CC BY
11
УДК 37.013
И. С. Денисенко, Г. М. Фролова
Денисенко И. С., аспирант каф. лингводидактики МГЛУ,
учитель английского языка гимназии «Восточное Измайлово» №1811
e-mail: ilya.denisenko@gmail.com
Фролова Г. М., кандидат педагогических наук, профессор, заведующая каф. лингводидактики МГЛУ; e-mail: 9mf.06@mail.ru
РАЗРАБОТКА АУТЕНТИЧНЫХ МАТЕРИАЛОВ ДЛЯ ОЦЕНКИ УРОВНЯ ОБУЧЕННОСТИ АНГЛИЙСКОМУ ЯЗЫКУ УЧАЩИХСЯ ОБЩЕОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНЫХ УЧРЕЖДЕНИЙ
Статья раскрывает понятие «аутентичная оценка межкультурной коммуникативной компетенции», описывает основные характеристики аутентичной оценки и проводит ее сравнение с традиционными способами контроля и оценки уровня сформированности иноязычной коммуникативной компетенции.
Ключевые слова: межкультурная коммуникативная компетенция; аутентичность; аутентичная оценка; разработка контрольных материалов; аутентичная ситуация общения.
I. S. Denisenko, G. M. Frolova
Denisenko I. S., Postgraduate, Foreign Language Teaching
Department, MSLU; teacher of English in Moscow state school 1811;
e-mail: ilya.denisenko@gmail.com
Frolova G. M., Head of Foreign Language
Teaching Department, MSLU;
PhD, Professor; e-mail: 9mf.06@mail.ru
DESIGNING MATERIALS FOR AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE SKILLS AND COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOL
This article focuses on authentic assessment of cross-cultural communicative competence, points out basic characteristics of authentic assessment and compares it with traditional ways of assessing language skills.
Key words: cross-cultural communicative competence, authenticity, authentic assessment, test building, authentic situational context.
Authenticity was first recognized as one of the characteristics of native speech [1], and articles, letters, advertisements, TV and radio programs and other oral and written texts produced by native speakers were not as
often used for educational purposes as they are today. However, more and more educationalists have been arguing that authentic materials could and should be used for teaching and assessing foreign language skills, particularly if accompanied by specially designed tasks [3]. Dealing with such tasks students find themselves in real-life situations when their overall competence is displayed. That is why today authenticity is also viewed as a characteristic of a teaching and learning task [5]. Authentic and meaningful communication should be the goal of classroom activities, which is the principle of methodology today [6]. Authentic tasks are modeled on natural, real-life communication with a view to developing students' communicative skills.
Assessing cross-cultural communicative competence authentically means trying to reproduce a natural social environment, its challenges and conditions. Some authentic ways of assessment have been developed for some time. John Dewey, G. Wiggins, J. Mueller, D. Newman, J. Michael O'Malley, D. Collison, JohnN. Bergan, S. Chappius, E. Badger, C. Chapman and others see authentic assessment in the classroom as a process of life-task solving when students try the tasks they meet in educational, social and professional life[9]. Some criticize traditional tests for their artificial tasks [11; 12], others - for the fact that they make students remember the correct answer or even cheat instead of trying to get their message across and performing a practical task. On traditional assessments, students are typically given several choices (e.g., a, b, c or d; true or false) and asked to select the right answer. In contrast, authentic assessments ask students to demonstrate understanding by performing a more complex task, usually representative of more meaningful application [7; 8]. Researchers agree that the best way to demonstrate your communicative competence is to do a practical task successfully, and they argue that authentic assessment can play a major role not only in language skills evaluation itself, but also in meeting the educational needs of students and their mentors.
