Review
Tamotsu is interested in developing tests that can improve students’ interactive abilities. First, he will conduct a questionnaire to see how other teachers are teaching and assessing interaction. After identifying some issues with the practice of teaching and assessing interaction in Iwate, he will develop and validate his own test.
Reading about Assessment (Sato & Kasahara)
Principles
- Confirm the skills that one wants to measure and then design a task to measure these skills.
- (examples)
- Interview: Whether or not students can share new information.
- Role play: Students can use language in a specific situation.
- Choose a conversation topic that students would talk about in Japanese. A teacher mustn’t choose a conversation topic that children are not familiar with.
- Two kinds of tasks:
- Structured:
- Like practice such as ondoku or making a skit and reciting it.
- Repeating tasks
- Substitution
- Summary
- Open-ended
- Speech (JHS)
- Description (JHS)
- Narrative (Grade 3)
- Information Gap
- Decision making (Ranking can be decision making)
- Problem solving
- Exchanging opinions
- Structured:
Discussion
- With the introduction of the Foreign language subject in elementary schools, JHSs will likely have freer discussion/ communication than before.
- Q & A is desirable for grade 1. Asking questions in Q & A can build fluency and English structural knowledge. Students can also practice reacting fast (Listening fluency).