Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción

Faculty of Education

Language Department

Language Assessment

Unit 4

Online performance based

assessment instrument

Nicolás González

Diego Paredes Cid

Professor

Andrés Hunter

Concepción, July 28th

Introduction

The purpose of this job is to analyze two online performance-based assessment

instruments according to the principles of assessment. The work is separated in two

parts and each one in three. Each one corresponds to an aspect of examination of

the online resources.

Lyricstraining

Tool's description:

This is a site with L2 songs, in which the learner can listen and transcribe them.

Here are four different levels of difficulty. It is very popular because allows you to

do language work through songs. It has several features in different languages and

it is very interactive. Besides, If someone wish to keep a track of his/her progress

may create a free account.

Choice support:

We decided to evaluate this instrument because seems to be truly enjoyable, the

learner can listen to their favorite artist's songs that he/she would like. Also it

promotes authentic learning because videos and songs are current and interesting

for them. In addition, it is easy for learners to use this application. As it has two

sections, one is for karaoke, in which the learner has to sing the song in order to

complete it, where the pronunciation has an important role. On the contrary, the

other section the learner has to complete the lyrics of the song previously selected.

Each section has a score according to the learner´s performance.

Analysis:

According to the principles of assessment this application fulfills the requirements

of Validity, because Lyricstraining is, according to Gronlund (1998:26), appropriate,

meaningful and useful in terms of the purpose of assessment. Besides, in terms of

content validity, this application assess directly the necessary skill, in this case

pronunciation and vocabulary. In addition the instrument accomplishes the

requirements of practicality. Because, it is not expensive for the teacher to

administer it, it does not demand lot of time to check the answers, for it provides

automatically the score at the end of the song or of the session. In terms of

authenticity, the songs contain language that are currently been used in the real

world context, also learners can reply the language that is used in a certain song

outside the classroom. According to the information and results provided by the

webpage, the application completes the requirements of Reliability. The majority of

users get same scores in the same sections and levels of difficulties. Also, in terms

of Transparency the web page is secure by an encryption mode, so the test taker

and students can keep their personal information safe and be focused only in

perform effectively. That fits also with other principle of assessment, which is

Security. Teachers could recycle and reuse the webpage every time they want and

keep information in the webpage secure and for future analysis.

( Practice L2 music listening skills through videos on this site).

Zunal

Tool's description:

This is a site, in which learners can create and develop a Webquest. The teacher

provides students some ideas and examples of what they will have to do, in this

case a project. Learners can develop different skills, for instance; writing skills by

using different tenses or new vocabulary provided by the teacher, or acquired

through the process. Besides, students by creating a Webquest usually have

expone it to the class. Therefore, they have to be extremely careful about the

grammar that they are using, and also put emphasis in the new vocabulary which

they are going to present to their classmates.

Choice support:

We decided to assess this instrument for the reason that it helps learners to

develop their autonomy by analysing the information that they will use to produce a

Webquest. Moreover, as it is not difficult to use for learners, it is also easy to use in

order to assess the process. This webpage promotes authentic learning for

students by the creation of original artifacts and activities, additionally; as the

information needs to be analyzed learners have to choose it by using their critical

thinking. Therefore they can provide a valuable solution for a contextualized

problem.

Analysis:

This online resource fulfills the requirements of Practicality. Zunal is very easy to

use; the webpage has instructions in every section of the webquest. Also, for a

teacher is less time consuming because in the page he can monitor the process

and grade it without spending money in photocopies or printing. Also, the principle

of Authenticity is present in this page. Webquest are created for developing higher-

order thinking skills, so is a must to use real life language at the moment of use

Zunal. The language that students are going to learn will be very useful for them

daily life. In terms of Validity, Zunal promotes functional activities for students in

terms of the purpose of the assessment. According to the principle of Reliability,

teachers must develop an explicit rubric to evaluate the process and final product.

In this way, students will know what the assessment is going to be about, and if

they follow the steps carefully the results will be very similar. In relation to the

words of Coombe et al (2007), “… usefulness requires that any language test must

be developed with a specific purpose, a particular group of test-takers and a

specific language use in mind”, Zunal accomplish these requirements.

References

Coombe, Folse, Hubley. A practical guide to assessing English language learners.

2007.

Gronlund, N. E. (1998). Assessment of Student Achievement, 7th ed., Boston:

Allyn and Bacon