CHAPTER 6: ASSESSING SPEAKING

By Licda. Virginia Mora Real

It is necessary to simulate real-life situations in which students engage in conversation, ask and answer questions, and give information.

The big question is WHY TO TEST SPEAKING?

First communication skills are valuable and it is important. Besides, our students have to develop proficiency in speaking in the interest of promoting the importance of spoken English.

Harris (1977) states that speaking is a complex skill. It requires the use of different abilities such as pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension.

Canale and Swain explain that there are four competencies underlying speaking ability:

·       Grammatical competence

·       Discourse competence

·       Sociolinguistic competence

·       Strategic competence

DESIGNING SPEAKING ASSESSMENTS

Based on Canale (1984) framework:

1.    Warm up: The idea is to relax students and lower their anxiety. It is not assessed.

2.    Level check: check the student´s level of speaking proficiency through a series of questions or situational activities. It is assessed.

3.    Probe: Push the student to the height of his or her speaking ability.

4.    Wind down: Relax the student with some easy questions. It is not assessed.

Common tasks to be used for the level-check stage:

ü Picture cue: They are good for descriptions.

ü Prepare monologue: the teacher provides students with a written topic card.

ü Role play: Students are given cue cards with information about their character and the settings.

ü Information gap activity: One student has information the other lacks and vice versa. They have to change information and see how it fits together.

CLASSROOM SPEAKING ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES

ü Oral Presentation: it is a real-life skill for students in academic and business programs. It includes language accuracy, fluency, body language, facial expressions, eye contact, and gestures, visual aids and handouts.

ü Debate on a Controversial Topic: it’s a formal public speaking activity where students argue for or against a topic.

ü Reading Aloud: it is good for pronunciation practice and assessment.

ü Retelling Stories: students have to report on the contests of a graded reader or a magazine/ newspaper.

ü Verbal Essays: Students have to speak for about 5 minutes on a specific prepared topic.

ü Extemporaneous Speaking: Students are given a topic and are asked to speak on it extemporaneously for one to two minutes. No time to be prepared.

CHAPTER 5: ASSESSING LISTENING

By Licda. Virginia Mora Real

Models of listening:

·       In bottom-up processing listening is believed to be linear, data- driven process. It goes from the smallest meaningful units to complete texts.

·       Top-down listening, it´s directly involved with constructing meaning from input. It uses background knowledge of the context and situation to make sense of what is heard.

APPROACHES:

·       The discrete-point approach

·       The integrative approach

·       The communicative approach

CONSIDERATIONS IN DESIGNING LISTENING TASKS

·       Background knowledge

·       Test content

·       Texts

·       Vocabulary

·       Test structure

·       Formats

·       Item writing

·       Timing

TECHNIQUES FOR ASSESSING LISTENING COMPREHENSION

·       Phonemic discrimination

·       Paraphrase recognition

·      Objective formats: short answer questions, cloze, dictation

·       Information transfer tasks

·       Note taking

·       Listening test delivery

·       Recording voiceovers

CHAPTER 4:  ASSESSING WRITING

By Licda. Virginia Mora Real

Approaches:

·       Indirect measures of writing assessment assess correct usage in sentence-level constructions and assess spelling and punctuation via objective formats like multiple choice and cloze tests.

·       Direct measures of writing assessment assess a student´s ability to communicate through the written mode based on the actual production of written texts. It involves all elements of writing.

There are four basic elements:

·       Rubric: the instructions

·       Prompt. The task

·       Expected response: the intention with the task

·       Post-task evaluation: assessing the effectiveness of the task.

Some issues:

·       Time allocation: allowing 30 minutes is sufficient time.

·       Process versus product: Use a portfolio that includes all draft material.

·       Use of technology

·       Topic restriction: students select the prompt from a variety of alternatives.

TECHNIQUES FOR ASSESSING WRITING

• Free writing

• Guided writing: It is a bridge between objective and subjective formats.

AUTHENTIC WRITING ASSESSEMENT:

·       Student-teacher conferences

·       Self-assessment

·       Peer assessment

·       Portfolio-based assessment

 

PROCEDURES

·       Assessment scales

·       Holistic marking scales

·       Analytical marking  scales

RATING

·       Classroom teacher as rater

·       Multiple raters

RESPONDING TO STUDENT WRITING:

·       Provide written feedback to students.

·       Electronic feedback

CHAPTER 3: ASSESSING READING

By Licda. Virginia Mora Real

There are approaches to reading. They have:

·       Bottom-up skills, recognizing and making sense of letters words and sentences.

·       Top-down skills deals with whole texts.

Specifications:

It includes content, conditions and grading criteria.

Aspects to take into account:

·       Texts: it includes prose passages and non-linear texts: tables, graphs, schedules, maps, advertisements, and diagrams.

