我對(duì)美國(guó)第二語言課堂評(píng)估系統(tǒng)的理解

【摘 要】美國(guó)第二語言課堂不同于中國(guó)國(guó)內(nèi)英語教學(xué)課堂是由它特殊的社會(huì)條件所決定的，隨著越來越多的移民涌入美國(guó)，美國(guó)課堂內(nèi)的ESL學(xué)生逐漸增加，因而如何采用合理有效的課堂評(píng)估體統(tǒng)來提高不同層次學(xué)生的英語學(xué)習(xí)能力變得尤為重要。這些合理有效的課堂評(píng)估方式也是我們作為EFL課堂老師可以借鑒和利用的。

【關(guān)鍵詞】美國(guó)第二語言課堂；評(píng)估系統(tǒng)；CLD學(xué)生

As an EFL teacher in China， before I came to U.S.， I have no idea of the assessment system in U.S. The only standard test I have known is SAT （Scholastic Assessment Test） and the purpose of this test is U.S college entrance examination for all the senior high school students from all over the word. That’s my understanding toward the assessments in U.S. I am an outsider of the assessment system in U.S.

After I began to observe an ESL classroom in U.S.， I have found that U.S. has the typical environment itself. Because of its immigrant environment， in recent years， more and more culturally？and？linguistically？diverse （CLD） students come into classroom. One of the most challenging fields for the teachers is how to make special education more efficient in classroom. For CLD is a group which is easily misidentified， mislabeled and consequently miseducated in formal classroom. There are some special education issues related to literacy， social/ vocational and language in the assessment of CLD students. The implementation of efficient practices will examine the entirety of student’s histories， including general background information to gather for all concerns， reading concerns， language concerns， writing concerns and math concerns. All these concerns are based on the need of CLD students. Then it is not hard to see that this environment is special but it really need the stakeholders and assessment designers to think about more.

I once observed a student-Eunji in an ESL classroom in U.S. for a whole semester， and she is one of these CLD students. She has studied at the third grade writing classroom， the teacher adapts a lot of formal and informal assessments in and out of classroom. The formal assessment mainly focuses on their listening， reading and speaking. The informal assessment in the classroom can always be combined in some activities. In these games， the teacher can help the students to find their identity. The teacher always asks the students to write something bilingually， suggesting the student using her first language to learn her second language， which can assist the student to come through the process from enculturation to acculturation. All these assessments are combined with encouragements and positive feedback from the teachers.

In my study in U.S.， I have found the assessments now adapted in U.S. ESL classroom are very different from the traditional assessments. Traditional assessment practices typically value individual achievement， competition （ranking）， speed， verbal prowess， and recitation of knowledge. But CLD students may not understand the dominant culture. The goal of assessment is to determine what and how the student learns in order to inform instruction， assessment methods that do not account for acculturation only serve to cloud the teacher’s ability to gain anything valuable from their results. （Cabral， Herrera， Murry， 2013， p.119）. But these traditional assessments are still used in the EFL classroom in China， one reason is that the EFL classroom doesn’t have the same complicated context in ESL classroom， the other reason is that the educational system on foreign language teaching in China still needs improving， the assessment designer and stakeholders still thinking the current assessment system is more efficient and fit for the current situation in China. The standard national exam takes a main role in China. Generally， the standardized tests have a clear target： they are designed for what is called “summative” data and to determine how much a student has learned， and they are used to compare a student’s knowledge against a set core of knowledge and skills deemed essential for him to know （Law Eckes， 2007， p. 23）. In U.S.， there some experts have against standardized texts. They point out some weaknesses of such kind of tests and tell stakeholders that not all the standardized tests fit for every student because of their individual diversity. There are many reasons shows the diversity： Tests are biased， including culturally biased and linguistically biased； Tests happen in vacuum， for example， students can misread test questions， some questions are poorly written， testing companies make mistakes， and etc..

However， I always think about even if there will be no change on American national standard assessments， but I can use some authentic assessments in my own EFL classroom to assist the students’ literacy development. For me， I am very interested in the assessments used in the reading and writing class and care more about how the assessments take effects under language teachers’ instruction.

