Understanding Summative and Formative Assessment Dynamics
Keywords:
Assessment, Formative Assessment, Summative Assessment, Feedback, ELTAbstract
This paper aims to review the literature on types of assessment. Specifically, the paper seeks to define what is meant by summative assessment and formative assessment, and to clarify the differences between these two types of assessment. The paper also discusses the relationship between summative and formative assessment, arguing that although these types of assessment might seem to be different at many levels, their general goals should be the same. The present paper argues that effective language learning is better enhanced when both summative and formative assessment are used congruently. In this way, data that are gathered by means of formative assessments should be used to complement and consolidate data that are collected using summative assessment tasks. The paper, thus, suggests some strategies for balancing summative and formative assessments.
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