I believe that assessment of foreign language skills and proficiency is one of the bigger problems faceing Foreign Language Teaching. As a L2 learner, I remember taking tests and quizzes in high school and not having the slightest problem getting an A: all I had to do was memorize vocab or correctly conjugate a verb based on the subject. Most of the tests were a lot of matching, multiple choice and fill in the blank with the occasional short answer question thrown in. All I had to do was memorize the material that would be on the test, then just spit it back out on the paper. I would forget about what we were supposed to have "learned" by the time I got to my next class. One of the reasons I prefer taking tests to writing papers or doing projects is that, for me, tests are so much easier and require so much less effort and knowledge on my part.
On the other side, there are students who do not test well. Some of my friends in my high school language classes dreaded taking tests and they would study for days before taking the test, spending hours going over flash cards and notes, while I crammed 10 minutes before the class. And when the results came back, they were scored lower than I was, even though they probably knew the information better than I did and remembered it for longer than I did. Some people would freeze up and panic, while others just weren't able to work within the confines of the test. I was luckier, in the sense that my mother had taught my how to take tests well, looking for the keywords and looking at another part of the test in case it had the answer for a different section.
I feel that the stress that the current education places on tests and quizzes isn't fair or accurate. I believe that the idea of hybrid testing - using some traditional tests and quizzes, some written thoughtful responses and some skits or role plays - work much better than relying mostly on how skillful students are at test-taking, instead of their skills in the L2.
Each student will have different strengths and weaknesses in dealing with assessments and if teachers use a variety of types, then students will be on a more even playing field and can be tested more on their knowledge of the content of a lesson, than on how well they can take a test. I know some of my former classmates who could write amazing skits that were engaging and conveyed their proficiency in the language and would score much higher in those types of assessments, because they could show their skills in a way that worked best for them.
I believe that the most effective, and difficult, assessment of L2 skills and proficiency is that of discourse. It requires knowing vocabulary, grammar and the pragmatics of a language, as well as being able to make a coherent argument and understand what is said in return, then commenting on it. The problem with this type of assessment is that some students are very shy and soft-spoken and feel uncomfortable speaking that much, in public or in private.
As I said before, I feel that the best assessment is to mix up the styles and types of assessment, as each has benefits and detractors.
I was also one of those people that effortlessly learned the material minutes before the test and aced it no problem. When I see those people who work for days to try to get the information into their heads and simply can't, I do feel a little guilty. My parents were like yours: they taught me how to do well on tests and it became something that I'm no longer afraid of. Do you think older language learners (high-school and above) could still be taught these methods? And do you really think they retain the information longer? In my opinion, the people it comes easy to are the ones who stick with it. You say you forgot everything before even your next class, but look at you now! You just spent a year in France, I think you remember the stuff pretty well! :)
ReplyDeleteDiscourse is one of the most important aspects of foreign language because it is packed with many different aspects. Pragmatics is probably one of the hardest concepts to master because it is so different from the native language. I am taking a pragmatic course right now and learning the different culture's and aspects of just the geographical regions is amazing. It is important to keep pragmatics in mind when taking a test because the more closely a student pays attention to it the better the grade and score will be. It is also important to keep the anxiety down and make sure that the student has an equal opportunity to pass the assessment.
ReplyDeleteI love your idea of using skits as an alternate evaluation method. It's great because it allows the students to use their creativity and make the language fun, even though it's really an exam. If the teacher is really stuck on written exams, my Russian teacher always puts a dialogue section in our exams where we have to write ten or so lines of conversation between two people. This is similar to a skit except quieter and still useable in a written format, but still holds the same main concepts.
ReplyDeleteI think testing is a huge issue in language teaching and assessments should be done in multiple ways. I experienced the same thing in high school with language tests and quizzes. They just required me to memorize some new vocabulary and grammar structures, which didn't mean much. I could ace the tests, but wasn't encouraged to really learn the language as a whole or use language in a meaningful way. Students need to be encouraged to process the language and show that they understand what they are learning. Discourse is very hard to teach, and that is why students need to be exposed to authentic material from the start. Testing questions should be contextualized.
ReplyDelete