| Authentication |
Ensuring that work produced by students is their own work and not the result of memorisation of others' words or plagiarism. |
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| Authenticity |
The degree to which assessment materials and assessment conditions succeed in replicating those in the target use situation. |
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| Autobiography |
An account of a person's life written, composed or produced by that person. |
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| Biography |
An account of a person's life written, composed, or produced by another. |
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| Collaboration |
To work together, to cooperate. |
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| Context |
The part of a text or statement that surrounds a particular word or passage and determines its meaning. |
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| Criteria (singular = criterion) |
Guidelines, descriptions, or principles by which student responses, products, or performances are judged. When we assess language, the criteria are the key aspects of language that matter in the assessment. |
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| Criteria-based assessment |
The assessment of a student's achievements in relation to specified criteria. |
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| Critical |
Characterised by careful, exact evaluation and judgment; used nowadays to emphasize the exploratory and socially-aware nature of a form of enquiry (e.g. critical reflection). |
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| Descriptors |
Statements that describe the performance expected at each level of each domain on the Assessment Criteria. |
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| Domain |
In assessment, this refers to an area of knowledge or skill or the set of tasks about which we want to know more, and which is therefore the target of the assessment, e.g. pronunciation, or grammar. |
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| Extensive reading |
Reading or viewing a large number of print and non-print texts (fiction and non-fiction) with a wide range of topics and formats at the reader's reading level and interest. |
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| Feedback |
Giving information to a learner about how they have performed on a task, process or activity; a response that is evaluative and formative. |
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| Formative |
Assisting in formation, growth or development; in this case, the development of a student's oral language abilities; the gathering of information about students and their language learning needs while they are still learning. |
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| Interaction |
Mutual or reciprocal action or influence – in language, this refers to conversational exchanges with exchange of ideas and information. |
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| Moderation |
A system of quality control to ensure that assessments given by schools meet minimum standards and are comparable across a school system. |
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| Outcomes-based education |
Education specified not in terms of input, but in terms of specific knowledge, skills, processes and attitudes to be achieved. |
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| Peer assessment |
Assessment of a student's work, products, or learning processes by classmates; usually used in conjunction with peer feedback. |
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| Performance assessment |
Performance assessments require students to perform a task, construct a response, create a product, or demonstrate ability in a context where they are doing something realistic. |
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| Reliability |
The degree to which an assessment yields consistent results. |
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| Scale (rating scale) |
A rational sequence of descriptors of typical performances in terms of their quality, used by assessors in assessing performances, such as giving a presentation; writing a letter; etc. |
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| Self assessment |
Appraisal by a student of his or her own work or learning processes. |
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| Standardisation |
A process of comparing and reviewing interpretations of assessment criteria and scoring processes to ensure the same standards are being applied across students and schools. |
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| Summative |
More formal planned assessments at the end of a unit or term/year which are used primarily to evaluate student progress and/or grade students. |
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| Task |
An activity usually requiring multiple responses to a situation, question or problem. |
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| Task-type |
The kind of activity, e.g. comparing two characters, recounting a story, describing a scene, promoting a book. |
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| Text |
A spoken or written piece of meaningful language; a book or film. |
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| Text-type |
The type of oral text, for example, group interaction or individual presentation. |
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| Validity |
Refers to whether or not an assessment is an adequate measure of what is being assessed, in this case oral language. |
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| Washback (also backwash) |
The effect of an assessment on the teaching and learning leading up to it (and following on from it). |
