Sunday, November 4, 2012

Discussion 7 - Foreign Language Assessment

I feel that classroom-based tests reflect student abilities fairly reliably. If a student cannot produce the language points that they were learning in class in a written test format, then chances are they cannot produce them on the spot in conversation either. In my own experiences, this has been true. If I do not remember how to conjugate a verb on a test, it's because I do not remember how to conjugate that verb and need to study more.

In my personal opinion, I do not think there are students who simply do not test well. There are students who get very nervous under pressure and forget things they knew before, but if that is the case then they won't speak well either, meaning that rather than being a bad test taker they are simply a nervous speaker. That being said, I do not mean that this type of person is bad at language. A nervous speaker will perform the best in a relaxed setting, like a conversation with their peers. A test does not accurately reflect their ability to speak the language, but there is no real way to evaluate their ability in a one time instance, the only way to see what they can do is to observe them in a daily format where they do not feel pressured.

I think using a daily rubric is the most effective way to judge a student's language ability, whether they get nervous on tests or not. Seeing whether or not they can remember things on the fly and without studying them will reflect the most on their conversational abilities, which is arguably the most important aspect of foreign language learning in the first place.

4 comments:

  1. I actually disagree with your theory about being a bad test taker. Although I do tend to get nervous before tests, even if I am calm and relaxed I make silly mistakes because there is so much pressure in a test. I also second guess all my decisions and often make changes to something that was originally correct because I over think everything.

    That being said, I think the daily rubric would be an excellent way to monitor students learning and improvement. You could even count them as a quiz grade at the end of the week. The quiz could be assessing improvement.

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  2. I guess that being a nervous/bad test taker can mean that the person should study more. However, it can be hard to study a language and the emphasis should not always be on memorization, but I agree that at the beginning levels a lot of it is memorization and practice. Test formats used should be similar to in class and homework assignments that way students will not be as nervous because it will be questions/question formats that they are familiar with. I like the idea of a daily rubric and I agree that quizzes are helpful. Students are a lot less nervous about a quiz that doesn't count as much towards their grade and quizzes can build up to a tests. That way teachers know what they need to re-teach/go over and students know the areas they need to study more.

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  3. I like the idea of a daily rubric because I do think that there are many people who get nervous and it may impair their ability to test to the fullest. Having a casual atmosphere will also help with student's ability to perform well.

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  4. The daily rubric seems a little time consuming, but overall a very effective way to see student progress day to day. This gauge is a more spread out and fair way of looking at performance than just a 45 minute exam and gets the teacher a chance to look at their pupils individually.

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