Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages

EXL885_2
EXL885_2

Assessment in secondary modern

foreign languages

1
Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages
Contents
• Introduction
• Learning outcomes
• 1 What does it mean to make progress in MFL?
• 1.1 The good language learner
• 1.2 External assessment
• 1.3 Validity and reliability
• 2 What should be assessed in MFL learning and how?
• 2.1 What should MFL teachers assess?
• 2.2 Using assessment to support learning
• 2.3 Assessing language skills
• 2.4 Involving students in the assessment process
• 3 How can we use assessment to enable MFL learning?
• 3.1 Including students in the assessment process
• 3.2 The impact of feedback on student progress in MFL
• 3.3 Target setting
• 4 What are the challenges to effective assessment in MFL?
• 4.1 Assessing oral work
• 4.2 Keeping student records in MFL
• Conclusion
• Keep on learning
• References
• Further reading
• Acknowledgements

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages

Introduction
This free course, Assessment in secondary foreign languages, will
identify and explore some of the key issues around assessing MFL
in secondary schools. Engaging with these issues and debates will
help you to reflect upon and develop your assessment practice as
a teacher of MFL. You will also develop a greater awareness of
how assessment can be used in developing students to become
more independent in their use of the target language.

This course is based on a learner-centred approach to teaching

that is is underpinned by a constructivist view of learning – the idea
that students will construct knowledge and understanding for
themselves as a result of classroom activities and experiences.

Now read to an introduction to this course by its coordinator, Maria

Luisa Pérez Cavana:

As you work through the activities you will be encouraged to record

your thoughts on an idea, an issue or a reading, and how it relates
to your practice. Hopefully you will have opportunities to discuss
your ideas with colleagues. We therefore suggest that you use a
notebook – either physical or electronic – to record your thoughts
in a way in which they can easily be retrieved and revisited. If you
prefer, however, you can record your ideas in response boxes
within the course – in order to do this, and to retrieve your
responses, you will need to enrol on the course.

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages

Learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
• articulate what it means to make progress in MFL
• list a number of key assessment strategies
• identify the challenges to assessing language learning
• outline the differences between formative and
summative assessment
• classify some different assessment approaches.

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages

1 What does it mean to make progress

in MFL?
Assessment is all about ensuring that students are making
progress. But what does this actually mean when learning a
modern foreign language? What does progress in the target
language look like? In this section you will consider defining good
language learning and what this means for assessing progress.

1.1 The good language learner

Making progress in MFL is about students moving towards
becoming independent users of the target language. The ultimate
goal is for pupils to be able to communicate effectively, understand
what is being said, and deduce meaning in the spoken and written
word.

Grenfell and Harris (1999) consider good language learning to be

about increasing autonomy in the use and development of a
second language. They argue that knowing a language is
extremely complex and has different levels: that is, fundamental
levels of phonetics, phonology, morphology and syntax, as well as
the manipulation of sound and organisation of structure. In
addition, there has to be communication of meaning with the
understanding and expression of ideas, as well as appropriate
management of social and cultural ‘dimensions’ of the language
(Grenfell and Harris, 1999, p. 41). All of these aspects of target
language use will need to be assessed as the students move
towards becoming good language learners.

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages
In this context, making progress in language learning goes beyond
simple knowledge of vocabulary and grammar structures.
Therefore, monitoring and assessment strategies need to support
students as they become increasingly independent users of the
target language. For Grenfell and Harris, this means an emphasis
on ‘learning to learn’ and approaching language learning from a
different direction that focuses on the learner – their particular
competence profile, learning styles and stage of developmental.
Consequently, monitoring and assessment this requires
consideration of ‘knowledge about language as well as knowledge
of language’, and the inclusion of tasks and activities that develop
both (Grenfell and Harris, 1999, p. 50).

If your approach to teaching a language includes also teaching the

pupils how to learn a language, then how much and what kind of
assessment will also need to reflect this.

Reflection point
Consider the assessment strategies you have observed in a
school context or begun to use in your own teaching.

What aspects of language learning are assessed? How much

consideration is given to pupils’ knowledge about language as well
as of the language?

