The four main language skills that are assessed are reading, writing, listening, and speaking. These skills should be integrated during assessment rather than tested individually to allow for a more authentic assessment of language ability. Grammar, vocabulary and phonology are not valid assessments when isolated and must be assessed through skills. There are two factors to consider in integrated skills assessment: performance, how a student carries out a task, and competence, their ability to achieve the goal of the task using integrated skills. Sometimes performance does not demonstrate true competence if factors like illness affect performance. Multiple measures provide a more reliable assessment than a single measure.

1. EII604
Chapter 4 - Introduction
Assessing the Four Language Skills

2. ABOUT SKILLS ASSESSMENT
The four language skills that we assess on a day to
day basis are reading, writing, listening and
speaking.
These skills should be integrated during
assessment and not tested individually. This
allows for language ability to be assessed
authentically and provides more washback.

3. Grammar, vocabulary and phonology are not valid
assessments as isolated items. A grammar or vocabulary test
must be assessed within the realm of skills assessment.
Otherwise, the “test” would be a practice activity.
These aspects of language are part of integrated skills
assessment and should not be treated separately.
ABOUT SKILLS ASSESSMENT

4. There are two interacting responses that we must consider
when assessing integrated skills:
• performance
• competence
Performance is how a student carries out a certain act or
task.
Competency is his/her ability to accomplish the objective or
goal of the task using the integrated skills.
ABOUT SKILLS ASSESSMENT

5. Sometimes a performance does not demonstrate true
competence:
A student may possess the competency to achieve the task
or goal at hand, but his/her performance may not result in
the achievement of a given task due to a reliability factor
such as illness, emotional distraction, validity of exam site,
etc.
Multiple measures will always give you a more reliable and
valid assessment than a single measure.
ABOUT SKILLS ASSESSMENT

6. Therefore, it is important to offer two or more performances
and/or contexts in order to draw a conclusion. Some
examples are:
• several tests that are combined to form an
assessment;
• a single test with multiple test tasks to account for
learning styles and performance variables;
• in-class and extra-class graded work;
• alternative forms of assessment (e.g. journal, portfolio,
conference, observation, self assessment, peer-
assessment)
ABOUT SKILLS ASSESSMENT

7. Additionally, we must rely as much as possible on
observable performance in our assessment of students –
this means that we can see or hear the performance of the
learner.
ABOUT SKILLS ASSESSMENT

8. Brown, H. Douglas, 2004. Language Assessment: Principles and classroom
practices. Pearson Education, Inc.
REFERENCES