ASSIGNMENT 1: ORAL PRESENTATION

SCENARIO 4
Group 4: Nguyễn Thanh Hải, Đàm Lê Tuấn Kiệt, Phạm Đức Thắng

Assessment targets:
Assessing students’ acquisition of the listening targets they have been taught
(Grade 5; Unit 1-3, Volume 1, English 5)

Assessing contents: Listening

Assessing conditions:
Time: 20 minutes
Students’ age range: Students of grade 5; 11 years old
Students’ level: A1 of the CEFR
Purpose: mid-term progress assessment

What to submit:
- PowerPoint slides/poster (15’, including Q&A)
- A work plan (a summary that details the division of work among group members)
What to do:
- Select assessment methods & instruments, justify
- Write the instruction
- Describe the input of the task
- Write the example of the expected task response
I. Identify the learning targets and the assessment targets
a. Learning targets (including vocabulary, sentence patterns and listening skill) of Unit 1, Unit 2, and Unit 3:
● By the end of Unit 1, SWBAT:
- Vocabulary:
+ Identify the form, meaning and pronunciation of 7 vocabulary items related to the topics “Addresses” and “Hometown” (i.e., address,
lane, tower, like, quiet, crowded, pretty).
- Sentence patterns:
+ Identify the form and meaning of 3 sentence patterns related to the topics “Addresses” and “Hometown” (i.e., g What’s your address? -
It’s ..., Where do you live – I live … and What’s the ... like? - It’s ...).
- Listening:
+ Understand the specific information in a short conversation about one’s addresses or what a village/town/city is like provided that the
speech is slow and carefully articulated with long pauses.
● By the end of Unit 2, SWBAT:
- Vocabulary:
+ Identify the form, meaning and pronunciation of 10 vocabulary items related to the topic “Daily Routines” (i.e., brush teeth, do morning
exercise, always, usually, often, sometimes, once, twice, partner, project).
- Sentence patterns:
+ Identify the form and meaning of 2 sentence patterns related to topic “Daily Routines” (i.e., g What do you do ...? -
I always/usually/often/sometimes ... and How often ...? - I ... every day/once/twice ... a week/a month.).
- Listening:
+ Understand the specific information in a short conversation about one’s daily routine or frequency provided that the speech is slow and
carefully articulated with long pauses.
● By the end of Unit 3, SWBAT:
 - Vocabulary:
+ Identify the form, meaning and pronunciation of 7 vocabulary items related to the topics “Past holidays” and “Means of transport” (i.e.,
island, ancient town, imperial city, underground, motorbike, coach, get).
- Sentence patterns:
+ Identify the form and meaning of 2 sentence patterns related to the topics “Past holidays” and “Means of transport” (i.e., g Where did you
go on holiday? - I went to ... and How did you get there? - I went by ...).
+ Use the learnt sentence patterns to ask and answer questions about past holidays and means of transport.
- Listening:
+ Understand the specific information in a short conversation about past holidays or means of transport provided that the speech is slow and
carefully articulated with long pauses.
● Assessment targets of the designed assessment task: The tasks aim to assess the following abilities of students:
The ability to:

● Identify the form, meaning and pronunciation of 20 vocabulary items learnt in Unit 1, Unit 2 and Unit 3 accurately and
appropriately during the listening process, namely: address, tower, like, quiet, crowded, pretty, brush teeth, do morning
exercise, always, usually, often, sometimes, once, twice, island, ancient town, underground, motorbike, coach, get.

