Use of Digital Tools in English Language Assessment

Use of Digital Tools in English Language Assessment

By Ramji Acharya

MPhil, English Language Education

Kathmandu University School of Education, Hattiban, Lalitpur

Submitted To: Prof. Dr. Tikaram Paudel

©Copyright Reserved

Abstract

The application of Digital Tools in English language assessment is not a new topic in education however the use of Digital Technology in English language assessment is rarely discussed discourse (Acharya, 2015). This study explores the practices of Digital Tools integration in English language assessment in secondary level schools. The study focuses on alternative assessment in English language skills in language teaching and testing which is a more formative assessment. In this paper, I have examined the practices of Digital integrated English language assessment. Based on the primary data obtained from narrative inquiry this paper has attempted to highlight the answer to the question, how teachers are using Digital Tools in English language skills assessment in formative and summative assessment. This study is based on two themes of assessment which are Digital integrated formative assessment and Digital integrated summative assessment for the English language. The paper has found two distinct features of using technology in language assessment. The first one teacher can continue the old-fashioned testing or use technology they only can prepare some traditional testing tools. Second, some teachers are embedding technology in English language teaching and do believe that the testing is also a learning process so it should be interesting and environment friendly, and motivating.

Key Words: Use of Digital Tools, English Language, Assessment

Introduction

After the COVID-19 pandemic, Digital Tools have been major instruments for language teaching and assessment. However, they have been in practice as supporting material in education. The practice of using Digital Tools is not a new thing in academia But the shift from traditional teaching to the online mode of teaching has brought a radical change in the degree of use of Digital Tools in education. The COVID pandemic has broadened the use of Digital Technology in education for teaching and testing. Traditionally the use of computers and Digital Tools was limited to printing the materials and projecting the prepared materials. But the difficult circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemic have pushed the teachers to use the approach of language assessment; computer-aided assessment in education (Tailor, 2006). In this paper, I am trying to examine how teachers are using Digital Tools for English language assessment and identify the best use of Digital Tools in assessing Language skills like Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing.

In this context, this study highlights how teachers are using Digital Tools in English language assessment. The finding of this study will help teachers to adapt the integrated assessment in English language testing at the school level. The major concern of this paper is to identify and give some way out to those teachers who are struggling to prepare a summative assessment as a term examination. This study is believed to reduce the anxiety and tension students and teachers bear during the exam offering alternative ways of English language assessment at the school level.

Role of Digital Tools in English Language Assessment

Alternative assessments stress the importance of examining the process as well as the products of learning (Brandit, 1992). However, integrating Digital Tools for alternative assessment is inevitable in difficult circumstances and makes it easy for teachers to evaluate the continuous progress of the students. In the existing context, fewer practices have been made for alternative assessment. The question about teachers’ skills to use Digital Tools for English language assessment is yet unanswered. The rigorous preparation and exam anxiety for the students is always there in the name of Term Exams. Students also feel tension when there is an exam. In the Nepalese context, the students start preparing for the exam after the routine is published. To overcome such tension, Digital Tools can play significant roles in which we can keep the students’ prolonged activity progress and track it as the grading tools. It can be the best way of mitigating the students’ anxiety due to the paper-pencil test and the rigorous preparation of the teachers.

English language learning in Nepal has been taken as a subject to be taught as a compulsory subject up to a higher level. English is a Language, not just a subject to be taught; however, we can't ignore the English as a foreign language (EFL) context around the world wherein school level English is a compulsory subject. On the other hand, if any concept has a fixed curriculum, it is considered as a subject to be taught. When a subject is taught, there should be a proper evaluation system to measure the learning achievement. The evaluation process can vary and can be made easy or rigid with the use of tools. To make English Language assessment easier and more comfortable, Digital Tools can play significant roles.

