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DEFINING A TEACHING METHODOLOGY

Unit 5: Defining a teaching methodology

* When I asked Emilio what he did with his last teacher he said they followed a course book. Does that define a teaching approach? Should I have one approach with Emilio and another one with Sonsoles?

A teaching method compromises the principles, techniques and procedures used for instruction. There are actually many techniques widely known and experienced by learners in formal teaching scenarios: explaining, demonstrating, learning by teaching, problem solving, etc. But for these techniques to be consistent in a broader scheme, one should always start by specifying teaching and learning goals.

1. Teaching and learning goals

In the best-case scenario, students learn (at least) what we want them to learn; the object of our teaching. For that to happen, we need to specify what we want them to learn, to strategically plan our approach and select the appropriate tools to achieve these goals.

Teaching and learning goals are also referred to as learning outcomes, and these are statements of what a learner will be able to do after a learning experience; such as a class, course or program. Evidently, learning outcomes have different levels of specificity depending on whether they’re for a course or for a class. In that sense, they would be nested, as in:

A possible course objective: For students to communicate using L2

A possible class content/function: Expressing wishes and desires

A possible class objective: The student will be able to use “I would like to…” to express wishes and desires when talking about their personal lives.

It all starts with specifying teaching and learning goals for a course, since they condition everything that follows. Some examples from diverse teaching methodologies are:

-       Analyze the target language (L2)

-       Translate from L1 to L2 and vice versa

-       Learn how to communicate in L2

-       Learn how to think in L2

-       Learn grammar rules of L2

Important characteristics of learning outcomes is that they need to be specific, measurable, observable and achievable in relation to the lesson, unit or course of study being used. When learning is clearly defined and shown by outcomes, learners are more likely to experience success.

When looking to make sure that the objectives, outcomes and assessment are coherent, it should be remembered that objectives are usually general statements; which are the product of the aims of the course of study, methodology and the results of a needs analysis. Outcomes are more specific and are what the students should have learned and demonstrate after the course, unit or lesson depending on the focus. For example, when planning a lesson the key question to ask is: “How will the outcomes for this individual teaching lesson help achieve the overall aim and objectives of the course?”

Good outcomes ensure the learners have a guide to their learning and good assessment ensures that learners are achieving those outcomes. Outcomes and assessment also need to be consistent with instructional practices. That is, there needs to be agreement with the curriculum of outcomes (which set direction and intention), teaching and learning tasks, and assessment tasks/procedures (which indicate whether outcomes have been met).

A good assessment measures what it is intended to measure. For example, it is important to ensure that a listening assessment task is actually assessing listening comprehension, rather than memory, background knowledge, or writing/speaking skills.

2. Language skills

English language has identified four macro skills that are of great importance for students to acquire a language. These are reading, writing, listening and speaking.

The four macro skills are related to each other by two categories:

The direction of communication:receiving the message -receptive skills- (listening and reading); or producing the message -productive skills- (speaking and writing).

The method of communication:oral (listening and speaking) or written (reading and writing).

When learning an L2 the natural order of acquisition is as follows:

Listening: The learner hears the new item (sound, word, grammar feature, etc.)

Speaking: The learner tries to repeat the new item.

Reading: The learner sees the new item in written form.

Writing: The learner reproduces the written form of the item.

Productive skills: speaking and writing

Speaking and writing are seen as productive skills, as language production is involved in them.

Speaking is one of the most important skills in English language teaching. Speaking is vocalization of human communication. Being able to express an idea, concept or opinion, etc. through speech is essential in the communicative process.

Writing is a productive skill needed for articulating and presenting thoughts and ideas through writing. Situations where this skill is needed is taking notes, writing essays or articles, and emails. By the time you start getting into writing, your students should have had a chance to listen, speak and read the language to some degree.

Receptive skills: listening and reading

“Receptive” comes from reception, and are the skills that have to do with understanding both spoken and written messages. Listening and reading are therefore the skills that involve receiving and decoding messages, and they are not to be confused with passive skills, for the learner has an active role while trying to understand.

Once again, there is a difference in priorities between listening comprehension and reading comprehension. We can only read easily once we know how English is pronounced (and spelled), so the natural focus is on the primacy of listening comprehension (and reading before writing).

Listening is the communication skill that involves receiving and comprehending a message that is being transferred verbally by others. This is a receptive oral communication type. The listening skill can be used in the same interactive situations as the speaking skill. Listening can also be related to Stephen Krashen’s model stressing the importance of comprehensible input,that which is just beyond the learner’s present ability, as a key to student’s success the L2 acquisition.

It is also important to try and expose the students to different varieties of English such as accents like British English, American English, Australian English, etc. as with Oxbridge’s system of teaching. This can greatly enhance their listening comprehension. In the modern age, learners have wide access to many different sources of media exposing them to many different varieties of English, so it’s all the more important to expose them to different accents.

Reading is a receptive written communication skill that involves receiving and comprehending written material. This skill also helps to build vocabulary, which in turn will improve listening skills. Reading texts also provides:

- Good models for English writing, so when we teach writing we have to show the students models of what they have to do.

- Opportunities to study language: vocabulary, punctuation and grammar (particularly syntax).

3. Areas of language

Also called micro skills,theyare skills that constitute and support the macro skills.

Grammar

Grammar is the structure and the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in language. As you have studied in the last module, the term refers to the study of two of the mayor branches of linguistic study: morphology and syntax.

Before 1970s, grammar was the essential part of language instruction, as it was believed that without knowing the grammatical rules of the language it wasn’t possible to communicate well. After this time it was suggested that to be a communicative speaker/writer, the learner should not only master the rules of the language (the language patterns), but also should know how these rules are put together in real communication to convey meaning and therefore the explicit teaching of grammar was abandoned. These days this idea has again changed, and now it is accepted that grammar might be a necessary component in the classroom.

Now the question is not whether to teach grammar or not, but: how should we teach grammar? Should we teach it deductively or inductively? Which grammar should be taught?

Two methods have been suggested for teaching grammar and developing this particular skill: Inductive and Deductive grammar teaching.

Deductive teaching

The deductive approach comes from deductive reasoning, where the concept goes from general to specific. Rules, patterns, principles are presented first, then moves to the examples. Deductive approach is also known as rule-driven teaching. An example of this method can be seen in the Grammar Translation Method where the grammar instruction is started by an explanation (basically in learners’ mother tongue) about the grammar points. This is followed by practice activities involving translation to/from the target language.

