The Common European Framework in its political and educational context What is the Common European Framework?

Assessment
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9.3.5
Formative assessment/summative assessment
Formative assessment is an ongoing process of gathering information on the extent of
learning, on strengths and weaknesses, which the teacher can feed back into their course
planning and the actual feedback they give learners. Formative assessment is often used
in a very broad sense so as to include non-quantifiable information from questionnaires
and consultations. 
Summative assessment sums up attainment at the end of the course with a grade. It is
not necessarily proficiency assessment. Indeed a lot of summative assessment is norm-
referenced, fixed-point, achievement assessment.
The strength of formative assessment is that it aims to improve learning. The weakness
of formative assessment is inherent in the metaphor of feedback. Feedback only works if
the recipient is in a position (a) to notice, i.e. is attentive, motivated and familiar with the
form in which the information is coming, (b) to receive, i.e. is not swamped with informa-
tion, has a way of recording, organising and personalising it; (c) to interpret, i.e. has suffi-
cient pre-knowledge and awareness to understand the point at issue, and not to take
counterproductive action and (d) to integrate the information, i.e. has the time, orienta-
tion and relevant resources to reflect on, integrate and so remember the new informa-
tion. This implies self-direction, which implies training towards self-direction,
monitoring one’s own learning, and developing ways of acting on feedback. 
Such learner training or awareness raising has been called évaluation formatrice. A
variety of techniques may be used for this awareness training. A basic principle is to
compare impression (e.g. what you say you can do on a checklist) with the reality, (e.g.
actually listening to material of the type mentioned in the checklist and seeing if you do
understand it). DIALANG relates self-assessment to test performance in this way. Another
important technique is discussing samples of work – both neutral examples and samples
from learners and encouraging them to develop a personalised metalanguage on aspects
of quality. They can then use this metalanguage to monitor their work for strengths and
weaknesses and to formulate a self-directed learning contract.
Most formative or diagnostic assessment operates at a very detailed level of the partic-
ular language points or skills recently taught or soon to be covered. For diagnostic assess-
ment the lists of exponents given in section 5.2 are still too generalised to be of practical
use; one would need to refer to the particular specification which was relevant
(Waystage, Threshold, etc.). Grids consisting of descriptors defining different aspects of
competence at different levels (Chapter 4) can, however, be useful to give formative feed-
back from a speaking assessment. 
The Common Reference Levels would appear to be most relevant to summative assess-
ment. However, as the DIALANG Project demonstrates, feedback from even a summative
assessment can be diagnostic and so formative.
9.3.6
Direct assessment/indirect assessment
Direct assessment is assessing what the candidate is actually doing. For example, a small
group are discussing something, the assessor observes, compares with a criteria grid,
matches the performances to the most appropriate categories on the grid, and gives an
assessment.
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: learning, teaching, assessment
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Indirect assessment, on the other hand, uses a test, usually on paper, which often assesses
enabling skills.
Direct assessment is effectively limited to speaking, writing and listening in interac-
tion, since you can never see receptive activity directly. Reading can, for example, only
be assessed indirectly by requiring learners to demonstrate evidence of understanding
by ticking boxes, finishing sentences, answering questions, etc. Linguistic range and
control can be assessed either directly through judging the match to criteria or indirectly
by interpreting and generalising from the responses to test questions. A classic direct test
is an interview; a classic indirect test is a cloze.
Descriptors defining different aspects of competence at different levels in Chapter 5
can be used to develop assessment criteria for direct tests. The parameters in Chapter 4
can inform the selection of themes, texts and test tasks for direct tests of the productive
skills and indirect tests of listening and reading. The parameters of Chapter 5 can in addi-
tion inform the identification of key linguistic competences to include in an indirect test
of language knowledge, and of key pragmatic, sociolinguistic and linguistic competences
to focus on in the formulation of test questions for item-based tests of the four skills.