.
15

L-
la
"Whatis continuous It is no differentfromanyotherformof assessment
assessnent?"frequently youtestor evaluate
- it simplyrefers
Theresults
the students.
to how
of these'samples'
are
l_
6
overa periodof timeandthe studentisassessed
collected
performance,
on notjustone
but manypedormances. thefollowingissues.
Thisraises
L.
a-a
c How oftenshouldwe samplethe students?
e Which'performances'
L.
a-o
shouldwe sample?
c How do we put allthe differentresults
togetherintoa singleassessment?
L-
["
6 Answer the threequestions
abovefor yourschoofscurrentsystem.
t-_ TIA .g K Answerthe three questions for your experience
as a) a schoolchitd;
and
t-!D
b) a university
student.
l_
l-o Hastherebeenanychange?
:
)-O
"Howoftenshould
t:
l-t- somplethe
we As teachers,we alreadyassess
students?" we areconstantly
building
the students
up a picture
on everysinglethingtheydo or say:
or a pRoFrLE
of thatstudentin ourminds;
t- we could'place'themwithoutgivingthema formaltest.Thesimple difference
6 with a formalsystemof corurrruuous ASsEssMENTisthat we keepformalwritten
l- records of the students' abilityto perform.
14
How oftenwe makenotesabouttheirperformance will largelydependon the
sizeof the class.lt is moredifficultto form a mentalpictureof sixclasses of 40
l-c
students thanto makeextensive notesabouta singleclassof fifteenstudents.
L - A formalsystemof coNrrruuous AssESsMENTmaymakea difference in the amount
we test.lf we areassessing over,say,ayear,it will be better to do lotsof small
4- assessments ratherthanlotsof assessments the sizeof a formalend-of-year test.

J'D "Which'performances'
Throughoutthisbookwe havelistedthe differentskillsrequired
to be a
- should
wesonple?" successful
languagelearneranduser.Whichskillsyou needto formallyassess
a
will onlypartlybe yourchoice:the state,yourschool,andyourHeadof
-_
Department will requirecertainassessmentinformation, aswillthe student's
parents. Youmaywellwantto addothercriteriato help you aniveat a personal
-- decision concerningeachstudent, suchasparticipationin groupwork,or usingthe
targetlanguage whenthe teacherisn'tlooking.Suchitemsmaynot beformally
J- required,but mayreflecta studentattitudethat leadsto betterperformance.
---

--

-t,D
 f.4
a--
assessment
Continuous
A-

"Howdoue putatlthe Onceagain,thestate,yourschool,andyour Headof Department mayrequire you +-

results
different to assessment
compile information in a way.
standardised However, likeallformsof P
togetherintoa assessment,thefinalbalancebetweena strongperformance in oneareaanda
singleassessment?"weakperformance judgement.
in anotherwill largelydependon the teacher's P
In general, givepriorityto:
... language use(talkingandwritingskills)ratherthanlanguage components v
(testson individualstructuralitems,vocabulary, etc.)
E
... resultsof directtesting(e.g.writingletters)ratherthan indirecttesting(e.g.
editingtexts) E
... elements thatareseenasvaluable in the student'sfinalassessment process
(i.e.the weightingwill probablydependuponBAcKWAss from the state's L.
assessment process)
... thestudent's learning e.g.the abilityto useresources,
strategies, make +-
him/herself understood, makeanalogies, etc.
Howeveryou collatethe information, the mostimportantthingis to keep
.t-
the records that allowyou to makethe finaldecision. Thisbringsuson to
-}-
record-keeping.
A:
Record-keeping Everyteacherbenefitsfrom good record-keeping.
Thesebenefitsaremost
obviouswhenthe studentmovesto anotherteacher,eitherin a yearor when .t-
movingfromyearto year.
Thisis alsowherethe enormousdifference betweenNoRM-REFERErucro and F
testingappears.
cRrrERrA-REFERENcED NoRM-REFERrruceoresultsmay be usefulto
F
employers andeventhe state,who aredealingwith vastnumbers of peopleand
needa kindof selective shorthand. Butknowingwhethera studentis in thetop F
or bottomquarterof the classdoesnot helpthe teacherto helpthe student.
Letus lookat how we treatthesevariousformsof assessment overtime.This F
sectionwill lookat assessing - our teaching
the studentvis-a-visthe sylLeeus
targets.We cando thisthrough: F
... testsovertime
F
... mini-testsandchecktestsovertime.
We canalsousechecklists for the samepurpose.+, seecxnpreR 12 F

1 Testsovertime We haveseenin the firstpartof thisbook how difficultit isto writea validand F
reliable
formaltest.However, testsarestillprobablythe mostcommonform of
assessment. Evenif theyareneithervalidnor reliable,
theystillhavegreatrecr A-
vAlrDrry.
f) srenncr 20 Many schools,teachers,students and parentsactuallylike
F
tests.Why isthis?
F

Imaginethat at the momentyourschoolassesses its students

ontyon an end- j-
TA s K of-yeartest whichcomprises:
... a gap-filltest of vocabulary !-
... muttipte-choice grammar test
... ten mul.tipLe-choicequestions for both tisteningand reading
+
comprehension !-
... a writingtest of a personalletter describingyoursetfto a penfriend,
Woul.d you changeyourtest?Howwouldyou changeit? Lookat the roteson ]-
IAGE 71 and, for each role, decidea) whetheryou would changeit and
b) howyouwouldchange it. l-

_\-
73
l-
)1
L
L--
assessment
Continuous

L
r Rotesfor task

r
Ministerof Education
A cleverstudentwhois goodat atl subjectsbut is hopeless
at languagesand

rr mayhaveto repeatthe yearbecause of his poormarksin language

A teacherwhois goingto retirenextyear
A schoolHeadwhohasjust beenpromoted
tests

andwantsto 'shakeup'the school

rL:
r--
parentof the targetlanguage
A native-speaker
the [asttest.
whosechitdgot only 60%in

r
l--

L:
It seemsdifficultto imaginethat we canavoidgivingtests,eventhoughwe
knowthat thereareseverelimitations
important thing,then,isto:
... makethe testasgoodas possible
theirresults
on how accurate maybe.The

l.'
... try to makethetestashelpfultothe teaching processaspossible
L:
l-a
... usethe results in an intelligent
way.

l_
r-q 2 Mini-testsand Many schools stillusea largeend-of-year testasa 'finaldecider'. Why isthis?
checktestsovertime Perhaps it is because teachers liketo havetheiropinionsconfirmedby some
l_
a-.' otherobjectivedecision-making tool.
l-
a-,.)
Butthismightbe unfairbecause a finaltestdoesnot helpthe studentlearn.lt is
bettertogivetestsearlyand often.Thisgivesstudents the information they
l-
a--
need:how hardthey haveto work andwhichareastheyhaveto work on. lt also
givesthemchance to improve.
L.
a-'. Soinsteadof givingone largeend-of-year test,it is betterto divideit intoa
l--:
)-.O
numberof smallermini-tests.
taskof answering
Forexample,insteadof settingthe students
100questions in an hour,we cansetthem20 questions
the
given
L-
l-.--.
in the lastten minutes overfiveclasses throughout theterm.

