The Importance of Assessment

     An instructor's job does not stop after presenting a lesson. The instructor should also assess the learning occurring in the class as well as assess how well s/he is teaching. Multiple choice exams are probably the easiest way to assess students, but they aren't always the best. In her article, "Classroom practice: Practical classroom assessment," Joy Egbert presents a number of assessment strategies. The guidelines to assessment, says Egbert, are four:

1. Assessment takes place in multiple contexts.
2. Both process and outcomes are assessed.
3. Assessment is spread out over time.
4. The method of assessment fits the content and method of what was taught.

 As you can see, assessment must be varied, must be both formative (process oriented) and summative (outcome oriented), and must accurately fit the lesson that was taught. This is why multiple choice exams, such as standardized tests, are not always the most effective assessment strategy.

     Besides testing, Egbert presents strategies such as verbal reporting, written and oral retelling, self-assessment, and portfolios. I am very familiar with all the strategies she presents. Two strategies that I have not used very often are verbal reporting, and written and oral retelling. These two methods can be both formative and summative and should be further explored.

      First of all, it is important to briefly mention the difference between formative and summative assessment. Formative assessment takes place when the instructor receives feedback that helps him/her to adjust the materials and methods used in the classroom to the needs of the learner. Basically, the teacher aims to find out if the students are learning what s/he believe s/he is teaching. An instructor who truly cares whether or not students learn will chose to assess the students formatively prior to assessing them summatively. Summative assessment takes place when the instructor assigns a score to the amount of learning that has taken place. Summative is, of course, the most popular form of assessment.

     Verbal reporting is an interesting method of assessment because in verbal reporting students are asked to reflect on what they have learned and understand how they have learned. The student, through either verbal or written words, reportrs what they have learned and how they learned it. Egbert points out that in this method the instructor assesses the process of learning, not the product.

     In retelling the students summarize what they have learned either orally or verbally. The idea is that the instructor can get a deeper understanding of whether or not the students are actually learning the material. The instructor cannot fully understand the students' level of comprehension simply through traditional testing techniques such as short answer and fill-in-the-blank activities. This assessment can be used both formatively and summatively.

     There are so many viewpoints on assessment. Mine aligns with those of Egbert in that assessment is important and should be valued. Assessment should also be varied, purposeful, and fit the goals and objectives of the course.

Autonomous Learning in CALL

Many learning situations in Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) are actually autonomous situations. Students work autonomously on a software program, activities on a website, WebQuests, and many other lessons that incorporate the use of a computer. As Deborah Healey points out in her article "Theory and Research: Autonomy and Language Learning," there are varying degrees of autonomy. She quotes Benson (2002) as stating, "Autonomy is whatever an autonomous person thinks it is." That is, a group of students could work together on a computer assisted task without guidance from the teacher and feel that they are being autonomous.

An important part of Healey's article is a breakdown of autonomy into four perspectives: technical, psychological, sociocultural, and political-critical. In the technical perspective, the content is taken into consideration. Based on the learner's needs and goals, the learner should be guided by the facilitator to use a variety of materials and methods that will assist the student to grow in his/her language learning. A student could easily stop learning because s/he works on only one skill or activity. For example, I have seen students in the Language Technology Center at my language school concentrate only on learning new vocabulary words. One student in particular was so intent on learning more words that he never learned to use the words. He would write the word down with the definition in English and the translated word in his native language. If I ever pointed to a word and asked him to use it in a sentence, he could not. He got stuck at this stage for about three months before I was finally able to work with him and get him involved in other activities - such as reading books. In this case, I took away his ability to use the computer for a month.

The second perspective, the psychological perspective, looks the motivation and learning preferences of the individual learner. To me, this is something instructors struggle with. Often, due to time constraints and the inability to work with students on an individual basis or a lack of knowledge on how to assess a student on this perspective, teachers do little to increase a student's self-motivation. Students need to be directed towards self-motivation in order to be autonomous. They must be able to get over technological and other psychological barriers.

As I stated previously, sometimes autonomous learning deals requires students to work together without the constant guidance of the instructor. This leads to the consideration of the sociocultural perspective. Healey states, "A community of practice, generally larger than a pair or small group, can enhance autonomous learning by providing social, psychological, linguistic, and academic support for learning." I find this to be true. An English Language Learner (ELL) might think that s/he is the only person in the world having trouble pronouncing a particular sound or understanding and using a particular verb tense when in fact many ELLs probably have the same struggles. Feeling alone, the student may give up, but when working with others, the student will learn that s/he is not alone and, therefore, feels better about the struggle. The student may feel more motivated to overcome the situation. Another advantage to social learning is the ability for the teacher to take a further step back. The ELLs can work together to learn - they can teach each other, allowing the teacher to move from a traditional teacher role to more of a facilitator role.

The final perspective, the political-critical perspective, draws on the work of such researchers as Paulo Freire. In this perspective, autonomy is seen as a way to increase an individual's personal feeling of power. The student has an increased sense of his/her ability to control his/her learning.

As you can see, autonomy plays a very large role in CALL. CALL can create a feeling of control of one's learning and can also increase a student's motivation to learn.