Concepts of language assessment

1. Assessment types
and activities

2. Word association
• Assessment
• a process in which you make a judgment
about a person or situation, or the
judgment you make
• Evaluation
• a judgment about how good, useful, or
successful something is

3. Assessment word association
• Types of assessment
• Types of tasks used in assessment
• Vocabulary associated with assessment

4. Types of assessment
• Continuous assessment
• Formal /Informal assessment
• Portfolio assessment
• Subjective/Objective assessment
• Placement test
• Diagnostic test
• Achievement test
• Proficiency test
• Progress test
• Formative/summative assessment

5. Types of tasks used in assessment
• Multiple choice
• Gap-fill tasks
• Matching tasks
• Sentence transformation
• Sentence completion
• Cloze tasks
• Open comprehension questions etc

6. Vocabulary associated with assessment
• Finding out about learning
• Progress Performance
• Marking
• Grades Examinations
• Feedback
• Accuracy
• Evaluation
• Fluency
• Reliability
• Test items
• Validity
• Criteria

7. Why assess ?

8. Why assess?
• to provide feedback to learners on their progress (e.g. what they
have done well and what they need to improve)
• to provide feedback to learners on their achievement (ie how much
they have learned at a particular point in time)
• to get information about learners' ability to understand or use target
language structures or с vocabulary help teachers know how to help
their learners
• to get information about learners' skills development
• to find out whether learners like or dislike specific classroom
activities (you could collect this information by asking and by
observing)
• For diagnostic purposes: to use information about learners' strengths
and weaknesses to provide information which can feed in to
planning
• to let learners know what standards they need to reach
• to see whether learning objectives are being achieved
• to provide records for schools
• to provide information to parents

9. Testing and assessment

10. Testing and assessment
• What different kinds of tests have you
taken?
• What were the reasons for taking these
tests?

11. Types of tests

12. Types of tests
• Achievement test - measure what learners have learnt on a
language course - usually given at the end of the course
• Diagnostic test - identify learners' strengths and weaknesses.
Helps teachers to make decisions on what needs to be taught
• Objective test - scored according to 'right' or 'wrong' answers,
i.e., non-judgmental on part of examiners
• Placement test - used before the beginning of courses, to
determine learners' language levels' and based on this information
'place' them in the classes most appropriate for them
• Oral test - measures learners' speaking abilities
• Proficiency test - measures language ability and based on
what is needed for a particular purpose, e.g., English for
secretaries, English for car mechanics etc
• Progress test - measure learners' progress during a language
course
• Subjective test - compared to objective tests, the examiner
judges learners' answers
• Summative test - end of year/end of course test measuring
learners' overall achievement of course objectives

13. Assessment types and
definitions

14. Assessment task types: what
can you assess?

15. Which assessment activity?

16. Formal
vs
informal assessment

17. Formal vs informal assessment
• Likely to be formal
• Standardized
• Certificates
• Objective
• Likely to be informal
• Self-assessment informal
• Subjective informal
• Could be both
• Score usually formal, but may be used in informal assessment depending on
the task type
• Projects usually associated with informal, but learners in some countries can
be formally
assessed on project work
• Portfolio same case as for projects
• Report usually associated with formai assessment, but reports can
sometimes accompany
informal assessments
• Grade formal associations but may also be given by some teachers in
informal assessment

18. Why use informal and formal
assessment activities?

19. Reflection