《英语教学法》第15章Assessment in Language Teaching

1、Unit 15Assessment in Language TeachingAims of the unit:Assessment purposesAssessment methodsAssessment criteriaAssessment principlesTesting language assessment15.1 Understanding assessmentTesting: Testing often takes the pencil and paper form and it is usually done at the end of a learning period, f

2、or example at the end of a two months.Assessment: Assessment involves the collecting of information or evidence of a learners learning progress and achievement over a period of time for the purposes of improving teaching and learning. Evaluation: Evaluation can be concerned with a whole range of iss

3、ues in and beyond language education: lessons, courses, programs, and skills can all be evaluated.15.2 Assessment purposesTo put it simply, assessment in ELT means to discover what the learners know and can do at a certain stage of the learning process. Before we look at assessment in detail, lets d

4、iscuss why assessment is necessary. With different assessment purposes in mind, we may adopt different assessment methods. Administrators:Administrators provide money and personnel for education. They need to know whether the programmes they have planned are working well. The only way to do this is

5、to discover how well the pupils are doing with their courses. If assessment results are different from what they have expected, they need to replan the programmes so that better accomplishment can be achieved later. Teachers:Teachers put the administrators plans into practice. In the continuum of le

6、arning, teachers need to know what has been done and what needs to be done next; what the pupils already know or can do and what they do not know or cannot do yet. If the programme is well planned, it pretty much depends on the teachers performance whether the programme eventually leas to success. P

7、arents Nobody is more anxious than parents to know how their children are doing in school. Unable to watch their kids in the class, parents value the feedback about their childrens performance from the teachers and the school. Students Finally, students need to know what theyve accomplished , be awa

8、re of what they need to work on next, and build up their confidence and satisfaction from what they have achieved. 15.3 Assessment methodsBesides testing, which can be formal or informal, there are many other ways to gather information, such as teachers assessment, continuous assessment, students se

9、lf-assessment, and portfolios. Teachers assessmentResearch shows that the teachers knowledge of children and their strengths and weaknesses is more accurate and sound than testing. Very often the teachers subject estimate of the learners overall performance or achievement can be quite accurate and f

10、air. The teacher can get information by observing the students in class and by looking at their work. Continuous assessmentThe final grade given to the student is not his or her mark on the final exam paper; rather , it is some kind of combination of the grades the learner has received for various a

11、ssignments during the course. It can also include the grades that the teacher has given for students performance or participation in the class activities. It could also be a written report rather than just a grade. Self-assessment and peer assessmentThe students themselves are given the chance to ev

12、aluate their own performance, using clear criteria and weighting systems agreed on beforehand. Kohonen asserts that students are able to make quite accurate assessments of their own achievements. PortfoliosPortfolios are collections of assignments and projects that students have done over a long per

13、iod of time. These materials are usually put in a file kept by the students or the teacher. The portfolios provide the basis for evaluation. 15.4 Criteria for AssessmentIt is agreed that assessment means to discover how well learners know things or can do things. But “well” is often comparatively “w

14、ell”, not absolutely “well”. So the question is what criteria assessment should be based on. How “well” is “well enough”?Criterion-referenced assessmentCriterion-referenced language assessment is based on a fixed standard or a set criterion. The national or local educational authority may have this

15、standard or criterion. A school or several schools in a district may have their standard or set criterion for whatever purposes they might have. A fixed standard is usually the ultimate goal which the students are expected to achieve at the end of the course. Norm-referenced assessmentNorm-reference

16、d assessment is designed to measure how the performance of a particular student or group of students compares with the performance of another student or group of students whose scores are given as the norm. A student s achievement is therefore interpreted with reference to the achievement of other s

17、tudents or groups of students, rather than to an agreed criterion. Individual-referenced assessmentIndividual-referenced assessment is based on how well the learner is performing relative to his or her own previous performance, or relative to an estimate of his or her individual ability. For example

18、, if a student could only say a few words in English after a few months of the course, and now after another months study, he is able to speak with some fluency , we can surely say he has made great progress. 15.5 Assessment principlesThe heterogeneity of assessment methods and assessment criteria d

19、oes not mean assessment has no principles to follow. On the contrary, some vital principles have to be observed if effective assessment is to be made. Generally speaking, assessment should:assess authentic use o language in reading, writing, speaking, and listeningassess literacy and language in a variety of contextsassess the environment,