Download presentation
Presentation is loading. Please wait.
1
ASSESSING YOUNG LANGUAGE LEARNERS
Assessing young learners is not the same as assessing any other group of learners. WHY?
2
What makes the business of assessing young learners different?
Age Content of Language Learning Methods of Language Learning Aims Learning Theories
3
AGE: children’s motor, linguistic, social and conceptual development must be taken into account in desingning and implementing assessmente CONTENT OF LANGUAGE LEARNING: a focus on oral skills, vocabulary development and language use at discourse level. METHODS OF TECAHING : interacive use of games, songs, rhymes, stories to cary language content and practice.
4
AIMS: programmes for young learners often cite social and cross- cultural aims, as well as language learnig aims. LEARNING THEORIES: e.g. zone of proximal development; learning through social interaction, able to do more with helpful other.
5
WHY ASSESS YOUNG CHILDREN ?
Assessment can serve the following purposes: To monitor and aid children’s progress To provide children with evidence of their progress and enhance motivation. To monitor your performance and plan future work To provide information for parents, colleagues, and school authorities
6
WHAT DO WE ASSESS? Skills Development: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing → to examine children’s progress and/ or detect problems Learning How to Learn: Language learning skills for children: guessing meaning from context by using language,pictures or the children’s knowledge of the world asking for help from others Using a dictionary → These help children to form useful learning habits, and to become autonomous learners.
7
! You can intevene over- negative feelings.
3. Attitudes: → positive attitudes; ( The best time is childhood! ) towards learning, and the target language and culture conferencing ( short, private conversations with the children) or questionnaires and observation → It is not possible to award objective marks for attitudes BUT; Profiles of individual children, describing their attitudes Reports for parents, colleagues and school authorities ! You can intevene over- negative feelings. 4. Behavioral and Social Skills: → becoming a good team memeber, being polite, being sensitive to others’ feelings and appreciative of their efforts etc.
8
Principles for Assessing Children’s Language Learning
Learning-centered Perspective Support Learning and Teaching More than Testing Coherent With Learning Children and Parents Should understand Assessment Issues
9
Assessment should be seen from learning-centered perspective
Children are willing to participate in social interaction and they drive to make sense of the activities and talk they engage. A Vygotskyan perspective on learning emphasis that learning occurs in social contexts and through interaction with helpful adults or children. According to Vygotsky we do not get a true assessment of a child’s ability by measuring what she or he can do alone and without help
10
Assessment should support learning and teaching
11
READING GRAMMAR LISTENING WRITING SPEAKING
12
Assessment should support learning and teaching
The process and outcomes of assessment can motivate learners An assessment activity can provide a helpful model of language use An assessment activity, and feedback from it, can support further learning The outcomes of assessment can help teachers plan more effective lessons The outcomes of assessment can inform the evaluation and improvement of courses and programs.
13
Assessment is more than testing
There are some alternative assessment techniques. Why not testing? Many of young learners limited amount of with the written language Pupils have little or no experience in assessment Strict, exam-like conditions are not easily atteinable or desirable in the YL classroom.(Hasselgren,2000)
14
Assessment should be coherent with learning
Assessment should fit comfortably with children’s learning experience. Assessment is an intereactional activity rather than a solo experience.
15
Assessment as a relation between parents, school, teacher and the students
Children and parents should understand assessment issues. Students: Self-assessment can be a part of learning from the beginning and can contribute to the development of self-motivated and self-directed learners at later stages. Teachers: are restricted in the individual decisions they can take on assessment because there are national regulations that must be followed. In the case of private schools, the schools also have some their own assessment choices and teacher has to adapt and apply them.
16
School: school policy on assessment must take account of parents’ demands and inform & educate about the theories of learning that underpin a school’s teaching. Parents: all around the world, they want the best for their children but generally they want the same as happened in their own schooling. So, well-informed collaborative parents are always needed.
17
Key Concepts in Assessment
Assessment? Testing? Evaluation? Evaluation refers to a broader notion than assessment and refers to a process of systematically collecting information in order to make a judgement. Assessment is concerned with pupils’ learning or performance and thus provides one type of information that might be used in evaluation Testing is a particular form of assessment, that is concerned with measuring learning through performance
18
Formative and Summative Assessment
Formative assessment aims to inform on-going teaching and learning by providing immediate feedback. Ideally, formative assessment should influence both teaching and learning by giving feedback to both teachers and learners. Summative assessment aims to assess learning at the end of a unit, term, year or course and does not feed back into the next round of teaching.
