National Teaching and Learning Change ProgrammeModern Foreign Languages
Continuing professional development activities toolkit

• Introduction
• Why carry out an initial assessment?
  • Introduction
  • Video - reasons for an initial assessment
• Activity - Why, what, when and how?
• Activity - Ways of gathering and recording information from learners
• Activity - Ways of undertaking and recording initial assessment in learning sessions

Why carry out an initial assessment?

Introduction

Your learners will vary greatly in their previous language learning experiences and will all benefit from personalised learning opportunities.

Initial assessment is therefore very important to enable you to:

• identify individual needs, aspirations and starting points
• ensure that your learners are on appropriate courses; and
• help you with planning your courses and learning sessions.

It will also make a positive impact on the recruitment, retention, achievement and progression of your learners.

Many exemplar activities in the toolkit can be used in a flexible and adaptable way to assess many aspects of your learners' skills and competences, including:

• communication skills and pronunciation
• comprehension
• range of vocabulary
• knowledge of a variety of grammatical and linguistic structures; and
• ability to use these structures appropriately and accurately.

The main assessment opportunities for each exemplar learner activity are signposted at the end of the downloadable Guidance notes.