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Unit 18 - Assessment types and tasks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2012

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Summary

What are assessment types and tasks?

Assessment means judging learners' performance by collecting information about it. We assess learners for different reasons, using different methods to do so. Assessment tasks are the tasks we use for assessing learners. We can assess learners informally or formally. Informal assessment is when we observe learners to see how well they are doing something and then often give them comments on their performance. Formal assessment is when we assess learners through tests or exams and give their work a mark or a grade.

Key concepts

List all the reasons you can think of for assessing learners formally.

There are several reasons why we might want to assess learners formally:

  1. 1 At the beginning of a course we might give them a test to find out (diagnose) what they know and don't know. This is called a diagnostic test. The information from this type of test helps us decide what to teach and which learners need help in which areas of language.

  2. 2 When learners go to a language school or evening classes, the school may want to know what level the learners are at, so they give them a test. This is called a placement test. We use the information from a placement test to decide what level of class the learners should go into.

  3. […]

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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