l;
a-tl
"Whu shouldwedo this?" e lt giveseachstudentthe chance to seetheirprogressandbuildup theirskills.

l- e lt encouragesthe studentto reviewhis/herworkfromtimeto time.Thefirst

thingswe forgetarethingswe don'tuse- occasional inclusion
in a testwill
- keepthemsimmering in the student's
head.
)-t'.
c Giveeachtesta differentfocus,so that you canbuildup a kindof
L- componential listof the student'sabilities.
c lt givesweakerstudentssomething to aimfor and givesthemlotsof fresh

r
- pncE
starts.) sEe 24
c lt helpsstudentssetthemselves goals.
morerealistic
c lt createsmoredialoguebetweenteacherandstudentaboutwhatthey

r:
- aredoing.
Youcanbasethe mini-testitemson itemsin the student's - we could
checklist

r callthisa checktest.
coNTrNuous
Youshouldkeepa recordof thesetestsas
AssEssMENrprocess. Results
part of the
shouldalsobe givento the studentto

f:
]-r'-
keepin theirporffolio.) seepncE73

5ummary
L:
rf: Thischapter
hasdealtwithcorurrNuous
whatwe should
testing,
andlookedat frequency
AssEssMerr
alltheresults.
testandhowto record
of

7t
":

r:
 |E'-

a-
Formative
evaluation E

P
Sofar,we havelookedat waysof recording performance
the student's to use E
itemson the svLlaaus,through:
... testsovertime *
... mini-testsandchecktests
overtime.
P
Butremember thatwe arealsointerested
in the student's
attitudes
to language
and learning. We haveseenin thisbookhow we canaskstudents realquestions: a-
aboutwhathasworkedfor them,andabouthow muchtheyfeelthey have
learned. In otherwords,we haveattemptedto involvethe studentin the A-
teaching andassessment procedure.
Thisinvolvement cannotonlybe doneonceor twiceayear.lfit isto benefit F
andtheteaching
the student programme, we mustbuildthisco-operationand
intothefoundations
responsibility of the assessment procedure I-
continuously
overtheyear.Thisiswhat is meantby ronmnrrvE EVALUAToN:continuous
A-
mutualfeedback.
Thiskindof information
mustalsobe recorded. Apaftfrom learnerdiaries, L-

we canalsouse pRoFrLEs
andchecklists in a continuous
way,aswellasstudent
porffolios. F

1 Profilesovertime of pRoFrLEs
Oneof the advantages (sreencr49) isthat theycanbuildup a picture !-
overtime.Forexample,
overa term,the student'swritingprofile(based
on 0-5)
.}-
mightbeasfollows:
]:-
Task: 1 2 3 4 5
Relevance 7 ? 3 't v
Adequacy 7 a
, 7 t E
Crammar 7 2 7 3 2 -
Vocabulary 1 7 7 7 )
P
Punctuation 7 3 3 7
'Profile' 10 11 1t 1t 11 P
L1

Thistellsboththeteacherandthe studentthat - in general- he/sheis learning

how to organiseessays better(relevance
andadequacy - mostlynon-linguistic L-

Themarksfor vocabulary
skills). andgrammarvarymore,but how much
t-
progress canwe realistically
expectovera term?Remember that a nativespeaker
wouldget'5',so '3' isverygood.
L-
We couldrecordthe results
of our observation
of theirwritingandtalkingskills
pRcE
on PHorocoptnele 5. L

overtime
2 Checklists As we sawwhendiscussing checklists(srrpncr50),the students
areaskedto L--

theirconfidence
assess in differentareasof the syllabus.
you shouldalsoincludedifferenttimesfor assessment.
on the checklist, By
L<

makingthe studentslookat theirchecklistsagain,we keepthemthinkingabout

r-

L<
72
L-

>2
t4
Formative
evaluation
l_
---a
-

L
L4l
the contentof the course.Butchecklists not onlyencourage self-assessment,
theyalsobuildconfidence andguidestudents.
l-l Thefirsttimewe askfor self-assessment, the students will probablywrite'0'.
Thesecondtime,therewill be a mixtureof '2'sand '0's.
At the endof theyear,
I
l-..
l-
thereshouldbe mainly'4'sand '6's.Thisletsthe studentsseesomeelementof
L-
l--
progress overthe year,whichhopefullymotivates themmore.
t' On the otherhand,checklists canalsohelpwith problems of over-confidence,or
l-4
whenstudents realisethat in facttheydon't understand something aswellas
t-
I
theythoughttheydid.Forexample, will andgoingto appearon the checklist.
l.Jl one ortwo students haveatheorythatgoingto is usedforthe'nearfuture'and
tI - willis usedfor the 'farfuture'so theymarkthe itemsas '6' because theythink
lat theyarecompletely confident. Theythenlearnin classthat theirexplanation is
I wrong,so laterin the yeartheychangetheir,6' to a'4,.
Lr{
t- Example overtime(basedon page52).
checklist
I

>:-!,

I 6 I am very sure about this item.

LrJ 4 I will get this item right more ofren than I will get it wrong.
I 2 I will get this item wrong more ofren than I will get it right.
s4 0 I haveno ideawhat this item is.

r--
Confidence rating:
Time:l2 3 4 5 6
6
Verb forms:
Presentsimple: to be + My nameisJuan
4
Presentsimple: to be ? Are you English?
6

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 Artistskeepalltheirbestpieces of work in a portfolioso that theycanshow

,4
otherpeoplethe rangeof whattheycando.
-i, Portfolios canalsobe usedby students to keeppiecesof workwhichtheythink
bestrepresents them.of course,mostof thiswill be writtenwork(homework,
4 essays, testscores,projectwork,etc.),althoughvideo-andaudio-cassettes could
-4, alsobe included.
In thisway,the porffolioconceptis morepowerfulthana simpletestresult,
because it showsnot onlywhatthe studenthasdone,but alsogivestheteacher
an insightintothe 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 excellentlinkbetweenthe schoolandthe parent,allowing
parents to seesamples of the children'sbestwork,whilealsobeinga showcase
4
for the school'steaching.
The parent canalsobecomeinvolvedin helpingthe
J-
childdecide whatgoesin - thusbecoming a negotiating paftnerin theschool's
assessment process.
-) 73
---

_,-.
 ;<
-V
evatuation
Formative
-.\-v
.!:
---1.

