Assessment practices in the subject of english language, junior hiagh school of centro escolar catol

UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGÓGICA DE EL SALVADOR

RESEARCH PROJECT ASSESSMENT PRACTICES IN THE SUBJECT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE, JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL OF CENTRO ESCOLAR CATÓLICO CORAZÓN DE MARIA, IN SAN SALVADOR 2010.

GRADUATION WORK TO OBTAIN THE B.A IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

SUBMITTED BY: MEЈIA PALMA, CLAUDIA PATRICIA. TOBAR MEDRANO, VERONICA MARGARITA. VASQUEZ CORTEZ, WENDY ALEJANDRINA.

ADVISOR: B.A. CLAUDIA YESENIA SOSA MESTIZO.

SAN SALVADOR, NOVEMBER, 2010

INDEX CHAPTER I CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Introduction

I.

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Objectives …………………………………………………………

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General objective……………………………………………………

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Specific objective……………………………………………………

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1.

Background…………………………………………………………..

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2.

Justification…………………………………………………………..

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3.

Problem statement………………………………………………….

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4.

Findings and Limitations……………………………………………

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5.

Concepts and categories…………………………………………...

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CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

1. Theoretical Methodological Base……………………………………………17 2. Empirical Framework…………………………………………………………..28 3. Theoretical Methodological Formulation….………………………………...49 4. Development and Theoretical definition…………………………………….53 CHAPTER III OPERATIVE FRAMEWORK

5. Description of the subject of the investigation…………….…...........……56 6. Procedures for gathering data ………………………………………………58 7. Specification of the techniques of the data analysis……………………...60 8. Chronogram……………………………………………………………………61

9. Description of the resources……………………………………….………..63 10.

Preliminary index about finally

report……………………………………….64

a. Conceptual framework………………….…………………………….64 b. Theoretical framework………………………………….……………..65 c. Operative framework………………………………….……………….66

Bibliography…………………………………….…………………………….............68 Annexes

INTRODUCTION In many underdeveloped countries such as El Salvador, English teachers need to work hard on different teaching-learning strategies to provide a better level of quality in the education area. The resources and the suitable preparation teachers might have are essential due to the responsibility of raising the levels of learning in different areas of education. For this reason, a lot of efforts have been done in the country to improve the English teaching methodologies. Nevertheless, there is an issue that has been unnoticed for teachers, the assessment performances. This factor has become very important for some authors that in recent years there have been a growing interest in the application of assessment procedures that are drastically different from traditional forms of assessment1.

According to Jeremy Harmer in his book “How to teach English,” the assessment procedures reveal the true outcomes in the English learning process, for this reason it is necessary to discern the appropriate techniques that help to adjust the traditional way the Educational System is evaluating the English language2. This research expects to gather and analyze the assessment practices used in the English class in the four macro skills in Junior High school at Centro Escolar Católico Corazón de Maria in San Salvador, with the purpose of emphasizing the ones that have given better results to the teacher.

The conceptual framework shows the abstract basis on facts and realities of our Educational System. This will help in the investigation to have a more extensive and clear idea about the different assessment performances. It also has general and specific objectives, which provide the path to the work; the study pretends to analyze the different assessment practices that help students in their learning process with the intention to emphasize the ones that generate good results in the students’ learning process. Besides, this paper considers that it is of great importance to mark the difference between assessment and evaluation, and that there are many more Huerta Macias, Jack C. Richards and Willy Reynandya, Methodology in Language Teaching, an Anthology of Current Practice, Cambridge University Press 2002.

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2

Harmer Jeremy, How to Teach English, Person Education Limited, 2007

different techniques to measure the students’ skills. The problem statement presents widely the problem that matters this study. In El Salvador English teachers overuse the traditional assessment. Even though, they have been trained to provide students with better methodologies, the assessment procedures have been diminished and considered less important. In addition, findings and limitations present very important author´s contributions related to the assessment procedures. Finally, it presents concepts and categories which show the main vocabulary the study is being focused in.

The second framework presents the theoretical framework, which is divided in Theoretical Methodological Base; there is all the information of the authors that have been interested in searching about Assessment Practices. The empirical Framework shows the history of the place in which the subject of the investigation was developed, Centro Escolar Católico Corazon de Maria, it also shows the different instruments used to gather the require information that helped us in this study. These instruments are the observation checklist, which helped us to got the information of the teacher’s methodology strategies used in the school. Besides, an oral interview to the teacher brought essential information about the goals that the teacher obtained in her work experiences. Also, an oral interview apply to students was very important because it showed the factors that interfere in students learning process. Moreover, the theoretical methodological definition of the research shows the data of this study.

Finally, the development and theoretical definition shows the contraposition of the authors that contributed to the development of this study.

In third draft it is presented the operative framework that consists of; Description of the Subject of the Research helped to know about the description where the school is located; the amount of student, student’s environment and time observation. Also the procedures for gathering data contains the methodology used by the teacher in her classes, the instruments used in the investigation such as the observation checklist, student’s survey, oral interview to the teacher and as annexes shows the placement test applied to students. Moreover, the specification of the technique of data analysis shows the descriptive technique used to give the results of all the instruments used in

this study and presents the chronogram that contains all the activities that were organized for this research. In addition, it is the description of the resources that were human and material, in which the people that contributed in this work and the adequate books that brought the information about assessment practices are showed. Finally the preliminary index explained the summary of the conceptual framework, the theoretical framework and operative framework.

1. OBJECTIVES

GENERAL OBJECTIVE

To analyze the assessment practices the English teacher applies in the four macro skills in the students’ learning process, in Junior High School at Centro Escolar Católico Corazón de María, in San Salvador

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE

To highlight the most effective assessment practices used in the four macro skills in the English subject in Junior High School at Centro Escolar Católico Corazón de María, in San Salvador, 2010.

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2. BACKGROUND

All around the world, there have been several authors interested in working hard in students’ learning process researches. It implies to seek about methodologies, techniques and assessment practices the educators use with pupils; however, it is well known that there are a lot of information about teachers´ methodology and techniques; it does not happen with assessment practices, though. It does not mean there are no authors interested in searching about assessment, what happens is that most of the time people care more about the methodologies and techniques than the ways of assessing students appropriately.

The term assessment is generally used to refer to all activities teachers apply to help students, to learn and to determine their progress. The author Robert Stake says: “My past efforts have focused on program evaluation theory and practice, and qualitative research methods including case study. I am currently involved in performance assessment in New York City schools and the evaluation of training in the U.S. Veterans Administration1. Even though the notion of assessment is generally more complicated than the following categories suggested by Stake, assessment is often divided for the sake of convenience using the following distinctions: formative and summative, objective and subjective, diagnostic, formal and informal. Moreover, the author provides an easy and understandable description about some concepts that have been difficult to discriminate such as assessment, evaluation and final marks.

Summative Assessments are given so often to determine at a particular point in time what students know and do not know. However, this assessment is generally used at the end of a course to assign students a grade, many people associate summative assessments only with standardized tests. This assessment is an accountability measure that is generally used as part of the grading process. Here are some examples of summative assessments: 1

Stake Robert.http//rapidintellect.com

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• End-of –unit or chapter tests • End-of-term or semester exams On the other hand, in Formative Assessment does not happen the same as in the Summative one, because this is the one that is not necessarily used for grading, this is part of the instructional process, and it provides the information needed to adjust teaching and learning while they are happening. In this sense, formative Assessment informs both teachers and pupils about students understanding at a point when timely adjustments can be made. These adjustments help to ensure students achieve targeted standards-based learning goals within a set time frame.

Although, formative Assessment strategies appear in a variety of formats, there are some distinct ways of distinguishing them from Summative Assessments. First, students are allowed to practice at any time; second, pupils are involved completely in the process of learning; and finally, students are engaged with their own learning.

Subjective assessment is a form of questioning which may have more than one correct answer. For instance, in any question that stars with “What do you think about…?” the teacher should accepts all answers since the questions is asking students opinion and it does not necessary match what the teacher thinks about it.

In addition, The Diagnostic assessment measures students’ current knowledge and skills for the purpose of identifying a suitable program of learning. Another one is the Informal Assessment; it usually occurs in a more casual manner and may include observation, checklists, and rating scales and portfolio. Assessment is about participation, peer self evaluation and discussion. The formal assessment implicates a written document and gives students a numerical score based on their performances. There is something important to consider, no matter the kind of assessment that is applied in the classroom, it is of great importance to take into account two aspects: reliability and validity. The first one

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refers to the consistency of an assessment, and the second one to the measuring of what it is intended to.

Certainly, for many years, teachers have not had a very clear idea about the concepts of assessment, evaluation and final marks. Assessment provides students, parents and teachers with valid information concerning with student progress. On the other hand, evaluation occurs when a mark is assigned after the completion of a task, test, quiz, lesson or learning activity. Ongoing assessment and certain evaluations will make up final marks. Effective teachers use both assessment and evaluation techniques regularly on a daily basis to improve student learning.

Furthermore, Jeremy Harmer, a teacher trainer and author of relevant books like “The Practice of English Language Teaching” (now in its third edition) and “How to Teach English”, considers that students may need to be tested at different stages during their learning. He believes that the purpose of a test is to find out not only what students know, but also what they do not know; for doing this Harmer deems the following tests2 : progress, achievement, proficient, and continuous.

A Progress test: it has the function of seeing how students are getting on with the lessons, and how well they have assimilated what they have been taught.

An Achievement test: it is to see how well students have learned everything.

Their results on this test may determine what class they are placed in the next year.

A Proficiency test: they are designed to show what level a student has reached at any time and are used by employers and universities, for instance, who want a reliable measure of a student’s language abilities.