1.2 External assessment

In addition to monitoring and assessing students to support their
development as good language learners, students will also need to

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages
make progress according to external criteria. These include any
statutory curriculum requirements and national examinations such
as GCSE and A levels. Curriculum requirements differ from nation
to nation, along with the criteria against which pupils’ progress is
measured, but schools need to find a way of monitoring and
assessing students to demonstrate fulfilment of these.

For example, the National Curriculum guidance for England,

introduced in 2013, states that MFL teaching should enable pupils
to ‘to understand and communicate personal and factual
information that goes beyond their immediate needs and interests,
developing and justifying points of view in speech and writing, with
increased spontaneity, independence and accuracy.’ It sees
progress in terms of grammar, vocabulary and linguistic
competence, which includes initiating and developing
conversations, expressing ideas and coping with unfamiliar
language. ‘Linguistic competence’ refers to competence in
speaking, listening, reading and writing (the four skills).

Activity 1
Allow about 1 hour

Consider how external or statutory examinations assess language

learning in a school context that you know of. In your opinion, to
what extent do the criteria allow pupils to demonstrate all aspects
of the good language learner as defined by Grenfell and Harris?
Make a note of your thoughts.

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages

1.3 Validity and reliability

Any assessment should be both valid and reliable. Validity asks
whether grades generated by the kind of statutory testing
described earlier represent a student’s achievement in the whole
of the subject. Can a series of timed, written tests at the end of a
key stage assess all those things MFL teachers think are important
for students to learn about?

An over-reliance on test results may lead teachers to make

generalisations and judgements about a pupil’s capability in all
aspects of a subject, based on the formal testing of a subset. For
example, a National Curriculum level tells us nothing about a
pupil’s problem-solving ability or creativity, nor about their ability to
work in groups or engage in extended tasks. Perhaps all that can
be said is that the tests simply tell the teacher about the
capabilities of pupils to answer questions at a particular time and
of a particular type (and in the conditions and circumstances of the
test) – no more and no less.

Reliability asks whether pupil performance changes (or not)

depending on the particular questions that are set. Ideally,
assessments should give every pupil optimal opportunity to
demonstrate what they know. In practice, however, tests have
been found to be biased against pupils from particular
backgrounds, socio-economic classes, ethnic groups or gender
(Pullin, 1993). Equity issues are particularly important when
assessment results are used to label pupils or deny them access
to courses or careers in the future.

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages

2 What should be assessed in MFL

learning and how?
Having thought about what is meant by progress in MFL learning,
this session will help you think further about the specifics of
assessment, and to understand the importance of assessment in a
learner’s language development. In particular, you will consider
what should be assessed and how.

2.1 What should MFL teachers assess?

You have already considered how there are multiple things that
need to be assessed in the MFL classroom – the four skills,
cultural understanding, willingness to participate, willingness to
take risks, and so on. Any assessment methods to monitor
progress should be clearly linked to the teaching and learning that
has taken place. Atkinson and Lazarus (2002) state:

The greater the harmony between teaching methods and

assessment methods, the more likely they suggest that the greater
the harmony between the two, the more likely that the outcomes of
each will correspond; for example, the more likely it is that
assessment results will give an accurate picture of what has been
learned and the more likely also that these learning outcomes will
correspond with the original objectives.

In considering what should be assessed, Atkinson and Lazarus

(2002) identify two broad categories: fluency and accuracy.

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages
Fluency consists of the following:
• achieving a task
• conveying a message
• making meaning
• being creative
• effective communication.

Accuracy includes:
• pronunciation
• accent
• grammar
• spelling.

Activity 2
Allow about 1 hour

Reflect on how these criteria are assessed in a school context that

you know about and how they relate to the four language skills of
listening, speaking, reading and writing. Is there a greater
emphasis on some of these criteria than others? Why do you think
this is? Make a note of your thoughts.

2.2 Using assessment to support

learning

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages
How assessment is carried out and how students are able to
respond to it is of prime importance if it is to support their target
language development. It is not simply what a teacher does that is
important, but how it is done. Various techniques and approaches
are available to teachers, and choosing the most appropriate
approach requires skill and knowledge. You may well have already
seen how experienced teachers adopt different assessment
strategies depending on the type of activity or its focus; for
example, whether it concerns the introduction of new language or
the practise or manipulation of already familiar vocabulary and/or
grammar.

