Introduction
In this unit, we shall attempt to give some guides to the assessment of learners’ performance in English as a second language. When students are assessed, the focus is to determine their competence as well as performance in the use of language. While competence is referred to as an underlying ability, performance can be observed and elicited. A language test or assessment will therefore be a sample of language behaviour. When such is being done, the student is presented with a set of items to be answered, or task to be performed.
Assessment in language is therefore a means of eliciting students’ performance in the use of English as a second language. It is an outcome of the competence that the learners have in the language study.
3.1 Purposes of Assessment of Learners’ Performance in English as a Second Language
Just like in other subjects, language tests are given with a variety of purposes in mind. However, in a second language situation, two major purposes can be identified and these are (a) to determine how much the learner has learnt from the stipulated syllabus. This is called Achievement testing, (b) to determine the strength and weaknesses found in the language used by the students. This is known as diagnostic testing.
Achievement testing helps the teacher to find out the progress made in the aspect of language that the teacher has taught. The teacher is guided by the syllabus. Has he gone through all area of the syllabus? If so, he would want to find out how successful he has been in this task of teaching the students.
Diagnostic testing also tells us how much the learners have learnt in the language but in addition, the purpose is to plan what to be done next with the learners. Here, the teachers will not assess all aspects of what he taught but rather areas of weakness and strength.
Apart from the above, there are other types of tests and these include Proficiency tests and Aptitude tests. Proficiency tests are not tied closely to the specific of course content. Rather they set out to measure learners’ ability to carry out some communicative task in the second language. For example, if one is to study in Britain, he may be given a proficiency test to find out if his command of English is adequate for studying in Britain. Test on English as a foreign language (TOEFL) is a popular test to test one’sproficiency.
Aptitude tests are used to assess the extent to which a learner can succeed in learning a particular language. The difference between this and proficiency tests is that aptitude tests estimate the amount of skill needed for learning a language which is different from the language competence needed for studying subjects other than foreign languages. The factors to be looked for here are the environment in which the learning is taking place, the past academic achievement of the learner; and the method which is used in teaching the language.
So, with the above, we have stated the purposes of assessing learners’ performance especially in the study of languages.
3.2 Types of Testing in English as a Second Language
In assessing learners, one can use the objective or subjective testing method. Objective tests include multiple choice test, true-false items, matching items etc. while the subjective test does not give clues. It includes essay questions. We shall touch on these later.
Two important approaches to language testing that will reflect a difference in contact and method of teaching are ‘discrete-point’ and ‘integrative testing’ which we shall now discuss.
3.2.1 Discrete-Point Testing
This type of test tries to test one item at a time. It can focus on individual bits in pronunciation, grammar, lexical choice and so on. Because of dealing with isolated bits of content, the name discrete-point is therefore appropriate. In such a testing procedure, one corrects choice in required like in sentence completion, multiple choice or same- different format.
Using this approach, learners can be given objective questions, fill in the gap question or any form of question that will be discrete in nature of the response.
3.2.2 Integrative-Point Testing
This does not focus on isolated bits oftest content. Rather, it seeks to measure ability to make appropriate responses by bringing together different language skills and knowledge of different aspects of the language. It includes listening and reading comprehension tests in which inferences are drawn, deductions are made, and the main point is to be grasped by weaving together details of vocabulary and grammar. In assessing competence here especially in reading comprehension, questions to discover relationships of thought in sentences and paragraphs can be asked. Also projective questions that require the reader to associate or integrate data can be asked.
Integrative tests try to tap areas that make up the learners’ communicative competence; they measure the learner’s ability to bring together his competence in language structure and skill that will help learners to perform real life communicative actions. This type of testing also integrates the discrete items at the points of phonology, vocabulary and grammar.
Having known that questions can be asked either in the objective or essay form, and that objective tests can be of different types I think we need to know more about it but before then, let us look at this exercise.
Self-Assessment Exercises
1. What approach of testing would you use to test learners ’ performance in the areas of pronunciation and vocabulary development?
3.2.3 The Use of Objective Testing
Objective assessment can be used in various ways to measure learners’ performance in English. When constructing True-False items, you should avoid long and involved statements. You should not establish a pattern of true or false answer; let the learners think for themselves.
Also, in writing completion test, do not omit too many words, especially, long phrases. In the same view, when constructing multiple choice questions, distractors alternatives should be avoided. Many of the test items should present problems, which require critical thinking. Again the position of the correct answer should be varied.
When writing matching item i.e. those that require the recall of relationship between pairs of items, there should be more distractors in the response column than the stimulus column. It could be simple matching of two columns and it can be complex matching of three or more columns. Efforts should be made to ensure that the test is able to give more diagnostic information than essays. This is because in objective testing, item analysis is easier done with multiple items than essay tests.
Be that as it may, assessment can take different forms. What will guide one is the purpose for which the assessment is being done.
Self-Assessment Exercises
1. Construct objective tests of multiple choices; fill in the gap, matching type. Five of each is needed
4.0 CONCLUSION
From what we have been saying all along, assessment of learners’ performance is very beneficial. It helps the teacher to know the competence, the positive and the negative areas of his students; it also helps the teacher to examine his own pedagogy and make corrections where needed.
5.0 SUMMARY
This unit has focused on the assessment of learners’ performance in English as a second language. It has looked into the purposes of assessment and different types of assessment. Teachers of English as a second language should therefore be conversant with this since it goes a long way in seeing that the purposes of one’s teaching are realized.
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
1. Construct tests of about ten items each that can be scored on a discrete-point basis. The tests should cover areas of
phonology, grammar and vocabulary.
2. Identify and explain the different forms of assessment that you can use to assess the performance of your students in English as a second language.
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READINGS
Harris, D.P. (1979) Testing English as a Second Language. Bombay: McGraw Hill.
Oller, J. (1979) Language Test at School London: Longman.
Williamson, D. (1990) English Language Teaching: An integrative Approach. Ibadan: Spectrum.
Leave a comment behind