MSEE 214: LANGUAGE

ASSESSMENT AND TESTING

Chapter I: Principles and Purpose of
Language Assessment
Prepared by:
JEAN ISHRAEL L. DULAY

Presented to:
JOCELYN L. ABSOLOR, Ph. D
KEY CONCEPTS IN LANGUAGE
ASSESSMENT AND TESTING
1. Assessment is the act of gathering information on a
daily basis in order to understand individual student’s
learning and needs.
“ In the context of language teaching and learning,
‘assessment’ refers to the act of collecting information
and making judgements about a language learner’s
knowledge of a language and ability to use it.” (Carol
Chapelle and Geoff Brindley)
KEY CONCEPTS IN LANGUAGE
ASSESSMENT AND TESTING
2. Testing refers to procedures that are based on tests.
In learning, it is a salient part of assessment.

3. Language testing is “the practice and study of

evaluating the proficiency of an individual in using a
particular language effectively.” (Priscilla Allen).
KEY CONCEPTS IN LANGUAGE
ASSESSMENT AND TESTING
4. Measurement more broadly includes testing and other
types of measurement, as well as other types of
information that result in quantitative data such as
attendance, records, questionnaires, teacher ratings of
student, etc.
5. Evaluation is the culminating act of interpreting the
information gathered for the purpose of making decisions
or judgements about students’ learning and needs, often
at reporting time. It forms as part of assessment.
ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION PRINCIPLES

1. Assessment and evaluation are essential

components of the teaching-learning process.
They should be planned, continuous activities
which are derived from curriculum objectives and
consistent with the instructional and learning
strategies
ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION PRINCIPLES

2. A variety of assessment and evaluation

techniques should be used. Techniques should be
selected for their appropriateness to students’
learning styles and to the intended purposes.
Students should be given opportunities to
demonstrate the extent of their knowledge,
abilities, and attitudes in a variety of ways.
ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION PRINCIPLES

3. Teachers should communicate assessment and

evaluation strategies and plan in advance,
informing the students of the objectives and the
assessment procedures relative opportunities for
input into the evaluation process.
ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION PRINCIPLES

