Alternative Assessment in ELT: Conceptualization, Implementation, and Further Perspectives

2. Defining And Conceptualizing Alternative Assessment

Alternative assessment techniques have emerged as an outcome of the dissatisfaction with standardized tests and more traditional forms of assessment. In the 1990s, the research evidence and practical advances challenged the idea that it is possible to evaluate all people and skills with the help of traditional tests (Brown & Abeywickrama, 2018). As Huerta-Macias (2002) underlines, problematic sides of traditional and standardized tests include that test-taking skills, as well as the content knowledge, play a crucial role in test results, that these tests provoke student anxiety and impede cognitive abilities, and that it is not always possible for students to reflect their real performance or ability due to experiencing some challenges like an illness at the time of the test. In L2 learning and teaching, these problematic aspects of traditional tests frequently lead to barriers for students to show their abilities in their L2 (Huerta-Macias, 2002).

Building on the criticisms of standardized tests, the ongoing belief in the merits of systematic assessment has been the driving force behind the search for novel assessment alternatives (Herman et al., 1992). The novel assessment procedures developed and employed in response to all the criticized aspects of standardized assessment have been called alternative assessment. Thus, alternative assessment procedures came out as alternative ways to standardized testing and aimed to overcome the problematic aspects of standardized tests (Huerta-Macias, 2002). In this sense, García and Pearson (1994) refer to alternative assessment as “assessment practices that do not fit into the category of formal assessment” and, more specifically, as “efforts that do not adhere to the traditional criteria of standardization, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, objectivity, and machine scorability” (p. 355). Hamayan (1995) defines alternative assessment as “procedures and techniques which can be used within the context of instruction and can be easily incorporated into the daily activities of the school or classroom” (p. 213).