1. Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción
Facultad de Educación
Departamento de Lenguas
Language Assessment
UNIT FOUR
Online performance-based assessment instruments
Emilio J. Lara & Tamara A. Vera
Professor
Roxana C. Correa
Concepción, 2013

2. I. C-MAP
Adapted from Chalhoub-Deville, M. (2001). Language Testing and Technology: Past and Future. University of Iowa. Retrieved from
http://languagetesting.info/articles/artlt.html on June 22nd
, 2013.

3. II. In pairs, select two different online performance-based assessment instruments to assess any two of the three systems of the language.
Vocabulary
Emilio Lara and Tamara Vera
Webpage chosen: http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises_list/alle_words.htm
Englisch-hilfen is a very useful webpage for learners of a second language to learn vocabulary since it is clearly stated what the learners will learn
regarding on the activites they choose to complete. Besides, Englishc-hilfen provides immediate feedback on the performance of the learner, so if
there are incorrect answers the system warns the leaners about it to make them aware of the fact that there is a word, an utterance or an option
that needs to be reconsidered. The website also gives the possibility of using hints to help learners to complete the tasks. Moreover, according to
Read (2000), the context in which words are learnt is important when it comes to assesing the amount of vocabulary a learner knows because a
word will only be well used in its appropriate context; thus, Englisch-hilfen gives a wide variety of topics and tasks for the students to revise and
complete, most of them with useful, common expressions that are used in normal, daily life and phrases which are of great help when speaking to
a native speaker or in an oral examination. Although incidental learning of vocabulary happens in natural situations and contexts, learners might
encounter and learn words previously unknown for them due to the wide range of vocabulary and topics this website offers and Read (2000) values
it as a valid way of broadening the range of vocabulary in a second language. In addition to incidental learning, Read (2000) states that practical
examples are useful when learning vocabulary; hence, Englisch-hilfen is a very pactical tool for both teachers and learners due to the fact that it
provides cloze exercises, matching ítems and fill in the blank activities, all of these are considered by Read (2000) when it comes to assessing
vocabulary. Englisch-hilfen is user-friendly; it allows learners to access all types of exercises very easily since it is well organized by topics and ítems
with neutral colours that do not stop learners from paying attention to the exercises they are completing. Finally, the type of activities and the use
of images help learners to fulfill and develop the tasks with attractive activities and images along with numerous ways of assess the tasks the
students are completing.

4. Grammar
Emilio Lara and Tamara Vera
Webpage chosen: http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/grammar-exercises
The British Council offers a wide variety of options on its webpage, one of them is learn English which presents both learners and teachers
numerous ways to learn English from an interactive point of view. The gramatical exercises provided on this webpage allow learners of different
levels of proficiency to practise gramatical skills on adjectives, pronouns, prepositions, tenses, adverbs, articles, capitalization, American vs British
English, conditionals, nouns and connecting adverbs.
Purpura (2004) provides two categories of tasks when assessing grammar: selected response (multiple-choice, true or false and matching) and
limited production (fill in the gaps, close exercises and sentence completion); learn English uses most of these tasks to assess grammar.
One of the advantages of Learn English is that it is well organized; items are clearly stated so learners understand from the beginning what feature
of the English grammar they are going to exercise; besides, Learn English makes the difference between the contents and the games it offers;
learners can learn and revise gramatical features when they are focusing on content; the learners are exercising alongside with the exercises
themselves for learners to follow a prompt if they need guidance, but when students want to practise and play some of the games, the learners
practise in a very attractive and interactve way the contents they already revised.. Also, Learn English does not make learners go through long lists
of exercises, just the necessary for learners to exercise, learn what they should do and then apply it, hopefully, in real life. Colours, images and
graphics foster the interest of the learners since they are attractive and get the attention quite properly, but they are not too attractive so students
do not lose the focus on the exercises and the content.

5. References
Chalhoub-Deville, M. (2001). Language Testing and Technology: Past and Future. University of Iowa. Retrieved from
http://languagetesting.info/articles/artlt.html on June 22nd
, 2013.
Purpura, J. (2004) Assessing Grammar. Cambridge University Press. United Kingdom.
Read, J. (2000) Assessing Vocabulary. Cambridge Assessment series. Series Editors J. Charles Alderson & Lyle F. Bachman. Cambrigde University
Press.