TKT Core Module 2: Lesson planning and use of resources for language teaching
Choosing assessment activities appropriate to learners, aims and stages of learning

select

At some point in every lesson and every sequence of lessons, we must have a procedure to assess whether the aims are being or have been achieved. To do that we need carefully to select assessment procedures.

If you have followed the guides to Module 1 of the TKT, you will know quite a lot about formal and informal assessment. What follows builds on that. If you would like to review the guide in the Module 1 course, click here and it will open in a new or tab.

Key concepts in this guide

By the end of this guide, you should be able to understand and use these key concepts:

formal and informal testing
advantages and disadvantages of a range of test types
the balance between validity and practicality

Look out for these words like this in the text.
There will be tests at the end of the guide for you to check that you understand the ideas.

In this guide, we will mostly consider planning for a single lesson but all the points apply also to a series of lessons.

An assessment task for you!

Fill in the gaps in this table and then click on it for some suggested answers.
You can right-click the table and save it if you want to do this on paper.

If you got most of that right, it is safe to move on. If not, please review the guide to assessment in Module 1.

Advantages and disadvantages of test types

Checking as you teach is something all teachers do (or should) so lesson plans need a stage or stages in which learning and achievement so far can be judged. This is informal assessment and is, generally, rather subjective.
We can make assessment a little more objective by using a range of testing procedures.
They all have advantages and disadvantages and they can all be inserted into lesson (a semi-formal assessment) or can be used as part of an achievement or progress test at the end of a series of lessons.

Task 2: Here are some test types commonly used in formal and informal testing.
Think about their advantages and disadvantages and make a few notes before you click on the for some comments.
Think about
    what they can target
    how easily and objectively they can be marked
    how the learners will see them.

Test type	Advantages and disadvantages
multiple-choice or alternative-response tests of reading or listening comprehension	Advantages: Easy and objective to mark Learners see it as valid Can test a wide range of language and skills Disadvantages: Quite dull Does not assess productive ability Random guessing can distort results
gap-fill tests	Advantages: Quite objective to mark Learners see it as valid Can test productive ability indirectly Can be adapted easily to make it harder or easier (e.g., by giving multiple-choice alternatives) Can be used to target a range of language and lexis Disadvantages: Can require judgement if there are multiple possibilities Does not directly assess productive ability Random guessing can distort results
re-ordering tasks: paragraphs, sentences, phrases, words	Advantages: Adaptable: can be used with a range of text types Learners see it as valid Can test receptive ability indirectly Can be used to target syntax or discourse Disadvantages: Multiple correct ordering is sometimes possible so marking is more difficult Time consuming to prepare and do Does not target productive ability
sentence transformation / skeleton sentences	Advantages: Quite objective to mark Learners see it as valid Targets particular structures directly Can be used to target a range of language and lexis Disadvantages: Can require judgement if there are multiple possibilities Lack of lexical knowledge can interfere with the ability to do the grammar task
information transfer (e.g., diagram to written text, diagram to spoken text)	Advantages: Directly assesses productive ability Learners see it as valid Can be adapted to make it harder or easier Can be used to target a range of language and specific lexis (e.g., describing trends, making comparisons) Disadvantages: Time consuming to prepare Advantages students who access graphical information easily Subjective marking
guided writing or speaking (structured response tests)	Advantages: Can be more objectively marked than free writing / speaking Learners see it as valid Can test productive ability directly Can be adapted to make it harder or easier Can be used to target a range of communicative language functions and lexis Disadvantages: Can advantage students familiar with the topic Cannot be purely objectively marked Requires reading / listening comprehension to produce accurate responses in speaking or writing
one-to-one or paired interviews (role plays etc.)	Advantages: A direct test of communicative ability Can test productive ability directly Can be adapted as it progresses to gather more information Can be designed to target a range of language functions and lexis Disadvantages: Subjective marking, even with a set of criteria Learners may not see them as fair or valid Requires both receptive and productive skills Stressful for many learners Paired learners can influence each other's ability Requires careful standardisation of assessors

Validity and practicality

A balancing act

Because all test items have both advantages and disadvantages, we need to ensure some kind of balance and include as many task types as we can. However, we need to be realistic.

validity: As you know from Module 1, this concerns testing what we think we are testing and assuring our learners and ourselves that the test is fair and representative. This means using as wide a range of test tasks as possible to balance the advantages of each against their disadvantages. However, ...
practicality: There is a logical limit to the amount of testing we can do because time is not infinitely available for the learners to do the tests or for people to mark and assess the product.
Learners, too, get tired and may be discouraged by too much testing and not perform reliably or as well as they could with a shorter test.
We can test over a period of days, of course, but this takes away from the time available for teaching and learning.
Writing good tests is also time consuming and requires some skill. The more we have to prepare, the harder it is to find the time.

Self-test questions

Before you go on, make sure you can answer these questions. If you can't, go back to the sections which give you trouble.

Explain the difference between formal and informal testing.
Give two advantages of a multiple-choice test item.
Explain the concept of practicality with reference to testing.

If you are happy with your progress, go on.

Tests and practice for TKT

You would expect a test or two in this area, wouldn't you?

Test 1	A matching task
Test 2	A 15-item gap-fill task

... return to the Module 2 index:
or go on to the next guide which is to consulting reference resources to help in lesson preparation.

TKT Core Module 2: Lesson planning and use of resources for language teaching Choosing assessment activities appropriate to learners, aims and stages of learning