A Continuous test: this measures the student’s progress as it is happening and student’s achievements that is the work done all through a period and not just at the end of the learning.

2

Grounlund,N.E and Linn R Measurement and Evaluation in Teaching (6 edition) New York. Macmillan, 1990

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Another great contribution to this study is given by Peter Shaw and Jean Turner; they state that to know the learning of students it is necessary to do a diagnostic test. Here teachers can know in advance student’s weaknesses and skills because by knowing the needs, educators can develop the curriculum, units and lessons according to the program.

In addition, Huerta- Macias describes alternative assessment procedures related to validity, reliability, and objectivity because she explores the benefits of alternative in teaching and learning assessment. Also, PeĂąa Florida mentions some alternative of writing assessments such as: portfolio, protocol analysis , learning logs, journal entries, and dialogues journals, each one is analyzed in order to help students become capable of taking charge of their own learning. Huerta Macias discovered that an alternative assessment is a good idea to evaluate.3 Additionally, Garcia and Pearson agree Huerta Macias when mentioning that alternative assessment is totally different to the traditional one because the first one asks students to show what they can do; therefore, it reflects the curriculum that is being implemented in the classroom, providing information about strength and weaknesses every single student has.4 After having distinguished the alternative assessment, it is necessary to mention the traditional assessment in order to compare which one teachers should using the context they believe is the right moment to do it. On the other hand, the traditional way of evaluating papers is when the teacher is the only reader for whom students write and that the teacher`s role is to assume the responsibility for reading through errors and assessment and evaluation are not the sole responsibility of the teacher they have to make students conscious of their own learning. Also, teachers have to take into account the different ways of assessment, related to the authors` suggestions.

3

Huerta Macias, Jack C. Richards and Willy Renendya, Methology in Languague Teaching, An Anthology of Current Practice, Cambriage University Press 2002.

4

Garcia and Pearson, Jack C. Richards and Willy Renendya, Methology in Lnguague Teaching, An Anthology of Current Practice, Cambriage University Press 2002.

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3. JUSTIFICATION This research is done with the purpose of demonstrating that assessment is not a simple activity; it is the process that measures students’ learning in different ways.

At the same time, it provides an idea about the important role teachers play to improve assessment in the English language to develop the essential skills students might have to communicate in this language. The study aims to reflect critically on the effectiveness of students’ learning process; moreover, it contributes to the development of the strategies for assessment that respond to the quality that is a systematic exploration and judgement of working processes, experiences and outcomes. Assessment is not just limited to numbers or giving a student´s grade, it tries to make useful contributions to the class. Teacher can simply judge whether they make a contribution or not. In other words, teacher can be subjective as well as objective.

Different ideas have been used to change the traditional way of assessing in the English language, for instance: evaluations, paragraphs, or assessment through analysis in which students acquire the four basic skills such as: listening, writing, reading and speaking. These ideas are presented to make teachers reflect about the variety of techniques that can be applied when assessing in order to achieve an effective learning; they will help the teacher

to give a support to those

techniques that are being used to teach the English language at Centro Escolar Católico Corazón de Maria. Throughout all the different ideas and techniques presented in this study students might acquire the adequate level of this language.

Moreover, it is important to know that assessment practices are used to help teachers to determine student’s knowledge. Teachers should be accurate and effective when measuring students’ knowledge.

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4. PROBLEM STATEMENT What kind of assessment does the teacher apply in Junior High School at Centro Escolar Católico Corazón de María? Which are the most effective ones?

The traditional assessing system sets no responsibility on the student, so they were adapted to the teacher’s point of view, if they were good or bad students.

English was not usually focused on the development of the student communicative skills, because teachers were interested on the written language more than the speaking one; for this reason, students did not approach good basis in English. In other words, teachers were not assessed to teach in the four skills reading, writing, listening and speaking.

Even though , in El Salvador; there have been several efforts in training teachers in the second language , there are just few specialized teachers on schooling English. Unfortunately, there are many of them who are not prepared to teach and assess it yet; so that, they are teaching their students the way they had learned it.

Therefore, students are learning inappropriate vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Some teachers are not used to deal with diagnostic and formative assessment, in this way they would have detected or recognized student´s weaknesses and get to check how successful the teaching program is. For several years summative assessment has become the most popular way of assessing throughout the courses, here, teachers do not worry about student`s efforts to improve their knowledge, they are interested just in marking the test for having a general score at the end of the school year.

On the other hand, the didactical resources play such important role in students learning process; these resources can be: tape recorder, cds, audiovisual aids, etc.

This may be a factor that has bad influence on the educational system because it does not supply enough resource to public schools. Additionally, many parents do not give any importance on their children learning because they do not provide with the essential material to generate their own learning.

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The importance of an assessment of the English Language Learning should be greater because it requires an understanding use of an appropriate instrument which students may consider as a reliable result. Nowadays, universities try to give emphasis on how teachers should assess, what they should assess and why they should assess. It also makes English teachers know, that assessment is part of the teaching process, they should use these techniques to help students to develop the four macro-skills.

5. FINDINGS AND LIMITATIONS Different points of view have been taking into account about how to assess in the learning of the English Language and it is essential to have the previous knowledge to do it. Also, it is necessary to know the different author’s opinions, which will help to achieve an effective method about how to evaluate.

In addition, Robert Stake supports that assessment is a process in which students acquire individual knowledge, skills and attitudes that help to identify what students have learned in a lesson. Also, he says that teachers have to take into account some distinctions like summative, formative, objective and subjective.

Furthermore, Jeremy Harmer thinks that students need to be tested every time in each level because it is a constant process in which teachers may measure as what students know as they do not know. That is why Harmer mentions the following tests; progress, achievement, proficiency and continuous tests.

Additionally, Kathleen Bailey supports another two authors, Peter Shaw and Jean Turner by saying that diagnostic, placement and screening tests can be applied at the beginning of a course in order to identify the needs that students have. After administering any of the three tests and having the analysis of the needs, it is necessary to administer the progress test that is used to identify how well students are getting on with the lesson during the course. Finally, there are two tests that have the same role, the achievement and proficiency tests; they allow teachers to

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measure what students have learnt in a course, Peter Shaw and Jean Turner talk about the connection among several tests, and their sequence in the curriculum development.5 Then, in 1991,Huerta Macias explained that teachers have to take into account old and new paradigms: In the old paradigm, teachers did not focus on language and they were the center, and also, they divided the four macro skills. In the new paradigms teachers have to focus on communication and learners are the center and teachers have to integrate the four skills. At the end, she describes that teachers have to test and teach at the same time.

However, PeĂąa Florida discusses several alternatives about assessment procedures that teachers can use in writing classes such as portfolio, protocol analysis, learning logs, journal entries and dialogues that are the ones that will help students to take their responsibility of their own learning.

Each author has provided relevant information about how to assess, and possibly all the suggestions are in the right path, it depends on teachers to look for the new forms to do it in order to help and maybe all the suggestions are correct, it belongs to the teachers to help students to learn and measure their progress. It is necessary to identify to those ones that have better results with students.

6. CONCEPTS AND CATEGORIES Assessment is the process of gathering and discussing information from multiple and diverse sources in order to develop a deep understanding of what students know understand and can do with their knowledge as a result of their educational experiences; into this process there are different forms of evaluation. These evaluations can be: the diagnostic assessment that reflects students’ current knowledge and skills for the purpose of identifying a suitable program of learning.

7 Shaw Peter and Jean Turner, Jack C. Richards and Willy Renendya, Methology in Languague Teaching, An Anthology of Current Practice, Cambriage University Press 2002.

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Furthermore the summative assessment is generally used at the end of a course to assign students a grade ;on the other hand, the formative one is not necessarily used for grading, these are like diagnostic assessment, and objective assessment is a form of questioning which has a single correct answer different to subjective assessment that is a form of questioning which may have more than one correct answer. While Informal assessment usually occurs in a more casual manner and may include observation, checklists, and rating scales and portfolio, the formal assessment implicates a written document and gives students a numerical score based on their performances. The progress test which has the function of seeing how students are getting on with the lessons, and how well they have assimilated what they have been taught, an important test to be administer is Achievement test to see how well students have learned everything, the results on this test may determine what class they are placed in the next year. This implicates that proficiency tests are designed to show what level a student has reached at any time and are used by employers and universities, at the same time continuous test measures the student’s progress as it is happening and student’s achievements that is the work done all through a period and not just at the end of the learning.

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CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

7. THEORETICAL METHODOLOGICAL BASE

Through years, there have been several studies focused on finding out the best methods teachers can apply in their classes with the purpose of improving students’ skills. On the other hand, there are some authors that have been interested in researching not only about those effective methods but also the effective assessments that can help to measure students’ learning. These assessments also give a support to those already used by the English teachers, in order to help them to place students in the appropriate level. At the same time, these authors suggest the right moment to administer a specific test and also present the aim that each test has. Furthermore, these investigators clarify the difference between assessment and evaluation with the idea of providing a clear proposal of both concepts; additionally, the authors mention that alternative assessment procedures are considered very important because this refers to old and new paradigms that teachers have to take into account when assessing.

As Jeremy Peter Hedley Harmer, a writer, author and teacher, who was born on April 1947 and studied at University of East Anglia, explained in his book “How to Teach English”, that assessment is an essential part of students’ learning process.

He mentions that during their learning, students may need or want to be tested on their abilities in the English language; the purpose of assessing is to find out not only what students know, but also what they do not know.3 Moreover, Harmer as author, teacher trainer, conference presenter and seminar leader, says that using different phases of assessments, students can be 3

Harmer Jeremy, How to Teach English, Pearson Education Limited 2007.

