Assessment of young learners

7 Pages·0.157 MB·English

by  Shaaban K.

Kassim Shaaban
of English as a foreign language at the primary level in many countries (Rixon
1992). This trend has come at a time when the field of EFL/ESL is witnessing a
notable shift from structural teaching approaches to communicative, humanistic,
and learner-centered approaches. These new approaches in teaching EFL/ESL
recognize that affective considerations are of vital importance for the acquisition
of a foreign/second language; they suggest teaching methods and techniques that
help learners acquire the language in an anxiety-reduced environment (Stevick
1990; Krashen 1982; Asher 1988).
Consequently, the assessment of students’ progress and achievement in
EFL/ESL classes should be carried out in a manner that does not cause anxiety
in the students. As new EFL/ESL curricula have moved in the direction of devel-
oping communicative skills through the integration of language and content as
34 VOLUME 43 NUMBER 1 2005 E N G L I S H T E A C H I N G F O R U M
well as language skill integration, the tradi- Alternatives in assessment
tional paper-and-pencil tests no longer cover The testing tools and procedures discussed
the variety of activities and tasks that take in this article are characterized by a deliberate
place in the elementary classroom. The sum- move from traditional formal assessment to a
mative form of testing that permeated the tra- less formal, less quantitative framework. Pierce
ditional curricula would not be fair to students and O’Malley define alternative assessment as
whose studies are based on communicative “any method of finding out what a student
activities. Fortunately, the field of evaluation knows or can do that is intended to show
has witnessed a major shift from strictly sum- growth and inform instruction and is not a
mative testing tools and procedures to a more standardized or traditional test” (1992:2).
humanistic approach using informal assess- Specifically, alternative ways of assessing stu-
ment techniques that stress formative evalua- dents take into account variation in students’
tion (O’Neil 1992). needs, interests, and learning styles; and they
This article discusses alternative forms of attempt to integrate assessment and learning
assessment, in particular, personal-response activities. Also, they indicate successful perfor-
and performance-based assessment, which, in mance, highlight positive traits, and provide
congruence with the learner-centered princi- formative rather than summative evaluation.
ples of new methodological approaches, treat Until recently the assessment scene in
assessment as an integral part of teaching cul- EFL/ESL classes has been dominated by sum-
minating in formative evaluation. mative evaluation of learner achievement,
focusing on mastery of discrete language
Importance of assessment
points and linguistic accuracy, rather than on
In all academic settings, assessment is communicative competence, with test items
viewed as closely related to instruction. typically consisting of matching or gap-filling.
Assessment is needed to help teachers and ad- Communicative teaching methodology brings
ministrators make decisions about students’ with it a considerable emphasis on formative
linguistic abilities, their placement in appro- evaluation “with more use of descriptive
priate levels, and their achievement. The suc- records of learner development in language
cess of any assessment depends on the effective and learning which [track] language develop-
selection and use of appropriate tools and pro- ment along with other curricular abilities”
cedures as well as on the proper interpretation (Rea-Dickins and Rixon 1997:151).
of students’ performance. Assessment tools and Therefore, assessment becomes a diagnostic
procedures, in addition to being essential for tool that provides feedback to the learner and
evaluating students’ progress and achievement, the teacher about the suitability of the cur-
also help in evaluating the suitability and effec- riculum and instructional materials, the effec-
tiveness of the curriculum, the teaching meth- tiveness of the teaching methods, and the
odology, and the instructional materials. strengths and weaknesses of the students. Fur-
In the past, assessment tools and proce- thermore, it helps demonstrate to young learn-
dures were chosen at the level of the Ministry ers that they are making progress in their lin-
of Education, school district, school adminis- guistic development, which can boost
tration, or program coordinator. With the ad- motivation. This encourages students to do
vent of learner-centered and communicative more and the teacher to work on refining the
teaching methodologies, however, in many process of learning rather than its product.