Use of Digital Tools in Summative vs Formative

The tools which are designed for a particular assessment cannot be used for all types of assessment; however, these tools can be supplemented to each other. Like Google Forms can be used for objective types of questions, and it requires a higher degree of skill to utilize it for subjective assessment. Guyot (1978) defines summative assessment as the development or improvement of a program or course, whereas summative evaluation involves making judgments about the efficacy of a program or course at its conclusion. As defined, formative assessment is continuous and like a record-keeping process which requires long-term projects, while summative assessment is one-shot and can be done at the conclusion of the program. In formative assessment, using Digital Tools like Google Sites and Blogger, a teacher can keep track of students' progress which reduces the extra effort of the teacher to maintain a physical portfolio. Even it’s very simple to share with schools, teachers, and parents, which reduces the use of paper and helps for environment-friendly education.

Digital Technology and Continuous Assessment

Different concepts like continuous assessment system (CAS) and other ways of alternatives have been implemented and practiced; however, the act resulted in more difficulties and tensions in the teachers. Because of lack of monitoring and teachers' negligence, those wonderful ideas of evaluation couldn't be long-lasting. It was very difficult to implement CAS in Nepal since there were no computers and other technological facilities to conduct CAS in real activity, but now we can see the chance to implement such alternative ways of evaluation in language teaching.

The integration of Digital Tools in alternative assessment definitely results in positive outcomes as it saves time and some sort of automation can help teachers to reduce their effort so that they don't feel overloaded in doing the alternative assessments. Students have some sort of fear with the exam and create a lot of tension in the language learning process.

There are multiple theories for continuous assessment and other types of options (Dikli, 2003) but they seem to be failures as teachers are not trained as per the need or they feel bored to do so. On the other hand, the concerned authority like the government of Nepal has given some portion of the score for the practical task. However, the teachers are found to provide numbers as bonus points for the students. In this situation, alternative assessment can be the best way to give students relief from the exam tension and for the teachers as well, as they do not have to work hard if they utilize available Digital Tools. The effects of utilizing the alternative assessment provide more opportunities for both teachers and students (Manib, 2020). While targeting the students may not give more attention to the language's soft skills. There are various ways to evaluate students' understanding of Language skills using Digital and other tools, however, the skill test has been limited to pen and paper.

E-portfolio (Google Site) for CAS

An electronic portfolio (e-portfolio) is a purposeful collection of sample student work, demonstrations, and artefacts that showcase students’ learning progression, achievement, and evidence of what students can do. The collection can include essays and papers (text-based), blogs, multimedia (recordings of demonstrations, interviews, presentations, etc.), and graphics.

E-portfolio is uniquely suited for 21st-century learning, an age when learning takes place anywhere and anytime, both inside and outside formal education (Jenson & Treuer, 2014) and has been used to facilitate, document, and archive student learning. It is a learning tool for students to clarify their educational goals, integrate and solidify learning through reflection, and showcase achievements to potential employers. As Paulson and Paulson (1991) said, “portfolio is a laboratory where students construct meaning from their accumulated experience” (p. 5).

Google provides a wide range of tools for education. Among all workspace tools for education, the Google Site is one of the most useful tools for keeping records of students’ records. It is easy to use and can be accessed by all stakeholders, like class teachers, subject teachers, school principals, and parents. The transparent use of Google Sites for e-portfolios gives students positive motivation to maintain their progress. The recorded portfolio can be used for the purpose of continuous assessment. If it is maintained properly, it gives the flexibility to improve the performance of the students and teachers as well.

Methodology

As the paper is based on my personal experience, observation in my own work environment, and interaction with other English language teachers who had faced the difficult situation to evaluate students during the COVID situation; this paper is qualitative in nature (Silverman, 2020). Based on teachers’ experience and primary data collected from semi-structured interviews, this paper has attempted to examine how teachers are using Digital Tools for English language assessment. Gray (2004) claims that interpretivism deals with social actions and therefore its focus is on the actions of people. The interpretive model has a principle that human beings have their own actions, experiences, and reality. They then make sense of that reality by attaching meaning to it.

