Curriculum research review series: languages

Summary

This section outlines the purpose of different types of assessment. This is then contextualised according to phonics, vocabulary and grammar. The clear line of sight from the principles behind our research reviews and subject reports, through curriculum progression and pedagogy to assessment, can be seen. Crucially, in languages, leaders need to ensure that assessment is fit for purpose. This means that any assessment tests what it is designed to assess.

Types of assessment

Assessment is formative when teachers use it to check on their pupils’ progress, to see how far they have mastered what they should have learned, and then use this information to modify their teaching plans. Summative assessment is used at the end of a period of learning (such as a term or year) to measure what has been achieved. These 2 types of assessment overlap. They can both inform curriculum and pedagogy decisions: ‘a systemic and ecological approach seeks complementarity: informal classroom assessment and formal large-scale assessment should both contribute to the 2 key purposes of assessment: to provide evidence of learning and evidence for learning’.

In England, the Assessment Reform Group’s work on formative assessment has been influential. There is a consensus that formative assessment includes:

• providing effective feedback to pupils

• adjusting teaching to take account of the results of assessment

• recognising the profound influence assessment has on pupils’ motivation and self-esteem, both of which are crucial influences on learning

• the need for pupils to be able to assess themselves and understand how to improve

Research on language learning in primary schools suggests that assessment is both scarce and limited in effectiveness. This is the case in England and in other countries. According to Holmes and Myles, only 52% of schools carry out an informal assessment of each child. Only 16% of schools say that they carry out a formal assessment of each child. Also, 15% make no assessment of their pupils’ language learning and keep no record of progress. Assessment information is therefore limited at the point of transition between primary and secondary school.

In secondary schools, research suggests that assessment is often unduly influenced by GCSE summative assessments. Bauckham notes that assessment should form a balance between language elements tested in isolation (known as ‘achievement tests’, such as vocabulary, phonics or grammar) and assessments of integrated language, including open-ended creative language production (written or oral) and listening and reading comprehension.

It is vital that both formative and summative assessment accurately measure what they are intended to measure. Therefore, the following is important for curriculum leaders to consider:

• testing should be regular and planned, carefully drawing on knowledge that has been taught in class

• this should link directly to a well-structured curriculum that builds pupils’ knowledge of phonics, vocabulary and grammar, step by step

• tests in later years should systematically revisit knowledge taught and tested in earlier years

Testing phonics knowledge

Knowledge of the sound–spelling relations is one of the building blocks of learning a language. Being able to pronounce words from their written form helps reading comprehension and assimilation of vocabulary. Also, being able to segment words when listening to connected speech relies on knowledge of sound–spelling correspondences.

Therefore, there needs to be formative and summative assessment of phonics knowledge in both reading aloud and dictation. Phonics tests can include asking learners to spell or read out words that they have not yet been taught. This tests whether they can link spoken and written forms.

Testing vocabulary knowledge

When assessing knowledge of vocabulary, assessing the breadth of vocabulary is important. Also, it is critical that the depth of knowledge is tested, for example pupils’:

• accuracy of spelling and pronunciation

• knowledge of synonyms and antonym relations, collocations and figurative meanings

• speed of recall

As pupils progress, it is important to test that they know that one word can have different meanings or different roles in a sentence. For example, they may understand ‘français’ as a noun and adjective.

Pupils will gradually build up ‘semantic networks’ (clusters of words that are useful to talk about particular things or in specific contexts). These networks will form gradually over time. Highly frequent words will always be useful across different contexts.

It is important to check pupils’ receptive and productive ability, through both written and spoken forms of the language.

It is vital that vocabulary assessments tap into the knowledge they claim to test (that is, that they are valid). In some parts of tests, pupils can infer meaning. For example, they may guess the meaning of cognates, or use common-sense knowledge of the world to derive meaning. Lexical inferencing (working out meaning from surrounding words) and cognate awareness (knowing when the same forms of words mean the same in their first language) are important components of language learning. But it is critical that tests clearly distinguish between whether they actually assess knowledge (that has been taught in lessons) or whether they assess other skills (such as strategy use, if unknown words are included in tests).

Testing grammar knowledge

When assessing grammatical knowledge, it is important to ensure that we test exactly what we are looking for, and that pupils are not drawing only on pre-learned lexical items or chunks of language. For example, ‘yesterday’ next to a verb tells the reader that the verb is in the past tense without them needing to recognise changes in morphology.

It is important to check pupils’ receptive and productive ability through speaking, listening, reading and writing.

Aligning assessment to clearly structured and sequenced grammatical progression is key.

Achievement versus proficiency tests

As pupils move from novice to expert, assessing language proficiency should include checking their:

• understanding across sentences, paragraphs and the entire text

• production of more complex and longer language, in less scaffolded environments

These skills require more robust, faster and reliable access to the sounds of a language (that is, sounds in a wide range of contexts), mastery of more grammatical concepts, and a deeper and broader vocabulary.

Assessment may also test other competencies, such as:

• socio-linguistic (for example, politeness)

• pragmatic (for example, comprehending subtle intentions of the speaker)

• discourse (for example, linking ideas across paragraphs)

Assessment of such ‘composite’ language use by definition draws on a reliable and fast grasp of the components of language and how these fit together. These are advanced competencies at GCSE level.

Based on the above, high-quality languages education may have the following features

• Meaningful assessment is part of the curriculum in primary languages classrooms.

• Assessment in secondary classrooms is not unduly influenced by GCSE or A-level summative assessment.

• Assessments are carefully designed so that they are valid (for example, pupils cannot guess the meaning of vocabulary by a process of elimination).

• Assessment is aligned to a clearly structured and sequenced curriculum.

• For more expert learners, assessment checks learners’ understanding of language, and ability to produce long stretches of language and more complex language, in less scaffolded environments.