Teachers will raise awareness of the key concepts in language Testing as well as their role in the learning-teaching process.

1. key features onTesting
Firstly we must recognize that
assessments are not exactly a
students’ favorite thing, in fact only
to hear that name make the most
of them to react negatively and/or
even annoying.

2. key features onTesting
It’s extremely important to
understand that point. If we take
some considerations, our students
could achieve better results in their
evaluations.

3. key features onTesting
3 Possible negative points
about exams.
1. They don’t understand the real meaning and
usefulness.
2. Previous experiences have not been very
pleasant.
3. People normally feel afraid to fail, assessment is
usually understood as a pass or fail thing.

4. key features onTesting
What is assessment?
assessment, noun [U] the process of
making a judgement or forming an opinion,
after considering something or someone
carefully

5. key features onTesting
Assessment must be considered
as a PROCESS.
Purpose: in most cases it should be “to let
people and the same students know how
much they have progressed. It shouldn’t be
a way to intimidate and to confuse them.
That’s why exams must be designed
carefully.

6. key features onTesting
Assessment must be more that
only tests and exams.
In order to really assess students progress,
there are several types of assessment,
¡look at two of them!

7. key features
onTesting
Activity assessment
a) Did you like that activity?
b) Was that activity easy or difficult?
c) What was the hardest part of that?
d) Was the activity useful? How? Why?
Self-assessment
a) Now I can ...
b) I still need to work on ...
c) I've improved in ...
d) Today I learnt ...
e) In the test I got X and Y wrong. I'm going
to study these for homework.

8. key features
onTesting
Assessment must be about the PROCESS of
learning.
• Students must think about their
reality. what have they done?
• Rather than only being about the
product, it’s necessary to be about
the real important matter: THE
PROCESS OF LEARNING.

9. key features
onTesting
Then,
 should we eliminate Tests?
 Aren’t they a valid way to assess?
Of course not, but we must find different ways to
assess our students.
Assessment shouldn't be about how good or bad
someone is at a particular point in time, it should
be about the progress they have made, the work
they've put in and the learning that has taken
place.
We must analyze the process as well as the product

10. key features
onTesting
Then,
 When should assessment take place?
As we said before, Assessment is about the
LEARNING PROCESS.
It means that it’s very important to know where
they began and what they knew at the beginning
of the course.
So, it’s a good idea to start with a diagnostic
assessment to ubicate where they are.
This will be the reference for comparison at the
end of the course.

11. key features
onTesting
Then,
 When should assessment take place?
After that, assessment should take place fairly
frequent. It’s recommended to do it throughout
different ways, namely:
• Homework,
• Project work,
• In class activities,
• Formal tests.

12. key features
onTesting
Then,
 When should assessment take place?
One important thing is to make assessment varied
and flexible, these reduces pressure to students
and help them be a little less worried, comfortable
and confident.
This also takes into account the possibility that
students could have a bad day in the only available
opportunity.
Students might be sick or have a personal problem.

13. key features
onTesting
HELPING STUDENTS BECOME
COMFORTABLE
• Assessment CONNOTATION: as we know,
assessment is usually equated with tests,
passing, failing and scores , it makes students
feel worried on the results.
• Students CHANGE PERCEPTION: it’s necessary
to make students notice that assessment is good
for them, that will make the process easier.
• Teacher MUST: in order to make this possible,
one of teacher’s most important task is to help
students feel comfortable and confident.

14. key features
onTesting
A FEW SIMPLE IDEAS
Talk about assessment with your students.
1. What is assessment?
2. Why do we assess students?
3. How are we going to assess them?
4. What are the criteria used? Are these
criteria clear?

15. key features
onTesting
A FEW SIMPLE IDEAS
Get students involved in assessment.
1. Use self-assessment, i.e. 'Can do'
statements.
2. Use peer assessment.
3. Get students to come up with assessment
criteria / agree criteria with students.
4. Get students involved in picking or
designing assessment tasks.

16. key features
onTesting
A FEW SIMPLE IDEAS
Make assessment part of
the teaching and learning process.
1. If you can build in a form of assessment regularly,
maybe even every lesson, then your students will
become used to it and therefore more
comfortable.
2. Make sure you include the results of any
assessment into your teaching. If students can see
that you actually take notice of the assessment,
and not simply the score, it will become more
meaningful and positive for them

17. key features
onTesting
A FEW SIMPLE IDEAS
If students understand that
assessment is about the process and
not simply about a product (i.e. a
score), then they will start to have a
more positive attitude towards it.
¡Try it,
it will be worth!