Types of Summative Assessment

Unlike formative assessment, summative assessment is concerned with final assessment of the learners’ performance. Below, some types of this kind of assessment are presented:

• Exams (major, high-stakes exams)
• Final-term exams (a truly summative assessment)
• Term papers (drafts presente during the semester would be  considered as a  formative assessment)
• Projects (project given at different  completion points could be  considered formatively assessed)
• Portfolios (could also be evaluated during its development as a formative assessment)
• Learners’ Performances
• Learner evaluation of the course (instruction effectiveness)
• Teacher self-evaluation

Opp-Beckman and Klinghammer gave several reasons behind resorting to other kinds of alternative assessment:

• Learners seek to put language, in this case English, to actual use for an authentic purpose. That is, English is to be used as a means of real communication.
• Learners seek to display what they have actually acquired and learned as well as  how well they can be used  what they have gained on the basis of  educational goals so that  both instructors  and learners know what should  be done to achieve the goals.
• Learners become engaged in evaluating their own performance. They know how to evaluate themselves in order to be able to take responsibility for their progress and self – directing some of their own learning.
• Alternative methods of assessment contribute to learners’ increased motivation to learn and use the language.
• Alternative methods of assessment provide the learners with the chance to directly display their progress to family members and others in their school and community.
• It serves as a training for learners to practice assessing their own learning progress and to spot their own strengths and weaknesses.
• It motivates innovation and creativity as it is concerned with multi-stage tasks and authentic problems and challenges that need creative application of language rather than simple repetition.
• It replicates real-world communication interactions and context outside the classroom.