Approaching to Assessment
of Young Learners by Kassim Shaaban
New methodological approaches,
treat assessment as an integral part of teaching culminating in formative
evaluation.
Importance of assessment
The success of any assessment
depends on the effective selection and use of appropriate tools and procedures
as well as on the proper interpretation of students' performance
"control over the collection
and interpretation of assessment information has shifted from centralized
authority towards the classrooms where assessment occurs on a regular
basis"
The testing tools and procedures
discussed in this article are characterized by a deliberate move from
traditional formal assessment to a less formal, less quantitative framework
(marco)
Therefore (por consiguiente),
assessment becomes a diagnostic tool that provides feedback to the learner and
the teacher about the suitability of the curriculum and instructional
materials, the effectiveness of the teaching methods, and the strengths and
weaknesses of the students.
Furthermore (also), it helps
demonstrate to young learners that they are making progress in their linguistic
development, which can boost motivation.
Children need to learn and be
evaluated in an anxiety-reduced, if not anxiety-free, environment. This can be
achieved if children perceive assessment as an integral component of the
learning/teaching process rather than an independent process whose purpose is
to pass judgment on their abilities in relation to their classmates.
Murphey (1994/95) ventures beyond this concept to
recommend that students make their own tests. He considers that student made
tests are an effective "way to mine students' different perceptions and
use them, building upon what a group knows as a whole and getting them to
collaborate in their learning"
Types of students responses
Brown and Hudson (1998)
identified these three types of responses required in most classroom
assessment: selected-response (true-false, matching, multiple choice),
constructed response (fill-in, short answer, performance), and
personal-response (conferences, portfolios, self and peer assessment). At the
primary level, assessment should be begin with the use of personal response. As
students' proficiency levels increase, teachers can move gradually into constructed
response assessment and later into selectedresponse assessment.
Four stages of language
development in FL/SL learners by Krashen and Terrell:
1)
Preproduction, in which learners have a silent period
and their performance indicators are mostly kinesthetic in nature.
2)
early speech, in which performance indicators are
kinesthetic responses and one- or two-word utterances (expresiones)
3)
The third stage is speech emergence, in which the
performance indicators are one and two-word utterances, plus phrases and simple
sentences
4)
The fourth stage is fluency emergence, in which
performance indicators are words, phrases, and complete sentences.
Another assesssment application:
3Rs (recognition, replication and reorganitation). Olsen (1996)
ClassRoom Assessment Techniques
1)
Nonverbal Responses: At the early stages of
learning, before the emergence of speech. For example, they may be asked to
"produce and manipulate drawings, dioramas, models, graphs’’
2)
Oral Interview: oral interviews at the early
stages of acquisition.
3)
Role-play: This informal assessment
technique combines oral performance and physical activity. Children of all
ages, when assessed through this technique, feel comfortable and motivated,
especially when the activity lends itself to cooperative learning and is seen
as a fun way of learning.
4)
Written Narratives: Assessment of the
written communicative abilities of children could be achieved through
purposeful, authentic tasks, such as writing letters to friends, writing
letters to favorite television program characters, and writing and responding
to invitations. Young learners enjoy story telling and are usually motivated to
listen to stories as well as to tell them.
5)
Presentations: Presentations are important
for assessment because they can provide a comprehensive record of students'
abilities in both oral and written performance
6)
Student-Teacher Conferences: Student-teacher
conferences, including structured interviews, can be an effective informal way
of assessing a student's progress in language learning.
7)
Self-Assessment: Young learners may also
participate in self-assessment. Although self assessment may seem inappropriate
at first, it can yield accurate judgments of students' linguistic abilities,
weaknesses and strengths, a
8)
Dialogue Journals: These journals are
interactive in nature; they take the form of an ongoing written dialogue
between teacher and student. Dialogue journals have proven effective and
enjoyable for students regardless of their level of proficiency
9)
Peer and Group Assessment: Recent trends in
EFL/ESL teaching methodology have stressed the need to develop students'
ability to work cooperatively with others in groups. For assessment, for
example, students can write evaluative, encouraging notes for each member of
their team emphasizing their positive contribution to team work
10)
Student Portfolios The purpose of a
portfolio in the context of language teaching is to demonstrate the extent of a
student's communicative competence in the target language through samples of
oral and written work
CONCLUSION
As whe all know, it is necesary
for us as a teacher, and for the pupils, have a feedback to know In wich point
we are, if contents are being asimilated, if the process we are doing is
correct, if our students feel good and to get they have not anxiety in the
whole process.
Times are changing minute last
minute and we as a teachers have the liability to improve this points that are
outdated. We are the first part of this change and we have to do it in order to
get an acquire assessments based on the student-center.
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