ASSESSING READING AND ASSESSING WRITING By Douglas Brown

Assignment of meeting 14.

“SUMMARY ASSESSING READING 185-217”

ASSESSING READING

TYPES (GENRES) OF READING

As we consider a number of different types or genres of written texts, the components of reading ability, and specific tasks that are commonly used in the assessment of reading, let's not forget the unobservable nature of reading. Like listening, one cannot see the process of reading, nor can one observe a specific product of reading. Other than observing a reader's eye movements and page turning, there is no technology ~hat enables us to "see" sequences of graphic symbols traveling from the pages of a book into compartments of the brain (in a possible bottom-up

process). Even more outlandish is the notion that one might be able to watch information from the brain make its way down onto the page (in typical top-down strategies). Further, once something is read-information from the written text is stored-no technology allows us to empirically measure exactly what is lodged in the brain. All assessment of reading must be carried out by inference.

MICRO SKILS, MACRO SKILS, AND STRATEGIES FOR READING

Aside from attending to genres of text, the skills and strategies for accomplishing reading emerge as a crucial consideration in the assessment of reading ability. The micro- and macro skills below represent the spectrum of possibilities for objectives in the assessment of reading comprehension.

TYPES OF READING

1. Perceptive. In keeping with the set of categories specified for listening comprehension, Similar specification are offered here; except with some differing terminology to capture the uniqueness of reading.

2. Selective. This category is largely an artifact of assessment formats. In order to ascertain one's reading recognition of lexical, grammatical, or discourse features of language within a very short stretch of language, certain typical tasks are used: picture-cued tasks, matching, true/false, multiple-choice, etc.

3. Interactive. Included among interactive reading types are stretches of language of several paragraphs to one page or more in which the reader must, in a psycholinguistic sense, interact with the text. That is, reading is a process of negotiating meaning; the reader brings to the text a set of schemata for understanding it, and intake is the product of that interaction. Typical genres that lend themselves to interactive reading are anecdotes, short narratives and descriptions, excerpts from longer texts, questionnaires, memos, announcements, directions, recipes, and the like.

4. Extensive. Extensive reading, as discussed in this book, applies to texts of more than a page, up to an including professional articles, essays, technical reports, short stories, and books.

DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS: PERCEPTIVE READING

Reading Aloud

The test-taker sees separate letters, words, and/or short sentences and reads them aloud, one by one, in the presence of an administrator. Since the assessment is of reading comprehension, any recognizable oral approximation of the target response is considered correct.

Written Response

the same stimuli are presented, and the test-taker's task is' to reproduce the probe in writing. Because of the transfer across different skills here, evaluation of the test taker's response must be carefully treated. If an error occurs, make sure you determine its source; what might be assumed to be a writing error, for example, may actually be a reading error, and vice versa.

Multiple-Choice

Multiple-choice responses are not only a matter of choosing one of four or five possible answers. Other formats, some of which are especially useful at the low levels of reading, include same/different, circle the answer, true/false, choose the letter, and matching.

Picture-Cued Items

Test-takers are shown a picture, such as the one on the next page, along with a written text and are given one of a number of possible tasks to perform.

DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS:SELECTIVE READING

Multiple-Choice (for Form-Focused Criteria)

By far the most popular method of testing a reading knowledge of vocabulary and grammar is the multiple-choice format, mainly for reasons of practicality: it is easy to administer and can be scored quickly. The most straightforward .multiple-choice items may have little context, but might serve as a vocabulary or grammar check.

The context of the story in this example may not specifically help the test-taker to respond to the items more easily, but it allows the learner to attend to one set of  related sentences for eight items that assess vocabulary and grammar. Other contexts might involve some content dependencies, such that earlier sentences predict the correct response for a later item.

Matching Tasks

At this selective level of reading, the test-taker's task is simply to respond correctly, which makes matching an appropriate format. The most frequently appearing criterion in matching procedures is vocabulary.

Alderson (2000, p.: 218) suggested matching procedures at an even more sophisticated level, where test taker have to discern pragmatic interpretations of certain signs or labels such as "Freshly made ·sandwiches" and "Use before 10/23/02."

Editing Tasks

Editing for grammatical or rhetorical errors is a widely used test method for assessing linguistic competence in reading. The TOEFL® and many "other tests employ this technique with the argument that it not only focuses on grammar but also, introduces a simulation of the authentic task of editing, or discerning errors in written passages. Its authenticity may be supported if you consider proofreading as a real-world skill that is being tested. Here is a typical set of examples of editing.

