Assessment Design: English Language Proficiency for Class 8 Students

This homework assignment details the design of an English language assessment intended for Class 8 students, many of whom are second language learners. The assessment aims to evaluate students' reading, listening, and pronunciation skills, crucial for their English language proficiency. The author outlines a three-part assessment strategy, with tests administered at the beginning, middle, and end of the course to track student progress and determine scholarship eligibility. Each assessment stage includes a variety of question types designed to test basic grammar, vocabulary, and comprehension. The first assessment focuses on fundamental language elements, while the second evaluates progress and introduces more complex concepts. The final assessment serves as a comprehensive evaluation of language proficiency, aligning with school standards and determining eligibility for advanced programs and scholarships. The assignment provides sample questions for each assessment, illustrating the specific skills being evaluated. The author also discusses the importance of tailored assessments to address the unique challenges faced by second language learners and the significance of accurate assessment in guiding instruction and student placement. The assessment is designed to serve multiple purposes: to identify the students' current level of English language proficiency, to diagnose the challenges, and to determine eligibility for scholarships and placement in advanced programs.

Running Head: ASSESSMENT DESIGN AND DISCUSSION 1
Assessment Design and Discussion
Name
Institution

ASSESSMENT DESIGN AND DISCUSSION 2
Assessment design and discussion
Introduction
Teaching students a second language is often one of the most challenging tasks for
teachers since time immemorial (Brassard et al., 2011). Worse still is ensuring that the students
understood what you taught and can apply them appropriately. Conducting an assessment to
ascertain whether students have grasped what they were taught requires the use of certain tools,
which are applicable either in or out of class, or both (Black, & Wiliam, 2009). Also, there are
rules and regulations that tutors ought to follow when they asses the language proficiency of
their students. The best documentation of some of these principles is among the ones laid down
by Brown and Abeywickrama in their fundamental principles of language assessment.
In this discussion, I have designed an assessment I intend to use in my future teaching
context. In it, I have given a brief description of the context within which I will conduct my
assessment. I have also given sufficient information regarding my students and the language
abilities that the assessment will capture.
Assessment
Students and course
I handle class eight students studying at a junior high school. Each student takes at least
five subjects out of which English is a major. The majority of these students speak English as
their second language, although a majority of the rest of the school speaks English as their first
language. These students also study English because it is a part of the school curriculum and a
compulsory requirement. But the major reason why they study the language is that it is part of a
list of qualifications that must be passed before they get nominated to receive a school
scholarship.

ASSESSMENT DESIGN AND DISCUSSION 3
Language abilities/ability
Language ability, also known as language proficiency, can be defined as the ability of an
individual to write, speak or perform in a given language (Chapelle et al., 2011). There have
been debates regarding what aspects of language qualifies one as proficient because its
classification sometimes differs from organization to organization (Fulcher, 2014). What one
organization considers a high level of proficiency may be considered a drawback in another,
hence, a disqualifier. However, in the case of a school setting such as this, only the essential
conversational fluency is required, and this needs one to be proficient in as little as three
thousand words. Conventionally, proficient speakers are expected to demonstrate both fluency
and accuracy and employ a wide range of discourse strategies (Whiston, 2012). It is thus possible
for a native speaker of some language to be fluent but lacks proficiency. There is no set standard
of conditions for one to pass proficiency tests in all organizations, but one must at least be able to
construct coherent and grammatically correct sentences to be considered qualified. For instance,
the ACTFL proficiency guidelines framework requires one to pass ten different and distinct
levels of proficiency, categorized as novice, intermediate, advanced and superior, and the first
three subdivided further into three.
My assessment design
This assessment is designed to test the following abilities of the students;
1. Reading abilities
Reading is considered by numerous educators, course book scholars, and dialect test constructors
to be comprised of diverse aptitudes and segments. It is frequently guaranteed that arrangements

