LA Notes 1

TSLB 3113
Language Assessment in the Primary ESL

Classroom
Introduction: The role of assessment
in the language classroom
Assessing young learners for:
• learning
• teaching
• research
Getting Started
• What do you think of when you hear the word “assessment”?
• Assessment = formal testing?
• End-of-course exams? Standardized tests?
• How did you feel about tests when you were at school?
• Do they provide a full picture of what you could do?
• Did they make you feel confident with your learning?
• How can we assess the English language development in young
learners that build confidence and also serve as learning experiences?
SBE & Practicum
• What were the kinds of assessments that you/ the teachers used in
school?
• Did you/ they use formal assessment? What were they? Why?
• Did you/ they use informal assessment? What were they? Why?
What is assessment?
• Not the same as testing!
• Assessment is part of the learning process
• Teacher assess learners all the time - an ongoing process to ensure
that the course/class objectives and goals are met.
• Can you give some examples of how the teacher carries out
assessment in class?
• A process, not a product.
• A test is a form of assessment (Brown, 2004: p.5)
Can You Match Correctly?
Type (Purpose) of Description
Assessment
Assessment as a process of developing and supporting
Assessment of students’ active participation in their own learning.
learning
Assessment for learning Assessment for purposes of providing evidence of

achievement for reporting.
Assessment as Assessment which is diagnostic and formative for the

purposes of greater learning achievement.
learning
Informal and Formal Assessment
• Informal assessment can take a number of forms:
• unplanned comments,
• verbal feedback to students,
• observing students perform a task or work in small groups, and so on.
• Formal assessment are exercises or procedures which are:
• systematic
• give students and teachers an appraisal of students’ achievement such as
tests.
Types of Assessment
• Traditional Assessment
• Tests or quizzes with MCQs, matching, filling-in-the-blank, T/F Qs
• Alternative Assessment aka Performance Assessments
• Uses activities that reveal what students can do with the language,
emphasizing their strengths rather than their weaknesses
• Assessments that require the learner to apply the knowledge, skills, and
strategies used in learning (Bailey, 1998; O’Malley & Pierce, 1996; Puckett &
Black, 2000; Shabaan, 2005)
• Usually classroom-based, involving tasks in which language is used in
authentic ways or through simulations of real-life language use (McKay, 2006)
Authentic Assessment
• Authentic assessment
• reflects student learning, achievement, motivation, and attitudes on
instructionally relevant classroom activities (O’Malley & Valdez, 1996).
• Examples:
• performance assessment
• portfolios
• self-assessment
Principles of Assessment - Revision
• Basic Assessment Guidelines – Bachman (1990) and Bachman and
Palmer (1996) – 5 criteria to guide the development of language
assessments, especially tests. They are:-
• Reliability
• Validity
• Practicality
• Authenticity
• Washback
Purposes for Assessment
• Can you think of some reasons why assessment is carried out in
schools?
• Diagnose students strengths and needs
• Provide feedback on student learning
• Provide a basis for instructional placement
• Inform and guide instruction
• Communicate learning expectations
• Motivate and focus students’ attention and effort
• Provide practice applying knowledge and skills
Purposes for Assessment (continued)
• Provide a basis for evaluation for the purpose of:
• Grading
• Promotion/graduation
• Program admission/selection
• Accountability
• Gauge program effectiveness
Purposes of Assessment
• To make decisions about where to place students
• To monitor students’ performance and achievement and note what
else we have to focus on
• To identify students who need special support
• To measure and report students’ progress
• To monitor our own effectiveness as teachers and make appropriate
instructional modifications
(Brewster, Ellis, & Girard, 2004; Brown & Abeywickrama, 2010; Rea-
Dickins & Rixon, 2000)
Assessment Instruments
Pre-assessment (diagnostic) Formative (ongoing) Summative (final)
Pretests Quizzes Teacher-made test

