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2. Polat E.S. The method of projects in foreign language lessons // Foreign languages at school, 2000. № 3. P. 3-9.
THE USE OF ASSESSMENT IN THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS
Umarov B.N.
Umarov Bobir Norboyevich - Teacher, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTEGRATED SKILLS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGES, FACULTY OF
JUNIOR COURSES, UZBEK STATE WORLD LANGUAGES UNIVERSITY, TASHKENT, REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN
Abstract: the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), being a major influence on language teaching across Europe, and Uzbekistan included, presents an extensive list of individual types of assessment, some examples being: formative/summative assessment, subjective/objective assessment, direct/indirect assessment, holistic/analytic assessment. It should be noted that there are as many divisions of individual types of assessment as there are authors dealing with this issue. In other words, the layout of the classification overlaps and coincides with others according to the criteria that are used to create the particular classification.
Keywords: testing, formative/summative assessment, subjective/objective assessment, direct/indirect assessment, holistic/analytic assessment, portfolio.
According to Hughes (2003), formative assessment serves the purpose of forming both the teaching as well as the learning part of the educational process. In other words that means that teachers use the feedback of such kind of assessment to monitor and modify their teaching plans and techniques and students may use it to see their progress and change their learning strategies accordingly [2, p. 5]. To build on the terminology of the previous division, each and every informal assessment is formative. Assessment and testing considerably differ from each other. While testing is formal and often standardized, assessment is based on a collection of information about what students know and what they are able to do. In other words, students are given the exact procedures for administering and scoring in testing. In assessment, on the other hand, there are multiple ways and methods of collecting information at different times and contexts.
Types of Formative Assessment
Observations during in-class activities; of students non-verbal feedback during lecture; Homework exercises as review for exams and class discussions); Reflections journals that are reviewed periodically during the semester; Question and answer sessions, both formal— planned and informal—spontaneous; Conferences between the instructor and student at various points in the semester; In-class activities where students informally present their results; Student feedback collected by periodically answering specific question about the instruction and their self-evaluation of performance and progress. Summative assessment, by contrast, sums up what the students have learned over a period of time - usually a unit, semester or the whole year and looks back at how successful the students have been in achieving the objective(s) of the unit, semester or the whole year [2].
Types of Summative Assessment
Examinations (major, high-stakes exams); Final examination (a truly summative assessment); Term papers (drafts submitted throughout the semester would be a formative assessment); Projects (project phases submitted at various completion points could be formatively assessed); Portfolios (could also be assessed during its development as a
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
