Language Assessment

Language assessment – our new

friend
● Draw a big circle on a paper, perhaps the inside cover of
your book
● Draw a face to represent how LA - this new friend - looks
to you?
Language assessment – our new
friend
● The challenges of doing & learning Language Assessment.
● The challenges of working in LA in Vietnam.

ME

NOW US
What have you known about
“language assessment”?

What do you think you want to

learn the most in this course?

https://www.mentimeter.com/app/presentation/2c8
881530c6df7742e90e13c44229098/4b1ccc9964a2
 What have you known
(optional)?
In groups, discuss what you know about the situation of
English language assessment in Vietnam (7mins).
Group 1 Group 2
In primary schools In secondary schools
Group 3 Group 4
In colleges and university Large-scale/ provincial/
(major & non-major) national language assessment

Group 5: Language testing centers

A brief look at assessment literacy

Fulcher, G. (2012).
Assessment literacy for
the language classroom.
Language Assessment
Quarterly, 9(2), 113–132.
 Read the following case
Trang is a young teacher of English in Hanoi. She recently shifted from teaching in an IELTS
preparation center to teaching in a public secondary school, in charge of a 6 th grade class. In the
centre, Trang was provided with test materials for diagnosing students’ language proficiency, placing
them into classes, and checking students’ progress and achievements. The materials are in the format
of fully developed sample tests of English proficiency for major language skills. When it comes to the
new job in the public secondary school, Trang has to design assessment tasks based on the required
outcome levels in KNLNN and the foreign language curriculum 2018 for 6 th graders. Luckily, Trang’s
colleagues have a collection of the past years’ tests. Moreover, Trang can find many websites
providing sample tests for 6th graders. She compiles all these tests in a folder, and selects the tasks
and items similar to the taught contents of 6 th graders’ textbooks to include in periodical tests for her
students. Some of the tasks relate well to what Trang has taught the students in the textbooks, some
do not totally relate because they are in another series of textbooks. The format of assessment tasks
in these tests may sometimes be unfamiliar to her students. Trang still primarily selects the tasks and
is inconfident to write assessment tasks from scratch, especially those performance-based tasks for
productive skills.

What’s Trang’s problem in LA?

 Read the following case
Huong is an experienced teacher of English in a public high school in Hai Phong
City. This year, she is in charge of two 12th-grade classes, who are going to take the
high school exit exam to graduate. The textbook Huong uses to teach her students
is English 12 in Global Success textbook series, with a focus on all the language
elements (vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation) and four language skills, plus the
project section. In teaching students to write, Huong instructs students to write in a
process approach, starting with pre-writing strategies (often included in the
textbook such as brainstorming and outlining), then writing the first draft, editing
and revising. Inspired by the new regulations of assessment by the Ministry of
Education and Training and by a conference session she recently attended, she also
encourages students to formulate writing portfolios, which compose all the writing
works in a semester, and reflect on their own progress besides receiving her
feedback.
●
One day in the second semester, a few months towards the national
high school exit exam, her students asked “Teacher, why do we have
to write full paragraphs now? The coming exam does not have
paragraph writing. Why do we only practice grammar multiple-choice
questions?”. The class was quiet for a minute after the questions
were voiced and Huong had to explained to the students again about
the benefits of writing portfolios as an on-going assessment
method. While explaining, Huong kept thinking about teachers’
dilemma of applying new alternatives of language assessment
methods in teaching while the final high-stake exams are still
favouring multiple-choice questions.

What’s Huong’s problem in LA?

