ALTERNATIVE

ASSESSMENTS:
PORTFOLIOS,
JOURNALS, AND
INTERVIEWS

LANGUAGE
ASSESSMENT
TASK

ARRANGED BY:

ENENG
SYAMSIAH
KINKIN SUSANSI
NUR VIA P.

2014

INTRODUCTION

"Assessment is the collection of relevant information that may be relied on for

making decisions. Fenton (1996)

Alternative assessments have become popular for the last few years. In many
educational institutions, teachers use this kind of assessment to judge language
proficiency of their students. It means that teacher has more choices, more
consideration and freedom to judge their students proficiency. According to Baker
(1992) and Fenton (1996) Assessment systems must be judged based on the value of
the information they provide for students, teachers, curriculum specialists, principals,
school board members, parents, and community members. Alternative assessment is
kind of activities to measure students proficiency in different ways which are more
flexible, dynamic, and realistic. It is because students perform what teachers ask
directly, and assessed at that moment therefore it is more effective.
Some scholars have their own lists of alternative assessment procedures.
Huerta-Macias (1995) for at least has mentioned checklists, journals, logs, videotapes
and audiotapes, self-valuation, and teacher observations. Other alternative
assessments are portfolios, conferences, diaries, self-assessment and peer-assessment.
Alternative

assessment

especially

in

language

testing

has

unique

characteristics which is different from traditional assessment that commonly used.

Here are some positive characteristics of alternative assessment:
1. Require student to perform, create, produce, or do something

2. Use real-world context or simulations

3. Focus on processes as well as products
4. Tap into higher level thinking and problem-solving skills
5. Encourage open disclosure of standards and rating criteria

Through alternative assessments, students could demonstrate their language

ability for meaningful communication. This is kind of active exam to evaluating
students skills which is based on performance. Even so, it is not quite universally
acceptable because of its reliability and validity issues. Alternative assessment is too
general and not enough in making decision about students proficiency because there
are some standards and criteria that more credible and valid in judging students
language proficiency.

ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT

Alternative assessment is performance-based assessment, whereas in

traditional assessments students response a given list such as multiple-choice,
true/false, or matching. Students proficiency assess based on their performance
doing complex tasks. Performance based, means that it depends on how students
demonstrate their ability, perform a meaningful task and receive feedback by a
qualified person. Alternative assessments are the activities with language that focus
on communication for meaningful purposes.
The structure and scoring are also different from traditional test where
students can evaluate themselves and their peers using reflective method on both
linguistic development and learning processes. It is Work well in learner-centered
classrooms. New assessment procedures are found once in few years as an innovation
in educational life. However, these developments of new assessments raise issues for
its credibility and validity of the results. It is said that the result of decision-making in
alternative assessment could not fulfill the standard which is established by governing
body or educational experts. Still, these kinds of assessments are used by teachers to
support standardized assessment. They think that traditional assessments are not
complete to judge, it is like a house without roof. Alternative assessments and
traditional should be side by side to be a complete assessment to judge students
language proficiency. There are other issues relate to alternative assessments such as
the issues of design decisions, logistics, interpretation, reliability, and validity

PORTFOLIOS

Portfolios are collection of students school work collected over a specific

period of the school year that shows student growth and development. It is useful for
the special needs child who cannot accomplish some difficult tasks. A working
portfolio for examples: homework assignments, journal entries, in-class writing
assignments, professional articles.
Like photographers collect their work time to time, teachers encourage students to
collect theirs as compile of efforts, skills, achievements and their contribution in class
activities. There are at last three advantages of portfolio assessment, they are:
1. Strengthening students learning
2. Enhancing the teachers role
3. Improving testing process

JOURNALS

As a literary form, the journal falls roughly between the diary and the log: it
consists of regular, though not necessarily daily, entries by which the writer
focuses and reflects upon a given theme, or a series of events and
experiences. Hedlund et al. (1989, p. 108)

Journals are writing practices which focus on the expression of a student's

opinions, viewpoints, experiences, and creative imaginings. Writing journals should
be routine activities to reach students learning goal. The topics of journals would be
determined first by the teacher. For example teacher asks to write about students
favorite subject at school. What is your least favorite subject? Or what do you want
to be when you grow up? Choose and describe at least three jobs that you think you
would enjoy.
The benefits students can get from journal, students will be actively engaged
to the learning process and course materials. We know that if students actively
engage to their study, they will learn more, remember more, enjoy it more, and
appreciate what they have learned rather than students who passively receive what
teacher has taught. Learning journal has good potential to increase students interest,
empower students to be more responsible to their own learning, to be more reflective
in their study, encourage students to be more speak up what is on their mind, to get
some valuable feedbacks from teacher for the betterment of the student itself and as a
training of journalism.

Open-ended Reflections
Open-ended reflections in journals consist of weekly essays. Students write about
what they have learned in class and about their reactions to the activities they have
during the week. Students summarize what they do in class, ask questions about
topics discussed in class or expressed concerns about the class, teaching, English in
general.

INTERVIEWS

Interview is a kind of conference, interaction between teacher and student but

it is more specific. A teacher will interview students for assessment purpose so it is
not about students conducting interview of other to gain information. The goals of the
interview are for:

Assess the students oral production

Ascertain a students needs before designing a course or curriculum

Seek to discover a students learning styles and preferences

Ask a student to assess his or her own performance, and

Requests an evaluation of a course

Effective interview depends on the question that will be asked. It needs some
preparation and the questions should be constructed carefully. As many others
alternative assessments, the reliability is questioned. However, the level of reliability
should be maintained with attention to objectives and procedures. The validity will
get if the subject matter is clearly focused on the course also the course objectives,
and content validity should be upheld.

CONCLUSION

Alternative assessment is a type of assessment out of conventional

assessment. Even though it is non-standardized assessment but it is more authentic,
realistic and directly reveals the proficiency of students. A standardized test is usually
not measure deeply of students proficiency. Traditional and alternative assessments
complete for each other and it is not enough if teacher just use one of them to assess
students proficiency. From the combination of both, teachers have more accurate
judgment to measure students proficiency. Teacher also will gain more experience
and make betterment in educational life.

REFERENCES

Brown, H. Douglas. 2004. Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom

Practices. New York: Pearson Education, Inc.
Brown, James D., & Tom Hudson. The Alternatives in Language Assessment. Tesol
Quarterly vol. 32, no. 4, Winter 1998.