Guideto settingup a portfolio E

that a portfoliois builtslowly:you don'twantto haveto go back
It is important P
throughold pieces of workhuntingout the goodstuff.Explain to the studentsthat
.-2.
whentheythinktheyhavedonea goodpieceof work,theyshouldput it in the P
portfolio.Youshouldalsoexplainthat they maywant to reviewthe contentsfrom -.'1
timeto time.Afterall,whatthe studenttakesout of the porffoliois possibly more )z

important to theteacher thanwhat he/sheputsin. We canassume that items

removed meansthatthe studentfeelshe/shehascovered that pointor moved P
pastthatstageof language learning - the snurNcy is
EFFEcT over.i' srr pnce58
-*
Privacy
!-
you shouldagreehow privatethe porffolioshouldbe.
As with learnerdiaries,
When you cometo formalevaluations with the student,you maywant to ask .t:.
the studentto selectitemsfrom the portfolio,ratherthan showyou the whole
thing.Thisselection the learnerto
is,in itself,a vitalstageas it requires .}-
demonstrate someform of self-assessment and self-awareness.
a-
Portfolios:possiblecontents
-E-
results
... test/mini-test
... markedhomework fromlanguage lessonsor othersubjectsdonein English E-
... projectwork (may have beenwrittenas part of a group)
... audio-cassettes >-
... video-cassettes
etc.the studenthasfound/readlunderstood
lyrics,
articles/texts/song
... interesting I:-
... compositions
... pages/extractsfrom a learnerdiary >-
lists
. .. checklists/learned
... previousreports/evaluationsby teachers,peers,or self,e.g.BANDtNcs/pnortlrs .b-
... lesson-redesigns;lesson analyses >1
of previous
... results nERFoRMANcEREVIEWS,previousschoolyears,previous
etc.
schools, *

Summary >:<
In thischapterwe havelookedat waysto useFoRMATtvE thisis
nssrssnnrrur,
continuous We
mutualfeedback. investigated
the useof: *
e profilesovertime
lr_
e checklists
overtime
e studentprofiles. F-

L-

Thinkof a studentwhoyou havetaughtfor a longtime andwhomyou know

TA s, K verywett.Thinkof the workthe itudent hasdonerecenttyand decidewhich
L.-

itemsyou woutdinctudein the porlfolioif you werethat student. t---

Whatwoul.dtherebe mostof in the portfotio?Why?

L---
Whatwouldbe missing? Why?
introducethe ideaof portfol.ios
If possible, to your students.Compare
your L.--

ideaswith whatthe student putsin the portfoLio.

L.-

L---

L-_

74
L-

D-
t
t^
,4
I*;-
CHAPTER
13
-
!-r Summativeassessment:Appraisa[s
t-
t- and performance
reviews
t-
L-,1

t-
!--
t-
r
Appraisats

rl Moreand moreorganisations
performance,
areusingAppRntsALS
whetherthe personisa teacher,
to evaluate a person's
a policeofficeror a factoryworker.
t-
r
Thenppnnrsnl is normallyan interviewor a seriesof interviews with a superior,
andcoversthe employee's past,presentandfuture- theirwork,theirproblems,
LI
theirattitudes,andtheirplansandambitions. Theresultis normally a document
- oftencalleda eERFoRMANCE REVTEW- containingbotha reviewof the pastanda

r:
l-
planfor the future.Thisis a negotiated
bothsides.
Thisdocument
document- it is agreedandsignedby

isthenusedasa basisfor the nextinterview: Whichof the plans

werefulfilled?Whichplansweren't?Why?Why not?Thetwo sidesagreehow
to updatethe reviewandthe plans,and then signthe documentagain.
[: Sowe canseethat a eERFoRMANCE REVTEW is likea photograph of a personat one
particulartime.lf we wantto seehow the employee - or appraisee - has

r developed, we canlookat the seriesof reviews.

Letus imaginethat a teacheris aboutto havea eERFoRMANcE
headteacher:what evidence
REVTEW with the
wouldthey liketo haveto showthe appraiser? A
reportsof, say,justtwo of
teacherdoesn'twantto bejudgedon the observation
theirlessons.Teachers wantthe schoolto thinkabouttheircontribution in the

r
4
staffroom,theirwork on variousschoolprojects,
theirsubject,andso on.
theirlevelof knowledge of

s Coverthe tist betow.

l,__--

TA K Imaginethat todayis the dayof yourAppRAIsAL interviewwith the Headof your

l-.-

schoot.He/Shehasaskedyou to bringany informationor documents you

,t think are useful,or showthe workyou have done over the year.What woutd
youtake?Compare yourideaswith the list betow.
--t-

-tt
I Observationreports
} Materials
written
e Bestlesson plans
-t e thingsyou haveachieved
Listof interesting/successful in that year
e Listof meetin gslseminars/conferen ing coursesattended
ces/ti'ain
-il
e Results of yourstudents'work
4 0 Examples of yourstudents'work

1-

-
75

---

-r-
 F-
andperformance
Appraisals
assessment:
Summative reviews
_-\--
b-

0 Readinglistof booksyou havereadoverthe academic

year ?
O Quotesfromcolleagues aboutyourwork
-t-
I fromsuperiors
Notes/letters or parents/students
praising
yourworkduringthe
vear E-
e ldeasfor nextyear'swork
>..|
el (Anticipated)
Criticismsof the pastyear'swork andexplanations
lf nppRnrsRr-s
aresuitablefor teachers,theyareequallysuitablefor students.And t-
we shouldassessstudents usingthe samerangeof evidence - is it representative
to judgea studenton the resultof two tests? F

lk

f!-
reviews:Why,who,when,
Performance
b-
andwhat?
.b-

Why do performance A traditionaltestingsystemputsno responsibility on the students - theyare

'good' 'bad'. E.
reviews? accustomed to theteacher tellingthemif they are or Many
students approach testshopingthat,thistime,theywill be 'lucky'.Formany .F
students, then,explaining theirprogress, providingevidence andhavingto
convince theteacher evenplanning
of theirskills, the areastheywantor needto !-
workon - thesewillallbe newconcepts.
L-
However, theseconcepts willmakethemthinkaboutwhattheyhavedone,
whattheyhavelearned and,perhaps, how theyapproached the learningtask.lt L-
also,of course, produces -
an agreedplanfor futureaction againmakingthe
studentawareof his/herresponsibility in the process. F
Fromthisit is obvious that prnponirnANcE
REVIEWs arenot iustan assessment
L-
process, but alsoan educative process.

Who doesperformance Traditionally,

teachers
did reviews of performance.Butaswe haveseenin this
reviewS? book,oneof the purposesof thiskindof evaluation
isthat it encourages
studentsto be awareof theirown progress: theirattitudesandthe way they
learn.As students becomeincreasingly skilledandconfidentin assessing
performance, we canaskthemto assess themselves or eachother.Forexample,
studentscaneasilyreadandanNlo/pRonLe eachother'sessays. ) srr nnce49
Remember, however, thatwhentheybegin,they mayneedmoderation to make
suretheyareall giving the samegrade.Surprisingly, studentsnormallyunder-
estimatetheirabilities. Forthisreason,it is oftenbetterto let studentsstartby
assessingnon-linguistic criteria(e.g.organisation,handwriting, interest,
etc.),
wheretheiropinioncarries the sameweightasthe teacher's.
Eventually,of course, students couldbe assessed on theirabilityto assesstheir
own workaccurately. As we haveseen,someexamsalreadytestwhattheycall F
editingskills- findinggrammatical mistakesor missing/redundant vocabulary in
varioustextswrittenby otherstudents. Thereis no reasonwhy thiscouldn'tbe L-

extended to assessing 'adequacy of content','completionof task'andother

lb
semi-linguisticskills.