settings “control over the collection and inter- “Young learners are notoriously poor test-
pretation of assessment information has shift- takers…. [T]he younger the child being eval-
ed from centralized authority towards the class- uated, assessed, or tested, the more errors are
rooms where assessment occurs on a regular made…[and] the greater the risk of assigning
basis” (Fradd and Hudelson 1995:5). This false labels to them” (Katz 1997:1). Tradition-
shift gives the classroom teacher a decisive role al classroom testing procedures can cause chil-
in assessing students and makes it necessary dren a great deal of anxiety that affects their
for the teacher to look for new assessment language learning as well as their self-image
techniques to evaluate students’ achievement (Smith 1996). Therefore, children need to
and progress. learn and be evaluated in an anxiety-reduced,
E N G L I S H T E A C H I N G F O R U M VOLUME 43 NUMBER 1 2005 35
if not anxiety-free, environment. This can be Types of student responses
achieved if children perceive assessment as an Brown and Hudson (1998) identified these
integral component of the learning/teaching three types of responses required in most class-
process rather than an independent process room assessment: selected-response (true-false,
whose purpose is to pass judgment on their matching, multiple choice), constructed
abilities in relation to their classmates. response (fill-in, short answer, performance),
Using formative assessment can help and personal-response (conferences, portfo-
decrease the level of anxiety generated by con- lios, self and peer assessment). At the primary
centration on linguistic accuracy and increase level, assessment should begin with the use of
students’ comfort zone and feeling of success personal response. As students’ proficiency lev-
by stressing communicative fluency. Some els increase, teachers can move gradually into
teachers and researchers call for allowing stu- constructed response assessment and later into
dents to have a say not only in deciding the selected-response assessment.
format of the test but also in deciding its con- Many techniques of alternative assessment
tent and the way it is administered. Thus, were developed in line with the taxonomy of
Mayerhof (1992) suggests allowing students to student response types identified by Krashen
discuss questions during the test quietly as and Terrell (1983) and adapted by Olsen
long as each writes his own answers; of course, (1992), which suggests that there are four
she is referring to subjective types of questions. stages of language development in FL/SL
Friel (1989) recommends involving students learners. The first stage is preproduction, in
in suggesting topics for the test or in generat- which learners have a silent period and their
ing some questions. performance indicators are mostly kinesthetic
Murphey (1994/95) ventures beyond this in nature. During instruction and assessment,
concept to recommend that students make teachers may ask students to point, act out,
their own tests. He considers that student- choose, mark, gesture, and follow instructions.
made tests are an effective “way to mine stu- The second stage is early speech,in which per-
dents’ different perceptions and use them, formance indicators are kinesthetic responses
building upon what a group knows as a whole and one- or two-word utterances. During
and getting them to collaborate in their learn- instruction and assessment, teachers ask stu-
ing” Murphey (1994/1995:12). He suggests dents to name, number, list, and group words
the following process: students choose the or phrases. The third stage is speech emergence,
questions that will go into the test under the in which the performance indicators are one-
guidance of the teacher; a few days later, work- and two-word utterances, plus phrases and
ing in pairs, they ask each other questions dur- simple sentences. During instruction and
ing class; later on, the questions are asked assessment, students are asked to describe,
again with a new partner to reinforce what is define, recall, retell, summarize, compare, and
being learned. Students are graded by their contrast. The fourth stage is fluency emergence,
partners or by the teacher for the correctness in which performance indicators are words,
of their answers and for the appropriateness phrases, and complete sentences. Students are
and correctness of their English. asked to justify, create, give opinions, debate,
A final characteristic of alternative assess- defend, analyze, and evaluate (Krashen and
ment techniques for young learners is that they Terrell 1983).
are performance-based, requiring students to Another assessment procedure that is com-
perform authentic tasks using oral and/or writ- patible with communicative approaches to
ten communication skills. These techniques FL/SL language teaching is the 3Rs: recognition,
can include traditional classroom activities, replication, and reorganization (Olsen 1996).
