Chapter # 1: The Process of Developing Assessment

Synopsis

By Licda. Guiselle Weelkly

Chapter 1

" The Process of Developing Assessment "

Developing assessment might be for some teachers complicated, time consuming and stressing while for others it will mainly be constructing informal assessments for their own classes. However,  if language learners understand the benefits  that this involve,  things will be easy going for them.

Assessment includes six phases  and all six depends on the teaching load or other professional responsabilities,  those phaces  are:

• Planning
• Development
• Administration
• Analysis
• Feedback 
• Reflection 

Like in all that we do, correct planning is essential, and it is also for the correct process of assessment. Several steps are very important in planning assessment according to Coombe( 2008) let us see:

1. Why are you assessing?

2. What is the purpose of this assessment?.

3.  What kind of information do yo need to get from it?

4.  What  abilities do yo want to measure?

5. What kind of mental model do you have of these abilities?.

Another important fact,  said Bachman ( 1996)  is that  teachers need to take the target language  use into account in the initial stages of their assessment planning and choose assessment tasks  that reflect TLU domains in realistic or authentic ways.

There are two modes by which students particularly takes active part as they are assessed, these are:

• Elicitation Modes:  refer to ways in which responses are prompted.
• Response Modes: refer to ways a student can respond to a question.

Since we know that specification is a detailed description of exactly what is being assessed and how it is being done,  as  ELL we should make it our duty to use it because  they provide opportunities  to clarify the assessment decisions.

Constructing the assessment requires maturity,  requires also that the items that was selected be scrutinized and carefully examined by the colleagues, with the intention to better our lanching out and help students to give the highest of their capacity.  Therefore,  it is important to practice with the students, preparing them for the test, be transparent with ourselves as well as with the students.

English viewed as an international language means that we no longer focus on native-speaker standards and imparting cultural information about places where English is the primary language.  Insteadm  our focus is on clear communication in a global context,  so clearly, assessment is a useful tool for evaluating program aims, said Folse( 2008).