10.

Evaluation and assessment

Giving feedback (Harmer, p 147):

 you can give feedback on oral and written work as wellstds expect it and learn from it
 After an oral task:
o say how well the stds did the activity
o ask them what they have found difficult or easy
o you can put some mistakes on the board and discuss them
o you can also write individual notes to stds
 After a written task: first write down what they did right, then write down what they should
improvebe helpful, you can also reformulate stds sentences, but it is time-consuming

Error correction (p 88)

• goals of error correction:

o learners unconsciously apply a usage which is not appropriate for L2 interference
o to prevent fossilization mistakes becoming permanent
o goal is to make the std aware of what was wrong and what is the correct form
• problems:
o doesn’t produce immediate resultscorrecting the std in one lesson, making the
same mistake in the next
o delay may be that the std’s L1 is too strong, diff to change it
o in most cases however, error corr. does lead to a raising of awareness of the mistake
• attitudes to error corr.:
o when you tell someone that he/she has done stg wrong, it has a negative impact on
your relationshipwe need to be very sensitive in the way we do it
o can be potentially humiliatingteachers have the power to correct stds
o lot of corrective feedback without praise can result in demoralizationfrustration,
irritation
o teachers need to notice things that are right as wellstds deserve to be praised
o correcting each other: stds don’t like being corrected by one another, because they
don’t rely on each other and prefer to get correction from the teacher
o public correction: teacher has to be very objective and supportivethe whole class
can benefit from public feedback, but it shouldn’t be criticism!
• error correction types: oralin class, writtenon a test, assignment
• stds want to be corrected, they need to know the correct form, they want to rewrite the
corrected text, they don’t like to be corrected by their peers
• Oral correction types:
o Recast: simply saying the correct versionI reading a book I AM reading a book.
o Elicitation: eliciting the correct form I reading a book Can you correct that? I
am reading a book.
o Clarification request: I didn’t understand, can you tell me more clearly?
 o Metalinguistic feedback: explanation using grammatical or other linguistic
terminology in the present cont. you need the verb ’be’ before the –ing form
o Explicit correction: No that is incorrect. You should have said...
o Repetition: teacher repeats the incorrect utterance with rising intonation and
doubting expression, implying that there is something wrong
• The most effective oral correction requires some kind of active contribution from the std:
elicitation, repetition, metaling. feedb.
• Should we correct during fluent speech? That is up to your judgement. Take into
consideration a number of factors eg confidence, goals of the course, gravity of the error,
willingness of stds to tolerate interruption.
• Written correction: in tests eg grammar exercises, vocab test, writing assignments
o use a diff. colour for correction to be more visible for stds
o good to give evaluative comments eg Well done!, Excellent!, or specific comments
eg Remember next time to ....
o if there are many mistakes, you can ignore some of themcorrect the most
common mistakes associated with the exercise
o write down the correct version for the stds because it is more reliable for thembut
not all of them! only those that the std will find diff to work out on their own
o note the positive things eg tick them, complimentary comments on the margin
o if there are too many mistakes: give the exercise to the stds a few days later, but full
written compositions should be rewritten

Language testing

Function of assessment:

• evaluating stds overall level, progress

• how well they learned a specific material
• diagnostic assessment: evaluating strengths and weaknesses

Forms of assessment:

• summative: provides only a grade, often expressed as a percentage, offer no specific

feedback, design to summarize a period of learning ef TOEFL, Cambridge, IELTS
• formative: provides a grade, but it happens in the middle of the learning period eg tests at
the end of units in coursebooksprovides clear feedback in the form of error correction
and suggestions, aim is enhancing future learning

Assessment tools:

• tests: most common, marks the end of a unit, encourage stds to review material, can give
a sense of achievement, provides a quiet work during the lesson, motivating, but: not
always valid eg listening task with long multiple-choice questions actually tests reading,
 may not be reliable eg similar classes can get diff results, can cause anxiety and bad
performance, can be extremely stressful
• alternative ass.
• teacher ass.: based on the performance of the std, but it’s unreliable and subjective
• continuous ass.: final grade is the combination of diff grades received during the course
• self-ass.: they evaluate their own perf., based on criteria, but not popularsubjective
• portfolio: collecting examples of their work, more std-oriented method, avoids stress, but
diff to grade

Frequently used test items:

• true/false: checks only receptive knowledge

• multiple-choice: checks knowledge more reliably but diff to design, easy to correct
• gapfills: tests receptive knowledge, limit the choice with the use of a word bank
• matching: design not too diff., for testing synonyms, opposites, collocations
• dictation: tests spelling, punctuation, listening comprehension
• focused cloze: testing grammar, vocab, spelling, diff to decide if an item is acceptable or
not, multiple-choice options make grading easier
• transformation: producing the correct form of verbs, nouns
• rewriting a sentence
• not so popular: sentence completion (variety of good answers), translation (less easy to
check), mistake correction (might reinforce a mistake), wordsearch (not good for stds with
dyslexia), unscramble sentences (difficult)

Computer testing: not able to assess stds in how to express themselves in longer, more open
responses.

Practical tips:

• clear instructions
• doability: not too diff, no trick questions
• info on the marking: points written at the sections, marking system
• choose an interesting content and tasks
• varied level: make earlier items easy, and define one or more diff ones as optional
• occasionally, let them compose their own tests: they write their own test items, then you
collect them, and use some as a basis of the testreduces anxiety

Testing comprehension and fluency:

Listening comprehension:

• dictation and oral repetition (repeat what they have heard)

• listening to a text, then answering comprehension questionsmost common form
• taking notes (at upper levels)
Reading:

• reading aloud: shows that they can decode the letters accurately, but it’s time consuming
• reading a text, then comprehension questionsmost common
• cloze: words deleted at regular intervals (usually every seventh word)to check general
comprehension
• jumbled paragraphs: they have to put them in the correct order, focuses on the
comprehension of the content

Speaking:

• difficult to administer: time-consuming, tested in individual interaction, creates anxiety, not

reliableyou need a clear criteria for the diff grades
• interview: can be diff if the std is very shy or unwilling
• pic description: for young learners
• presentation: longer, more advanced, give them a topic, they will have time to prepare
• group or pair discussion: saves time, but might not be effectivenot everyone participates,
overusing L1

Writing:

• if they use computers, they can copy-paste paragraphs from the Internet
• diff to assess free writinghow much weight should be given to accuracy, coherence,
content?
• compositions: most common type
• brief descriptions or dialogue: teacher has to limit the lexical and grammatical knowledge
required, eg by selecting the pic, writing the beginning of the dialogue

Giving a grade:

• criterion referenced ass.: judge the std according to a fixed criterion eg levels of CEFR
• norm ref. ass.: evaluating their performance relative to what you would expect from the
group less advanced, learning disabled stds would be assessed according to diff standards
• individual ref. ass.: relating the assessment of a std to his or her previous performancegood
grade if they worked hard and made progress

Alternative (formative, continuous) assessmentabove!