Course objectives

FLTCF
New English textbooks
More policies on language assessment

Understand key concepts

Understand LA process
Design English LA targets
Understand what and how to assess
English language
Interpreting assessment results +
giving feedback
Assignments
● 2 Quizzes
● 1 Group presentation
● 1 Evaluative essay
● Other bonus situations (for quiz scores) (discussions,
lesson preparation)
Other bonus situations (for quiz
scores)
● Answers for certain class discussions prescribed by T.
● Shares interesting relevant stories.
● Initiatives for Discussions (raising relevant topics and
preparing a suggested answer)
● Group presentations of lesson contents instead of the
teachers with your own materials + readings +
teachers’ collaboration.
 How are we going to learn?
Alternative 1 Students: Reading activities and practice
exercises
Teacher: Lecture and presentation-based

Alternative 2 Students: Preparing for lesson, summarizing the

reading and LA story telling, practicing in class
Teacher: facilitator, classmate, audience,
companion, story teller
 Class management
Alternative 1 Teacher: Talk talk talk - PPP lesson procedure
Students: Listen and ask relevant questions

Alternative 2 ● Prepare the lesson, search the resources to

find interesting language assessment
Students: practices which can be of some relevance to
the lesson of the day.
● Be actively involved in reading, summarizing,
adding details, searching/ making illustrative
stories and discussing the goods and the
inconveniences about them.
 Lesson sequence

Starters Summary
Storytelling Exercises
(prior of reading
and and
knowledge and/ or
discussion reflection
checking) lectures
Storytelling activity
● Weekly, students can talk to in-service teachers, search
online, search youtube, search LA websites to find the
illustrative stories about the LA practice in the week’s lesson.
● Students share stories they have found relating to the
lessons, then nominate the good ones.
● Key questions to discuss every week after students’
storytelling: So we have heard stories, do they feature a
good or bad practice? Why?
Summary of
Reading - Discussion -
Reflection
● Do the readings before the lesson and prepare some stories/
discussions relating to the reading contents beforehand to
have bonus scores.
● Summarize the lesson and reflect at the end.
 Class code of conduct
Go to class on time Share and listen
and be present Silence your devices with attention and
during the whole and omit non- constructive
lesson for yourself urgent calls. intentions (no
and for your friends. judgment)
 ELT 3 - Lecture 1
LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
Objectives
● Define and explain the meanings and relationships of
key terms: measurement, evaluation, assessment and
testing.
● Explain and distinguish among a wide range of
language assessment purposes.
● Link language teaching and language assessment.
Lead-in
● Do something to measure your friend’s happiness level
● What’s included in happiness?
● How did you do to find out the answer?
● How did you interprete your friend’s answer?
Lead-in
● How do we measure happiness?
● Watch a video: http://worldhappiness.report/
Terminology
Lead-in
● Find as many synonyms for the word assessment as
possible
Lead-in

Is that TRUE in
education???
Act 1: Match the terms & its characteristics

Assessment A. An instrument to collect scores.

Test B. Assigning scores to student’s

attributes/ characteristics.
Measurement C. Making inferences about student’s
attributes.
Evaluation
D. Making decisions about student’s
attributes.
Read figure 1.1 and check your answer.
Measurement
A process of obtaining a numerical description of the degree
to which an individual possesses a particular characteristics.

Observable behavior 1

Underlying
Observable behavior 2
unobservable
ability ...............

Observable behavior n
Assessment

a process for obtaining

selected information that a stage of making
is used for making decisions inferences after measuring/
about students, curricula having collected the
and programs, and information
educational policy
Evaluation
● All forms of Evaluation consist of systematic information
gathering and making some kind of judgment on the
basis of this information.
● Is made finally after measurement and assessment.
Test
● A method of assessment that
○ typically consists of a set of questions;
○ is administered during a fixed period of time under
reasonably comparable conditions for all students.
Another matching activity
Match the concepts with the correct definitions.

A. a method to determine a student's ability to complete

1. Measurement certain tasks or demonstrate mastery of a skill or knowledge
of content (one form of assessment) (Overton, 2011)

B. the process of quantifying (assigning numbers to) the

2. Test characteristics of persons according to explicit procedures
and rules > no interpretation or explanation of data involved
(Bachman & Palmer, 1996)

3. Assessment
C. procedures used to determine whether the subject (i.e.
student) meets a pre-set criteria (Overton, 2011)

4. Evaluation D. the process of gathering information to monitor progress

and make educational decision if necessary) (Overton, 2011)
Activity 1: Decide the truth or falsity of each of
the following statements. Defend your
answer.
To make an evaluation, one must use measurement.

