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Part 3 (a) : Critical Report

Name: Zahirah binti Dzanimi
Class: 6 PISMP TESL B

For the subject Language Assessment ( TSL 3112 ), there are three tasks that I
need to complete which are the written report the classroom observation, the lesson
plan and assessment and the critical report that I have gained in designing, constructing
and using a test or an assessment task in the ESL primary classroom. Assessment is
an integral component of learning and teaching. It refers to all processes employed by
academic staff to make judgements about the achievement of students in units of study
and over a course of study. These processes include making decisions about what is
relevant evidence for a particular purpose, how to collect and interpret the evidence and
how to communicate it.
Based on my classroom observation with teacher advisor, I have learnt many
experiences on how to design an effective test. From what I have read and discussed
with my teacher, the assessment needs to be divided for three levels and with correct
weightage. Thus, I constructed more easy and medium questions compared to the
difficult questions. The test designed also should contain four levels of Blooms
Taxonomy which are remembering, understanding, applying and analysing where it is
suitable with the average level pupils as they were not difficult for the pupils to answer
the questions. I must ensure that the assessment that I designed based on the
assessment specifications are well constructed and fair selected response test by
ensuring that a range of thinking levels and reasoning is targeted with the most
appropriate styles of questions such as multiple choice, true false, matching, and fill in
the blank. Furthermore, I also designed the assessment based on the topics that they
have learned. By including the topics that they have learned in the test, it would be easy
for them to answer the questions as they already familiar with the questions given and
they know how to answer it without taking a lot of time in the assessment.


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By doing this coursework, I had identified several important key components
in designing assessment. The first step in developing a test item should be to link,
directly to the test specifications and content standards, the content and skill that the
item is supposed to measure. If the items require a high level of English proficiency,
unrelated to the construct as defined, this will likely affect the scores for pupils as
well as students in the general population. For example, I must refer back to the
basic principles of language assessment like validity. Validity is the extent to which
inferences made from assessment result are appropriate, meaningful, and useful for
the purpose of the assessment. It is the most complicated yet the most important
principle. An assessment is said to have content validity when it actually samples the
subject matter about which conclusion are to be drawn, and require the testtaker to
perform the behavior being measured. For example, speaking ability is tested using
speaking performance, not pencil and paper test. It can be identified when we can
define the achievement being measured. It can be achieved by making a direct test
performance. For example to test pronunciation teacher should require the students
to pronounce the target words orally.
In addition for my insights in carrying this task, during the implementation of
the assessment, I found that most of the pupils can answer the labelling and the
matching questions easily without any confusion. Before this, most of them had the
same problems where they found it difficult to understand and answered the
questions of those items. Therefore, in order to overcome these problems from
occurred again, I needed to ensure that I must choose the test items carefully after
this to suit their levels. I also must consider their ability to understand certain
vocabularies as well as their cognitive skills so that they would not feel lost during
answering the assessment. As the teacher, I must take into account all of these
aspects in order to produce or design the good quality of the assessment.
Based on my lesson plan, I also learnt that assessment and tests often play
a significant role in the overall performances of pupils learning. Therefore, as the
teacher, it is essential that I pay particular attention to the manner in which I
constructed these test instruments. Besides that, I will always take into account to
keep the lesson goals and learning objectives at the forefront of my mind as I begin
to determine what kind of test is the best measure of my pupils learning. To that
end, if it fits with my lesson plan and content, I will consider alternate forms of

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assessment such as group projects, student portfolios or other activities that extend
and build throughout the learning of the year. These alternative or non-traditional
forms of assessment frequently offer pupils a more authentic opportunity to apply
their knowledge and higher-order thinking skills.
Other than that, I gained a lot of knowledge about the oral assessment. By
referring to the oral assessment that has been carried out by my teacher and I, oral
assessments allow students to respond directly to the teachers questions and/or to
present prepared statements. These assessments are especially popular in
language courses that demand speaking but they can be used to assess
understanding in almost any course by following the guidelines for the composition of
short answer questions. Some of the principle advantages to oral assessments are
that they provide nearly immediate feedback and so allow the student to learn as
they are tested. To ensure that students have access to written feedback, I take
notes during oral exams using a rubric and/or checklist and provide a photocopy of
the notes to the students. By doing this, I have learnt on how to assess pupils
formatively.
Other than that, I have understand that a teacher should use clear and
accessible language. This means that the language of presentation should be as
simple and clear. For example, when carrying out the assessment, teacher should
initiates the class by giving clear instruction to the pupils. Moreover, they are from
average proficiency pupils. If I fail to make they understand my instruction, the
assessment will not be able to give any advantages in term of their performances. As
a teacher, I should be able to make use of the language assessment for their
language learning acquisition. Some general guidelines for using accessible
language are teacher used vocabulary that will be widely accessible to pupils and
avoid colloquial and idiomatic expressions, words with multiple meanings, and
unduly challenging words that are not part of the construct. I also needs to keep
sentence structures as simple as possible to express the intended meaning. For
example, a number of simple sentences are often more accessible than a single
more complex sentences.


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Overall, I found that creating tests and other forms of assessment can be a
challenging task, but there are plenty of resources available in order to design a
good quality of test. As teachers, we need to look at many aspects before designing
or constructing the test so that the final product will be good in quality as well as in
quantity. Last but not least, I hoped that my lecturer will satisfied with the products of
my work because I had put a lot of effort in completing this task.