The Impact of Assessment on Young Learners
2. The study
The aim of the study was to find out how the policy decision issued in 2014 (35/2014. (IV.30) influenced teaching in a primary school. What arrangements the principal made and how language teachers changed their teaching practice.
The investigation also sought to explore the impact of national assessment on the young foreign language learners. The policy decision was the following:
A large scale of language assessment has to be conducted on grades 6 and 8 in elementary schools with the participation of students whose first foreign language is English or German. This language assessment will be a written exam organised by the Education Office. The assessment tasks and procedures measuring competence of comprehension will be constructed by the Education Office and the assessment will be conducted on 11 June by the teachers of the school with the received, posted tests and instruments. On their own decision, schools can supplement this examination with the measurement of the participating students’ oral competence. By 21 November, 2014, the involved institutions have to send the Education Office the data needed for the assessment and the results achieved by the students and schools are supposed to be forwarded by the 30 June in the way
required by the Education Office. (35/2014. (IV.30) 2014/2015.
Magyar Közlöny 2014. 61. p. 8835, 7).
2.1 Research questions
1. What do participants know about the National Language Competence Assessment?
2. How does this policy decision influence the processes at the primary school?
3. What impact of national assessment on the young foreign language learners can be explored?
2.2 Participants
This study was conducted in a public primary school in Hungary and this research involved sixteen students from the two grades where the National Assessment was planned to be performed. Eight students from the sixth -grade and eight students from the eighth-grade participated in the study with their foreign language teachers. The students were chosen by their language teachers and the ratio of the males and females was the same. Besides these two English and two German language teachers, the school principal was also interviewed.
For the purpose of triangulation eight parents were asked to fill in a questionnaire to find out how well they were informed about the National Language Competence Assessment Project and what they expected from it.
2.3 Data collection method
The study was conducted in a primary school. For the purposes of triangulation three instruments were used: semi-structured interviews, open-ended questionnaire and observation. The Principal and teachers’ interviews lasted approximately 20 minutes each and were based on 9 questions, but participants were encouraged and free to express their opinion and thoughts. The interviews were conducted in Hungarian. The students completed a Hungarian questionnaire consisting of eight open-ended items.
2.4 Procedure
The pencil-and-paper method was employed and the interviews were carried out in Hungarian. The parents also filled the Hungarian questionnaire which was taken home by the children. All the data were typed and translated into English. They were analysed in terms of larger categories to uncover shared
views and thoughts and subcategories to discover deeper beliefs and notions.
The inquires of the structured interviews designed for the Principal (Pr), language teachers (T), students(S) and the questions of the open ended questionnaire created for the parents (P)were similar, often identical to scrutinise the issue from different perspectives. Six questions were the same:
1. What do you know about the National Language Competence Assessment?
2. When did you hear the news about this assessment?
3. How did you get this information?
4. How and what types of competences are planned to be measured?
5. What is the aim of this assessment?
7. What will the consequences of the results of the language competence assessment be?
6. for the principal: What kind of decision or instructions have you done for this assessment?
6. for students: What kinds of changes have been done in the classroom for this assessment?
6. for parents: What types of tasks do you do to be prepared for this assessment?
Another question was about motivation:
8. for teachers: How do you motivate students to get a better result?
8. for students: How could the students be motivated in the language
classrooms to get a better result?
8. for parents: How do you help your child to achieve a good result on the assessment?
9. How will this assessment be conducted?
2.5 Results
The findings of the three interviews and questionnaire are different in length and contents. It can be surely stated that there was not enough information given to the participants about this assessment on any level. The result indicates that the different participants had various expectations about it. The answers are presented and discussed in the sequence of the research questions. I start with the school principal’s opinion, then analyse the teachers’ and their students’
replies; finally the parents’ responses are introduced.
2.5.1 Information about the National Language Competence Assessment All the teachers and the Principal started the exact date of the planned assessment in their answers. They were unanimously upset because of the unfortunate timing and the lack of information.
T2: “The time is perfect for failure; neither student nor teacher can perform it adequately.”
T3: {I know} “approximately its content but not exactly. {I don’t know} who is going to participate in it and the evaluation, we don’t know anything. Will the students of grade eight turn up?”
In contrast to the four teachers and the school headmistress, the students did not worry about the timing at all. Half of the 16 students did not know the answer.
None of the parents mentioned whether they were aware of the exact date but
in five of eight parental responses the two grades which are participating in the assessment were stated precisely. Two parents said that they did not know much about this assessment. The two types of competences, listening and reading comprehension which are planned to be measured were well specified by three teachers but the fourth teacher was not sure about it. The students’ responses showed great varieties. Nine of them replied ‘comprehension’ and one of them had no hint about it. Some participants talked about language in more details and some of them mentioned grammar. Five parents simply referred to
‘comprehension’ but only one of them mentioned listening comprehension, too.
There must have been a misunderstanding because Maths and Hungarian were also indicated.
Analysing the data about the aim of the assessment, the preparation for the assessment, motivation and consequences of the assessment an enormous difference can be detected between the attitude of the teachers and students.
