Assessment may at first sound threatening and ill-suited to a child's nature, but it is a necessary part of teaching and learning. The secret lies in pitching assessment activities at the children's level and encouraging learners to be actively involved in their own assessment. .
Evaluation: it is the process of gathering information in order to determine the extent to which a language programme meets its goal.
Assessment: it is the general process of monitoring the learner's progress.
Testing: it is one kind of assessment and it is used at the end of a stage of instruction for measure student achievement.
Reasons for having negative attitudes towards assessment.
1. Assessment is often seen as synonymous with.
testing.
2.Students think assessment only happens when learning has finished.
3.Assessment often relies too much on grammar tests.
4.Children feel assessment tries to reveal what they have not learned.
.
Why do we assess young children?.
to monitor and aid children's progress.
to provide children with evidence of their progress and enhance motivation.
to provide information for parents, colleagues, and school authorities.
To comply with formal certification.
What do we assess?.
Grammar.
Skills development.
Learning how-to-learn skills.
Behavioural and Social Skills .
To conclude, I think that both positive and negative assessments should be made available to the learner, as honestly as possible: mainly because in my experience this is what learners feel, and say, they want. However, it is essential for such assessments to be given in an atmosphere of support and warm solidarity, so that learners feel that the teacher's motive is honestly to promote and encourage their learning, no to put them down. The problem in negative assessment, in my opinion, is often not the assessment itself, but rather the accompanying implications of aggression on the side of the assessor and humiliation on the side of the assessed, which can, and should, be eliminated.
