ASSESSMENT AND TESTING

Personally, I would like to point out that to assess students is necessary to obtain information about their improvements. However, I believe that we ought not to use only that final result (an exam, a test) as a decisive piece of evidence. Teachers should not focus just on one source, but to take into account several facts. 

One thing to bear in mind is that there is no one or right way to assess and evaluate the learning of a language. In addition to the "acquired knowledge checking" which is implied, the final aim is student's progress and achievements. 

In other words, assessment is the process of documenting, usually in measurable terms, knwoledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs, in order to obtain valid information about the learner's academic development. Some variables which support assessment are syllabus objectives, materials, methodology or students' participation in class.

We have to distinguish between assessment and evaluation, becasuse both terms have different connotations. The first one is the process that a teacher conducts to measure how much a student has learned, while the second one occurs after the completion of a task, test, lesson or something like that. Evaluation is putting together the information from the assessment and drawing conclusions.

By profiling, we undestand a type of assessment which describes a wide range of pupils' quualities, learning attitudes, homework, participation, motivation and behaviour. There are many aspects to assess apart from the merely educational or course contents. There is an emphasis on learner's global performance with language, described in a quualitative manner.

The term assessment is generally used to refer to all activities teachers use to help students learn and to reach their progress. To summarize, it is often divided in the following types:

• Formative and based on the process
• Summative, external or accumulative: based on final outcomes
• Quantitative: it presents results numerically
• Qualitative: it observes phenomena
• Formal assessment
• Informal assessment
• Self-assessment

Formative evaluation:the information obtained is taken as the basis for subsequent decisions, whose aim is the improvement of the teaching-learning process. More emphasis on guiding learning rather than on measuring how much has been learned. 

Summative or accumulative evaluation: the final results and the degree of success are measured. It is carried out at the end of a specific period of instruction which has extended over the course of a week, month, term, or even year. 

Initial evaluation: to establish students' inital level and previous knowledge. 

Formal assessment: it is based on established test conditions. It is usually referred as "testing". 

Informal assessment: it is usually known as "continuous assessment". It is a way of collecting information about our students' performance in normal classroom conditions. It implies systematic observation of our students and analysis of their everyday tasks and homework,among other tecniques. It requires a broad period of time like an academic year. 

Tests: another external, easily quantifiable, and highly objective mode of evaluation involves tests. These are normally used to measure certain capacities, abilities or skills. 

Self-assessment: might be a good way of self-instruction, for example for students following a self-access course. What is more, the current curriculum promotes the autonomous learning which intrinsically implies the capacity to evaluate one´s own work.

One of the main ideas that drew my attention most was the fact that firstly, we need to know what we are going to assess. We have to be aware of our student's level and capacities, the rhythm of the class, their level of maturity. One useful idea, as a competent teachers we pretend to become, may be to reach information about our future class we are suppose to face, ask information to their previous teachers and revise some exams or activities.