Assessment can be summative (assessment of learning) or

formative (assessment for learning). Effective assessment is
planned and integrated into everyday lessons so that you are
aware of what the students have learned during a lesson, after a
lesson, after a sequence of lessons and at the end of a course or
academic year. Formative assessment can be carried out by the
teacher or by the pupils themselves through self- or peer
assessment.

The purpose of assessment of learning (AoL) is to find out what

pupils know, understand and can do, which may then be used for
formal certification, to report progress to parents, and to judge
teacher and school effectiveness.

Assessment for learning (AfL) also finds out what pupils know,
understand and can do, but includes the pupil in the process, and
enables the teacher to plan how to help the pupils make progress
and develop their understanding and skills.

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages

2.3 Assessing language skills

In the MFL classroom, where a lesson will often consist of several
small steps that each build on the one before, it is important that
the teacher constantly assesses the students’ progress at the end
of each step, as well as at the end of each lesson, to ensure that
the students are ready to move to the next level of activity. This is
particularly important when new language is introduced into the
lesson. The students need to become familiar with that language
before moving on to practise its use in different ways before being
ready to perform and/or manipulate that language independently.

The next activity will enable you to consider what needs to be

assessed in MFL teaching and learning, and how that assessment
can be managed and made effective.

Activity 3
Allow about 90 minutes

Read the document ‘Good assessment practice in modern foreign

languages (MFL)’, which sets out Ofsted’s view of good practice in
the assessment of MFL. (Ofsted is the inspection body for
education in England.)

Summarise the advice it gives in a table, listing the assessment

activities and examples of good assessment practice that matches
these activities. Some examples are provided in Table 1.

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages
Table 1 Good practice in MFL assessment

Assessment Example of good practice Explanation

opportunity
Oral work Correction of pronunciation The teacher is by and large the
and intonation ‘model’ for correct pronunciation
and intonation
Focused Teacher asks closely focused The ‘Socratic’ approach (using
questioning questions to elicit questions to guide the learner to a
understanding (e.g. better understanding) is a very
grammatical patterns) effective technique
Plenary Provide your answer... Provide your answer...
Vocabulary Provide your answer... Provide your answer...
testing
Written work Provide your answer... Provide your answer...
Homework Provide your answer... Provide your answer...
Provide your Provide your answer... Provide your answer...
answer...
Provide your Provide your answer... Provide your answer...
answer...

Go back to the different elements in the two categories identified

by Atkinson and Lazarus (2002) that should be assessed in MFL:
fluency and accuracy. How do the assessment activities and
examples of good practice that you have noted in the table help
you to assess these? Add any other examples that you have
observed or used in your own school context.

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages

2.4 Involving students in the

assessment process
It is not only the teacher who can carry out assessment; students
can also assess their own learning. Involving students in
assessment this has the potential to empower them and lead to a
greater commitment to learning and progress. Students are more
likely to understand the learning goals and assessment criteria if
they are discussed and devised with them rather than imposed on
them. Students will also become more engaged in their learning,
and will build their confidence in discussing work with peers in a
reflective, collaborative process, which in turn will develop their
metacognition skills.

This means encouraging students to review their work critically

and constructively, and involving them in identifying the learning
goals that they will work towards (see Black and William, 1998).

Involving students in the assessment process will be considered

further in Section 3.

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages

3 How can we use assessment to

enable MFL learning?
Having considered what we mean by progress in MFL and what
should be assessed, this session looks at how using assessment
can support students to develop their language skills. You will
consider:
• the role of feedback and target setting
• how involving students in the assessment process can
contribute to their learning
• how assessment can be used to support students in
becoming independent learners.

3.1 Including students in the

assessment process
Involving students in their language learning assessment supports
their progress as they need to develop an understanding of what
constitutes ‘success’.

You may have seen occasions where a teacher has involved the
students in the assessment process by:
• sharing learning goals and assessment criteria with
the students
• helping students know and recognise the standards
they are aiming for
• involving students in self-assessment
• providing feedback that helps students recognise their
next steps and how to take them

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages
• reviewing and reflecting on assessment data with
students.

