One
way to bring Bachman and Palmer’s conceptualization of language use and
language ability into clearer focus for writing assessment is to introduce the
notion of performance assessment. The term performance assessment is used to
describe any assessment procedure that involves either the observation of
behavior in the real world or a simulation of a real life activity. Performance
assessments thus differ from traditional paper and pencils test in the degree
to which they represent or simulate behavior in the real world. In this sense,
any writing test that involves actual writing as opposed to completing
multiple-choice items, for example can be considered a performance test since
the written product represents a performance of writing.
McNamara (1996) provides a useful distinction between a strong
sense and a weak sense of performance assessment in language testing. In the
strong sense of the term, the focus of a performance assessment is on the
successful completion of a given task that requires language use and not on the
language use itself.
In a performance test in the strong sense of the term,
language ability, and more specifically, language knowledge, in Bachman and
Palmer’s terms, may be only partly responsible for successful task completion,
and extra-linguistic factors may compensate for weaknesses in language
knowledge.
In the weak sense of performance assessment, on the other
hand, the focus of the assessment is on the language used, not on the
fulfillment of the task. Tasks used to elicit language may resemble real-world
writing tasks, but the purpose is to display language proficiency, not the
ability to persuade or apologize. In other words, the readers who score the
writing are interested more in the linguistics aspects of the writing are
interested more in the linguistics aspects of the writing than in whether they
feel persuaded or ready to forgive the writer.
Source:
Weigle, Sara Cushing. (2012). Assessing
Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar