Assessing speaking

       Here is a summary on the speaking assessment. I hope this glogster will help you get the point of this chapter (Brown, 2000).

Testing, a way of bombing learners

This entry refers to chapter 1: Testing, Assessing and Teaching (Brown, 2000)

           As far as I recall, in my childhood I used to be good at tests. I did not yearn to be tested every single while I learned  a topic but whenever a test,  a quiz or an exam was administered  I was ready to take so.  Yet I did not like them deep inside because I would get nervous and end up exhausted due to answering those summative memory cloze tests.  At High School, the testing system was slightly different; just some new formats of testing were introduced such as multiple-choice, open questioned and formative tests .  In the first years, I felt at ease with all of the tests teachers administered and with the grades I would get since I was an outstanding student who would want to get awarded for my endeavors in the bimestrial flag ceremony. The last two years of High School, I just did not want to keep in this state of paraphernalia and decided to refuse any acknowledgment since they were nonsensical acts that did not satisfy my intellect.  It does not mean that I did bad on tests, but  at the time, I was not keen on getting the first position anymore because I got disappointed and frustrated because of the unreliability, the invalidity and the inaccuracy of tests.  Most of the times, the results did not show what I knew; they were whether so lame that insulted my critical thinking or were so difficult that screwed up my learning process. It means that this unfairness of tests generated a  negative washback effect in my academic life.

             At university I had the wrong perception that there would be a drastic change on tests. But surprisingly, there was a plethora of unreliable discourse on new ways of testing since professors gave information about the grade system and ornamented speech on learning teaching process at the beginning, but in the tests I could see that professors reproduced the same traditional patterns of evaluation and testing of Elementary and High School. Albeit, I cannot deny that there were some latent changes in testing, evaluating and assessing that modified my  enhanced  me to project a positive attitude towards assessment, such as presentations, conferences, talks, essays  and some other ways in which I could  develop my critical thinking and express my own ideas.  With this positive washback, I did not feel an automaton anymore,  and became enthusiastic with my learning process because of the sense readings, teachings and tests made in some cases.

            But still my point is that at elementary school, at High school and even at university in Colombia, educators are still administering cloze tests in language classes and in other subjects. And the skepticism that I show against this kind of test is underpinned by the following statement in the Colombian National Guidelines: “Nadie en situación real de comunicación deja espacios en blanco, ni añade palabras extrañas para que el interlocutor las detecte y las elimine, ni habla en desorden para que el otro ordene las palabras en frases coherentes” (Smith, 1994).  That is why I struggle with this kind of tests since they are nonsensical and non trascendental in real life. They are not genuine tests that can measure our language skills or can help us get by on our communicative daily life.

      To wind up, it is ridiculous to still find literature professors implementing cloze tests about readings or books that students read, analize and criticize; I consider this act as disrespectful and inaccurate for people with great mental capacities that can think beyond the borders and who are not willing to face the same memory meaningless tests that were taken at  High School.