5 Summary

Assessment is important for teachers and students. It helps teachers to see a student’s progress and weaknesses, and can help them to see how they can support and help individual students’ progress with their learning. Assessment also helps students to understand their strengths and weaknesses, and know what to focus on to improve.

Assessment need not consist of tests and exams at the end of a term or school year. It can take place during the school year as part of regular classroom teaching, and you can assess regular lessons and exercises from the textbook, speaking activities and written work.

As you observe and grade regular classroom activities, as well as keeping records of grades and comments in a diary, you will begin to get an understanding of the progress of every student in your class. Sharing this with your students will help them understand what they need to do to improve. Your observations will also help you see how you can modify your teaching in order to develop your students’ skills and support their language learning.

If you would like to read more about assessing language learning, see the additional resources section.