Tímarit um menntarannsóknir - 01.01.2009, Page 121

Tímarit um menntarannsóknir - 01.01.2009, Page 121
119 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
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