“Developing a system of assessment and self-assessment of communicative competences”

Dr. Zita Mažuolienė

Vilnius university

7 November 2007

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The background

• poor testing tradition

• subjective marking

• attempts to apply tests for entrance examinations

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The background

• educational reform

• Year 12 project for external school-leaving examinations in English (started in 1994)

• establishment of the Examination Centre (1997)

• centralized marking (2002)

• differences in assessment development at different sectors of education

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The need

• the need for differentiated assessment at universities

poor quality of tests

insufficient professionalism in test design

• the need for assessment of communicative competences and certification

• the need for self-assessment (Europass)

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The aims of the project

• having a network of teachers able to assess language competences both at university and for the public in general

• helping university teachers get better awareness of assessing different skills, understand the principles of constructing language tests according to the latest test requirements set in Europe, and making it part of the system of assessment in Lithuania.

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Main objectives:

• training university teachers in understanding the principles of language testing;

• drawing a set of documentation to help test designers construct tests according to CEFR levels: specifications, guides for test constructors in testing reading, listening, writing, speaking and use of language;

• designing tests for five languages (Lithuanian as a second language; Russian, German, French and English) at levels A1-C1;

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Additional objectives

• translating Common European Framework of Reference into Lithuanian

• designing ELP for adults

• designing ELP for basic school

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Implimentation

• started in May 2006 • leading institution: Vilnius University

(Institute of Foreign Languages and the Department of Lithuanian Studies of the Faculty of Philology)

• partners: universities of Kaunas, Siauliai and Klaipeda; National Examination Centre

• 64 members (58 university teachers)

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Advantages and Constraints

Advantages:

• awareness of CEFR levels by part of the project participants;

• experience of a number of teachers in designing tests for assessing communicative competence:

• participation in international projects (Qualspell, Year 12)

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Constraints

• Poor awareness of test design of most of the participants

• Time

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Training2006

• June - Introductory seminar on general principles of language testing, CEFR and its levels of language proficiency (Joana Pribušauskaitė, Zita Mažuolienė);

• October - introductory seminar on principles of language testing and writing specifications for reading and listening (Rita Green, UK)

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Training2007

• January - designing tests for assessing reading skills; moderating tests for assessing receptive skills (Zina Stanevičienė, Joana Pribušauskaitė, Zita Mažuolienė;

• February – designing tests for assessing writing (Vita Kalnberzina, Latvia);

• March – relating tests to CEFR for maintaining the same level across the languages (Ülle Türk, Estonia);

• May – designing tests for listening; relating tests to CEFR (Jürgen Quetz, Germany)

• June – applying statistics for establishing test quality (Norman Verhelst, the Netherlands)

• October – assessing speaking skills (Aušrelė Pranciulienė, Irena Katauskienė, Saulė Brazauskienė)

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Training

• 2 teachers of English trained in developing language tests at Lancaster university in 2006;

• 2 teachers of German trained in test design at TestDaF-Institut, Hagen in 2006;

• 4 teachers had a course in classical test theory at LU in 2007

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Work in progress

• Designing ELPs

• Translating CEFR

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Problems

• Limited numbers of students for pre-testing tests of less popular languages

• Time constraints

• The need of examination centre for test design and research

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Thank you for your attention !

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