Classroom language teachers often voice frustration that their primary concern is to support students’ developing language abilities and that assessment is an additional responsibility for which they have little time. This leads to the inevitable question, Why should we assess our language learners anyway?
This question, at least in part, comes from a perception of assessment as distinct from – and perhaps even unrelated to – language teaching and learning. However, from our perspective, assessment is an integral part of language education. Assessment can be used to learn about students’ knowledge and abilities prior to, during, and at the conclusion of a course of study, and can be used for a variety of purposes. For example, it is not uncommon for students to take an entrance test in order to gain admission to a program. Quite often, entrance tests also function as placement tests as they are used to inform decisions about the appropriate level of study for individual learners in that program. These kinds of assessments serve a diagnostic function as they highlight learners’ strengths as well as areas in need of further development. During a course of study, teachers usually wish to monitor student progress. Assessment may be ongoing, with the information gained about learners on one occasion used as a basis for subsequent instructional decisions. This process is known as formative assessment. Summative assessment, in contrast, occurs at the end of a period of study (a week, a month, a semester etc.) and seeks to establish students’ mastery of course content.
As we’ll see elsewhere on this site, a number of approaches can be used to fulfill each of these assessment purposes.
Another point worth considering has to do with assessing proficiency in the classroom. Language assessments may be divided into two broad categories, those based on some theory of language and language use (proficiency assessments) and those derived from the objectives, goals, and content of a program curriculum or course syllabus (achievement assessments).
While language programs often aim to promote students’ language proficiency, the construct is usually understood in terms of specific learning goals or objectives and specific content of a course (or class). In this way, assessment in language programs usually gets at proficiency indirectly, as assessments target learner achievement relative to a curriculum or syllabus.
Next section: Current Thinking in Language Assessment