● Understand the specific information in a short conversation about the topics in Unit 1, Unit 2 and Unit 3 provided that the
speech is slow and carefully articulated with long pauses.
The group’s opinion is that the assessment targets are relevant, representative and proportional:
- Relevant: The test assesses students’ understanding of the specific information when listening to a short conversation as well
as their knowledge of learnt vocabulary and sentence patterns. Throughout the 03 units, students practice with the tasks that
target the sub-skill of understanding the specific information; therefore, the sub-skill is familiar to test-takers. Only learnt
vocabulary and sentence patterns are covered in the test.
 - Representative: Students learn the sub-skill of understanding the specific information in a short conversation; therefore, the
test is designed to assess test takers’ ability to do so. When it comes to vocabulary and sentence patterns, the list below shows
the targeted vocabulary and sentence patterns with those in bold being included in the test. The bold words and patterns are
believed to be representative of each unit.
Unit 1:
Vocabulary: address, lane, tower, like, quiet, crowded, pretty (6/7)
Sentence patterns: What’s your address? - It’s ..., Where do you live – I live …, What’s the ... like? - It’s … (3/3)
Unit 2:
Vocabulary: brush teeth, do morning exercise, always, usually, often, sometimes, once, twice, partner, project (8/10)
Sentence patterns: What do you do ...? - I always/usually/often/sometimes …, How often ...? - I ... every
day/once/twice ... a week/a month. (2/2)
Unit 3:
Vocabulary: island, ancient town, imperial city, underground, motorbike, coach, get (6/7)
Sentence patterns: Where did you go on holiday? - I went to …, How did you get there? - I went by … (2/2)
- Proportional: All the 03 units teach the same sub-skill of understanding the specific information, which is the reason why
the test is designed to assess students’ ability to understand the specific information.
II. Analyze the range of possible assessment methods to achieve the performance assessment targets
In order for students’ listening abilities to be accessed, different methods of assessment should be taken into consideration. The methods to
be analyzed are Multiple-choice Questions (MCQs), Numbering, Matching and Fill-in as students are taught to do these types of tasks in
the 03 units.
Evaluation
Methods of assessing listening Possible assessment task(s)
Pros Cons

Selected MCQs It is time-saving and easy to Designing MCQs is time- Students listen and tick the box (A, B
 consuming and challenging.
There is still a 33% chance
mark multiple-choice
of guessing the correct
questions. Guesswork can be
answer (for 3-option items).
reduced thanks to multiple
The authenticity of MCQs is
distractors in the options. or C) under the picture.
also criticized because these
Furthermore, a variety of Students listen and circle A, B or C.
questions do not reflect real-
learning targets can be
life language. Furthermore,
assessed in a set of
students may cheat because
questions.
they can see their deskmates’
MCQ answers easily.
Response It is possible that students
Matching tasks are easy to can guess the last item
mark. The tasks are small in without listening to the
terms of space since the recording, therefore, it is
options are closely crammed essential to put more effort in
Students listen and draw the line
together. The task is an designing extra, unnecessary
Matching between illustrated words/pictures
efficient way to assess the items while ensuring that
and pictures.
association between a variety these items are distractive
of items. enough. Moreover, this
specific type of exercise
measures passive vocabulary
knowledge.

Like matching tasks,
numbering tasks are quick to
Numbering
mark and small in terms of
space.
Guessing rates in fill-in
activities can be greatly
Limited
Fill-in reduced. It is time-saving to
Response
compose and administer
them.
Students may guess the last
item without listening to the
recording. However, unlike Students listen and number the given
the matching task, it is not pictures.
possible to design an extra
distractive item.
Multiple answers may exist,
Students listen and fill in the
so the designing and marking
sentences with ONE WORD ONLY
process should be carefully
for each blank.
controlled.

III. Select the most appropriate methods for the given scenario and justify such selections with concrete theoretical and contextual
evidence.
a. In general: The listening test
- Purpose of assessment: The mid-term listening test can serve both main purposes:

● Summative purpose: help the teacher evaluate students' listening ability in general after 03 units. To be more specific,
teachers may have a general evaluation of students’ ability to identify the vocabulary items and sentence patterns learnt in
Unit 1, Unit 2 and Unit 3 accurately and appropriately during the listening process, understand the specific information in a
short conversation about the topics in Unit 1, Unit 2 and Unit 3 provided that the speech is slow and carefully articulated with
long pauses.
● Formative purpose: help the teacher diagnose what common strengths and weaknesses of students in listening are (i.e, the
misunderstanding of some vocabulary items and sentence patterns, the inability to understand specific information),
accordingly, the teacher can dig deeper into those kinds of issues in future lessons.
b. In particular: Each task will be in accordance with those that students have done in the textbook
● Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs):
As mentioned above, because a variety of learning targets can be assessed in a set of questions, MCQs are chosen to assess the
aforementioned targets of the 03 units. Furthermore, as long as clear language instruction and easy-to-follow answer options are
provided to the test-takers, they can complete the questions quickly and it is time-saving for examiners to mark the answers.
Regarding the problem of cheating, this can be tackled if the administration process is done strictly and carefully.
● Fill-in:
The problem of guessing rates is effectively tackled when fill-in questions are chosen in the designation of the test. It is also time-
saving to design the questions as the test composer can rely on the tapescripts. The possibility of multiple answers may be a
challenge; however, as the test takers are required to fill in ONE WORD ONLY, the problem can be easily solved.
● The chosen task types can be reliable and valid if the test designers write them carefully.
The practicality of using these task types in the test is indisputable as they are easy to administer and quick to score. Therefore,
minimal resources are required.
The task types (MCQ and Fill-in) are evenly distributed among the units (Unit 1: MCQ and Fill-in; Unit 2: MCQ and Numbering;
Unit 3: MCQ, Matching and Fill-in).
The downsides of the aforementioned task types, being possible guessing rates and multiple answers) can be minimized if the items
are composed with consideration, unlike the other two task types (matching and numbering).
IV. Write the task specifications to describe the tasks in the assessment (task instruction, task input, expected task response)
1. General information
● Time allowance: 15 minutes