Some possible activities in deductive approach are:

a) Rule-explanation

b) Translation

c) Doing worksheets

d) Self-study grammar

Inductive teaching

Inductive teaching makes use of student “noticing”. Instead of explaining the use of a given concept through rules and following this explanation with examples, the teacher first presents many examples showing how the concept is used, without explicitly stating the rule. As students see how the concept is used, it is intended that they will notice how to use the concept without analyzing the structure.

Vocabulary

When teaching vocabulary it’s important for us to keep in mind that our background knowledge of how to teach vocabulary benefits our students to develop strong vocabulary.

When students see a word they position themselves in one of these four stages of vocabulary:

1. I’ve never seen it before.

2. I’ve heard of it, but I don’t know what it means.

3. I recognize it in context ‘it has something to do with…’

4. I know it.

If they’re on stages 3 or 4 we could ask a concept check question in order to ascertain their knowledge, but if they’re on stages 1 or 2, then it’s our turn or the class’s turn to explain.

In order to help them learn new words, we can choose some or all of the principles of developing vocabulary:

- Relate vocabulary to background: relate new words to experiences that students may have had.

- Build relationships: show how words are related to each other. Establishing relationships between words (such as Mountains, altitude, incline, hills) and discuss their differences and similarities.

- Present several exposures: frequent exposure and repetition of vocabulary is essential.

- Create interest in words: generate interest in new words through interesting and relevant vocabulary and topic activities.

- Teach students how to learn new words: encourage independent word-learning skills.

VOCABULARY AND MEANING-FOCUSED OUTPUT

Meaning-focused speaking and writing are ways of expanding learners’ vocabulary. Research on vocabulary learning has revealed how spoken production of vocabulary items helps learning and how teachers and course designers can influence this spoken production. The main findings of this research are mentioned in Alan Hunt and David Beglar’s book Current Research and Practice in Teaching Vocabulary and are as follows:

- The written input to a communicative task has a major effect on what vocabulary is used and negotiated during the task. The results were that all of the vocabulary negotiated in the ranking and problem-solving tasks was in the written sheet handed out to the learners.

- Negotiation of the meaning of unknown vocabulary meant that words had a greater chance of being learned.

- The more the vocabulary is observed or used in contexts that differ from its occurrence in the written input, the better it is learned.

- Learners are able to provide useful information to each other on most of the vocabulary in a typical communicative task; that is, if someone in a group does not know a particular word, there is likely to be someone else in the group who knows something useful about it and who can communicate this information effectively.

The significance of these findings for vocabulary learning is that by carefully designing and monitoring the use of the handout sheets for spoken tasks, teachers can have a major influence on determining what vocabulary could be learned from such tasks, and how well it is learned.

VOCABULARY AND LANGUAGE-FOCUSED INSTRUCTION

Language–focused instruction occurs when learners direct their attention to language items. Language-focused instruction includes focusing on the pronunciation and spelling of words; deliberately learning the meanings of a word; memorizing collocations, phrases and sentences containing a word; and being corrected for incorrect use of a word. Negotiation of vocabulary is also a kind of language-focused instruction if it involves discussing the word’s spelling or pronunciation, or giving an explanation of its meaning.

Some ways of teaching vocabulary in this way are:

• Guessing unknown words from context
• Learning the meaning of unknown words
• Study of word parts and Mnemonic devices

Pronunciation

Pronunciation is an important element to the L2 learning process. In the traditional view of teaching, attempts were made to build the learners mastery from the bottom-up focusing on individual sounds like phonemes. Now current practices look to develop this skill from the top-down focusing on stress, rhythm and intonation. Many learners think that the goal of pronunciation is accent-free speech, like that of the native speaker. This is extremely difficult and quite unattainable for an adult learner; and with the spread of English around the world, accents have become almost irrelevant to cross-cultural communication.

At beginning levels pronunciation at a bottom-up level is required to gain the required clarity of speech to be understood. At the advanced level learners would then be encouraged to focus on aspects such as intonation and stress patterns used to express more complex features of the language like sarcasm.

Spelling

Learning spelling helps to cement the connection between the letters and their sounds. Spelling errors tend to be a direct result of the phonology of English. For Spanish speakers words sound as they are spelled and are spelled like they sound. This is clearly not the case in English. For example, words that have unstressed syllables, such as the second syllable in the word interest, are often deleted. In this case, the word is spelledintrest by spellers.

Very often students are confused by similar sounds in English and can’t differentiate between two words. Instead of writing the word on a piece of paper or on the board, spell it. By making the effort of writing the word themselves, the students develop word awareness and “do the hard work” on their own. They learn how spelling and pronunciation are related and get used to the sounds of English.

Writing for them only interferes more in their pronunciation in a negative way. Not so much spelling. After some failed attempts to understand a word, the teacher can spell it. It is in this moment when the student learns to relate sounds with letters.

There are other two terms that are commonly used to refer to learners’ proficiency of micro and macro skills. These are accuracy and fluency.

Accuracy is related to micro skills, and it refers to how correct the use of the language system is, including the learners’ use of grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. A child in early primary isn’t capable of the same level of accuracy as an adult. Teachers who concentrate on accuracy help their students to produce correct written and spoken English. Typical accuracy activities are: grammar presentations, drills, gap-fill exercises, frame dialogues.

Fluency, on the other hand, refers directly to macro skills. It is the ability to communicate meaning easily, smoothly, and expressively through speaking or writing, rather than focusing on how many mistakes are made. In other words, the speaker can understand and respond in a language clearly and concisely while relating meaning and context. Fluency generally increases as learner’s progress from beginning to advanced speakers and writers. Typical fluency activities are: role-plays, speeches, presentations, discussions, e-mailing.

The correct balance and development of the micro skills can lead to improving accuracy and fluency of the learner. For example, having a good range of vocabulary allows learners to express themselves more fluently. Students with strong grammar and spelling will of course have greater accuracy speaking and writing. Accuracy, fluency and the micro skills go hand in hand and there should be a balanced focus between all them to ensure the learners success in L2.

In relation to an individual lesson that takes place at Oxbridge for example, the focus on accuracy and fluency depends on the activity you are teaching. Topics are more focused on fluency while structure and vocabulary activities are more about accuracy.

4. Consistency between teaching and learning goals and skills

When we start thinking about how to organize a teaching methodology, we start by specifying teaching and learning goals. In other words, what is it that I want my students to learn? As it has been mentioned before, there are many possibilities:

-       Analyze the target language (L2)

-       Translate from L1 to L2 and vice versa

-       Learn how to communicate in L2

-       Learn how to think in L2

-       Learn grammar rules of L2

From there, many questions arise. Let’s say, for example, that you decide to train translators, so your goal is for students to translate from L1 to L2 and vice versa. First question: would this translation be oral, written or both? Let’s say you decide that it will be written translation. Then, it wouldn’t be consistent to say that your approach would give priority to speaking and listening, but it would be if you said reading and writing. Now, which micro skills would you focus on during classes? Well, you could say grammar, vocabulary and spelling would be essential; but pronunciation wouldn’t play any type of role.