ASSESSMENT DESIGN AND DISCUSSION 4
of reading segments give valuable systems on which to base course configuration, educating, and
test advancement. My students have difficulties reading most of the literature given to them
because it is written in a second or third language.
2. Listening abilities
Listening abilities enable one to understand and make sense of what someone else is stating.
Great listening abilities make students more gainful. Because of the diversity of their native
languages, my students often lose focus in day-to-day conversations because they are trying to
grasp a language that is completely foreign to their ears. This is what my assessment will try to
help solve in my students, not every person naturally knows how to listen well, and especially
those that are hearing a language that is not their native
3. Pronunciation
Most of my students have problems pronouncing words in English, especially those that seem to
rhyme in a single sentence. They also confuse the pronunciation of words with same spellings
but different sound intonations. Pronunciation begins to become significant when you start to
realize that you cannot take in a dialect without taking in how words there are pronounced. My
assessment seeks to take care of this in great detail.
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The assessment I intend to perform on my students is set to accomplish some main
purposes. First, it will be designed to check how well the students have learned the English
language and how far they still need to go to achieve the level of proficiency required by the
school. Secondly, it is supposed to help in diagnosing what aspects of the language still present
challenges to the students, and why those specific areas are particularly problematic. The

ASSESSMENT DESIGN AND DISCUSSION 5
students will be required to pass this proficiency test to obtain placement in more advanced
programs organized by the school. Finally, as I had pointed out earlier, this assessment is
supposed to identify the students are qualified to benefit from a school scholarship scheme which
requires the beneficiary first to pass a proficiency test in the English language.
This assessment will be given at three different times in the course. The first test will be
taken at the beginning of the course to find out how well or badly off the students are in English.
This will be helpful in the sense that it will give me easy time planning what I should teach the
students and what they already know. Time is of the essence here, and I speculate that this first
assessment test will help me save a considerable amount of time. In fact, my prediction is that I
will not have a lot of planning to do because the majority of the members of my class are native
speakers of English.
The second test will be taken in the middle of the course. This one will be used to
investigate the progress of the students. It will help determine how much more effort should be
added to their teaching process. It will capture some new elements of language and a few more
from the first assessment, and it will encompass more practical issues. This test will also be
indirectly used to determine if the students are ready for the last test.
The final and most important test will be taken at the end of the course. This one will
serve the primary purpose of testing the language proficiency of the students with reference to
the standards set by the school administration. It will be the qualifier for the scholarship earlier
mentioned and the placement into more advanced programs of the course. Students who will fail
this test will be required to retake the whole assessment course and resit the test by the end of the
following semester before they are allowed to proceed to the next program in their curriculum.

ASSESSMENT DESIGN AND DISCUSSION 6
This test will cover more technical aspects of English and will also recapture some of the things
taught in the first and second assessments.
Assessment questions
ASSESSMENT 1
The assessment will contain questions which will test the basics of English like the
placement of verbs, the simple past and present tense, and the appropriate use of pronouns. The
test will contain only five questions as follows;
1. Fill in the blank spaces with appropriate form of the verb given in brackets
This………………my book. (be)
2. Complete the following sentence with the correct form of the adjective given in
brackets
We have been told to run…………….. (quick)
3. Write the following sentence in the past tense
He is playing football
4. Complete the following sentence using the appropriate preposition from the
choices given in brackets.
He is crying………the toilet. (on, in, over)
5. Rewrite the following sentence in the singular form
We are going to our homes in the Far East.
(i) Identify any four groups of words in the following list that have the same vowel
sounds

ASSESSMENT DESIGN AND DISCUSSION 7
Mud Eat Full Lap
Cut It Mud Bet
Cat Look Feat If
Love Boot Fit
Beat Pool Further
Lit Father Hut
(ii) Give one word which is pronounced the same as the one given in each case
Flower
Blue
Boy
Bear
Tail
(iii) Read the words in each set and underline the odd words out according to the vowel
sounds
(4mks)
(a) Book (b) Lake (c) Beans (d) Pan
Fool Fake Ben Bag
Full Late Deep Pen
Eight Rag
At
(iv) Read the following conversation, filling in the blanks spaces with appropriate
responses
Dida:..................................................is that Keumbu wholesalers?

ASSESSMENT DESIGN AND DISCUSSION 8
Rosy: Sorry, wrong number
Dida: (Tries dialing other numbers but eventually gets right) is that Keumbu
wholesalers?.
Lida:...........................................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................................................
Dida: I want to order maize flour
Lida:
…………………………………………………………………………………………..
Dida: Just a minute
(…………………………………………………………………………)
Ten bales
Lida:
…………………………………………………………………………………………..
Dida: of course! Everybody goes for Pembe
Lila: anything else madam?.
As we can see, the questions above are very simple. They will be testing the basic
communication skills of the students.
ASSESSMENT 2
This assessment test will contain the following questions
1. Fill in the gaps
a. Many pupils are afraid…….snakes.
b. Some of the pupils……….sick.

