Chapter 1

Assessment
Concepts and
Issues
Group 1:
Nguyễn Thị Bích Duyên
Huỳnh Thị Thùy Dương (043)
Trần Trọng Hiếu
Lê Hồng Hà
 Our menu
Assessment Issues in Language
and Testing Assessment: Then and Now

Types and
Current “Hot Topics” in
Purposes of
Language Assessment
Assessment
Test need not be degrading or threatening to
your students.
 ASSESSMENT AND TESTING
Assessment is apprasing In educational practice,
and estimating the level or assessment is an ongoing
magnitude of some process that encompasses a
attribute of a person. wide range of methodological
techniques.
ASSESSMENT

the teacher subconsciously never ceases to

appraise the student's assess students
performance when they
participate in the lesson.
 Tests are a subset of assessment, a
TESTS genre of assessment technique

A test must
A test is a
To qualify a test, the Some tests measure

measure
method
general ability, others
method must be
focus on specific
explicit and competencies or
structured. objectives.

- A test measures performance

- The results imply the test-taker’s
- Proficiency test: the
given domain
ability or use a concept common in
measures a
domain is overall

A test
proficiency in a language the field linguistics, competence.
- Pronunciation test:
focus on a limited set of
phonemic minimal pairs.
Measurement Measurement is the
ing
process of quantify Measurement
and Evaluation the observed
performance of
.
classroom learners

e
Quantitative performanc Quanlitative performanc
e
ption,
involves assigning consists of written descri
num b ers in cluding rankings oral feedback and other
nonquantifiable reports
and letter grades..
Measurement Evaluation
Involved when the
results of a test or
other assessment
procedure are used
to make decisions.
 Assessment and Learning
Does all
teaching
Students must have involve Teachers are indeed
the freedom to assessment? observing
experiment, to try Your students’performance,
their own hypotheses perspective possibly taking
about language Are teachers measurements,
without felling their constantly
offering qualitative
assessing
overall competence is feedback, suggesting
students, with no
judged assessment-free strategies
interaction?
Informal Assessment Formal Assessment

Informal assessment can take Formal assessments are

01 a number of forms, starting 01 exercises or procedures
with incidental, unplanned specifically to tap into a
comments and responses,
storehouse of skills and
along with other unprepared
feedback to the student. knowledge.

Informal assessment is
virtually always Formal assessments are
02 nonjudgemental, in that you 02 systematic, planned sampling
techniques constructed to give
as a teacher are not making
teacher and student an appraisal
ultimate decisions about the
of student achievement.
student's performance
 Formative and
Summative Assessment - - Evaluating students in the
process of “forming” their
competencies and skills
- - Virtually all kinds of informal
Formative assessment, most classroom
assessment
Function of an - - Measure or summarize what
assessment a student has grasped
- - Occurs at the end of a
course or unit of instruction
Summative- - All tests (quizzes , periodic
review tests, midterm exams,
etc.) are summative.
Norm-Referenced Tests Criterion-Referenced Tests

- Reported in the form of a - Designed to give test-

numerical score. takers feedback: in the form
- Must have fixed, of grades, on specific
predetermined responses course or lesson objectives.
in a format - Classroom tests: a
- Standardized tests: particular curriculum are
SAT®, GRE, TOEFL® typical of criterion-
referenced testing.
TYPES AND PURPOSES OF ASSESSMENT

Specifying the purpose of an

assessment instrument and
stating its objectives is an
essential first step in choosing,
designing, revising, or adapting
the procedure you will finally use.
Achievement Aptitude
Tests Tests
TYPES AND
PURPOSES OF
ASSESSMENT

Proficiency
Diagnostic
Placement Tests
Tests
Tests
 To measure Achievement tests
learners’ ability are often summative.
within a classroom
lesson, a unit, or
even an entire 01 04
curriculum.
Achievement
Tests
To determine whether
course objectives have
been met and 02 03
appropriate knowledge
and skills acquired by Play an important
the end of a given
period of instruction.
formative role.
 Diagnostic
Tests

The purpose is to
st of Offer more detailed,
identify aspects of a Offer a checkli subcategorized
language that a student e teacher
features for th information about th
e
needs to develop or that pinp oint d ifficulties.
to learner.
a course should include.
Placement
Tests
To place a student into a particular level or section of
a language curriculum or school.

A placement could include a sampling of the

material to be covered in the various courses
in a Curriculum

Placement tests come in many varieties

To help teachers assessing their students’

abilities.
 Proficiency Tests

01 02 03 04
Language
Almost A key issue in
teachers should
A proficiency always testing proficiency
not attempt to
test tests is how the
summative create an
constructs of
overall ability. and norm- language ability overall
referenced. proficiency test
are specified.
on their own.
 Aptitude Tests no longer widely used

01 02 03

Any test claims Provide learners

Measure capacity information about
or general ability a to predict preferred styles,
before taking a success in potential strengths,
course and learning a weaknesses with
ultimate predicted followup strategies for
language is capitalizing the strengths
success in that undoubtedly and overcoming the
undertaking flawed weaknesses
ISSUES IN LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT

CURRENT “HOT TOPICS” IN LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT

HUỲNH THỊ THÙY DƯƠNG (043)

Huỳnh Thị Thùy Dương (043)

 ISSUES IN LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT

1. Behavioral Influences
on Language Testing 4. Traditional and
Alternative Assessment

2. Integrative Approaches

5. Performance-Based
Assessment
3. Communicative
Language Testing
Huỳnh Thị Thùy Dương (043)
 ISSUES IN LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
1. Behavioral Influences on Language Testing
Language teaching and testing were strongly influenced by behavioral
psychology and structural linguistics.

Emphasize Minor focus

Huỳnh Thị Thùy Dương (043)

 ISSUES IN LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
1. Behavioral Influences on Language Testing

DISCRETE-POINT designed on the assumption that language can be

TEST broken down into its component parts.

listening, speaking,
4 Skills
reading, writing
COMPONENTS
various units of language phonology, morphology,
(discrete points) syntax
Huỳnh Thị Thùy Dương (043)
 ISSUES IN LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
2. Integrative Approaches
Communicative competence is so global and requires such integration that
it can not be captured in additive tests of grammar, reading,vocabulary, and
other discrete points of language.

Integrative test

Cloze test Dictation

Huỳnh Thị Thùy Dương (043)
 ISSUES IN LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
2. Integrative Approaches
Cloze test is a reading passage in which roughly every sixth or seventh
word has been deleted; the test-taker is required to supply words that fit into
those blanks.

Cloze test results were good

measures of overall proficiency.

Huỳnh Thị Thùy Dương (043)

 ISSUES IN LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
2. Integrative Approaches
Dictation: learners listen to a short passage and write what they hear.

careful listening

reproduction in writing

efficient short-term memory

Huỳnh Thị Thùy Dương (043)

 ISSUESonly
INtell
LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
a student’s linguistic competence
3. Communicative Language Testing
Cloze tests
Tasks tended to be artificial
not tell aand unlikely
student’s to mirror language
performance ability use in real life.

Huỳnh Thị Thùy Dương (043)

 ISSUES IN LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
3. Communicative Language Testing

design communicative test tasks.

Pragmatic and strategic abilities needed to be included in

the constructs of language testing.

Huỳnh Thị Thùy Dương (043)

 ISSUES IN LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
4. Traditional and Alternative Assessment
All people and all skills could be measured by
ARGUMENT
traditional tests.

Alternative assessment.

demonstrate what they learned

focus on the growth and the performance

Huỳnh Thị Thùy Dương (043)
 ISSUES IN LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
4. Traditional and “Alternative” Assessment
TRADITIONAL ASSESSMENT ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT
One-shot, standardized exams Continuous, long-term assessment
Timed, multiple-choice format Untimed, free-response format
Decontextualized test items Contextualized communicative tasks
Scores sufficient for feedback Individualized feedback and washback
Norm-referenced scores Criterion-referenced scores
Focus on discrete answers Open-ended, creative answers
Summative Formative
Oriented to product Oriented to process
Noninteractive performance Interactive performance
Fosters extrinsic motivation Fosters intrinsic motivation
Huỳnh Thị Thùy Dương (043)
 ISSUES IN LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
5. Performance-Based Assessment

ARGUMENT Standardized tests do not elicit actual performance

on the part of test-takers.

- De-emphasize large-scale standardized tests

- Contextualized, communicative assessments

Huỳnh Thị Thùy Dương (043)

 ISSUES IN LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
5. Performance-Based Assessment
oral integrated
production PERFORMANCE- performance
BASED
ASSESSMENT

group
written
open-ended performance
production
responses
Huỳnh Thị Thùy Dương (043)
CURRENT “HOT TOPICS” IN LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT

01 1. Dynamic Assessment

02 2. Assessing Pragmatics

03 3. Use of Technology in Testing

Huỳnh Thị Thùy Dương (043)
 CURRENT “HOT TOPICS” IN LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
1. Dynamic Assessment

Dynamic assessment is an evaluation method used to identify an

individual’s skills and their learning potential.

Learner abilities are considered malleable

Huỳnh Thị Thùy Dương (043)

 CURRENT “HOT TOPICS” IN LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
1. Dynamic Assessment
Classroom practices and assessments may include:

providing clear tasks and

activities 02 03 interventions with feedback
and reflections

01 posing questions to demonstrate

understanding and knowledge

Huỳnh Thị Thùy Dương (043)

 CURRENT “HOT TOPICS” IN LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
2. Assessing Pragmatics
Pragmatic is the use of language in interactions and is a field that studies
language choices made by users, the constraints they encounter, and the
impact of the language used on other interlocutors.

Tests of pragmatics have primarily been

informed by research in interlanguage and
cross-cultural pragmatics

Huỳnh Thị Thùy Dương (043)

 CURRENT “HOT TOPICS” IN LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
2. Assessing Pragmatics
Much of pragmatics research has focused on speech acts

requests complaints

disagreements
apologies
agreements
advice
Huỳnh Thị Thùy Dương (043)
 CURRENT “HOT TOPICS” IN LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
3. Use of Technology in Testing
The assessment of language learning is no exception to the mushrooming
growth of technology in educational contexts

The first big development using

technology included a specific type of
computer-based test, a computer-adaptive
test (CAT).

Huỳnh Thị Thùy Dương (043)

 CURRENT “HOT TOPICS” IN LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
3. Use of Technology in Testing
test-takers receive questions of medium difficulty

the computer scores the answers

correct wrong

the next questions will the next questions

be slightly harder will be slightly easier

Huỳnh Thị Thùy Dương (043)

 CURRENT “HOT TOPICS” IN LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
3. Use of Technology in Testing
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
- variety of easily administered classroom-based tests - lack of security
- self-directed testing - possipility of cheating
- practice for standardized tests - open-ended responses are less
- individualization with customized test items - oral production is absent
- large-scale standardized test
- scored electronically to report results quickly
- automated essay evaluation and speech recognition

Huỳnh Thị Thùy Dương (043)

 Many
Thanks