Feedback through Assessment

 Feedback is a vital part of teaching. Feedback tells teachers how well the teacher has taught and it also tells student how well they have learned a concept or some concepts.

To get data for providing accurate feedback assessment is the most reliable tool. Assessment is something which should be made as scientific as possible by constructing meaningful and ready to use tests.

It is here we are lacking in Pakistan when it comes to teaching of English language. This is one of the main reasons that students in most of our public-run schools find English something obnoxious

Again, this is one of the mean reasons that we still have debate whether or not we should use English as a mainstream language in our education system.

English has been important since the time Pakistan became independent, yet we have debates regarding its usefulness and utility. So, again and again, there are demands of replacing it altogether with Urdu.

However, if English is still the most important language in our education system, it shows that there are strong reasons for not stripping English of its status as the mainstream language.

Yet there is serious need to teach in more rigorous way. I mean students should have more interactivity with language in the classroom. Especially, at high school and college levels students should be involved in more and frequent analyses of language.

There are many who say that grammar is not as important as vocabulary and meanings. As a result, there are teachers who do not care for grammar when they are teaching English language. According to them teaching grammar does not yield any good results and students who are taught grammar do not show any significant better skill level when it comes to using of language in real life situation.

I personally do not go along with this idea. I have been teaching English for over twenty years. I believe rigorous teaching of grammar yields very good results. It is truer in the case of learners who come from middle or lower classes of society.

Why? 

Because students from these classes are always at some disadvantage as they have less exposure with English language—their only exposure being English in their classrooms and English textbooks which they study as their course work.

If this kind of students is given all the grammar rules which govern construction of language, they find themselves more engaged with the language. Consequently, they learn better, and with the passage of time, their language reaches new higher levels.

Our experiences are very much important. Good experiences make us interested in things we are learning and bad experiences make us uninterested. When a student is exposed to language, he undergoes an experience. This experience should be good. Otherwise, the student will start feeling uninterested, and once this has happened, a lot will be damaged irreparably. 

What does it mean?

It means that when a student is being exposed to English language in a class, all his personal needs of learning should be taken care of and all instructions should be tailored to cater his needs. Data where a student stands before he enters a new English language class should be available and weak and strong skill areas highlighted. Then, whatever he is being taught should be looked through tests and assessments.

Takeaways

Here I am giving four tests. They can be used after you have taught your students concepts regarding nouns. But, before you give these tests to students, you should teach about nouns thoroughly and exhaustively because if students find tests intimidating, they are drawn away from teaching which sometimes results long time aversion for the subject being taught. It is truer when we teach English as a lot of students start studying English with a mindset that English is a difficult discipline to learn—parents and grown-ups who have suffered because of English are not few in our country.

 Worksheets