Teach English in Pailou Zhen - Jingmen Shi

Testing and evaluating a class is an extremely important aspect of teaching. It gives the teacher the opportunity to examine each student’s progress and decide how to best help them to continue to move forward. In addition to this, it allows students to receive feedback on their own progress, which can boost student’s self-confidence and motivation. This paper will firstly examine the different methods a teacher can use to effectively evaluate the class’s progress and levels of understanding, as well as provide constructive feedback to the class so that students can progress and improve their skills. In addition to this, it will go over the various types of tests that can be implemented throughout the course, which can also help the teacher to evaluate their class’s levels. Secondly, this paper will go on to address how the teacher can prepare students for the most common external exams they will have to take, and what the exams should generally entail. To continue, there multiple methods a teacher can use to evaluate a student’s progress. These include Tutorials, Evaluation by the students themselves, and Tests. Firstly, making use of tutorials can be an effective evaluation method. This method can be used on both the whole class as a group, but also on an individual level. This allows the teacher to review the covered content and provide the students with feedback and evaluations. Secondly, allowing students to give an evaluation of the class can be constructive not only to the students but to the teacher. Student’s may voice their concerns on aspects of the course they feel could be improved, whilst also talking about aspects of the course they find to be particularly useful. Finally, another method used to evaluate a student’s progress is Testing. Furthermore, there are generally four types of tests that should be used; Placement Tests, Diagnostic Tests, Progress Tests, and Practice Tests. Firstly, the teacher makes use of Placement Tests to evaluate a new student’s language level in order to decide what level class they should be placed in, and whether they can communicate and participate at the level that their peers generally use. The questions in a Placement Test generally start by being straightforward, and get progressively harder so that teachers can properly evaluate student’s levels. Secondly, Diagnostic Tests can also be useful. Similar to Placement Tests, they are given at the start of the course to evaluate student’s levels and what can be put into the test to help them focus on areas of weakness. Thirdly, Progress Tests are an extremely important part of evaluating students. They generally include a balance of writing, reading, speaking, and listening, and may also include grammar and vocabulary that has already been learnt in the course. Finally, students will need to take External Examinations for their grades. This is why teachers make use of Practice Tests that follow the same structure of the Examinations that students will have to take. The three most common External Examination’s that English students may have to take are the General External Examinations, Cambridge Assessment, and Trinity College London’s Assessments. Firstly, the General External Examinations generally consist of the TOEFL, IELTS, and TOEIC. The TOEFL exam (Test of English as a Foreign Language) is and American examination that is used by universities to test students who have English as a foreign language’s level. The IELTS exam (International English Language Testing System) is the British English examination. People who want to study or work in an English speaking country or city use it, and employers and universities alike recognise it. Finally, the TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) is an exam given to non-English speakers to assess their ability to use English in a work environment. To continue, the next common form of examinations students may take is the Cambridge Assessment. There are a number of progressing levels of the Cambridge Examinations starting with KET (Key English Test), which tests student’s basic spoken and written English, all the way to the CPE (Certificate of Proficiency in English), which is an advanced English level exam. Finally, the last common form of External Examinations is Trinity College of London’s ESOL Skills For Life. This examination is designed to test students on their English levels in day-to-day, and workplace conversation. Conclusively, Evaluating and Testing are key aspects of teaching English. In order to keep students properly motivated, it is important to be able to update them on their progress to make them feel good about themselves, but also provide constructive criticism to let them know where and how they can improve, so that they can efficiently learn English as a new language. In addition to this, evaluation and testing can also help the teacher in finding new methods and ideas to teach the students more effectively, depending on how they perform on tests and give feedback about the course.