The Art of Assessment (Unit 8)

How am I doing in this course?  Am I learning?  Is it ‘sticking’?  Am I getting something from it?  Am I doing it right?

These are all questions that I often ask myself as I progress through courses. And how do I know?  The answers come in assessment.  Adult learners need to know the answers to these questions and more, to ensure their learning is on the right track, they (or the sponsor) are getting value for their money, and they are confident that their needs as learners are being met.  

Assessment in English as a second language (ESL) courses can occur in a variety of ways, and can be dependent on the type of course, the learners and class size, the level of the learners, etc.  Classroom-based assessments are the most commonly accepted, as opposed to standardized large scale testing (although these have their place as well). However, all forms of testing require certain principles of assessmentto be met. These are validity, reliability, practicality, and item facility(Galetcaia 2018).   Validity ensures that the assessment measures only the skill it is designed to measure; reliability ensures that the assessment is consistent; practicality ensures that the assessment can be reasonably applied; and item facility determines how well an item or question can be answered. As we are designing our assessments, we must keep these principles in mind.  

Classroom-based assessments can be diagnostic (to evaluate the learners needs and goals), formative(ongoing assessments which establish progress) or summative(at the end of a term or cycle).  All of these are necessary in an ESL classroom, and all can be administered in a wide variety of formats (eg. observation, quizzes, surveys, presentations, learning logs, conferences).  One of the most useful form of assessments, and a focus of the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) program is portfolio-based language assessment (PBLA Emerging Practices Guidelines 2018).  This uses a binder as a portfolio which students add representative pieces of their classroom work.  It is used in combination with other forms of assessment but establishes a sound basis for students to evaluate a student’s progress, as well as allowing the student to review and reflect on their own progress. This occurs through a teaching/learning cycle. Portfolio-based assessments are particularly useful with beginner levels of ESL, where assessment at more advanced levels can use more complex and independent forms of tracking their progress such as journals, workbooks and essays.  Self-assessmentand peer assessmentare also essential to ESL for learners to become reflective about learning.  When they focus on assessing themselves and their peers, they can more clearly see the need for goals and objectives, and work towards them, both inside and outside the classroom. 

Feedback is an important aspect of a successful assessment, as it directs and focuses future learning. Proper feedback will be reflected in the type of assessment as well.  In informal assessments, feedback can be short verbal comments with substance (not just ‘good’, ‘excellent’ but rather ‘can you see your improvement?’). More formal assessments, such as a written paragraph, can use the ‘stop doing this, start doing this, continue this, consider this’ assessment format where students receive very constructive feedback on what can improve and what they are doing well (Williams 2015).  

The use of a variety of forms of assessment and appropriate feedback will ensure that students are receiving information that answers the questions about their learning progress.  Assessment may be artfully entwined with the lesson, at times so well that students are unaware that it’s happening.  We must also constantly reflect and evaluate our assessments and update our assessment tools to ensure that we as teachers are giving valid, fair and accurate assessments. 

References: 

Brown, D. & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language
        pedagogy(4th ed. revised). Chapters 20 and 21  Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.

Galetcaia, T  2018  Assessment in [Language] Learning  slide presentation from the author

PBLA Emerging Practices Guidelines 2018, Center for Canadian Language Benchmarks from
        https://pblaepg.language.ca  Accessed Nov 4, 2018

Williams, Shawna (2015)  ‘Action Oriented Feedback’  from
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDbkhsNfmK4   Accessed Nov 4, 2018