If you’re new to #assessment and #itemwriting (especially #ELTassessment and #ELTitemwriting), you might want to start by Googling/revising the following key terms and ideas.

Core Terms:

–reliability (test, scorer/intra-rater vs inter-rater)

–validity (face, content, construct, concurrent, predictive)

–fairness

–practicality

–backwash

Other Important Terms:

–flexibility

–diagnostic

–entry/placement

–final/achievement/summative

–progress/formative

–proficiency

–formal/informal

–self-assessment, portfolio, learner diary/journaling

–can-do statements, checklists

–we ‘assess’ every in every minute of every class!

–writing: holistic vs analytic rating scales, ways of giving feedback, peer feedback, 

–objective/subjective

–direct

–norm-referenced vs criterion-referenced

–interlocutor

–item

–weighting

–CEFR

Common Item Types to Test Grammar and Lexis:

–transformation

–matching

–gap fill

–cloze

–jumbled

–error correction

–skeleton sentences

–MCQ

–odd one out

–…

IELTS Reading Item Types:

–diagram label completion

–flow-chart completion

–identifying information

–identifying the writer’s views/claims

–matching features

–matching headings

–matching information

–matching sentence endings

–multiple choice

–note completion

–sentence completion

–short-answer questions

–summary completion

–table completion

IELTS Listening Item Types:

–multiple choice

–matching

–plan, map, and diagram labeling

–form, note, table, flow-chart, and summary completion

–sentence completion

–short answer questions

Key Moments in Language Assessment History:

–1960s: discrete point testing, Robert Lado

–1970s: CLT, cloze test for productive skills 

–1980s: performance tests, real life roles

–today: communicative tests should be integrated, with language contextualized, purposeful, authentic; performance over competence

Anything new or surprising about any of this for you?

#showmehow #skillsfirst #skillsmatter #IELTSTeacherTrainer #TeachingIELTSafterCELTA

#assessment #itemwriting #ELTassessment #ELTitemwriting 

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Hi. I’m Fatime. I’m an IELTS Teacher Trainer, helping CELTA-qualified English language teachers become better at teaching SKILLS, as opposed to just testing them. 

Check out my courses here:

How to Teach IELTS Listening:

How to Teach IELTS Reading:

How to Teach IELTS Writing:

How to Teach IELTS Speaking: