ASESSMENT

1.
2 INFORMAL ASSESSMENT
Harris summarizes:
Informal assessment is a way of collecting information about our students' performance in normal
classroom conditions. This is done without establishing test conditions such as in the case of
formal assessment. Informal assessment is sometimes referred to as continuous assessment as
it is done over a period of time like a term or an academic year. However, formal assessment can
also be done continuously.
When we are in the classroom with our students we intuitively assess their performance when
speaking, writing, reading or listening. We can see which students are performing well and which
students are having difficulties. We are also aware of students’ attitudes, how much effort they
are making and how much they are participating in classroom activities. However, to carry out
effective informal assessment we need to carry out systematic observation.
1st. Firstly we need to work out what we are going to assess, as it is obviously
impossible to assess all students' performance all the time.
2nd. Then we must establish clear criteria for assessing the students and not only rely
on rough impressions.
3rd. Finally, it is important to link the informal assessment we do with our formal
Assessment (tests) and with self-assessment done by the students themselves.
(Harris and McCann 1994: 5).
The main concern for the development of good informal assessment techniques is the
development of sets of criteria to help describe observations of each language skill, and to make
informal assessment strategies more systematic and therefore more reliable than a simple
general observation. Observation criteria and techniques for informal assessment are explained
in Unit 4 of this subject.
1.3 SELF-ASSESSMENT AND PEER-ASSESSMENT
The main aim of self-assessment and peer-assessment is the involvement of learners in learning.
This, in turn, may enhance learner autonomy. When teacher observation and self and peer-
assessment are merged, both information on learner performance and learner ownership
regarding assessment processes are enhanced. Self- and peer-assessment can be used both
with products of learning (audio samples of a dialogue, a written invitation card, etc.) and for
overall learning progress. With product-oriented assessment, criteria for judging the quality of the
performance must be defined in advance, ideally together with the learners.
Dickinson (1987) overviews the use of self-assessment in language teaching, showing that it is
particularly appropriate:
 as a complement to self-instruction, for example for students following a self access

course.
 for initial assessment, whether it is to place students, for diagnosis of their problems, or
assessment of their progress.
 to build autonomous and self-directed language learners, an objective which Dickinson

says is an important educational objective in itself .
 to reduce the assessment burden on a teacher.
Harris and McCann give us a flavor of the range of outcomes from the self-assessment process,
which are not limited merely to information about performance in the language.
“Self-assessment can provide us with useful information about students' expectations and needs,
their problems and worries, how they feel about their own progress, their reactions to the materials
and methods being used, what they think about the course in general. Self-assessment can also
be a much more direct and efficient way of getting information than teacher assessment. For
example, rather than give a comprehensive diagnostic test to find out what areas of language
students are weak on, it is much quicker to ask students directly what problems they feel they
have.”
(Harris and McCann 1994: 63)
The authors point out that the benefits of it are related to the impact it can have on learning,
offering the student an opportunity to reflect on his/her learning in order to improve it.
Both Dickinson, and Harris and McCann point some problems associated with the introduction of
self-assessment into classes, we can summarize them in three points:
 It cannot work in situations where marks have great intrinsic value and there is
competition. The emphasis in a course has to be on performance and progress for self-
assessment to really work. This point is important since despite the stated aim in some
schools of lessening the importance of final marks in favor of an individualized
assessment of progress, the reality in many schools is still quite different, with students
chasing good marks, and feeling in competition with each other.
 The time required to train students in the use of self-assessment techniques, and the time
taken to carry them out, can be significant, and this in itself often prevents the adoption
of self-assessment. It can be time consuming.
 Questions as to the reliability of self-assessments are often raised. Can students make
adequate, fair assessments of their performance? Will many students be tempted to give
themselves unfairly high assessments of their performance? Many experts have
concluded through research that there is a fairly consistent overall agreement between
self-assessment and external criteria. The issue of cheating is related to the importance
given to the results. If the results of assessments are seen to have intrinsic value other
than as part of the learning process, then people will be tempted to cheat.
There are well-established techniques for training students in self-assessment, for diagnosis of
language problem areas, for setting objectives, for assessing learner type, for encouraging
students to reflect on their learning, for assessing the outcomes of a course, and for recording the
outcomes of all the above assessments. Some of these techniques will be covered in Unit 4 of
this subject.
1.4 SUMMATIVE AND FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

One way of distinguishing types of assessment is by distinguishing between those strategies
which aim to assist learning, and those which aim to assess learning.
Those which aim to assist learning are called formative. This refers to forms of assessment which
aim to evaluate the effectiveness of learning at a time during the course, in order to make future
learning for the rest of the course more effective. Feedback from the assessment can be used by
both the teacher and the learner to improve their contribution to the course.
Summative assessment is used to describe the strategies that aim to assess learning. The main
purpose of a summative assessment is to assess learning, and pass some judgement on the
learner’s current performance. The administration of a summative assessment might result in
some judgement on the learner, such as "pass" or "fail", some qualification or certificate, or access
to a course or to employment.
WEEK 01 - Material 2

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1.

(Harris and McCann 1994: 5).

1.3 SELF-ASSESSMENT AND PEER-ASSESSMENT

 as a complement to self-instruction, for example for students following a self access

 to build autonomous and self-directed language learners, an objective which Dickinson

 to reduce the assessment burden on a teacher.

(Harris and McCann 1994: 63)

1.4 SUMMATIVE AND FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

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