19
Diagnostic and Achievement Assessment
Diagnostic assessment occurs at the beginning of the teaching/learning cycle. This type of assessment will provide the teacher with an understanding of the prior knowledge and skills a student brings to a unit, as well as the strengths and specific learning needs of an individual or groups of students in relation to the expectations that will be taught. Achievement assessment aims to show what a learner can do.
20
Criterion-referenced/ Norm-referenced Assessment
Criterion-referenced assessment can match the child’s performance against an expected responseon an item or it may make use of a set of descriptors along a scale, on which a learner is placed. Norm-referenced assessment refers to the type of assessment done when we do not compare the learner to other learners.
21
Validity Validity concerns how far an assessment assesses what it claims to. If an assessment omits some aspects of what is being assessed, its validity can also be reduced. To make sure an assessment is as valid as possible, we need to think very carefully about what exactly we want to assess, what exactly the proposed assessment will assess and what can be claimed from the outcomes of the assessment.
22
Reliability It measures how well a test or assessment assesses what it claims to. “Would the assessment produce the same results if it were taken by the same pupils on different occasions or if the same test or assessment was scored by different people?” Reliability is increased by being very explicit about instructions to pupils and in scoring, by moderation, i.e. Having markers score the same scripts until they mark consistently in the same way. When validity is increased, reliability decreases because the most valid assessment will be those that collect a lot of information about performance on several aspects of a skill and most reliable assessments will be those which measures only a single aspect of a skill. Therefore, the solution lies in finding a thorough balance between them.
23
Fairness Fairness principles require that children are given plenty of chances to show what they can do and that their language learning is assessed through multiple methods. Types of questions, test items or assessment tasks should also be familiar to pupils if they are to show their ability to best advantage
24
Planning the assessment of children’s language learning
Purposes and objectives of assessment Which aspects of language learning do I want to assess? How does this relate to the learning experience of the children? What do I want to use the assessment outcome for? Who else will use the outcomes? And for what purposes?
25
Methods of Assessment How will information be gathered to assess the aspects of language? How will the information that is collected be interpreted? How will pupils be involved in gathering the information?
26
Quality Management in Assessment
How can I make sure the assessment is valid? How can I make sure the assessment is reliable? How can I make sure the assessment is fair? Feedback Who will I share the assessment outcomes with? How will I communicate the outcomes of an assessment?
27
Uses of Assessment How will the outcomes of assessment inform future teaching, planning and learning opportunities? Impact of the Assessment What washback effects from assessment to teaching may occur? What will be the impact be on pupils’ motivation?
28
Teacher Assessment of Language Learning
Assessing in relation to goals When goals are explicit, assessment is more straightforward. ex: goal-- learning the names of animals strategies– understanding, production 2. Selecting an assessment focus Focus of assessment is the aspect of language that is assessed. There may be more than one focus in the assessment of writing, but not in the assessment of speaking
29
Assessment by observation
Observation does not disturb the children and assesses them in the process of ordinary classroom activities Teacher focuses on the particular aspect of language that s/he focuses. A specific and goal-directed way of looking Creating opportunities for assessment in classes Who: in small classes, observation of 6-7 children in each lesson. In large classes, observation of groups
30
when: determined by assessment focus
Oral language, students working in pairs Written language, talking to individual children 5. Record Keeping through checklist on which teacher simply ticks the goals achieved by children checlists are easy to manage, but limit the amount of information recorded about children an alternative is a loose-leaf record book with a section for each learner
31
Self-Assessment Through self-assessment:
Learners can understand more about the learning process Learners can be motivated towards more involvement in their learning Teachers can understand more about individual pupils Learners will be better prepared to carry on learning beyond the classroom A more equal relationship is created between teachers and learners
32
Is learner autonomy realistic in young learners?
Other-regulated Self-regulated Adjusting parts of the process to suit meaning styles and preferences Depending on the teacher to decide what is to be learnt A student who learns to assess his or her own work moves from other-regulated to self-regulated Self-regulated(autonomous) learners at advantage in continuing to learn and adjust throughout their lives keeping pace with technology and information Is learner autonomy realistic in young learners? Should not be that unreal as very young children know how to tidy the classroom, where to keep their books and papers…etc., showing that we tend to underestimate them
33
Need to set a balance between providing learner autonomy ( done in L1) and language learning
How to develop learner autonomy concerned with increasing responsibility to the language content Children, aged seven and eight, can begin to understand the criteria for good performances and production Setting benchmarks, exemplary good pieces of work, could serve as models for their own works
34
PORTFOLIO A portfolio is a collection of examples of work that, as a collection, reveal both the capability and the progress of a learner. A language learner’s portfolio includes: samples of writing and lists of books read.
35
Portfolio Assessment allows for much greater child involvement in the process of recording progress and achievement. For example Schulz (2009), talks about writing portfolios and states that: Writing portfolio give students, teachers, and parents or caregivers an achieve of each student’s writing throughout the academic year.
36
European Language Portfolio
European Language Portfolio (ELP) is a companion to CEFR. ELP is the property of the learner and a tool to promote learner autonomy. It doesn’t work without frequent goal setting, monitoring, and self assessment.
37
Assessing Reading Nature of Reading
Readers employ three main cueing systems Graphophonic cues at the word level Syntactic cues at the sentence level Semantic cues at the whole text level Reading is an interactive process including both bottom-up and top-down skills Reading is both process and product. Process involves interaction between reader and text. Product is reading comprehension.
38
Components of reading ability (based on Banchman&Palmer’s model):
As children’s schemata varies, they have different understandings from the text. Aim of reading is to come closer to the shared understandings. Components of reading ability (based on Banchman&Palmer’s model): Organizational knowledge: grammatical knowledge, textual knowledge Pragmatic knowledge: functional knowledge, sociolinguistic knowledge
39
Contributing reading knowledge and skills
form an important part of reading assessment: ability to decode knowledge of vocabulary knowledge of grammatical structures ability to predict meaning ability to draw on prior knowledge ability to understand main ideas ability to take responsibilty confidence and motivation ability to critically analyse and interpret These skills are assessed through observation or analysis of reading behaviour.
40
Issues in Assessment of Reading of Young Learners
Selecting reading texts & tasks for young learners The interest level of the text Learner characteristics Authentic materials, children’s literature Giving a response to the task Difficulty of a reading text Relation with students’ background knowledge
41
Choosing comprehension questions
Comprehension questions may be literal, interpretative, critical or creative Text based questions about grammatical and vocabulary knowledge Assessing vocabulary In informal assessment by questioning children In formal assessment through the task
42
Reading Assessment Strategies
1. Observation 2. Interviews with parents 3. Teacher-student reading conferences 4. Oral reading Children reading aloud individually or in a group 5. Informal diagnostic procedures Contain tests of contributing skills, oral reading, silent reading, interest
43
Miscue Analysis 7. Portfolios
Involves the differences between the children’s response and actual words Analysed at graphemic, phonemic, morphological, syntactic and semantic level Example: Text: the man painted his house and sold it Child: the man painted his horse and sold it 7. Portfolios Help teacher gather a range of information
44
Reading Assessment Tasks
8.Self-assessment With self-evaluation question sheets, progress charts, reading journals, students become responsible for their own learning Reading Assessment Tasks Read-and-do tasks requiring action responses Children follow the instructions: read&draw, read&build, read&match
45
2. Reading and retelling students retell or rewrite as much as possible of the text familiar topics are easier to recall a short time should elapse between students’ reading and retelling/rewriting judging retelling ways: the number of idea units, ordering or events, certain key expressions
46
Read-and-do tasks requiring a short written answer
Students respond in a few words Read-and-do tasks requiring a longer written answer Students respond in longer answers The difficulty is students’ writing ability may interfere with their chance to show their understanding Writing a letter to a character in story, writing a summary
47
Reading&answering true or false questions
Students have a 50% chance of giving right answer Reading and picture-matching Students match a word, paragraph with a picture Characteristics of pictures should not distract students
48
I can make a loud noise I can fly I can climb
49
What is the name of animal?
Reading & answering multiple-choice items Teachers control students’ thought process The distractors are important Reading & completing charts Ex: students read a text about animals and complete this chart What is the name of animal? What does it eat? Where does it live?
50
Cloze and gap-filling tasks
Predicting meaning and filling in gaps indicates understanding is achieved. Mrs. Lee lives in the city. She does not live in the ____1____. Every day she goes to the ____2____. She buys milk and fresh bread ____3____ for the children. She does not go ____4____ the but. She drives a car. Her ____5____ is a teacher. The school is ____6____ their house. He can walk to ____7____. The Lees have three children. Their ____8____ is seven. He likes school. He ____9____ with his father every morning. Their ____10________11____ is very small. She stays home ____12____ her mother
51
Assessing Speaking Why do we need to assess speaking?
Through oral interactions young learners able to try out their hypotheses about language, receive feedback and form new hypotheses, therefore we MUST assess speaking. From early years in school, children encounter Imaginative play Action rhymes Songs Response to narratives Participation in narratives Then, they have opportunities for conversations, narratives, simple reports
52
Lacking oral language, a major drawback happens in literacy development
Early oral development occurs in - Conversations(unplanned speech, more casual) - Extended talk(planned speech, more formal) Assessment is difficult as conversation is dialogic(taking turns), meaning is built on each other’s ideas. Interlocutors support the conversation through Nods Smiles Responses Y/N questions, questions like “What colour is your hair” limits children BUT Questions like “What do you think about that” make learners add their personal contributions to the conversation
53
Points Taken Into Consideration While Assessing Speaking
Awareness about spoken-like and written-like language continuum Topicalisation and Tails Frequency of Spoken words( Very common words in spoken language) Generic words( Supported by visual aids) Vague words( stuff, thing, thingummy, whatsit) Fixed phrases( That’s a good question, Let me see etc.) Fillers( er, uh, sort of, kind of, you know, I mean) Slips and errors( How much should be tolerated?)
54
The scope of oral language to be assessed
Genres like Recount Debate Anecdote Procedure Description Interview Casual conversation Planning However, more advanced learners could deal with simple science experiment through slot-filler task or more advanced learners could do that in a five-minute free-speaking demonstration Functions(categories of behaviour) expressing thanks…etc. Expected to be learned therefore be assessed. Young learners could be asked to deal with one of them
55
Some Characteristics of Oral Language Ability
Organizational Knowledge Grammatical knowledge Children’s vocabulary, syntax and phonology, all of the elements needs improvement Textual knowledge Children need to speak more cohesively, master using conjunctions(and, but…etc.) and relative clauses
56
Pragmatic Knowledge Functional knowledge
Children’s ability to use different functions should increase, they need to learn how to use language to learn, imagine things and to think about things Sociolinguistic knowledge Children need to learn using idioms, language according to different contexts, cultural references(e.g. See ya to friend, goodbye to teacher)
57
Factors needed to be taken into consideration in the
assessment of speaking Motivation Speaking tasks should be meaningful for young learners and some devices needed to maintain interest: - Puppets - Colourful pictures - A compelling one-to-one interaction Appropriateness of assessment tasks More engagement likely to happen when: - More visual support available - Introductory activities before assessment tasks - Simpler language use
58
Assessing Pronunciation
Words should be assessed in discourse rather than in isolation. e.g. Please sit down /z/ sound becomes [s] in discourse While assessing pronunciation, the criterion should be “intelligibility”. Knowledge of L1 enables teachers to recognize their learners’ transfer errors from L1
59
Assessing Vocabulary Once literacy achieved, vocabulary could improve
As students become more advanced in speaking, they need to learn more vocabulary and assessors need to assess these Note that vocabulary is an integral part as communicative language ability relies on increasing knowledge of vocabulary Some ways of assessment: - Using flashcards for comprehension check - Oral gap-filling activities while reading stories - Vocabulary games(odd-one-out…etc.)
60
Classroom Assessment of Oral Language
Observation Classroom management Classroom instructions In group or individual reading of stories Discussions Class surveys… etc. Oral records Time-consuming Very valuable Realization that learners do not do that well but perceived so because of over-supports and non-verbal communication strategies Teachers could observe learners in these.
61
Exemplary speaking tasks
Self-assessment Helps students to monitor their progress i.g. Checking a list of items of what they can do(I can introduce myself…etc.) Exemplary speaking tasks News telling(Children telling what they have done recently) Storytelling(Illustrations cut away/laminated in a book then telling the story) Picture talks(Describing a picture) Categorization tasks(Choosing from 4 pictures, which one is odd, for example) Oral presentations(Talking about experiences spontaneously, an assisstant needed for help)
62
Question-answer tasks
Eliciting formulaic expressions in beginners For communicative language use - Adding element of surprise/unpredictability - Increasing complexity of the questions - Including new vocabulary - Supporting language with gestures, objects, pictures - Supporting new language by simpler or explanatory follow-up questions
63
Oral interviews A warm-up stage for student to feel comfortable
Then, a probe to see the limit of his or her ability Again, a wind-back for student to feel comfortable in speaking and feeling of success Tasks related to everyday learning environment attract learner Using a puppet or make learner speak through a puppet could be ice-breakers (children go quiet near strangers) Best to follow the set questions BUT some deviation provide probe of further abilities, then again set questions Interviews advised to be done in a quiet environment
64
Mini dialogues/role-plays
Adding unpredictability would be valuable In slot-and-filler role plays, children asked to perform a dialogue using some of their own words A puppet theatre would be useful BUT role play tasks are not appropriate for beginner learners
65
Oral information gap tasks
Learners need to interact and use the language to complete the task The level of language used will depend on the proficiency and age of the children Assesses children’s ability to give and receive instructions Easy to produce; could be made with pics, blocks, beads…etc.
66
Why Listening is Important in Language Learning?
ASSESSING LISTENING Why Listening is Important in Language Learning?
67
♦ teacher talk ( instructions, explanations of classroom
Listening →important not just in language learning, but in learning itself. → Children need to be able to listen to; ♦ teacher talk ( instructions, explanations of classroom rules and learning procedures. ♦ peer talk around activities in the classroom ♦ extended texts ( teacher input on learning topics and stories
68
Children need to be able to:
→ learn about the world → pick up new vocabulary → connect language with what they see and do. →access new language and finding out how langauge works.
69
Why is listening needed to be assessed?
Understanding through listening → the first step towards learning. Assessment listening gives us the first evidence that children have started making active use of their limited knowledge of the target language. Listening assessment is the only way to find out what children really know during the “silent period”.
70
! Listening is difficult to assess because it is invisible and has to be assessed invisibly .
→ not necessarily verbal responses for the teacher to assess. → Therefore, the listening tasks should be desingned for children to show their understanding in non- verbal ways. Listening comprehension → - in children’ s responses and participation in conversations - other in-class listening- only tasks which involve listening and doing- carrying out actions, answering questions, retelling, predicting and so on.
71
While selecting a listening task:
LISTENING TASKS While selecting a listening task: Being prepared: “Why am I listening to it?” Product: performing an action, drawing a picture or fill in a diagram, build a model or doing a short piece of written work Visual support: pictures, puppets, simple charts etc. the text → slightly beyond children’s current level Authentic Material: stops and starts, interrupptions or “noise” Not to overload children’s capacity!
72
Examples of Different Listening Tasks:
“Listen- and- do” Tasks Requiring Action Responses: Actions Tasks: - “Simon Says” game Total Physical Response Tasks: * - physical response to a request or command e.g. Hilal, stand up and sit down again. Şeyda, draw a picture of a car on the blackboard , and when you have finished, ask Hande to come and draw three people in it. ( Mackay,….: 210) ! Remove observers who are also be asseesd if you assess each child without practice.
73
“Listen- and- do” Tasks Requiring Short Langauge Responses
True/False Tasks: - oral: raising a different- coloured piece of paper for true or false - written: circling “true” or “false” on an answer sheet,or tick the correct item Aural cloze: - listen to a text and write in the missing/ deleted words - for children with appropriate skills ! Balance the number of gaps with the time. “Story Cloze”
74
Noting Specific Information:
- listen for specific information and note the answer - Specific questions: “ What did the mouse do when it saw the cat? Look at….. Grids and Charts: * - Listen and fill in the gaps in a chart Look at …… - stimulate language use - successfully assess listening comprehension. ! Texts should be at the appropraite profiency level Matching Tasks: * - listen to the decription of a picture and point/ circle the picture.
75
- Listen to a familiar story with mistakes, and signal and exlain the
Spot the Mistake: - Listen to a familiar story with mistakes, and signal and exlain the mistakes. e.g. a picture sequence depicting an event 3. Listening Tasks Requiring Longer Responses Responding to a series of comprehension questions: - listening to a text or view a video text and answer oral and written comprehension questions - the questions → before listening to the text Dictation: - listening to a text and writing it down as they hear it - check children’s perception and comprehension of the sounds and words
76
How to assess WRITING Writing is a process and product.
*pre-writing, writing, revising and editing Children can succeed in writing in different genres at a range of different levels, and assessment is related to the gradual development of features of successful writing within each genre.
77
Class 4B went to the zoo. There were many different animals. Peter and I walked a long way. We saw lots of animals. I liked the tigers best This is a successful writing because it has the basic features of recount: settings, events in time order,and concluding statement. It’s grammar is accurate and vocabulary is suitable.
78
Selecting writing tasks for young learners
New meanings in task rather than old meanings. Giving choices Degree to which children’s skills in other areas (Mckay,2006) Tasks for assessing young children’s writing abilities should be based on the same principles as classroom activities. They should represent realistic and authentic situations and generate interest and enjoyment. (Ioannou-Georgiou & Pavlou, 2003)
79
Different writing tasks
Writing in speech bubbles Writing in response to a picture Completing a story Open-response writing Re-forming a text
80
Classroom assessment of writing
Observation Writing Conferences Students engage in their own performance, and he/she reflects on his/her writing. (Schlz,2009) Portfolios Self Assessment (Mckay, 2006)
81
While assessing writing creating a correction code help the learners examine their work more closely. In terms of young learners correction code should have more pictures and cute signs.(In English, 2006) Ex:
82
! Effective writing assessments give teachers the opportunity to simultaneously observe, assess and instruct students
83
Assessing Integrated Skills
Integration of skills: → meaningful and contextualized assessment → motivates children because : - skills complement each other and children express more of themselves - even little knowledge can be put into real communicative use → presents whole communication contexts to the children
84
In an integrated skills assessment task,
Children will show their competence in each individual skill by achieving a specific aim. Children will also show their ability to use al the skills to achieve the overall aim of the activity
85
Use of Assessment Information
Outcomes of assessment and uses Summative assessment types (tests, etc) can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of a course, programme,etc Formative assessment types (observations, portfolios,etc) can be converted into feedback and influences how the next lesson is planned by the teacher
86
FEEDBACK Feedback is information the children take and give about their performances It is a vital part of assessment process Why is feedback so important? children discover their weaknesses and strenghts they become more motivated they persist in their learning
87
how and when to give feedback?
it should be given as soon as possible after assessment task it can be given to each child individually, groups of children or to the whole class it can be in the form of self-correction or peer feedback it should focus on tasks, process of task, activities, not on personality
88
it should be based on actual student performance
it should provide suggestions for improvement it can be given orally or in a written way verbal feedback gives more information and is more interactive. written feedback gives teacher more time to think about student performance and is more permenant for students.
89
feedback can be implicit or explicit
explicit: grammatical explanation, overt error correction implicit: confirmation checks, repetition, recast, silence implicit feedback is not appropriate for young learners.
90
it should be clear, detailed, related to the specific learning process and related to target performance Children understand the target performance They compare target and current performance They close the gap between target and current performance
91
ways for teacher intervention:
Corrective feedback: helps students correct their language use is primarily concerned with accuracy does not necessarily point out to errors, but repeats student’s words with the correct form ex: pupil: I come to school yesterday teacher: I came to school yesterday pupil: I came to school yesterday teacher: Well done!
92
is in the form of a judgement on students’ performance
2.Evaluative feedback is in the form of a judgement on students’ performance ex: 1. That one was quite easy. Ouite a few one got that one right. Now the next one was very hard. You had to think. 2. That was very good. I liked the way you said the sentences clearly. 3. Strategic feedback offers advice on what to do to improve performance ex: look at my tongue- put your tongue on your teeth- the
Similar presentations
© 2025 SlidePlayer.com Inc.
All rights reserved.