Assessment: Continuous

assessment
and testing
Presenter: Maryam Maghrour
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 Assessment is a process of measuring, and
one formal method of measuring is to test.

Why assess?
The reasons for assessment can be grouped
under two main headings:

▪ for feedback to aid learning

▪ for a comparable measure of competence: They are
the reason for public examinations and regular
assessment or testing within educational institutions.
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 Self- and peer assessment can also help develop the
independence ESP learners require for their continued
progress.
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 Classroom assessment and
formal testing are both methods
of assessment but the circumstances
in which they take place are often
very different.

Classroom assessment may be

carried out by the teacher or the
learners (self- or peer assessment).
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 Teacher
Assessment
One of the most common formal teacher assessment
procedures is the grading of written assignments, done
in class or as homework.

Continuous teacher assessment is important for the

feedback that both teacher and learners receive. While
grades may be a formal requirement, they provide
limited information and may mean little to a learner.
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Descriptors and comments are more informative

 Peer and self-assessment
● Peer and self-assessment are used to supplement teacher
assessments and have the most value as an aid to learning.

● As a contribution to formal measures, they will only be valid if they are

consistent, and research indicates that this is only achieved over time.

● Peer and self-assessment are qualitative rather than quantitative.

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 There can be good, practical reasons for introducing peer assessment:

In large classes, it is not possible for a single teacher to comment on draft writing
or to assess all the tasks.

If constructive peer assessment procedures are developed, these can reduce the
burden on the teacher and contribute to effective study techniques for the learners.

Peer and self-assessment help learners to become more self-directed.

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 Classroom Tests
✓ ESP tests may be given as part of a
PSA, to place, to check progress, or
to measure proficiency.
✓ A placement test usually has some
test of reading, perhaps cloze
passages, and a test of listening,
perhaps guided note-taking.
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✓ Progress tests measure mastery of
classwork and a desirable outcome
would be for all students to get full
marks.
✓ Achievement tests measure mastery of
a syllabus and take a longer and wider
perspective than progress tests.
✓ A proficiency test aims to measure how
well the students will perform in their
target language tasks and so fits within
ESP principles
 Identifying and separating discrete language items is a
teaching device; an ESP proficiency test will assess the
whole rather than the discrete items; it will contain a
series of tasks and measure performance on these.
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 Characteristics of tests

Authenticty Impact Reliability Validity Practicality

Fairness

Another crucial factor is backwash / washback / impact.

All tests have a backwash effect, that is, the test will
affect what is taught and how it is taught. It can be
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positive or negative.
 EAP examinations in UK

IELTS UETESOL TEEP

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 Similarities
● None of the three examinations has a simple pass/fail mark system. The results are
all reported using band descriptors.

● The linguistic demands of academic courses can differ considerably, so each

examination assesses the candidates' level of proficiency in the different skills, and
suggests what would be appropriate for different types, of courses but each college
or admissions tutor can set their own minimum requirements.

●
While an overall band level may be awarded, as with IELTS, the separate band levels
for each skill provide valuable information to, candidates, teachers and admissions
tutors.
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●
All the questions in the three examinations are compulsory; there is no choice in the
questions. This is important for ensuring consistency and fairness.
 Similarities
● Each examination usually sets candidates
tasks on two reading and two listening
passages, and has two writing tasks. This
is because research supports the view
that greater consistency of performance
is obtained by candidates carrying out
multiple tasks.
● Similarities also exist within the very
rigorous setting and marking procedures.
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Differences
• One significant difference between TEEP and
other examinations was that it was
constructed on the basis of detailed research
into the English-language needs of overseas
university students as perceived by both
lecturers and students.
• This resulted in a more integrated and
thematically linked examination.

