ASSESSMENT

ASSESSMENT

 Focuses on personal growth

 Ways of collecting valid and reliable information about a learner’s
progress
 Compares earlier eforts to current performance
 TEST

 Formal examination of knowledge or ability through tasks or

questions
 A measurement to sample behaviour
 WHEN TO ASSESS?

 Assess continuously at diferent intervals both formally and informally

 Assess when you notice uncertainty or misconception
 Use both written and oral tasks
 Use various assessment methods
 Must use both informal daily assessment and formal programme of
assessment
TASK SCOPE DATE

Test 1 • Learner Assessment in EFAL 28 July 2025

• Teaching Grammar

Test 2 • Designing learning activities in EFAL 18 August 2025

• Material development in EFAL
• Interacting with literature

Oral 25 – 29 August 2025

Presentations • Material Development in EFAL (Submission 22 August)

Exam • Learner Assessment in EFAL To be announced

• Teaching Grammar
• Designing learning activities in EFAL
• Interacting with Literature,
• Material development in EFAL
 Reasons for Assessment

 To provide evidence of progress

 To revise and reinforce learning
 To identify learners’ needs
 To diagnose problems and plan interventions
 For promotional purposes
 TYPES OF TESTS (ACCORDING TO
FUNCTION)
 Profciency test – measure underlying/potential competence (future-oriented)
 Diagnostic test – measure strength and weaknesses for remedial purposes (present-oriented)
 Achievement test – assess the mastery of a specifc body of knowledge learnt (past-oriented)
 WASHBACK

 The effect that testing has on teaching and learning (negative or

positive)
 Negative washback efect – teach for the examination
 Positive washback efect – teach authentic tasks for real-life
application
 Assessment should complement learning tasks
 WHO ASSESSES?

 Teacher assessment
 Self-assessment
 Peer-assessment
 Parent assessment
 Moderator’s assessment (HOD/Ofcials)
 PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE
 ASSESSMENT
Do not use tests as punishment
 Give learners ample time to prepare
 Provide detailed scope of the work to be covered
 Provide criteria against which learners are to be assessed
 Memoranda should not be too rigid
 Mark allocation should be guided by the question’s level of difculty
 Item or skills analysis must be done to ensure an even distribution of tested skills/content
 Provide constructive/corrective feedback that encourages improvement
 Implement remedial interventions where necessary
 Allow learners to appeal against your marking / mark allocation if necessary
 Ask questions representing various levels of abstractions (Bloom’s taxonomy)
 Teach learners how to analyse / interpret topics and instructions (action verbs)
BLOOM’S TAXONOMY
 PRINCIPLES UNDERPINNING THE SETTING
OF ASSESSMENT TASKS
1. Design down
 Clearly state target outcomes for learning/teaching cycle before designing assessment
tasks

2. Clarity of Focus
 Make clear the criteria against which the learners are being assessed
 Clarify the learning evidence learners are expected to demonstrate

3. High Expectations
 Expect the best from your learners to motivate them not to disappoint
 INTERPRETATION OF TEST SCORES

 Norm referencing – indicates the learners’ performance in relation

to the group.
 Criterion referencing – indicates how far the learner has progresses
towards the set standard/criterion.
CAPS PERFORMANCE RATING SCALE
RATING DESCRIPTION OF COMPETENCE PERCENTAGE
CODE

7 Outstanding achievement 80-100

6 Meritorious achievement 70-79

5 Substantial achievement 60-69

4 Adequate achievement 50-59

3 Moderate achievement 40-49

2 Elementary achievement 30-39

1 Not achieved 0 - 29
Scores Norm Referenced Criterion Referenced

James = 44% Position 4 3 (Moderate achievement)

Sipho= 67% Position 2 5 (Substantial achievement)

Mary = 28% Position 6 1 (Not achieved)

Daniel= 55% Position 3 4 (Adequate achievement)

Suzan= 88% Position 1 7 (Outstanding achievement)

Brian = 32% Position 5 2 (Elementary achievement)

 TYPES OF TESTS (ACCORDING TO
FORM)
DISCRETE-POINT TEST INTEGRATIVE TEST
 Focuses of language usage (rules)  Focuses on language use (meaning)
 Tests aspects separately  Tests holistically
 Often little of no contextualization  Context-embedded
 Tests receptive skills  Includes productive skills
(listening/reading) (writing/speaking
 Quantitative assessment  Qualitative assessment
 Objective scoring  Subjective scoring
Example of Discrete-point test