Encouraging students to reflect on their own work and that of their

peers is an important language learning strategy, because it builds
higher-order thinking skills. In addition, being able to monitor your
own progress against learning outcomes (i.e. to self-assess) is
important in becoming an independent learner. Discovering for
yourself how to move forward (i.e. to use self-assessment
formatively) develops self-regulation and self-efficacy. An improved
ability to self-assess is an outcome of engaging with criteria and
giving feedback, which is required in peer assessment.

Peer assessment is an important tool in helping students to move

towards using the target language independently as they develop
the ability to self-assess effectively and use metacognitive skills to
regulate their own learning. Metacognition is a process requiring
knowledge about both cognition and how to control, monitor and
regulate cognitive processes (Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001).

As students learn to become more self-regulatory and therefore

independent in facilitating their own target language learning, they
are able to monitor, direct and regulate their own actions towards
their learning goals.

3.2 The impact of feedback on student

progress in MFL
Feedback on students’ progress in the MFL classroom takes place
during a lesson constantly. You may have already observed
experienced teachers as they correct students’ pronunciation in

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages
oral work, provide suggestions to reading or writing tasks as they
circulate around the room, and praise correct usage of grammar or
recollection of vocabulary. Immediate feedback like this supports
students within a lesson, helping them to adjust or correct their
responses to oral or written tasks.

Other forms of feedback may include a written assessment of

performance with targets set on how to improve. As well as
feedback from the teacher to the student, it can also be from one
student to another, or from a student to the teacher.

Many theories have been proposed as to the most effective forms

of student feedback. Some schools still use effort grades and
marks out of 10, while others use National Curriculum levels and
GCSE grades.

Feedback is most effective when the system is transparent, and

students understand exactly how successful they have been and
how they can improve. Feedback that is discussed with the
students is particularly effective and allows them to contribute to
identifying how they have fulfilled the success criteria and any
areas for improvement. In order for students to make progress,
any feedback needs to include a summary of what has been
achieved, the points to improve on and what the learner actually
needs to do to correct the weaknesses in a piece of work.

William and Black (2002) suggest a number of effective forms of

feedback that enable students to make decisions about their future
learning and become more effective learners. The next activity will
help you identify these.

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages

Activity 4
Allow about 2 hours

Read the article ‘Feedback is the best nourishment’ (William and

Black, 2002) and note the most effective forms of feedback, as
suggested by the authors in a table like Table 2 below. Complete a
second column to add your opinion of the benefit or drawback of
the form of feedback, and a third column to note when you might
use this form of feedback in MFL lessons.

The first row of the table has been filled in for you as an example.

Table 2 Forms of feedback

Form of feedback Benefit/drawback? When to use in

MFL?
Oral feedback from the teacher to More immediate and During group or pair
the student personal work
Giving a mark Provide your answer... Provide your
answer...
Giving a written comment Provide your answer... Provide your
answer...
Student-to-student (peer) Provide your answer... Provide your
assessment answer...
Student self-assessment Provide your answer... Provide your
answer...
Focus of feedback Provide your answer... Provide your
answer...

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages

3.3 Target setting

An important part of feedback is to set targets that to support
students’ further progress in their use of the target language.
Assessment information can also be used to help the teacher
decide on the next steps in their teaching and inform their planning
of future lessons.

These targets give every learner a ‘next step’ to take in improving

their learning in a logical and systematic manner. The more that
the students are involved in setting these next steps themselves,
the more they learn – and the more they also learn about the skills
involved in language learning.

Good language learners are usually able to set out their next steps
with only minimal assistance. Helping less accomplished or less
effective language learners to consider criteria and set out
appropriate next steps for themselves can be difficult, but it will
help them move towards becoming more successful and
independent learners of the target language.

To be effective, student targets should be:

• negotiated with the student (so that they have
ownership of the targets)
• achievable and realistic
• relevant and pertinent to the student’s progression in
MFL (this involves knowing the student and their work,

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages
and identifying the most significant factors hindering
progress)
• limited in number (it is easier for a student to
concentrate on one or two targets, and success in
these will improve their motivation)
• concise, focused and specific
• supported with suggestions for actions (these indicate
how the targets might be achieved)
• clear in terms of indicating criteria for success (so that
students identify when they have reached their
targets).