ASSESSMENT DESIGN AND DISCUSSION 9
c. We are playing……..the big field
2. Write a collective noun for the following list of objects
a. Papers, pencils, books, rubber
b. Mother, father, uncle, cousin, aunt, grandmother, grandfather
3. Read the passage given below and fill the blank spaces with the most
appropriate word you can think. The words you choose must be relevant to the idea
presented by the passage.
………the past, not all…….went….school. ……….is because some money
was……..and many parents…….not pay it. So when the…..were sent back home…….the
money, they……….not go because…….parents……..not…….to pay. Many
children………..learning just……….that.
4. Rearrange the following sentences written randomly to make a sensible
paragraph
i. I washed my face and drank some tea
ii. Lastly, I found my books and walked to school
iii. I jumped out of bed and got dressed
iv. After mother said, “Get up now. It’s time to go to school!”
5. Add an appropriate question tag to the following sentences

ASSESSMENT DESIGN AND DISCUSSION 10
i. You dared drink dirty water, ………………?
ii. Few parents turned up for the meeting………?
6. Complete the sentence below with the correct form of the verb.
(i ) Each of the girls............................................. given a prize.
(ii) Either John or his sons ...................................... coming.
(c) Briefly explain the difference in the following pairs of sentences.
I (i) They collected all the money they wanted.
(ii) They wanted all the money they collected.
II. (i) Four of these students were admitted to the
university, (ii) Those four students were admitted to the
university
(d) For each of the following sentences, provide the appropriate noun formed from the word
'break'
to fill the blank space. (3 marks)
example
The story of the .................................... of prisoners from the maximum security
prison was
carried by all the dailies.
Answer: breakout
(i) Scientists have been working hard to find a cure for HIV-AIDS without
a major……
ASSESSMENT 3

ASSESSMENT DESIGN AND DISCUSSION 11
This assessment test will contain the following questions
1. Supply the most suitable preposition to the following sentences (6
marks)
i) I am indebted………………………him for the help he gave me.
ii) Vaccination gives protection ……infection.
iii) The house was packed….capacity.
2. Replace the underlined words with an appropriate phrasal verb formed from
the word in brackets (4 marks)
i) Heavy rains delayed our visitors for an hour (hold)
ii) The protestors defended what they believed in (stand)
iii) The construction project has really depleted my savings (eat)
iv) The sitting MP bragged about his victory. (Explain the two possible meanings)
3. Use the correct form of the words given in brackets to fill the gap in each of
the following sentences (6 marks).
i) The dog barked …..(menace) at the visitor.
ii) Most of the pupils we come across ……….. (be) lazy.
iii) The power of God is ……….. (compare)
4. Write a composition which portrays the validity of the saying “Charity
begins at home.” Use a maximum of six hundred (600) words, but not less than five
hundred (500). Indicate the word count at the end of your composition. Additional credit
will be given to students who demonstrate high levels of neatness and legibility (20 marks).

ASSESSMENT DESIGN AND DISCUSSION 12
5. Read the following comprehensive passage and answer the questions that
follow in your words. Make your answers as brief but exhaustive as possible.
This is an African story; it is additionally an Asian story and any careless look at the
historical backdrop of China, Vietnam, India, Africa, the West Indies, Afro-America, will see the
declaration in tears and blood. We are really a frontier people whose sweat has been pitilessly
misused by Western syndication funding to fabricate the landmark called western human
advancement. We cried while they ate; our skins cracked up dry in the mines and estates while
they savored water in the comfort of their shady homes. We constructed their urban communities
for them, and ourselves rested in the drain. They scattered all of us over the globe and after that
added additional affront to damage by going to our homes and utilizing prevalent innovation,
itself based on a dark cargo vessel delivered over the middle passage, gunned us out and said our
home belonged to them.
In their books and their schools, were the idyllic and scholarly celebration of our
mortification and corruption. They sang about us as individuals without history and important
qualities. This was drummed into our heads through their written works and schools: Europe was
the core; the whole universe rotated around Europe, the wellspring head of widespread qualities
and human advancement.
Questions (4 marks)
1. In note frame, compose how Africans were misused by the whites.
2. What strategies did the colonialists use to indoctrinate the Africans?
3. Pick any two cases of incongruity from the last passage.
4. They scattered all of us over the globe (Rewrite in the passive).
(b) Fill in the blank spaces using the correct form of the word in brackets. (3mrks)