Assessing Young Language Learners.ppt
- 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? 1. Skills Development: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing → to examine children’s progress and/ or detect problems 2. 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. 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 Has Validity and Relaiability
- 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 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.
- 11. 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)
- 12. 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.
- 13. Validity & Reliability • Validity Validity essentially means deciding exactly what we are assessing - before we design the assessment in order to make sure we do not include challenges that may affect the learner’s performance (Black & William, 2012). For example, if we are assessing speaking, learners should not be required to read a lot of information in order to do the speaking task in case their performance is affected by misunderstanding when reading.
- 14. Validity & Reliability • Reliability All assessment tasks for young learners need to pay attention to the following features: 1. Preparation making sure the test takers understand the format of the test and what they might be expected to do. 2. Clear instructions children will have a damaging experience if they feel they did not understand what to do 3. Agreed judgment criteria it is better to have a single judgement criterion 4. Qualitative not quantitative outcomes Aiming for descriptive judgements and scaling (e.g. good, very good, etc.) will give a better picture over time of a child’s progress and show them how to make improvements in the areas necessary. 5. Feedback with focuses on only one aspect learning Young learners need feedback which focuses on only one aspect of learning. That is, a single focus that they understand and which
- 15. Key Concepts in Assessment Evaluation? Assessment? Testing? • Evaluation – the process of collecting relevant information to determine the successfulness of a program – relevant information, e.g. teachers’ & parents’ opinion, textbook quality, etc. – evaluation tools, e.g. tests, questionnaires, etc.
- 16. Key Concepts in Assessment Evaluation? Assessment? Testing? • Assessment – all methods used to collect information about children’s knowledge, ability, understanding, attitudes & motivation – assessment instrument, e.g. tests, self-assessment – can be formal or informal
- 17. Key Concepts in Assessment Evaluation? Assessment? Testing? • Testing – one of the procedures used to assess the performance of a child – has a certain objective checks whether the child achieves the objective or not – can be in the form of tasks or exercises – can be marked or graded
- 18. Formative and Summative Assessment Formative assessment (on-going 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 (overall 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. How do we assess? • THROUGH OBSERVATION – formally (as in practical activities and problem solving) • THROUGH ORAL WORK – direct questioning interview with the child • THROUGH WRITTEN WORK – direct questioning, extended writing • THROUGH TESTING – informal (teacher constructed) formal ( diagnostic/norm referencing)
- 21. How do we assess YLs? 1. Language portfolios – a collection of work samples produced by a child over a period of time – can include written work, drawings, projects, etc. – offers a more complete picture of a child’s work & development – should be for the child him/herself
- 22. How do we assess YLs? 2. Structured activities/tasks – assess knowledge, skills, attitudes & the ability to apply them to new situations – reflect main teaching principles (e.g. authenticity, child-centered, etc.)
- 23. How do we assess YLs? 3. Projects – assess mix-ability groups – can integrate language skills & promote creativity – should assess group as well as individual work
- 24. How do we assess YLs? 4. Self-assessment – promotes very useful learning skills (e.g. monitoring one’s own progress, reflecting on one’s abilities & learning style, etc.) – gives children an insight into the criteria used by others – gives children a sense of empowerment – examples: portfolios, questionnaires, conferencing, etc.
- 25. How do we assess YLs? 5. Peer-assessment – help children learn to respect, accept & learn from each other – help children gain insight & be responsible in applying certain criteria – promote the feeling of togetherness
- 26. How do we assess YLs? 6. Traditional tests – examples: multiple- choices, true-false, cloze- tests – objective, easy to mark, easy to prepare – intimidating & stressful for children – do not tell much about children actual ability
- 27. How do we assess YLs? 7. Learner-developed tasks – encourage responsibility & maturity • children can contribute or help create a task • children have to think about what they are supposed to know • children have to set appropriate criteria – personalized – less threatening
- 28. How do we assess YLs? 8. Take-home tasks – completed at home after discussion in class – should have a deadline – usually integrative (e.g. projects) – suitable for mixed-ability classes – promote autonomous learning – go hand-in-hand with learning-how- to-learn skills
- 29. How do we assess YLs? 9. Observation – assess children’s behavior, attitudes & performance – very subjective should be used in combination with other methods
- 30. How do we assess YLs? 10.Conferencing – children should feel comfortable to express themselves freely – can be one-to-one or in groups of four – suitable for assessing speaking skills, attitudes, learning styles & extensive reading – can be written (e.g. evaluation sheets, questionnaires)