Monitoring and Assessment Presented by: Wedad Al –Blwi Supervised by: Prof. Antar Abdellah

The aim To know what to test and how to test it. Content:  Guidelines for monitoring and assessment  Types of monitoring and assessment 1-Placement assessment 2- Observation 3-Short-term achievement assessment 3-Diagnostic assessment 4-Achievement assessment 5-Proficiency assessment  Good assessment: Reliability,Validity and Practicality

The purpose of Monitoring and Assessment -Monitoring and Assessment can provide a teacher and learners with information about the learners’ present knowledge and progress. -It can be a means of encouraging involvement and participation.

Guidelines for Monitoring and Assessment They should feel good about their progress LearnersEnvironment They should be able &should have time to assess and correct the outcomes to the activities. Teachers The assessment should be economical. The assessment may need to match with the external testing set by the education department. Situation The course should show that the learners are increasing their knowledge of the language. lacksNeeds The course should show that learners do what they want to do Wants The course should show that learners are getting better at tasks they will need to do after the course. Necessities Learners should receive helpful feedback to improve their language. Learners should be interested and excited about learning. Principles

Types of Monitoring and Assessment 1-Placement assessment 2-Observation of learning. 3-Short-term achievement assessment. 4-Diagnostic assessment. 5-Achievement assessment. 6-Proficiency assessment.

1-Placement assessment  It often has to be done just before a course begins.  The results have to be available quickly.  The assessment may be the learners’ first meeting with teachers and course and could affect their attitude to the course.  The time available for assessment may be limited. The purpose :To see what level of the course the learner should be in.

Placement assessment needs to be: 1-Familiar,friendly and relaxed. 2-Reasonably brief and easy to make and interpret. 3-Focused on gathering the most relevant information.

Possible Placement Tests: The Eurocentres Vocabulary:10 minutes. automatically scored by the computer. The Vocabulary levels Test. Structured interviews. A cloze test. Sentence completion test. Kinds of Question in placement Tests It focus on language items rather than skill in language use. The tests include pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar tests. Kinds of Question in placement Tests It focus on language items rather than skill in language use. The tests include pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar tests.

2-Observation of learning The purpose: To see if it is necessary to make changes to learning activities in order to encourage learning 4 questions that should be asked when observing learning activities: What is the learning goal of the activity? What the learning conditions that would lead to the achievement of the goal? What are the observable signs that these conditions occurring? What are the design features of the activity that set up the learning conditions?

3-Short-term achievement assessment. The purpose: to see if the learners are making progress on daily or weekly basis.  Good short-term achievement assessment should provide a clear record of progress that easily interpreted.  It should not occupy too much class time,but should be a regular expected part of class activity.

 It should be a form to motivate learners to keep working towards the course goals.  Learners can record their performance on a graph each time they complete an activity.  short-term achievement tests can be handed to the learners.

4-Diagnostic Assessment  The purpose: to find the gaps and weaknesses in learners’ knowledge.  Diagnostic assessment is a very important part of needs analysis both before a course begins and during the course.  It should be accurate and easy to interpret in terms of what should be done as a result.  Diagnostic information can often be obtained from assessment intended for other purposes such proficiency tests, achievement tests or placement tests.

Forms of tests in Diagnostic assessment. The vocabulary level test Reading tasks Spoken performance Written composi tions

5-Achievement assessment The purpose: to find out both the learners’ achievement during a course and the effectiveness of the course.. is usually at the end of a course It Achievement tests have the following characteristics: 1-They are based on material taught in the course. 2-Learners usually know what kinds of questions will be asked. 3-They are criterion referenced.

Forms of questions Achievement testing copy the types of activity done in the classroom It can affect teaching and learning (washback effect) Achievement assessment is not all done by tests. Some aspects of achievement are better done in other ways e.g. assessing skill in composition writing.

6-Proficiency assessment The purpose: to show how much the learners know of the language. It draws items for the test not from the course that learners are studying, but from the language itself, independent of any course. It is likely to cover a larger range if language items and skills.

Several responses to the constraint of the test at the end of a course. 1-Make the course like the test e.g. TOEFL or IELTS course book for sale. 2-Make parts of the course like the test.This is a common compromise especially in university intensive English programmes. 3-Remove the test. The university’s intensive English programmes may have its own proficiency test.

Good Assessment characteristics 1-Reliability A reliable test gives result that are not greatly upset by conditions that the test is not intended to measure.

How do we measure reliability? After allowing for the practice effect,if the same person sat the test twice, they should get near enough to the same results,or more commonly, by splitting the scores on the individual test items into two equal groups and seeing if the learners get the same score on both groups.

A test is more reliable if… under the same conditions always given 1-It’s 2-It’sconsistently marked. 3-It has a large number of points of assessment. 4-Its questions and instructions are clear.

2-Valiidity A valid test measures what it is supposed to measure

How do we measure validity? ‘ 1-Face validity. 2- Content validity Test validity

Face validity  It simply means that if the test is called reading test,does it look like a reading test?..etc  It is important because it reflect how the learners will react to the test.

Content Validity It is a little like face validity, expect that the decision making about validity is not made by looking at the test’s face, but by analysing the test and comparing it to what is supposed to test.

3-Practicality It is examined by looking at  1-The cost involved in administer and scoring the test  2-The time taken to administering and sit the test  3-The time taken to mark the test.  4-The number of people needed to administer and mark the test.  5-The ease in interpreting and applying the results of the test.

Tests can be made more practical by… 1-having reusable test papers. 2-being carefully formatted for easy marking. 3-being not too long. 4-using objectively scored items such as T/ F or multiple choice

Evaluating a test Task : Use the criteria of reliability,validity and practicality to describe how you would quickly evaluate a short- term achievement test of vocabulary which uses the following item types to test 15 words