Change the following sentences into simple past tense:

1. She likes meat.
2. They visit Johannesburg every year.
3. The boy is crazy.
4. I spend a lot of money on alcohol
Example of integrative test

Write an essay on one of the following topics:

1. The day I will never forget.

2. Money is not everything.
3. My life journey.
 TYPES OF SCORING (MARKING)

OBJECTIVE SUBJECTIVE
 Not infuenced by the marker’s opinion/feelings/ Infuenced by the marker’s personal
thoughts. Answers are either right or wrong. sentiments /reactions/ prejudices
 Credits passive recognition of language  Credits active production of language
 Has high inter-marker reliability  Has low inter-marker reliability
e.g. multiple choice questions e.g. essays
TYPES OF QUESTIONS /
TASKS
1. Open-ended questions

 Require learners’ own response

 Advantages: Discourage guesswork
Productive skills are tested
Give room for personal choice of responses
Unpredictable responses are allowed

Example:
1. Discuss the impact of Covid-19 on the South African economy.
 2. Matching

 Learners match items in Column A with those in Column B

 The number of items in Column B must be more than those in Column A
 Can be used to test a wide range of language aspects e.g. vocabulary, language
use, register etc.

Example:
Match the concepts in Column A with the explanations in Column B

1. Assessment A. Always has positie washback

2. Testng B. Compares earlier eforts to current performance
3. Scoring C. Formal examinaton of knowledge or ability
D. Can either be subjectie or objectie
 3. Filling-the-blank questions

 It is a more restrictive type of discrete-point testing

 It can be used to test grammar and vocabulary
 Sentences must allow for one possible answer
 An extended list of missing words can be given

Example:
Fill in the blanks in the following sentences with the correct words:
1. The type of test that measures underlying competence is called _______________
2. A ______________test can be used for remedial purposes.
 4. True/False questions

 Mostly used to test comprehension

 Learners should be required to motivate their answers to eliminate guessing

Example:
State whether the following statements are True or False. Give a reason to support
your answer:

1. Assessment can only be conducted formally.

2. Assessment should only happen at the end of the teaching cycle.
 5. Multiple choice questions
 Four options are normally given to chose from
 Answers must form a random pattern
 The stem (question sentence) must be unambiguous
 Try to avoid negative statements
 Use simple wording
 The stem and the alternatives must be grammatically compatible
 There must be one correct answer
 Distractors must be based on errors that learners are likely to make
 Avoid giving clues about the correct answer, e.g. by making it longer than the distractors
 Avoid using words such as “always” and “never”
 Do not use “all/none of the above”
 Punctuate correctly
 Multiple choice questions test only receptive skills, and therefore should be used in
combination with productive skill questions
 Wrong Examples
1. The audacity to inculcate good mannerism resides with.
A. teachers B. parents C. peers D. every person in a child’s life

2. Boys and books do not mix, they always

A. Come frst B. Will waste your time C. Determine your future D. Are stupid

3. Which of the following is not an example of cheating.

A. Plagiarism B. Stealing C. Dancing D. All of the above

4. The essence of love …

B. do not cheat B. stay at home C. is difcult to explain D. will kill you

5. The news you told me yesterday ……. Very interesting.

A. Are B. Were C. Is D. Are
 Multiple choice questions continued…
Advantages of multiple choice questions:
 Content validity is high (highly refect syllabus/curriculum content)
 Items are contextualized yet independent
 Scoring is objective
 The test is integrative
 It is easy to administer and mark
 Marking is completely objective

Disadvantages of multiple choice questions:

 Measures recognition, not production
 There is minimal interaction
 Operates at sentence level, neglecting wider context
 Can encourage guessing when time limits are set
 Questions are time consuming to construct
 6. Cloze testing
 Measures profciency (underlying language ability)
 The selected text must be complete in itself
 Do not simplify the text to avoid losing important cohesive links
 The text should not be highly technical or contain specialized vocabulary
 Leaners should be able to deduce every deleted word from its context
 Avoid using texts with many quotations from other sources
 A cloze exercise tests the learners’ knowledge of grammatical structure, vocabulary,
discourse structure, and knowledge of the world.

