![]() Vol. VIII No. 1 October 1995
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One type of adaptation that the classroom teacher may have to make
relates to the language to be evaluated in the item. The oral language
tasks that learners are required to perform in any given item should
correspond to their abilities. Modifying the tâches langagières
is the best way to ensure that you are evaluating an oral skill to which
students have had exposure. An item could follow the same theme and
communicative situation as a MOCAP item but modifications could be made
to the communication tasks in order to better suit specific learners.
Teachers may also need to create items related to other themes. In
this case the teacher first chooses an appropriate MOCAP technique which
will serve as a model to guide the creation of a new item. Situations
de communication should be the starting point once the theme or field
of experience has been determined. A teacher does not necessarily have
to create student sheets and teacher sheets. For example, if they chose
jeu de rôle they could simply write the situation on a flip chart
or on the board. Because the only change to make to the evaluation sheet
is that of the tâches de langagières, teachers could make
up several blank evaluation sheets and insert this information according
to the assessment activity. Sometimes a teacher may only want to verify
students' performance on one or two tasks. The spaces for commentary
allow the teacher to assess, in a descriptive way, other sorts of language
ability such as intonation, a specific point of grammar or vocabulary
usage. The most effective way to use MOCAP-type items is to try not
to evaluate too many tasks at one time.
Teachers may also wish to add more items to a given theme. This can
be done by choosing the most appropriate technique for the task and
creating a new situation de communication relating to a MOCAP theme.
It is important to remember that MOCAP serves as a prototype by which
teachers can gradually add to their repertoire of oral assessment tools.
Ideas from: Thorogood, J. (1992). Pathfinder 13. Continuous
assessment and recording. London: Centre for Information on Language
Teaching and Research.
Other helpful hints from MOCAP users:
* If you would like to obtain a copy of MOCAP, teachers in the Maritimes
should contact their district FSL or immersion coordinator or the Department
of Education. For those teachers interested in MOCAP outside the Maritimes,
please contact the Second Language Teacher Education Centre, Faculty of
Education, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, E3B 6E3, Tel:
506-453-5136, Fax: 506-453-4777, Email: slec@unb.ca.
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