Now imagine that you say that your goal is for your students to learn how to communicate in L2, both orally and in writing, but oral communication would be given priority since you consider important to follow the natural order of acquisition of skills and because it’s the most difficult one to achieve. Then, you would say that listening would be given more importance than speaking, speaking more than reading, and the latter more than writing. This means that during class, your students would receive a lot of input in L2 (listening) and that maybe 60-75% of the class would be devoted to oral communication (listening and speaking) and the rest to written communication (reading and writing). What about the areas of language? Since oral communication implies grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation these areas would receive more attention than spelling.

After this, you can start thinking about how your classes would go. , your classes might have, for example, 1. a listening activity that makes them aware of specific vocabulary, 2. a speaking activity that checks their pronunciation of those or other words (maybe from previous classes) and their grammatical structures, 3. a conversation activity that focuses on them developing oral fluency (like Topic activities in Oxbridge), and 4. alternate between a reading activity in some classes and a writing one in others, focusing on different aspects of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and/or spelling.

This is all part of starting to organize an approach for L2 teaching and learning, and particularly thinking about how to organize classes has to do with the organization of the syllabus.

5. Organization of the syllabus

The question behind is: How should I organize a course so that my teaching and learning goals are met?

What is a syllabus?

A syllabus is an integral part of a planned course. It establishes what objectives we state for students to acquire at a certain stage in the learning process (level) through the distribution of the different categories (e.g. in Oxbridge: vocabulary, structures, topics; e.g. in previous example: listening, speaking, conversation, reading and writing).

A lesson can be very well planned and successful, but if it does not belong to a major organizational category (course syllabus, curriculum) we don’t have enough information about the “before and after” of that particular lesson plan. The importance of the syllabus is that it gives the context for each and every class.

The syllabus is a combination of:

·       Content distribution per session

·       Learning outcomes per session

·       Distribution of classes (sessions) within a period of time (dates)

Types of syllabi

There are many different types of syllabi and depending on our teaching and learning goals, our teaching situations and conditions, one might be more or less appropriate. Even though they are defined as if in isolated contexts, they are frequently combined in integrated ways, with one type as the organizing starting point and others arranged and connected to it. Some of these types are defined below.

1. Structure-based syllabus

This syllabus shows structures, which are graded according to grammatical complexity. One by one they are learned before moving on to the next structure. The benefit of a structure-based syllabus is that students move from simpler to more complex structures and they may learn the structures more easily.

Example of content for a structure-based syllabus:

1.                 Simple Present Tense

Present Continuous Tense

Pronouns

Subject and Object

Possessive Adjectives

2.                 Simple Past Tense (Regular and Irregular verbs)

Past Continuous Tense

3.                 Future: Going To

Future: Will

Future Continuous Tense

Possessive Pronouns

4.                 Present Perfect Tense

5.                 Present Perfect Tense vs. Present Tense

Present Perfect Tense vs. Past Tense

For, Since

2. Function-based syllabus

The content of this syllabus is a collection of functions that are performed when the language is used like agreeing, apologizing, requesting etc. and notions the language expresses like size, age, color, time and so on. The benefit of a function-based syllabus is that students learn how to use the target language to express their own ideas, notions and purposes.

Example of content for a function-based syllabus:

Unit 1: Socializing

A.       How to approach the person you are meeting

B.     How to reply

C.       How to introduce yourself

D.     How to respond and reply to an introduction

E.       Etc.

Unit 2: Asking and Answering Questions

A.       How to ask and answer direct questions where a short Yes or No answer is expected

B.     How to ask and answer direct questions where a longer answer than Yes or No is expected

C.       How to ask a direct question when you already think you know what the answer will be

D.     Etc.

3.     Directions

A.      How to ask someone for directions

B.     Etc.

3. Situations-based syllabus

The content is focused on real or imaginary situations in which the language occurs. The benefit of a situation-based syllabus is that students learn how to use the target language in an authentic context.

Example of content for a Situation-based syllabus

Unit 1             At the Post Office

Unit 2             At School

Unit 3             At the Airport

Unit 4             At a Restaurant

Unit 5             Shopping

Unit 6              At a Party

4. Skill-based syllabus

The content is a collection of specific abilities that one must be able to demonstrate in order to be competent using the language. Examples of activities during class would be: listening for the main idea in spoken language, writing paragraphs and giving oral presentations. The benefit of a skill-based syllabus is that students can specify their learning to reach their communicative competence, such as using telephone, booking a hotel, and others.

Example of content for a Skill-based syllabus (for the writing section of it):

Part I: WRITING A PARAGRAPH

1         What is a paragraph?

Paragraph Structure

The three parts of a paragraph

Two additional elements

Assignment format

How to write a title

The Topic Sentence

Position of topic sentences

The two parts of a topic sentence

Writing topic sentences: two reminders

The concluding Sentence

Review: What is a Paragraph?

2                   Unity and Simple Outlining

Simple Paragraph Outlining

Simple outlines

The ‘equivalent value” rule

The “parallel from” rule

Review: Unity and Simple Outlining

5. Task-based syllabus

This type of syllabus is comprised of a series of tasks that language learners need to perform; tasks are defined as activities that are needed when using the target language. Examples of a task-based syllabus may include applying for a job, ordering food via the telephone and getting housing information over the telephone. The benefit of a task-based syllabus is that students learn to carry out activities using the target language.

Example of content for a Task-based syllabus:

1                   Diagrams and formations

A.       Naming parts of a diagram with numbers and letters of the alphabet, as instructed.

B.     Placing numbers and letters of the alphabet in relation to one another, as instructed, to arrive at particular formations.

C.       Placing numbers and letters of the alphabet in given crossword formats; constructing/completing such formats, as instructed.

2                     Drawing

A.       Drawing geometrical figures/formations from sets of verbal instructions.

B.     Formulating verbal instructions for drawing/completing such figures.

C.       Comparing given figures to identify similarities and differences.

6. Content-based syllabus

The focus of this type of syllabus is on specific subject matter. During the lesson students are focused on learning about something. This could be anything that interests them from a serious science subject to their favorite pop star or even a topical news story or film. They learn about this subject using the language they are trying to learn. It can make learning a language more interesting and motivating. Students can use the language to fulfill a real purpose, which can make students both more independent and confident.

