Samuel Becket ____________ born in Dublin in 1906

Unit 7

Evaluation and Testing

Tests It is often appropriate to give tests at different stages in a course; at the start your students may be given a placement test to assist the formation of groups of students at the same level, or a diagnostic test which is designed to tell you and the students what they do and don't know at the beginning of a course.

Teachers often give a periodic progress test on the work covered. This can be in the form of a formal written test, or a more informal group activity, even a game – as long as it gives information to both you and the student as to how they are progressing. These tests may be every week, month, term, or after a certain amount of the course book has been covered. Often this decision will be dictated by the school, if not, you will have to decide.

Many teachers prefer to give regular but short tests and then a longer, formal test every term. If the students are following a course leading to an external examination, they are usually eager to do practice tests to get some idea of how close they are to the required standard, and also to get used to the structure of the examination.

Another test that students might take is an achievement test, which is usually an internal test given at the end of a course e.g. at the end of the school year. Other options include external examinations, offered by organisations such as Cambridge Assessment, and proficiency tests, which are not course related but claim to measure proficiency in English at particular levels such as the the Common European Framework Levels, mentioned in unit 1.

External exams are usually taken at a recognized testing center, rather than the language school itself. All the others are internal exams, offered by the language center for internal use.

Placement tests These tests are designed to enable teachers to place new students into the correct class according to their language ability. Most schools conduct this type of testing by multiple choice questions (to check their knowledge of grammar and vocabulary) and a spoken interview to make sure the student is also able to communicate and participate at the required level. These kinds of tests usually start with fairly simple questions and become progressively more difficult. This should allow the teacher to gauge the language level of the student. In the written part of the test it is useful to also include a few general questions that require more expansive answers, as this will provide more information about the written fluency level.

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