76

-
_-t assessment:
Summative andperformance
Appraisats reviews
w

-nt-

Example
--t
At the endof term,I askeda classto assess (viaanNos) theirown talkingand
writingskills.Theythencameanddiscussed the bandtheyhadchosenwith me.
-
Mosthadunderestimated themselves by one BAND. One student,though,had
-1 givenhimselfa veryhighbandfor speaking. We talkedaboutit, but still
disagreed. I askedhimto go andtalkto anotherstudent,and get a second
-4 opinionfrom him.He askedme WhatshallI talk about?| suggested that he
explained the problemto the student,andthenhe shouldaskthe studentto
-5 bandhim.Fiveminuteslater,the secondstudentcameup to me,sadlyshaking
hishead.He agreedwith me.Thefirststudentlookedunhappy,but whatcould
-= he say?He hadbeenjudgedby hispeers.
Thebiggestproblemfor usasteachers is learning to changethe way we see
assessment. Teachersareaccustomed to tellingstudents whattheir'results'are.lt
-
willfeeldifficult andprofessionally -
threatening suddenly to haveto negotiate
with an individualstudent.And students too maywellbe surprised at 'Teacher'
-= consulting themabouttheirper{ormance
or counselling asa padner-in-learning
ratherthanfigureof authority. Students maypreferto avoidresponsibility.
Thisis a new process:we will all- teacher, studentand educational -
institution
haveto go veryslowly.We mayexpectto makemistakes, but we will learnfrom
theseandlearnnewskills.

Whento do performance eERFoRMANCE or suMMAlvE EVALUAIoN

may be part of either the FoRMATTvE
REVTEWS
reviews process pnce
(srE 32).Themaindifference betweenthesewill be whatto do with
the result.Thereviewnormallylooksat continuingperformance. However,
teacherscanadda summative elementby finishingthe reviewwith the
negotiation of a finalgrade.

What to coverin a Appraisal evidence

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

I
I

Whatdocumentsareavaitablefor you to useas evidence? Coverthe section

-- T A .'9 K your
betowandmakea [ist.Thencompare [ist with the list below.
--
Vl Possibly areavailable
someor all of the followingdocuments
Results:
,--/ 'formaltests'or minitests
thatyou havemade,suchas
... of variousassessments
markedusinganruos
or writtenor oralclasswork
... from bitsof homework, and
PROFILES
previous
... of the student's eERFoRMANCE - especially
REVTEWS plansthat the
studentmadein the past.(Note:you mayhaveto get thisfrom another
4l teacher- possibly the teacherwho taughtthemlastyear.)
-=--:

4z

4-t 77
 andperformance
Appraisals
assessment:
Summative reviews
.--J-
-\
>-
Copiesof:
... 'official'documents,
suchasBANDs, pRoFttEs
andchecklistsyou use.
your pointsbetter.
work itselfto illustrate
... the student's F
Notes: v
... thatyou madeaboutthe studentthat aroseduringclinics t>-z
... fromwhenstudents wereanalysingor redesigninglessons
... aboutthestudentin general. tr
Thelearner'sevidence:
We will alsoneedvariousrecords Sowhat wouldwe likethe
fromthe learner. L-

interview?
studentto bringto an RppRRtsnl
L-

!-
Whatjnformation woutdwe [ikethe studentsto bring- apartfromtest
T A .g K resutts- that woutdhetpus assess the studenfsperformance?Writea list of
usefuIsources of informationavai[abte.
b-
Compare yourlist with the fist we gavewhentalkingaboutstudentportfotios
on eAGE 73. Nowcompare yourtist with the list you gavewhentatkingabout
L.
the teache/sevidence on pner77.
L-

F-

Stages An example
in an appraisal: L-

L-

"Whenshould I Thiswill dependon the purposeof the AppnnrsAL. Youwill almostcertainlyneed

do the appraisol?" to do oneat the endof eachacademic year:a suMMATrvE EVALUATToNof the year's L.

work.However, it is obviously with largeclasses

impossible to haveten or 15
D:-
minuteswith eachstudentin the lastcoupleof lessons in eachyear.
Forthisreason, it is bestto havea systemof 'rolling in otherwords,
appraisals',
in somelessons you do oneor two studentswhilethe restof the classdoesother
work.lf you followthissystemallthroughthe year,you canusethe lasttwo or L--

threeclassesto havea quickwordwith the studentswho havethe oldest

eERFoRMANCE REVTEW.Askthemif theywant to add anythingto theirrecordsor
tellthemof anynewinformation you want to include.
Example
In the examplebelow,a teacherhasa classof 30 students(St1- SLIO).Each L

week,theyhavethreelessons of one houreach.Therearetwo termsof 15

weekseach.
At the startof the thirdweek,the teacherstartsa systemof interviewingtwo Lr
students perclasswhilethe restof the classdo projectwork.Theymainlytalk
about what theyhavedonebeforethiscourse,how goodthe studentthinks L--

he/sheis at (English), are,and other'gettingto knowyou'

what his/herinterests
- aslearnerandperson- areas.Afterthey haveall beeninterviewed, the teacher }--
hasa clinic(see pncr67) wherecommonproblems and questionsaredealtwith,
anda summaryof whattheywill concentrate on duringthe yearis given. ta-

L.

\-
78
>.

t
>:
,-)) Summative
assessment: andperformance
Appraisats reviews
L_-
t-4)

FromWeek10,the teacherhasa secondroundof shorterinterviews with each

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

r
4
the endof term.Thestudents
the classarethen interviewed.
who aremuchstrongeror weakerthanthe restof

Term 1 Term 2
4
Lesson2 Lesson1 i Lesson 2
l_----. Week
L. I

r
Ld
2
3 St3/4 St5/6
I 4 St9/10 Stl l/12

r
L--.-
5
6
StI5/16
St2U22
St17/18
St23l24

I
l-t
7
8
St27l28
Clinic I
St29/30
Clinic 2 YearlyAchievement Test
l-- 9 Stl/St2 St3/4
l0 St3/4 S15/6
l--
tE ll St9/10 Stl l/12
St7/8
Stl3/14
St9/10
St15/16
L
l,-)
L2 Stl5/16 Stl7l8 Stl9/20 St2Il22
l3 St2ll22 St23l24 St25126 St27l28
L-
l-.t l4 St27l28 St29/30 Mini-test
L.
t4
l5 Test
I

Mini-appraisalswith'difficult cases'

I
|1.
ldeally,it is bestto givethe 'bigtest'earlyso that studentshavea chanceto
L. lookat theirperformance and modifyit. Youcanthen identifythe most
- common problems 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
4: try andtrip themup throughtrickytestsl
It is importantto havean earlyinterviewwith eachstudentto setgoalsand
4-7
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 to interviews with 'problem'students, i.e.
- thosewho aremuchweaker,muchstronger, or thosewith behavioural or
otherproblems that needto be established in theirfinalnppRersnl.
a.
L-/D.