This is an example of a content-based syllabus for non-native speakers who are working or being trained in the telecommunications industry:

Unit 1             Networks

Unit 2             Transmission

Unit 3             Switching

Unit 4             Computer communications

Unit 5             Radio communications

5. Teachers’ roles

* Does Emilio need a guide and Sonsoles a psychologist as a teacher? Should I change my approach depending on their needs?

There are many factors that influence how teachers approach their work and which particular strategies they employ to achieve their goals. The different situations in which teachers work have an influence on their teaching. For example, in some institutions teachers are more or less left to their own devices and are free to make decisions concerning course goals, materials, teaching methods, and assessment procedures. In other situations, a supervisor or program director makes these decisions, and the teacher is just someone who carries out their wishes. The teacher can assume very different roles within their own classrooms for many different reasons.

Teachers’ beliefs can also have a powerful influence on the development of their teaching styles and their role as a teacher. Things like personality, educational background, and professional experiences in the teacher’s life contribute to these beliefs.

Examples of teachers’ roles

Below are some typical descriptions of teachers’ roles:

A needs analyst. The teacher determines students’ individual needs and uses the information obtained for course planning and development.

A guide. The teachers guides and directs the class dynamics. The teacher guides students on how to learn and communicate effectively in the English language. He or she knows where they take their students, where they are going and what they want to achieve.

A controller / organizer. The teacher organizes the class time and controls the right execution of the activities.

A resource. Traditionally students expect to be taught. The teacher is involved in transmitting knowledge to the students.

A facilitator. The move to a more student-centered view of learning has required a fundamental shift in the role of the teacher. No longer is the teacher seen predominantly as a dispenser of information or walking tape recorder, but rather as a facilitator or manager of the students’ learning.

A playmaker. The teacher understands that his or her role is of enormous importance but his/her talk has to be discrete. Even though the teacher guides, it is the students who have to “score the goals” in class. A good playmaker knows how to organize the class game so that everybody participates and learns under his or her guidance.

A psychologist. The teacher has to interpret learners’ reactions and responses to stimuli in order to adapt his or her class and reach high effectiveness in achieving goals. Sometimes you have to deal with difficult students and you have to make your way through them and revert their rejection to learn.

An agony aunt. Sometimes students share their problems and concerns with us, we have to be able to listen and understand them.

An authority. This is the expected role of traditional classrooms as the teacher is in control of the students at all times. The teacher speaks and the students listen with little communication between the students themselves.

A conversationalist. Nothing is more effective and motivating in class than a good topic for conversation. Knowing how to make students talk is an art used by experienced teachers. Have a good conversation and your class will be remembered, your students will learn without an apparent effort and will be waiting for your next class!

An assessor. The goal of the teacher is to help the student to achieve the course goals, as an assessor the teacher has the role of passing judgment on the student. This is particularly true in summative assessment, but not so much with formative assessment where the boundaries between assessment and teaching become are not so clear.

What makes a good teacher?

We’ve asked this question to pretty much all the teachers that we have met in our professional time as an English Teaching and TEFL company. The answers usually include different personal traits such as the linguistic and cultural knowledge of the teacher, social skills, experience, empathy, patience, kindness and understanding, but there is one answer that is repeated over and over again and it has even replaced the personal traits in second position on the scale:

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING WELL PREPARED FOR CLASS.

Such is the importance of being well prepared to class, that it can compensate for lack of one or more of the personal traits of the teacher and even for lack of experience.

No one has been born a teacher, and in your first classes you’ll feel nervous, especially if you don’t know the students. This is normal. But good preparation can “disguise” that feeling, and after the first 5-10 minutes you will relax and go with the flow.

Even though your training can be optimum and even though you can do your best preparing for the class, something can unexpectedly go wrong. Teaching entails a continuous interaction with your students and sometimes we can have a breakdown in communication with undesirable consequences.

As a teacher one also has to learn how to be patient and understanding with oneself, nor over-demanding. The concept of ‘a good teacher’ is subjective and relative. Even in the same classroom some students might love you and others might not like you. This shouldn’t get in the way of doing our jobs. The fact that a person doesn’t like us doesn’t mean we can’t help them learn.

* Is the question: ‘How can I become a better teacher’ or ‘How can I become a better teacher for Emilio’?

Giving enough attention. Teachers of English should make it clear that each individual member of the class deserves attention, whatever his or her level of achievement. Students should be equal in the eyes of the teacher and receive an equal opportunity to participate and receive adequate feedback on their performance.

Adapting to learner’s needs and goals. Ultimately, what makes a person learn is being involved in the task at hand and the fact that the task itself is suitable for him/her. Even though this is part of preparation, when it comes to choosing activities and how they’ll be carried out during class, many things might come up and it’s essential that we know how to react and adapt when a learner is totally lost or way above the proficiency level of others and/or the activity itself.

English teachers should learn to be flexible. This is because teaching a foreign language is a dynamic profession. Teachers should also adapt themselves to the constant changes the language is going through, and try to incorporate newer techniques in their teaching style.

Classrooms can be difficult places where teachers have to make snap decisions if something is not working and change the lesson plan or move on to the next task if needed.

Classroom management is an important thing to be taken care of by English teachers. Time management and ensuring discipline in the class is one of his various duties. It should be ensured that every single student is treated fairly.

Good managers of time. Time is one of the most precious resources a teacher has. Good teachers have learned to use this resource wisely. This comes back to planning; anticipating problems in the classroom

And keeping a good pace to the lesson. Can you monitor your time and allocate to priorities and deadlines?

Being a reflective teacher

In 1987, Donald Schön introduced the concept of reflective practice in teaching. Schön recommended reflective practice as a way for anyone starting out in a profession to recognize the differences between their own individual practices and those of successful practitioners. As defined by Schön, reflective practice involves thoughtfully considering one’s own experiences in applying knowledge to practice while being coached by professionals in the discipline.

Why it is important

Many teachers already think about their teaching and talk to colleagues about it too. You might think or tell someone that “My lesson went well” or “My students didn’t seem to understand” or “My students were so badly behaved today.”

However, without more time spent focusing on or discussing what has happened, we may tend to jump to conclusions about why things are happening. We may only notice reactions of the louder students. Reflective teaching therefore implies a more systematic process of collecting, recording and analyzing our thoughts and observations, as well as those of our students, and then going on to making changes.

If a lesson went well we can describe it and think about why it was successful.

If the students didn’t understand a language point we introduced we need to think about what we did and why it may have been unclear.

If students are misbehaving – what were they doing, when and why?

The first step to the reflective process is to gather information about what happens in the class. Here are some different ways of doing this.

