It’s notoriously difficult to give meaningful feedback to learners after they have ‘done’ a speaking activity – but is this the end of the story? In this session, we’ll consider an approach which will help us generate appropriate feedback for a variety of classroom speaking tasks and for learners at different levels.
How can we 'mark' students’ oral production? In this session, we will look at suitable tasks for classroom assessment. We will then look at criteria with which both teacher and students can evaluate speaking. You will leave the session with strategies for creating ‘marking menus’ which are balanced and appropriate for different tasks and levels.
Many learners of English are now required to take an end-of-course speaking test, which teachers have to design, administer and assess. In this presentation, we’ll examine characteristics of practice tests which provide useful pointers for in-house test design.
Providing feedback is one of the most commonly conceived functions of a teacher, yet, according to Nunan (1991), the ultimate effect of feedback is often doubtful. How do we tend to respond to students' written work? What messages are we sending to our students as a result? Is the ultimate effect really, as Nunan suggests, doubtful? What are the implications for our teaching?
ELT teachers have used attainment tests for many purposes - to evaluate, assess, or even threaten students! But they can also be a force for motivation. We will investigate how typical tests and question types (mainly testing grammar) may impact on student motivation, and look at ways to design, adapt and use them to increase their motivational value.
The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) is an indispensable tool for the realisation for the Bologna Process in the European Higher Education Area. It offers guidance for teaching, learning and assessment of languages for communication purposes.
