Language testing in Colombia

This article was made as a call for raising awareness among the language teaching in Colombia, in the light of assessment. There are many issues that affect proper assessment procedures in our country; for instance the negative connotation that the word (assessment) itself has in our teachers due some bad experiences through their education and teaching process. I consider that this happens in Colombia just because there is a tendency to associate the term assessment with stress, pressure anxiety or the felling of losing or wining.

Personally, and I am very sure most of us share this experience, during my educational process since the very early years, I just had the misconception that tests only determine who deserves a good and/or  a bad grade. Not until I take this course I realized that tests (assessment) are more than just establish who passes or not. However, it is clearly the conception that the majority of people still got. So, that is why not only teachers but also students are not interested or connected with the assessment impeachment.

            Besides, I dare to say that a vast majority of teachers in Colombia, do not have a single clue of what exactly assessment means. That there are plenty of ways to guarantee a correct assessment process for students, like alternatives ways to assess, that not only assessment exits in the form of formal procedures (tests) but also in some informal interventions and class performances.

In order to conclude, I would say that appropriate assessment in Colombian English classes will not ever occur until teachers give up the bad idea of assessment as a simply evaluation process, and also when they get a certain level of awareness towards the different ways than can be implemented in the assessing educational process.