Tímarit um menntarannsóknir - 01.01.2009, Side 121

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Tímarit um menntarannsóknir, 6. árgangur 2009
Breytingar á uppeldissýn í leikskóla
being met. Teaching and assessment should
be closely linked. Assessment in language
teaching should include all four skills and
reflect the types of activities and topics covered
in the instruction. The curriculum guide
recommends a variety of assessment methods
and emphasizes that assessment should be a
continuous process and not reserved for the
end of term. Teachers should encourage pupils
to reflect on their own learning and gradually
teach them to use peer and self-assessment.
The curriculum guide suggests that teachers
use the European Language Portfolio to
support pupils in learning how to self-assess
and become autonomous learners (European
Language Portfolio, Icelandic version, 2006).
The National Curriculum Guide explicitly
states that formal assessment methods (written
tests) are not appropriate for beginning learners
of English in grades 4 and 5. In addition, since
school-leaving exams (samræmd lokapróf)
only assess some of the language learning
objectives, school assessment should complete
the assessment picture. This is particularly in
regard to assessment of oral and communicative
skills (Menntamálaráðuneytið, 2007).
Auður Torfadóttir (2005) questions how
well assessment methods practiced in English
teaching in compulsory schools in Iceland
are in line with the recommendations of the
National Curriculum Guide. She points out
that teachers and schools seem to be trapped in
a tradition of testing which focuses primarily
on the written word. This is neither consistent
with the communicative nature and purposes
of languages; nor is it in step with current ideas
about language teaching and learning which
focus on communicative skills, active learning
and learner autonomy. These ideas are closely
linked to the Common European Framework
of Reference for Languages (2001), which
was used for reference in the revision of the
2007 National Curriculum Guide for foreign
languages (Menntamálaráðuneytið, 2007).
This framework outlines and describes a
range of language competences which focuses
on what language learners are capable of
doing in the language (it includes a set of
“can do” statements). It allows for more
reliable and efficient assessment of language
learning between countries and has furthered
the development of language teaching and
assessment methods. The European Language
Portfolio (ELP) is another outcome of this
research and development process. Both the
framework and the ELP are designed to help
schools and teachers to change their language
teaching and assessment methods with learner
responsibility and autonomy in mind.
Many theorists and practitioners in Iceland
question the reliability and validity of school
assessment practices and more research is
needed in the field. In one of the few recent
studies which have looked at school assessment
practices in Iceland, Erna I. Pálsdóttir (2007)
found that school policy at the compulsory
level is ambiguous in terms of assessment.
Assessment methods and areas of focus differ
between subjects and levels, written tests are
predominant, and the school-leaving exams
influence classroom assessment. Guðfinna
Gunnarsdóttir (2005) found similar results
in a study among English teachers in ten
compulsory schools in southwest Iceland. Her
findings suggest that English teaching and
assessment in grade 10 are heavily influenced
by the school-leaving exam, replicating the
results of the study by Rúnar Sigþórsson (2008)
and two additional studies of grade 10 teachers,
the study by Helga Sigurjónsdóttir (2006)
previously referred to and another by Auður
Torfadóttir (1999). In those two studies, only
a small minority of the teachers included oral
assessment as part of pupils’ overall English
assessment. It seems that oral assessment is
widely neglected even though the National
Curriculum Guide explicitly states that schools
should assess pupils’ oral skills. This is to
compensate for the lack of an oral component
in the English school-leaving exam.
This lack of adherence to the
recommendations of the National Curriculum
Guide was also evidenced in the study by
Guðfinna Gunnarsdóttir (2005). Her findings