Evaluations, tests and assessing

Evaluations, tests and assessing

As students of a second language we have to certificate our knowledge by taking determinate exams which say what level of English we have. Therefore The CEF (Common European framework of reference for languages) has designed standards which are useful from different skills:

• ·         Speaking (use of English, fluency, vocabulary and so on)
• ·         Listening (Solve different activities about dialogues, experiences, songs)
• ·         Writing (Like essays witch demonstrate subjective point of view or objective texts)
• ·         Reading (Identify specific information and solve problems)

Taken from http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/source/framework_en.pdf

Presenting a test could be an awkward situation; you always get nervous and you just start to hesitate about everything you know. When I was starting my college studies my worse horrible nightmare was speaking English in public. For that reasons our teacher wanted us for making debates and also to asses speaking by using FCE (one of the most recognized exams from Cambridge University). The exam was simple, by pairs we had to describe a picture and make some questions each other about that, meanwhile the teacher was evaluating us with a scoring rubric (which had different items like vocabulary, idioms, use of grammar, pronunciation) .

So we have to take into account that exams like FCE are demanding for our academically and general knowledge as future teachers. As well getting nervous is normal, but it is just at the beginning of your experiences as student and teacher.   

ABC OF THE TEACHERS

Yesterday´s class focused on an interesting point of discussion for analyzing teacher´s methodologies and the way that they face the classroom´s reality. Also the big distance between theory and practice, as a student of B.A you can know everything about authors, pedagogical concepts, new strategies and learning processes. Having all these knowledge is useful if you are able to put it in practice.

I feel concerned about that. Being a good teacher is more than just theory, you really need to practice. When I started giving classes to children (from 2 to 5) I realized about dealing with problems like attention periods, physical movement and behaviors inside of the classroom. But then I understood that with kids all that you need is love, patience and games (playing in the most important aspect for pre-school).

Also other characteristics of the classroom´s environment are the social and cultural barriers, types of students (age, English level, rhythm process of learning), beliefs and motivation states. Trying to manage these aspects could be difficult. Besides the selection of the correct content follow by curriculum´s institutions taking into account pedagogical skills and learner’s cleverness.

Obviously the success of the class and the learning process depends on teacher’s ability for creating an appropriated environment for students. In conclusion the teacher´s job is not a “piece of cake”. Teaching is a permanent relationship between practice and theory. Finally you have to make an effort for helping your students, remember that more than English you are teaching human beings.