LANGUAGE

ASSESSMENT
TSL3112
LECTURE 1
HHYeoh

COURSE OUTLINE

TSL3123 Lecture 1

COURSE LEARNING
OUTCOMES
1. Demonstrate an understanding of the principles
and practices of language assessment.
2. Design, construct and use various test types to
assess language skills and content areas in the
context of primary schools.
3. Interpret data and report students performance.
4. Use appropriate assessment methods to assess
language skills and language content.
5. Reflect and discuss issues and concerns in
language assessment in Malaysia and other
countries.

TSL3123 Lecture 1

Overview of Assessment: Context,

Issues & Trends

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
Define terms : Test, Measurement,
Evaluation, Assessment
Examine historical development in
language Assessment
Describe the changing trends in
language assessment Malaysian
context
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Key Terms
Assessment: process of gathering information
about students, about student learning (i.e.
describing, collecting, recording, scoring, and
interpreting)
Testing: one way to gather information (e.g.
multiple-choice tests, weekly spelling tests etc.
Measurement: quantify the information ( e.g. raw
scores, percentiles ranks, standard scores etc.)
Evaluation: judge the information (i.e. using
collected information (assessments) to make
informed decisions about continued instruction,
programs, activities
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What is a TEST?
a method of measuring a
person's ability /knowledge,
or performance in a given
domain (Brown, 2002)

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A test .

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Language testing history

[Until about 1980], language was
basically seen to be grammar: that
eventually came to be regarded as
too distant, too abstract.
[In the 1980s], language was
reckoned to be a set of real life
encounters and experiences and
tasks, a view which took real life
testing so seriously that it lost both
objectivity and generality. (Davies
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 Language testing history

[From the 1990s] there has been a
compromise between these two positions,
where language is viewed as being about
communication but in order to make contact
with that communication it is considered
necessary to employ some kind of
distancing from the mush of general goings
on that make up our daily life in language.
(Davies 2008)
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.
A short history of language assessment

Spolsky (1978) classified the

development of language testing into
three periods, or trends:
the prescientific period
the psychometric/structuralist period
the integrative/sociolinguistic period.

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The prescientific period

grammar-translation approaches to
language teaching
translation and free composition
tests
difficult to score objectively
no statistical techniques applied to
validate the tests
simple, but unfair to students
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The psychometric-structuralist
period
audio-lingual and related teaching
methods
objectivity, reliability, and validity of tests
considered
measure discrete structure points
multiple-choice format (standardized tests)
follow scientific principles, have trained
linguists and language testers

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The integrative-sociolinguistic
period

communicative competence

Chomskys (1965) distinction of

competence and performance

Competence: an ideal speaker-listeners

knowledge of the rules of the language;
performance: the actual use of
language in concrete situations

Hymess (1972) proposal of

communicative competence

the ability of native speakers to use

their language in ways that are not only
linguistically accurate but also socially
appropriate.
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The integrative-sociolinguistic
period

Bachmans (1990)s framework of

communicative language ability:

Language competence: grammatical,

sociolinguistic, and discourse competence
(Canale & Swain):

organizational competence

grammatical competence

textual competence

pragmatic competence

illocutionary competence

sociolinguistic competence
Strategic competence: performs
assessment, planning, and execution
functions in determining the most effective
means of achieving a communicative goal
Psychophysiological
mechanisms:
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1
characterize the channel (auditory, visual)

The integrative-sociolinguistic
period
Ollers (1979) pragmatic proficiency test:

Temporally and sequentially consistent with the

real world occurrences of language forms
Linking to a meaningful extralinguistic context
familiar to the testees

Clarks (1978) direct assessment:

approximating to the greatest extent the
testing context to the real world
Cloze test and dictation (Yang, 2002b)
Communicative testing or to test
communicatively
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The integrative-sociolinguistic
period
Performance tests (Brown, Hudson, Norris,
& Bonk, 2002; Norris, 1998)
Not discrete-point in nature
Integrating two or more of the language skills
of listening, speaking, reading, writing, and
other aspects like cohesion and coherence,
suprasegmentals, paralinguistics, kinesics,
pragmatics, and culture
Task-based: essays, interviews, extensive
reading tasks

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Current trends in language

assessment Malaysian context
MES

: initiatives- human capital development

introduces the
National Educational
Assessment System
(NEAS) promotes a change
from a one-off
certification system
to one that
propagates
accumulative
graduation.

MOE : the school-based assessment

(SBA) approach

implemented in-line
with the Standardsbased Primary
School Curriculum
i.e. KSSR, in stages
starting in 2011 as
part of Malaysias
educational reform.

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Role of teachers
Greater responsibility - to
design quality
assessments that align
with the learning
outcomes.
- a) planning,
b) gathering evidence,
c) interpreting evidence,
and
d) using the results for
decision
making.

School-based Assessment
(SBA)
Rationale:
to achieve the aspiration of National
Philosophy of Education towards developing
learners physical, emotional, spiritual and
intellectual abilities
to reduce exam-oriented learning among
learners
to evaluate learners learning progress
to enhance teachers integrity in assessing,
recording and reporting of learners learning
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Benefits of SBA

Findings of a recent study (Azlin Norhaini Mansor, Ong Hee

Leng, Mohamad Sattar Rasul, Rose Amnah Raof &
Nurhayati Yusoff, 2013)

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References

Brown, H.D. (2004). Language assessment: Principles and

classroom practices. New York: Longman.
Azlin Norhaini Mansor, Ong. H.L, Mohamad Sattar Rasul, Rose
Amnah Raof & Nurhayati Yusoff (2013). Benefits of School-based
Assessment. Retrieved June 12, 2013 from http
://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ass/article/download/26890/
16400
.
http://www.moe.gov.my/lp/files/penerbitan/ppt/ICMEE-KEYNOTE-LP.
pdf
.

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Tutorial task
Groupwork:
Examine the contributing factors to
the changing trends of language
assessment.
Create and present findings using
graphic organisers.

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