ESSAY QUESTION 2: Discuss the different forms of assessment that a teacher

would use to evaluate pupils knowledge of grammar.

Assessment in grammar typically tested by discrete-item tests, including the
individual components of the learners knowledge. For example, irregular past tense
verb forms such as went, saw, and did are tested using tasks such as gap-fills. There
is numeral forms of assessment a teacher would use to test pupils knowledge of
grammar.
First, one form of assessing pupils grammatical knowledge is through multiple
choice questions. Pupils have to choose the correct answer from a number of
alternatives. At the simplest level, multiple choice can be used to test the pupils
grammatical knowledge, for example: choose the correct answer A, B, C or D.
1. Charles to work yesterday.
A. doesnt go

B. hasnt go C. didnt go D. isnt going

Besides, multiple choice items can be made a greater test of all-round

comprehension if they are part of a passage or dialogue, for example:
Hilary: Where are you going (on, in, off, out) to?
Jane : Im just going to the shops.
Could you (post, take, bring, buy) this letter with you?
Jane : Of course.
It tests pupils recognition of grammatical items such as prepositions.
Second, another form of assessment that a teacher would use to evaluate
pupils knowledge of grammar is through fill-ins. Fill-ins are those items where pupils
have to fill in the blank with a word or words. Teacher provides pupils a passage with
some selected words removed. For example:
Look at Jennys postcard to Joanne. There are some missing words. Write one word
for each space.
Dear Joanne,
Rome a beautiful city! The people .. very nice. Susan .not
like the city very much, but likes the meals. (She loves spaghetti!) Susan has two

friends in Rome . Parlo and Kurt. live .. the north-west of

Rome. Kurt is an artist.
See you soon,
Love,
Jenny.
In this example, pupils have to understand the whole text at the same time and then
write the words in spaces. This is a good test of pupils comprehension as well as of
their knowledge of individual grammatical items (such as personal pronouns,
preposition, and verb to be like is, are was and were.
The next form of assessment to evaluate pupils knowledge of grammar would
be sentence completion. It tests more of the pupils knowledge and the English
usage. Pupils have to fill in the blank or complete a sentence with more than one
word. For example, complete the sentences below so that they make sense.
1. A: Are you sure youll be all right?
B: Dont worry- Im .. looking after myself.
2. Both teams were exhausted. They . for three hours.
Pupils who complete this task successfully show that they have a lot of grammatical
knowledge and that they are able to use the right vocabulary and grammar to
complete the task.
Other than that, the teacher would evaluate pupils knowledge of grammar
through sentence reordering. For example: Put the words in order to make correct
sentences. This type of test explores the pupils knowledge of syntax and is a useful
addition to a test.
1. he lives / John is / and / in London. / a student
Next, transformations would be another form of assessment to evaluate
pupils knowledge of grammar. Basically, it tests the pupils knowledge of syntax and
structure. Here, pupils have to rewrite sentences so that they have the same
meaning but different grammatical structures. For example: Complete the sentences

so that they mean the same as the original sentences. Start with the words given.
1. John is taller than Mary.
Mary isnt .