Assessment and Evaluation Solution

INTRODUCTION

The present study focuses upon quality of English language learning assessment and

evaluation process in the educational system.

Evaluation in teaching English language is a process of collecting, analyzing and interpreting

information about teaching and learning in order to make informed decisions that enhance

student achievement and the success of educational programs (Rea-Dickens and Germanie,

1993; Genesee and Upshur, 1996; O’Mally and Valdez-Pierce, 1996). Evaluation is a process that includes five basic components:

1) Articulating the purpose of the educational system. 

2) Identifying and collecting relevant information.

3) Having ideas that are valuable and useful to learners in their lives and professions.

4) Analyzing and interpreting information for learners.

5) Classroom management or classroom decision making.

In classroom assessment, since teachers themselves develop, administer and analyze the questions, they are more likely to apply the results of the assessment to their own teaching.

Therefore, it provides feedback on the effectiveness of instruction and gives students a measure of their progress. As Biggs (1999) maintains, two major functions can be pointed out for

classroom assessment: One is to show whether or not the learning has been successful, and the other one is to clarify the expectations of the teachers from the students (Dunn et al., 2004).

Assessment is a process that includes four basic components:

1) Measuring improvement over time. 2) Motivating students to study. 3) Evaluating the teaching methods.

4) Ranking the students' capabilities in relation to the whole group evaluation. The purpose of classroom assessment and evaluation is to give students the opportunity to show what they have learned rather than catching them out or to show what they have not learned. Needless to say, evaluation and assessment can focus on different aspects of teaching and learning: respectively textbooks and instructional materials, student achievement, and whole

programs of instruction.

A primary concern in education is whether students attain the objectives of the course of study or curriculum scope and sequence. Objectives refer to goals of a course of instruction whether we consider instruction as a course, a unit, or a lesson. In Dictionary of Language Teaching &

Applied Linguistics two different types of objectives are distinguished: 1. General objectives, or aims, are the underlying reasons for or purposes of a course of instruction. General objectives are also called long-term goals. 2. Specific objectives or simply objectives, are

descriptions of what is to be achieved in a course. They are more detailed descriptions of exactly what a learner is expected to be able to do at the end of a period of instruction. This might be a single lesson, a chapter of a book, a term’s work, and etc. 

A description of specific objectives which can be observed and measured is known as behavioural objectives. It is important to clarify the distinction between evaluation and assessment. These terms are often used interchangeably, but they are technically different. Assessment of an individual

student’s progress or achievement is an important component of evaluation: it is that part of

evaluation that includes the measurement and analysis of information about student learning.

 The primary focus of assessment in Teaching English Language has been language assessment and the role of tests in assessing students’ language skills. Evaluation goes beyond student achievement and language assessment to consider all aspects of teaching and learning and to look at how educational decisions can be made by the results of alternative forms of assessment.