4. Assessment and evaluation should be fair and

equitable. They should be sensitive to family;
classroom, school, and community situations, and
to cultural or gender requirements; they should
be free of bias.
ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION PRINCIPLES
5. Assessment and evaluation should help students.
They should provide positive feedback and
encourage students to participate actively in their own
assessment in order to foster lifelong learning and
enable them to transfer knowledge and abilities to
their life experiences.
6.) Assessment and evaluation data and results should
be communicated to students and parents/ guardians
regularly, in meaningful ways.
ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION PRINCIPLES
7.) Assessment and evaluation should use a variety of
techniques and tools.
The teacher collects assessment information about
students’ language development and their growth in,
speaking, listening, writing, and reading knowledge and
abilities.
The data gathered during assessment becomes the
basis of an evaluation.
ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION PRINCIPLES
Comparing assessment information to curriculum
objectives allows the teacher to make a decision or
judgement regarding the progress of a student
learning.
PURPOSES OF ASSESSMENT
1. Assessment for learning focuses on the gap
between where a learner is in his/her learning,
and where he/she needs to be- the desired goal.
This can be achieved through processes such as
sharing criteria with learners, effective
questioning and feedback.
PURPOSES OF ASSESSMENT
Black and William define assessment for learning
as all those activities undertaken by teachers
and/or by their students , which provide
information to be used as feedback to modify the
teaching and learning activities in which they are
engaged’.
PURPOSES OF ASSESSMENT
Learners learn best when …
• They understand clearly of what they are trying to learn and
what is expected of them.
• They are given feedback about the quality of their work and
what they can do to make it better.
• They are given advice about how to go about making
improvements.
• They are fully involved in deciding what needs to be done
one next, and who can give them help if they need it.
PURPOSES OF ASSESSMENT
2. Assessment as learning is about reflecting on
evidence of learning. This is part of the cycle of
assessment where pupils and staff set learning
goals, share learning intensions and success
criteria, and evaluate their learning through
dialogue and self and peer assessment.
PURPOSES OF ASSESSMENT
Though this, learners become more aware of:
• What they learn.
• How they learn.
• What helps them learn.
Learners are able to build knowledge of themselves as
learners, and become aware metacognitive. In words, they
become aware of how they learn. It also helps them to
take more responsibility for their learning and participate
more in the process learning.
PURPOSES OF ASSESSMENT
3. Assessment of learning involves working with the
range of available evidence that enables and the wider
assessment community to check on students’ progress
and using this information in a number of ways.
Assessment of learning provides arena for the
management and planning of assessment, and for
teachers to work collaboratively with the evidence. It
connects assessment with the curriculum.
PURPOSES OF ASSESSMENT
Judgements about students’ learning need to be
dependable. This means that:
1. They are valid (based on sound criteria).
2. They are reliable (accuracy of assessment and
practice).
3. They are comparable (they stand up when compared
to judgements in other departments of schools).
FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE TESTS
1. In learning
Tests are used to measure students’ language ability,
to discover how they have been learning, to diagnose
students’ strengths and weaknesses, and to motive
students in learning.
a. Sometimes, language teachers choose to test
students through periodic quizzes and tests of
achievement.
FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE TESTS
b. At other times, instructor assess students’
language proficiency (i.e., their global ability to
use the foreign or second language), maybe after
the end of several years of language study.
c. At other times, language teachers use test for
placement and diagnostic reasons and for other
purposes.
FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE TESTS
2. In teaching
a. Tests are used in teaching as a means to ensure
effective teaching, to improve teaching quality, to obtain
feedback on student learning place on a course.
b. Tests can have a backwash effect, which means that
they may result in changes of instructional programs or
teaching practices to reflect the tests contents because
language teachers want their students to do well on high
stakes tests for many different reasons.
FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE TESTS
3. In research
Language tests have a potentially important
role in virtually all research, both basic and
applied, that is related to the nature of language
proficiency, language processing, language
acquisition, language attrition, and language
teaching.
TYPES OF LANGUAGE ASSESSMENTS: TYPES OF
ASSESSMENT TOOLS
1. OBSERVATION
This occurs during students’ daily reading,
writing, listening and speaking experiences.
It is an unobtrusive means by which teachers
(and students) can determine their progress
during learning.
TYPES OF LANGUAGE ASSESSMENTS: TYPES OF
ASSESSMENT TOOLS
2. ANECDOTAL RECORDS
These are notes written by the teacher
regarding student language behavior, or learning.
They document and describe significant daily
events, relevant aspects of student activity and
progress.
These notes can be taken during student
activities or at the end of the day.
TYPES OF LANGUAGE ASSESSMENTS: TYPES OF
ASSESSMENT TOOLS
4. CHECKLIST
These are usually completed while students are
engaged in specific activities or processes, are lists of
specific criteria that teachers focus on at a particular
time or during a particular process.
Checklists are used to record whether students have
acquired specific knowledge, skills, processes, abilities,
and attitudes.
TYPES OF LANGUAGE ASSESSMENTS: TYPES OF
ASSESSMENT TOOLS

Checklists inform teachers about where their

instruction has been successful and where
students need assistance or further instruction.
TYPES OF LANGUAGE ASSESSMENTS: TYPES OF
ASSESSMENT TOOLS
5. RATING SCALES AND RUBRICS
Rating scales record the extent to which specific
criteria have been achieved by the student or are
present in the student’s work.
Rating scales also record the quality of the
student’s performance at a given time or within a
given process.
TYPES OF LANGUAGE ASSESSMENTS: TYPES OF
ASSESSMENT TOOLS
6. PORTFOLIOS
These are collections of relevant work that reflect
students’ individual efforts, development, and progress
over a designated period of time.
Portfolios provide students, teachers, parents and
administrators with a broad picture of each student’s
growth over time, including the student’s abilities,
knowledge, skills and attitudes.
TYPES OF LANGUAGE ASSESSMENTS: TYPES OF
ASSESSMENT TOOLS
7. SPEAKING AND LISTENING
Speaking or listening may be more heavily
emphasized depending upon the particular unit or
activities.
Teachers, possibly in collaboration with their
students, will determine the way that the unit will be
evaluated; however, it is important that students know
from the beginning how they will be assessed and
evaluated.
TYPES OF LANGUAGE ASSESSMENTS: TYPES OF
ASSESSMENT TOOLS
8. INTERVIEWS/CONFERENCES
Teacher-student interviews or conferences are
productive means of assessing individual
achievement and needs.
During these discussions, teachers can discover
students’ perceptions of their own processes and
products of learning.
TYPES OF LANGUAGE ASSESSMENTS: TYPES OF
ASSESSMENT TOOLS

