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GRAMMAR ASSESSMENT THROUGH PERFORMANCE: WHAT DO TEACHERS THINK?

GRAMMAR ASSESSMENT THROUGH PERFORMANCE: WHAT DO TEACHERS THINK?. Sener ES senere@anadolu.edu.tr Anadolu University, TURKEY. Organization. Performance Assessment The Present Study Findings and Implications. Performance Assessment. Performance Assessment :.

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GRAMMAR ASSESSMENT THROUGH PERFORMANCE: WHAT DO TEACHERS THINK?

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  1. GRAMMAR ASSESSMENT THROUGH PERFORMANCE: WHAT DO TEACHERS THINK? Sener ES senere@anadolu.edu.tr Anadolu University, TURKEY

  2. Organization • Performance Assessment • The Present Study • Findings and Implications

  3. Performance Assessment

  4. Performance Assessment: a form of on-going assessment that requires students to perform written and spoken tasks as classroom activities and teachers to monitor their performance and grade them according to previously established criteria (Bachman, 2002; H. D. Brown, 2004; Norris et al., 1998)

  5. Why Performance Assessment? • How we teach and how we assess should match. (Heaton, 1990, p 7-8) • Assessment must not be an isolated step in the instruction cycle. • No single form of assessment works well in all situations and for all purposes. • It may be a more valid indicator of students’ knowledge and abilities.(Sweet et al., 1992)

  6. Traditional Assessment vs. Alternative Assessment One-shot, standardized exams Continuous long-term assessment Timed, multiple-choice format Untimed, free-response format Decontextualized test items Contextualized communicative tasks Scores suffice for feedback Individualized feedback and washback Norm-referenced scores Criterion-referenced scores Focus on the “right” answer Open-ended, creative answers Summative Formative Oriented to product Oriented to process Non-interactive performance Interactive performance Fosters extrinsic motivation Fosters intrinsic motivation (H.D. Brown, 2004, 13)

  7. Key Points in Performance Assessment 1 • Practicality Time / thought / effort bothin planning and application • Reliability Rater’s judgments / Subjectivity Criteria (guidelines used to judge the quality of student performance) • Fairness Rater / Students Rater’s subjectivity in scoring Students may not be given equal opportunities to show what they know • Validity Variety of assessment types Reference to the objectives of the curriculum • Integration Integration of assessment into instruction Integration all four skills into assessment period

  8. Key Points in Performance Assessment 2 • Continuous Assessment Not a different time slot is allocated for assessment Keeps going as the instruction goes on • Observation Checklist Rating Scale • Tasks essay/paragraph writing oral presentations pair/group discussions open-ended problems real-world simulations and other authentic tasks

  9. Ways of Keeping a Record • Checklist Approach • Narrative/Anecdotal Approach • Rating Scale Approach • Memory Approach (Stiggins, 1994) (not recommended)

  10. What we do… • Grammar In-contextAssessment Midterm  50 % Quizzes  20 % In-class  30 % (Performance Assessment)

  11. What we do… • In-Class Assessment 1) Written and Oral Tasks as classroom activities 2) In-class Assessment Criteria 3) Checklist (optional) 4) Grading Sheet

  12. The Present Study

  13. Purpose of the Study to find out the Grammar teachers’ attitudes towards the present application of In-class Assessment in Grammar in Context classes and prospective alternative assessment types.

  14. Setting • Anadolu University, TURKEY • School of Foreign Languages • Lower-Intermediate Level • Grammar in Context

  15. Participants • 15 teachers • 3 – 18years of experience in teaching English (mean= 9,2 years) • 3–17 years of experience in teaching Grammar (mean= 7,5 years) • 8 of 15 have MA degree in ELT • 4 of 15 have done research on Grammar

  16. Design of the Study • Questionnaire • Follow-up interviews (5 of the participants)

  17. Findings • The weight of In-class Assessment (30%) in total assessment. OK  87 % NO  13 % Participant 11 “I think 30 % for In-class Assessment is high. It must be lower than the percentage of quizzes at leastbecause we grade more specific items in the quizzes, and they are more objective. But, In-class Assessment is rather subjective. So, it must be 20 % perhaps.”

  18. # of Written Tasks for one assessment period. less than 3  0 % 3-5 60% 5-7 27% more than 713% • # of Oral Tasks for one assessment period. less than 3  20% 3-5 20% 5-7 33% more than 727%

  19. I use the In-class Assessment Checklist (optional) Yes  80 % No  20 % • This checklist helps me observe students’ performance more easily and keep a good record of my observations. Strongly Agree33% Agree50% Undecided 17% Disagree 0 % Strongly Disagree 0 %

  20. Participant 12 “I don’t use the checklist because it’s a waste of time for me. As students do a lot of activities, I can’t use it in the classroom all the time. So, I have to use it after every lesson, and I don’t think it is convenient. So, I consider students general performance throughout the term, and give their scores according to this.“ Participant 13 “I don’t use the Checklist because it is not user friendly. I am for holistic assessment, rather than focusing on particular products. I think what we are supposed to assess has to be the development of students over time, rather than their performance on single tasks.”

  21. The application of In-class Assessment is in agreement with the Course Objectives. Strongly Agree 27 % Agree 46 % Undecided 20 % Disagree 7 % Strongly Disagree 0 %

  22. In-class Assessment is a valid way of Grammar assessment. Strongly Agree 20 % Agree 40 % Undecided 33 % Disagree 7 % Strongly Disagree 0 % Participant 15 “Of course, the longer the assessment period takes and the more varied assessment types we use, the better. The results are more reliable and more valid. It creates chances for frequent use of test-retest applications.”