Procedure for preparing a cloze exercise:

1. Select a passage of continuous prose of suitable length
2. Leave at least the frst and last sentences intact
3. Delete every ffth or tenth word
4. Replace the words deleted with blanks of uniform length
 Example

 When a child grows up, breaks into a home, and steals electronics,
he gets caught and goes to prison. His time in prison _____ meant
to deprive him ____ the freedom to go _____ he wants anywhere
_____ the world, and to do what ____ wants when he wants. This is
the punishment, _____ most people do learn ____ it. In general, no
one ______ to go back. But if a child ______ up and murders
someone ______ their wallet or just _____ fun, and they are in
______ put to death, they ______ taught precisely nothing, because
_______ are no longer alive ______ learn from it. We cannot
rehabilitate a person by killing him or her.
 Cloze testing continued…

Advantages of cloze testing:

 Has concurrent validity (results correlate with other question types)
 Practical to draw up, administer and score
 It is a valid integrative test of learners’ internalized grammar system

Disadvantages of cloze testing:

 Does not measure natural language use
 Validity might be afected by choice of text, frequency of deletion and method of scoring.
 7. Dictation
Criteria for setting a dictation test:
 The subject should be of interest to the learners
 Learners should not see the passage in advance
 Use short sentences
 Pause long enough each time to allow everyone to fnish the sentence
 Dictation should relate to real-life situations (e.g. giving instructions)

Procedure for using dictation in class

 Read the passage three times
 First reading: give learners an overview of the passage
 Second reading: dictate meaningful chunks, with appropriate punctuation
 Third reading: allow learners to review their work and make changes
 Dictation continued…

Advantages of dictation:
 Language is contextualized
 Test is integrative yet easily scored
 Feasible in terms of preparation time and administration
 It can be self-marked and peer marked
 Suitable for testing listening comprehension
 Has concurrent validity with other types of tests

Disadvantages of dictation:
 Can be afected by the teacher’s/reader’s accent, reading fuency and accuracy
 Environmental factors can afect audibility (e.g. noisy / echoic background)
FAIRNESS AND ACCURACY
CONCEPTS
 1. Validity

 Test must measure what it is supposed to measure

 Do not teach what will be tested, but test what has been taught

Five aspects of validity:

1. Face validity – test must look fair to the teacher and learners
2. Construct validity – test must relate to underlying/current educational theory
3. Content validity – test must refect syllabus/curriculum content
4. Concurrent validity – test results must correlate with those of other measures
5. Predictive validity – test must predict performance in subsequent situations
 2. Reliability

 Test should produce similar results consistently if administered on successive occasions to the
same or diferent learners
Reliability can be afected by external factors (e.g. noise, lightning, time of day, weather) and
internal factors (e.g. emotional state, health)
Inconsistent subjective marking can also afect reliability
 3. Feasibility

 Test must be possible in terms of cost, logistics and time.

 e.g. choosing written over oral assessment when dealing with large
groups
 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD TEST
 Should be in line with the teaching approach/theory subscribed to (e.g. Communicative
Approach).
 Must look fair to both the teacher and the learners.
 Should comprise a range of situations to allow learners to use a variety of language functions.
 Should be pragmatic (allow the use of the four skills and knowledge application).
 Should be context-embedded.
 Should be interactional (learners should interact with oral or written texts e.g. oral interviews,
reading comprehension, responding to correspondence).
 Results must be criterion-referenced and the criteria must be specifed in advance.
 Should be based on authentic material (real-life situations).
 Must be feasible in terms of time and other resources.
 Instructions must be clear, unambiguous and grammatically correct.
 Test items must be sequenced from easier to more difcult.
 Learners must be familiar with the test format used.
 DIMENSIONS OF ASSESSMENT

 Assessment of Learning
 Assessment for Learning
 Assessment as Learning
 Assessment of learning

 Summative assessment
 Happens at the end of a work unit/learning cycle e.g. exam
 Provides evidence of achievement
 Used for promotional purposes
 Assessment for Learning

 Formative assessment
 Happens during learning
 It is continuous
 It is diagnostic (reveals what learners know/their
misconceptions/knowledge gaps)
 Provides basis for feedback and intervention
 Assessment as Learning

 Learners learn about themselves as they learn

 It is introspective
 Involves self-refection/self-assessment
 Learners monitor/assess their own progress
 Learners take responsibility of their own learning