By puttingthe 'big test'beforethe finalAppMtsALs, thissendsa clearmessage

- to the studentthat theirperformance in the testonly represents a partof their
totalassessment. Thisis a goodexampleof methodological beneficial
7 BAcKWASH
students
(sEEpnce28). lf you havefinalnppnnrsns
will assume
beforethe 'big test'
that the testis moreimoortantthanthe interview.
:
79
=

-)

7)
I
 U-
l,<

assessment:
Summative andperforma
Appraisats ncereviews -1.
--- r-
-2.
y
to usethe information
It is important gatheredin the interviews
in a kinda
where you points -1
summarising clinic tellthe class
the major whichhavecome .z
up. lf youdon'tdo this,theymayseethe interviews ashavingno pointandthe
_--2
beneficialBAcKWAsH maybe lost.Formoreinformationon clinicssrr pnoe 67. -P
-2
y
Lookat the scheduteof inteMewsgivenon page79. -1

T A .g K Thinkaboutthe structureof yourschootyearandthe sizeof a typicalctass

v
J
you haveto teach.Wouldthe schedutelookverydifferentin yourcase? _v
Writea planfor nextyear. -1
_!-

"Whot happens inthe As the majorityof the interviewswill haveto be quiteshort,it is veryimportant f

interuiew?"
approisal that both sidesarefully prepared.
Teachers shouldprovidethe students with -1

the following. _!-

... the datesof the appraisalmeeting -1
_!-
... a briefagenda
... a copyof thestudent's previous
plan -!-
... a blankoutlinefor the nextplan
... anyscores fromthe (term's) workthat arerelevant _:.a

... attendance records _,1.

... copiesof anycriteria usedto measure the student's

work. F
It maybe usefulto askthe students to signtheseandsuggesttheirown L<
agendaitems.Thissounds complex, butdoesn'tneedto be,e.g.
-t-
ExampleAgenda _1

To:Mipol -t-
Apprai3alInterview date:Ith IW1 L-
I would like to talk about: Youwould like to talk about:
I lovr handvwihng I l-

2 4ovr'pogtc,ard'Yomowork 2
L-
3 \ovr i,tini-+q+ roevlt on fre<. sinTlo 3
Your last plan saidyou would look at: Ideasfor your next plan: l<

I qovr handvwrhng I
2 iovr proson+siffiplo qvoghon
{oymg 2 F
3 +elk|;bonglish'in of gpanich
Jne<inetJad t -_-.
L<
Your resultsso far this term
-.-
Checktests Marks fr<

tvhrch Mini-to<t 11/7o

*pnl Mini-to<t 17/7o Lz

Your homeworkaverageis 1o/7o =-.

L-
Attendancethis year: 57 classes
out of bo
Pleasefill in the ggpsand renrrn this to me. Lz

Rememberto bring any work you want to show me, aswell asyour copy of the \,
speakingand writing profi.lesin casewe needto look at them.
lrz
Thank you.
L

agendaon pHorocoprRst_E
Thereis a blankAppMrsAL pRcr7.

-_rt<
80
Lz

)1
a-) Summative andperformance
Appraisats
assessment: reviews
-\_--
etz

= Appraisal
day
4 " What shouldthe teacher Prepare threekeytopics
:- do onthedau?" Theinterview isnotverylong,sotimeislimited.lt is probably to think
unrealistic
that you cancovermorethanthreemajorpointsin the interview,evenif the
*r) studenthashundreds Youmusttherefore
of problemareas. prioritise:
whichthree
thingswouldmakethe biggestdifference to the student'sperformance? Language
=; items?Behaviour? Morehomework? Participating more/less?andsoon.
---
Prepare threekeyquestions
=4 Youmayhavethreethingsyou wantto say,but you shouldnot haveyour
conclusions - afterall,you haven'theardthe student's
prepared pointof view
-:-l yet.Sodon't prepare yourconclusions,but insteadpreParethreekeyquestions
- that will makethestudentthinkaboutthat area.
r--=
Not: Yourhandwritingis terrible.
!-t But: Did you knowyou may be losingmarksbecauseI can'treadyouranswers?
Not: Stopspeakingyourown languagewhenyou'reworkingin groups.

r
l4
Bul: How canI bandyourspeakingwhenyou neveruseEnglishnaturally?

Prepareyourevidence
Thestudentmaynot be awarehe/shehasthe problemyou wantto discuss, or
maydenyhe/shehasthe problem. Youwill thereforeneedconcrete examples-
=
piecesof work,or examples eventsthat happened
of specific -
in class which
t- youcanuseas'evidence'.
>4

TIP
,tt

t- lf you don'twantto keepmassive fileson eachstudent,askthemto keepthis

evidence in theirportfolios.
Cet the students to you the
to handin theirporbfolio
l- hand, studentsmay not keep 'bad'bitsof
previous lesson. On the other the
t-t work!Youmayneedto keepthesefor theml
t-
rE Prepare yourlesson
I In the lesson, youwill needsomeuninterrupted You
timeto do the interview.
U]

t' will thereforeneedto prepare e.g.gettinggroupsto workon their

activities,
projects, that the restof the classcando withoutaskingyou for helpor
=-
I information. lt isbestto havegroupwork:silentreading will meanallthe
students canhearyourconversation and mightmake you andespeciallythe
-2
I studentinterviewee shy.
l--
I
The interview: e Makesurethatthe restof the classcannothearthe interview- it maymake
,-l- Suggested procedure the studentshyor embarrassed.
e Sitnextto the studentsothat you canlookat examples of worktogether.
7z
e Produce a cleancopyof the agenda,andquicklyoutlinethe stages.
L - afterall,we aretalking
L-at
e Usethe students' L1to makethemfeelcomfortable
L
r
abouttheirperformance, not doingan oralinterviewlOn the otherhand,if
the studentsarecapable allthe betterl
of usingEnglish,
V,

a'
L _.

)<,/ 81
l._- -

7
|-)
I
 l<
I-
andperformance
Appraisats
assessment:
Summat'ive reviews
.\_/V

l-

e compareyouragendawith the individual student's.rf he/shehaswritten tz

nothing, he/shehasn't prepared the interview.lmmediately stopthe interview

andre-schedule anotherdate.Thereis no point negotiating plansif the .}-
studenthasn'teventhoughtabouthis/herresponsibilities in the process.lf
thisis a persistent
problem,makeit clearto the studentthat the reviewis itsel{ -*
partof his/herassessment.
.v
e Askhowthe (term)hasgone.
... Hasit beensimilarto his/herplanor verydifferent? -ts
... In whatways?
... Whatis he/shehappywith? -L-
... Whatis he/sheunhappy with?
-}-
... Whatproblems is he/shehaving?
Agreeor disagree, eitherby asking(someof) yourthreequestions, or by '}-
pointingout examples in his/herwrittenwork or classroom behaviour that
confirmor contradict his/herviews. .}-
Note:Thestudentmayconcentrate on thingsyou had not predicted. lf more
-}-
importantor usefulissues arise,dropsomeor all of yourthreepoints.
c Askwhatthe studentthinksyou shouldbothwriteas his/hergoals(a -b-
maximumof three).Writethem(if you agree- negotiateif you don't)on the
planin wordsthat areassimilaraspossible to the oneshe/shesuggests. That .t-
way therecanbe no misunderstanding: it alsogivesyou someideaof the
students' wayof describing problems andbuildsup yourstudent-based -t-
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
discussing a workissue. .}-
c Getthe studentto signanddatethe sheet,therebymakinga commitment.
),2
e Youshouldlaterphotocopy
thisfor his/herporffolio.
-b-
Possible problems andpossible solutions
"Whotif the students Roleplay or showa videoof a typicalAppnarsAL interviewin front of the whole lr-

