Task and Performance Based Assessment
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TASK AND PERFORMANCE BASED ASSESSMENT
INTRODUCTION
A performance test is “a test in which the ability of candidates to perform particular tasks, usually associated with job or study requirements, is assessed” (Davies et al., 1999, p. 144). In the assessment of second languages, tasks are designed to measure learners’ productive language skills through performances which allow candidates to demonstrate the kinds of language skills that may be required in a real world context. For example, a test candidate whose language is being evaluated for the purposes of entry into an English-speaking university or college might be asked to write a short academic essay, or an overseas-qualified doctor might participate in a job-specific role play with a ‘patient’ interviewer. These kinds of assessments are increasingly used in specific workplace language evaluations, and in educational contexts to evaluate language gains during a period of teaching. The relationship between task and performance testing is a complex one. In the context of language testing and assessment, performance assessment has become increasingly important over the last two decades, and has been the focus of substantial empirical investigation. Performance based assessments can be more or less specific in terms of the language skills they are designed to assess. Tests such as the IELTS or TOEFL tests are large-scale, high-stakes tests that are designed to evaluate largely academic language skills, while others have proven valuable tools for assessing candidate performance in specific vocational contexts (for example, the Occupational English Test which is used for assessing the language skills of overseas-trained medical professionals prior to accreditation in Australia). The role of tasks in performance based assessments has recently attracted considerable attention, both from theoretical and practical perspectives. Generally, there is little agreement about where ‘task-based language assessment’ sits in relation to language testing more generally; Bachman (2002) uses the term ‘task-based language performance tests’ (TBLPA); while others (e.g., Mislevy, Steinberg and Almond, 2002; Norris, 2002) refer more generally to task-based language assessment, or TBLA. However, Brown, Hudson, Norris and Bonk (2002) define task-based language testing as a subset of performance based language testing, clearly distinguishing
E. Shohamy and N. H. Hornberger (eds), Encyclopedia of Language and Education, 2nd Edition, Volume 7: Language Testing and Assessment, 111–122. #2008 Springer Science+Business Media LLC.
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G I L L I A N W I G G L E S W O RT H
between performance based testings, in which tasks are merely vehicles for eliciting language samples for rating, and task-based performance assessments in which tasks are used to elicit language to reflect the kind of real world activities learners will be expected to perform, and in which the focus is on interpreting the learners’ abilities to use language to perform such tasks in the real world. E A R LY D E V E L O P M E N
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