• Teacher diary
• Peer observation
• Recording lessons
• Student feedback

Then, once the information has been gathered it needs to be analyzed by asking yourself questions like these:

• What are you doing?
• Why are you doing it?
• How effective is it?
• How are the students responding?
• How can you do it better?

Reflection

The above information and even the information to come, is for you to be inquisitive. To be encouraged to analyze this theoretical knowledge and help you have a critical way of thinking when it comes to teaching. Now and in the future it is vital for you to continue in this way as teaching is an ever-evolving process and you need to be in control of your professional development. Theories and classroom applications should be constantly compared and contrasted. In turn, you will gain better awareness. Conscious awareness depends on the teacher’s experimental nature, theoretical and practical experience to be able to see all sides of the equation.

6. Students’ roles

Students can assume a number of roles depending on the method being taught, setting in which it is being taught and beliefs of the teacher and student alike. Other factors that affect are:

• Motivation to learn
• Ability to take risks
• Willingness to ask questions
• Ability to think about how to learn
• Acceptance of correction

Examples of students’ roles

The student’s roles in the classroom are:

Imitator. They follow the teacher’s directions and respond as accurately and as rapidly as possible. An example would be that students are drilled in the use grammatical sentence patterns with little interaction between each other.

Passive learner/receiver. Students are receivers of the new information, which they record. They memorize the rulesand the new vocabulary with their meanings. There is very little interaction initiated by learners and they allow the teacher to make all the decisions for them.

Communicator. Communicators are actively engaged in negotiating meaning trying to make themselves understood. They learn to communicate by communicating. Students are generally active and do most of the speaking in the classroom.

Self-manager. Learners use initiative and take responsibility for learning. They select manage, and assess their own learning activities. They work collaboratively in classroom with guidance of teacher.

7. Characteristics of teaching-learning process

Other aspects that characterize an ESL teaching approach have to do with tolerance to errors, whether grammar is taught inductively or deductively, whether the use of native tongue is allowed or not, how the class is structured, the kind of practice learners get and the kind of material that’s used. All of these aspects and possibilities will be described in this section.

Classroom lesson structure

In Communicative language teaching (CLT; a methodology based on the communicative approach, which we’ll study in the unit), the structure of the lesson in divided in two parts: 1. Pre-communicative activities, which are accuracy-based activities that focus on presentation of structures, functions, and vocabulary; and 2. Communicative activities, which are fluency-based activities that focus on information sharing and exchange.

On the other hand, the Oxbridge lesson structure consists of three gross parts:

1. Quick questions – The teacher asks these questions at the beginning of the class to practice inversion in yes/no questions, to engage the students and to start the class with a fast pace.

2. Communicative activities – The order and type of activities is dependent on the level of the class:

P2 class – Structure, Vocabulary, Topic, Structure, Vocabulary, etc.

P4 class – Vocabulary, Topic, Structure, Topic etc.

3. Wrap up – The teacher revises what has been learned in the lesson to ensure understanding, assess effectiveness of the teaching and so students experience achievement.

All Oxbridge activities are follow a similar principle to Jeremy Harmer’s ESA model, only that we apply this approach to all the activities in a class, rather than to one lesson:

E: Engage

This is the part of the teaching process where the teacher tries to get the students’ attention. Normally this is done by the teacher first asking the students questions about a topic, structure or vocabulary activity. Maybe the teacher can ask the students what they think about a topic before presenting it or asking a question using the structure to be taught to activate the students’ interest and prepare them for what is to come.

S: Study:

This is where the students are asked to focus on the language (or information) and how it is constructed. Students can study in a variety of ways: the teacher can explain grammar, they can study language evidence to discover grammar for themselves, and they can work in groups studying a reading text or vocabulary.

A: Activate

This part describes activities and exercises that are designed with the purpose to get the students to use the language learned as freely and as communicatively as they can. The objective is not for the students to focus on the structure of the language and/or practice specific pieces of language but to use any and all relevant language appropriate for the given topic or situation.

Teaching grammar deductively or inductively

We’ve mentioned deductive and inductive grammar when talking about areas of language. Remember that deductive grammar teaching is based on facts and statements, learners are told the grammatical rule and work from there. The deductive approach is certainly easier to apply and leaves little room for mistakes providing that the rule is concisely and clearly stated. One important factor in this way of teaching is the lack of students’ involvement and struggle for understanding. This usually results in the lesson being teacher-centered and doesn’t develop the students’ creativity or use their imagination. Explanations are not very memorable and not internalized easily.

Pros

• Good for logical, mathematics, linguistic intelligences
• Adult learning could benefit from this.
• Rules are straightforward to follow.

Cons

• Doesn’t offer communicative learning
• Students memorize rules but lack understanding of their general function.
• Doesn’t allow for authentic, contextualized learning.

Inductive grammar teaching, on the other hand, allows the learners to discover the rules for themselves, which will make them more meaningful and memorable to learn. Learners are more actively involved in the learning process rather than being passive receivers and therefore the students are more likely to be more motivated and present during class. It is particularly suited to learners who favor pattern-recognition and problem solving activities. Lastly working things out for themselves gives the learners more self-reliance and allows the learner to be more independent.

Pros

• More communicative
• Good for young and old learners
• More authentic and contextualized
• Develops the learners deductive skills

Cons

• Can be difficult for learners to deduce rules if not properly taught
• Vague, unstructured in some situations
• Students may misinterpret rules if the first 2 conditions occur

Students’ in-class practice of L2

When it comes to how students use and practice the language in class, there are many different techniques, some of which are explained below:

Repetition drills

Repetition drills are used to get students to practice a specific structure. Typically the teachers’ language is repeated without any change.

Teacher: It´s cold outside.

Student: It’s cold outside.

Teacher:It’s warm outside.

Student: It’s warm outside.

Substitution Drills

Substitution drills are slightly more interactive than repetition drills because they usually give students practice in changing a word or structure in response to a prompt or cue from the teacher or another student.

Teacher: You’re a student, aren’t you?

farmer

Students: You’re a farmer, aren’t you?

Teacher: You’re a farmer, aren’t you?

accountant

Students: You’re an accountant, aren’t you?

Teacher: You’re an accountant, aren’t you?

mechanic

Students: You’re a mechanic, aren’t you?

Teacher: You’re a mechanic, aren’t you?

Transformation Drills

Transformation drills involve changing the structure of a sentence.

• Statement to question: I like ice cream. To: Do you like ice cream?

• One tense to another tense: I’m going shopping. To: Yesterday I went shopping.

• Active to passive: The teacher gave them the answers. To: They were given the answers by the teacher.