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measured through different tests; the first one that is called Placement test, this determines students’ level. Its intention is to get what students know and it also identifies their weaknesses, so they can be placed in the appropriate class. The second one is the progress test, this is applied during the learning process, it is used to see the improvements students are getting in the course, and this helps teachers to recognize what students have assimilated in short periods. Then, there is another test that is administered to see what the pupils have learnt at the end of a long period of time, this is the achievement test. Harmer assures that through this one, teachers can determine if students are able to develop the four skills that are essential to communicate in the English language.

Harmer explains that students can be tested not just at the end of a period of time; he suggests the continuous assessment, for instance: the portfolio (dossiers), this helps to see how well are students doing, because here is where students include their works in which they describe their experiences and progress they have had during the training process; besides, the continuous recording is used to keep an eye in how well the students are doing in their English class by interacting with their classmates and keeping a record of who speaks in their lessons and how frequently they do it.

On the other hand, Harmer expresses that good tests are those important for students and for teachers just if these tests fulfill the reason they have been designed to. Tests have to be easy to understand and check, and if teachers are concentrated in a specific skill they have to apply a valid test to measure the ability they want to, as well as reliability that is a good way to test students to be sure that they are going to get the same results as many time as possible to know if they understood the content.

Also, Harmer clarifies that at the moment of designing tests, one of the things teachers have to take into account is the practicality of these because if they are so long, students will not have time to do them and the purpose of this kinds of tests will be insignificant. The wash back effect occurs when teachers see the type of tests their students are going to have to take; as a result teachers start teaching for

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the test. For example, they concentrate on teaching the techniques for answering specific kinds of questions, rather than thinking in terms of what language students need to learn in general.4 Finally, Harmer assures that tests have a great effect on student’s motivation and teachers have to consider the needs of all students. It is necessary to take into account not only the students that are doing well, but also those who have problems with different skills because this could not motivate students to participate in their classes.

Another researcher that has been very interested in assessment is Robert Stake; he has a B.A. in Mathematics in University of Nebraska, 1950. He worked as a M.A. in Educational Psychology in University of Nebraska, 1954. Furthermore, he was a director of the Center for Instructional Research and Curriculum Assessment at the University of Illinois in 1975. Additionally Stake has contributed to The Art of Ca se Study Research as an author in 1995. Robert is also a specialist in the assessment of educational programs and case study methods as well; he has promoted an approach to assess methods called "Responsive Assessment." He takes up a qualitative perception of his personal experience and complexity of assessment study; as a result, he classified the different types of assessment such as: diagnostic, formative, summative, formal, informal, subjective and objective.

The author considers these tools as the most important ones to assess student´s abilities. ď ś Diagnostic assessment: Stake supports that an assessor needs to identify the knowledge, skill and level of students, so teachers should assess since the beginning of the course, this type of assessment is called diagnostic. At this time, students may come from a variety of backgrounds and bring with them different levels of knowledge, skills, experiences and motivations; in other words, the diagnostic assessments are previous knowledge and it can

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Harmer Jeremy, How to teach English second edition.

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help both, students and

teachers to identify how to approach the course

better5.  Formative assessment: this is done during the learning process and it tries to modify the process while it is still going on. It should form part of an appropriate attention and a process of reflective practice6, because this allows a change that involves a comparison of program plan.

Stake also says: “Teachers should analyze the goals, topics, the methods used to reach the goals and the indicators achievement to see if the information is appropriate to their levels, for this reason, teacher must show to students which part of the program is more important”. There are many assessment tools such as: observation, interviews, surveys, focus groups, analysis, reports, dialogue etc. All these can be part of formative assessment, because they integrate the four macro skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening). Consequently these skills allow more communication between both students and teacher.

The purpose of formative assessment is to valid student´s knowledge; it also pretends to show student´s weakness and strengths. In other words, formative assessment grants their learning progress; for instance, when students are wrong on their learning process, teacher can change methodologies and techniques.

Therefore, teachers should check their student´s task. For this reason it is necessary that students take into account the responsibility of their own learning, they really need to build their knowledge; teachers should act as a guide, but allow students to create their own learning path. Otherwise, the students do not learn English. In fact, the participation helps the students' increase their motivation to learn the language. This does not mean teachers must participate in the whole class, students should build their own learning, in this way teachers can identify

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http.www-Study-Analysis-Robert-Stake.com

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Black, P., R. Stake, C., Lee, C., Marshall, B., & William, D. (2003) Assessment for Learning: Putting it into practice. Berkshire, England: Open University Press.

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pupils progress so they can design effective assessment tasks that provide evidence of student learning7. ď ś Summative assessment: this is done at the end of the course. It is typically quantitative, using numeric scores or letter grades to assess student achievement. So what is the difference between a summative assessment and student assessment? Although both can point at the same purpose, a student assessment generally looks at how an individual student performed on a learning task. But the teacher does not do it all the time because he/she needs to assess the group, for example: when the teacher assesses a complete class of students, they are assessing them as individuals to see how well each of them is doing it with the language. In this way, it looks more than just one student's performance but to see how well a group works on a learning task. By observing to the group, the teacher can assess the learning materials and learning process. For example: if the teacher assesses a group, all students do the activity well on part A, but they do not do it well on part B. This indicates that the teacher should do a review of topics8. Although the information that is taken from this type of assessment is important, it can only facilitate assessment aspects of the learning process.

Consequently Stake described more specific the difference between formative and summative assessment. He says: "When the cook tastes the soup, that’s formative; when the guests taste the soup, that’s summative 9 ."

In other words, formative assessment focuses on the whole learning process, in order to make sure that the process can be changed to make it more effective.

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http://www.//Doing-Case-Study.com 8

Stake, D.R. (1998) Formative assessment: revisiting the territory. Assessment in Education, 5(1), 7784.

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Stake Robert. Some Comments on Assessment in U.S. Education by Robert Stake. OnLine. University of Illinois: Education Policy Analysis Archives July 21, 1998.

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 Informal assessment: it is recognized by its dependence on casual observation, this because is also a characteristic of day by day, personal styles of living. For instance, when students learn some expressions, phrases or words in the street or their house, they usually do not forget the new vocabulary so that they can practice it at school.  Formal assessment:

it is recognized by its dependence on checklists,

structures that become a visible record of progress and motivates the students who are impressed by learning ability. This is more used by teachers because it requires control on them and they can analyze the student´s abilities in order to see where they have improved. Unfortunately, when planning an assessment few teachers consider the four skills (writing, reading, speaking and listening) they do not take into account the program and the environment. Therefore, teachers prefer more formal than informal assessment because marks the potential contribution of education.  Objective assessment:

this is a form of questioning that has a single

correct answer. Here teachers expect more from some students than others and can give one student a positive comment for participating with something useful. Teachers make sure their students understand the class, in other words they need to become more flexible with others. At the end of the unit assessment needs to be objective because it has given clear descriptions of what it is expected. Sometimes teachers are not sure that a subjective assessment really provides the right information; teachers usually try to speak with each student about their grade, especially if it is low, students can identify their weakness and what they can do to improve the following year.10  Subjective assessment: it determines the grade of learning and it is a form of questioning, which may have more than one correct answer. It includes the essay tests which require longer answers; therefore, it only has a small 10

Stake Robert.Some Comments on Assessment in U.S. Education by Robert Stake. On-Line. University of Illinois:

Education Policy Analysis Archives (July 21, 1998). http://www.olam.ed.asu.edu/epaa.

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number of questions, focusing on complex concepts. However this kind of assessment develops reflective skills. For instance: if students develop the habit of making a review in their home daily, they may make a lot of connections and they may start learning faster.

There are some aspects to be considered at the moment of applying this kind of assessment; for example: when teacher assess them, he/ she must see all students as individual and with unique characteristics, specially in reading and handwriting; besides, it is important to take into account the linguistic background the pupils have with the purpose to work on the program. In addition, subjective assessment is able to provide a better approaching into the potential of an individual because pupils are developing their thinking process and they learn effectively.

Robert Stake is concerned on these kinds of assessments; he explains how to teach and gives some suggestions that help teachers to have better results at the moment to measure student’s knowledge. There would be no retribution to them because it implicates an exhausted job. However, it is necessary to measure student´s knowledge. At this point, if students are falling on their academic progress, teachers should know what the problem is, and what can be modified in their classes, so that next year course can be changed according to what it has been more or less successful. Otherwise, students do not have effective learning and they may be frustrated.

Moreover, Jack C Richards and Willy A. Reynandya, in their book “Methodology in Language Teaching, an Anthology of Current Practice”, have included to Huerta Macias, who mentions that there are old and new paradigms that help to compare the traditional and no traditional assessment. In old paradigms teachers were focus on language, they were the center, the student just listened the teacher’s explanations and they did not participate in anything. Another fact is that teachers used to emphasize in isolated skills, they did not integrate the four macro skills; teachers stressed on product, and there was just one way to correct students.

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On the other hand, in new paradigms teachers focus on communicative language nowadays, students are the center of the learning process because the assessment is based on their performances; it includes the usage of different techniques to develop the four skills: listening, writing, reading, and speaking. They are used together to get better results and at the same time teachers highlight not only the product but also the learning process.

Huerta Macias requests: “How can teachers assess students in a way that consistently reflects their true abilities in the second language?� She answers the question by taking into account the following ways of evaluation: alternative assessment, authentic assessment, or informal assessment. These are addressed to measure learner’s abilities to use the language in real life situations. Besides, Huerta Macias describes alternative assessment procedures related to reliability, validity and objectivity, she also explores about the benefits of alternative assessment in teaching and learning. Testing situation often produces anxiety in which students are unable to think clearly to express their feelings.

