6 Assessing productive and interactive skills Personal refl ection

 
Assessing productive and interactive skills 
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on the completion of the given task – did the assessee accomplish 
what was required? In Example 6.1, if the assessee obtained a good 
price and successfully placed the order, she would pass the test, even 
if her language ability seemed poor. In contrast, in the weaker sense 
of performance assessment, the task is a really a pretext for eliciting 
an extended sample of spoken or written language. Rating focuses 
more on the language used than on fulfi lment of the task. In the 
example, the assessee who called uncooperative suppliers and failed 
to negotiate a price within her budget might, because she demonstrated 
superior language abilities, outscore other assessees who obtained a 
lower price.
The choice between stronger and weaker approaches to rating 
performance should take into account the assessees, the purpose of the 
test and its relationship to the real life situation the test is intended to 
refl ect. Consider the essay assignment in Example 6.2 comparing and 
contrasting the work of two writers.