• Singular subject to plural subject: The woman sings well. To: The women sing well.

Reading Comprehension Questions

These refer to finding information in a passage, making inferences and relating to personal experience.

Memorization

Memorization implies memorizing vocabulary lists and grammatical rules.

Printed Dialogues

Printed dialogues usually consist of several short exchanges between two people, as in this shopping dialogue:

A: Hello. May I help you?
B: No thanks. I’m just looking.
A: Well, let me know if you need anything.
B: Okay, thank you.

Open Dialogues

In open dialogues, the teacher provides only one half of the dialogue. Students invent the other half, as in this example below:

A: Do you know if the library is open on ____________?

B: Yes, ________________.

Or

No, I ___________ think so.

A: What hours is it open?

B: ___________ open from _________ to ___________.

Cue card dialogues

You can use these with students by giving instructions for performing a sequence of communicative acts designed to fit in with a corresponding sequence on a partner’s card.

Card A – You have just moved to a new neighborhood. You ask your neighbor where you can find the following places: the bank, the grocery store, post office, the school.

Card B -A new neighbor asks where to find local services. Use this information to help: bank—2 blocks north; grocery store—around the corner to the left: post office—next to the bank; school—on the corner of Main Street and 3^rd Avenue.

Role-plays and debates

Role-plays and debates can range from highly structured, short exchanges, as in a restaurant, to those that are longer and more open ended encouraging free use of the language. If you want a highly structured role-play or debate, you can write it up in situation cards similar to the cue cards described earlier.

Here is an example of a situation card.

Instructions: You are making an appointment with your professor. You have to do this through the college secretary.

1. Greet the secretary.

2. Explain that you want to meet with your professor.

3. State why you want to meet (to discuss course content, to explain an absence, to ask about your exam grade).

4. List your available times.

5. Ask the secretary when the professor is available.

6. Ask if the secretary needs any other information.

8. Thank the secretary for her time.

These are just some of the many types of practice that can be used in the classroom.

Types of material used in the classroom

Authentic material

Authentic materials are also known as realia and they are any materials that exist in the real world for native speakers in English. Examples of authentic materials include:

• Newspapers and advertisements
• Movies, videos
• Bills and receipts
• Official letters and forms from governments or businesses
• Maps and directions
• Prescriptions and instructions
• Written notes and messages

Adapted material

These are things such as textbooks and audio or visual material that is modified to suit the age, level or learning requirements of the learners. Ways in which one can adapt a text are: to simplify grammar, to simplify vocabulary and to shorten it. It is important when adapting material to ask yourself questions like these:

Is the activity appropriate for the age group?

If not, how will I bridge the gap?

What’s the point of the activity?

What will students be learning?

Should I explain to the students why we’re doing the activity?

The main thing to bear in mind with any adaptation of materials is how you can personalize the task and make it more relevant to the learner.

Let’s also not forget that materials can be of different formats. We shouldn’t only consider printed material, but also using computers, projectors, magic boards, etc. to present students with audio and visual material. Videos and computers can provide listening practice and visual stimulation, while projectors can be used for presenting texts for reading. Songs can also be a good way for students to practice listening skills.

L1 usage during class

Should we or shouldn’t we use the students’ first language (L1) in the classroom? This is one of the questions which most divides teachers, whether they are for it or against it. The main argument against the use of the L1 in language teaching is that students will become dependent on it, and not even try to understand meaning from context and explanation, or express what they want to say within their limited command of the target language.

Teachers are known to use L1 in the classroom when there is a gap of communication or total misunderstanding, since it can prevent time being wasted on fruitless explanations and instructions, when it could be better spent on language practice. This of course is after all other possible options have been exhausted.

Other reasons that translation may not be useful is that learners may feel that the only way they would understand anything the teacher says is when it has been translated, or they use their mother tongue even when they are perfectly capable of expressing the same idea in English. This can significantly reduce students’ opportunities to practice English, and students fail to realize that using English in classroom activities is essential to improve their language skills.

Translation also regularly creates the problem of oversimplification because many cultural and linguistic nuances cannot be directly translated. For example, the sentence, “That’s so cool!” in English means that something is amazing or incredible. This phrase is the product of the continual evolution of the English language that was affected by the specific culture at a certain time. A direct translation of this sentence into Chinese, for example, would not have the same meaning; in fact, it would not make sense at all.

While the argument from both sides are equally compelling, it is clear, that despite the numerous advantages of students using their L1 in English-language learning, they do not outweigh the disadvantages.

Error management

A crucial issue for any teacher is when and how to correct students’ English mistakes. More than just error correction, we would like to create awareness about an effective attitude about errors and mistakes and how to overcome them. We call this process error management.

To correct or not to correct, that is the question! What and when to correct is something that the teacher will decide in each situation, but there should always be a conscious approach to errors and their successful management.

Of course, there are a number of types of corrections that teachers are expected to make during the course of any given class. Here are the main types of mistakes that need to be corrected:

• Grammatical faults (errors of verb tenses, preposition use, etc.)
• Vocabulary faults (incorrect collocations, idiomatic phrase usage, etc.)
• Pronunciation faults (mistakes in basic pronunciation, in word stressing in sentences, mistakes in rhythm and pitch)
• Written faults (grammar, spelling and vocabulary choice in written work)

Oral practice

The main issue at hand during oral work is whether or not to correct students as they say something wrong. So, should teachers correct every single fault or, should they give a value judgment and correct only major faults?

With oral faults made during class discussions, there are different schools of thought:

1) Don’t correct anything and let language take care of itself.

2) Correct often and thoroughly.

3) Let students make mistakes and correct depending on level: let beginners make many mistakes while correcting advanced students often.

4) Use selective correction: correct depending on the objectives of the lesson, or the specific exercise that is being done at that moment. In other words, if students are focusing on simple past irregular forms, then only errors in those forms are corrected (i.e., goed, thinked, teached, etc.). Others, such as in a future form, or of collocations (for example: I made my homework) are ignored.

Finally, many teachers also choose to correct students after the fact. Teachers take notes on common mistakes that students make. During the follow-up correction session the teacher then presents common faults made so that all can benefit from an analysis of which were made and why. This is very useful when students give opinions on a topic and you don’t want to interrupt their flow of speaking. Instead, you note down some recurrent faults and omit lapses.

8. Assessment tools and systems

* No one enjoys doing tests and they’re outdated, but then how can I realize and register what Emilio and Sonsoles have learnt and what they haven’t?

