The Art and Science of Assessment

Correia, Rúben Constatino

http://hdl.handle.net/10362/174442

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Correia, Rúben Constatino

Resumo(s)

Speaking has been increasingly promoted in language syllabuses and curriculums, both in Portugal and internationally, as one of the major aims of foreign language teaching. Naturally, the importance of oral skills has led to increasing research in this area, with the focus largely on the need to measure ability and the best way to do it. Unsurprisingly, considerable attention has been drawn both to assessment and the context in which it operates. However, the unique features of speaking make it the most challenging skill to assess. Bearing this in mind, and my role as both researcher and teacher with a vested interest in speaking, I spent almost a full school year at a Portuguese public school cluster doing classroom observation in an attempt to chart: a) – typical classroom interactions between learners / teachers and learners / learners, and b) – the general nature of most speaking events taking place in the classroom, including that of assessment. Findings seem to evidence that Portuguese EFL teachers appear to be at odds with designing suitable assessment procedures for monitoring students’ progress. There is a narrow view of assessment as synonymous with testing, and thus the grading function, which largely contributes to the dominance of summative assessment over formative assessment.