Assessing Young Learners

Christine Coombe Dubai Mens College

Presentation agenda

Issues in assessing childrens language learning Lexical distinctions Social & classroom realities of YL assessment Principles for assessing childrens language learning Current views about YL assessment How YLs learn Techniques for assessing YLs Questions and discussion

Issues in assessing childrens language learning

The following make assessing YLs different from assessment practices in other F/SL situations

Age: childrens motor, linguistic, social and conceptual development must be taken into account Content of language learning: a focus on oral skills, vocabulary development and language use at discourse level

Issues in assessing childrens language learning

Methods of teaching: interactive use of games, songs, rhymes, stories Aims: programs for YLs often cite social and cross cultural aims as well as language learning ones Learning theories: learning centered approach, learning through social interaction (Cameron, 2001)

A survey of the sparse info that is available on YL assessment suggests that assessment practices to not take these factors into account (Rea-Dickins, 2000)

Lexical distinctions

A helpful distinction between testing and assessment when teaching children English is made by Vale & Feunteun (1995)

Testing: a means of checking that learning has taken place with respect to specified teaching context/input, often by a particular task.

Results are usually concrete and can be expressed quantitatively as a mark or %

Lexical distinctions cont.

Assessment: an attempt to analyze the learning that a child has achieved over a period of time as a result of classroom teaching/learning.

Not based on a particular task nor expressed as a mark. A subjective (teacher) opinion of the achievement of a child in terms of attitude, participation, socialization and general cognitive/physical development Progress measured against individual starting points & abilities rather than compared against skills/abilities of others as in traditional testing

Social realities of assessment

Political, commercial & cultural dynamics underlie conflicts around the role of assessment in language teaching/learning It is reasonable to require that assessment serve teaching

by providing feedback on pupils learning, this will make the next teaching event more effective Known as washback

Social realities of assessment

In theory, teaching & learning need to dictate the form and timing of assessment In practice, the scenario is quite different

assessment often drives teaching forces Ts to teach what is being assessed an example of negative washback

This is a reality not only with YLs but other learners as well

Classroom realities

Survey conducted by Rea-Dickins and Rixon (1999) asked 120 Ts and teacher trainers in Europe about their assessment practices

Vast majority (92%) of the Ts do assess children with the stated purpose of helping their teaching (87%). Most of this assessment was prepared by Ts who were responsible for marking and record keeping

Classroom realities

When investigating what was being assessed

mismatch between curricular aims, pedagogy and test content found to exist the most frequently used method was the paper and pencil test

testing single items of vocabulary and grammar through one sentence contexts

This contrasted vividly with how children were being taught

tests found to neglect speaking what was being assessed was what was easy to assess

Principles for assessing childrens language learning

Assessment should be seen from a learning centered perspective

A Vygotskyan perspective on learning emphasizes that learning occurs in social contexts and through interaction with helpful adults or other children Vygotsky (1962) insisted that we do not get a true assessment of a childs ability by measuring what he/she can do alone and without help

what a child can do with helpful others both predicts the next stage in learning and gives a better assessment of learning

Principles for assessing childrens language learning

Assessment should support learning/ teaching

If learning is our central focus, assessment should contribute to the learning process

for both the individual child and for the class

Known as instructionally-embedded assessment

More principles

Ts need clear understanding of language learning processes and of socio-cultural context in which they operate

With this knowledge, they can predict the impact of assessment on their teaching and plan accordingly

Assessment should not disrupt learning

Assessments often criticized because they replace instructional time Ts who use daily teaching events to collect data are not taking away valuable teaching time

The key is understanding what will be the focus of assessment data collection and which tools will produce the best or most useful information

Children need to be assessed in an anxiety-reduced or anxiety-free environment This can be achieved only if a child perceives assessment as an integral component of the teaching/learning process

More principles

Assessment is more than testing

It is not necessary to test children to know how well they are doing there are other more supportive ways to assess learning that go beyond testing alternative assessment techniques like observation, portfolios and self-assessment (OMalley & Valdez Pierce, 1996)

More principles

Assessment should be congruent with learning

Assessment should fit comfortably with childrens learning experience Assessment should be interactional rather than an isolated, solo experience

Children and parents should understand assessment issues

Transparency must exist Parents often feel that they way they were assessed is the best way.