The trend toward increasing numbers of culturally and linguistically diverse students in the classroom is not a new phenomenon. The typical environment in U.S. requires the teachers to think more about some assessments that take individual student’s cultural background， which challenge the stakeholders all the time. This social issue will never happen in Chinese EFL classroom. So when I read Herrera， Cabral Murry’s book Assessment Accommodations for Classroom Teachers of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. The most important conception is the reliability and validity of authentic assessment. Reliability is best understood as the power of an assessment to gather consistent evident of skills， regardless of the examiner， time， place， or other variables related to its administration（Herrera， Cabral Murry， p. 24）. Validity refers to the ability of an assessment， process， or product to measure the knowledge or skills it is intended to measure （Herrera， Cabral Murry， p. 25）. These two terms “reliability” and “validity” require teacher to think about more about the purpose of assessment. If the constructs of a given assessment are not will defined， the result will not adequately reflect students’ skills in those areas. The assessment used in classroom should ensure that they are consistently measuring what are supposed to measure. In this book， the author introduces a lot of assessments， among which interest me most are performance-based assessments， portfolios， self-assessment and peer assessment， cooperative group assessment. The introduction to these assessments will help me to set up my plans in adapting the assessments in teaching practices.

In addition， I have found that the ongoing assessments in the writing classroom support the student’s literacy development in writing. For example，small-scale assessments often are developed from moment to moment in classroom practice. All the activities held in the classroom are used to serve for the writing activity.For example， in the ESL classroom I have observed. The target of those assessments is help to develop Eunji’s writing skill. The content validity is the personal narrative genre teaching， but all the assessments in the classroom can be called as construct validity. All these targets achieved as reliability.

In the book Assessment accountability in language education programs， Gottlieb and Nguyen（2007） use different framework to conduct some assessments. There also are joint assessments among peers， as well as individual self-assessments by students （p. 20）. Boughton （2004） suggested that students should be the ones creating portfolio， archives， including works in progress， sketches， and their own self-critical reflections. These assessment strategies couple art instruction with self- reflection and play a dominant role in helping students construct meaning from the processes and products of their artwork. These self and peer assessments can result in motivating and transforming art learning （Anderson Milbrandt， 1998， cited from Gottlieb and Nguyen， 2007， p.100）. Assessing student performance through students’ visual products and portfolios of their artwork， responses to items on teacher created tests， research papers and journals， group presentations， and peer critiques are not the only sources of information useful for determining success of an at lesson， a unit of instruction， or an entire art program.

* My context

Table 1 shows the number of EFL student in China

Table 1

Number of EFL students at different grades in China （MOE， 2004）

China has a large number of EFL students， and there is no doubt that there are many hidden students who have special need in language learning. But we have ignored. Actually， I have made a survey on many students before， students appreciated not being graded and felt the current scoring system is unfair to them. The middle schools students were not keen on self-assessments. In fact， students know when they are performing at their best and valued their teachers when they felt they were assigning fair grades.

Classroom authentic assessment require collaboration between language teachers and students， sometimes this collaboration depend on the educational setting， nature and diversity of the students， the teacher’s philosophy and teaching strategies. I hope that in my future teaching practice， I can design some authentic assessments to support my instruction， and they can be informal. In these informal assessments， students can take the activity to engage in learning activities that are integrated， complex， and challenging.

But there are still some problems I need to come over， the three ways- narratives， checklist， and portfolios are useful for assessing the literacy development of students. Portfolios are also mostly used in my former classroom. I have to do a report regularly on the students’ academic learning， and the content set in the checklist will be examined weekly. But for the portfolio part， I am still a little confusing about that. I can take the suggestions in this chapter in my future， but the EFL classroom in China always bears more than 50 students. If the teacher establishes individual portfolio for everyone， it seems hard for the teacher. I am still thinking about these problems in the assessments conducting.

【References】

[1]Cabral， R. M.， Herrera， S. G.， Murry， K. G. （2013）. Assessment accommodations for classroom teachers of culturally and linguistically diverse student. Boston， MA： Pearson Education.

[2]Gottlieb， M. Nguyen， D. （2007）. Assessment and accountability in language education programs： a guide for teachers and administrators. Philadelphia， PA： Caslon

[3]Law， B. Eckes， M. （2007）. Assessment and ESL： An Alternative Approach. Manitoba， Canada： Portage Main Press.