AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT

Authentic assessment serves as an alternative to traditional testing in measuring

student achievement. According to O’Malley and Valdez Pierce (1996, p. 237), it

involves “procedures for evaluating student achievement or performance using activities

that represent classroom goals, curricula, and instruction or real-life performance.”

Authentic assessment is “based on activities that represent classroom and real-life

settings” (O’Malley and Valdez Pierce, 1996, p. 2). It includes performance assessment,

portfolios and student self-assessment, which provide opportunities for students to

demonstrate their knowledge and skills in a variety of ways.

Authentic assessment enables “students to construct information rather than

simply choose response alternatives, and challenge(s) students to use their language to

communicate their understandings and applications of knowledge.” (O’Malley and

Valdez Pierce, 1996, p. 31). Authentic assessment offers “teachers a wider range of

evidence on which to judge whether students are becoming competent, purposeful

language users” (Hancock 1994, p. 4).

Tannenbaum (1996, p. 2) cites several advantages of authentic assessment:

• Focus is on documenting individual student growth over time, rather than

comparing students with one another.

• Emphasis is on students' strengths (what they know), rather than weaknesses

(what they don't know).

• Consideration is given to the learning styles, language proficiencies, cultural

and educational backgrounds, and grade levels of students.

Performance-based assessment is a type of authentic assessment (O’Malley and

Valdez Pierce, 1996, p. 4). According to O’Malley and Pierce (1996, p. 239), this method

of assessment asks students to perform tasks involving the creation of a product, the

demonstration of applications of knowledge, or the construction of a response.

Performance assessment requires students to “accomplish complex and significant

tasks, while bringing to bear prior knowledge, recent learning, and relevant skills

to solve realistic or authentic problems. Students may be called on to use

materials or perform hands-on activities in reaching solutions to problems.

Examples are oral reports, writing samples, individual and group projects,

exhibitions, and demonstrations (O’Malley and Valdez Pierce, 1996, pp. 4-5).

Like other kinds of authentic assessment, student progress is assessed over time,

students’ strengths are emphasized, and the individual needs, backgrounds and language

proficiencies are considered (Tannenbaum, 1996, p. 2).

TYPES OF AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT

• Story/Text Retelling
• Writing Samples
• Brief Investigations
• Projects/Exhibitions
• Demonstrations
• Constructed Response Items
• Teacher Observations
• Oral Presentations
• Portfolios
 TYPES OF ORAL ASSESSMENTS

ASSESSMENT ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION LEVEL OF LANGUAGE

PROFICIENCY
Oral Interview Teacher asks students simple All levels
information questions.
Picture-cued Descriptions or Teacher asks students to describe Beginning, Intermediate
Stories or tell a story about pictures of
real people.
Radio Broadcasts Students respond to radio Intermediate, Advanced
broadcasts by answering
questions, matching items,
pictures or diagrams to the
message, filling in a grid with
pre-specified information.
Video Clips Students respond to video clips All levels
using worksheets or prompts to
help them focus on what to look
for.
Information Gap One student is given information All levels
that is kept from a partner. The
first student provides instructions,
descriptions, or directions to the
other, who must complete a task
based the information related by
the first student.
Story/Text Retelling Students retell stories or text Beginning, Intermediate
selections that they have listened
to or read.
Improvisations/ Improvisations involve providing All levels
Roleplays/ students with an oral or written
Simulations cue (prompt) to generate
language.
Role-plays assign distinct roles to
each student and ask them to
speak through these roles.
Simulations provide a context or
situation in which students need
to interact in order to solve a
problem or make a decision
together.
Oral Reports Students present research or other All levels
project in the form of an oral
report.
Debates A type of role-play where Intermediate, advanced
students are asked to engage in
using extended chunks of
language for a purpose: to
convincingly defend one side of
an issue.
Teacher Observation Observation of students working All levels
individually, in groups, pairs,
cooperative learning,
presentations.
REFERENCES

Gomez, E. (2000), Assessment Portfolios: Including English Language Learners in

Large-Scale Assessments. ERIC Digest – ED447725, 3.

Hancock, C. R. (1994), Alternative Assessment and Second Language Study: What and

Why? ERIC Digest – ED376695, 4.

Gomez, E. (2000), Assessment Portfolios: Including English Language Learners in

Large-Scale Assessments. ERIC Digest – ED447725, 3.

O’Malley, J. M., and Valdez Pierce, L. (1996), Authentic Assessment for English

Learners, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1, 2, 4-6, 19, 21, 28, 237,

239.

Tannenbaum, J. (1996), Practical Ideas on Alternative Assessment for ESL Students.

ERIC Digest, 2.