4 Handy Types of Assessment in Language Teaching That Stray from Tradition

4 Handy Types of Assessment in Language Teaching That Stray from Tradition
Test, assessment, exam…
Words so terrifying they send chills down the spines of even the most accomplished students.
That may be a bit dramatic, but here’s a fact: Practically no one likes tests.
The good news is that over the past thirty years, testing has seen a massive transformation and an even bigger rebranding.
We’ve moved beyond using exclusively standardized formats. Now there’s an array of more tailored and student-centric approaches to assessing an individual’s ability and progress.
Having diverse assessment options in your teaching toolkit will help you keep your curriculum strategic and your students motivated. It will also allow students to gauge how they are progressing and how they’ll likely fare when confronted with real language usage such as a conversation with a native speaker or a video from FluentU.
FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language lessons.
Let’s take a look at what the modern assessment landscape looks like so that you can tackle testing with confidence.
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4 Types of Assessments to Spoon into Your Foreign Language Teaching
1. Friendly Diagnostic
Staying aware of your students’ skill levels can be the difference between a well balanced semester or one that comes down to hectically cramming students with information a week before their final exam.
Diagnostic tests essentially help us evaluate a student’s proficiency level in order to optimally design or adjust a curriculum. The term diagnostic testing is used liberally throughout public school systems, particularly in language classes.
Diagnostic tests don’t need to be serious and scary.
In fact, by making them friendly and relaxed you’ll be able to incorporate them more often, keeping your course planning consistently well informed.
Remember the following tips to help you incorporate friendly diagnostic testing that can become routine:

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  Go gradeless. These tests are used to benefit course planning. In order to get an accurate idea of students’ capabilities, we don’t want them to hold back. Taking away grades decreases their fear of failure and can lead to more accurate results. Soon the students won’t even dread them anymore and you can use them regularly.
  

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  Be consistent. Have students take a diagnostic test at least once a month and get in the habit of regularly tweaking your curriculum based on the results.
  

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