1. Research Design: Narrative inquiry and qualitative interpretation.
2. Participants: Hari (Pseudo name, Government school in Syanja) and Sunita (Pseudo name, Lalitpur, Secondary level).
3. Data Collection: Semi-structured interviews, virtual and real discussions.
4. Analysis: Thematic analysis of summative and formative Digital integration.

To take the interview I made a phone call to re-establish my relation with my friends. I did not talk about my work on the first call. I continued chatting on Facebook messenger with Hari. Similarly, I started talking about the use of Digital Technology in my workstation as well which made it easy to build a good relationship with other English teachers in my organization. I explained my research task to both the participants similarly. I started with an informal talk and asked for permission to record the session. Before recording, I assured them about the confidentiality and the anonymity of the data obtained for the particular research task.

Thematic Discussion Based on Finding

Integration of Digital Tools in Summative Assessment of English

I have the experience of testing the language learning achievement of the students by using blackboard and white chalk. As a student, I have participated in such assessments and as a teacher, in my early teaching career, I had done the same. This practice still exists in the rural part of Nepal. The use of technology in test tools preparation is common around the academic world. The technological shift in education (Rogers, 2000) has brought a great paradigm shift in technology integration in English language teaching and testing.

The gap between theory and practice has been found as a genuine issue to be investigated. While talking about Digital integration in language assessment is good to listen to, however, in many of the situations at the school level and classroom practice, the expected change has not been seen.

Teacher Experience: Hari (Rural Context)

Typing questions and printing using some machine is only the use of technology in the summative assessment. Hari argued that he is the only digitally literate person in school to type question paper, print, and make it ready for the examination. Playing audio and video during the listening tests is one minor use of technology in testing. The tools are changed but the activity of testing language skills is the same as 20 years back? Hari added further regarding the use of technology that students use calculators in some exams but it is not applicable in language testing.

Teacher Experience: Sunita (Urban/App-Based Context)

Sunita explains the use of applications in language testing. Students' self-assessment of language skills using a mobile app called ELSA. During the assessment of the English language test, Sunita designed Google Forms for reading and writing tests including varieties of questions like matching words, filling in the blanks, true/false, short questions, long questions, and explaining pictures. Her techniques of embedding video for the listening test were amazing.

Integration of Digital Tools in Formative assessment of English Language

Formative assessment is defined as continuous engagement of the students in action and the regular update of learning comprehension (Bennett, 2011). The regular assessment of students can be taken as the formative assessment as it continuously supports students' learning and tracks the record of the students' progress.

Regarding the formative assessment, my first participant explains that the use of Digital Tools is comparatively more than the summative assessment. During the class activity, Hari uses the mobile and laptop for the purpose of searching vocabulary. According to him, playing audio/video and projecting the prepared file on the projector is quite common. However, he denied the practice of using Digital Tools in testing students' learning achievement due to internet access and device issues in rural areas.

On the other hand, Sunita explained that she has been doing so quite often. She felt easy to test students using tools like Google Forms, Padlet, Google Slides, and other Digital Tools. She has been maintaining a blended class as she uses Google Classroom as an asynchronous tool for language testing. In her view, ‘testing is not only done for the grade, it is also a part of learning so we need to make a happy learning environment.’

Conclusion

The distinction I found between teachers teaching in rural areas and teachers teaching in urban areas is very complex to define. The technological shift in the rural areas is comparatively lower than in the urban areas. The use of technology in schools inside the valley or city area where we can find easy access to the internet and Digital Tools is well-practiced in teaching and testing. I personally believe that there are challenges to implementing technology in language testing. However, there are some possible ways to utilize available technology like mobile phones to test students’ pronunciation, listening, critical thinking, and other various skills. Teachers are well trained and can use them if the tools are available, but the situation of the schools and students’ background can be affecting factors for teachers to use Digital Tools in English language testing.

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