Cheng, L., & Fox, J. (2017). Assessment in the language classroom: Teachers supporting student learning.London, England: Palgrave. 200 pp, paperback.

Since the second half of the 20th century, theoretical scholarship on second language assessment has sprouted up in the form of research papers, textbooks, and coursework across institutions of higher education. However, as Liying Cheng and Janna Fox point out in their latest collaboration, Assessment in the Language Classroom, few present-day resources provide coherent and applicable approaches to day-to-day language assessment that help navigate language classrooms effectively. As a result, many language teachers enter the classroom with no formal training in the effective assessment of students. This textbook seeks to fill this gap as a practical guide for teachers by teachers.

Composed of seven chapters, Assessment in the Language Classroom leads teachers through the four most fundamental inquiries of assessment: Why, what, how, and who do we assess?

Setting a foundation from which to work, Chapter 1 aptly begins by unpacking broad definitions and chief concepts around assessment and curriculum alignment. The authors begin by examining the question “Why do we assess?” and invite readers to reflect on their own teaching philosophy. Several activities throughout this chapter encourage teachers to think through their own beliefs about teaching, learning, and assessing. For example, Activity 1.2 asks readers to categorize their purposes for assessment into three basic categories: student centered, instructional, or administrative (p. 9), mapping back to the general inquiry of why we assess. This chapter is an important first step in getting educators to consider their own teaching values and beliefs and how those are aligned with the overall curriculum, and the points raised in this chapter are referred to in subsequent chapters. Chapter 1, as with all of the chapters, concludes with suggested reading for further exploration.

Concentrating in more detail on the notion of alignment, Chapter 2 addresses the question, “What to assess?”, and the authors do a good job connecting the dots between course goals, outcomes, activities, learning, and assessment criteria, and how all need to be integrated into overall course planning. Exercises such as “backward designing” help practitioners think through the fundamentals of creating meaningful assessment that supports the goals of the curriculum.

Chapter 3 hones in on arguably the most pertinent question of assessment: how do teachers develop high quality assessment that is coherent, fair, and balanced, and that meets the criteria of the course and the needs of the stakeholders? In this chapter, the authors drill down on the appropriate reasons for and places to practice formative and summative assessment. They also define and explain in more detail washback (i.e., the positive or negative influences that testing has on teaching and learning), which might impact meaningful learning. The authors argue that a skills-based portfolio is an invaluable way for both instructors and students to see what students can do and, over time, how they have grown.

In many countries and across curricula, instructors are being asked to create their own tests with very little theoretical or practical training in test design, analysis, or evaluation (p. x). Chapter 4 deals with this issue by focusing on the nuts and bolts of designing a high-quality test. The authors provide the necessary key terms and processes needed to create a fair test which, if done thoughtfully, can effectively validate student learning. This chapter also includes a rich section on evaluation and test analysis and is chock-full of advice on how to create marking scales and rubrics coupled with several very useful working examples. For instance, the author’s comparison of a “holistic scale” versus an “analytical scale” followed by an activity that pushes readers to reflect on the usefulness of both systems based on their own teaching philosophy helps solidify the authors’ argument that teacher values and beliefs are inextricably linked to assessment methods.

The implications of assessment are many, as placement often follows assessment. Chapters 5 and 6 address who we are assessing, and here we get a clear picture of why getting to know students’ goals is paramount in shaping teaching strategies and learning outcomes. Several diagnostic assessment approaches are compared along with specific criteria to consider when attempting to elicit information about students. Readers are encouraged to consider their role as both coach and judge, and here we get concrete suggestions on how to provide high-quality, informative feedback that motivates students to improve while supporting them as they grow. A theoretical discussion connects feedback to motivation, including intrinsic, extrinsic, and self-determined motivation. The crux of this section suggests that teachers need to routinely get to know their students and check in with them to gain insight on how and if the assessment tools and feedback are motivating and meeting their capabilities, needs, and goals.

To be sure, assigning grades can be stressful for teachers as it crystalizes how much power and influence they have upon the real lives of their students. Many assessment scholars have noted students’ futures ride on grades (Brookhart, 2013; Crusan, 2002). Similarly, in Assessment in the language classroom, Cheng and Fox warn of our ethical responsibilities: There are “significant consequences for student self-perception, motivation for learning…parental expectations, and social relationships” (p. 191). Thus, it is not an overstatement to say the stakes are high. In the final chapter, the authors pull together all the material presented and provide real-life scenarios which guide teachers’ grading decision-making with three specific foci: 1) working to ability, 2) missing work, and 3) improvement. By considering these scenarios and the consequences of the grades we might assign each student, readers are challenged by Cheng and Fox in Assessment in the language classroom to ask if the readers’ practices are “thorough, fair, and meaningful” (p. 197). This activity, and all the exercises throughout the text, can help teachers work through ambiguities and inconsistencies that are often entangled in the assessment process.

This volume, filled with practical exercises throughout the text as well as sample tools and formats in the appendix that are immediately applicable to the language classroom, is a good guide for both undergraduate and graduate courses in assessing language students with the aims of enriching self-motivated outcomes and supporting student learning.

References

Brookhart, S. M. (2013). Grading. In J. H. McMillan (Ed.), Research on classroom assessment (pp. 257–272). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

Crusan, D. (2002). An assessment of ESL writing placement assessment. Assessing Writing, 8, 17–30.

Sandra Bruce holds an MA TESOL and currently teaches EFL and content courses to second-year university students at Guangxi University in Nanning, China. Her research interests include second language writing, language pedagogy, identity construction, and issues associated with study abroad.