Tandem MOOC english

To download the script (pdf), please click here

Below are the key elements of the video:

We have seen the characteristics of evaluation in general. Now let us study task-based evaluation.

Task-based assessment emerged in the 1980s against traditional assessment and when the TBLT method was born.

As in TBLT, the task is the most important element of task-based assessment. In fact, task-based assessment is used to measure students' ability to solve a task in a communicative context. 

Task-based assessment tries to make a connection between what students can do in class and what students can do in real life.

Task-based assessment has four important characteristics

1. it is direct - the teacher asks students to communicate as in real life. The teacher assesses this communication;
2. it is formative - it is linked to a learning path and can improve both learning and teaching;
3. is performative - the teacher assesses a student's skills in a given context;
4. it is authentic - the language used by students is that of real life.

Let us apply the 4 characteristics of task-based assessment to the activity we saw together in Module 4, "Creating a catalogue of recommended films".

• is direct - because the teacher asks students to talk about their interests and opinions, a very useful skill in today's society;
• is formative - because it is linked to the learning objectives, i.e. learning to use expressions of agreement and disagreement;
• it is performative - because the teacher can collect data on students' writing and speaking skills
• it is authentic - because the teacher asks students to talk about their interests and give advice on films. Students certainly do this every day when talking to friends and acquaintances.

In Module 1 we said that the teacher considers the task completed when the students succeed in conveying a message and not if the students use grammar perfectly. In fact, the teacher must assess the communicative competence of the students. Grammar is not the main focus: grammar is in fact a set of structures that support communicative competence.

Teaching and evaluating in this way helps the teacher to understand whether his or her students are learning well, whether the teaching is going well and whether the learning process can go on as the teacher had planned in the beginning. 

Evaluation is an ongoing process, but it is not always possible to stop and re-plan a teaching path. However, remember that evaluation is very important in any language course because, as we have already mentioned, it helps to improve teaching and learning.