Interview questions can be developed to

meet the needs of specific students and to fit
the curriculum objectives.
TYPES OF LANGUAGE ASSESSMENTS: TYPES OF
ASSESSMENT TOOLS
9. PROJECTS AND PRESENTATIONS
Criteria should be developed and/or discussed with
students at the outset of activities such as written reports,
visual representations, oral presentations, or projects
which combine more than one aspect of language use and
understanding.
Teachers may assess the attitudes, skill development,
knowledge, or learning processes demonstrated by
students as they engage in language activities.
TYPES OF LANGUAGE ASSESSMENTS: TYPES OF
ASSESSMENT TOOLS
10. QUIZZES, TESTS AND EXAMINATIONS
These are most often used for assessing
students’ knowledge of content; however, they
may be used to assess processes, skills and
attitudes.
Tests, whether they are oral or written, must
represent students’ achievements as accurately as
possible.
TYPES OF LANGUAGE ASSESSMENTS: TYPES OF
ASSESSMENT TOOLS

Formats for test items should be varied; each type

is most effective at assessing and evaluating
student progress when used in conjunction with
the other types.
TYPES OF ASSESSMENT TOOLS
Pre-assessment or diagnostic assessment
Before creating the instruction, it’s necessary to
know for what kind of students you’re creating
the instruction. Your goal is to get to know your
student’s strengths, weaknesses and the skills and
knowledge they possess before taking the
instruction. Based on the data you’ve collected,
you can create your instruction.
TYPES OF ASSESSMENT TOOLS
Formative assessment
Formative assessment is used in the first
attempt of developing instruction. The goal is to
monitor student learning to provide feedback. It
helps identifying the first gaps in your instruction.
Based on this feedback you’ll know what to focus
on for further expansion for your instruction.
TYPES OF ASSESSMENT TOOLS
Summative assessment
Summative assessment is aimed at assessing the extent
to which the most important outcomes at the end of the
instruction have been reached. But it measures more: the
effectiveness of learning, reactions on the instruction and
the benefits on a long-term base. The long-term benefits
can be determined by following students who attend your
course, or test. You are able to see whether and how they
use the learned knowledge, skills and attitudes.
TYPES OF ASSESSMENT TOOLS
Confirmative assessment
When your instruction has been implemented in
your classroom, it’s still necessary to take assessment.
Your goal with confirmative assessments is to find out if
the instruction is still a success after a year, for
example, and if the way you're teaching is still on point.
You could say that a confirmative assessment is an
extensive form of a summative assessment.
TYPES OF ASSESSMENT TOOLS
Norm-referenced assessment
This compares a student’s performance against
an average norm. This could be the average
national norm for the subject History, for
example. Other example is when the teacher
compares the average grade of his or her students
against the average grade of the entire school.
TYPES OF ASSESSMENT TOOLS
Criterion-referenced assessment
It measures student’s performances against a fixed
set of predetermined criteria or learning standards. It
checks what students are expected to know and be
able to do at a specific stage of their education.
Criterion-referenced tests are used to evaluate a
specific body of knowledge or skill set, it’s a test to
evaluate the curriculum taught in a course.
TYPES OF ASSESSMENT TOOLS
Ipsative assessment
It measures the performance of a student
against previous performances from that student.
With this method you’re trying to improve
yourself by comparing previous results. You’re not
comparing yourself against other students, which
may be not so good for your self-confidence. 
KINDS OF LANGUAGE TESTS
1. Proficiency Tests- these are designed to
measure people’s ability in a language, regardless
of any training they may have had in that
language. The content of proficiency test,
therefore, is not based on the content or
objectives of language courses that people taking
the test may have followed.
KINDS OF LANGUAGE TESTS
2. Achievement Tests- Generally, most teachers will
be involved in the preparation and use of
achievement tests. Achievement tests are directly
related to language courses, their purpose being to
establish how successful individual students, groups
of students, or the courses themselves have been in
achieving objectives. They are of two kinds: final
achievement tests and progress achievement tests.
KINDS OF LANGUAGE TESTS
3. Diagnostic Tests- Diagnostic tests are used
to identify learners’ strengths and
weaknesses. They are intended primarily to
ascertain what learning still needs to take
place.
KINDS OF LANGUAGE TESTS
4. Placement Tests- Placement tests, as their
name suggests, are intended to provide
information that will help to place students at the
stage (or in the part) of the teaching program
most appropriate to their name abilities.
Typically, they are used to assign students to
classes at different levels.