ChildrenLearningEnglishasa.PDF

Children Learning English as a Foreign Language Assessment at Primary Lev el BY N I C K DAW S O N E F L A UT H O R F O R P EA RS O N Intr ducti n Assessment has always been a difficult topic among primary school English language teachers, with opinions swinging from a feeling that assessment is unnecessary to considerable interest in assessment. The primary English language classroom is supposed to be a very upbeat environment with children playing games, singing songs, reciting poems, creating pictures, and acting out short role-plays. Teachers are eager that the environment should be non-threatening, non-j udgemental, praise-driven, and full of laughter and fun. In this environment, assessment introduces the idea of failu e which is very foreign to the ethos of the primary school classroom. We need to abandon the idea that assessment is used to identify success or failure, and move toward the idea that assessment measures deg ees of success. Teachers often connect assessment with children sitting at their desks in silence, struggling with the demands of a formal paper-based examination. rimary teachers prefer to focus on the attitudinal value of English language lessons, showing children that foreign languages can be approached without fear and offer possibilities of fun, games, and play. Why d we need t assess? If children are receiving lessons in English, school authorities and parents want evidence that the children have learned and that the time has not been wasted. The teacher will also want to monitor each child’s progress as well as the progress of the whole class. Because of childhood illnesses and infections, there are inevitable periods of absence from lessons. Children will also not understand some lessons and will vary in their progression in some skills. Any testing of c