THE LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT PROCESS: A"MULTIPLISM " PERSPECTIVE

THE LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT PROCESS: A"MULTIPLISM " PERSPECTIVE

1. Shohamy, E., & Inbar, O. (2006). “The language assessment process: A “multiplism” perspec- tive”, (CALPER Professional Development Document 0603). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University, Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research.

2. Assessment

   • Process of judgements
     • it is used for
       • Observation and gathering informacion
         • Administrative purposes
           • -General assessment
             • Placement
             • Certification
             • Promotion
         • Instructional purposes
           • Diagnosis
           • Evidence of progress
           • Provides feedback
           • Evaluating the curriculum
         • Research experimentation
           • language learning
           • language use
     • Made to observe
       • Learners skills
       • knowledge
   • Phases of the process
     • Determining the purpose of assessment
     • Defining language knowledge to be assessed
     • Selecting the assessment procedure
     • Designing items and tasks
     • Administering the assessment tools
     • Determining the quality of the procedures
     • Interpreting the results
     • Reporting the results

3. Multiplism

   • refers to
     • Multiplicity in a number of areas
       • MULTIPLE
         • Purposes of language assessment
         • Definitions of language Knowlede
         • Procedures for measuring that knowledge
         • Criteria for determining what good language is
         • Ways of interpreting
         • Ways of Reporting assessment results
         • Multiple aproaches can be implemented in various phases of the assessment process
       • includes
         • Formative
           • on going
         • Summative evaluation
           • At the end of a process
         • Achivement
           • Assessing what was learnt in a particular program
         • Proficiency
           • General language capacity unrelated to a particular language program
       • 1)Multiple purposes of assessment
         • Predicting success
         • Placing students according to proficiency levels
         • Accepting or rejecting students to a language program
         • Providing feedback on students learning
         • Following the progress of individuals and groups
         • Motivating students to learn the language
         • Disciplining learners
         • Exercising power in the language classroom
         • Conducting research and various facets of language study
         • Refers to
           • Different reasons one may have for using assessment.
             • Such as
               • Checking achivements and progress, predicting success, motivating, categorizing and exercising power
       • 2)Multiple assessment procedures
         • Refers to
           • Range of assessment options
             • Such as
               • Unstructured observations to performance tasks of various sorts
                 • Used for
                   • Supplementing other measures or as a stand alone procedures
                     • Chosen according to
                       • Characteristic features and suitability for the testing situation
         • Some of the multiple methods of assessment
           • Portfolios ,oral debates,projects,learning logs,check lists,presentations, homework,oral debates check list tests, roleplays, interviews, diaries, self-assessment, dramatic performances, simulations, peer group assessment, observations, rubrics
       • 3)Multiplism in designing items and tasks
         • A wide variety of both items
           • Item types
             • refers to
               • techniques for assessing
                 • Mostly
                   • the comprehension skills
                     • Reading and listening
                       • Procedures such as
                         • Matching, true-false , multiple choice, cloze passages and open- ended questions.
           • Tasks
             • the production of oral and written language samples
               • Include formats such as
                 • Interviews or essay writting
                   • It is not always applicable for many tasks
                     • Especially the more complex ones
                       • Such as
                         • Projects
                         • Presentations
         • Multiple ways of Designing items and tasks
           • Multiple choice questions, tasks, true-false, summaries, role plays, open-ended -questions cloze, passages reporting
       • 4)Multiple ways of administering assessment
         • One - to - one Administration, Paper and pencil format, audio taped test, visual stimuli and questions, computer- administered assessment, in classroom vs take home, on-site assessment (at the workplace), formal and informal Administration
       • 5)Multiple criteria for determining language quality
         • Total score, standard, benchmarks, competencies, can, dos, band scales, holistic rating scales, analytic rating scales, rubrics, guidelines(e.g ACTFL,ISLPR), native / non-native criteria
       • 6)Multiple criteria for determining the quality of assessment procedures
         • Reliability
           • Refers to
             • The extent to which the test is consistent in its score
               • Indicating if score is accurate and can be relied upon
                 • Takes into account possible errors in assessment
                   • Reliability measures help us estimate the error in the score
               • Agreement among raters
                 • It is referred to as
                   • Inter rater reliability
                     • Sometimes the same Rater May assign different assessment scores or evaluations due to a variety of reasons
                       • physical conditions
                         • Fatigue
                           • Effect of previous grading of assignments
                   • Intra rater reliability
                     • Both types of rater reliability are important for items and tasks of an open Nature
                       • Written compositions and oral interviews
                         • Here is where it is likely that there will be disagreements with regard to the quality of the language sample
                   • Internal consistency
                     • The extent to which the test items measure the same trait
                   • Test-retest reliability
                     • The extent to which the test scores are stable from one Administration to the next
         • Validity
           • If actually
             • Assesses the language abilities it aims to assess
               • Instrument matches objectives set by the teacher
                 • There is a number of validity types
                   • Content
                     • Represents the content to be assessed
                       • Advanced language ability
                   • Concurrent
                     • examines if an assessment tool yields similar information
                   • Predictive
                     • Examines is the tests can correctly predict success in given language function or context
                   • Construct
                     • Examines if the assessment tool is in line with the current theory of the trait to be examined
                   • Face validity
                     • Examines if there is a match between what he tests actually look like and what is supposed to test
       • 7)Multiple ways of interpreting and Reporting results
         • Interpreting Results
           • Context embedded interpretation, dialoguing with the student over an email for example, holding assessment conference( with a student and /or other participants)
         • Reporting results
           • As test scores, providing diagnostic information, Notifying as pass or fail, comparison of grades (two other populations), creating learner profiles, providing verbal descriptions and interpretive summaries, reporting inform of narratives, creating progress reports

4. IN GENERAL

   • The notion of Multiplicity is
     • Use of multiple assessment tools/ Including a number of assessors/ Multiple criteria for determining language ability/ Multiple ways of administering assessment/ Multiple ways of reporting assessment data/ multiple stakeholders