Choosing assessment activities.

Question 1

Cloze test.

Answer 1

Reading comprehension and knowledge of grammar and lexis. Difficult to mark if gaps allow more than one answer.

Question 2

Gap-fill

Answer 2

Knowledge of grammar and lexis. With control over which items are tested. Maybe difficult to mark if gaps allow more than one answer.

Question 3

Jumbled sentences.

Answer 3

Grammar, cohesion and awareness of collocation. Easy to mark.

Question 4

Sentence transformation.

Answer 4

Knowledege of grammatical structures and the relationship between them.

Question 5

Proofreading.

Answer 5

Awareness of error. Hard to mark according to our instructions.

Question 6

Multiple-choice questions

Answer 6

Grammar, lexis, comprenhension of written and spoken language. Easy to mark.

Question 7

True, false, don’t know questions

Answer 7

Comprehension of written or spoken language. Easy to mark and can be more challenging through adding the Don’t know option.

Question 8

Information transfer

Answer 8

Comprenhension of written or spoken language. Easy to construct but difficult to mark.

Question 9

Matching

Answer 9

Lexis, comprehension of written or spoken language. Easy to construct and mark.

Question 10

Sequencing

Answer 10

Comprenhension of written or spoken language; good for narrative activities. Easy to mark.

Question 11

Dictation

Answer 11

Lexis, grammar, listening, writing. Hard to mark.

Question 12

Summary writing

Answer 12

Reading, writing and language knowledge. Difficult to mark.

Question 13

guided writing

Answer 13

Written communication. Directed and controlled by the input text and instructions and therefore easy to mark.

Question 14

Interview

Answer 14

Spoken interaction in an unplanned dialogue, testing listening, turn-taking. Hard to mark.

Question 15

Information-gap activity (students get missing information from a partner to complete a task)

Answer 15

Spoken interaction. May produce quite controlled language and therefore easy to mark or it can be subjective if more open.

Question 16

Single focus activities.

Answer 16

Practical to design with reliable results, but they test knowledge about rather than use of language. They are particulary made for receptive skills.

Question 17

Extended activities.

Answer 17

Less practical to mark but they put learners in real life situations. They are mainly made for productive skills.

Question 18

Portfolio.

Answer 18

For self-assessment, easy to integrate, inclusive, informative, developmental, reflective, but can be a large amount of work to mark.