Picture-Cued Tasks

In the previous section we looked at picture-cued tasks for perceptive recognition of symbols and words. Pictures and photographs may be equally well utilized for examining ability at the selective level. Several types of picture-cued methods are commonly used.

1. Test-takers read a sentence or passage and choose one of four pictures that is being described. The sentence (or sentences) at this level is more complex.

2. Test-takers read a series of sentences or definitions, each describing a labeled part of a picture or diagram. Their task is to identify each labeled item. In the following diagram, test-takers do not necessarily know each term, but by reading the definition they are able to make an identification.

Gap-Filling Tasks

Many of the multiple-choice tasks described above can be converted into gap-filling, or "fill-in-the-blank, items in which the test-taker's response is to write a word or phrase. An extension of simple gap-filling tasks is to create sentence completion items where test-takers read part of a sentence and then complete it by writing a phrase.

DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS: INTERACTIVE READING

Cloze Tasks

One of the most popular types of reading assessment task is the cloze procedure. The word cloze was coined by educational psychologists to capture the Gestalt psychological concept of "closure," that is, the ability to fill in gaps in an incomplete image (visual; auditory, or cognitive) and supply (from background schemata) " omitted details.

Cloze tests are usually a minimum of two paragraphs in length in order to account for' discourse expectancies. They can be constructed relatively easily as long as the specifications for choosing deletions and for scoring are clearly defined. Typically every seventh word (plus or minus two) is deleted (known as fixed-ratio deletion), but many cloze test designers instead use a rational deletion procedure , of choosing deletions according to the grammatical or discourse functions of the words. Rational deletion also allows the designer to avoid deleting words that would be difficult to predict from the context.

Impromptu Reading Plus Comprehension Questions

If cloze testing is the most-researched procedure for assessing reading, the traditional "Read a passage and answer son1e questions" technique is undoubtedly the oldest and the most common. Virtually every proficiency test uses the format, and one would rarely consider assessing reading without some component of the assessment minvolving impromptu reading and responding to questions.

Notice that this set of questions, based on a 250-word passage, covers the comprehension

of these features:

• main idea (topic)

• expressions/idioms/phrases in context

• inference (implied detail)

• grammatical features

• detail (scanning for a specifically stated detail)

• excluding facts not written (unstated details)

• supporting idea(s)

• vocabulary in context

Short-Answer Tasks

Multiple-choice items are difficult to construct and validate, and classroom teachers rarely have time in their busy schedules to design such a test. A popular alternative to multiple-choice questions following reading passages is the age. old short-answer format. A reading passage is presented, and the test-taker reads questions that must be answered in a sentence or two. Questions might cover the same specifications indicated above for the TOEFL reading, but be worded in question form.

Editing (Longer Texts)

Imao's (2001) test introduced one error in each numbered sentence. Test-takers followed the same procedure for marking errors as described in the previous section. Instructions to the student included a sample of the kind of connected prose that test-takers would encounter.

Scanning

Scanning is a strategy used by all readers to find relevant information in a text. Assessment of scanning is carried out by presenting test-takers with a text (prose or something in a chart or graph format) and requiring rapid identification of relevant bits of information. Possible stimuli include ,r'

• a one- to two-page news article,

• an essay,

• a chapter in a textbook,

• a technical report,

• a table or chart depicting some research findings,

• a menu, and

• an application form .

Ordering Tasks

Students always enjoy the activity of receiving little strips of paper, each with a sentence on it, anti assembling them into a story, sometimes called the "strip story" technique. Variations on this can serve :as an assessment of overall global understanding of a story and of the cohesive devices that signal the order of events or ideas. Alderson et al. (1995, p. 53) warn, however, against assuming that there is only one 'logical order. They presented these sentences for forming a little story.

Information Transfer: Reading Charts, Maps, Graphs, Diagrams

Every educated person must be able to comprehend charts, maps, graphs, calendars, diagrams, and the like. Converting such nonverbal input into comprehensible intake requires not only an understanding of the graphic and verbal conventions of the medium but also a linguistic ability to interpret that information to someone else. Reading a map implies understanding the conventions of map graphics, but it is often accompanied by telling someone where to turn, how far to go, etc. Scanning a menu requires an ability to understand the structure of most menus as well as the capacity to give an order when the time comes. Interpreting the numbers on a stock market report involves the interaction of understanding the numbers and of conveying that understanding to others.

DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS: EXTENSIVE READING

skimming Tasks

Skimming is the process of rapid coverage of reading matter to determine its gist or main idea. It is a prediction strategy used to give a reader a sense of the topic and purpose of a text, the organization of the text, the perspective or point of view of the writer, its ease or difficulty, and/or its usefulness to the reader. Of course skimming can apply to texts of less than one page, so it would be wise not to confine this type of task just to extensive texts.

Summarizing and Responding

As you can readily see, a strict adherence to the1critetjon ;of assessing reading, and reading only, implies consideration of only the first factor; the other three pertain to writing performance. The first criterion is nevertheless a crucial factor; otherwise the reader-writer could pass all three of the other criteria with virtually no understanding of the text itself. Evaluation of the reading comprehension criterion will of necessity remain somewhat subjective because the teacher will need to determine degrees of fulfillment of the objective (see below for more about scoring this task).'

Of further interest in assessing extensive reading is the technique of asking a student to respond to a text. The two tasks should not be confused with each other: summarizing requires a synopsis or overview of the text, while responding asks the reader to provide his or her own opinion on the text as a whole or on some statement or issue within it.

Note-Taking and Outlining

Finally, a reader's comprehension of extensive texts may be assessed through an evaluation of a process of note-taking and/or outlining. Because of the difficulty of controlling the conditions and time frame for both these techniques, they rest firmly in the category of informal assessment. Their utility is in the strategic training that learners gain in retaining information through marginal notes that highlight key information or organizational outlines that put supporting ideas into a visually manageable framework. A teacher, perhaps in one-on-one conferences-with students, can use student notes/outlines as indicators of the presence or absence of effective reading strategies, and thereby point the learners in positive directions.

“SUMMARY ASSESSING WRITING 218-250”

ASSESSING WRITING

GENRES OF WRIT'ING LANGUAGE

 The same classification scheme is reformulated here to include the most common genres that a second language writer might produce, within and beyond the requirements of a curriculum. Even though this list is slightly shorter, you should be aware of the surprising multiplicity of options of written genres that second language learners need to acquire.

TYPES OF WRITING PERFORMANCE

1. Imitative. To produce written language, the learner must attain skills in the fundamental, basic tasks of .writing letters, words, punctuation, and very brief sentences. This category includes the ability to spell correctly and to perceive phoneme-grapheme correspondences in the English spelling system. It is a level at which learners are trying to master the mechanics of writing.

2. Intensive (controlled). Beyond the fundamentals of imitative writing are skills in producing appropriate vocabulary within a context, collocations and idioms, and correct grammatical features up to the length of a sentence. Meaning and Context are of some importance in determining correctness and appropriateness, but most assessment tasks are more 'concerned with a focus on form, and are rather strictly controlled by the test design.

3. Responsive. Here, assessment tasks require learners to perform at a limited discourse level, connecting sentences into a paragraph and creating a logically connected sequence of two or three paragraphs. Tasks respond to pedagogical directives, lists of criteria, outlines, and other guidelines. Genres of writing include brief narratives and descriptions, short reports, lab reports, summaries, brief responses to reading, and interpretations of charts or graphs. Under specified conditions, the writer begins to 'exercise some freedom of choice among alternative forms of expression of ideas. The writer has mastered the fundamentals of sentence-level grammar and is more focused on the discourse conventions that will achieve the objectives of the written text.

4. Extensive. Extensive writing implies successful management of all the processes and strategies of writing for all purposes, up to the length of an essay, a term paper, a major research project report, or even a thesis. Writers focus on achieving a purpose, organizing and developing ideas logically, using details to support or illustrate ideas, demonstrating syntactic and lexical variety, and in many cases, engaging in the process of multiple drafts to achieve a final product. Focus on grammatical form is limited to occasional editing or proofreading of a draft.

MICRO- AND MACROSKII.IS OF WRITING

We turn once again to a taxonomy of micro- and macro skills that will assist you in defining the ultimate criterion of an assessment procedure. The earlier micro skills apply more appropriately to imitative and intensive types of writing task, while the macro skill are essential for the successful mastery of responsive  and extensive writing.

DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS: IMITATIVE WRITING

Tasks in [Hand] Writing Letters, Words, and Punctuation

First, a comment should be made on the increasing use of personal and laptop computers and handheld instruments for creating written symbols. Handwriting has the potential of becoming a lost art as even very young children are more and more likely to use a keyboard to produce writing. Making the shapes of letters and other symbols is now more a question of learning typing skills than of training the muscles of the hands to use a pen or pencil. Nevertheless, for all practical purposes, handwriting remains a skill of paramount importance within the larger domain of language assessment.

Spelling Tasks and Detecting Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondences

1. Spelling tests. In a traditional, old-fashioned spelling test, the teacher dictates a simple list of words, one word at a time, followed by the word in a sentence, repeated again, with a pause for test-takers to write the word. Scoring emphasizes correct spelling.

2. Picture-cued tasks. Pictures are displayed with the objective of focusing on familiar words whose spelling may be unpredictable. Items are chosen according to the objectives of the assessment, but this format is an opportunity to present some challenging words and word pairs: boot/book, read/reed, bit/bite, etc.

3. Multiple-choice techniques. Presenting words and phrases in the form of a multiple-choice task risks crossing over into the domain of assessing reading, but if the items have a follow-up writing component, they can serve as formative reinforcement of spelling conventions.

4. Matching phonetic symbols. If students have become familiar with the phonetic alphabet, they could be shown phonetic symbols and asked to write· the correctly spelled word alphabetically. This works best with letters that do not have one-to-one correspondence with the phonetic symbol (e.g., l æ l and a).

DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS: INTENSIVE (CONTROLLED) WRITING

Dictation and Dicto-Comp

A form of controlled writing related to dictation is a dicto-comp. Here, a paragraph  is read at normal speed, usually two or three times ;then the teacher asks students to rewrite the paragraph from the best of their recollection. In one of several variations of the dicto -Comp technique, the teacher, after reading the passage, distributes a handout with key words from the paragraph, in sequence, as cues for the students. In either case, the dicto-comp is genuinely classified as an intensive, if not a responsive, writing task. Test-takers must internalize the content of the passage, remember a few phrases and lexical items as key words, then recreate the story in their own words.

Grammatical Transformation Tasks

In the heyday of structural paradigms of language teaching with slot-filler ,techniques and slot substitution drills, the practice of making grammatical transformations. Orally or in writing-was very popular. To this day, language teachers have also used this technique as an assessment task, ostensibly to measure grammatical competence. Numerous versions of the task are possible:

• Change the tenses in a paragraph.

• Change full forms of verbs to reduced forms (contractions).

• Change statements to yes/no or wh-questions.

• Change questions into statements.

• Combine two sentences into one using a relative pronoun.

• Change direct speech to indirect speech.

• Change from active to passive voice.

Picture-Cued Tasks

A variety of picture-cued controlled tasks have been used in English classrooms around the world. The main advantage in this technique is in detaching the almost ubiquitous reading and writing connection and offering instead a nonverbal means to stimulate written responses.

Vocabulary Assessment Tasks

Most vocabulary study is carried out through reading. A number of assessments of reading recognition of vocabulary were discussed in the previous chapter: multiple choice techniques, matching, picture-cued identification, cloze techniques, guessing the meaning of a word in context, etc. The major techniques used to assess vocabulary are (a) defining and (b) using a word in a sentence. The latter is the more authentic, but even that task is constrained by a contrived situation in which the test-taker, usually in a matter of seconds, has to come up with an appropriate sentence,

which mayor may not indicate that the test-taker "knows" the word. Read (2000) suggested several types of items for assessment of basic knowledge of the meaning of a word, collocational possibilities, and derived morphological forms.

Ordering Tasks

One task at the sentence level may appeal to those who are fond of word games and puzzles: ordering (or reordering) a scrambled set of words into a correct sentence. Here is the way the item format appears. While this somewhat inauthentic task generates writing performance and may be said to tap into grammatical word-ordering rules, it presents a challenge to test takers whose learning styles do not dispose them to logical-mathematical problem solving. If sentences are kept very simple (such as #2) with perhaps no more than four or five words, if only one possible sentence can emerge, and if students have practiced the technique in class, then some justification emerges. But once again, as ,in so many writing techniques, this task involves as much, if not more, reading performance as writing.

