Language Acquisition courses focus on communication. Student work is evaluated using 4 assessment criteria. Each Criteria has a rubric with a scale pinpointing particular skills and aptitudes. Teachers choose the level which best describes student work.
Each Criteria is based on a scale of 8. The points accumulated by combining the final score in each criteria are then used to determine the final grade out of 7.
Adding up the scores accrued in each criteria results in a possible 32 points. They are divided like this to reach the grade out of 7.
TYPES OF ASSESSMENT The 2020 Language Acquisition guide states that, "In addition to the learning experiences suggested in the continuums, formative and summative tasks should provide students and teachers with feedback on development of the specific skills objectives and concepts in language acquisition" (p. 31). This is done through formative and summative assessment.
Formative These tasks are designed to prepare the student for summative assessments, to help them engage with the concepts of the unit and to provide opportunities to practice new skills. Feedback is crucial as it gives the students a clear understanding of what they need to learn/do/develop in order to use the language effectively. These tasks can be tied to the criteria but may also help practice a stand-alone element. A vocabulary quiz is a simple example of a formative assessment task. It will only show students how well they work with individual words. It will not assess the 4 strands of Criterion D but can help them prepare for a listening, reading, spoken, or written task. Formative tasks can be extremely creative and playful - it's about getting students to use language elements in different ways.
Summative
As is evident from the descriptors in the table above, the Language Acquisition course aims to take students from the familiar (what is covered in class) to the unfamiliar (spontaneous communication on topics beyond the lesson) while progressing from classroom to real-word situations. This is done by assessing how students use the language without support.
Criteria A and B (listening and reading) measure how a student manages the receptive part of language learning. This is done by presenting text (audio, written and visual) and gaging how a student responds to those texts. Criteria A and B are often assessed through tests. Students are given 2-3 prompts that are linked through the unit's statement of inquiry, and then asked to answer a series of questions that cover the 3 strands (areas of understanding) in each criteria. For Criteria A and B those are:
identifying facts, opinions, information, and details from the text
analysing conventions used in that text (the audio/visual techniques used to convey the message)
analysing connections within the elements and texts
Criteria C and D (speaking and writing) look to measure how well a student uses the language to convey their own message. These are the productive criteria of the course. These two areas can be assessed in more creative ways. One thing to keep in mind is that the student needs to be able to use the language they have learned without resources in that moment. So, a memorised speech or an essay written at home will not meet the requirements. The teacher will be looking to hear and see how well a student uses their new language to communicate spontaneously. The 4 strands for Criteria C and D are:
using a wide range of vocabulary
using a wide range of grammatical structures
using clear intonation and pronunciation (for Criterion C only)
organizing information effectively and coherently with a range of cohesive devices (for Criterion D only)
communicating the required information clearly and effectively