Chapter 18: Putting Students to the Test 273
Looking at Alternatives to Testing
Testing carries various disadvantages so you may want to try alternatives
such as project work and continuous assessment. These tend to be less
pressurised for most students and remove the problem of having a bad
day at the time of the test, which results in an uncharacteristically poor
performance.
A project in English is a great way for students to express their language
skills and creativity at the same time. It is especially appealing to younger
learners on short summer courses. By the end of the project they have some-
thing to show for their efforts and the opportunity to use the English they’ve
learnt, or picked up, on their own terms.
Instead of filling in the gaps in a test the teacher has written, they choose
their own topic and usually they find out what they need to know to achieve
the task they set for themselves.
The problem is how to teach project work. Well, you can agree on certain
things your students have to include, for example, the history or background,
the current situation and future plans of the chosen celebrity, sport or
whatever subject they’ve chosen. This at least pushes the students to use a
variety of tenses.
You can also use continuous assessment so that every week or so you record
the students’ progress, performances and achievements. To make the best
use of time, the school should organise sheets that you can just tick or
grade on each aspect assessed. Writing reports increases the teachers’
administration work considerably. However, when you assess students in this
way, it’s easier to produce a final report at the end of the course rather than
just a test score.