Short-Answer and Sentence Completion Tasks

Some types of short-answer tasks were discussed in Chapter 8 because of the heavy participation of reading performance in their completion. Such items range from very simple and predictable to somewhat more elaborate responses. Look at the range of possibilities. The reading*writing connection is apparent in the first three item types but has less of an effect in the last three, where reading is necessary in order to understand the directions but is not crucial in creating sentences. Scoring on a 2-1-0 scale (as described above) may be the most appropriate way to avoid self. arguing about the appropriateness of a response.

ISSUES IN ASSESSING RESPONSIVE AND EXTENSIVE WRITING

Responsive writing creates the opportunity :tor test-takers to offer an array of 'possible creative responses within a pedagogic11 or assessment framework: test-takers are "responding" to a prompt or assignment. Freed from the strict control of intensive writing, learners can exercise a number of options in choosing vocabulary, grammar, and discourse, but with some constraints and conditions. Criteria now· begin to include the discourse and rhetorical conventions of paragraph structure and of connecting two or three such paragraphs in texts of limited length. The learner is responsible for accomplishing a purpose in writing, for developing a sequence of connected ideas, and for empathizing with an audience.

The genres of text that are typically addressed here are

• short reports (with structured formats and conventions);

• responses to the reading of an article or story;

• summaries of articles or stories;

• brief narratives or descriptions; and

• interpretations of graphs, tables, and charts.

DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS RESPONSIVE AND EXTENSIVE WRITING

paraphrasing

One of the more difficult concepts for second language learners to grasp is paraphrasing. The initial step in teaching paraphrasing is to ensure that learners understand the importance of. paraphrasing: to say something in one's own words, to avoid plagiarizing, to offer some variety in expression. With those possible motivations and purpose in mind, the test designer needs to elicit a paraphrase of a sentence or paragraph, usually .not more.

Guided Question and Answer

Another lower-order task in this type of writing, which has the pedagogical benefit of guiding a learner without dictating the form of the output, is a guided question and- answer format in which the test administrator poses a series of questions that essentially serve as an outline of the emergent written text. In the writing of a narrative that the teacher has already covered in a class discussion, the following kinds of questions might be posed to stimulate a sequence of sentences.

Paragraph Construction Tasks

The participation of reading performance is inevitable in writing effective paragraphs. To a great extent, writing is the art of emulating what one reads. You read an effective paragraph; you analyze the ingredients of its success; you emulate it. Assessment of paragraph development takes on a number of different forms:

1. Topic sentence writing. There is no cardinal rule that says every paragraph must have a topic sentence, but the stating of a topic through the lead sentence (or a subsequent one) has remained as a tried-and· true technique for teaching the concept of a paragraph.

2. Topic development within a paragraph. Because paragraphs are intended to provide a reader with "clusters" of meaningful, connected thoughts or ideas, another stage of assessment is development of an idea within a paragraph.

3. Develop1nent of main and supporting ideas across paragraphs. As writers string two or more paragraphs together in a 19nger text (and as we move up the continuum from responsive to extensive writing), the writer attempts to articulate a thesis or main idea with clearly stated supporting ideas.

Strategic Options

Developing main and supporting ideas is the goal for the writer attempting to create an effective text, whether a short one- to two-paragraph one or an extensive one of several pages. A number .of strategies are commonly taught to second language writers to accomplish their purposes. Aside from strategies of free writing, outlining, drafting, and revising, writers need to be aware of the task that has been demanded '" and to focus on the genre o~ writing and the expectations of that genre.

TEST OF WRITTEN ENGLISH (TWE®)

The TWE is in the category of a timed impromptu test in that test..takers are under a 30-minute time limit and are not able to prepare ahead of time for the topic that will appear. Topics are prepared by a panel of experts following specifications for topics that represent commonly used discourse and thought patterns at the university level Here are some sample topics published on the TWE website.

SCORING METHODS FOR RESPONSIVE AND EXTENSIVE WRITING

Holistic Scoring

The TWE scoring scale above is a prime example of holistic scoring. In Chapter 7, a rubric for scoring oral production holistically was presented. Each point on a holistic scale is given a, systematic set of descriptors, and the reader-evaluator matches an overall impression with the descriptors to arrive at a score. Descriptors usually (bl.lt not always) follow a prescribed pattern. For example, the first descriptor across all score categories may address the quality of task achievement, the second may deal with organization, the third with grammatical or rhetorical considerations, and' so on. Scoring, however, is truly holistic in that those subsets are not quantitatively added up to yield a score.

