CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
4) Adapt texts to simplify to make it more contextual. The actions involved here can be reducing texts like select most important information or using graphic organizers, simplify
2.4 LANGUAGE PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT
2.4.1 Importance of Assessment
Student assessment is an important part of language teaching and learning. Assessment involves not only the issues of pedagogy and learning, but will impact on education policy, as placement of students takes place after assessment (Diaz-Rico & Weed, 2010: 1). It can be used to learn about students’ knowledge and skills prior to, during, and at the end of a course of study.
Assessments given at the beginning of a course of study could be entrance test or placement tests given to students before admission to a program or level of study. These assessments also serve as diagnostics highlighting on the students’ strengths and weaknesses. Ongoing assessments or formative assessments give teachers feedback during the learning to indicate the student’s strengths and areas that need development. A student profile on his language skills can then be build up to provide feedback to the teacher for immediate intervention and remedial help (Baker, 2001: 20).
Summative assessments that occur at the end of a study program will sum up a students’
language proficiency for the whole semester of SLA. Tests can be made to measure the four language skills in listening, reading, writing and speaking in the English language.
2.4.2 Norm-referenced and Criterion-based Assessment
Norm-referenced and criterion-referenced assessments are two different approaches to measurement but they can be used to complement each other (Bachman, 2004: 32). Norm- referenced assessments are generally summative tests whereby students are profiled against one another. For example, student language proficiency tests are taken and the results are put in an ordered list with only applicants in the top 10% being accepted for admission into a program. If norm-referenced tests are used for bilingual children, the means of their test scores will be compared to the native speakers of English (Baker, 2001: 313).
On the other hand, criterion referenced testing founded by Glaser and Klaus (1963: 519- 521), moves away from comparison between students, and measures a student performance
“relative to a performance criteria.” A student performance will be assessed again a pre- determined list of objectives. Curriculum based assessment in schools is a form of criterion- referenced test providing useful and important feedback in student strengths and improvement areas for teachers and parents, it is formative and the student can be profiled on specific language skills (Baker, 2001: 21). Furthermore, Baker (2001) notes that in education testing, there has been a shift away from norm-referenced tests to criterion-referenced tests for communicative skills, curriculum objectives, assessing learning outcomes and mastery learning (Baker, 2001: 21).
Communicative competence assessment will provide a profile of the student’s competence in language use in authentic situations compared to norm-referenced tests in the class for spelling, grammar, written comprehension and reading which provide marks, percentages or grades in order to compare a person with other people (Baker, 2001: 38).
2.4.3 Authentic and Performance Assessments
Performance assessment portrays a child’s underlying cognitive abilities or overall potential rather than just language abilities, and therefore the two profiles in performance and language should be distinguished (Baker, 2001: 311).
Tests can be viewed along a continuum of less to more performance oriented or from least direct and least real-world or authentic to most direct and most real-world or authentic (Norris et.al., 1998: 8). In a differentiation from other general performance assessment tests such as essays, interviews, or extensive reading tasks and integrative tests like dictations or cloz tests, researchers generally agree that performance assessment is characterized as when 1) examinees must perform the task; 2) tasks should be authentic as possible; and 3) success or failure in outcome of tasks, must be rated by qualified judges. Performance-based assessment are said to be more valid measures of students’ abilities to respond to real-life language tasks.
Authentic assessments are preferred as it involves tests using real-world contexts or simulations for students to perform, create, produce or do something; allow students to be assessed on what they normally do in class everyday, use tasks that represent meaningful instructional activities; focus on processes as well as products; and tap into higher level thinking and problem- solving skills. (Brown and Hudson, 1998: 654). They can range from essay writing or interviews or more recent developments like problem-solving tasks, communicative pair-work tasks, role- playing, and group discussions (Brown and Hudson, 1998: 662).
Wiggins (2011: 91-92) refers authentic assessment as satisfying four criteria as: (1) the assessment results should give direct information about pupils’ achievement in relation to objectives: they should be criterion-referenced; (2) the results should provide a basis for decisions about pupils’ further learning needs: they should be formative; (3) the grades should be capable of comparison across classes and schools, so the assessments should be calibrated or moderated; (4) The ways in which criteria are set up and used should give some continuity to a pupil’s assessment at different ages: the assessments should relate to progression. Therefore, unlike other forms of classroom tests, authentic assessments allow testing a student under approximate conditions of real-life situation. The disadvantages of performance assessments are that it is relatively difficult and costly to produce and time-consuming to administer.
Tests are assessed most importantly on their validity and reliability. Researchers have argued that all the different types of tests are important to keep because all of them have distinct strengths and weaknesses. Assessments can be authentic assessment, performance-based assessment, standardized tests, and norm-based or criterion-based assessment.
2.4.4 Traditional versus Alternatives in Assessment
Traditional language testing starts with multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blanks, and then integrative tests (cloze, dictation, etc.) followed by performance tests (compositions, interviews, etc.) in the 1970s and 1980s. Alternatives in Assessment provide information on learner's weakness, but also on their strengths, as they are manifested in class over time. Alternatives in Assessment are performance assessments, portfolios, student-teacher conferences, diaries, self- assessments, peer assessments, checklists, journals, logs, videotapes, audiotapes, self-evaluation, and teacher observations (Norris et.al. 1998: 3). They are generally communicative tests like task-based and other new assessments and pre-dominantly used in the 1980s and 1990s.