Correlation or Co-determination: An Analysis of Alternative and Traditional Testing Employed in English Language Teaching

Year 2019, Volume: 7 Issue: 1, 395 - 410, 30.03.2019

Seda Aydan

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the correlation between alternative and traditional testing
utilized in English language teaching classes and to investigate students’ perceptions on these two
methods. As several problems related to traditional testing have been pointed out, alternative
assessment has started to be favored by teachers and learners. Portfolios are now being commonly
used to assess English language skills of students as a replacement to tests. This study has been
inspired from the need to see to what extent these two methods correlate. For this purpose, final
grades and portfolio grades of students in a private university English preparation school in Ankara
have been used and their Pearson Correlation Coefficient has been calculated. The results show that
portfolio grades and final grades positively correlate which may indicate that they both serve to test
the similar skills despite the differences in their design and implementation. In order to learn the
students’ opinions on these methods, 10 students have been interviewed and 7 students reported that
they preferred portfolios rather than tests due to various reasons such as portfolios’ allowing more
space for feedback, not measuring performance at one time only and being less threatening for them.
Also, the high positive correlation between these methods and students’ support for alternative
methods signaled the need for more integration of alternative assessment. Thus, the results of this
study can be useful in designing and making decisions on assessment types.

Keywords

Alternative assessment, correlation between testing methods, students’ perceptions on testing methods.

Correlation or Co-determination: An Analysis of Alternative and Traditional Testing Employed in English Language Teaching

Abstract

Keywords

Alternative assessment, correlation between testing methods, students’ perceptions on testing methods.

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