SUMMARY OF LANGUAGE TESTING AND ASSESSMENT Teacher: Nerio Burga Sagstegui CONCEPT OF: Evaluation, Assessment and Testing

g Informal Assessment, Self-Assessment, Formal Assessment, Summative and Formative Assessment. Evaluation: it appraises the strengths and weaknesses of programs, personnel, products and organizations to improve their effectiveness. Evaluate: to think carefully about something before making a judgment about its value, importance, or quality. Assessment: the process of making a judgment or forming an opinion, after considering something or someone carefully. Assessment is a process of gathering data to evaluate an examinee. You take the information from test data, interviews and pull it all together. Examination: It is a very formal word. Exam: it is the usual word for a written, spoken or practical test at school or college, especially an important one that you need to do in order to get a qualification. Test: A set of written or spoken questions used for finding out how much someone knows about a subject. A test is less formal than an exam . It is something that students might be given in addition to, or sometimes instead of, regular exams, to see how much they have learned . Test is a thing or product that measures a particular behavior or set of objectives. When you give a test, you are taking a snapshot in time and making an observation of an individual's or group's performance. A test gives only scores. A quiz (AE): It is a very short informal test

SELF- ASSESSMENT: In social psychology, self-assessment is the process of looking at oneself in order to assess aspects that are important to one's identity. It is one of the motives that drive self-evaluation, along with self-verification and self-

enhancement. Sedikides (1993) suggests that the self-assessment motive will prompt people to seek information to confirm their uncertain self-concept rather than their certain self-concept and at the same time people use self-assessment to enhance their certainty of their own self-knowledge. However, the selfassessment motive could be seen as quite different to the other two selfevaluation motives. Unlike the other two motives through self-assessment people are interested in the accuracy of their current self view, rather than improving their self-view. This makes self-assessment the only self-evaluative motive that may cause a person's self-esteem to be damaged. Self-assessment is where learners assess their language proficiency, rather than a teacher doing it. Example: Learner portfolios often include a form of self-assessment, such as a checklist that relates to the completion of the learning aims. For a writing task, this might be a list of questions such as: Have you included an introduction? Have you got clear paragraphs? Does each paragraph cover one main idea? Self-assessment in the classroom, like all forms of evaluation, selfassessment needs clear criteria in order for it to work. Learners can be encouraged to participate, by developing assessment criteria together. This helps them become aware of what they have to work on. Peer-evaluation - Yes/No?

INFORMAL ASSESSMENT. An informal assessment is a method of measuring an individual's performance by casually watching their behavior or using other informal techniques. Informal assessments are different from formal assessments such as standardized tests or graded formal presentations because the graded individual is less aware of the assessment in progress. Informal assessment, involves observing the learners as they learn and evaluating them from the data gathered. It can be compared to formal assessment, which involves evaluating a learner's level of language in a formal way, such as through an exam or structured continuous assessment. Example: The teacher has carried out informal assessment of the learners during speaking activities throughout the course by keeping notes about how well individuals are doing in speaking and uses the data gathered to evaluate the learners at the end of the course. Informal assessment in the classroom, Informal and formal assessments are both useful for making valid and useful assessments of learners' knowledge and performance. Many teachers combine the two, for example by evaluating one skill using informal assessment such as observing group work, and another using formal tools, for example a discrete item grammar test.

FORMAL ASSESSMENT: A formal assessment is based on the results of standardized tests or other exams that are administered under regulated or controlled test-taking conditions. In the process of a formal assessment, data is collected on student performance on the test or tests to determine the level of academic achievement or various other characteristics under analysis. Formal assessment uses formal tests or structured continuous assessment to evaluate a learner's level of language. It can be compared to informal assessment, which involves observing the learners' performance as they learn and evaluating them from the data gathered. Example: At the end of the course, the learners have a final exam to see if they pass to the next course or not. Alternatively, the results of a structured continuous assessment process are used to make the same decision. Formal assessment in the classroom: Informal and formal assessments are both useful for making valid and useful assessments of learners' knowledge and performance. Many teachers combine the two, for example by evaluating one skill using informal assessment such as observing group work, and another using formal tools, for example a discrete item grammar test. SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT Summative assessment evaluates a learner's progress up to that point and provides a summary of where they are. It can be compared to formative assessment, which gives the teacher and learner helpful information for future work. Example At the end of the course, the teacher gives a test to see if the learners know and can use what they have learnt. Summative assessment in the classroom, one way to make summative assessment more meaningful and helpful to the learner is to think about how work done previously contributed to the results. Teachers can ask learners questions such as What did we do in class that helped/didn't help you in this test?' and How did your own way of working help/not help?' FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT. Formative assessment is the use of assessment to give the learner and the teacher information about how well something has been learnt so that they can decide what to do next. It normally occurs during a course. Formative assessment can be compared with summative assessment, which evaluates how well something has been learnt in order to give a learner a grade.

Example: The learners have just finished a project on animals, which had as a language aim better understanding of the use of the present simple to describe habits. The learners now prepare gap-fill exercises for each other based on some of their texts. They analyse the results and give each other feedback. Formative assessment in the classroom: One of the advantages of formative feedback is that peers can do it. Learners can test each other on language they have been learning, with the additional aim of revising the language themselves.
FORMAL ASSESSMENT: TEST TYPE ACCORDING TO THE PURPOSE.

Achievement test measures what learners have learnt on a language course. Diagnostic test identifies learners strengths and weaknesses. Objective test is scored according to right or wrong answers, i.e., it is non-judgmental on part of examiners. Placement test is used before the beginning of courses. Oral test measures learners speaking abilities. Proficiency test measures language ability and based on what is needed for a particular purpose. Progress test measures learners progress during a language course. Subjective test contrasts with the objective test because the examiner judges learners answers. Summative test is an end of year/end of course test measuring learners overall achievement of course objectives. Webliography http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk