UNIT 18. ASSESSMENT TYPES AND TASKS

ASSESSMENT TYPES AND TASKS

 

Through the study of this unit I learnt the different ways students can be assessed with and which tasks involve those assignments. Assessment tasks take many forms including written, oral, demonstrations or performances. They may be short tasks; or long assignments that students are given weeks to finalize. They may be informal or formal assessment. They may require individual or group assessment and be assessed by academic staff or via peer and self assessment.

Diagnostic, placement, progress, summative and proficiency tests are all examples of formal testing which are taken under exam-like conditions, one desk per student in silent and with time limit. These are the different assessment types and its main characteristics.

The Diagnostics test is taken at the beginning of the course to diagnose or find out what the learner knows and what he or she does not.

The Placement test is taken to know at which level learners are and should go to.

The Progress test is used when a course has finished and the teacher wants to know what students have learnt in a unit of a coursebook.

The Achievement test or also called summative test is taken at the end of a term of or a course to know how well students have learnt the content of the term or the whole course. Learners receive a score or mark.

And the proficiency test helps students to know how good they are at language, it measures the learners’ general skill or ability in the language as a whole.

Furthermore I learnt that when I was a student my teacher used the different ways of assessing, as for example: multiple-choice questions, interviews, gap-fill, table completion for listening, or reading for specific detail.

So definitely I also have used those ways of assessing with my students. And it is important to keep in mind that any testing task we apply to our students reflect what we have taught, also assessment must be fair it means that a test or a task must be about only the things that the teacher have taught to students, then feedback, students needs to know what things they have done wrong in order to correct themselves. Informal assessment is more suitable for assessing young learners and finally working with assessment criteria and bands help the teacher and he students know more about their real level of achievement. 

 EXTRA USEFUL MATERIAL

• Gibbs, G., Habeshaw, S. and Habeshaw, T, (1986). 53 Interesting Ways to Assess Your Students. Technical and Educational Services:Bristo, pp. 11-26.
• Erickson, B.L. and Strommer, D.W. (1991).Teaching College Freshmen. Oxford: Jossey-Bass, pp 145-148. References
• McKeachie, W.J. (1986). Teaching Tips: A guide for the beginning teacher. Lexington, Mass.: Heath.
• White, E.M. (1985). Teaching and Assessing Writing: Recent Advances in Understanding, Evaluating and Improving Student Performance. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

UNIT 17. PRACTICE ACTIVITIES AND TASKS FOR LANGUAGE AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

PRACTICE ACTIVITIES AND TASKS FOR LANGUAGE AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

In this unit the most important thing I learn is that activities and tasks designed to give learners opportunities to practise and extend their use of language, such as new vocabulary, functional exponents or grammatical structures, or of the sub-, or of the sub-skills of reading, listening, speaking or writing. There are many different of activities and tasks with different names and uses.

When selecting activities for practicing productive skills, we need to decide productive skills, we need to decide whether to do a controlled practice which is mainly the accuracy or a freer practice activity which is mainly communication.

When choosing activities for developing skills, we need to decide which skill or sub-skill to focus on and take into account that lessons should consist of a series of linked activities:

1. PPP: Presentation then controlled activities and freer practice activities.

2. TBL: Discussion then tasks and presentation with a focus on form.

3. Skill-based lessons: Warmer and lead-in comprehension tasks and post-task activities.

Therefore in a language teaching situation the teacher according to the learners needs is the one who choose if applying a controlled practice, freer practice or free activity or an activity that focuses on accuracy and communication.

To keep students motivation it is important that the teacher apply variety in the class, it is to use different kinds of activities but without disturbing the sequence of the lesson.

EXTRA USEFUL MATERIAL

• Prator, C.H. and Celce-Murcia, M. 1979. An outline of language teaching approaches. In Celce-Murcia, M. and McIntosh, L. (Ed.), Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. New York: Newbury House.

• Nunan, David 1989 Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

• Nunan, D. 1991 Language Teaching Methodology: A Textbook for Teachers New York: Prentice-Hall.

• Nunan, David (ed) 2003 Practical English Language Teaching McGraw Hill.

 

UNIT 16. PRESENTATION TECHNIQUES AND INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITIES

PRESENTATION TECHNIQUES AND INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITIES

The main focus of this Unit is show how each approach has to work in order to teach accurate. For that it is important to know that presentation techniques are ways used by the teacher in order to have their students focus on the meaning, use and form of the new language for the first time. And introductory activities are activities in which the teacher introduces a new lesson or teaching topic.

Here are the two common and different ways of presenting new language items.

Presentation, Practice and Production (PPP)

The teacher provides examples and grammar explanations.

The teacher works as a guide all the time so activities are controlled and with restricted practice.

Group work is very common and more appropriate for beginner students

Teacher-based Learning (TBL)

Is more students centered.

Students give their own examples.

Autonomous works better for intermediate and advanced students.

 Students have to find out how grammar works.

I have experienced both in my teaching experiences, the PPP for example I always used for explaining the passive voice, so I first introduce what the passive voice is about and then I provide examples of it, then I give some exercises to fill in or some choral drills I which students have to say the answer out loud. And finally, students were assigned to create similar examples as the previous provided. 

In the TBL I contextualize the topic by putting it in a real situation that shows the meaning I want students to learn, students have to work out the topic and some activities are done by them, then I discus with the students about the language they need in the task, finally they consolidate the new knowledge into tasks.

EXTRA USEFUL MATERIAL 

• Prator, C.H. and Celce-Murcia, M. 1979. An outline of language teaching approaches. In Celce-Murcia, M. and McIntosh, L. (Ed.), Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. New York: Newbury House.
• 
  
  Quist, G., 2000 “Language Teaching at University: A Clash of Cultures.” Language and Education 14.2: 123-139
  
  
  
  
   
  • Richards, Jack C and Nunan, D. (eds) 1990 Second language teacher education Cambridge : Cambridge University Press