Observations Discussions Portfolios
Journals/logs Assignments Projects
Discussions Projects Standardized tests
Questionnaires Observations
Interviews Portfolios
Journal logs
Standardized tests
Characteristics of Young Learners
• Revision: Can you remember some of the characteristics of young learners
covered in TSLB 3033?
• Energetic and physically active
• Spontaneous and not afraid to speak out or participate
• Curios and receptive to new ideas
• Imaginative and enjoy make-believe
• Easily distracted and have short attention spans
• Egocentric and relate new ideas to themselves
• Social and are learning to relate to others
• Age, maturity, experience
• Cognitive, linguistic and literacy development
Issues that make the assessment of YL
complex
• YL need carefully designed assessment tasks that they can perform
either individually or with other students
• The age of the learners and their overall motor, linguistic, social, and
conceptual development;
• The language focus of the EYL classroom, with more attention on oral
skills in connected discourse, especially in the early years;
• The goals of the TEYL programme, which may include intercultural or
social goals;
• The overall approach to T&L, emphasizing learning as a social activity
with support from more knowledgeable teachers
Assessing YL
• Hasselgren (2000) – “YL have a particular need and capacity for play,
fantasy, and fun; they have a relatively short attention span; they are
at a stage when daring to use their language is vital, and any sense of
‘failure’ could be particularly detrimental”
• McKay (2006) – EYL assessment is also a relatively new field
Guidelines for Effective Assessment of YL
• Mirror learning (what is taught is what is assessed)
• Contribute to learning (for both learners and teacher)
• Motivate learners and build learner confidence
• Include a variety of techniques for learners’ different intelligences and
learning styles
• Allow all learners to experience success, while providing advanced
learners opportunities to demonstrate their proficiency
• Be contextualized and reflect relevant tasks and language for young
learners
• Take place over time
Shifts in Assessment
From assessing what students To assessing what students
do not know understand
From using results to

calculate grades To using results to inform
instruction
To students engaged in
From end-of-term ongoing assessment of their
assessments by teachers work and others
From judgmental feedback To descriptive feedback that
that may harm student empowers and motivates
motivation students
19
Comment
• “ When the cook tastes the soup, that’s formative assessment; when
the customer tastes the soup, that’s summative assessment.” Paul
Black
Data Driven Decision Making/ Management
(DDDM)
• Refers to educator’s ongoing process of collecting and analyzing
different types of data:
• including demographic,
• student achievement in tests,
• satisfaction,
• process data to guide decisions towards improvement of educational
process.
• to help educators, schools, districts, and states to use information
they have to actionable knowledge to improve student outcomes.
Benchmarks or Standards for Interpreting Assessment Results
Local Standards Are students meeting our own standards?
External Standards Are students meeting standards set by someone else?
Internal Peer Benchmark How do our students compare to others within the school?
External Peer Benchmark How do our students compare with those of other universities that are similar to
other schools?
Best Practices Benchmark How do our students compare to the best of their peers?
Value-Added Benchmark Are our students improving?
Historical Trends Benchmark Is our program improving?
Strengths and Weaknesses What are our students’ areas of strengths and weaknesses?
Perspective
Capability Benchmark Are our students doing as well as they can?
Productivity Benchmark Are we getting the most for our investment?
Using Assessment Results Effectively and
Appropriately
• Focus on important learning goals.
• Assess processes as well as outcomes.
• Involve those with a stake in the results in designing, carrying out, and
discussing assessments.
• Communicate findings widely and openly.
• Discourage others from making inappropriate interpretations.
• Don’t hold people accountable for things they cannot control.
• Don’t let assessment results alone dictate decisions.
• Use multiple sources of information when making decisions.
• Keep people informed on how assessment results have affected decisions.
What if the results are good?
• Celebrate
• Reward
• Share
• Keep going
What if the results are bad?
• Do you have the right learning goals?
• Do you have too many learning goals?
• Take a hard look at your courses:
– Content and requirements
– Sequencing and prerequisites
– Admissions criteria
– Placement criteria
– Advising
– Tutoring
– Teaching methods
– Co-curricular activities
Common Follow-Up Actions Resulting From
Assessment
• Changes in curriculum design
• Changes in pedagogy
• Changes in academic support services, including advising
• More effective student orientation within the department
• Increased connections between in-class and out-of-class activities
such as employment, internships, student research opportunities,
study abroad, and living-learning communities
Tutorial Task
• What are some types of assessment (traditional & alternative) you
might use with young learners? What are the advantages and
disadvantages of each?
• What is the value of standardized assessments? What are their
limitations? Gather information on the UPSR English paper. Examine it
in terms of the criteria for effective assessments for young learners.
What language skills are assessed? How are they assessed? Are there
any integrated tasks? How will you improve the paper?
• Think back to your experience as a language learner. Which types of
assessments were mostly used by the teachers? Were they useful to
you? Which were the least useful? Why?
• Discuss how assessment can impact on the T-L process.

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TSLB 3113

Language Assessment in the Primary ESL

Assessment for learning Assessment for purposes of providing evidence of

Assessment as Assessment which is diagnostic and formative for the

Pretests Quizzes Teacher-made test

From using results to

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