According to the Russian Educational Standard school leavers are expected to acquire competences in a particular subject, like English as a foreign language, to develop interdisciplinary skills and to improve as a personality. The students' progress in English as a result of doing a particular course based on a student book can be measured by traditional methods like standardized tests, international or national exams. For example,
Common European Framework (CEFR) suggests measuring subject results of language education by awarding levels (from A to C). Interdisciplinary results show how a student can use different reading strategies, negotiating skills, critical thinking and IT skills for processing information. Personal results reflect the development of learning motivation, tolerance, cultural awareness, etc. Unfortunately, there is a certain contradiction between the results sought and the way the results are assessed. Traditional discrete and integrated skills tests that are mostly used in the national language exam do not really reflect students' level of language proficiency.
The aim of the proposed authentic approach to building test materials is to assess a complex of skills and competences. Being focused on intercultural communicative competence, authentic tests evaluate strategic, linguistic and cultural competences simultaneously. An experiment showed that authentic tests can also be useful in evaluating interdisciplinary skills. An authentic test is made up of a set of tasks based on the same context and topic.
For the student authentic assessment goes through three stages: performance, presentation and feedback. Self-evaluation is very important for the method that is also aimed at developing students' reflection skills.
Table 1
Authentic assessment model
Stage of the authentic test Teacher's role Student's role
1 Performance (application of required skills and competences) Sets a task; acts as an interlocutor Works on an authentic task
2 Presentation of the results Provides feedback, commenting on and discussing the work done Presents the results
3 Feedback Grades the student, collects data Reflects on the work done, reviews the results if necessary, presents the results a second time
One of the most important features of an authentic test is that it is built round a situational context. Context is an important factor of a person's perception of the situation he finds himself in [2]. Context in an authentic
test is created by the thematic unity of the tasks. An authentic situational context recreates a real-life situation that students may have to deal with outside the classroom. Demonstrating cross-cultural communicative competence while solving practical tasks is essential. It helps teachers to assess their students' performance holistically, instead of testing a number of separate language skills.
An authentic situational context allows students to demonstrate key competences which are expected to be developed at a particular school level. Struggling with a sensible task works for both educational and evaluation purposes. Thoroughly organised feedback is crucial to the method: it has a wash back effect necessary for further skills development as both the students and the teacherget immediate information about the learners' progress.
Each authentic test has one, carefully developed theme. Choosing the theme it is important to take into account the students' interests and age. The topic should be connected with students' everyday life, they need to have some first-hand experience in it. It is desirable for the topic to be interdisciplinary and connected with the students' experience in other fields.
An authentic test consists of four stages, each of which has its own objectives.
Table 2
Authentic test objectives according to the test stages
Stage of the authentic test Main test objectives
Preparatory Listening: ability to understand the facts and logic. Reading: ability to separate the main and additional information, ability to understand the idea of the test.
Design and research (project stage) Ability to formulate the research goals, critical thinking, creativity, problem solving skills.
Presentation Speaking: ability to describe thinks, to developa topic, to produce coherent reasoning while discussing a topic; to use language adequate to the purpose of speaking.
Double checking Writing: ability to create a clear, coherent text, to use different language patterns accurately. Self-evaluation: ability to understand the reasons of success and failure.
Listening and reading tasks in the authentic test are used not only for assessment and evaluation, but they also play an important role in introducing the topic. A movie or an audio recording and a reading text build up a context of the work. This context is relevant to the next stages when students do a project, present it and writya paper related to it or based on it. As a result of the project stage students are expected to make a presentation, write a letter, a comment or an essay, create a blog post or an advert. The results are discussed with a teacher. The discussion has two parts: first, the student makes an oral presentation (oral production), which followed by a question and answer session (oral interaction). This discussion makes it possible to assess the students' speaking skills, both oral production and oral interaction.
To assess and grade students' performance two descriptive scales have been developed. The aim of the first is to evaluate their communicative competence, it specifies the objects of assessment and contains descriptors of the main skills sought. The second helps to assess some other important effects of foreign language study, like students' logic, information procession skills, general background etc.
The first is used to grade students, or give them marks, like 'excellent', 'good', or 'satisfactory'. If students are not graded, the results of an authentic test are collected in students' portfolios and described as highly developed, developed enough and poorly developed. As a result of evaluating a student's oral or written performance with the help of the descriptors, the student gets some important information about his or her individual progress and gaps in skills and competences, on the one hand, and teachers get feedback on the efficiency of their language teaching, on the other.