In 1994, Garcia and Pearson suggested some examples of alternative assessment such as: performance assessment, authentic assessment, portfolio, informal, and situated assessment by exhibition; they also say that alternative assessment is about the efforts that do not adhere to the traditional criteria of standardization.

Alternative assessment is different from traditional one because it asks students to show what they can do and produce. The main objective is to gather evidence about how students are approaching, processing, and completing real life tasks in a particular domain. Also it provides some ways to evaluate in a traditional way.

This kind of assessment is intrusive to the classroom because students do not require a separated block of time to implement them as traditional tests. Also it is based on daily classroom activities; and reflects the curriculum, provides information of the strengths as well as weaknesses of learners. Another characteristic is that it provides not only a menu of potential than any other method but also a variety of instruments that can be adapted to different contexts and

8

situations. Alternative assessment consists of valid and reliable procedures or techniques that avoid many of the problems inherent in traditional assessment.

These are some examples of alternative assessment: journals, reading logs, videos of role play, audiotapes, of discussions, self evaluation, questionnaires, work samples and teacher’s observations or anecdotal records. Teachers are responsible of deciding which procedures are to be used for evaluation in a class, but it is necessary to take into account the following things: Validity, reliability and objectivity: Other authors that have given a brief point of view about the reliability of alternative assessment are Del vecchio and Gustke. They have given details about the people that are interested in the students` learning and performances. They suggest the following to ensure the reliability in alternative assessment: 

Design different tasks that lead to the same outcome.



Work with clear criteria, from specific performances behaviors.



Check periodically to ensure that rather use criteria and standard in a consistent manner.

Del vecchio and Gustke present a triangulation which explains the role of each person that is interested in the learning process.

Teacher

Students

Parents

9

Reliability or consistency, in quality refers to the combination of methodologies to strengthen a study design. Patton, in 1987 said that triangulation refers to the collection of data or information from the three different perspectives, in other words the student is placed in one corner because he is the one who has the knowledge, the other corner belongs to the teacher who is the one that teaches the student, he/she acquires what the teacher has planned to be achieved. And in the other corner is the family that is an important factor because is what matters to students; so the parents want the student learn and that is the reason why they have to support the teacher at home by helping their children to complete their work. Triangulation can be applied in different contexts.  What directions should not non traditional writing assessment form take?  Should tests be samples of daily work such as journals entries or portfolio assessment? 

Is the notion of general assessment and response to writing has become revolutionary?

According to some writers’ points of view some teachers are teaching at the same way they were taught, and some of them have the same old beliefs and practices in evaluating, and grading. Some practices that many language teachers find difficult to do away are the following: 

Teachers give exercises and model paragraphs for students to imitate; if the students do this he/she will not have creativity on his way of doing something.



Teachers list some topics, and ask students to choose about one and write about it. This has to be developed with a preliminary activity to that kind of exercises.



Teachers time the exact number of words and the time in which students have to finish a piece of writing.

10

According to Huerta Macias, assessment, evaluation and grading are imprecise and unsystematic because sometimes teachers write marginal comments which only serve to confuse the students, this comments can frustrate them instead of helping them. When teachers assign homework, students expect to have the papers back, but it does not happen. Teachers usually keep the homework so the pupils never know their mistakes.

According to Wiser and Dorsey teachers are not doing much for students, they say that teachers have to be creative and be more enthusiastic in their role. Also, the term nontraditional suggests the existence of other ways of assessment. In this context assessment is based on students’ skills, knowledge, and attitudes.

In 1989, Soomer defined assessment as the process of finding out first who students are; second, discover their skills, and finally to know students´ needs.

Also, Soomer deems that diagnostic will help teachers to identify the students’ needs and this needs will be the center of the teachers’ planning, and students have to identify their own strengths and weaknesses which will help them

to

improve themselves and become more effective writers.

In 1991, Farr R presented three assessment issues in order of their importance: a) A philosophical issue, in here the role of assessment is fundamental to add needs to be considered before any assessment that can gain a popular support. In this teachers ask themselves what teachers really want to assess. b) Public issues, in this the public may not be ready for nontraditional assessment, parents do not understand innovative things in education area c) Implementation issues are the crucial problems and they can be ignored out with the help of research-based studies, conferences, and seminars.

11

All the authors mentioned above represent a vast help to this research.

Their interests in assessing students’ knowledge encourage teachers as well as students to continue improving the learning process. These authors have allowed a balance in students learning since they are interested not only in teachers’ methodology but also in their assessment.

8. EMPIRICAL FRAMEWORK 8.1 MONOGRAPH 8.1.1 HISTORICAL ASPECTS ABOUT SAN SALVADOR San Salvador is the capital city of El Salvador, it was founded in 1546. It was the second more crowded city in the country it takes up 72.25 kilometers. San Salvador is located in the central part of El Salvador, in the north is border to Chalatenango, at the east with Soyapango, at the south with San Marcos and at the west border to Antiguo Cuscatlan, El Salvador is divided in 14 departments, the estimated population is of 5,744,113 inhabitants.

There are four important rivers, Also the most important streets and avenues in San Salvador are: Avenida España, Avenida Cuscatlán, Calle Arce, Delgado, Rubén Darío, Paseo General Escalón, Alameda Manuel Enrique Araujo, Alameda Franklin Roosevelt, Alameda Juan Pablo II, Boulevard de los Héroes, Boulevard Venezuela, etc., At the same time the communication is another aspect that contributes to the economic area of San Salvador because it has a variety of mass media; such as public and Mobile phones. The companies that are in charge of these services are: Claro, Telefonica, Tigo, Saltel, Amnet, Red, etc. Also, there is a service for television by cable, satelital Claro Sky and internet. Furthermore there is written mass media, as for example: La Prensa Gráfica, El Diario de Hoy, El Más, El Gráfico, Diario Co latino, y Diario el Mundo. In television there are companies that help to the development of San Salvador, those companies are: Tele Corporacion Salvadoreña, Grupo mega vision, TV Azteca El Salvador, Tecnovision etc.

12

Furthermore, there are radio stations that have special programs to communicate as news as music in general.

The basic Services that San Salvador has are: electricity that is provided by CAES and DEL SUR. The drinking water is administered by Administracion Nacional de Acueductos y Alcantarillados (ANDA). Also, San Salvador has pavement streets and dust streets in the rural areas. The local resources that San Salvador has are: city halls, markets, parks, mail box offices, public telephone services, sports centers, food courts, banks agencies, hospitals, and malls.

8.1.2 SCHOOL DESCRIPTION San Salvador is in process of development, but in spite of this. It is a city that has all the basic services that help to students’ progress environment in the schools, because all the factors around influence them. This school is considered one of the most important public schools in San Salvador because it has a prestige and its infrastructure is adecuated to the levels that it has.

Centro Escolar Católico Corazón de María is located in Colonia Providencia, Sevilla street, number 600, in San Salvador, El Salvador. There is one neighborhood around the school called “Divina Providencia”, there is a public school called “Centro Escolar Romilia Silva”. There are all basic services not only in the surroundings but inside the school including utility services, drains; paving; phone service. In addition, there are no bank agencies, hospitals, private schools, supermarkets and public phones around the school.

The school was founded by the Nun Agustina Jarquin. The school is associated to “FEDEC”: that means Federacion de Escuelas Católicas and is administered by “CECE”: Consejo Educativo Católico Escolar. Something important about this institution is that even though it is a public school it is supported by different institutions due to the Ministry of Education that does not provide enough economic support to the school. Nowadays the place where the school is belongs to the congregation of “Las Hermanas del Buen Pastor”. The principal`s name is: Nun Maria Cecilia Cedeño. The school is divided in three levels that are: preschool,

13

elementary and junior high school. The total amount of students at the school is 902 which the 49% are male and the 51% are female. The total of students of preschool is 100, of elementary 548 and of junior high school 254. In this school the social class of students is medium low, and some students belong to the low class because they accept students from different social status.

The institution is well organized; even though it is a public school, it also has a principal’s office, a teachers’ room, twenty two classrooms, two computer centers, and an English lab. There is a cafeteria, a multiple uses classroom, an English lab that has a television, a board, 45 cubicles each one has earphones, DVDs, and a bookshelf with a collection of different kind of English books that the teacher uses when it is necessary. The population of this study is focused in junior high school.

There are two sections of seventh, two of eighth, and two of ninth; the amount of students of seventh grade is 93, 78 for the eighth graders and 83 for ninth. Adding all the students of junior high school there are 254. However, this research has taken into account only a section of seventh, eighth, and ninth grade.

The English teacher in this public school is Victoria de Paz; she was graduated from Universidad Tecnologica de El Salvador as a B.A in English Language, she has been in different trainings at the American and European schools. Also she has been in those that the MINED has offered and she is always in training in order to know the diverse ways to assess students. The teacher has been teaching for eight years in that school. Furthermore she works with all groups of junior high school, in the only shift the school opens, morning.

The teacher is very interested in the results this research would produce at the end, and the interest in based on knowing how well she has been working with the English Language, and in this way she will improve the way she teaches to have good results with her students.

8.1.3. GEOGRAPHICAL MAP OF THE SCHOOL

14

In order to have a better location of the school the research presents the map where the school is located.

Centro Escolar Católico Corazón

8.2 INSTRUMENTS APPLIED IN THE RESEARCH During the period of observation at the school, it was necessary to apply some instruments to obtain the most important about information about the topic that matters in this research. This stage helps to find the significant aspects in the development of the class, for this purpose it was necessary to apply the following instruments: researchers’ observation to get an idea about the teacher’s methodology in the English class; a teacher’s interview to know the experience the tutor has with the language; then a survey was administered to students to know their point of view related to their English class.

