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LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT

RESEARCH PAPER

ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT

Gómez T.

Santo Domingo, D.N.

2019
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Alternative assessment

Early in the decade of the 1990s, in a culture of rebellion against the notion that all people

and all skills could be measured by traditional tests, a novel concept emerged that began to be

labeled "alternative" assessment. As teachers and students were becoming aware of the

shortcomings of standardized tests, "an alternative to standardized testing and all the

problems found with such testing" (Huerta-Macias, 1995, p. 8) was proposed. That

proposal was to assemble additional measures of students—portfolios, journals, observations,

self-assessments, peer-assessments, and the like—in an effort to triangulate data about

students. For some, such alternatives held "ethical potential" (Lynch, 2001, p. 228) in their

promotion of fairness and the balance of power relationships in the classroom.

Alternative assessment has been described as an alternative to standardized testing and all of

the problems found with such testing. (Richards and Renandya, 2002, p. 339). García and

Pearson (1994) state that alternative assessment consists of all of those “efforts that do not

adhere to the traditional criteria of standardization, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, objectivity,

and machine storability” (p. 355).

Brown and Hudson (1998) proposed to refer to "alternatives" in assessment instead

of alternative  assessments. They noted that to speak of alternative assessments is

counterproductive because the term implies something new and different that may be

"exempt from the requirements of responsible test construction" (p. 657).  Their term is a

perfect fit within a model that considers tests as a subset of assessment. They summed up

defining characteristics of the various alternatives in assessment that have been commonly

used across the profession (1998, pp. 654-655).

1.       Require students to perform, create, produce, or do something;

2.       Use real-world contexts or simulations;

3.      Are nonintrusive in that they extend the day-to-day classroom activities;

4.       Allow students to be assessed on what they normally do in class every day;

5.       Use tasks that represent meaningful instructional activities;

6.       Focus on processes as well as products;

7.   Tap into higher-level thinking and problem-solving skills;

8.      Provide information about both the strengths and weaknesses of students;

9.      Are multicultural sensitive when properly administered;

10.   Ensure that people, not machines, do the scoring, using human judgment;

11.   Encourage open disclosure of standards and rating criteria; and

12.   Call upon teachers to perform new instructional and assessment roles.

Alternative assessment represents the best of all worlds in that it looks at actual performance

on real-life tasks, such as writing, self-editing, reading, participation in collaborative work,

and doing a demonstration in front of a group. The procedures in and of themselves are,

therefore, valid. Written work samples and published pieces in an ESL class, for instance,

will inform a teacher as to how well the student can write in English. The pieces themselves

will serve as evidence of the student’s ability to express his or her ideas in writing in an

organized fashion, to use appropriate mechanics, transitions, and vocabulary. (Penaflorida)

Alternative assessment also called authentic assessment offers a wide variety of options that

are real-world tasks for students to develop their writing skill and also their critical thinking.

Authentic tasks, therefore, involve students in problems that are similar to those encountered
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in real life situations. On the other hand, according to ( Dietel, Herman, and Knuth 1991), a

consequence of using traditional assessment is that students tend to memorize facts with little

opportunity to practice higher-order thinking skills. Thus, wrongly selected assessment

strategies such as traditional paper tests are disadvantageous to students and this affects them

negatively. (Navarrete, Mena, Padilla y Obregon, 2019, pp. 177-178)

(Berry, 2008) States that the most common alternative assessment tools are observations,

experiments, journals, portfolios, exhibitions, oral presentations, interviews and projects.

Authentic Assessment Strategies

1. Self-assessment: draws its theoretical justification from a number of recognized principles

from second language acquisition. The principle of autonomy is highlighted as a fundamental

stone in the students’ success. This engages students in their own formative assessment

process. They compare their work using established criteria provided by the teacher and work

on their own improvements (Brown, 2004).

2. Peer- Assessment: Brown and Hudson (1998) agree that peer-assessment offers some

benefits such as direct involvement of students in their own learning, the encouragement of

autonomy, and increased motivation.

Types of Self and Peer-assessment:

It is necessary to distinguish between different types of self and peer assessment and apply

them accordingly (Brown, 2004).