Table 3
An extract from authentic assessment scale 1
A2-B1 Subject skills - the student
Reading understands the main idea of the text understands texts on related topic understands explicit information
Interdisciplinary skills - the student
Reading understands the task adequately finds the main facts to characterise the object deduces the meaning of unfamiliar words from the context
Here is an example of an authentic test meant for A2+ students. The topic of the test is "The transport system of London: the bicycle". The topic is relevant to students as many of them ride a bike to school. At the preparatory stage students read an extract form Colin West's "Grandad's Boneshaker Bicycle", watch a video about different bike types (https://youtu.be/bulQMlRyTEA) followed by a task:
Match the type of the bike with its description
are designed to be ridden fast on smooth pavement.
are design for riding rough off-road trails.
were originally conceived to provide the advantages of both road bikes and mountain bikes.
are similar to hybrid bikes, in that they are designed for casual riding, and have a very comfortable, upright riding position, and a large, comfortable seat.
are popular with kids because of their small size, but they are used by adults and kids alike for various styles of trick and stunt riding.
are ideal for those who need to travel with their bike, want a bike to keep on their boat or plane, or who live in small apartments and don't have a lot of storage space.
An authentic context created is by the following task:
"You are in a bike rental station. Which route would you prefer? What type of bicycle will be the best choice to ride to Jim's house for you? What makes you think so?"
Jim lives in the suburbs of London. There is a map with the routes from the bike rental to his house in front of the students. There are some areas "pavement", "ground", "river", "forest", "cycle superhighway". The station worker (the teacher or a classmate) helps with the choice by asking:
• Who do you ride with (with your friends / parents / alone)?
• What experience in riding a bike have you had in the past that you liked / disliked?
• What would you like to do with your new bike?
• Where would you like to go?
A group of students with extra Math lessons can get an additional task. The task is to calculate the cheapest or the fastest way taking into
1) Road bicycles a)
2) BMX bikes b)
3) Folding bicycles c)
4) Cruiser bicycles d)
5) Mountain bicycles
6) Hybrid or comfort bicycles
e)
f)
consideration the supplied prices / speeds of bikes and all routes lengths. Apart from assessing language skills, a task like that can show how a student(s) is good at mathematics as well. For example in speed distance time equations.
Using a foreign language as a means of communication while solving a practical task helps to assess the students' competence authentically.
At the research stage of the test students get the following task:
"My Dad often commutes to work on a bike. It's very comfortable to rent
one, because we live near a docking station. He is an architect and works in
an office. That's why he enjoys riding a bike. He says it helps him to keep fit.
This summer my Dad is going to Moscow for three months on business. I'd
love to ask you whether it's possible to rent a bike in Moscow."
Students will have to compare Moscow and London bike rental systems studying the video by London transport department (https://tfl.gov.uk/ modes/cycling/) and the site about a similar initiative in Moscow (http:// velobike.ru/en/).
Students are to develop some practical recommendations for Jim's Dad, keeping in mind the place of work and stay.
• Do you have a bike rental system in Moscow?
• Is it different from London's?
• How can a person rent a bike?
• Where can Jim's Dad find the closest docking station?
• Find out what interesting buildings Jim's Dad can see while going to work and back. Suggest a sightseeing route for him.
The results of the work after all stages can be posted in a blog (www. englishclub1811.wordpress.com) as an example of good work for analysis by other students.
Pilot testing in Moscow school 1811 showed positive results. Authentic testing can evaluate students' results efficiently, provide actual information about student's performance, and satisfy the educational needs of students and the requirements of the educational standard. It illustrates students' ability to work with information, produces a positive impact on their motivation, and develops their self-assessment skills. Further research can be carried out to analyze the possibility of integrating authentic testing into the foreign language school syllabus.
Вестник МГЛУ. Выпуск 3 (742) / 2016
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