15

FIRST INSTRUMENT RESEARCHERS OBSERVATION This instrument tries to highlight the most effective assessment practices the English teacher applies in the macro skills of the students´ performance in order to determine if the teacher applies a variety of activities in her class, and whether the teacher uses updated textbook.

Furthermore it is necessary to mention how the teacher is applying the resources to develop the English class and if there is an adequate environment to develop the class. At the same time, this research will discover whether the English teacher uses different kinds of assessments such as: diagnostic, formative, summative, formal, informal, subjective, objective and alternative assessment and if she applies a variety of the tests, that help to measure student´s knowledge.

On the other hand, the purpose of this observation is to get information about the teacher`s methodologies in order to see if English teacher considers her student´s progress as individual. It is important to know whether she discerns what they can perform on the job and what they can not do in class.

Finally the researchers

want to know whether the English teacher encourages

learning English as a second language, let students feel comfortable speaking the language with their classmates and with the teacher.

16

 SECOND INSTRUMENT

ORAL INTERVIEW TO THE TEACHER

This research tries to answer some doubts students and teachers might have about the difference between assessing and evaluating, well with this instrument the researchers will realize if the English teacher from this institution has the same problem. Also, this survey has been designed with the objective to identify the variety of assessment practices and at the same time to highlight the most effective ones that the English teacher uses at Centro Escolar Católico Corazón de Maria. In addition, It is of great importance to identify if the teacher is updated with the diversity of assessments that are being used in these days and to know if she applies the ones that help the students to learn the second language. Moreover, this study aim is to know if the different assessment practices in the public schools give to students a good level of English. Finally, this interview shows how the teacher works to develop the strengths of students in the four macro skills.

17

UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGOGICA DE ELSALVADOR

TEACHER`S INTERVIEW FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Centro Escolar Católico Corazón de María

Sección: ______

Teacher’s name: ____________________________ Date: ______________ Objective: To identify and classify the most efficient assessment practices the English teacher uses English teacher uses.

1

Are you getting updated constantly?

2

Have you been in a training related to assessment?

3

Are any differences between assessment and evaluation?

4

Have you worked in a private school?

5

What do you think the difference between evaluating in a public and in a private school is?

6

Which problems have you had when assessing your pupils?

7

Do you like to assess?

8

Do you use a variety of assessment?

9

Which assessments do you consider are the most effective?

10

Which of the assessments students assimilate better?

11

Do you assess the four macro skills?

12

Which of the four skills is the most difficult to assess?

18

ďƒ˜ THIRD INSTRUMENT



SURVEY APPLIED TO THE STUDENTS

The purpose of this survey is to find out if students are interested in the way teacher assess them in the English Language, and the way in which they behave with the different assessments. Furthermore, it is important to know how students feel with each test the teacher applies in every class, and it is necessary to find out how well students have learnt the basic skills. The result on this survey determines how students are getting on with assessment, in other words, how they have been taught English and what level students have reached in all four skills.

On the other hand, the second is to recognize if teacher applies different kind of assessment, and if she makes a feedback in class, in order to see if students have a chance to increase English to communicate in the context, and if they are motivated to learn it, because they are sometimes afraid to talk in front of the classroom. Each question provides a wide variety of information that asks how students understand the second language which follows for an amount of communication between both teacher and student.

19

UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGOGICA DE ELSALVADOR

STUDENTS` SURVEY FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Centro Escolar Católico Corazón de María

Sección: _______

Teacher’s name: ____________________________ Date: _______________ Objective: To recognize the assessment practices used to motivate students to learn English Language.

Nº

CRITERIAS

Yes

1

Do you like to be assessed in English?

2

Do you feel comfortable when the teacher assess you?

3

Do you know the difference between assessment and evaluation?

4

Does the teacher use different kinds of assessments?

5

Do you know the aspects the teacher evaluate you?

6

Does the teacher evaluate you every class?

7

Do you practice the writing skill as an evaluation?

8

Does the teacher give a mark to your homework and other exercises?

9

Do you understandable tests clearly?

10

Do you have a diagnostic test at the beginning of the year?

11

Do you have an achievement test at the end of the year?

20

No

GENERAL ANALYSIS OF THE INSTRUMENTS APPLIED IN THE STUDY  RESEARCHER’S OBSERVATION This instrument has been of great help for this study, the information gathered is really satisfactory. The teacher in this institution is very devoted to her students, she really cares about them. The table shows that students are very motivated in her class, because it is dynamic and interesting; certainly, it influences a lot in students’ enjoyment, they delight to be in the class because she is always encouraging them to learn the language, it helps them to be greatly motivated.

Additionally, she uses different activities in her classes, this way the instructor avoids students’ monotony, the material that she uses is important because she does not work with old books, of course the institution helps her very much since she has very updated books. In addition, she uses lot of resources that stimulate students in a particular way because they learn not only to express their ideas orally and in a written way, but also they learn to use different devices such as: head -projector, CD player, etc. Students prepare their presentation in the lab, they know how to make a power point presentation with no difficulties, on the contrary they are very used to this kind of activities. The way the pupils make their presentations is outstanding; they are compromised with their own learning process.

The variety of assessments the teacher applies to the students is huge, she does it with the four macro skills, for example dictation for checking spelling, free writing to check grammar , punctuation, listening exercises such as conversation in the lab or listen to music to check vocabulary. At the end of this study are presented some samples of the teacher´s assessments. (See annexes).

The environment in this institution is good because students have their English classes in different places; sometimes they are in their classrooms, others in the

21

English lab, others are in the school’s garden and at the computer lab too. This makes students feel comfortable. They are that comfortable that they behave the same if there is just an activity to practice their class or if there is an evaluation, they are not stressed, even when they are having different assessment in the same class.

Another important thing is that the teacher explains clearly what students have to do in the evaluation, and after she answers students’ questions for possible doubts they have, this is done just with the purpose of obtaining better results. This English teacher is the one in charge of Junior High School, so she can see students progress; therefore, she knows their weaknesses and strengths so she can apply different techniques to make student achieve the objectives set at the beginning of the year. Basically, this is the reason why the teacher knows which would be the best way of assessment her pupils need.

In conclusion, the English educator in this institution is very proud of her pupils since they represent her work, and she knows she is doing it very well. Her students represent just the rewarding for her enormous effort.

22

TABULATION OF THE STUDENTS´ SURVEY

NÂş

Result of the survey applied to the 45 students of seventh grade

1

Do you like to be assessed in English?

2

Do you feel comfortable when the teacher assess you?

3

Do you know the difference between assessment and evaluation?

4

Does the teacher use different kinds of assessments?

5

Do you know the aspects the teacher evaluate you?

6

Does the teacher evaluate you every class?

7

Do you practice the writing skill as an evaluation?

8

Does the teacher give a mark to your homework and other exercises?

9

Do you understand tests clearly?

10

Do you have a diagnostic test at the beginning of the year?

11

Do you have an achievement test at the end of the year?

23

YES

NO

38

7

35

10

25

20

42

3

45

0

30

15

18

27

41

4

39

6

45

0

45

0

GRAPHYC FROM SEVENTH GRADE SURVEY

45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 YES

0

NO

24

Nยบ

Result of the survey applied to the 34 students of eighth grade

1

Do you like to be assessed in English?

2

Do you feel comfortable when the teacher assess you?

3

Do you know the difference between assessment and evaluation?

4

Does the teacher use different kinds of assessments?

5

Do you know the aspects the teacher evaluate you?

6

Does the teacher evaluate you every class?

7

Do you practice the writing skill as an evaluation?

8

Does the teacher give a mark to your homework and other exercises?

9

Do you understand tests clearly?

10

Do you have a diagnostic test at the beginning of the year?

11

Do you have an achievement test at the end of the year?

YES

NO

27

7

23

11

24

10

32

2

33

1

34

0

28

6

34

0

31

3

34

0

34

0

35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

EIGTH GRADE

YES NO

Nยบ

Result of the survey applied to the 40 students of ninth grade

1

Do you like to be assessed in English?

2

Do you feel comfortable when the teacher assess you?

3

Do you know the difference between assessment and evaluation?

4

Does the teacher use different kinds of assessments?

5

Do you know the aspects the teacher evaluate you?

6

Does the teacher evaluate you every class?

7

Do you practice the writing skill as an evaluation?

8

Does the teacher give a mark to your homework and other exercises?

9

Do you understandable tests clearly?

10

Do you have a diagnostic test at the beginning of the year?

11

Do you have an achievement test at the end of the year?

YES

NO NINTH GRADE

34

6

39

1

32

8

37

3

40

0

28

12

29

11

38

2

33

7

40 40

0 0

40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

YES NO

 ANALYSIS OF THE STUDENTS´ SURVEY This is the most important information observed during the three months the researchers visited the school. This essential instrument helped the study to find out some aspects about how well students were performing on assessments.

Each group has been represented with a graphic which has been designed with the purpose of knowing the student´s point of view about their English classes.

With this analysis the researchers recognized that the teacher in this public school has done a good job with her students when she assessed them and used appropriate methodologies. As a result, she has received positive outcomes, such as: students are motivated to learn English, they feel comfortable with the way the teacher assesses them; also, students know the aspects that the teacher is going to evaluate on their task. In fact, she checks their performances in order to assign not only a mark, but also to measure their progress.