Activity 5
Allow about 1 hour

Watch the video clip ‘Secondary assessment for learning – modern

foreign languages’ about assessment for learning (AfL) in MFL.
(Alternatively, you can read a transcript.) As you do so, make notes
on the different approaches to AfL in MFL that you see. How do
they support students in becoming good language learners? Use
the following questions to help you:
• What aspects of the assessment process are shared
with students?
• Who sets deadlines?
• How is assessment used to support students’
progress?

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages
• How are targets set?

• How are students encouraged to reflect on their

learning?
• What do you need to consider when planning for peer
and self-assessment?

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages

4 What are the challenges to effective

assessment in MFL?
There are a number of challenges to assessing progress in
language learning, particularly how to assess the different aspects
of language learning in a classroom context, how to record
assessment and the role of target language in assessment. This
section will help you think further about some of these aspects of
assessment.

Reflection point
Which aspects of language learning do you find most difficult to
assess?

Can you think of any reasons for this?

4.1 Assessing oral work

Assessing oral work can present MFL teachers with a particular
challenge. There are many reasons why this is so, such as:
• the size of classes can make it difficult for teachers to
hear all students regularly use spoken language
independently
• a lot of the speaking work done in class may be
‘practice’ rather than the independent production of
language
• spoken work is ephemeral, and it is difficult to record
the outcomes of speaking activities during lessons,

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages
especially if the teacher leads the activity and cannot
record students at the same time
• at the higher levels of performance, few people other
than the teacher can provide the stimulus that
students need to extend the scope of the language
they produce.

Activity 6
Allow about 1 hour

In this activity you will look at issues involved in assessing oral

work in MFL. Look at the following settings for oral work:
• role-plays and simulations
• asking and answering open-ended questions
• use of classroom language
• use of spontaneous language
• mini-talks or presentations made individually or in
groups (for example, using illustrations on a
whiteboard or in a PowerPoint presentation).

Using Table 3, note down in the middle column which setting from
the list above could be used to assess the component of oral work
listed in the first column.

In the third column, note the type of record you would make.

One example has been provided for you.

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages
Table 3 Assessing speaking – setting and records

Component to Possible setting Type of record

assess
Pronunciation Pair work Note students whose sounds are

Role-plays or particularly French, German or

simulations Spanish

Note students who need to work

on the sounds

Note sounds that the class needs

to hear and practise
Intonation Provide your Provide your answer...
answer...
Range of Provide your Provide your answer...
vocabulary answer...
Initiative Provide your Provide your answer...
answer...
Accuracy Provide your Provide your answer...
answer...

Despite the challenges, there are many speaking tasks that can be
carried out during lessons that afford opportunities for assessment,
for example when students are engaged in pair work.

When assessing oral work, both permanent and ephemeral

evidence can be gathered. Permanent evidence will often consist
of recordings of spoken work that can be assessed at a later date.

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages
Ephemeral evidence is produced at the moment of learning and
consists of actions or words. It is important to listen to students as
they talk, and to ask them questions that will allow them to
demonstrate their level of attainment. Gathering such data is time-
consuming, so it is important to identify in advance which students
are to be assessed and which aspect of their speaking work needs
to be assessed, so that no time or opportunities are wasted.

You may also wish to refer back to the elements identified by

Lazarus and Atkinson in session 2. How might you assess the
different aspects relating to ‘fluency’?

4.2 Keeping student records in MFL

With so much to assess in the MFL classroom, another challenge
for all teachers, but especially beginner teachers, is what
assessment to record and in what way.

Reasons for keeping a record of students’

progress
It is important to keep records so that you are able to monitor the
progress of individual students over a period of time. Keeping
records allows the teacher to see whether individual students are
making consistent and appropriate progress in all areas of
language learning or whether a student finds a particular aspect of
language learning more difficult. You can also look for patterns that
tell you if a student is working at their identified level or if they may
need some form of intervention or particular support.