To measure an important educational attribute of a student,

one must use a test.

Any piece of information a teacher obtains about a student

is an assessment.

To evaluate a student, one must assess that student.

Language learning vs.
Language assessment
 ASSESSMENT
DECISIONS & PURPOSES
Lead-in
● Watch a video
● Who is involved in the different assessment procedures?
● Which methods are used?
● Are different people’s decisions the same or conflicting?
● Which decision(s) do you think is the best one?

Persons Methods Decisions

Assessment purposes: Lead-in

What are your assessment purposes in teaching

English as tutors?

The purposes of Assessment depend on the decisions

you want to make
Act 3: Why do you assess your students?
To make students scare and be more serious
To identify areas for improvement
To grade
To report the progress to parents
To motivate student
To give students something to do
To adjust your teaching
To create learning opportunities
To compare two teaching methods To end a program
To check students’ suitability for a new course
Teaching and Learning purposes
Selection decisions Classification decisions

Placement decisions Providing feedback

Diagnostic assessment Counseling and guidance

decisions
Assigning grades
Credentialing and
Progress certification decisions

The decision(s) you want to make based on the assessment

information will decide the purpose(s) of your assessment.
 System improvement decisions
● Schools to do instructional diagnosis and
remediation.
● Schools to feedback to the teacher.
● Schools to involve more stakeholders into education.
● Local authorities to support schools better.
● Government to revise policies.
Give examples of instructional
decisions for you (also the purposes for
assessing you) as a student at ULIS.
Summative vs. Formative purposes
Summative Formative
● Diagnose student’s strengths,
● Assigning grades
weaknesses, needs, characteristics,
● Reporting
& personalities (individually & as the
● Evaluate the teaching
whole group)
and curriculum
● Serve as a teaching tool
effectiveness
● Communicate achievement
expectations
● Provide specific feedback
● Motivating students
● Give examples of summative and formative
decisions you have experienced/ witnessed at ULIS
● Questions to ponder
“Are the assessment purposes in your education
more summative or formative? Give examples.”
 Discussion questions
1. What are the common purposes (or decisions) of assessment for
continuous assessment and summative assessment in Vietnam
primary and secondary school education?
2. According to Document number 5333/BGDĐT of Ministry of
Education and Training in Vietnam, tests in continuous/ formative
assessment are aimed at testing parts of the language skills targeted
in periodical tests. In your opinion, how do you understand about the
purpose(s) of these tests? Are they for instructional or system
improvement, formative or summative?
 Pair discussion

Please talk about some Please talk about some

assessment situations you assessment situations you
had in secondary and high have had in university
school education in the past education and identify the
and identify the purposes. purposes.
 Further discussion
● Identify more than one purpose of the following assessment situation:
○ The periodical test in VN secondary school
○ The IELTS and TOEFL test
○ The Fast track Program Test at the beginning of each year at ULIS
○ The gifted student exam in VN at province and for the whole country
○ The assessment of all school learning results for entering a linked programme
between ULIS and New Hampshire
○ The quizzes in this course
○ Teachers’ observation of students during lessons
○ Student’s reflection letters/ self assessment
 Q&A
Do you have any questions for class discussions on
language assessment purposes?
(5 minutes)
Regarding the assessment purposes presented in this
module, are there any points different from your
current beliefs and thoughts about language testing
and assessment purposes? What are they?
Please write on a padlet some changes you experience
today and the most relevant knowledge to you.
Practice in the book

Activity 1-5
Further group discussions

● More videos on purposes of assessment.

● Practices exercises.
 REFLECTION
What among the knowledge you have learnt today is
the most meaningful to you as a teacher-to-be?