such as giving oral reports and writing essays, These three types of responses mirror the four
but they may also involve nontraditional tasks, stages of language acquisition of Krashen and
such as cooperative group work and problem Terrell. Thus, recognition requires simple
solving. Teachers score the task performances physical responses and short verbal responses.
holistically (Shohamy 1995; Wiggins 1989). Replication corresponds to early speech and
Student performance should be measured fluency emergence. The last step, reorgani-
against standards previously discussed in class. zation, “can accommodate various levels of
36 VOLUME 43 NUMBER 1 2005 E N G L I S H T E A C H I N G F O R U M
language proficiency from ‘silent’ and ‘speech can be an enjoyable way of informal assess-
emergence’ through ‘fluent’ stages of Krashen ment that could be used effectively within a
and Terrell’s taxonomy as well as articulate, content-based curriculum. For example, he rec-
highly verbal responses” (Olsen 1996:16). It ommends the use of role play to express math-
requires students to demonstrate the ability to ematical concepts such as fractions, to demon-
take given information and reorganize it into strate basic concepts in science such as the life
different formats. Reorganization usually in- cycle, and to represent historical events or lit-
cludes tasks that lend themselves to group work, erary characters.
such as creating a time line, an outline, or a
Written Narratives:Assessment of the written
semantic map; problem solving; analyzing and
communicative abilities of children could be
reporting the results of a questionnaire; writing
achieved through purposeful, authentic tasks,
up the text of an oral interview; and rewriting
such as writing letters to friends, writing letters
a narrative as a dialogue.
to favorite television program characters, and
writing and responding to invitations. Young
Classroom assessment techniques
learners enjoy story telling and are usually moti-
The following assessment techniques can be
vated to listen to stories as well as to tell them.
used for effective and practical measurements
Teachers can take advantage of this interest in
of students’ abilities, progress, and achievement
stories and have their students write narratives
in a variety of educational settings.
that relate to personal experiences, retell or mod-
Nonverbal Responses: At the early stages of ify nursery stories and fairy tales, or retell histor-
learning, before the emergence of speech, chil- ical events from different perspectives.
dren should be instructed and assessed largely Oller (1987) suggests the use of a narra-
through the use of physical performance tive development technique in an integrated
responses and pictorial products (Tannen- process of teaching and assessment. The first
baum 1996). These tasks require simple direc- step in the process is to check on how well
tions to carry out. As an assessment technique, learners are following the story line. To estab-
this type of response may help lower the level lish the basic facts, the teachers asks yes-no
of anxiety normally associated with evalua- questions, then the teacher moves on to infor-
tion, as students see it as a natural extension of mation questions.
learning activities. At a later stage, students
Presentations:Presentations are important for
may perform hands-on tasks. For example,
assessment because they can provide a com-
they may be asked to “produce and manipu-
prehensive record of students’ abilities in both
late drawings, dioramas, models, graphs, and
oral and written performance. Furthermore,
charts” (Tannenbaum 1996:1). This technique
presentations give the teacher some insights
fits very well within the Total Physical
into student’s interests, work habits, and orga-
Response methodology for early language
nizational abilities. Presentations cover a wide
development (Asher 1988).
range of meaningful activities, including poet-
Oral Interview: Pierce and O’Malley (1992) ry readings, plays, role-plays, dramatizations,
suggest using visual cues in oral interviews at and interviews.
the early stages of acquisition. Thus a student Classroom presentations are nowadays
may be asked to choose pictures to talk about, becoming more sophisticated as a result of
and the teacher’s role is to guide the student by increasing access to educational technology. In
asking questions that require the use of related many parts of the world, students are becom-
vocabulary. This technique works well during ing more aware of the power of multimedia for
the early speech and speech emergence stages. communicating information, and they enjoy
keeping audio, video, and electronic records of
Role-play:This informal assessment technique
their involvement in class presentations.