More principles

Employ multiples measures of assessment

No one assessment tool can provide all the information that Ts need to plan instruction, make instructional decisions or determine success or mastery of Ss Use a variety of assessment tools The composite view provided by these multiple measures allows Ts to make generalizations about student learning

Current views about YL assessment

Standardized tests are problematic for children

Growth is most uneven and idiosyncratic Skills needed for success are at their most fluid Failure in these years can be devastating No Child Left Behind Act Pressure can inhibit thinking (Jensen, 1998) and decrease the accuracy of assessment YLs are notoriously poor test takers..the younger the child being evaluated, assessed, or tested, the more errors are made and the greater the risk of assigning false labels to them (Katz, 1997).

Standardized tests put tremendous pressure on YLs

How YLs learn

Traditional types of assessment are often insufficiently sensitive to the ways YLs demonstrate their competencies

also interrupt the learning process in active, engaging classrooms.

Research shows that children in preschool years and early primary grades learn best through

active, engaged, meaningful experiences

How YLs learn

Through these experiences YLs construct their own knowledge by interacting with their environment and others

work of Piaget has demonstrated importance of sensory experiences and concrete learning activities importance of direct, first-hand interactive experience confirmed by National Association for the Education of Young Children these experiences are difficult to assess

Techniques for assessing YLs

Observation

One of the most useful assessment techniques

does not disturb the child and allows him/her to be assessed in the process of ordinary classroom activities

Ts continually observe and utilize the observe-noticeadjust teaching process Not realistic to observe every child on every occasion

better to focus on 6/7 during one lesson results in better quality information being collected

Most common way of recording observations of childrens performance is through a checklist

More techniques

Self-assessment

A child who learns to assess his/her own work moves from being other-regulated to self-regulated or autonomous commonly recognized that autonomous learners will be at an advantage in continuing to learn and adjust throughout their lives we tend to underestimate the potential for self-assessment in our children see them as empty vessels in need of being filled with knowledge wild in need of taming

How feasible is it with groups of five-year olds?

More techniques

Portfolio assessment

A collection of work that reveal both the capability and the progress of a learner Requires close cooperation between T and S in selecting the contents What to include: samples of writing, lists of books read, audio taped or videotaped recordings, conference or observation notes, artwork, self assessment checklists like K-W-L charts, samples of tests and quizzes

More techniques

K-W-L Charts

what they know, what they wonder or want to know and what they have learned

Learning logs

A record of Ss experiences with English outside the classroom including

the when and where of language use why certain experiences were successful and why others were not

Dialog journals

Ongoing written dialog between teacher and student

More techniques

Interactive writing charts

Observation charts that document the presence or absence of a variety of different writing conventions and/or abilities A simple checklist used during reading aloud activities Ts code the presence or absence of a word or a miscue A mechanism exists for self correcting (Frey & Fisher, 2003)

Running records

A final word on standardized tests

Cambridge ESOL created the Cambridge Young Learners English Tests in 1993

A series of tests for children of all nationalities aged 7 to 12 who are learning EFL whatever their L1 Designed with a high interest level for test takers and on a pass/fail basis Four-skills tests available at 3 levels: Starters, Movers and Flyers (equivalent to the KET) All sections graded on a scale from 1 to 5 (represented as shields) http://www.cambridge-efl.org.uk

Conclusion

Documenting the growth of YLs presents many challenges Assessment practices not only determine childrens futures and how their time is spent, but also carry messages for children about what parents and Ts consider important in language learning and in life Research shows that children live up to the expectations of their Ts whether they are high or low

expectations are perhaps more clearly revealed through assessment practices than anywhere else

Conclusion

For YLs, what matters is a solid base

in spoken language confidence and enjoyment in working with the spoken and written forms of the language a good foundation in learning skills

We should be looking for assessment practices that will reinforce the value of these skills to learners and to their parents

Presenter contact

Christine Coombe Dubai Mens College, HCT PO Box 15825 Dubai, UAE christine.coombe@hct.ac.ae or christinecoombe@hotmail.com http://taesig.com or http://ctelt.com