Primary Trait Scoring

A second method of scoring, primary trait, focuses on "how well students can write within a narrowly defined range of discourse" (Weigle, 2002, p. 110).This type of scoring en1phasizes the task at hand and assigns a score based on the effectiveness of the text's achieving that one goal. For example, if the purpose or function of an essay is to persuade the reader to do something, the score for the writing would rise or fall on the accomplishment of that function. If a learner is asked to exploit the. ,imaginative function of language by expressing personal feelings, then the response would be evaluated on that feature alone.

For rating the primary trait of the text, Lloyd-Jones (1977) suggested a four point scale ranging from zero (no response or fragmented response) to 4 (the purpose is unequivocally accomplished in a convincing fashion). It almost goes without saying that organization, supporting details, fluency, syntactic variety, and other features will implicitly be evaluated in the process of offering a primary trait score.

Analytic Scoring

Classroom evaluation of learning is best served through analytic scoring, in which as many as six major elements of writing are scored, thus enabling learners to home in on weaknesses and to capitalize on strengths.

Analytic scoring may be more appropriately called analytic assessment in order to. capture its closer association with classroom language instruction than with formal testing. Brown and Bailey (1984) designed an analytical scoring scale that specified five major categories and a description of five different levels in each category, ranging from "unacceptable" to "excellent".

BEYOND SCORING: RESPONDING TO EXTENSIVE WRITING

Formal testing carries with it the burden of designing a practical and reliable instrument that assesses its intended criterion accurately. To accomplish that mission, designers of writing test are charged with the task of providing as "objective" a scoring procedure as possible, and one that in many cases can be easily interpreted by agents beyond the learner. Holistic, primary trait, and analytic scoring all satisfy those ends . Yet beyond mathematically calculated scores lies a rich domain of assessment in which a developing writer is coached from stage to stage in a process of building a storehouse of writing skills. Here in the classroom, in the tutored relationship of teacher and student, and in the community ,of peer learners, most of the hard work of assessing writing is carried out. Such assessment is informal, formative, and replete with washback.

Assessing Initial Stages of the Process of Composing

Following are some guidelines for assessing the initial stages (the first draft or two) of a written composition. These guidelines are generic for self, peer,. and teacher , responding. Each assessor will need to modify the list according to the level of the learner, the context, and the purpose in responding.

The teacher-assessor's role is; as a guide, a facilitator, and an ally; therefore, assessment at this stage of writing heeds to be as positive as possible to encourage the writer. An early focus on overall structure and meaning will enable writers to. clarify their purpose and plan and will set a framework for the writers' later refinement of the lexical and grammatical issues.

Assessing Later Stages of the Process of Composing

Through all these stages it is assumed that peers and teacher are both responding to the writer through conferencing in person, electronic communication, or, at the very least, an exchange of papers. The impromptu timed tests and the methods of scoring discussed earlier may appear to be only distantly related. to such an individualized process of creating a· written text, but are they, in reality? All those developmental stages may be the preparation that learners need both to function in creative real..world writing tasks and to successfully demonstrate their competence on a timed impromptu test. And those holistic scores are after all generalizations of the various components of effective writing. If the hard work of successfully progressing through a semester or two of a challenging course in academic writing ultimately means that writers are ready to function in their real-world contexts, and to get a 5 or 6 on the TWE, then all the effort was worthwhile.

This chapter completes the cycle of considering the assessment of all of the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. As you contemplate using some of the assessment techniques that have been suggested, I think you can now fully appreciate two significant overarching guidelines for designing an effective assessment procedure:

1. It is virtually impossible to isolate anyone of the four skills without the involvement of at least one other mode of performance. Don't underestimate the power of the integration of skills in assessments designed to target a single skill area.

2. The variety of assessment techniques and item types and tasks is virtually infinite in that there is always some possibility for creating a unique variation. Explore those alternatives, but with some caution lest your overzealous urge to be innovative distract you from a central focus on achieving the intended purpose and rendering an appropriate evaluation of performance.

REFERENCES:

Brown.  2004 . LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT “principles and classroom practice”. New York: Longman.