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formative assessment); Performances; Student evaluation of the course (teaching effectiveness); Instructor self-evaluation.
Continuous and fixed point assessment. Continuous assessment is assessment by the teacher and possibly by the learner of class performances, pieces of work and projects throughout the course. The final grade thus reflects the whole course/year/semester. Fixed point assessment is when grades are awarded and decisions made on the basis of an examination or other assessment which takes place on a particular day, usually the end of the course or before the beginning of a course. What has happened beforehand is irrelevant; it is what the person can do now that is decisive. Assessment is often seen as something outside the course which takes place at fixed points in order to make decisions. Continuous assessment implies assessment which is integrated into the course and which contributes in some cumulative way to the assessment at the end of the course. Apart from marking homework and occasional or regular short achievement tests to reinforce learning, continuous assessment may take the form of checklists/grids completed by teachers and/or learners, assessment in a series of focused tasks, formal assessment of coursework, and/or the establishment of a portfolio of samples of work, possibly in differing stages of drafting, and/or at different stages in the course.
Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages. Fixed point assessment assures that people can still do things that might have been on the syllabus two years ago. But it leads to examination traumas and favours certain types of learners. Continuous assessment allows more account to be taken of creativity and different strengths, but is very much dependent on the teacher's capacity to be objective. It can, if taken to an extreme, turn life into one long never-ending test for the learner and a bureaucratic nightmare for the teacher.
Formal and informal assessment. Nevertheless, Bachman [1] claims that in its broadest sense assessment can be divided into two basic categories: informal and formal. The former one may be characterized as any kind of teachers' feedback aimed at the students, such as a word of encouragement, a smile, a pointed finger, a piece of advice concerning pronunciation, grammar. However, for the purposes of this thesis, the point of interest is formal assessment produced by teachers. It is referred to as formal because of the fact that it is "[a] systematic, planned sampling technique constructed to give teacher and student an appraisal of student achievement" (Brown, 2004, p. 6).
References
1. Bachman L.F. Fundamental Considerations in Language Testing. Oxford: OUP, 1990.
2. Hughes A. Testing for Language for Teachers. Cambridge: CUP, 1989.
THE IMPACT OF DIAGNOSTIC TESTS IN EDUCATION PROCESS
Hakimova D.H.
Нakimova Durdona Нudoyberdiyeva - Teacher, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTEGRATED SKILLS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGES, FACULTY OF
JUNIOR COURSES, UZBEK STATE WORLD LANGUAGES UNIVERSITY, TASHKENT, REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN
Abstract: language is a complicated thing to measure. Consequently, there are many types of language testing, each type measuring different skills for different reasons. For example, one test might ask you to read a passage out loud, while another asks you to answer questions about the passage. Let's review a few of the different types. The teachers were supposed to analyse the diagnostic tests, complete special documents and provide diagrams
with the results of each class or group if a class was divided. Then, at the end of the study year the teachers were demanded to compare the results of them with the final, achievement test. The author of the paper has used this type of test for several times, but had never gone deep into details how it is constructed, why and what for. Therefore, the facts listed below were of great value for her.
Keywords: test, assessment, diagnostic tests, placement tests, aptitude, overgeneralization.
A diagnostic test is designed to diagnose a particular aspect of a particular language. A diagnostic test in pronunciation might have the purpose of determining which particular phonological features of the language pose difficulty for a learner. Huba [1] adds that diagnostic tests are supposed to spot the students' weak and strong points. Maki [2] compares such type of test with a diagnosis of a patient, and the teacher with a doctor who states the diagnosis. Suskie [3] adds that a diagnostic test provides the student with a variety of language elements, which will help the teacher to determine what the student knows or does not know. We believe that the teacher will intentionally include the material that either is presumed to be taught by a syllabus or could be a starting point for a course without the knowledge of which the further work is not possible. Thus, we fully agree with the Heaton's comparison where he contrasts the test with a patient's diagnosis. The diagnostic test displays the teacher a situation of the students' current knowledge. This is very essential especially when the students return from their summer holidays (that produces a rather substantial gap in their knowledge) or if the students start a new course and the teacher is completely unfamiliar with the level of the group. Hence, the teacher has to consider carefully about the items s/he is interested in to teach. This consideration reflects Heaton's proposal, which stipulates that the teachers should be systematic to design the tasks that are supposed to illustrate the students' abilities, and they should know what exactly they are testing. Moreover, Huba points out that apart from the above-mentioned the most essential element of the diagnostic test is that the students should not feel depressed when the test is completed. Therefore, very often the teachers do not put any marks for the diagnostic test and sometimes even do not show the test to the learners if the students do not ask the teacher to return it. Nevertheless, regarding our own experience, the learners, especially the young ones, are eager to know their results and even demand marks for their work. Notwithstanding, it is up to the teacher whether to inform his/her students with the results or not; however, the test represents a valuable information mostly for the teacher and his/her plans for designing a syllabus.
Returning to Suskie we can emphasise his belief that this type of test is very useful for individual check. It means that this test could be applicable for checking a definite item; it is not necessary that it will cover broader topics of the language. However, further Maki assumes that this test is rather difficult to design and the size of the test can be even impractical. It means that if the teacher wants to check the students' knowledge of Present simple, s/he will require a great deal of examples for the students to choose from. It will demand a tiresome work from the teacher to compose such type of the test, and may even confuse the learners. The students immediately felt free and set to work. Later when analysing and summarizing the results the teacher realized that the students' knowledge was purely good. Certainly, there were the place the students required more practice; therefore during the next class the students were offered remedial activities on the points they had encountered any difficulties. Moreover, that was the case when the students were particularly interested in their marks.
Huba mentions yet another type of test which stays rather unnoticed by other test experts and that is aptitude test. Function of such tests is "to assess aptitude for learning a language" [1]. That is to say, they are constructed to measure the candidates' probable performance in a language which they have not started to learn yet. Since aptitude for languages consists of many factors, for example age, intelligence, motivation, memory, sensitivity to grammatical and phonological patterning, it is impossible to take all these factors in account when
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constructing this type of test. One way to a better designing of aptitude tests is, according to Suskie [3], focusing on various aspects according to the specific tasks for which a candidate is being trained. To conclude, we can conceive that interpreting the results of diagnostic tests the teachers apart from predicting why the student has done the exercises the way s/he has, but not the other, will receive a significant information about his/her group s/he is going to work with and later use the information as a basis for the forming syllabus.
References
1. Huba M. and Freed J. (2000). Learner-Centered Assesment on College Campuses. Shifting the Focus from Teaching to Learning. Allyn and Bacon (Available in the Institutional Assessment Program).
2. Maki P. (2004). Assessing for Learning: Building a Sustainable Commitment Across the Institution. Stylus, Sterling, Virginia. (Available in the Institutional Assesment Program).
3. Suskie L. (2004). Assessing Student Learning. A Common Sense Guide. Anker Publishing Co. (Available in the Institutional Assessment Program).
ПОВЫШЕНИЕ УРОВНЯ ТЕХНИЧЕСКОЙ ПОДГОТОВКИ СТУДЕНТОВ ПРИ РАБОТЕ НАД ЭТЮДАМИ Рахимова Н.К.
Рахимова Нигина Кахрамонжоновна - преподаватель, кафедра подготовки учителей вокального и инструментального исполнительства, Институт исскуства узбекской национальной музыки им. Ю. Ражаби, г. Ташкент, Республика Узбекистан
Аннотация: в данной статье говорится, как передать студентам комплекс исполнительских навыков и умений, обучить их техническим приёмам, необходимым для профессионального исполнения высокохудожественных произведений фортепианной литературы, а также повысить уровень их профессионально технической подготовки. Применяется поэтапная методика разучивания инструктивных этюдов: разучивание фрагментов этюдов в медленном темпе, использование в процессе разучивания упражнений, способствующих более успешному освоению различных видов фортепианной техники, постепенный переход к разучиванию в более подвижных темпах более продолжительных фрагментов этюдов. Обучение студентов умению слышать и оценивать своё исполнение, ощущая взаимосвязь реального звучания и музыкально-слуховых представлений. Ключевые слова: этюды, фортепиано, техника, навыки, исполнение, студенты.
УДК 372.878
В процессе обучения используется большой по объёму репертуар. На протяжении всего периода обучения студенты изучают и исполняют произведения детского репертуара, а также пьесы, полифонические произведения, крупную форму, ансамбли, этюды. В данной статье рассматривается проблема повышения уровня технической подготовки студентов в музыкально-исполнительской деятельности при работе над инструктивными этюдами. Проблема эта актуальна, поскольку обучаются студенты с разным уровнем подготовки. Именно изучение и исполнение этюдов разной степени трудности является важным педагогическим условием эффективного повышения уровня технической подготовки студентов, необходимой в дальнейшем для качественного исполнения высокохудожественных музыкальных произведений
