Part 3 (a) : Critical Report

Name: Zahirah binti Dzanimi

Class: 6 PISMP TESL B

For the subject Language Assessment ( TSL 3112 ), there are three tasks that I

need to complete which are the written report the classroom observation, the lesson

plan and assessment and the critical report that I have gained in designing, constructing

and using a test or an assessment task in the ESL primary classroom. Assessment is

an integral component of learning and teaching. It refers to all processes employed by

academic staff to make judgements about the achievement of students in units of study

and over a course of study. These processes include making decisions about what is

relevant evidence for a particular purpose, how to collect and interpret the evidence and

how to communicate it.

Based on my classroom observation with teacher advisor, I have learnt many

experiences on how to design an effective test. From what I have read and discussed

with my teacher, the assessment needs to be divided for three levels and with correct

weightage. Thus, I constructed more easy and medium questions compared to the

difficult questions. The test designed also should contain four levels of Bloom’s

Taxonomy which are remembering, understanding, applying and analysing where it is

suitable with the average level pupils as they were not difficult for the pupils to answer

the questions. I must ensure that the assessment that I designed based on the

assessment specifications are well constructed and fair selected response test by

ensuring that a range of thinking levels and reasoning is targeted with the most

appropriate styles of questions such as multiple choice, true false, matching, and fill in

the blank. Furthermore, I also designed the assessment based on the topics that they

have learned. By including the topics that they have learned in the test, it would be easy

for them to answer the questions as they already familiar with the questions given and

they know how to answer it without taking a lot of time in the assessment.

12

By doing this coursework, I had identified several important key components

in designing assessment. The first step in developing a test item should be to link,

directly to the test specifications and content standards, the content and skill that the

item is supposed to measure. If the items require a high level of English proficiency,

unrelated to the construct as defined, this will likely affect the scores for pupils as

well as students in the general population. For example, I must refer back to the

basic principles of language assessment like validity. Validity is the extent to which

inferences made from assessment result are appropriate, meaningful, and useful for

the purpose of the assessment. It is the most complicated yet the most important

principle. An assessment is said to have content validity when it actually samples the

subject matter about which conclusion are to be drawn, and require the test–taker to

perform the behavior being measured. For example, speaking ability is tested using

speaking performance, not pencil and paper test. It can be identified when we can

define the achievement being measured. It can be achieved by making a direct test

performance. For example to test pronunciation teacher should require the students

to pronounce the target words orally.

In addition for my insights in carrying this task, during the implementation of

the assessment, I found that most of the pupils can answer the labelling and the

matching questions easily without any confusion. Before this, most of them had the

same problems where they found it difficult to understand and answered the

questions of those items. Therefore, in order to overcome these problems from

occurred again, I needed to ensure that I must choose the test items carefully after

this to suit their levels. I also must consider their ability to understand certain

vocabularies as well as their cognitive skills so that they would not feel lost during

answering the assessment. As the teacher, I must take into account all of these

aspects in order to produce or design the good quality of the assessment.

Based on my lesson plan, I also learnt that assessment and tests often play

a significant role in the overall performances of pupils’ learning. Therefore, as the

teacher, it is essential that I pay particular attention to the manner in which I

constructed these test instruments. Besides that, I will always take into account to

keep the lesson goals and learning objectives at the forefront of my mind as I begin

to determine what kind of test is the best measure of my pupils’ learning. To that

end, if it fits with my lesson plan and content, I will consider alternate forms of

13

assessment such as group projects, student portfolios or other activities that extend

and build throughout the learning of the year. These alternative or non-traditional

forms of assessment frequently offer pupils a more authentic opportunity to apply

their knowledge and higher-order thinking skills.

Other than that, I gained a lot of knowledge about the oral assessment. By

referring to the oral assessment that has been carried out by my teacher and I, oral

assessments allow students to respond directly to the teacher’s questions and/or to

present prepared statements. These assessments are especially popular in

language courses that demand ‘speaking’ but they can be used to assess

understanding in almost any course by following the guidelines for the composition of

short answer questions. Some of the principle advantages to oral assessments are

that they provide nearly immediate feedback and so allow the student to learn as

they are tested. To ensure that students have access to written feedback, I take

notes during oral exams using a rubric and/or checklist and provide a photocopy of

the notes to the students. By doing this, I have learnt on how to assess pupils

formatively.

Other than that, I have understand that a teacher should use clear and

accessible language. This means that the language of presentation should be as

simple and clear. For example, when carrying out the assessment, teacher should

initiates the class by giving clear instruction to the pupils. Moreover, they are from

average proficiency pupils. If I fail to make they understand my instruction, the

assessment will not be able to give any advantages in term of their performances. As

a teacher, I should be able to make use of the language assessment for their

language learning acquisition. Some general guidelines for using accessible

language are teacher used vocabulary that will be widely accessible to pupils and

avoid colloquial and idiomatic expressions, words with multiple meanings, and

unduly challenging words that are not part of the construct. I also needs to keep

sentence structures as simple as possible to express the intended meaning. For

example, a number of simple sentences are often more accessible than a single

more complex sentences.

14

Overall, I found that creating tests and other forms of assessment can be a

challenging task, but there are plenty of resources available in order to design a

good quality of test. As teachers, we need to look at many aspects before designing

or constructing the test so that the final product will be good in quality as well as in

quantity. Last but not least, I hoped that my lecturer will satisfied with the products of

my work because I had put a lot of effort in completing this task.

15