·       Questions:  Reading comprehension questions should be in the same order as the material in the passage itself.

·       Formats: the focus should be on the content, not on the complexities of the task.

CHAPTER 2 TECHNIQUES FOR TESTING

By Licda. Virginia Mora Real

Some writers categorize items as selection and supply items.

Among the selection items we have true/false, multiple choice, matching, numbering sequence.

Among the supply items we have cloze of gap-fill, and essay questions. Questions can be classified as objective or subjective ones.

OBJECTIVE ITEMS

SUBJECTIVE ITEMS

Objective test items can be scored based on following an answer key. They are usually short answer-closed response items. No expert judgment is required to mark the exams. They are quick and easy to grade, they are generally difficult to write well. They have few response options. Reliability is not a problem.

Subjective items usually require students to produce longer, more open-ended responses. Production is the emphasis.   Scoring subjective items requires the marker to have knowledge of the content area being tested. They are usually easy to write, but difficult and time consuming to mark.   They are open-ended so a lot of variation is possible in the response.   Reliability is sometimes problematic since they require human scoring.

OBJECTIVE ITEMS

1.    Multiple choice questions: the basic form is the stem and response. It has a key (the correct answer) and the distracters (incorrect answers).

2.    True/False Format: They are a specialized form of the MCQ format in which there are only two possible alternatives. They are typ8cally written as statements, and the task is to decide whether they are true or false.

3.    Matching format: it is an extended form of MCQ. Students have to make connections among ideas, vocabulary, and structure.

Cloze involves the removal of words at regular intervals (every six to eight words).
In gap-fill items, a word or phrase is replaced by a blank in a sentence.

4.    Short answer/ Completion items: Students have to answer in a few words, phrases or sentences.

5.    Essay questions: Students have to respond their own responses.

SUMMARIES OF THE BOOK: "A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO ASSESSING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS"

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CHAPTER 1: THE PROCESS OF DEVELOPING ASSESSMENT

By Licda. Virginia Mora Real

This chapter gives us a definition of what we understand as assessment, “it is an integral part of the entire curriculum cycle, not something tacked on as an afterthought to teaching.”

The idea is not only to get results from the assessment process, but also it is imperative to make time for analysis and feedback. As a matter of fact, analysis is the basis for helpful feedback to students, teachers, and administrators. So assessment must be coupled with analysis which will improve instruction. Assessment alone cannot.

There are six main steps in the assessment process. They are:

·       Planning

·       Development

·       Administration

·       Analysis

·       Feedback

·       Reflection

When planning you may follow other important steps as well.

1.    Know why you assess and choose a type of assessment that fits your needs.

2.    Map the content and main objectives of the section of the course.

3.    Consider what weigh you assign to the objectives to be assessed.

Other aspect to take into account when planning a test is the specifications for it.

A specification as the authors explain is “a detailed description of exactly what is being assessed and how it is being done.”

The use of specifications contributes to transparency and accountability because underlying rationale is made very explicit.

Specifications can be simple or complex, depending on the context for assessment.

MY REACTIONS TOWARD MY EVALUATION COURSE FOR IN-SERVICE ENGLISH TEACHERS / II PART

By Licda. Virginia Mora Real.

The topic for week number three was appealing to all of us since we were told to review other´s tests and give some improvements to them if necessary. Of course, all of them needed.

To begin with we had improve the general instructions for each one of the tests. Doctor Hernandez was explaining the negative impacts several words may convey on the students. Therefore we understood that we are not to write negative sentences to avoid bad reactions or misunderstandings.

Moreover, we had to read and give our input in relation to chapter 3 (HOW TO ASSESS READING).

Even though we had read about these topics in previous courses at the universtiy, It is inquiring how we teachers tend to forget them quite often. That is why courses like this one are a must on our updated shower.

MY REACTIONS TOWARD MY EVALUATION COURSE FOR IN-SERVICE ENGLISH TEACHERS

By Licda. Virginia Mora Real.

During the first week we went through different concepts related to evaluation and assessment. Several concepts were brand new within my particular teaching experience. Besides, we analyzed different words to understand the meaning as well as the appropriate usage of them.Afterwards, we were assigned a couple of readings from the textbooks which would enhance and give support to the concerning topic.

For the second session we were involved with some interesting activities. For instance, we watched a video clip called "Another brick in the wall". It gave us a picture of the particular  way most of the teachers used tp work in the past. Nevertheless, there are still some old-fashion teachers who resist to change.  Again we faced several core terms such as backwash and stakes which can be high or low. Besides, the class went through the different types of tests in order to identify the main differences among them.

Finally, as a group, we were asked to  review a colleague´s exam.  This activity was extremely productive.  It was tiring though since each one of us had his/her own opinion. Fortunately and with the excellent help of Dr. Hernandez,  we came to an agreement on several aspects a test must contain.