combines oral performance and physical activ-
ity. Children of all ages, when assessed through Student-Teacher Conferences: Student-teacher
this technique, feel comfortable and motivat- conferences, including structured interviews,
ed, especially when the activity lends itself to can be an effective informal way of assessing a
cooperative learning and is seen as a fun way of student’s progress in language learning. Con-
learning. Kelner (1993) believes that role-play ferences and interviews provide opportunities
E N G L I S H T E A C H I N G F O R U M VOLUME 43 NUMBER 1 2005 37
for one-on-one interactions where the teacher Learning logs: A learning log is a record of the
can learn about a student’s communicative students’ experiences with the use of the Eng-
abilities, emotional and social well-being, lish language outside the classroom, including
attention span, attitudes, pace of learning, and the when and the where of language use and
strengths and weaknesses (Smith 1996; Aller- why certain experiences were successful and
son and Grabe 1986). others weren’t. Students may also use logs to
Conferences can be most effective when comment on what they have studied in class
they follow focused observations. Observa- and to record what they have understood and
tions could be done in class, for example, in what they haven’t (Brown 1998). An advan-
cooperative learning groups, or out of class, tage of learning logs is that they can contribute
for example, on the playground. Gomez, Park- to the teacher’s understanding of the students’
er, Lara-Alecio, Ochoa, and Gomez, Jr. (1996) use of metacognitive learning strategies.
have developed an observational instrument Dialogue Journals:These journals are interac-
for assessing learners’ oral performance in nat- tive in nature; they take the form of an ongo-
uralistic language settings, which focuses on ing written dialogue between teacher and stu-
these seven language abilities: understanding dent. Dialogue journals have proven effective
by others, providing information needed by and enjoyable for students regardless of their
the listener, absence of hesitations, willingness level of proficiency. They are informal and
to participate in conversations, self-initiated provide a means of free, uncensored expres-
utterances, accuracy (in grammar, usage, and sion, enabling students to write without wor-
vocabulary), and topic development. rying about being corrected (Peyton and Reed
Tambini (1999) also recommends the use of 1990). Teachers can also use journals “to col-
conferences to assess the oral and written abili- lect information on students’ views, beliefs,
ties of children. He, too, favors conferences that attitudes, and motivation related to a class or
follow observations and concentrate directly on program or to the process involved in learning
the learning processes and strategies employed various language skills” (Brown 1998:4). As an
by the student. For assessing oral skills, he sug- assessment technique, dialogue journals can
gests that children be evaluated primarily on help the teacher assess students’ writing ability
their ability to understand and communicate and improvement over time.
with teachers and classmates. In assessment of
Peer and Group Assessment: Recent trends in
writing tasks, conferences could be used to dis-
EFL/ESL teaching methodology have stressed
cuss drafts of essays and evaluate progress.
the need to develop students’ ability to work
Self-Assessment: Young learners may also par- cooperatively with others in groups. For
ticipate in self-assessment. Although self- assessment, for example, students can write
assessment may seem inappropriate at first, it evaluative, encouraging notes for each mem-
can yield accurate judgments of students’ lin- ber of their team emphasizing their positive
guistic abilities, weaknesses and strengths, and contribution to team work. The role of the
improvement (McNamara and Deane 1995). teacher would be to provide guidance, to
Self-assessment could be done using one of the explain to the students what they have to eval-
following two techniques: uate in one another’s work, and to help them
K-W-L charts:With this type of chart, individ- identify and apply properly the evaluation cri-
ual students provide examples of what they teria. At the end of group tasks, if necessary,
know, what they wonder, what they have the teacher can give each student a test to
learned. K-W-L charts are especially effective check their individual performance. Propo-
when used at the beginning and at the end of nents of cooperative learning suggest the
a period of study. At the start of a course, the teacher should give a group grade to help rein-
completed charts can help the teacher learn force the merits of group work.