can't underslandthe classbeforecarryingout the firstone.Thiswill givethemsomeideaof the

l-
conceptof app rais als?" structure of the interview.
Makesurethefirstinterviewees are'strong'personalities, because the restof the l-
classwill askthemwhathappened, andyou will needthesefirstinterviewees to --
givepositive feedback to the restof the class.lf you can,videothe interviewto !-
showa (different) classwhatinterviews arelike.
!-
"Whotif the students Thisis almostcedainto happenthe firstfew timesyou haveinterviews.
:-
cannotidentifgtheir Remember that,for moststudents,
the ideaof beingconsulted is new to them.
strengthsand Theyarebeingaskedto takeon new responsibilities. _L-
weaknesses?"Herearesomepromptsyou canuseto helpstudentsduringthe interview. Ask:
_Lz
e lf theyhada testtomorrow,whatwouldthey be mostworriedabout?
_<.
e What wouldbe easy? -L-
e Whatdo theydo whenthey'reworkingin groups:
... giveideas? !-
..; do thewriting?
... put otherpeople's
ideasintocorrectEnglish? _r<

_r<
82
)r

__.1.
)z
L._, Summative and performance
Appraisals
assessment: revjews
L
),1)
-

L
L+
0 Who isthe bestin theirgroupor class?How do they know?
e lf theyarethe best,what arethey 'best'at? (Thisshouldgivetheman ideaof
L.
rr differentskillsandabilities.)
e Tellthemoneareatheyaregoodat; askfor others.
e Askthemhow theyknowif they'vegot better- apartfrom testsand

rr homeworkmarks.lf theycan'tsay,askthemwhichstudenttheythink has

improvedmostoverthe (term).Askthemwhy.

"Whatif the students Theymayhavedifficultyin expressing

l--
theirideasbecause this is not the kindof
don'thaueenough languagevocabularyareawe oftenteach.
l-
rr to expresstheirideas?" Do the interviews

comprehensions
in thestudent's
video/audio-tape

arean excellent
and present
opportunity
- liveor on
L1;or roleplay
-'sample'AppursAL interviews.
new/usefullanguage.
Treattheseas listening

for realcommunication.
Afterall,AppnnrsAL
Remember
interviews
to includethe
t -{.
languagefor planningaswellasthe language for reviewing.
L.
LJ.
Remember thattherearethreepossibilities
for the language usedin the interview:
l_
6.
Teacher Student

l:
L__--
a) L'I L1

b) L2 L1
l_
E.
c) L2 L2
L.
.-4.
ln addition,somepartsof the interviewcanbe in the L1 and otherpartsin
l:
*:
the L2 (i.e.English).

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

haue
enoughtine?"teachers
teachthe syLLABUs,
reviews
expandto fill the time available!
Many
will lookat the exampleaboveand sayI haven'tgot enoughtime to
Iet alonededicateall thattime to reviews.ltis truethat
do takeup a lot of time.Butit is important to remember the following.
o AppRArsAL interviews arean excellent opportunityfor realteacher-student
= communication. How oftennow do yourstudentshavethe chanceto speak
V-

L. one-to-one withyou?lf the interview

or by theteacher andthestudent),
is donein English
you areproviding
(bytfreteacher
themwith thousands
only,
of
= language-learning opportunities.

t-, e Whichever language

-
you use,therearealsothousands
opportunitiesfor bothteacher
aboutandplantheirlearning,
andstudent.
of mutuallearning
Byencouraging
you aremakingthe classes
themto think
moreefficient. From

rt:
- the interviews
on the syLLABUs
andthe students'

you will be ableto assess

efficientby matching
plans,you will be ableto decidewhichitems
canbe droppedandwhichyou needto concentrate
yourwholeteachingprogramme
on; and
and makeit more
the students'own languagelearningprocesses.

r: c Thereis an old saying:Civea man a fish,and you feedhim for a day; teacha

r:
manto fish,andyou feedhim for /ife.nppnntsnls work in a similarway.lt is
alwaysquicker andeasier to do something yourself thanteachsomeone else

r: howto do it. Butin the longterm,it is betterto makethemindependent.

Who knows,in the longterm,you mayevensavetime.As we haveseenin

rt' thisbook,students
compositions;
canbeginto marktheirown - or eachother's-
theyevencanwriteand markeachother'stestsand exercises.

83

C
t
r
 F<
D-
Summative andperformance
Appraisats
assessment: reviews
-z
t<
-.1
5ummary >2

AppRAtsALSandPERFORMANCE REVTEWS
arebecomingpartof our workinglife.We _.2
havelookedat why we do them,who doesthem,whentheyaredoneandwhat P
theyconsistof. _-z
,P
Thefollowinglistdetailssomeof theinformationyoucouldusewhendoingan 2
appraisalfor yourstudents: *
c resultsof 'formal'tests I
*
of 'mini-tests'
e, results
e records of the student'shomework - bothresults
andfrequency l-
e recordsof the student's attendance
-E-
e copiesof the student's
workdisplayingthe student's
strengths
e copiesof the student's
workdisplayingthe student's
weaknesses .E-
e copiesof any relevantenxosandpRoFrLEs
.t-
o copyof the courseobjectives,
svLLRBUs,
etc.
e notesconcerning the student's - goodand bad- in class
contributions .f-
c notesconcerning preferred
the student's learning
styleandstrategies [-
e resultsof previous
eERFoRMANcEREVtEws.
-E-

Canyou set up an AppRArsAL systemin yourctass?

Canyou startit this year
-t-
or wi[[ you haveto wait ti[[ nextyear?If you want to set one up, plan
A-
the fottowing:
... howto organisethe jnteMews t!-
... whatto askstudents to bring
... whatto bringyourself. !-
Good[uck! >'z
If you don'twantto set oneup,whynot?
A-
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CONCLUSION
L Timefor a change?
r
rr ln thisbook,we havelookedat assessment: how we asteachers decideif a

rr studentisgoodor badat English.

accurate andeffective
seena goodtestrequires
expedise
We haveseenthat traditional
waysof measuring
an enormous
andmoney.Mostschools
a student's
commitment
abilities;
testscanbe very
but we havealso
in termsof time,personnel,
do not havethoseresources, andso the kind
l --
of testwe areableto writewill neverbe sufficientlv accurate to makeimoortant
L-
l-!1
decisions abouta student's future.
L-
.-).
T h i n k. . .
Yourjob depends on yourabilityin English. Wouldyou want a decision made
L
r
aboutyouremployability basedon yourschool's currenttest?
lf it'snot goodenoughfor us,it maynot be goodenoughfor them...
l ---
Also,we wouldn'twantour abilityassessed on the basisof two classroom
L
14
obseruations. Thereareotherimportantskillsandotherwaysto measure them.
lf it'snotgoodenoughfor us,it maynot be goodenoughfor them...
L
L4 Eachassessment procedure is,then,a problemthat we haveto solve.Thereis no
L
La.
idealor perfectsolution.Evaluation
at a widerangeof evidence
isaboutjudgement:
abouta student's
all we cando isto look
ability,listento variousinterested
l- parties, balance
that thatjudgement
allthe factsandopinions andmakea decision.
isfair,andwe mayhaveto justifyour decision
We musthope
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.
.
l-4
el Our testsarebestway we canthinkof to evaluate performance.
a student's
L
142
el A studentshouldonlybe assessed viaformaltests.
L 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.
C., canevaluate
e The mark13/20is moreusefultothe studentandtheiroarentsthana

7 descriptive
PRoFtLEor BAND.

