Result s f rom inf orm al assessm ent

24 © M ichael Harris and Paul M cCann 1994. This page may be photocopied for use in the classroom. At t it ude Is an act ive m em ber of t he class. YesNo Is able and w illing t o off er ow n opinions on subject s. YesNo Show s int erest in class act ivit ies. YesNo Is generally co-operat ive w it h ot her people in class. YesNo Is capable of m odif ying opinions in t he light of t hose of ot hers YesNo Use the criteria suggested about group work, organisation of work and independence to write your own scales like those above for attitude.

1.5 Result s f rom inf orm al assessm ent

Once you have im plem ent ed your inf orm al assessm ent program m e you w ill have result s in t he f orm of inf orm at ion about your st udent s. This inf orm at ion m ay be a set of num bers such as rat ings f or speaking, reading, list ening and w rit ing or a set of crit eria w hich t he st udent can or cannot m eet such as w orking in groups, abilit y t o produce w ork independent ly et c. In order t o use t hese result s, t hey w ill need t o be recorded against each st udent ’s nam e, perhaps in a regist er or ot her not ebook used f or t his purpose and should be accessible t o your st udent s, your inst it ut ion and yourself . As inf orm al assessm ent f orm s just one part of t he overall assessm ent program m e, result s could be periodically com pared t o t hose obt ained f rom f orm al and self - assessm ent . If result s f rom all t hree f orm s of assessm ent correlat e highly, ie in general each part seem s t o give sim ilar result s, you m ight assum e t hat a f airly reliable pict ure of a st udent ’s abilit y is being built up and t hat any decisions you m ake about t hat st udent w ill be based on solid f oundat ions. If a part icular st udent ’s result s do not correlat e, eg hisher result s on inf orm al assessm ent are great ly dif f erent t o result s on f orm al assessm ent , you w ill probably w ant t o f ind out t he reasons. It m ay be t hat t his st udent is nervous w hen t aking f orm al t est s. If t his pat t ern is repeat ed across all st udent s’ result s, it m ay be t hat you need t o t ake a look at t he validit y and reliabilit y of your f orm al t est s. Of course, if result s f rom t est s seem m ore consist ent t han t hose f rom your inf orm al t est ing, you w ill need t o t hink again about how you are assessing inf orm ally. You m ay f ind t hat result s f rom inf orm al assessm ent of non-linguist ic f act ors such as at t it ude or group w ork give you im port ant inf orm at ion about a st udent or st udent s. There m ay be an at t it ude problem against w hich m easures need t o be t aken in your classroom t eaching m et hods. In any case, inf orm at ion about st udent s should be looked at in each individual case and should at all t im es f eed back int o t he t eaching and learning process. As t eachers involved in language learning, w e are prim arily concerned w it h linguist ic aspect s of our st udent s’ perf orm ance and com pet ence. How ever, w e should not lose sight of t he f act t hat ot her non-linguist ic f act ors can and do aff ect t he st rict ly linguist ic in a posit ive or negat ive m anner. Our job as t eachers m ust be t o assess and t hrough our assessm ent m axim ise t he learning pot ent ial of our st udent s in all aspect s of t heir learning experience. Underest im at ing t he ext ra-linguist ic f act ors w ould be t o ignore an im port ant aspect of t hat experience. Assessing t hese non- linguist ic f act ors and discussing t hese w it h your st udent s should height en t heir aw areness of t he im port ance of such f act ors and should t hus aid t he m axim isat ion of t hat pot ent ial. It should not be f orgot t en t hat w e are not solely concerned w it h language per se but in educat ion in t he broadest sense of t he w ord. © M ichael Harris, Paul M cCann 1994, M acmillan Publishers Ltd 25 Act ion point s: inf orm al assessm ent 1 As a result of reading t his chapt er are you going t o m ake any changes in t he w ays you inf orm ally assess your st udent s? If so, w hat are t hey? 2 How are you going t o w eight diff erent areas? For exam ple, list ening 25 , reading 20 et c. 3 How are you going t o inf orm ally assess your st udent s’ recept ive perf orm ance ie list ening and reading? ◆ by giving an im pression m ark ◆ by collect ing in m arks f rom t asks ◆ by using a rat ing scale 4 How are you going t o inf orm ally assess your st udent s’ product ive perf orm ance ie speaking and w rit ing? ◆ by giving an im pression m ark ◆ by collect ing and adding t oget her a series of im pression m arks ◆ by collect ing and adding t oget her a series of m arks based on rat ing scales ◆ by using rat ing scales t o assess overall perf orm ance 5 Are you going t o t ake int o considerat ion non-linguist ic f act ors? W hyw hy not ? 6 If yes t o t he previous quest ion, how are you going t o assess non-linguist ic f act ors? ◆ by observing st udent s in class and giving an im pression m ark ◆ by observing st udent s in class and rat ing t hem using scales ◆ by collect ing in vocabularynot ebooks and m arking t hem ◆ by using peer assessm ent of group w ork 26 © M ichael Harris, Paul M cCann 1994, M acmillan Publishers Ltd Form al assessm ent 2.1 Why t est ?