Evaluation versus assessment

Evaluation is a broader term than assessment. It refers to the systematic use of standards to determine how significant something is in a working scheme. Essentially, it parts from objectives to analyze what was accomplished and how. When evaluation takes place one assesses objectives, enabling reflection and assisting in decision-making while identifying areas of opportunity for improvement.

Assessment, on the other hand, is much more specific and in an education scenario refers to the documenting of knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs in some measurable way.

Imagine that you want your students to learn how to use the present simple tense to express routines, so you design an activity to do so. Your objective would be that they learn what you’re trying to teach, but you don’t really know to what extent the activity satisfies your students’ learning needs. You carefully plan and think about how every part of the activity will affect students’ knowledge, but maybe they will need more practice, or some other type of practice, or those visual stimuli that you’re using aren’t good enough, or the TL verbs are not the best. For you to know if the material worked you assess your students’ knowledge through written and oral tests which were carefully planned according to how their knowledge should have been affected. It turns out some students mastered the use of the present simple tense to express routines and some didn’t, so you ask yourself why. After analyzing evidence on what specifically happened, you decide next time around you’ll try an activity in which context lends to meaning, using more and more accurate visual stimuli, and they’ll be forced to produce sentences in a conversation. In such a way, assessing student’s knowledge is but a tool to evaluate materials’ effectiveness and make decisions on how to improve conditions so learning is enhanced.

The graph that follows shows that assessment is a component of evaluation, aside from mentioning several assessment tools and some dimensions that might be evaluated in a working scheme:

Some types of assessment

Assessment may be carried out using the different tools mentioned in the previous graph -tests, checklists, teacher observation rubrics or grids, etc.-, but their contribution to learning depends on when and how they are used. In this section we’ll refer to different types of assessment.

Formative assessment and Summative assessment

Formative assessment is an ongoing process of gathering information on how much the student has learned and his/her strengths and weaknesses. This information the teacher can use for their course planning and the actual feedback they give learners. Formative tests are designed to help the teacher plan a program in the future. After administering the test, the teacher will know exactly which areas to concentrate on and will be able to target students’ weak points. Formative tests can also be used to show whether a student has achieved the necessary degree of proficiency to successfully complete a new course of study, or perhaps to start a new job. Aside from tests, formative assessment might include tasks such as discussions, applications of skills, projects, interviews and any quick check that allow teachers and students to confirm achievement, note progress, and set next steps in learning.

Summative assessment sums up attainment at the end of the course with a grade and although a lot of it is norm-referenced (placement of students in ranking in relation to their peers) and fixed-point, summative assessments should allow students to demonstrate their abilities to apply knowledge and skill in complex situations (e.g. including performance tasks, projects and portfolios as part of the final grade). The most common form of summative test is that administered at school, regional or national level at the end of an academic year, or at the end of a student’s course of study. While the class teacher or the head of department will probably have prepared the internal school tests, the national examinations will be based on a local or regional syllabus and are very unlikely to have been designed by teachers working in the classroom.

Formative and summative assessments may be carried out in different ways. As was stated before, most summative assessment is fixed-point, but can also be continuous, which is how formative assessment is normally fulfilled. Then, summative assessment is assessment by others while formative assessment might also have other objectives, like making students aware of their of their knowledge and learning process, for which cases it might include some self-assessment. Let’s see what each of these other modalities mean.

Continuous assessment and Fixed-point assessment

Continuous assessment is assessment of class performances, pieces of work and projects throughout the course. In this type of assessment the final grade reflects the whole course/year/semester.

Fixed-point assessment is when grades are awarded and decisions made on the basis of an examination or other assessment which takes place on a particular day, usually the end of the course or before the beginning of a course. What has happened beforehand is irrelevant; it is what the person can do now that is decisive.

Assessment is often seen as something outside the course, which takes place at fixed points in order to make decisions, but continuous assessment implies assessment which is integrated into the course and which contributes in some cumulative way to the assessment at the end of the course. Apart from marking homework and occasional or regular short achievement tests to reinforce learning, continuous assessment may take the form of checklists/grids completed by teachers and/or learners, assessment in a series of focused tasks, formal assessment of coursework, and the establishment of a portfolio of samples of work.

Assessment by others and Self-assessment

Assessment by others implies judgments by the teacher or examiner (e.g. peers).

Self-assessment implies judgments about your own proficiency.

Learners can be involved in many assessment techniques. Research suggests that if ‘high stakes’ are not involved (e.g. whether or not you will be accepted for a course), self-assessment can be an effective complement to tests and teacher assessment. Accuracy in self-assessment is increased when assessment refers to clear descriptors defining standards of proficiency and when it is related to a specific experience. This experience may itself even be a test activity. It is also probably made more accurate when learners receive some training.

Assessment Tools

* Emilio has learnt, no doubt about that, but now I have to make a report and I have to send it to his boss, who will read it and decide whether to continue paying for his language training or not. This means I have to provide thorough information about his evolution. How do I do it?

Anecdotal notes

Anecdotal notes can be used in classroom for formative assessments. They assess learners’ day-to-day skills. As learners complete a task in the classroom individual learners’ successes and challenges are noted down on a sheet.

The following are a couple of example tools we could use when wanting to write anecdotal notes:

1. An anecdotal assessment record

2. A checklist used for formative assessment in a course of study. First you’ll see a chart outlining asssessments for that course and then the concrete checklist:

Rubrics

A rubric is an assessment tool that clearly indicates marking criteria. It can be used for marking assignments, class participation, or overall grades. Rubrics can be used for formative and summative test evaluation.

Below you’ll find some examples:

Rubrics for self-assessment

Listening Strategies Self-assessment Checklist for Students

Name:______________________________ Date:_____________________________________

Cloze assessment

In a Cloze exercise, a passage is chosen within a student’s reading ability. Words are then deleted from the passage according to one of several criteria, such as a word count formula where every fifth or sixth word is deleted. Words that are being studied during vocabulary lessons may be deleted to test comprehension, also. Understanding of grammatical structures may be tested by deleting conjunctions, prepositions, or verbs.

Sample Cloze Passages

Cloze passages can be taken from a variety of sources, including literature you are reading in class, newspapers, textbooks, and websites. The following passage is from the article, “First pair of 33 men rescued from Chilean mine,” written by Michael Warren of the Associated Press.

In this example, approximately every fifth word was removed after the introductory phrase and since students had not seen this passage before, a list of missing words was provided at the end:

SAN JOSE MINE, Chile – The first two of 33 men trapped in a collapsed mine were rescued early Wednesday after 69 days _____, pulled to fresh air _____ freedom at last in _____ missile-like escape capsule to _____ cheers of family and ____.