7 " 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.

r:
c The30 minutes theyspendwritingthiscomposition wouldgiveusa betteridea
of theirabilities
thanthe 15 minutes theyspendwritingtheirleamerdiaries.
-)
e All studentswill intentlystudyour corrections
on theircompositionsandwill

i,
learna greatdealfromthem.

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85

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e we will makea noteof allthe corrections >-2
we makeon compositions so that
we havea recordof what the student's
learningtargetsare.
.P
e Themultiple-choicetestwe writeis a bettertool for helpingstudents
to learn
_,1
thanthe multiple-choice
testtheywritefor eachother. P
g A recordof students'workbookexercise scores tellsus morethanwhat a -2
],-2.
studentputsin theirporffolio.
2
Do you agree?
P

I "ts
canbeginto narktheirown- or
Thelastchapterof this bookended:... students
I T A s K eachother's- compositions;theyevenconwite andmarkeachother'stestsand .t-
Someteachers
exercises. wil[ nowsayButthat'simpossible!
.E-
If youagreethatthis is impossibte,
writein eachboxwhyyoufeelthis.
.E-
compositions tests exercises
.E-
mark .E-

.E-

.t-
write
.E-

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

.E-
Teachingand evaluation One lastworrymightbe that allthisevaluation
is goingto takeup timethat you
shouldspendteaching. .E-
L-
" ls eualuation
now more Well,in someways,it is.Students areonlyableto learnby realisingwhat they
important than te aching?" don't knowandby recognising newitemsas beingnew.Theyneedto }r

experiment with newlanguage to seewhereit is rightor wrong.No teacherwill

everbeableto correcteverything a studentwrites,saysor, moreimportantly, A-
understands.We alreadyrelyon the studentsbeingcleverenoughto knowthat
theydon't know- we relyon themsayingl'm sorry,but I don't understand.This A-
is howwe learn:by askingquestions.
l-
Unfodunately, studentsrarelysayI don't understand. Theythink that by
admittingtheirlackof understanding, the teacherwill thinktheyareslowor F-
stupid.Sotheyjustkeepquietandhopethe teacherdoesn'tchoosethemto
answerthe question. l-

]-
"WLrA theyfeargettingthe answerwrong,andtheyfearthat the teacherwill
isthis?" Because
notethisandgivethema badmark.Theyarenot usedto teachers askingthem L<
In otherwords,theydon't sayanythingbecause
realquestions. theyseethe
questions
teacher's astests. l<

ln thisway,testingmayactuallybe preventing
learningin our schools.
Timefor -l-
a change?
.t-
86
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Gtossary t-
TESTS
ACHIEVEMENT Thesetestwhetherstudents cando whattheyhavebeentaught,eitherby
testingspecific syLLABUsitemsor generalobjectives. E=
Thesetry to breakdown markingintoa numberof differentareasso that both
ANALYTICMARKINGSCHEMES
teacherandstudentcanseewheretheyaresuccessful andwherethe
E-
reader/listenerhasdifficultiesin understand ing. ts
APPRAISALS A systemof reviewing a person's past,presentandfuture- theirwork,their
problems, theirattitudes, etc.-leadingfromandto negotiated targets. E-
(on wnsxencx)
BACKWAsH Theeffectthat a finaltesthason the teachingprogramme that leadsto it -
E-
teachingto the test.
BANDING Thisis similarto pRorttt'tc,
but normally describes the wholerangeof abilityin E-
the targetlanguage. Each anNo number refers to both oEscnrproRs and relatesto
levelsof ability.A aRNo describes an abilitylevelin anyoneskill,andthereforea E-
writingbandwouldincludeinformation concerning relevance, adequacy,
grammar, etc. F
cLrNrcs Handingovera smallpartof the syllabus to the students. A sectionof a lesson E-
(e.g.partof the lastclasspad eachmonth)is dedicated to questionsthat the
studentsraise,likepatients visitingthe doctor. E-
RATINGS
CONFIDENCE Theselet you comparewhatthe studentcanactuallydo with what he/shethinks
he/shecando. E-
EVALUATION
CONGRUENT Thislooksat a wholeprocess beforeit starts,in orderto makesurethat the aims, E-
methodology andevaluation of the coursematchthosestated.
VALIDITY
CONSTRUCT Doesthe testtestthe skillsand itemsit'ssupposed to testand nothingelse? E-
CONTENTVALIDITY Doesthe testtestthe skillsanditemsthat it'ssupposed to test?
E-
ASSESSMENT
CONTINUOUS -
Thisis no differentfromanyotherformof assessmentit simplyrefersto how
frequently you testor evaluate the students. Thestudentis assessed on not just E-
one performance, but on manyperformances.
TESTING
CRITERIA-REFERENCED Theresulttellsyou aboutwhatthe individual studentcando, anddoesnot F
comparehim/herwith otherstudents. lt describes certaincriteriathat the
studenthasbeenableto meet.
F
CURRICULUM Thesubjects that arestudiedin schools, andthe procedures andapproaches l-

usedto teachthem.Thisis usuallydecidedby the state.

>-
DESCRIPTOR Oneof several description levelsof abilities
for eachsub-skill, e.g. 3 Complete
understandingwith appropriatevocabulary and few if any circumlocutions. L-
TESTS
DIAGNOSTIC TheseusepRoFrcrENcy or AcHTEVEMENTTEsrs to analysestrengths andweaknesses
in the studentor the teachingprogramme itself. >-
TESTING
DIRECT Thismeanswe askthe studentactually to performthe skillwe wantto test.
>-.
ComparerNDrREcr rEslNG.
SKILLS
DISCOURSE Makingwhatwe sayfit whathasbeensaidbefore,or what is stillto be said,e.g. F
I sawJohn.He said...,not I sawJohn.Johnsaid...
ENUMERATION In general, methodusedin testingof turningperformances
the semi-scientific >l-
into numbers or results.
FACEVALIDITY Doesthe testappearto testwhat it'stryingto test? l:-
EVALUATION
FORMATIVE Thisisthe evaluation doneandfeedback gainedduringa process so that the l-
process canbe changedto makeit moreeffective- to helpthisyear'sstudents
ratherthan nextyear's. L-

xtcx/low coRRELATIoN ls the testan extremelygoodindicatorof the skillwe aretryingto test?

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L lLLUMlNArloN Learningfrom doing somethingwith the student,ratherthan doing somethingto

the student, askingHow did you learn that? Why did you write that?
fl
rr INDIRECT
TESTING

NoRM-REFERENCED
TEsrlNG
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.

Usingtestresults to compare the studentwith otherstudents from that yearand

Ll from otheryears.Theresultdoesnot giveanyinformation

individual performance, instead it compares
aboutthe student's
him/herto the norm.

f
V.
PERFoRMANCEREVIEW An interviewwith a superior leadingto a documentcontaining
the past,aswellasa planfor thefuture.Thisis a negotiated
botha reviewof
document- it is
l- agreedandsignedby bothsides.

r. PLACEMENT

PROFILES
TEsrs
PRoFlclENcY
rEsrs
Usedto put the studentintoa classor leveldepending
Thesetesta generalstandard abilityregardless
on certaincriteria.
of the teachingprogramme.
Thesebreakdownmarkingintoa numberof differentareasso that bothteacher
=
6. and studentcanseewheretheyaresuccessful andwherethe reader/listener has
l-
4
difficulties
abilities
in understanding.
for eachsub-skill.
Compare
Thetechnical
BANDS. pRoFrLEs haveseveraldescriptions
termfor eachof theseis a ogscnrproR.
of

L
g.
DATA
QUALITATIVE lnteresthereis not so muchin numerical results,but insteadin the process.

l-* MEASUREMENT
QUANrlrArlvE In general,the semi-scientific
numbersor results.
methodusedin testingof turningperformances into

f: RAW scoREs Pureresults givenasnumbers,

r
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

r
= or construction beingusedtimeandtime again.lt
suddenly becomes noticeable or 'salient'for a coupleof weeksandthenseems to
disappear.

L: scoRERRELIABILITY lf you gavethe sametestto two differentpeopleto mark,wouldtheygivethe

samescore?ls the markingobjective or subjective?
C
1-t)
srRArEclc
sKlLLs
suMMArlvE
Suchashow to taketurnsin speaking,
EVALUATIoN Thisis evaluation doneandfeedback
get information from a text,listenfor gist,etc.
gainedat the endof (a stageof) a process.
L
r It looksat generalfeedback
coursecanbe changed
to the teachingprocedure
according
used,so that nextyear's
to what hasbeenmoreor lesssuccessful.

r SYLLABUS Theoutlineof the course.

government, individual
Thiscanbe decidedby the schoolmanagement,
teacher or by the courseboox.

t
>-)
TEsrRELIABILITY lf it werepossible to givethe samepersonthe sametest(or a differentversionof
it) at the sametime,wouldthe resultbe the same?

L vAuDrw SeecorusrRucr, CoNTENT and rRcevALtDtw.

r KEYTo tesr, plcg48

t Herearethreepossibilities.
1 Tellthe studentsto imaginetheyarein BritainandthattheirTV is broken:theycanchooseonlyone

t channel to watchallevening. In groups,

theyagreewhichchannelthey wouldchoose, andsaywhy.

t
E)
2 Erase the namesof someprogrammes,
appropriate namesfor the programmes.
3 Askthe students to suggest
leavingonlythe descriptions.

whichprogrammes
Askthe students
to thinkof

peoplemightwatch,e.g.an elderlycouple,a
specific
L
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r*t 95

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Furtherreading H
7'/
I

House,S An lntroductionto Teaching Englishto ChildrenRichmond Publishing 1997 H

I
Chapter14looksat waysof evaluating children. --1

Hughes,A TestingforLanguage TeachersCUP1989

H
)
guideto issuesin languagetesting,with exercises
A practical
to beginners.
whichexplainstatistics
and suggestionsfor furtherreading, aswell v,
usefulappendices )
Simmons, H & Elliott,J (eds) RethinkingAppraisaland Assessment OpenUniversity Press
1989
>-)
I
contributors
of articlesby international
Thiscollection coversa widerangeof issues, arguingthat 'teacher _)
andpupilassessment
appraisal linked.'Everypagewillgetyouthinking.
areinextricably
E-i I
_)
H
I
Indexof topics HI
(numbersin bracketsreferto photocopiable pages)
H I
achievement tests,8 formativeevaluation, 32 55
self-reports,
freshstarts,24 selecting
answers,43 _)
analysing a lesson, 54 y
anafyticmarkingschemes, 49, 50 gap-filling,37 slashedsentences,
39 l
appraisals: general,75 73
studentoorffolios,
appraisal agenda,80, (7) holistictesting,40 student-written
tests,55 F
stagesin an appraisal, TS illumination, 73 summative evaluation,32
assessing proced ures/attitudes: improving scorerreliability,27 testreliability,22
F
l
clinics,67 indlrecttesting,30 testtypes,8
checklists, 50
jumbledsentences, 39 testingandevaluation, 73 ts
confidence rating,59 l
testingandteaching, 9-77
learnedlists,53 learnedlists.53 testingovertime,70 tJ
redesigning andanalysing a learnerdiaries,63,(5) testingtechniques:
lesson,64 limitedpossibility questions, 25 buildingsentences. -19
self-reports, 55 E-
makingtestsreliable, 24 C-test,38
student-written tests,55
choosing a title,48
assessing talking skills,
55 making tests
matching,44
valid,20
clozetest,38 E=
backwash, 28 mini-tests, 77 editing,41, (2)
>r
bands, 57 multiple-choice questions,25,35 fillinga space, 47
building sentences, 39 multiplematching,44 gap-filling,37
C-test,38 multiplepossibility questions,25
jumbledsentences,
limitedpossibility
39
questions,
25
F
checklists, 60, 72 norm-referenced testing,37 matching,44 l-
checktests, 77 note-expansion,39 multiplechoice, 26,35
choosingatitle,48
48, (3) multiplematching,44
clinics,57
clozetest,38
openanswerquestions,
ordering, 45,48 multiplepossibilityquestions,
25 t=
noteexpansion, 39
confidencerating,59 performance reviews,76 openanswers, a8, (3) I-
congruent evaluation, 3-J personalisation, 48 ordering,45, 48
constructvalidily,19 placement tests,8 rankingpreferences, 48 E=
contentvalidity,78 planninga test,21, (1) reading andlistening, 43
continuous assessment, 69 practicality,27 selectinganswers, 43
criteria-referenced testing, 3 7 proficiency tests,8 l<
slashed sentences, 39
descriptors, 50-54 profiles, 49,50,72 transformations, 40, 46
diagnostic tests,8 question types(seetesting true/false questions, 35 F
directtesting,30 techniques) transformations, 40, 46
distractors, 36, 44 true/false questions, 35 L-
rankingpreferences, 48 typesof testing:
editing, (2)
41, readingand listeningtests,43
enumeration,9 criteria-referenced,37 ==
record-keeping, 70 directandindirect, 30
evaluation:general,13-14 redesigning a lesson,54
congruent evaluation, 33 40
holistic,
reliability:general,22 l-
formativeevaluation,32 norm-referenced,3l
scorerreliability,26
summative evaluation, 32 testreliability,22 validity:general,
78 l-
testingandevaluation, 73 construct.79
saliencyeftect,58 content,78
facevalidity,20 scorerreliability,25 t-
fillinga space, 47 face.20

96 F
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