Assignment 2
1. Explain types and objectives of assessment (achievement, diagnostic, placement, proficiency, and  aptitude tests)

• achievement assessment/test is to determine whether course objectives have been met with skills acquired by the end of a period of instruction. Achievement tests should be limited to particular material addressed in a curriculum within a particular time frame. Achievement tests belong to summative because they are administered at the end on a unit/term of study. It analyzes the extent to which students have acquired language that have already been taught.
• Diagnostic test the purpose is to diagnose specific aspects of a language. These tests offer a checklist of features for the teacher to use in discovering difficulties. Proficiency tests should elicit information on what students need to work in the future; therefore the test will typically offer more detailed subcategorized information on the learner. For example, a writing diagnostic test would first elicit a writing sample of the students. Then, the teacher would identify the organization, content, spelling, grammar, or vocabulary of their writing. Based on that identifying, teacher would know the needs of students that should have special focus.
• The purpose of placement test is to place a student into a particular level or section of a language curriculum or school. It usually includes a sampling of the material to be covered in the various courses in a curriculum. A students performance on the test should indicate the point at which the student will find material neither too easy nor too difficult. Placement tests come in many varieties: assessing comprehension and production, responding through written and oral performance, multiple choice, and gap filling formats. One of the examples of Placement tests is the English as a Second Language Placement Test (ESLPT) at San Francisco State University.
• Proficiency test is to test global competence in a language. It tests overall ability regardless of any training they previously had in the language. Proficiency tests have traditionally consisted of standardized multiple-choices item on grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and listening comprehension. One of a standardized proficiency test is TOEFL.
• Aptitude test is to predict a persons success to exposure to the foreign language. According to John Carrol and Stanley Sapon (the authors of MLAT), language aptitude tests does not refer to whether or not an individual can learn a foreign language; but it refers to how well an individual can learn a 
• foreign language in a given amount of time and under given conditions. In other words, this test is done to determine how quickly and easily a learner learn language in language course or language training program.

2. Identify issues in language assessment

• Behavior

In the middle of 20 century, teaching and testing were influenced by behaviorism. Testing focused sentence structure, translation from L1 to L2, grammar and vocabulary items.

• Integrative 

The integrative approach refers to a test that seeks to integrate knowledge of systematic components of language (pronounciation, grammar, vocabulary) with an understanding of contex (McNamara, 2000). In an integrative test language is not viewed in a discrete component and isolated from its context. According to Heaton (1989), the integrative approach does not separate the skills like in discrete tests but requires students to use more than one skill simultaneously.

• Communicative language

Communicative language test is a test of learners language performance in meaning/real life situations. The test does not only test the learners competence, that is, what the learners know about the language and about how to use it, but also to the performance, that is, to what extent the learners are able to actually demonstrate in a meaningful or real life situations.

• Performance based assessment

Performance based assessment measures student ability to apply the skills and knowledge learned from a unit or units of study. Typically, the task challenges students to use their higher-order thinking skills to create a product or complete a process (Chun,2010).

3. Identify hot topics relating to classroom based assessment

Gardner groups student capabilities into eight broad categories (each student's unique learning style is a combination of these intelligences):

• Logical/mathematical (uses numbers effectively)
• Visual/spatial (is artistically or spatially perceptive)
• Bodily/kinesthetic (excels at tasks that require physical movement)
• Musical (perceives and/or expresses musical forms and patterns)
• Linguistic (uses words effectively)
• Interpersonal (responds well to others)
• Intrapersonal (is reflective and inner-directed)
• Naturalist (makes distinctions in the natural world)

According to Muller (2008), traditional assessment is an assessment that refers to choosing a response and more to measuring students' memories related to information obtained. This can be done through measurement of multiple-choice tests, cloze tests, true-false tests, matching and the like. Students typically choose an answer or memorize information to complete the assessment.

Authentic assessment is a form of task that requires learners to demonstrate meaningful performance in the real world, which is the application of the essence of knowledge and skills. Authentic assessment emphasizes the ability of learners to demonstrate their knowledge in a tangible and meaningful way. Assessment activities are not just asking or tapping knowledge that has been known to learners, but the real performance of knowledge that has been mastered.

Computer Based Test is a test conducted using a computer. Computer-based test items in the form of multiple choice (objective). For certain conditions, we can use this test to assess students.

References:

www.google.com/amp/s/thejoyoflanguageassessment.wordpress.com/2012/12/19/kind-of-test/amp/
https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/RahilaKhan6/assessments-concepts-and-issues
http://www.proenglishteacher.com/2015/04/asesmen-pengertian-asesmen-asesmen.html?m=1