Looking into the authentic assessment practice in the ESL classroom

Abstract

This study investigates the implementation of authentic assessment from a qualitative approach by observing and interviewing a teacher who are applying the assessment. The procedures by Frey, Smith and Allen (2012) were the foundation for the authentic assessment implementation, and an interview was done to reveal the teacher attitude on the use of authentic assessment. Based on the observation on her evaluation during the teaching process in a listening class, she did not implement one procedure in the assessment, which was disallowing learners to do the next step before being able to finish the task with the correct procedure and the good result. From the interview, she informed that she did not apply this procedure because she believed that the students with low achievement should be assisted in different session after the teaching learning process. It needs to be done to accelerate the accomplishment of the curriculum goal. Furthermore, it was also found that she was not designing the tasks instead she was applying the activities planned in the textbook. She informed that the tasks in the textbook were suitable and categorized as ‘authentic’ to use in the classroom.