● The same examination is offered to

candidates of all subject disciplines.
 EOP examinations
❖ A long-standing EOP examination is the ESP
component to the PLAB examination which
doctors trained outside the UK must take before
being able to practice in the UK.
❖ Australia has the Occupational English Test, a
set of tests related to the medical professions.
❖ However, most EOP tests are business-related.
❖ Several UK examining boards (LCCI, Oxford,
UCLES) offer business-related examinations and,
like EAP tests, they are task-based proficiency ❖ Like TOEFL, TOIEC is currently a multiple-
tests. The design and format are similar, with
all four skills tested separately.
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❖ One way in which they differ from EAP
examinations is that they are generally
offered at several levels, corresponding to
scales 3-7 of the English Speaking Union's
scale.
❖ Outside the UK, TOIEC (Test of English for
International Communication) is widely
used in Japan and other Asian countries.
choice examination: practical but not
pedagogically desirable.
 o The descriptors can be specific to

Band
a particular skill or give an overall
assessment. For marking and for
maximum information, skill-based

Descriptors
descriptors are desirable.

o For simplicity of reporting, a final

overall descriptor may be
appropriate. Most scales operate
with either five, seven or nine
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levels.
 o For most in-house purposes,

Band
four or five bands are suitable
and can cover the expected
range of ability (which in EFL

Descriptors
versus ESL situations may not
extend to levels 8 and 9).

o Two kinds of descriptors:

holistic and (multi-trait)
analytic.
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 • If the authorities expect a percentage or letter grade result this can be
correlated with a band description.

• The use of descriptors is vital for standardizing: A new university invested a

good deal of time and money in developing a standard EAP course for all
first-year students with common material and common tests.

• The benefits of band descriptors are real information for students, greater
fairness and standardization - especially in writing and speaking - and, in
the long run, time-saving.
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 In-house test development
● Setting: 12 Steps
Test specifications such as the length of
the test and the number of marks it
carries should be clarified.
Redrafting will be necessary if any of the
responses do not match the expected
one, when the item does not test what
was intended and when there are
comments such as 'too difficult/easy',
'ambiguous’, 'confusing', 'what does this
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mean?' The 'comment-redraft' process will
continue until there is consistency.
The pedagogic stages are now
complete and the next stage is
administrative.
Working on the layout and proofing
for errors are two responsibilities.
The two most common problems at
this stage are time and inaccuracy.
In planning the timescale for the test
setting it is easy to forget about the
organization and production time.
 In-house test development
● Marking
The first stage in the marking process is
to confirm the answer key and mark
scheme for reading and listening and to
standardize the marking of writing and
spoken interaction.
A sample of scripts is selected in advance;
any name identification is covered and a
reference number or letter is given
instead. Where possible, each marker is
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given a copy to mark.
If there are no problems then everyone
will have given the same mark to each
section of each script this is unusual!
Normally there are a few items where
students have thought of other
acceptable answers or there is some
possibility of interpretation.
Slips in marking or adding up marks also
happen.
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 ESP Test Questions
There is no question types specific to ESP; may be different is the
frequency with which a question type is used. The writing of test items is
very similar to that of writing class materials.
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 ESP Test Questions
1. Writing.
All study- and work-related writing is written for a
readership, for a purpose, and about a specific matter,
so one characteristic of ESP writing tests is the
provision of input and specification of purpose and
audience.
EOP tests are more likely to integrate reading and
writing. In many real-life situations, particularly in
business, there has to be an immediate response to
reading a document, such as sending a memo or a
letter. The direct ESP test is then to set an integrated
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task and this is a feature of the advanced business
examinations.
2. Reading.
EAP examinations usually use two medium-
length passages or one longish one while for EOP
there are usually several shorter texts.
The carrier content and lexical load have to be
chosen such that they are unlikely to either
advantage or disadvantage particular people.
EOP examinations may set integrated
reading/writing tasks with just a few specific
comprehension questions.
 ESP Test Questions
3. Spoken Interaction.
Spoken tests are actually assessing spoken interaction,
that is, both speaking and listening, as they are
interactive.
The interaction can be between student and examiner,
or two or three students can be tested together and
interact with each other. This has practical advantages
as it reduces the time to test a large group.
In public examinations, it is usual to have two or three
phases: an introductory one to set students at ease
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and gain a first impression of their ability to handle
social niceties, an interaction based on a given
stimulus, and lastly some more open discussion.
4. Listening.
most examinations include listening
comprehension, and choices have to be made
about the output which will be marked.
The arguments are the same as those for reading
and writing: separate processes to be assessed
separately or integrated activities as in real life?
Again EAP tests are more likely to use non-
verbal or short answer formats while business-
related tests include form-filling, fax, and memo
writing.
Thank you!
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