Innovative Alternatives To Language Assessment In EAL Classrooms

In any course you teach at any level, from K–12 to graduate studies, one common way to check learning is through quizzes, tests, or exams. These are examples of psychometric tools, which simply means they’re designed to measure knowledge and skills in a structured way. Psychometric tools are guided by the scientific principles of psychological measurement to document what students have learned by the end of a lesson or unit. These tools rely on memory and recall methods, asking students to show what they know during a timed assessment.

Here two concepts are relevant to student learning:

• • Declarative knowledge (or the what) is explicitly knowing what was learned by remembering it.
  • Procedural knowledge (or the how) is putting in action what was learned.

So, declarative knowledge is like knowing the details of driving a car, and procedural knowledge is using that knowledge to actually drive a car on a road in everyday traffic conditions.

In English as an additional language (EAL) teaching and learning, students develop their proficiency in several areas. Because the ultimate purpose is that students effectively use their language skills in real-life communication situations, language assessment should also reflect students’ procedural knowledge—or language ability in everyday communication. For this objective, we need to think about assessment through a different lens!

Understanding Alternatives

Although people may define it differently, we use the term “alternative” assessment in contrast to traditional assessment, which usually relies on psychometric tools like exams and tests. Traditional assessments can take many forms, but they often emphasize rote learning and may not support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

To assess students’ learning, alternative assessment provides a different approach from traditional assessment to capture a fuller picture of students’ language abilities. Instead of only checking what learners memorize and recall (declarative knowledge), it assesses how they apply their language skills in tasks that mirror genuine communication. These tasks also provide opportunities for learning, too, making them a form of formative assessment. Though alternative assessment is not the same as authentic language use, it should come as close to it as possible.

Guidelines for Alternative Assessment

Make use of the following basic guidelines to help with planning and designing alternative assessment that is trustworthy (i.e., valid and reliable):

• • Coverage: Assessment tasks should include both declarative and procedural knowledge by using content and skills related to a specific construct.
  • Design: In designing tasks, consider students’ interests (and possibly preferences), their DEI needs, and opportunities to incorporate the use of AI relevant to assessment constructs.
  • Criteria: Assessments should include clear rubrics/criteria that students know in advance and can understand.
  • Feedback: Assessment should include educators’ feedback or commentary (ideally, both written and oral), and some form of self- and peer-evaluative feedback.
  • Complement: Alternative assessment can be used in combination with traditional examinations or quizzes, and both types of assessment don’t need to be mutually exclusive.

Practical Alternatives

In EAL teaching, alternative assessments can bring three major instructional benefits: student-centered assessment, representation of real-world situations, and autonomous learning opportunities. Following are six common alternative assessment categories, taken from Lessons from Good Language Teachers, that  you can adapt to meet your needs:

1. 1. Conference assessments: Students meet one-on-one with the teacher to talk about a specific assignment or piece of work.
   2. Observational assessments: The teacher watches students as they work or perform and uses a checklist or notes to track strengths and areas for support.
   3. Portfolio assessments: A curated collection of student work that shows growth and learning progress over time. (See below for more on portfolios.)
   4. Self- and peer-assessments: Students reflect on their own work or give feedback on classmates’ work, often using a checklist or simple rubric.
   5. Task-based and performance assessments: Students complete tasks in the target language, and their performance is evaluated based on specific criteria.
   6. Dynamic assessments: Measures not only what students can do now but also their potential to improve with guidance or support.

Of all these alternative assessment options, L2 portfolios have been a time-tested, robust, and scalable tool over the last several decades. Portfolios have remarkable potential for being comprehensive, learning-oriented, and trustworthy assessment. For more on portfolios, read the article “Revisiting second language portfolio assessment in a new age” (Abrar-ul-Hassan, Douglas, & Turner; 2021). This article provides an analytical review of portfolio assessment in L2 teaching.

For more on alternative assessments in general, including 36 possible alternatives, including examples and rubrics, read the practical resource: A Guide to Alternative Assessments (Elkhoury, n.d.).

Proceeding With Alternatives

Three key aspects are worth consideration if you plan to utilize alternative assessment in your teaching practice.

First, alternative assessments should cover a wider range of skills related to language use in real-life communication and should offer many options to assess students’ learning.

Second, as we now have more awareness and focus on DEI policies, alternative assessment provides both opportunities as well as tools to implement these polices in practice. For example, alternative assessment practices allow us to assess in light of students’ own interests, language and cultural backgrounds, and current level of ability.

Third, in this age of GenAI, assessment practices need to respond to this new reality and, in fact, incorporate its use through creative and adaptive assessment tools.

Alternative assessment creates opportunities to innovate your assessment practices and utilize emerging technologies. For educators aiming to move beyond rote memorization and test anxiety, alternative assessment offers a learner-centred and innovative path to assessment and learning.