There are just a few pupils who are not comfortable with the assessment, when they realize it is an exercise that is going to be scored. On the contrary, most of them expressed not to be afraid of the assessment, they do the exercises like just more exercises that the teacher wants them to complete. Since the educator uses a variety of techniques, her students are almost always eager to cooperate with their own learning.

Furthermore students know what to expect on the tests, which are important tools for assessing them. Even though the institution allows the teacher to administer a diagnostic test at the beginning of the year, it s not the same at the end of the year with the administration of an achievement test. In spite of this situation the teacher measures students’ improvements by administering a similar test that is like the final evaluation students take at the end of the year.

ORAL INTERVIEW TO THE TEACHER

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Are you getting updated constantly?

Nowadays, I do it just through internet.

Have you been in a training related to assessment?

Yes, some years ago I got a scholarship the MINED provided to English teachers Are any differences between assessment and evaluation?

Yes, because assessment is formative and evaluation is summative, it just assigns a mark.

Have you worked in a private school? No, I have never done it, but I think it should not be different, because we as teacher have to do our work in the best way.

What do you think the difference between evaluating in a public and in a private school is?

Teachers´ compromise, because we should work the same in any institutions.

Which problems have you had when assessing your pupils?

Up to now, none; I have tried to do the things in the correct way.

Do you like to assess?

Yes, I do it every time.

Do you use a variety of assessment?

A lot of them.

Which assessments do you consider are the most effective?

9

All that I use and apply are effectives because if teachers are sure of what are doing and like everything is effective with students.

Which of the assessments students assimilate better?

10

As you know there are different kind of students so, teachers have to evaluate the adequate for the grade you are going to apply

11

Do you assess the four macro skills?

Yes, I do because the fourth are so important to complete the process.

Which of the four skills is the most difficult to assess? Anyone for me but is a little difficult

12

with listening.

ANALYSIS ORAL INTERVIEW TO THE TEACHER The oral interview to the English teacher at Centro Escolar Catolico Corazón de Maria was another instrument that helped to the research, because in this tool she explained the methologies and the different techniques she used

in the learning

process of her students in the classroom. The English educator is a very open mind teacher, since she offered her help as soon as the researchers explained the objective of the research. She did not refuse her help; in fact, she was really interested in gathering the information to know if she was doing a good job with her students or not.

Some years ago, Ms. Victoria de Paz got a scholarship from The Ministry of Education, it has provided some training to the English teachers, and she has taken advantage of all them. They have facilitated her work, because there, she understood that many people are not working in the correct way at the moment of assessing students. Even though, now she does it, there is something more; she emphasizes that it not just the matter of receiving the training what has made her to work with her students in the way she does it, teachers have to be compromised with the education. Otherwise, no matter how much training you have received, it is how much “we” teachers want to really work with our students, and in this way she can change the people’s opinions about the public schools. Despite she has not worked in a private institution, she expressed that it should not be something different since the education should be standardized in all institutions.

In addition, assessment has been for her a great tool to measure her pupils’ improvements; she said that nowadays it is necessary to be updated constantly, because every time there are new ways of assessments. Now she differentiates the two concepts assessment and evaluation she also said that both are important because one is mainly focused in the qualitative aspects and the other one is quantitative.

Furthermore, she explained the problems she has when she assesses different kind of students, but she expressed that she almost never has had problems with this because she has usually given a previous preparation to students before beginning a lesson to evaluate and assess. At the same time, she said that it is essential to evaluate the four macro skills with the purpose of improving weaknesses in any students. To end with, Ms. Victoria de Paz assumed that evaluating and assessing are different concepts and educators should be aware of them, this way they can take into account many factors that are involved in students learning process. This is really hard but it is necessary to do it.

The most effective assessment practices the English teacher uses at Centro Escolar Catolico Corazón de Maria The most important assessment that the English teacher administrates at Centro Escolar Católico Corazón de María are: diagnostic assessment, for instance, she measures what the students know and what they do not know, she makes some questions about the topic because she needs to identify their knowledge. This is possible since the administration from the school allows the teacher to apply the diagnostic test at the beginning of the year. Then she uses formative assessments which students make presentation in power point, explain their own point of view about some authors, spelling the words, listening

and reading comprehension.

She also uses formal and informal assessment; students take dictations and write reports or analysis of some novels, make conversation. In addition, she applies objective and subjective assessment, that students write essays about author`s biographies and then discuss about them. At the end of the period she practices summative assessment, writes down their score and later they are presented to the parents. Moreover, the English teacher takes into account alternative assessment that consists to identify old and new paradigms; in this stage, the teacher assesses students in different way and assesses the four macro abilities.

However, the English teacher has had a great help from the institution , the resources in this public school are really important not only for the teacher but also for students, they are the ones that use the special equipment the school has such as: an English lab, a library, and two computer centers. All of them facilitate students learning process. Summing up, it can be said that all the aspects previously mentioned, have helped the English teacher to succeed with her pupils learning.

9. THEORETICAL METHODOLOGICAL FORMULATION Jeremy Harmer explains that learning a new language can differ greatly from one student to another one because they have different characteristics at different ages; he mentions that some of them learn English because it is on the curriculum at school but for others studying the language reflect some kind of a choice. In spite of this consideration he expresses that there is a process that teachers must follow because it involves different kind of assessments in which students have to measure their skills, strengths and weaknesses. Also, through this process Harmer assures that in order to assess the knowledge of students it is necessary to apply the correct assessment for each group, to place them in the appropriate level they have gotten through the process and in this way it will be simple to determine if they are ready or not to the next step.

Moreover, this research shows the point of view of the teacher in this public school, she says that students have to be measured since the very beginning of the process until the end of this, because it is important to determine how well her students are doing it with the language; to carry out this activity it is necessary the use of a variety of methods, techniques or strategies due to assessing is not a simple issue. The way in which the teacher assesses students is very essential in this institution because she applies an assortment of assessments.

There is an advantage in this school, the English teacher has been provided with the adequate resources to develop the class in an effective manner. These resources are the following: there is an English Laboratory in which there is a tape recorder, a CD player, a television and a pile of books that she uses with her students to develop the four skills. All the students practice the language in the lab every week; for this reason, the researchers consider that all these factors contribute to the development of the English Language.

According to the research in the class, there is another benefit students have, the interaction among students is obvious day by day; the activities the tutor develops with the pupils allow them to practice the four skills fully. The intrinsic motivation students have with these varieties of factors generated a desire of learning and making them feel more confident with their own learning.

Robert Stake has provided information about assessment practice; he has researched on types of assessment such as: diagnostic, formative, summative, informal, formal, objective and subjective assessment. Teachers may apply all the previous ones to students when assessing them. Stakes takes them into account as the main tools to assess student´s abilities, and this way, he can focus on how students have performed on their learning process and what they have learned in the class.

The researchers have had the opportunity to observe the activities the teacher Victoria de Paz applies in Centro “Escolar Católico Corazón de María” to assess her classes. Gratefully the observant could realize that she is one of those teachers that tries to do her best at the moment of transmitting her knowledge to the students. She measures her students’ proficiency with different kinds of assessment (diagnostic, formative, summative, informal, formal, objective and subjective). She also includes reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills to communicate fluently with pupils. These skills are essential to increase their level

of communication in a second language. As a result, she receives not only positive outcomes from students but also students` motivation to learn English.

On the other hand, this project has identified that the teacher applies tests to detect their previous knowledge which she takes into account, then she incorporates them into her lesson plan. She is able to identify their level of knowledge because she has taught them for eight years; however, when she does not have enough information, she tries to obtain it by monitoring their progress.

Also, this study has been focused on observing how the teacher applies techniques and the methodology for teaching, to know if she is applying them in a correct way, as well as which students are satisfied with her work. Every day the teacher evaluates students through reports, essays, dialogues, guide of exercises, presentations, interviews, reading comprehension etc. As a result, students have developed their skills step by step; however, there are appropriate resources for teaching English that has helped the teacher to develop those techniques; the lab is really well equipped to work with the pupils, it contains specific gear to listen to the exercises, books, TV and overhead projector. There is also a computer classroom where students can prepare their presentations in power point in English. It is admirable how students express their points of view either in written or spoken ways about novels and plays because they manage the grammar structure very well.

Assessment is very important to the teacher, because she is always assessing students in different ways. One reason is that the teacher loves her profession, so she transmits her passion to students, also the teacher considers her students as individuals because she discerns what they can perform on a task and what they can not do in the class. At the end of the period she summarizes student´s progress, writes down their scores, and activity´s name; finally the educator has to provide the information to pupils ´parents.

According to Huerta Macias there are old and new paradigms that can affect in a good or bad way to students, Macias makes a relationship between this two paradigms because according to her old teachers used to teach and assess in different ways because they did not take the students as the center of the process, and they did not worried if students have good results in an assessment, also they did not take into account the four macro skills that are necessary at the moment of learning

a new language, So Huerta Macias explains in an specific way the

context of old and new ways of assessing in order to have a complete process.

Nevertheless, comparing this author’s point of view with the observation at school, it is necessary to mention that the teacher at Centro Escolar Corazon de Maria, takes into account both paradigms, because the English teacher uses lots of assessments and at the same time takes into account the learning process, the four macro skills, and the communication.

The English teacher answered to the following question “How can teachers assess students in a way that they demonstrate their knowledge in the second language?�

The teacher supports that students need to be tested in different ways every day and it is here when the alternative assessment is included. She uses alternative assessment because with it, she shows the importance of making students write or produce about what they have learned; so the students have a menu of possibilities to improve the language. Alternative assessment can be adapted to any kind of situation because students are in different contexts. For example, some ways of assessment are: journals, learning logs, videos of role play, audiotapes, or discussions. They can be compared with the real situation in the school because the English teacher at school practices all these kind of assessments and do more than that. It really works to her because she can see the development of students and if she sees that the student did not understand or did not continue progressing, she makes and try to do another assessment with different methods in order to measure students `learning; so at the beginning of the course the students are totally different because every day they are advancing with the knowledge.