- Direct Assessment of Performance: Students observe themselves in oral or written

production. The evaluation takes place immediately or soon after the performance. After

students work on an oral presentation, the peer fills out a check list which rates students’

performance.
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- Students Self-generated Tests: These are not usually classified firmly as self or peer-

assessment. It is the method of involving students in the process of building tests themselves.

The traditional view of what a test is would never permit students to engage in tests structure.

However, student’s generated tests can be productive and intrinsically motivating.

3. Portfolios: Arter and Spandel (1991) illustrate that portfolios are a focused collection of

students’ effort alongside their learning process. The collection ought to include learners’

contributions in selecting contents, the criteria for collection, the criteria for judging merit,

and indicators of student personal reflection.

Brown (2004) mentions that the material portfolios might include:

• Essays and compositions in draft and final forms;

• Reports and project outline;

• Poetry and creative prose;

• Artwork, photos, newspaper or magazine clippings;

• Audio and/ or video recordings of presentations, demonstrations, etc.;

• Journals, diaries, and other personal reflections;

• Test, test scores, and other written homework exercise;

• Notes on lectures;

• Self and peer-assessments – comments, evaluations, and checklists.

Gottlieb (1995) cited in Brown (2004) recommended a developing scheme for considering

the determination of portfolios, using the acronym CRADLE to plan six potential features of

portfolio:
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• Collecting • Reflecting • Assessing • Documenting • Linking • Evaluating

3. Learning Journals: A journal is a register of students` thoughts, feeling, reactions,

assessment, ideas, and progress towards goals. It is usually written with little attention to

structure, form, and correctness. Students can articulate their thought when they are judged

later by the teacher. Sometimes, journals are confused sets of language with no particular

point, purpose or audience. Fortunately, models of journeys used in education have tightened

up to give this type of journals a focus. (Navarrete, Mena, Padilla y Obregon, 2019, p. 180)

4. Concept Map: Concept maps offer learners the chance to reflect thoughtfully. They can aid

as a meta-learning strategy that helps learners to learn. It can also support learners to organize

and comprehend more evidently new information to be learned. By a concept map, learners

connect their new knowledge with their own existing knowledge.

5. Projects: Berry (2008) claims that projects offer useful data about learners’ understanding,

awareness of specific learning areas, and skills to apply in particular studies. This also

includes the capabilities to communicate subject specific data clearly. Most projects need

learners to assume an investigation process in which they work in groups or separately to

select a topic, design a data collection process, examine and organize the data collected, and

then display the results.

6. Exhibitions Exhibits are the product of a topic studied in depth. Producing the exhibit

demands effort and time as well as deep understanding of the subject matter. Exhibitions

provide both teachers and students a chance to gain a better view of what students are

learning and accomplishing (Klenowski, 2000).

7. Interview According to Brown (2004), an interview is proposed to represent a context in

which the teacher converses with a student for a designated assessment determination.
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Alternative assessment is different from traditional testing in that it actually asks students to

show what they can do. Students are evaluated on what they integrate and produce rather than

on what they are able to recall and reproduce. The main goal of alternative assessment is to

“gather evidence about how students are approaching, processing, and completing ‘real-life’

tasks in a particular domain” (Garcia & Pearson, 1994, p. 357). The same day-to-day

activities that a student is engaged in (e.g., writing, role-playing, group discussion) are the

basis for alternative assessment. Because alternative assessment is based on the daily

classroom activities, it also reflects the curriculum, unlike traditional, standardized tests that

often test skills incongruent with classroom practices. (Richards and Renandya, 2002, p.

339).
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Bibliography

 Huerta-Macías. Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current

Practice: Alternative Assessment: Responses to Commonly Asked Questions,

Chapter 33.

 H. Penaflorida. Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current

Practice: Nontraditional Forms of Assessment and Response to Student Writing: A

Step Toward Learner Autonomy, Chapter 34.

 García, G. E., & Pearson, P. D. (1994). Assessment and diversity. In L. Darling-

Hammond (Ed.), Review of research in education (pp. 337–391). Washington, DC:

American Education Research Association.

 H. Douglas Brown. (2004). Language assessment: principles and classroom practices.

 D. Brown and Hudson. The Alternatives in Language Assessment.

 Mena Mayorga; Padilla Padilla; Obregon Mayorga. (2019). Alternative Assessment

Tools for the Writing Skill Development of EFL Learners. European Scientific

Journal March 2019. Edition Vol.15.