The assessment of a foreign language at the end of primary (elementary) education

Abstract

The National Assessment Programme in Education (PPON) measures the level of performance on school subjects at the end of Dutch primary (elementary) education. Two assessments, in 1991 and 1996, of English as a foreign language have been conducted. This article reports on the outcomes of both assessments with regard to listening, reading and word knowledge. There is a slight decrease in pupils’ performances when the outcomes of the 1996 assessment are compared to the 1991 assessment. Large differences in performance exist between pupils from higher and lower social levels. Boys outperform girls. Time emerges as a rather stable and significant variable in foreign language teaching and learning. The assessments have provided important insights into the possibilities and limitations of foreign language teaching and learning.

Assessing young learners’ foreign language abilities

“…From a summative perspective, early YL assessment studies used data obtained in the context of national assessments that were administered at the end of primary education in various countries (e.g., Edelenbos & Vinjé, 2000; Johnstone, 2000; Zangl, 2000). For example, Edelenbos and Vinjé (2000) analyzed data collected in a National Assessment Programme in Education that aimed at measuring YLs’ achievements in English as a foreign language (EFL) at the end of their primary education in the Netherlands. Assessments were administered in paper-and-pencil format (listening, reading, receptive word knowledge, use of a bilingual wordlist) and in individual face-to-face sessions with an interlocutor.…”

“…The latter included a focus on speaking elicited through a discussion with English-speaking partners, pronunciation gauged by means of reading aloud sentences, and productive word knowledge tested by providing students with pictures that they had to label or describe. Edelenbos and Vinjé (2000) found that overall students performed well in listening, but not in reading. In particular for reading, they noted better outcomes if teachers used a communicative approach instead of a grammar-oriented one, while the latter approach tended to result in higher scores in word knowledge.…”

“…Similar to Edelenbos and Vinjé (2000), Johnstone (2000) described efforts with regard to the assessment of YLs’ French as an FL attainments in primary schools in Scotland. He emphasized diversity and variability in teaching contexts as the main challenge in the assessment of YLs’ proficiency.…”

“…That is, the construct definition of what was assessed varied widely across contexts and included to various degrees the four macro-skills as well as different components of the language system such as lexis/semantics, grammar, pragmatics, intonation, cohesion and/or pronunciation (see Table 3 for an overview)—features that are strongly reminiscent of constructs proposed in the context of adult L2 learning and assessment. Additionally, many assessments used at this early stage were still based on rather traditional, paper-and-pencil formats such as multiple-choice items (Edelenbos & Vinjé, 2000).…”

Understanding teachers as agents of assessment

“…For example, Edelenbos and Vinje (2000) have monitored the English performance levels of Dutch primary school children; two of the variables analysed were time spent on learning English and their teachers' pedagogical orientation. A programme of ongoing classroom research, and a content analysis derived from extended observations of primary foreign language classrooms (e.g.…”