Innovative Methods for Assessing Students’ Performance in the ESP Classroom

Abstract

Learning is usually assessed through performance, i.e. what students can do with the acquiredknowledge and skills. In its turn, assessment (formal or informal, high- or low-stakes, anonymousor public, individual or collective) is an integral part of the teaching and learning process. Studentperformance is assessed in accordance with the program standards and practices, the overalllearning outcomes and the subject-specific overall expectations. This paper aims at presenting andanalyzing assessment as part of the teaching and learning process and at illustrating severalefficient assessment methods. The first part tackles several issues related to the learning processand to how assessment is an integrating part of it. Furthermore, it analyzes and particularizesassessment, with a special focus on assessment methods. The second part of the paper has anapplicative nature and consists of a case study based on the comparison between assessmentmethods (traditional vs. innovative ones).

Keywords

• assessment
• performance
• ESP
• learning
• experiment