  23. It takes a lot of time and effort to implement In-class Assessment. Strongly Agree 13 % Agree 28 % Undecided 13 % Disagree 33 % Strongly Disagree 13 % Participant 15 “Moreover, I can’t use all of the tasks because of time constraints. So, I give students fewer speaking tasks than writing tasks because they take a lot of time in the classroom.”

  24. The Written/Oral Tasks in the book and the study pack do not promote the use of the target structure. Strongly Agree 0 % Agree 0 % Undecided 13 % Disagree 40 % Strongly Disagree  47 % Participant 12 “Actually, I’m not happy with some of the tasks in the course book. They don’t help me to assess students’ productivity. But, I take them as examples, and use them after making some improvements or changes.” Participant 15 “Some tasks are not interesting and productive at all. Sometimes students do these activities just to practice grammar. Not as a real-life tasks. So sometimes I don’t want to use them, sometimes students don’t either.”

  25. It is easy to observe and then to consider the students’ performance in these tasks while scoring their In-class grades. Strongly Agree 13 % Agree 40 % Undecided 20 % Disagree 20 % Strongly Disagree 7 %

  26. Participant 4 “It is really difficult to observe all the students in crowded classes. So, grading process is really tough for me.” Participant 13 “In-class Assessment causes too much assessment in the classroom. It leaves no space for the teacher in the classroom. This In-class Assessment thing creates a kind of atmosphere in which the students are to be observed and assessed by the teacher every second of the lesson. This creates a kind of atmosphere where students and teachers work under a lot of pressure. We also give students multiple quizzes. So, the grammar classes involve too much assessment.“ Participant 5 “[It’s not easy to observe and assess students’ performance] The focus of the class shifts. The teacher needs to be able to adapt different roles. One being the moderator, facilitator and the other assessor.”

  27. I am fair towards every student while assessing their In-class performance. Strongly Agree 33 % Agree 54 % Undecided 13 % Disagree 0 % Strongly Disagree 0 % Participant 9 “I believe there are different applications of in-class assessment in grammar courses, which results in unfair grades among students from different classes. The reason for this could be that the assessment process is rather subjective.”

  28. The In-class Assessment Criteria helps teachers assess their students’ communicative skills. Strongly Agree  13 % Agree  60 % Undecided  20 % Disagree  7 % Strongly Disagree  0 % Participant 13 “About 80 % of our students in our school have weak language skills, especially communicative skills. One reason for this may be that they weren’t assessed correctly and appropriately in high school. I mean their communicative skills maybe weren’t assessed at all. So, In-class Assessment might be filling this gap….”

  29. The In-class Assessment Criteria fosters students’ classroom participation in general. Strongly Agree 73 % Agree 27 % Undecided 0 % Disagree 0 % Strongly Disagree 0 % Participant 11 “In-class Assessment makes students active in the classroom. It increases students’ participation in the activities through ‘fear of grades’.” Participant 12 “When compared to earlier times, students are more active in the classroom after In-class. I think it is thanks to the In-class Assessment. I observe that they have been learning better.“ Participant 5 “It’s not the criteria [that fosters students’ participation in the classroom], rather the grades students get because of their performance. They do it to get higher grades.”

  30. General Reflections on the Criteria 1 Participant 4 “We use this criteria in all levels from beginner to advanced. Does this criteriaprovide a valid and reliable grading for all levels?” Participant 5 “Effective, yet the Task Achievement component is not contextualized. It’s too broad to be applicable to all tasks.” Participant 6 “The lowest grade should be zero in the criteria.” Participant 13 “The last bends of the criteria describes a “never” or “no” behaviour. However, it is still worth 5 or 3 points. Why do we give a score for nothing?”

  31. General Reflections on the Criteria 2 Participant 4 “It is not user friendly. It is difficult to use this criteria to assess 30-35 students at one time. It doesn’t eliminate a teacher’s bias towards a specific student. Each grader can interpret the descriptives as he wishes.” Participant 11 “Criteria must be improved. ‘Language use’ and ‘Task Achievement’ components are confusing. We are supposed to do a general (holistic) assessment, but these components are analytic.” Participant 1 “There are some inconsistencies between the components of the criteria. It is not clear what we expect from students. Let’s say a student who is very silent and who never talks in the classroom may receive 15 from the ‘Classroom Conduct’ component. Is this really what we want? Do we want silent students? Or do we want active participants?”

  32. Peer-assessment can successfully be implemented in Grammar classes in the following years. Strongly Agree 13 % Agree 40 % Undecided 27 % Disagree 7 % Strongly Disagree 13 % • Self-assessment can successfully be implemented in Grammar classes in the following years. Strongly Agree 40 % Agree 27 % Undecided 20 % Disagree 13 % Strongly Disagree 0 %

  33. Participant 12 “I don’t think self or peer-assessment can beimplemented in this school because students can’t know what to assess. They have to be better than their peers to assess them. We do this in writing lessons, you know, we make them give peer-feedback. But, they can’t find their peer’s mistakes both in terms of grammar, vocabulary, mechanics and content. I mean they have to be able to write better topic sentences to have an opinion about their friends’ success. So, they must know grammar better to assess their friends” Participant 3 “The success of any new application depends mainly on the intention and appreciation of the teacher who uses that application.”

  34. Implications • In-class Assessment should continue with some adjustments and improvements • Criteria should be improved or rewritten; especially the component ‘Task Achievement’ with more explicit and clearer descriptives more user-friendly more holistic scoring

  35. Implications • The syllabus or the application of In-class should be reorganized to create more space and time for teachers. • The productive tasks in the coursebook and the study pack should be reconsidered to increase their productivity and authenticity. • A greater planning should be carried out for the prospective application of self or peer-assessment.

  36. Thank you…Anadolu University, TURKEYsenere@anadolu.edu.tr

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