Page 181 - Teaching English at Primary Level: From Theory into the Classroom

Types of Assessment

guage test, the test-takers respond to prompts (such as a set of questions
related to a reading text or listening text) and their performance is scored ac-
cording to a marking scheme. When assessing YLs, it is crucial to understand
that traditionaltestsarearelativelysmallset ofcontrolledproceduresamong
a much broader range of options. Ioannou-Georgiou and Pavlou (2003) em-
phasize that it is especially important to create a positive learning space in
which YL’s will feel confident and safe to show their language performance.
Therefore, they suggest using a variety of tools besides traditional tests, such
as project work, self-assessment tasks, teacher observation and a variety of
structured classroom activities, including tasks developed by the learners
themselves.

Types of Assessment
There are several types of assessment which provide valuable insights into
this complex process (Council of Europe, 2001). In this section, we will fo-
cus especially on the distinction between formal and informal, formative and
summative, performance, and knowledge assessment.
School-based assessment may be formal or informal. Formal assessment
provides evidence of learners’ achievements of syllabus outcomes in a sys-
tematic way. In a typical formal assessment context, learners respond to
the same questions under the same conditions, and the teacher grades
them based on the extent to which they satisfy a range of pre-defined cri-
teria. There are several formal assessment instruments, from written tests
to projects, language portfolios, or oral presentations. Informal assessment
refers to an intuitive evaluation method where the teacher assesses students
without measuring their performance against some pre-planned criteria. It
may take different forms, such as performance-based tasks, journals, port-
folios, projects, as peer and self-assessment (Ioannou-Georgiou & Pavlou,
2003).
Another distinction worth looking at is between performance and knowl-
edge assessment. In performance assessment, learners are asked to provide
a sample of spoken or written language as proof of their language compe-
tence. Performance assessment can be described as testing the knowledge
or competence of the language, while knowledge assessment usually refers
to knowledge about the language as a system (such as knowledge of gram-
maticalrules).To assesslanguageperformance,learnersneedto begiven the
opportunity to use the language in a relatively authentic context with a clear
communicative purpose, while the assessment of knowledge can be more
direct, for example, asking students to provide the rules or examples of a par-

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