TSL 3123 Language Assessments

Part 1
Classroom observation on Language Assessment

The Task
a. Observe an English language lesson conducted by your partner. Pay special
attention to the test instruments / tasks employed by your partner to assess any
language skill or language content.
b. In about 1000 words, write a report your observation to evaluate the test
instruments / tasks employed with reference to four basic principles of language
assessments. Comment on strength and weaknesses of the test instruments /
tasks and where applicable, suggest improvements to make it more effective.
Support your views and opinions with related literature.

TSL 3123 Language Assessments

1.0 Introduction
According to

Priscilla Allen, 2009 as stated in languagetesting.com, in the

context of language teaching and learning, 'assessment' refers to the act of collecting
information and making judgments about a language learner's knowledge of a language
and ability to use it.
2.0 Content of the lesson / assessments
The lesson conducted was a one hour lesson on Language Arts for year four
pupils based on contemporary literature of primary schools. The lesson focus on
anthology of poems for year four which is Woodpecker by Brenda Williams. On the set
induction stages, teacher trigger pupils prior knowledge by asking pupils to guess name
of birds on flash card shown by the teacher. The picture use to give clear ideas to pupils
on the name of birds and its characteristics. Teacher also use text of poem to introduce
and explain the woodpeckers poem to the pupils. In presentation stage teacher
demonstrate reciting the poems together with the action for each action of the
woodpecker.
3.0 Language skills or language contents being assessed.
The language skills assessed for the lesson was based on language arts and the
language contents tests by the teacher was vocabulary. From my observation, the
teacher focused on the name of birds and the actions perform by the birds. For
example, woodpecker is tapping on the tree, owl is sleeping on the tree, and parrots
is flying on the tree. During practice stage, teacher has distributed a worksheet of the
poem that have blank space where pupils required to fill in with name of various bird
and verb that related to the birds behavior. This showed that the teacher used
vocabulary where she focused on the verbs and name of the birds. Continued to
practice stage, the language content was used to assess the pupils through
presentation is to perform by reciting the poem based on the worksheet they have done
together with the actions.

TSL 3123 Language Assessments

4.0 Instruments / tasks used for the assessments

According to (

) there are many type of language assessments such as

.. In this lesson the teacher had use worksheets where the pupils had to discuss
in a group to choose a suitable actions word that related to the bird woodpecker. They
are required to discuss with group members and come out with only one actions word to
fill in the blanks. The pupils also require to practice on their own reciting the poem
together with the action based on the action words they have decided. Then they have
to perform by reciting the poem together with actions at in front of the class. The
assessments was conducted to see whether the pupils were able to use correct actions
words to describe the behavior of the woodpecker. Another task used for the
assessment was pupils need to produce their own poem by referring to the woodpecker
poem by substituting the name of the birds and the actions that suitable with the birds.
This assessment was carry out to test pupils knowledge on various type of birds and
vocabulary of action words.
5.0 Instruments / tasks used related to principle of language assessment
5.1 Worksheets
5.1.1 Strengths
5.1.1.1 Practicality
According to (

) practicality is .. From my point of view, the

assessments instrument that used by the teacher was practical in term of cost and time.
The teacher had provide six sets of fill in blanks exercises in A4 size paper. Each group
will get one A4 which have five to six members per group. The pupils required to cut the
paper and give the task to each members. In this context, the teacher only used eight
piece of A4 size paper to give a worksheet to 50 number of pupils in the class. Thus,
this make the teacher stay within budgetary limit in preparing the instruments for this
assessments. According to (

) time allocation is The pupils had given 10 minutes

TSL 3123 Language Assessments

to complete the task, where they had to cut, discuss and practice for the presentation.
From my observation, the pupils were able to complete the assessments with the
allocated time given.
5.1.2 Weaknesses
5.1.2.1 Unclear instruction of the task
From my observation, I found out that there was no written instruction on the
worksheet given to the pupils. The teacher seem using only verbal instruction to explain
the tasks to the pupils. The assessments require pupils to discuss in group to come out
with one action word to fill in the blanks with suitable to character of the bird. Since
there are no written instruction on the worksheets, the pupils got confused weather each
member need to come out with different action words for each of them or all group
members use only one actions word. This make the teacher struggle to explain the
instruction group by group individually. Thus, the instruments does not fit the
assessment criteria which is validity since no clear instruction given to the pupils.
According to ( ) clear instruction should be .
5.2 Presentation
5.2.1 Strength
5.2.1.1 Validity
According to (

) validity of an assessments is based on .. In

practice stages, the pupils are being assess by reciting poem of woodpecker in a group
based on the worksheet they have completed before. The pupils need to recite the
poem together with the actions that they have decided from the previous activity with
correct intonation, rhythm and stress. From my point of view, this assessment seem
aligned with the lesson objective and lesson standard which enable pupils to recite the
poem with correct stress, pronunciation, rhythm and intonation. Thus this assessments
help pupils to practice reciting the poem and help them to remember the vocabulary of
action verb by looking at presentation of their friends. This assessments also suite the
criteria because it asses the pupils about the content that they already learnt.

TSL 3123 Language Assessments

5.2.2 Weaknesses
5.2.2.1 Reliability / The tasks have no aspect to assess
Although all group manage to complete the tasks within the allocated period, the
teacher does not provide any specific aspect or rubric to assess the presentation.
Without given specific guideline, the task become merely an ordinary presentation that
cannot be counted as a reliable tasks. The teacher only depends on pupils to decide the
score to give to each groups. Human error, subjectivity and bias may enter into scoring
process (Brown, 2010). The teacher ask pupils to give stars out of five stars to mark
the group achievements. In this cases the assessments have intra-rater reliability
problem where it was caused by internal factor by the teacher himself which have failed
to provide clear scoring criteria. This may lead to inconsistency evaluation across the
performance because there are no clear aspects to be assess. This assessment can be
bias toward certain group as the teacher asks pupils to give mark for their friends
achievements.
6.0 Suggestion for Improvements
6.1 Use clear instructions for each task given