The alternatives in language assessment

types of language assessments

• Selected-response (true-false, matching, multiple choice)
• Constructed-response (fill-in, short answer, performance assessments) 
• Personal-response (conference, portfolio, self- or peer assessments)

What makes assessments alternative? they...

• Require problem solving or higher level thinking
• Use real-world contexts
• Focus on processes as well as products
• Provide information about students' strengths and weaknesses
• Require students to perform, create, produce or do something

Alternative assessments must be designed, piloted, analyzed, and revised to ensure reliability and validity.

Assessing language is complex. Let's look at the options in alternative assessments.

Selected-response assessments

• Students do not create language.
• Best for measuring listening and reading.
• + Quick to administer, scoring is fast, easy, and objective
• - Difficult to construct, do not require language production
• Examples:  true-false, matching, multiple choice

using selected-response assessments

• True-false assessments have a high guessing factor
• Matching usually assesses passive vocabulary knowledge
• Supplying extra answers for matching lowers guessing factor
• Multiple choice has a lower guessing factor due to 3-5 possible answers
• Use multiple choice to assess grammar, reading, listening, and phonemes

constructed-response assessments

• Require students to produce language
• Used to measure speaking and writing
• + Relatively objective, low guessing factor
• - Scoring can be subjective and time-consuming
• Examples:  fill-in, short-answer, performance assessment

using constructed-response assessments

• Fill-in are easy to construct, can assess many things, quick to administer
• Fill-in may assess listening and reading skills simultaneously
• Short answers are easy to produce and quick to administer
• Both fill-in and short-answer focus on only words or phrases
• Multiple answers are possible if not carefully constructed

performance assessments

• Require students to carry out real-life tasks 
• Can assess speaking, writing, and reading 
• + Measures response to authentic situations
• + Estimates true language abilities
• + Predicts future success in communicative settings

more on performance assessments

• - Difficult to produce, time-consuming to administer
• - Possible costs due to developing, training, administering, scoring
• - Rater inconsistencies and subjectivity
• - Test security can become compromised due to prompts being shared
• Examples include essays, interviews, communicative pair work, discussion

personal response assessments

• + Provide individual assessment
• + Can assess learning processes
• + Require students to produce language with unique responses
• - Difficult to construct and organize, scoring is subjective
• Examples include conferences, portfolios, self- and peer assessments

using personal-response assessments

• Conferences focus on the learning process
• Conferences strengthen teacher-student relationships
• Conferences are time-consuming and difficult to grade (or ungraded)
• Portfolios are a collection of assessments
• Portfolios can enhance teacher role through feedback

using self- or peer assessments

• Can be comprehension or observation based
• Subjectivity can be minimized by scoring grids
• Students are directly involved 
• Quickly administered

Testing and curriculum should match, but they often do not.

Washback = "the effect of testing and assessment on the language teaching curriculum that is related to it."

Feedback is vital in objectives-based testing.
A variety of assessments and feedback are ideal.

When choosing language assessments, consider learning objectives and use multiple sources to achieve positive washback.

the end