Teachers, students and parents had been looking forward to this test with dissimilar feelings. One of the teachers expressed her criticism harshly.
T2: This won’t measure anything. From this it can’t be revealed whether the students can use the language. It does not assess communication.
On the other hand, the majority of the students looked forward to it with a sort of curiosity and considered this assessment as a kind of feedback which would show their level of English, the amount of their English knowledge, what they are capable of English or how students learn. Two students referred to the responsibility of their school and teachers. Only two students thought that the results would be evaluated nationally and they could check themselves, their knowledge in the national list. One of them disapproved the Hungarian people’s foreign language knowledge. The parents’ answers also proposed a kind of positive expectation: P1: to bring the language abilities to the same level; P3:
to categorize the talented students; P4: to increase the efficacy of the foreign language, what level knowledge the students have; P6: on subject level the students’ knowledge is tested, on national level it is assessed how a student is able to use the acquired knowledge in every day.
2.5.2 The influence of this policy decision on the processes at the primary school
On the school level, no changes have been made except for sending the measurement code in November. The principal claimed there had been no other information about what was needed for this assessment. The participating teachers complained about the lack of information where to find any tasks for this assessment and what strategies to practice. Positive washback effect could be noticed in the case of one of the teachers because her answer revealed that she gave more listening and reading tasks in her lessons after finding some good exercises in language books and on the net. Two other teachers did not find necessary to change their teaching approach but different teaching strategies
could be recognised in their replies which scaffolded their students’ learning, such as keyword searching or spending more time on understanding difficult materials. Some materials could be discovered online but one of the teachers highlighted that similar type of task for this assessment did not exist on the net, either. Four children said that they did not practice for this assessment or they did not know that they were doing tasks for that. The others remembered various tests for instance that they had to answer to questions or ask questions about the text after reading them, or writing a composition after an example. Gap filling exercises, creating sentences, listening to CDs, replying questions after listening, yes or no question exercises, grouping exercises, learning topics, translating texts were also recalled in their memories. Some children referred to their teachers’ promise that they would practice for it. To sum it up, the positive washback effect could be recognised here, the news of the assessment had positively influenced the process of classroom teaching: more reading and listening exercises occurred in the language lessons.
What did the participants expect? A major difference can be detected in this question between teachers and students. The opinions of the teachers reflected negative attitude, feelings about the consequences or they simply claimed that they did not know the outcomes. One of the teachers expressed the uselessness of this assessment without considering the language learning context.
2.5.3 The impact of national assessment on the young foreign language learners Except for two children who answered ‘I don’t know’ (S11), the others were expecting a kind of feedback about their proficiency level in their foreign language, about the fact who was interested in language learning, who studied well or who didn’t. Some of them believed that it would also be ‘a feedback to the school and teachers’ (S), and ‘if the results became unsuccessful then this generation would be developed’ (S 8). Some students supposed that high schools would be able to see the results and they may receive some help, supplementary lessons if they needed. Most students ‘attitude was positive towards the National Assessment and all of them expected a real picture of their achievements. Some participating parents assumed that this assessment would serve as the basis of differentiating the students according to their levels and/or their abilities. Moreover, the talented students would be developed while the less talented could have supplementary lessons. From the findings it appeared that parents had a high expectation from this assessment.
Another interesting outcome can be traced after examining the responses in terms of motivation. To the question of how students could be motivated in the language classrooms to get a better result the most striking finding was that except one child whose answer was ‘I don’t know ‘(S13) all the students’ started to brainstorm about motivation. They believed that children could be inspired with more games, listening exercises(S1), tasks about the culture of the target language(S3), video films(S8;S12), stories(S12), interesting and exciting facts for example about the origin of the language (S14). Some children highlighted that the evaluation should be done individually (S2) and it should happen after
each lesson (S2). They could get more praise (S4) or good grade (S2) if they practise more and somehow make them love the language (S3). Encourage them to learn more (S6). Some of the children emphasized the significance of showing the usefulness of learning a foreign language.
3. Conclusion
The aim of this study was to find out how this policy decision influenced teaching at a primary school, what arrangements the principal made and how language teachers changed their teaching practice. The investigation also sought to explore the impact of national assessment on the young foreign language learners. It can be stated that there was not enough information given to the participants about this assessment, which may have resulted in the fact that different participating groups had various expectations from it. They had different level of motivation-demotivation, attitude towards this National Competence Assessment. While the students and parents did not know the content and exact time of the assessment they were still motivated and expressed positive attitude towards this language assessment and they had a high expectation. They believed that the National Competence Assessment would have a sensible aim and consequences; moreover, it would influence the participants’ lives. Further research is recommended after accomplishing the assessment. Analysing the tasks and results of the competence test, post interviews and questionnaires about the students’ and other stakeholders’
opinions and feelings would provide more important issues and topics to scrutinise and this way an overall picture of the impact of the Hungarian Competence Assessment in a primary school could be drawn.
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