How to record student progress in MFL

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages
For any assessment information to be useful it, therefore, has to
be meaningful. It will also need to make sense to you some time
after it has been recorded!

Activity 7
Allow about one hour

Look at the record of student progress in Table 4.

Table 4 Student progress

Da 2 16 16 20 23 27
te M M M M M M
ar ar ar ar ar ar
ch ch ch ch ch ch
Ta Ho Un Un Sp Cl Vo
sk me it it ea ass ca
wo tes tes kin wo bul
rk: t: t: g rk: ary
fa wri list tes rea tes
mi tin eni t: din t:
ly g ng out g sch
tre of Un ool
e 28 it ba
3, g
pa ite
ge ms
6 ,
out
of
12

29
Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages
St ✔ Le Le 25 B 11
ud vel vel
ent 2 2
1
St ✔ Le Le 24 B 11
ud vel vel
ent 1 2
2
St ✔ Le Le 24 C 8
ud vel vel
ent 1 1
3
St ✔ Le Le 27 A 12
ud vel vel
ent 2 2
4
St ✔ Le Le 26 A 12
ud vel vel
ent 3 3
5
St ✔ Le Le 27 B 10
ud vel vel
ent 2 3
6

What does this record tell you about the progress of each student?
What information does it give you about what each student has
learnt? What do the test results tell you about each student’s
strengths and weaknesses? As a teacher of MFL what would you
need to know about students’ writing, listening, reading and
speaking skills that would be useful?

Now look at the example of student progress in Table 5

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages
Table 5 Student progress

D3 4 1 1 1
a AA0 1 8
t p p A/ A
e r r p1 p
il il r 7 r
il Ail
p
r
il
TVRL S W
a o e i p ri
s c a s e ti
ka d t a n
bi e kg
unni
l gi n
a ng
r g
y
t
e
s
t
S 1 1 1 AC
t 0 0 0 PA
u ✔✔
d
e
n
t
1
S 9 1 8 AC
t 0 ✔✔
u PA
d **
e
n
t
2

31
Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages
S 1 1 9 AC
t 0 0 PA
u ✔✔
d
e
n
t
3
S 9 1 9 AC
t 0 P✔
u ✔A
d *
e
n
t
4
S 4 6 5 AC
t **
u A
d *
e
n
t
5
S 6 9 9 AC
t *✔
u PA
d ✔*
e
n
t
6

32
Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages
1 RRAD
0e e s e
pc c ks
l ooa c
a g g n ri
c nndb
e i i ge
sssi y
(i e e v o
n1pe u
c 0l dr
. p a ir t
gl c e o
eaecw
n c s ti n
de i o
e s nn
r)o a s
nd
mi
aa
pl
o
g
u
e
(/
1
0
)

33
Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages
Key: A
=
accurac
y, P =
pronunc
iation,
C=
content;
✔=
good, *
=
improve
ment
needed.

What does Table 5 tell you about the progress of each student?
What information does it give you about what each student has
learned? What can you learn about each student’s strengths and
weaknesses? What does it tell you about how the assessment was
carried out?

Table 5 is a more helpful record, because the information at the

bottom indicates what the students were required to do and some
indication of individual strengths and weaknesses.

34
Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages

Conclusion
In this free course, Assessment in secondary foreign languages, you
have considered the complex nature of assessing progress in
MFL. It has encouraged you to explore ways of assessing
students’ progress and using approaches and strategies that
support students towards becoming independent language
learners. The challenges to assessment in the MFL classroom
remain, but examining the key issues in these sessions will have
helped you to become more confident in finding ways to overcome
these.

35
Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages

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Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages

References
Anderson, L.W. and Krathwohl, D.R. (2001) A Taxonomy for
Learning, Teaching and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of
Educational Objectives, New York, NY, Longman.

Atkinson, T. and Lazarus, M.E. (2002) ‘Assessment’, in Swarbrick,

A. (ed.), Aspects of Teaching Secondary Modern Foreign Languages,
London and New York, NY, Routledge-Falmer, pp. 200–10.

Black, P. and William, D. (1998) ‘Inside the black box: raising

standards through classroom assessment’, Phi Delta Kappa, vol.
80, no. 2, pp. 139–48 [Online]. Available at http://www.spd.dcu.ie/
site/teaching_today/documents/
raisingstandardsthroughclassroomassessment.pdf (Accessed 14 March
2016).