● Purpose: mid-term progress test

● Target test takers: 5th-grade students (level A1 of the CEFR)

● Assessment targets: Assessing students’ acquisition of the listening targets they have been taught in Unit 1-3, Volume 1, English 5
 Task Number Recommended
Task type General description Marks
No. of items time (minutes)

7
Test takers listen to five short conversations and tick the 5
Multiple Choice (5 for listening
1 box A, B, or C under the correct pictures. Test takers will 5 (1 for each
Questions (pictures) and 2 for
listen to each conversation TWICE. item)
answering)

8
Test takers listen to five conversations and fill in the blank 5
(5 for listening
2 Fill-in with ONE WORD ONLY to complete each conversation. 5 (1 for each
and 3 for
Test takers will listen to each conversation TWICE. item)
answering)

TOTAL 10 10 15

2. Detailed description
Task
Task type Task instruction Task input Expected task response Sample
No.

1 Multiple For questions 1 - 5, The task contains 5 questions Students are expected to tick
Choice listen and tick the with 3 options for each and 5 the box under the correct
Questions boxes under the recordings for each question. pictures for each question as Tapescript:
(pictures) correct pictures. Each recording is about one of they listen to the recordings. Mark: Hello, Jane.
You will listen the six topics learnt in Unit 1, 2 Jane: Hi, Mark. Where
do you live?
TWICE. There is and 3. The script of each
Mark: I live in the city
one example. recording is about 20-30 words tower. Where do you
 long and uses A1-level
live?
grammatical structures along Jane: I live in a small
with the learnt vocabulary and house. It is near the
sentence patterns. crowded road.

Example:

0. Nam usually does

The task contains 5 items and 5 the _____ in the
afternoon.
For questions 6 - recordings for each item.
10, listen and write Each recording is about one of => Answer: exercise
Students are expected to write
ONE WORD in the six topics learnt in Unit 1, 2 Tapescript:
ONE WORD in the blank of
2 Fill-in each blank. You and 3. The script of each Tom: Hello, Nam. What
each sentence as they listen to
will listen TWICE. recording is about 20-30 words do you do in the
the recordings.
There is one long and uses A1-level afternoon?
example. grammatical structures along Nam: Hi, Tom. I usually
with the learnt vocabulary and do the exercise in the
sentence patterns. afternoon. How about
you?
Tom: I play football.

Tapescript Analysis:
We analysed the tapescripts of the samples using Text Inspector and collected the following results:
- The first script is 30 words long, which fits the description of the task input. The proportion of A1 vocabulary in Sample 1 is
86.67%. The remaining percentages are 6.67% for A2 vocabulary, 3.33% for B1 vocabulary and 3.33% for unlisted vocabulary.
 However, the A2 and B1 words are the two words that students have learnt already (i.e, crowded and tower); therefore, the difficulty
of the script is generally A1 level, which suits the test takers’ level.

Figure 1: Analysis result of the first script (Text Inspector, 2022)

- The second script is 25 words long, which fits the description of the task input. The proportion of A1 vocabulary in Sample 1 is
84%. The remaining percentages are 8% for A2 vocabulary and 8% for unlisted vocabulary. However, the A2 words are the two
words that students have learnt already (i.e, usually and exercise); therefore, the difficulty of the script is generally A1 level, which
suits the test takers’ level.
Figure 2: Analysis result of the second script (Text Inspector, 2022)
 REFERENCES

Văn Vân, H., & Hà, P. (2021). Tiếng Anh 5. Ministry of Education and Training.

Text Inspector (2022). Online lexis analysis tool. at textinspector.com