Moreover, there is a triangulation of data which mentions that there are three agents involved in this learning process; the students at Centro Escolar are in the level that they are, because the teacher encourages them to learn a new language and parents are interested in their knowledge because she asks parents to sign books, notebooks and when a student has a bad grade, the students engage that next time he/ she is going to get better results.

In writing skill, there are some sections at Centro Escolar Católico Corazón de María that are working in a good way because sometimes they have to write paragraphs and explain what they have done and the results are really satisfactory.

At the same time the information they write is not only for teacher but also for anyone who wants to observe students development. In this institution students have to build their knowledge by their own, the objective of the teacher is to develop a high level of responsibility in students at the moment of assess; but in Centro Escolar Católico Corazón de María students are owners of their knowledge because they know that in every class, they will be assessed, another factor is that not only the teacher is reading for what he/she is doing at the class, because some grades can write in a good way

that whichever reader can understand what

students wrote in their essays.

10. DEVELOPMENT AND THEORETICAL DEFINITION Nowadays, it is necessary to make some changes in the education area; it is really necessary to end with the use of the old paradigm. That one in which the teachers used to take into account just the summative assessment when teaching the English language; however, these days, teachers are the ones who are in charge of the English class in Centro Escolar Corazón de María and this is changing the way to teach this language, she considers that practicing the old paradigm is not that appropriate in these days if the purpose is to measure the students` knowledge. Nowadays students are totally different, so that teachers are not

assessing just to get a grade; because they need to measure student’s performances related with the learning activity, lesson or exam. On the other hand, it is essential to take into account the students’ environment and context, because sometimes assessments and evaluations make students get nervous; and the different situations of students’ life do not allow them to

get the grades that

teachers hope. Alternative assessment is a good idea, since it compares the traditional way of assessing.

Assessment is measuring students` knowledge not just every month, or quarterly; assessment is doing it in every class through observation, checklists, self evaluation etc. All of them will inform the teacher students’ weaknesses and strengths. Furthermore, at the time to assess it is necessary three important factors that are the most vital in the process (students, teacher, and parents) because it can be, that teachers have the best wishes to work with students; but if students do not want to do what the teachers asks the teacher will not be able to help them, he needs to be prepared to follow the learning process in order to get the better grades at the time that teachers assess. Having the help of students and teachers it is necessary to take into account parents points of views, because they have to take part in this important process. Since some students do not want to be assessed or they do not like to study or to participate in class, the teacher talks to them and asks for their help that is why parents, teachers and students need to form a team within the education area.

According to the researches of this investigation, the different assessments the English teacher uses in this school are very important, because they contribute in the learning of a new language. The teacher in this public school has demonstrated that while using the correct assessment, she can measure the level of her students, because each one has a specific function in the development of the English Language, so, everyone can be set in the correct place. Through this research, the opinion given by the teacher in charge of this subject is clear, about the good job teachers can perform, if they have all the adequate resources to teach

a second language. On the other hand, during the research she explained that there are some other factors that encourage students to develop the four skills, that are required in this language for students to communicate in an effective way their thoughts, feelings or necessities they have, she assures that motivation is an aspect that helps students to feel secure while learning English, and assessing students frequently; helps the teacher to know the level of English her students are reaching.

This research provides many opportunities to learn and practice the Foreign Language, because it shows an appropriate way for students to be assessed in the classroom. Assessment Practices is a very interesting topic, since it presents different techniques, methods, types of text, and types of assessment, which are important tools for assessing students. In fact, there are a lot of teachers from public schools who do not use them and do not cover the four basic skills they just focus on grammar. But this research has provided a different perspective about it.

Few teachers like Victoria de Paz, who is the English teacher from Corazón de María, applies different ways to assess students. As a result, she receives positive outcomes and comments from her students. They love her classes. In addition, she plans fun activities to let them share their own ideas and opinions. She also transmits her potential feeling to her students. However, these assessment practices are hard and an exhausting job because Mrs. Victoria assesses students everyday about what they have performed on their own learning. It is necessary then, to measure student´s knowledge to get effective learning.

CHAPTER III

OPERATIVE FRAMEWORK

11. DESCRIPTION OF THE SUBJECTS OF INVESTIGATION As it was presented in the previous chapter many people are worried just about the variety of methodologies teachers apply in their classes, so that the outcome results from students’ skills are mainly based only on this fact. Nevertheless, this study desires to provide significant information about another aspect that is in the same level of importance with the methodology teachers apply in their classes, the assessment practices. This is the reason why this research is focused on the assessment practices the English teacher of Centro Escolar Corazón de Maria submits to the students of Junior High School.

It is necessary to mention that this school is a public institution; though, it is not administered by The Ministry of Education entirely, “Las Hermanas del Buen Pastor” and other Catholic institutions support the school too. The English teacher’s name is Victoria de Paz, who graduated from Universidad Tecnológica de El Salvador in 1990, she has been fifteen years working in the public system.

Also, she has attended some trainings the MINED has scheduled for English teachers. These trainings have helped her a lot in students’ assessments. She discriminates between assessment and evaluation, also she mentions that there are are different concepts that need to be taken into account by the English teachers and she says that it is necessary to do it very carefully.

During the first days of observation the students seemed to be relaxed in their English class. This aspect was very curious since, nowadays, students are not that comfortable with the English subject. Another curiosity was their participation, it was very fluent, and they did not show any fear to the class, indeed, they were very

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interested in it. The observant were really astonished to see students’ motivation; however, the researchers were sure that there was something students might feel afraid of, assessment. Students from anywhere are anxious when having tests and these pupils might not be the exception.

In addition, the teacher’s attitude toward students is admirable because she was always opened to their questions in her classes. She represents a very respectful teacher. She is very friendly with students, but at the same time, she is very demanding with them. When the researchers contacted her and explained the objectives of the study, she showed a real interest in knowing how well she has been working with students, and immediately, she offered all her help with the research. However, she expressed that she would like to have the results of this study.

During the time of observation, the researchers had the time to get the answers for the “unusual” aspects they observed at the beginning of the study. Students are deeply motivated to learn English, and it is not that they just seem to be interested in class. In fact, they are really motivated in class. The teacher makes them feel very comfortable and able to develop all the activities she prepares for her classes.

Even the way of assessment is very suitable. Students sometimes do not even know when they are being assessed exactly.

The variety of Assessment Practices the teacher submits to the pupils is admirable; in spite of taking several assessments students are very relaxed and this is the reason why their results are usually good. The educator takes into account the four macro skills because she considers students should be prepared to speak and if they can not speak, they can not listen, write nor read the language. That is why she devotes lot of her time preparing her students. She includes the diagnostic test at the beginning of the year, to see students’ weaknesses. Also, she assesses them during the whole year to take for granted their progress. The students that for one reason or another one get low grades, become the main worry of the instructor. Since her purpose is to measure their knowledge of the language and

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improve them. She considers that the training she has taken in the Board of Education has helped her a lot. Before she thought that evaluation was the same concept of assessment, now she has realized that the evaluation is the analysis of the students’ results while assessing is a huge amount of aspects to be considered when measuring students learning.

Summing up, it can be said that the assessment practices the educator submits in this institution is of great quality. She knows that it is not just to teach with different methodologies, but also to look for the appropriate way of assessment. The one the pupils need and feel more comfortable with; thus, students just feel very happy in their English class. For example, depending of their level, students write paragraphs,

identify

verbs

in

some

contexts,

practice

dialogues,

make

presentations in English, etc. She has of course, different resources to assess such as: CD player, TV, books, and others. The pupils from this institution should be really proud of their teacher because there are just few teachers who work hard to make her students learn and succeed.

12. PROCEDURE FOR GATHERING DATA In the period of the study, the researches visited the school three times every month since February to July 2010. To gather all the information that was necessary to accomplish the objectives of this research, it was essential to arrange all the activities that were going to be completed. To begin with this study it was important to find out the methodology or the procedures the teacher used in her English classes to the determine students’ behaviors .In order to have this information it was indispensable to observe not only the students´ attitudes but also the way the English teacher was assessing students and how often she was doing it. That is why it was essential to apply some instruments to both, students and teacher; for instance: a survey was administered to the students and an oral interview to the teacher.

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The first survey was administered to 33 students from seventh grade, 33 from eight, and 34 from ninth grade in junior high school, at Centro Escolar CatĂłlico Corazon de Maria. The administration of the survey lasted half an hour per each grade. This instrument showed significant information to the study because researchers could see if students are comfortable with assessment, if they like the methodology that their teacher uses and many more aspects that are necessary when assessing.

On the other hand, the oral interview applied to English teacher on July 15th 2010, this was applied at Centro Escolar Catolico Corazon de Maria provided , in this part she answered some questions about the way she assess, the experience she has to administer assessments, the trainings she took referring to assessments, which skills are better evaluated taking into consideration students strengths and weaknesses, etc. The answers were satisfactory because she gave the information required to have the analysis of the instrument. And the last one but not less important, is the placement test; this test has not been included as an instrument since the main goal of this research is not to evaluate students performance.

However, it reveals how well the educator has been working with her students and the researchers consider that showing the results will encourage the teacher to keep working hard with her pupils. This is the reason why the students ‘results are presented at the end of the research as annexes.

