Criteria rather than marks?
what’s the aim of a progress test? Often it’s to give encouragement that something
is being done well or to point out areas where learners are not achieving as much as
they could. With this kind of aim, giving ‘marks’ may not be the most effective way
to assess, especially when skills (as opposed to language systems) are being tested.
An interesting alternative option is to base the tests around assessing if learners
are ‘successful’ when compared against some ‘can do’ criteria statements (ie
statements listing things ‘I can do’), such as ‘I can describe what’s happening in a
picture of town streets’ or ‘I can listen to directions and follow a route on a map’ or
‘I can check in at an airport’ .These statements can reflect the syllabus of the
course - and if the syllabus is itself stated in ‘can do’ terms, then students will have
a very clear idea of what level of achievement they are aiming for.
A criteria-based assessment scheme could perhaps measure each ‘can do’ on a
scale of four: