PART 1

On 8th September 2014, I have been observing the teacher advisor of Sekolah
Kebangsaan Batu Bertangkup teaching in 2 Mulia. She focussed on listening and speaking skill. I
have to pay special attention to the test type employed by the teacher to assess any language
skill(s) or language content. I have to take note of the test employed and evaluate it with regards
to four basic principles of language assessment. With the teachers permission, I have recorded
an audio of the lesson to document pertinent points with regards to the assessment. Based on
my observation, I have to make a report of my observation and comment on the strengths and
weaknesses of the test and suggest improvements to make it more effective.
Firstly I would like to highlight what is the meaning of assessment? In general,
assessment is the process of gathering information for the purpose of making a decision
(McLoughlin and Lewis (2008, p.1). These researchers argue that, although everyone engages in
assessment, it is particularly important skill for those of us who work with young learners. Since
the definition of assessment has been understood, the next items for teachers to comprehend
are principles of language assessment. To design good assessment, teachers should pay
attention to validity, reliability, practicality, authenticity, and washback. Each of them is further
explained below. The first strength that I have discovered is the teacher was doing the story
telling session every time to start the lesson. This could be her classroom routine to attract
pupils focus and gear pupils attention to the teaching and learning session. By doing this
routine, I can see that she is practising the pupils of word recognition skill instead of the meaning
itself. Reliability refers to consistency and dependability. Here I can see that she was using a
reliable teaching technique which used a common classroom activity such as language drilling
for pronunciation practice. However, the weakness of this activity is the teacher could not be able
to prepare a good teaching material which suits the target group. This is because the teaching
material used (story books) are not contextualised to the pupils themselves. The teacher should
use story book which contain appropriate language level for the target group. Other than that, the
teacher should make a book with a bigger font so that the pupils will see clearly.
The second strength is the teacher managed to identify the individual differences among
the pupils. I can see this when the teacher called out names to do the speaking activity which I
believe these are the weaker students. The teacher was able to give extra attention to them to
show that she knew her students well. Some pupils are capable of learning much more, and at a
much faster rate than they normally do. Learning involves subconscious and conscious
processes where the pupils are still learning while the teacher was correcting the others. But
unfortunately, there are still pupils who left out during this activity. The teacher should prepare
other extra task for those who have done the previous activity.