RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ASSESSMENT, TEACHING AND TESTING

WHAT IS TEACHING?

I believe that teaching is a never ending process in which a teacher transmits his or her knowledge to the students. It is not an easy process, because the teacher´s task is to facilitate learning for the students, so they can apply what they learn in the classroom in the real world. I think that a good synonym for teaching would be challenge, because a teacher´s work isn’t simple. If we focus on teaching another language, I would define teaching as the ability that the teacher has to explain to the learners, a different language, so they can comprehend it, by dominating the four skills. The teaching process comprehends lots of aspects and things, because it is not only the teacher´s job to explain information, or to make students memorize something, it is much more than that, teaching has to be effective, especially when teaching a second language, it has to be dynamic and practical, so it can be applied in real life situations. So I guess that teaching a second language involves instructing students and involving them in the culture that is being taught, using several strategies, methods or techniques, selecting them according to the students´ needs or personalities. Therefore teaching must be done in a positive environment; the teacher has to be 100% committed  with her or his students, constantly making sure that what is being taught is really being learnt and fully understood, because on the contrary, teaching will have no purpose and won´t make sense.

WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ASSESSMENT, TEACHING AND TESTING?

I think that all of the three concepts become involved and related in a learning process like a cycle.

First, a teacher must teach the students a certain subject or matter, whether it is a certain grammatical structure, vocabulary or even a story, firstly, the teacher has to make sure that learners understand completely the material that is being given by the teacher. In this stage is in which the four skills, reading, writing, speaking and listening must be practiced, and it is the teacher´s work to select the tasks that will be most helpful in order to facilitate the students´ learning.

The second stage would be assessment, because it is uses for several purposes, for example, if a student needs more help or presents more trouble than others the teacher can provide a personal explanation; to compare students among themselves, or compare them to a certain standard, but I think that the main purpose for assessing is for teachers to check if their strategies or methods that are being applied are correctly, in an individual or a group way  so they can make corrections or improvements. Because the most important aspect of the learning process, is to make sure that students are understanding and applying what they are learning, and that cannot be fully achieved without assessment. Because the teaching process won´t be useful if students aren´t making any progress at all; and, during the assessment, we, as teachers, have to make the correct observations if any trouble is being presented. A very important thing to mention is that assessment must be carried out during the learning process, and not at the end, because if it is done by that time, the learners won´t be able to realize the errors that they are making, our what they are lacking, among other things. Therefore, suggestions are a very important thing to consider in this process, because according to these, students will change their habits or make improvements.

At last, teachers should make tests. Students should take the assessment provided by the teacher, and the suggestions that were made through the course, in order to apply them when the testing comes. Nevertheless I believe that tests aren´t always reliable providers of information about the student´s progress, because, sometimes, they focus more on the things that students didn´t learn on understand, and not, on what they did learn.

After this last stage, the cycle starts again, and as teachers, we need to teach again, and then make the assessment; lastly, we should evaluate. But at each stage, we should consider some of the most important points, like the ones mentioned above, in order to make the learning process better, easier, and appropriate for learners.