Running head: ASSESSMENT PHILOSOPHY 1

Assessment Philosophy

Sarah van Nostrand

Colorado State University

ASSESSMENT PHILOSOPHY 2

Assessments are a vital and effective aspect of language teaching. Assessments not only

allow language teachers to make decisions based off of their students performance, but they also

help identify learning goals as well as monitor student progress toward meeting those goals

(Bachman & Palmer, 2010). Assessments, therefore, encompass much more than just the

standardized, formal, and high-stakes tests that we often think of. I believe that both summative

and formative forms of assessment have their rightful place in language instruction, but the

majority of my day-to-day assessments as a future language teacher will be formative.

My formative assessments as a language teacher will most often come in the form of in-

class observations and oral and written feedback to students. Assessment that occurs throughout

the course of instruction is so important to properly monitor student progress. In order to support

my Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach to language teaching, I will also

conduct various alternative assessments that emphasize the process of communication over

purely mastering language forms. In line with the principles of CLT, I will use alternative

assessments in order to promote collaboration and active participation that will help to facilitate

learning. Examples of alternative assessments that I plan to use in my language classroom

include projects and individual and small-group presentations. I will, however, also plan to use

more summative forms of assessment (such as achievement tests) that would likely occur at the

end of my instruction. Summative assessments, which may incorporate both traditional and

alternative forms of assessment, will help measure students knowledge of specific course

content.

Before administering a test, I need to determine whether or not the test is going to be

useful for its given purpose. Any test that I create should be reliable and valid. Reliability relates

to consistency across scoring, and it is what makes validity possible. Validity refers to how those
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scores are interpreted and used, and aim to be both meaningful and appropriate. Once I believe I

have met these criteria and my test accurately reflects my instruction, I want to be sure that my

test is also as authentic as possible. With my language teaching belief grounded in CLT, I want

there to be a strong connection between my assessment and the real-world. Therefore, the tasks,

content, and context of my assessments should reflect this.

I believe in the importance of variety when it comes to effective assessments. Miller,

Linn, and Gronlund (2009) discuss that in order to measure a students performance

comprehensively, the language teacher should include tasks that are product-oriented and

objective, as well as more subjective, performance-based tasks. This is particularly true if I am

creating an assessment where I am trying to measure various types of learning outcomes, ranging

from knowledge and understanding all the way up through synthesis and evaluation.

With clear purpose and intentional planning, my future assessments will be an effective

and central part of my language instruction. Students will benefit from these varied assessments

in multiple ways, such as through receiving constructive feedback via formative assessment, and

an increased motivation to learn.

References

Bachman, L. F., & Palmer, A. S. (2013). Language assessment in practice: developing language
assessment and justifying their use in the real world. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Miller, M. D., Gronlund, N. E., & Linn, R. L. (2009). Measurement and assessment in teaching
(10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill / Pearson education international.