European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages (EPOSTL),

[Online]. Available at http://epostl2.ecml.at/ (Accessed 14 March
2016).

Grenfell, M. and Harris, V. (1999) Modern Languages and Learning

Strategies in Theory and Practice, London, Routledge.

Pullin, D.C. (1993) ‘Legal and ethical issues in mathematics

assessment’, in Mathematical Science Education Board/National
Research Council (eds) Measuring What Counts: a Conceptual Guide
for Mathematics Assessment, Washington, DC, National Academies
Press, pp. 201–23.

Teachers TV (2011) ‘Secondary assessment for learning - modern

foreign languages’, Promethean Planet, 20 October [Online].
Available at http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en-gb/Resources/Item/

38
Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages
105386/secondary-assessment-for-learning-modern-foreign-
languages#.VxDPXkv2bct (Accessed 15 April 2016).

William, D. and Black, P. (2002) ‘Feedback is the best

nourishment’, TES, 4 October [Online]. Available at https://
www.tes.com/article.aspx?storycode=369889 (Accessed 14 March
2016).

39
Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages

Further reading
CLIO (2000) ‘Could Try Harder’ – The LEARN Project: Guidance for
Schools on Assessment for Learning, Bristol, CLIO Centre for
Assessment Studies.

Hargreaves, D. (2001) ‘Opening minds: increasing opportunities –

a future for the school curriculum’, paper presented at the RSA/
SHA conference, November.

Little, D. (2005) ‘The Common European Framework and the

European Language Portfolio: involving learners and their
judgement in the assessment process’, Language Testing, vol. 22,
no. 3, pp. 321–36.

McCallum, B. (2000) Formative Assessment: Implications for

Classroom Practice, Qualifications and Curriculum Association ©
Crown Copyright.

Sebba, J., Deakin Crick, R., Yu, G., Lawson, H., Harlen, W. and
Durant, K. (2008) Systematic Review of Research Evidence of the
Impact on Students in Secondary Schools of Self and Peer Assessment,
EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education,
University of London, 1614T.

The European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML), which is

based in Graz, Austria, has produced a number of very good
training and learning materials, including some to train pupil
teachers to use the ELP: Using the European Portfolio for Student
Teachers of Languages (EPOSTL). You can find more information
on the EPOSTL website.

40
Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages

Acknowledgements
This free course was designed by Maria Luisa Pérez Cavana and
written by Elaine Hemmings.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and
conditions), this content is made available under a Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence.

The material acknowledged below is Proprietary and used under

licence (not subject to Creative Commons Licence). Grateful
acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission
to reproduce material in this free course:

Course image: Catherine Yeulet/istockphoto.com.

Text
‘Good assessment practice in modern foreign languages (MFL)’,
Ofsted, HMI 1478, © Crown Copyright 2003. Reproduced under
the terms of OGL for PSI.

Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any

have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased
to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

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41
Assessment in secondary modern foreign languages

Uncaptioned interactive content

Transcript
Maria Luisa Perez Cavana
Welcome to the Open Educational Resource Unit Assessment in Secondary MFL –
Issues in Practise.
I'm Maria Luisa Perez Cavana and when designing this unit I drew on my many years
in MFL education as a German and Spanish teacher as well as my experience of
initial teacher education.
Assessment is challenging for MFL teachers in secondary schools because language
learning is very complex involving the skills like listening, speaking, writing and
reading and also communicative interaction cultural awareness and the willingness to
participate and to take risks.
So it’s important to understand the importance of assessment in a learner’s language
development, in particular what should be assessed and how.
This unit is for beginner teachers of MFL in secondary schools. It starts by looking at
what it means to make progress in MFL. From there it lists a number of key
assessment strategies, identifying some challenges assessing language learning.
A key aspect here is outlining the differences between affirmative and summative
assessment and exploring different assessment approaches.
The unit ends by exploring ideas and beliefs about effective assessment of language
learning.
I'm sure you will find this unit enjoyable and interesting.
Back to MediaContent 1

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