Rescued first was Florencio Avalos, ____ wore a helmet and ____ to protect him from ____ glare of bright lights. ____ smiled broadly as he ____ and hugged his sobbing 7-year-old ____, Bairon, and wife, then ____ Chilean President Sebastian Pinera and ____.

Missing Words: sunglasses emerged a who rescuers underground son bear hugged the and he countrymen the

Tests

The following are examples of tests:

Maximum marks: 80 Time-3hours

The question paper is divided into four sections.

Section A: Reading comprehension 20 marks

Section B: Writing 20 marks

Section C: Grammar 20 marks

Section D: Literature 20 marks

(SAMPLE OF THE GRAMMAR SECTION OF THE TEST)

(GRAMMAR – 20 MARKS)

Q8 Complete the following passage by choosing the most appropriate options from the ones

given below. Write the answer in your answer sheet: (4 Marks)

Like many Indian children, I grew up (a)———– the vast, varied and fascinating tales of the Mahabharata. Set (b)——- the end of what the Hindu scriptures term Dvapur Yuga or the third age of the man, a time (c)———– the lives of the Gods and people still intersected, the epic weaves myth, history, religion, science and statecraft (d)——- stories.

a) (i) saying (ii) listening to (iii) questioning (iv) celebrating

b) (i)by (ii)at (iii)from (iv)into

c) (i)where (ii)from (iii)when (iv)before

d) (i)as (ii)in (iii)through (iv)into

Q9 Edit the following passage by choosing the correct option from the options given below:

(4 Marks)

Blood letting was a common practice in ancient times. The doctors used to treat patients (a) by

the help of leeches. It was generally believed that certain diseases (b) caused by too much of

blood or by impure blood getting blocked in some parts of the body. The doctors(c) were make 10 a slit on the body or attach leeches there. They sucked the blood (d) not prevented it from

clotting.

a) (i)from (ii)with (iii)in (iv)as

b) i)were caused (ii)cause (iii)will be caused (iv)are caused

C) (i)should (ii)will (iii)was (iv)would

d) (i)and (ii)but (iii)or (iv)while

Characteristics of good assessment and grading systems

There might be many conditions that make one type of assessment more relevant and/or useful than another, so what must a teacher or a group of teachers in a school/academy consider when designing an assessment system?

Complete assessment systems must be integrated with curriculum and instruction and should incorporate the concept of assessment of, for, and as learning.

Assessment of learning refers to summative assessments; whether the students acquired or didn’t acquire knowledge. Even though summative assessment refers to how grades are added to award a final PASS or FAIL at the end of the course, individual progress can be determined and monitored by multiple, in-depth measures such as combinations of assessment tasks administered throughout the school year. When using tasks and tests to grade, think about the following characteristics:

-       Grades should be relevant to major course objectives. When preparing your grading system for a course, begin with a list of your objectives for the course, assign relative weights to the objectives in terms of their importance and make sure the items you are including as part of the grade (e.g. exams, papers, projects) reflect the objectives and are weighted to reflect the importance of the objectives they are measuring.

-       Grades should reflect the extent to which students have learned the course materials. Items such as effort, attendance, or frequency of participation, although contributing factors to student learning, do not actually have recognized meaning in the acquisition of knowledge.

-       The grading process should be impartial and compare each student to the same criteria. E.g. if extra credit or opportunities to retake exams or rewrite assignments are given, the offer should be made to the whole class.

-       Grades should be based on sufficient data to permit you to make valid evaluations of student achievement. It is rarely justifiable to base students’ grades solely on their performance on one or two exams, since they would provide an inadequate sampling of course content and objectives. Also, an off-day could lower a student’s grade and be an inaccurate reflection of how much he/she has learned. Generally speaking, the greater the number and variety of items used to determine grades, the more valid and reliable the grades will be.

-       The basis for the grading should be statistically sound. If you say that an exam is worth 15% of the total grade, use a procedure for combining scores that ensures that this will be the case.

Assessment for learning is formative assessment, direct feedback to students and teachers about whether students understand and can apply skills and knowledge. It occurs at a point where additional instruction or learning activities can be identified and used to address learning weaknesses and/or next steps.

It is important to understand that some assessments function as both summative and formative assessments. During a project, for example, a student should receive continuous feedback on progress and needs while the final project evaluation is summative. The general idea is that the consequences of assessment must benefit student’s learning. Considering this, communication about assessment should be regular and clear. Educators must communicate, in ordinary language, the purposes, methods, and results of assessment and focus on reporting what students know and are able to do, what they need to learn to do, and what will be done to facilitate improvement.

Assessment as learning refers to the use of assessments to bring deeper understanding of education goals, concepts, skills, and the process of learning to both teachers and students. Discussion of student work by teachers and by students is an example of assessment as learning. Assessment as learning might also give feedback of how the assessment system is working, rendering valuable information so the system evolves and improves, adapting to changing conditions.

When considering how to assess one must also take into consideration that good assessment systems ensure that all students receive fair treatment in order not to limit students’ present and future opportunities. They allow for multiple methods to assess student progress and for multiple but equivalent ways for students to express knowledge and understanding. They are created or appropriately adapted to meet the specific needs of particular populations, thus respecting the principles of Universal Design for Learning, which state that specific needs of individuals based on learning differences need to be considered so students have fair and valid opportunities to demonstrate their learning. In the process, all students benefit.

So, attention must be given to establishing a complete, balanced, and relevant assessment system that addresses broad education goals and include four major components that must be simultaneously taken into consideration:

• Two of them are the already mentioned summative and formative assessments,that must be planned considering how to give all students (each with different needs) the chance to express knowledge, and also be used as learning tools,
• The third one would be teacher capacity and development. Assessment systems depend on educators who understand the full range of assessment purposes, use appropriately a variety of suitable methods, work collaboratively, and engage in ongoing professional development to improve their capability as assessors. The first type of professional development would come from developing and scoring assessments. The second type of professional development occurs when teachers meet to share and discuss students’ performance on formative assessments (assessment as learning). And the third component of professional development addresses teacher development through washback effect, which refers to the capacity to understand and analyze data from all types of assessments and collapse/integrate/use them to inform instructional planning.
• The fourth would refer to effective data systems. Effective data systems help stakeholders keep track of student scores on summative assessments and enables teachers to use technology to choose among optional formative assessment tasks and resources, to keep track of data on formative assessments, and share resources and insights with other teachers.

In educational systems evaluation and assessment are but one of the components that has to be harmoniously related to the others:

• the identification of needs;
• the determination of objectives;
• the definition of content;
• the selection or creation of material;
• the establishment of teaching/learning programs;
• the teaching and learning methods employed.