about students’ background knowledge and Student Portfolios: The concept of portfolio
interests. At the end of a course, the charts can was borrowed from the field of fine arts where
help the students reflect on what they have portfolios are used to display the best samples of
learned as well as gain awareness of their an artist’s work (Brown 1998). The purpose of
improvements (Tannenbaum 1996). a portfolio in the context of language teaching
38 VOLUME 43 NUMBER 1 2005 E N G L I S H T E A C H I N G F O R U M
is to demonstrate the extent of a student’s com- Conclusion
municative competence in the target language This article has emphasized the need for
through samples of oral and written work (Wolf teachers to use a variety of types of alternative
1989). Student portfolios may be defined as assessment, especially non-threatening infor-
“the use of records of a student’s work over time mal techniques, with young EFL/ESL learn-
and in a variety of modes to show the depth, ers. However, there is no claim that these types
breadth, and development of the student’s abil-
of assessment are without shortcomings.
ities” (Pierce and O’Malley 1992:2). Arter and
Brown and Hudson point out that “perfor-
Spandel argue that portfolios must include “stu-
mance assessments are relatively difficult to
dent participation in selection of portfolio con-
produce and relatively time-consuming to
tent; the guidelines for selection; the criteria for
administer…. Reliability may be problematic
judging merit; and evidence of student reflec-
because of rater inconsistencies, limited number
tion” (1992:36). As a systematic collection of a
of observations, [and] subjectivity in the scoring
student’s work, which may be shown to parents,
process” (1998: 662). For example, in self-assess-
peers, other teachers, and outside observers, a
ment, accuracy of perceptions varies from one
portfolio requires close cooperation between
student to another and is usually affected by
the teacher and the student in identifying the
language proficiency (Blanche 1988).
samples of that student’s work to be included.
Other objections could be raised about
Since portfolios trace a student’s progress over
informal assessment. However, teachers should
time, it is imperative that revisions and drafts be
not be expected to use techniques of alternative
included and that all samples be dated.
assessment exclusively. Teachers should strive to
As for the contents of portfolios, they should
familiarize their students with all forms of
be multi-sourced and include a variety of the
assessment because each form has its merits and
written and oral work that illustrates students’
uses, as well as its problems and shortcomings.
efforts, progress, achievements, and even con-
In most academic settings, it is necessary to
cerns. Therefore, the portfolio of a young
test students, sometimes even young ones, in
EFL/ESL learner might include the following:
the traditional way with paper-and-pencil tests
audiotaped or videotaped recordings, writing
(e.g., true-false, matching, multiple choice,
samples (such as entries made in journals, logs,
and cloze). In many cases, decisions will be
and book reports), conference or observation
made about students based on their perfor-
notes, and artwork (such as drawings, charts,
mance on such tests, for example, in compar-
and graphs). The portfolio could also include
isons with students in other schools. One
self-assessment checklists (such as K-W-L
major argument for using alternative tech-
charts) and anecdotal records. Finally, the
niques with young learners, however, is that
portfolio could include samples of the tests
official or standardized proficiency examina-
and quizzes that are periodically used by teach-
tions usually cannot adequately determine
ers as part of assessing the achievement and
their performance levels. Alternative assess-
overall performance of their students in rela-
tion to others or to standards. ment techniques present a dynamic rather than
If portfolios are implemented clearly and static picture of their linguistic development.
systematically as an alternative means of assess- Many of the assessment techniques dis-
ment, they have several advantages over tradi- cussed in this article can be integrated into
tional forms of assessment (Pierce and O’Mal- daily classroom activities and give a compre-
ley 1992; Brown and Hudson 1998; Moya hensive picture of the students’ abilities,
and O’Malley 1994). First, they provide the progress, and achievement. Unlike traditional
teacher with a detailed picture of a student’s tests that only provide a numerical description
language performance in a variety of different of students, these techniques of alternative
tasks. Second, they can enhance students’ self- assessment can document “a story for every
image as they participate in the decisions student—and what is the ultimate goal of
about content and can help them identify evaluation but to give us the knowledge to be
their strengths and weakness in the target lan- able to reflect upon, discuss, and assist a stu-
guage. Finally, they integrate teaching and dent’s journey through the learning process”
assessment in a continuous process. (Huerta-Macias 1995:10).
E N G L I S H T E A C H I N G F O R U M VOLUME 43 NUMBER 1 2005 39
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