Using Assessment to Enhance Classroom Learning

梁蕊

【中图分类号】G64 【文献标识码】A 【文章编号】2095-3089（2014）07-0018-02

Introduction

It is widely believed that language learning is a long progressive process. It includes teaching， learning and also evaluation. It might be common for teachers to use final testing to evaluate students learning. If the student got a good mark， it could mean that he or she grasp the knowledge better than the others who got the lower marks. However， it is limited. Because it can not be used to test students all abilities， especially knowledge they learned during the lesson. Therefore， recent years it is always thought that classroom assessment may be a good way to enhance students learning.

The paper will firstly discuss the concept of assessment for learning. Then， in literature review part it will give the differences between assessment for learning （formative assessment） and assessment of learning （summative assessment） and give the reasons for assessing. Also， it will provide the factors need to be concerned about a good assessment for learning. Moreover， how formative assessment can help students learning will be mentioned. Finally， it will evaluate three tasks and explain why it is good to enhance student learning， especially for the specific context which was mentioned before.

The definition of assessment for learning

Although there are different kinds of assessment mentioned in different books， it may be not easy to find the definition of assessment for learning directly in the books. However， some researchers connected assessment for learning with formative assessment. Therefore， it will then provide three definitions of formative assessment. As Torrance and Pryor （1998） defined assessment for learning is ‘taking place during a course with the express purpose of improving pupil learning （p.8）. Fulcher and Davidson （2007：372） indicated， ‘formative assessment is carried out during the learning process as an intervention that is designed to encourage further learning and change. Also， Ainslie and Lamping （1995：5） said ‘formative assessment provides feedback during the course. It could summarize from definitions that formative assessment is a kind of assessment during the course. It emphasizes the process of learning. It could be seen from Ainslie and Lamping （1995） that giving feedback is also very important. Formative assessment could be regarded as a way to supervise students learning. From this assessment teachers can find students strengths and weaknesses， students can find their problems of recent learning as well.endprint

Literature Review

1.The differences between assessment for learning and assessment of learning

Assessment for learning is a kind of process assessment. It emphasizes more on the process of learning. It always described as formative assessment. However， assessment of learning is a kind of terminal assessment. It always described as summative assessment. Mckay （2006） summarized the main difference between assessment for learning and assessment of learning. He said， ‘it may be formative when teachers are collecting information about childrens strengths and weaknesses in order to provide feedback to learners and to make further decisions about teaching， or it may be summative， when teachers are collecting information at the end of a period of time， generally to report to others about childrens progress（p.140）.

From the different authors idea it can be concluded that the differences between formative assessment and summative assessment apart from formative and summative， also different feedback. It is a very important factor for formative assessment. Some teachers can not see clearly the differences between them， maybe they want to do formative assessment， but give the wrong feedback. Therefore， it is necessary to provide the differences here.

From the previous descriptions it could find that both formative assessment and summative assessment are important. Both of them are necessary for teachers and students. However， some teachers neglect the formative assessment， or maybe they do not know exactly what should be done in formative assessment， therefore make the formative assessment failed. Next， it will discuss the necessity of formative assessment and some important factors for a successful formative assessment will be given.

2.Reasons for taking assessment

There are controversies about whether assessment can increase students learning motivation or not. Some researchers thought assessment can increase students motivation about their study. However， others do not believe that. The people who thought it is good for improving motivation is because most of them believe assessment can push students learning. Due to the assessment， students may try them best to study in order to pass in the assessment or tests. On the contrary， others consider assessment may influence some students motivation. Because from assessment teachers can not obtain clearing information from all of students， some times some students may not understand knowledge， but teachers do not discover that. It may influence some students motivation who did not understand. For a long time， maybe they will give up. People who thought assessment can motivate students probably their idea lacks of evidence in some occasion， such as adult classroom. Most of adult students study hard not because of assessment， but because of other reasons.endprint

Moreover， like Harris and Bell （1994） explained in the motivation part， ‘however， it has other more negative effects such as increasing stress or decreasing the desire to continue studying （p.89）. This idea is crucial in China. Because exams are quite common in China， sometimes students probably have fear of assessment owing to judgment from it. Too many tests or assessments may influence their study interests.

It can help teachers make future plans through assessment， because it can be used as prediction， especially for some students whose scores are always stable. Also， teachers can use assessment result to make lesson plan. It is likely that students assessment result can tell teachers their knowledge. However， it is not solid all the time， for example， when the class lever is quite different.

In addition， assessment can be the way to diagnose study and learning. Especially， from teachers feedback students may find their learning weaknesses. It is better for them to improve. Also， from the students results teachers could find their teaching weaknesses.

In summary， assessments have some benefits for learning. However， it can not say assessment will enhance classroom learning at once. Therefore， teachers need to use assessment in an appropriate way in order to enhance students classroom learning seemed important. Next， some factors need to be concerned of a good assessment will be discussed.

3.Factors need to be concerned for a good assessment

When talking about any kind of testing， most people may mention reliability and validity. There is no exception for a good assessment. First factor need to be concerned is reliability and validity. However， the reliability and validity of assessment is different from the test.

Reliability

It is very difficult for any tests to be reliable， including formative assessment. Because formative assessment was used by classroom teachers most in the classroom， therefore， Black and Wiliam （2006） stated that the reliability in formative assessment is ‘guiding learning on the particular task involved and generalization across a range of tasks to form an overall judgment is irrelevant （p.129）. It can be seen that formative assessment emphasizes more on students action. Therefore， it is important for teachers to know whether the task of formative assessment is useful for the students or not. Also， the teachers feedback should be useful.

