Distinguishing it from evaluation, according to Chapelle and Brindley as retrieved
in http:tesol.hanyang.ac.kr0001comTMA-G20Week20720Ss.doc
define assessment as “the act of collecting information and making judgments on
a language learner‟s knowledge of a language and ability to use it”. Assessment is thus concerned with individual student learning. The term evaluation, on the other
hand, is often used in the broader sense of program evaluation, and refers to the process of collecting information and making judgments on the quality of the total
language program. This involves a consideration of a range of elements in addition to student learning, such as teacher and students attitudes, teaching
methods and materials, as well as administrative systems and resources. In line with Chapelle and Brindley, Coombee and Hubley 2003:5 state
that assessment is an ongoing, cyclic process in which the techniques and instruments used are constantly monitored and reevaluated before being used
again. Just as an individual students‟ progress in learning English is tracked and documented at many different points, so are the means of assessing students and
programs. From all the definitions of assessment above, it can be concluded that
assessment is an ongoing process which does not only focus on the result of the test, but also emphasizes on
the process of measuring the students‟ skill.
2.2.2 Types of Assessment
According to Brown 2004:5 assessment can be divided into two parts. They are informal assessment and formal assessment. Informal assessment can
take a number of forms, starting with incidental, unplanned comments and responses, along with coaching and other impromptu feedback to the student.
Teacher can give compliment to the students who have done the work, for example Good job Nice try or something else. While formal assessments means
exercises or procedures specifically designed to tap into a storehouse of skills and knowledge. They are systematic planned sampling techniques constructed to give
teacher and student an appraisal of student ‟s achievement. Formal assessments are
the conventional method of testing that we are all very familiar with our school days. Formal assessments are further broken down into separate groups; norm
referenced tests, and criterion referenced tests.
2.2.3 Criteria of Good Assessment
The two most important qualities of assessment are reliability and validity. What is meant by reliability is the the extent to which assessments are consistent
or we can say it refers to the stability of test scores. We cannot measure the students‟ ability by testing them unless we measure consistently. A reliable
assessment will produce the same results on re-test, and will produce similar results with a similar group of students, so it is consistent in its methods and
criteria. For example, on a reliable test, a student is expected to attain the same
score regardless of when the student completes the assessment, when the answers are scored, and who scores the answers. On an unreliable test, a students score
may vary based on factors that are not related to the purpose of the assessment.
Such kind of motivation of each student may influence the process during doing the test, then the answers may not be as we expect to.
Validity refers to the accuracy of an assessment, whether or not it measures what it is supposed to measure. Even if a test is reliable, it may not
provide a valid measure. A valid assessment is one in which we just measure
certain ability that we want to measure. In the context of classroom assessment, if we want to find out how well learners have mastered the vocabulary that they
covered in class, it would not be appropriate to use a test containing vocabulary they have not been taught. Then we may feel reasonably safe in assuming that our
test is valid. The good way to clarify the term
“assessment” is to know the function of an assessment. There are two functions that are commonly identified; formative
and summative assessment. Most of our classroom assessment is formative assessment which evaluates
students in the process of „forming‟ their competencies and skills with the goal of helping them to continue the growth
process; while summative assessment aims to measure, or summarize, what a student has grasped, and typically occurs at the end of a course or unit of
instruction, for example final exams, midterm tests and quizzes.
2.2.4 Alternative Assessment
