2012 HKDSE English Language Examination - Introduction to the School-based Assessment Component

Key Words	Explanation
*Assessment for* Learning**	Assessment for learning is an assessment where the prime purpose is to improve learning and teaching in order to raise student achievement. It is based on the idea that students will improve most if they understand the goals of their learning, where they are in relation to these goals and how they can close the gap between their current and desired achievement.
Assessment of Learning	Assessment of learning is any assessment where the prime purpose is to ensure accountability and / or ranking, and / or certify competence, rather than to improve learning.
Assessment Tasks	Assessment tasks are activities designed specifically to collect information about students’ oral language knowledge and skills. They should be embedded in a sequence of learning and teaching and be part of the regular curriculum, but do require certain mandatory conditions to be met so that the information collected is valid and reliable.
Authentication	Authentication is the process of ensuring that work produced by students is their own work and not the result of memorisation of others’ texts or other forms of plagiarism.
Authenticity	Authenticity is the degree to which assessment materials and conditions are able to stimulate the natural use of oral language.
Autobiography	Autobiography is an account of a person’s life written, composed or produced by that person.
Biography	A biography is an account of a person's life written, composed, or produced by another.
Collaboration	Collaboration is the process of students or teachers working together cooperatively.
Context	Context is the part of a text or statement that surrounds a particular word or passage and may determine its meaning.
Continuous Assessment	Continuous assessment is the process of collecting assessment information in a variety of ways over a longer period of time, usually through multiple tasks and observation; hence is usually seen as a more reliable assessment.
Criteria (singular = criterion)	Criteria are the guidelines, descriptions, or principles by which student responses, products, or performances are judged. When we assess language, the criteria are the key aspects of language that matter in the assessment.
Criteria-based Assessment	Criteria-based assessment is the assessment of a student's achievements in relation to specified criteria such as range or accuracy of vocabulary and coherence and organization of ideas.
Descriptors	Descriptors are statements that describe the performance expected at each level of each domain on the Assessment Criteria.
Domain	Assessment domains refer to areas of knowledge or skill, or the set of tasks about which we want to know more, and which is therefore the target of the assessment, e.g. pronunciation, or grammatical accuracy.
Extensive Reading or Viewing	Extensive reading or viewing is the reading or viewing of a large number of print and non-print texts (fiction and non-fiction) covering a wide range of topics and formats at the reader’s reading / viewing level and interest.
Feedback	Feedback refers to the process of eliciting and / or giving information to a learner about how they have performed on a task, process or activity. Feedback should be constructive and specific, i.e. related to specific criteria and goals. In effective feedback, the student's strengths and weaknesses and ways to improve are usually discussed before giving grades or marks.
Formative Assessment	Formative assessments are all those activities undertaken by teachers, and by the students assessing themselves, which provide information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which both are engaged. Formative assessments are usually informal and fairly frequent, involving the gathering of information about students and their language learning needs while they are still learning. Formative assessment has two key functions: informing and forming. In other words, formative assessment shapes the decisions about what to do next, by helping the teacher to select what to teach the next lesson, or even in the next moment in the lesson; the student to understand what they have learnt and what they need to learn next.
Interaction	Interaction refers to mutual or reciprocal action or influence as well as in language, to conversational exchanges of ideas and information.
Interactive Assessment	Interactive assessment is a dialogic approach to classroom-based assessment that emphasizes the interactive role of both teacher and student. In interactive assessment the teacher aims to ensure that learners do their best work, and may show encouragement, scaffold language production, respond to any difficulties with appropriate support and challenge students to extend their language use.
Jargon	Jargon is the language used by people who work in a particular area or who have a common interest: actors / actresses, lawyers, sports coaches, stock market agents, and so on. All have specialised terms and expressions that they use, many of which may not be comprehensible to the layman. They may also use familiar words with different meanings as well as abbreviations and acronyms.
Moderation	Moderation is a system of quality control to ensure that assessments given by schools meet minimum standards and are comparable across a school system.
OralText-type	Text-type refers to the type of text, for example an oral group interaction or an individual presentation.
Outcomes-based Education	Outcomes-based education refers to education defined not in terms of input, but in terms of specific knowledge, skills, processes and attitudes to be achieved.
Peer Assessment	Peer assessment is the monitoring and evaluation of a student's learning outcomes or learning processes by classmates; usually used in conjunction with peer feedback.
Performance Assessment	Performance assessments refers to assessments in which students are required to perform a task, construct a response, create a product, or demonstrate ability in a context where they are doing something for a meaningful purpose.
Reliability	Reliability refers to the degree to which an assessment process ensures consistent results.
Scaffolding	Scaffolding is a type of assistance offered by a teacher or peer to support learning in which the teacher helps students master a task or concept that they are initially unable to grasp independently. The teacher only attempts to help students with tasks that are just beyond their current capability. Student errors are expected, but, with teacher feedback and prompting, students are able to achieve the required task or goal. When students take responsibility for, or master the task, the teacher begins the process of 'fading', or the gradual removal of the scaffolding, which allows students to work independently.
Scale (rating scale)	Scales, also known as rating scales, are a sequence of descriptors of typical performances ranked in terms of their quality, used by assessors in assessing performance, such as giving a presentation or writing a letter.
School-based Assessment	School-based assessment (SBA) is an assessment which is embedded in the teaching and learning process. It has a number of important characteristics which distinguish it from other forms of assessment. It involves the teacher from the beginning to the end: from planning the assessment programme, to identifying and / or developing appropriate assessment tasks to making the assessment judgments; it allows for the collection of a number of samples of student performance over a period of time; it can be adapted and modified by the teacher to match the teaching and learning goals of the particular class and students being assessed; it is carried out in ordinary classrooms, not in a special examination hall; it is conducted by the students’ own teacher, not a stranger; it involves students more actively in the assessment process, especially if self- and peer-assessment are used in conjunction with teacher assessment; it allows the teacher to give immediate and constructive feedback to students; it stimulates continuous evaluation and adjustment of the teaching and learning programme; it complements other forms of assessment including external examinations.
Self Assessment	Self-assessment is the monitoring and self-evaluation by a student of his / her own learning outcomes or learning processes.
Standardisation	Standardisation is a process of comparing and reviewing interpretations of assessment criteria and scoring processes to ensure the same standards are being applied across students and context within schools (intra-school standarisation) and across schools (inter-school standardisation).
Summative Assessmet	Summative assessments are those more formally planned assessments at the end of a unit or term / year which are used primarily to evaluate student overall achievement. Traditionally such summative assessments have been used to grade and / or rank students, but in an assessment for learning culture, even summative assessments can be used formatively to provide feedback to improve learning and teaching.
Task-type	Task-type refers to the kind of activity, e.g. comparing two characters, recounting a story, describing a scene or promoting a book.
Text	A text is a spoken or written piece of meaningful language; a book or film.
Validity	Validity refers to whether or not an assessment is an effective measure of what needs to be assessed - in this case natural oral language.
Washback (also backwash)	Washback is the effect of an assessment on the teaching and learning leading up to it (and following on from it).

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Appendices

Appendix VI: Glossary of Key Words