Validity

Validity is an important factor for assessment. It is ‘central to developing or practicing formative assessment （Stobart， 2006：136）. No matter reliability or validity in formative assessment， they all play an important role on how learning takes place. Besides， validity in formative assessment also requires the effective feedback. Then， it will discuss about the feedback.endprint

Feedback

Some teachers probably do formative assessment in the classroom. However， they might not give the effective feedback. As a matter of fact， feedback is very important part for formative assessment （Stobart， 2006）， because from feedback students could learn something， assessment is a way to help students learn. As discussed previous， an improper feedback could give students a negative effect. In that case， following some rules might be useful when create a valid feedback.

The chart1-3 （see Coombe，C. et al. （2007）. A practical guide to assessing English language learners. P.123.） could be used in group evaluation. It is better for teachers to give each student feedback separately， it might be easier for students to learn from the group work， and also it may be better for them to see their strengths and weaknesses in the group. The chart4 （see Richards， J. et al. （2005） Interchange 2. （3rd ed.） Cambridge University Press. T-193.） might be a good one for individual feedback. It uses scores which are common in tests. However， it is better to give comments after giving scores， especially， some comments on the weaknesses. These kinds of feedback form can both used in the spoken classroom assessment. They are possible helpful for both teachers and students.

Task evaluation

Adult language learning is quite common in China nowadays. The feature of adults language learning is time limited. Another problem is they paid more attention on their face. Because of these reasons， some teachers avoid assessing students. However， after a period students might find they can not continue their study， because they forgot a lot of knowledge. This phenomenon requires teachers to choose appropriate tasks to assess students learning and giving suitable feedback could be a good way to solve the problem.

In adult speaking classroom， it is better to give the appropriate criterion. If the criterion is too strict， it might make students nervous and anxious; if the criterion is too low， it might make reduce classroom learning efficiency. Therefore， their speaking requests may not be very high. They might not need too much vocabulary. Therefore， teachers could emphasis on assessing students communicative ability. Some errors could not be corrected. Because they are adults， it could use teacher evaluation， peer evaluation， and self-evaluation. Trying to encourage students participate assessment as much as possible. The feedback form could be the one which was provided before. The feedback need to be sent back promptly.endprint

The form of assessing speaking could be various， such as presentation， pair work， group work， games and other activities. Because adults have good understanding， no matter what kind of assessing form may help them learning. Next， it will provide three different forms of speaking assessment and see their meaning for adult formative assessment.

Firstly， presentation at the beginning of the class. Presentation is likely a good way to help students practice their speaking in public places. It could be important for students to improve their speech abilities. Teachers can give them time control. Because students could prepare it before class， teachers can focus on accuracy. This can also help students to finish a task in exactly time range. If students want to take oral exam in the future after learning， it could be a beneficial way to practice their time sense. At the same time， from presentation teachers can find topics which are interested in students.

Secondly， pair works or group works could be a way to assess students speaking ability. Most of the speaking tests require students to do a pair work or a group work. Pair work or group can help students to practice their interaction ability. In communication， interaction is very important. During pair work or group work， students can try them best to use the knowledge they learned to finish the task. This can be done by students and students and also teachers and students. Role play and simulation could be used here， especially for adult students. It could choose some topics which have close connection with the real life. In this way， adults might like them. It could enhance their learning initiative. The activities in Richards， J. et al. （2005） Interchange 2. （3rd ed.） Cambridge University Press. P.15. could be good ones in adults classroom. Through these activities teachers can assess students interaction skills， also can assess their grammar which was learned recently， such as comparison. The role play could be interesting， because someone may work in the hotel， they need to use it.

Finally， controversial topic debate could be a good task to practice students response skill and language organization and expression ability. As Coombe et al.（2007） suggested that students can be divided into two groups， four in each group. The others can be the audience. They can do peer assessment for their classmates. For adults classroom topic could be some popular ones in the society. For instance， （see Richards， J. et al. （2005） Interchange 2. （3rd ed.） Cambridge University Press. T-168） this is a good example. The activity is clear， also can help students thinking， because there are some questions. These kind of clear instructed activities may be a good way for teachers to use in adults speaking class in order to enhance students learning.endprint

Conclusion

This paper discussed about how formative assessment can be used to enhance classroom learning. It is recommended that the definition of formative assessment and the differences between formative assessment and summative assessment. It seems that both summative and formative assessment are important for classroom learning， teachers need to know how to use them in an appropriate way in order to make them serve for study. It is suggested that how to do a good assessment， the principles need to be remembered. Also， it is suggested that the importance of feedback. Lastly， the paper combines adult speaking learning in China to do task evaluation and give suggestion of criterions of adult classroom assessment.

References：

[1]Ainslie， Susan， and Alwena Lamping （1995） Assessing adult learners. London： CILT publications.

[2]Fulcher， Glenn， and Fred Davidson （2007） Language testing and assessment： an advanced resource book. London： Routledge.

[3]Harris， Duncan， and Chris Bell （1994） Evaluating and assessing for learning. Rev.ed.， London： Kogan Page.

[4]Mckay， penny （2006） Assessing young language learners. Cambridge： Cambridge University Press.

[5]Richards， Jack C， Jonathan Hull and Susan Proctor （2005） Interchange 2. 3rd ed.， Cambridge： Cambridge University Press.endprint