    Simple integration
    Receptive skill        Productive skill
Oral medium    listening        Speaking
Written medium    Reading        writing
       A receptive language skill is served as a model for productive skill
    Complex integration
A combination of activities involving different skills, linked thematically.

2.    Limitations of integrating skills:
    Maintaining an appropriate balance between different skills
    Integrating four skills can be demanding for teachers: time limited
    The problem of design different materials that take into account students’ different skill levels.

3.    Implications for teaching:
    Focus on discourse:
    The way the text is organized
    Its layout (for written text)
    The style of the language(formal or informal)
    The register ( the vocabulary that is commonly found in such discourse)
    Adjusting the textbook contents
    How much detail we should include in our lesson
    We may need to change the content of the textbook
    Adjusting the timetable
 
Unit 15 Assessment in language teaching
1.    Differences between testing, assessment and evaluation:
    Testing:
    For school and parents: for them to know how exactly students stand among all the students
    Often takes the “pencil and paper” form
    Usually done at the end of a learning period
    Assessment
    For teachers and learners
    Collecting of information or evidence of a learner’s learning process and achievements
    Not based on a test or one task but in a report form
    It is often measured against his/her starting point rather than compared against the skills and abilities of other students.
    Teachers can know what has been done and what should be done next
    They can know how well they have done and where they have done well and where they need more efforts
    Evaluation
    For authorities who want to know whether the money they spent or the policy change have had good results
    It involves making a global judgment on a whole school’s work

2.    Methods for assessment
    Summative assessment:
    mainly based on testing
    usually at the end of a learning period
    Formative assessment:
    Based on the information collected in the classroom during teaching process
    For the purpose of improving teaching and learning
    Provide more information to help teachers adjust their teaching according to students need and base teaching on the success or difficulties of students’ learning

3.    Besides testing, there are many other alternative ways to gather information:
    Teacher’s observation
    Continuous assessment
    Self-assessment and peer assessment
    Project work: a set of tasks designed to explore a certain idea or concept, such as to find out the different school rules in china and in another country.
    Portfolios: a purposeful collection of materials assembled over a period of time by a learner. Things that can be included in a portfolio:
    Oral performance records
    Collection of pictures and art works reflecting students’ learning
    Drawings, picture stories……
    Performance records
    Collection of students’ writings (including drafting)
……

4.    Criteria for assessment:
    Advantages    Disadvantages
Criteria-referenced    Objective standard of ability level    Difficult to design especially for classroom teachers
Norm-referenced     Maximize the distinction among individuals in a given group    Difficult to decide the norms
Individual-referenced    Make students to aware of their progress, encourage students    Lack of comparison among students

5.    Assessment principles:
    Assess authentic use of language in reading, writing, speaking and listening
    Assess literacy and language in a variety of contexts
    Assess the environment, the instruction, and the students.
    Assess process as well as products
    Analyze the pattern of errors in language and literacy
    Base assessment on normal environmental patterns and behavior in language and literacy acquisition
    Clarify and use standard when assessing reading, writing and content knowledge.
    Involve students and parents as well as other personnel
    Make assessment an ongoing part of everyday

6.    Drawbacks of tests:
    It is often an one-off event which may not necessarily give a fair sample of the learner’s overall proficiency
    They are not always valid or reliable
    If it is the only basis for crucial evaluation in the learner’s career, it can be extremely stressful

 
Unit 18 evaluating and adapting textbooks
1.    Ad hoc evaluation:
Impressionistic evaluation based on intuitions, experience of classroom use or just first impression.

2.    Systematic evaluation:
    On-the-page evaluation
It is carried out independent of its users or before it gets into the classroom
    In-the-use evaluation
It is done based on user’s opinions i.e. teachers’ as well as learners’, about how useful and effective it is for promoting learning.
    External evaluation
Also called macro evaluation, focusing on external features of a textbook.
    Claims made by authors
    What views of language learning it is based on
    The intended audience
    The proficient level
    The table of content and other details in the textbook to see if they reflects the author’s claim
……
    Internal evaluation
    Does it include the presentation and practice of all the skills?
    Are the grading and sequencing materials selected the interest or age level of the intended learners?
    Are there enough skills and strategy practice?
……

3.    Features of good textbooks:
    Attract the students’ curiosity, interest and attention
    Help students feel at ease
    Help students build confidence
    Meet students’ needs
    Expose students to language in authentic use
    Provide students opportunities to use language to achieve communicative purpose
    Textbooks should take into accounts that the positive effects of language usually delayed (learning is a gradual rather than an instantaneous process)
    Textbooks should accommodate different attitudinal and motivational background as much as possible
    Maximize learning potential by encouraging intellectual, aesthetic and emotional involvement which stimulate both right and left brain.

4.    Ways of adapting textbooks:
    Adding
    Deleting or omitting
    Modifying
    Rewriting: eg. Rewriting the comprehension questions
    Restructuring: refers to the management of activities
    Simplification: mainly applied to text, often to reading passage