Before administering these instruments it was essential to observe many classes; besides, it was necessary to arrange the instruments that were going to be prepared in order to gather the required information to answer the objectives set at the beginning of the research. The Chronogram was really useful to calendar all the activities carried out in this study, the researchers tried to be sticky to the time that was presented on it.

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13. SPECIFICATION OF THE TECHNIQUES OF DATA ANALISYS In order to present the specification of the technique that was used in this investigation, it can be said that the one the researchers used was the descriptive one, this technique consists in the capacity to show the information of this study.

With this technique the researchers get the necessary information to overcome the difficulties of the study.

In addition, it allows putting together all the procedures and the importance that the studied subjects have; it tries to explain the precision and the systematic work that permits to classify the results of the observations such as characteristics, procedures, factors, and other variables of the practice. Being classified the technique applied in this study; the researches demonstrated the graphics and the collected data obtained with the different instruments .Also, one important aspect in this study is the analysis of the data in which the results obtained with the different activities are showed. It facilitates to the study the identification of the considerable assessments to measure students learning process and the level of knowledge they have acquired.

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14. CHRONOGRAM ESPECIALIDAD: INGLÉS

Ciclo: 02-10

Año: 2010

ASESORA: LICDA. CLAUDIA YESENIA SOSA MESTIZO TEMA: TOPIC: ASSESSMENT PRACTICES IN THE SUBJECT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE, JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL, OF CENTRO ESCOLAR CATOLICO CORAZON DE MARIA, IN SAN SALVADOR 2010.

0..

ACTIVIDADES: INVESTIGACION DOCUMENTAL

MESES

Investigación Documental

1.1 Selección Bibliográfica a seleccionar 1.2 Lectura y selección de citas bibliográficas 1.3Fichas bibliográficas y de resumen (fichas elaboradas en sí y 1.4fichas de conceptos y categorías 2.0 Marco Conceptual 2.1 Introducción 2.2 Antecedentes del problema 2.3 Justificación 2.4 Planteamiento del problema 2.5 Alcances y Limitaciones 2.6 Recuento de Conceptos y categorías 2.7 Reuniones con el Asesor 2.8 Entrega del primer avance 2.9 Correcciones primer avance 2.10 Entrega de primer avance corregido 3.0.

Marco Teórico 3.1 Fundamentación teórico metodológica 3.2 Construcción Marco Empírico 3.2.1 Diseño de Instrumento de Investigación 3.2.2 Levantamiento de Información 3.2.3 Procesamiento de información 3.2.4 Análisis de la información 3.2.5 Elaboración de informe 3.2.6Formulacion teóricometodológico lo investigado 3.3 Desarrollo de y definición teórica (posterior a contraposición 3.4 Reuniones con asesora de 3.5 Entrega del 2° avance 3.6 Corrección de 2° avance 3.7Entrega del 2°avanace corregido 4.0 Marco Operativo 4.1 Descripción de los sujetos de la investigación 4.2 Procedimiento para recopilación de datos 4.4 Especificación de la técnica para análisis de los datos 4.5 Cronograma 4.6 Recursos 4.7 Índice preliminar sobre informe finalReuniones con asesor 4.8 4.9 Entrega de tercer avance 4.10 Defensa de Trabajo de Graduación

FEBRERO

MARZO

ABRIL

MAYO

JUNIO

JULIO

AGOSTO

SEPTIEMB RE

OCTUBRE

x x x x

x x

x x x x x x x x

x

x x x x x x x

x x x

x x

x x x x x x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x X X x x x x

x x x

x

6 x

x

x

x

x

x

x x x x x

x x x x

x x x

15. DESCRIPTION OF THE RESOURCES The researchers in this project used both human and material resources to get as much information from the students as possible. An oral interview with the principle as well as the English teacher at the school was conducted to learn how the students are progressing in their learning process as well as what types of assessments the teacher is applying in class.

The human resources: The primary people who helped in this research was the principal, Maria Cecilia Cedeùo, who provided the general information about the school such as a map of the school, the population of the students, and information about the teachers. It was necessary to obtain the student’s information and this was given by the English teacher, Victoria de Paz, through an oral interview. Mrs. Paz provided her methodologies of teaching, her personal experience in public and private schools, what grades she has taught for English, the university she graduated from, and what kind of training she has taken.

This important information was essential in the development of the study because the researchers analyzed how the teacher was keeping up to date with the different assessment practices. Moreover, the students contributed in this study by giving their own point of views about the assessment practices that the teacher used in the class. To obtain this information the students took a survey and then they were assessed by a placement exam. The purpose of this placement exam was to know the student’s English level in order to see how students were improving in their learning process.

Material resources: The main tools used in this research were books and websites.

Those books are How to teach by Jeremy Harmer, The role of assessment in diverse society by Garcia and Pearson, and Learning about language assessment

by Kathleen M. Baily.

On the other hand, it was necessary to take into account some instruments which contributed to identify the most effective assessment practices used in the four macro skills. Those tools were a survey applied to students to find out if they are

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motivated to learn English, and if they feel comfortable with the way the teacher assessed them. Other important instruments to know what level students have reached in English were placement conversation, and listening tests, at the same time; it was necessary to use special equipments such as: earphones, Pamphlets of reading, listening, and speaking , also CDS for listening test and computers to type the surveys.

16. PRELIMINARY INDEX ABOUT FINALLY REPORT This study was divided in three parts which are: conceptual framework, in which are included the Introduction, Objectives, Background, Justification, Problem Statement, Findings and Limitations and Concepts and Categories. In the Theoretical Framework is mentioned the Theoretical and Methodological Base, Empirical Framework, Theoretical Methodological Formulation and Development and Theoretical Definition. The Operative framework shows the Description of the Subject of the investigation, Procedure for gathering data, description of the resources, chronogram and preliminary index about finally report. Each part contains the most important information that supports the investigation about the assessments that are used to measure students.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK The conceptual framework; this part contains the introduction, the general and specific objectives, background, justification, problem statement, findings and limitations and concepts and categories. In addition, it mentions some authors that were very important in this investigation for the information they suggest such as: Jeremy Harmer and Robert State, they explain in their books “How to teach” and “Methodology in language teaching”, that each student has different characteristics and that there is a process that teachers have to take into account to measure students to place them in the correct level. Another important author is Kathleen

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Bailey; she explains that there are different types of assessments that are the appropriate to assess students. Also, Jack Richards and Willy A Reynandya included Ana Huerta Macias in their books, “Methodology in language Teaching” when they compare old and new paradigms and say that students have to be the center of the learning process. These are the important aspects to construct the conceptual framework that help to follow the investigation.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The theoretical framework consists in the relation of all the concepts that are associated with the problem of the investigation. It is compoused by the theoretical methodological base, empirical framework, theoretical methodological formulation and development and theoretical definition, this information was very useful for the study that was developed in Centro Escolar Católico Corazón de María located in Colonia Providencia in San Salvador, this school was an essential element in the investigation because there were all the necessary resources that contribute to identify all the different assessments that are essential to measure students skills abilities and weaknesses.

According to the collected information in different sources about assessment, it is mentioned that teachers need to measure students, not just at the end of a period of time but during the learning process to see the progress they are acquiring. It is important that students develop the four basic skills in the new language, to do this there have to be in the classroom all the resources to help them, such as; tape recorder, CD’s, computers, an English lab, DVD, TV, books and an adequate environment to motivate students to practice the language in the different activities in the class.

Moreover, the different authors explained their points of view about the way in which the negative factors interfere in the development of the English language in students such as; the inappropriate use of grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation, the lack of importance teachers give to the efforts students do in classes to

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improve their knowledge, the lack of didactical resources in the public school to encourage students own learning. Another factor is the practice; students do not have the opportunity to interchange vocabulary at home, creating a feeling of insecurity to speak the language.

During the observation it was evident that the English teacher makes a great job to teach this subject, the methodology she uses, all the resources she has in the classroom and the motivation she creates in her students let them feel able to start a conversation with their classmates and with the teacher, adding the time they practice in the English lab with the presentations they are asked to do to be motivated.

The information and the concepts about the topic of the study were very important because they showed the reality of the problem and the different theories helped to fulfill this investigation.

OPERATIVE FRAMEWORK This part shows the subjects in which this investigation is based, the description of the subjects, procedures for gathering data, the description of the resources and the preliminary index about finally report. The elements that contributed in this investigation are mentioned in this part, such as: The principal of Centro Escolar CatĂłlico CorazĂłn de MarĂ­a, which helped to develop the investigation in a period of six months for the information she provided about the school. One important character was the English teacher that helped with in the interview, with the essential information about the topic, and explained the way in which she has been working with the English language. Moreover, students contributed in the progress of this study for the information they shared about the different techniques, strategies and the way the teacher encourage them to learn and practice the language.

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In conclusion, the investigation supports the results that were found about students’ learning process, as for example the empathy they show to the subject and to the teacher, they like to make conversations in English, to practice the new vocabulary and express their feelings and ideas, because they have a good level of English, this is for the resources they can use in the classroom. It can be said that they are in middle level because of the good preparation they have. The information collected in this investigation was very indispensable to know the different assessments that are used to measure students’ learning process.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Jeremy Harmer How to teach? Pearson Education Limited, 2007

 Jack C Richards and Willy A. Reynandya, Methodology in Language Teaching, An Anthology of Current Practice. Cambridge University Press 2002.

 Garcia G. E. & Pearson The role of assessment in a diverse society (1991).

 Garcia, G., E., & Pearson (1994)

 Kathleen M Bailey, Learning about language assessment.

 Anthony R., T., Mickelson, . Evaluating Literacy N., & Preese, A. (1991)  http://rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/ontass

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