Unit 1.

OVERVIEW OF LANGUAGE TESTING AND ASSESSMENT

1.1 INTRODUCTION
The literature on evaluation, assessment and testing is famous for its various uses of these very
terms; however, what assessment or evaluation or testing is seems to differ for different authors.
For the purposes of this course, we will use the terms as defined in Harris and McCann (1994).

Evaluation: involves looking at all the factors that influence the learning process, e.g. syllabus
objectives, course design, materials, methodology as well as teacher performance.

Assessment: involves measuring the performance of our students and

the progress they are making. It helps us to be able to diagnose the Testing

problems they have and to provide them with useful feedback.

Assessment

Testing: it is the way assessment is formalized in specific tools such as Evaluation

exams, quizzes or even check lists that help teachers and students keep
a detailed record of results.

This subject deals with assessment (and therefore with formal assessment or testing), informal
assessment (through observation of every day performance) and self-assessment. It does not
consider evaluation, other than as something that assessment contributes to.

If assessment is "any means of checking what students can do with language" (Wingard 81:171),
how do we start making distinctions between types of assessment? Asking the following questions
about assessment will give us more detail about the nature of assessment:

Assessment therefore covers a whole range of possibilities between a number of extremes, all
representing choices that a language teacher, or tester, could take in designing an appropriate
assessment instrument for the students in a particular context. In this unit, you will be looking at
many of these possibilities. We will be looking at the features that cluster together, and which give
rise to differences in terminology, and in practice.
This first unit covers the distinction between informal, formal and self assessment/peer-
assessment.

Task
Match the answers (a to e ) to the right question, make sure you can explain and give
examples of your answers.

When? ___ a. Formal or informal assessment. Objective or subjective marking criterion.

Who? ___ b. Before, during or after a language course.
What? ___ c. Language form or language use. Specified or broad range of language.
How? ___ d. To assess previous learning or diagnose future teaching.
Why? ___ e. Teacher assesses, student assesses or examining board assesses ... a
student, various students, or a class.
WEEK 01 - Material 1