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October 21, 2021 the Department of Foreign Languages of the Philological Faculty at the L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University held online seminar entitled «Revisiting the criteria for assessing foreign language classes at university»
The seminar was devoted to the question of the criteria for assessing foreign language classes at university for an objective assessment of students' knowledge in teaching foreign languages in higher education. The technology of criteria-based assessment as one of the modern teaching methods helps to solve the problems of improving the quality of teaching English at a university. The criteria for assessing foreign language classes for the bachelor's and master's educational programs is one of the important tasks for the Department, because at the Department’s meetings there were various disputes and opinions on this issue. Accordingly, in this seminar, the teachers who are directly responsible for the block of work on Syllabuses and Teaching materials of the department have their presentations:
1) Features of assessing knowledge of a foreign language by a point-rating system for bachelor's non-linguistic specialties of at ENU - Mussina S.K., Burkitbayeva A.G.
2) Methodological recommendations on the criteria and scales for assessing studies in academic writing for non-linguistic specialties of the ENU Master's program - Kurmanayeva D.K.
Senior lecturers A.G. Burkitbayeva. and Mussina S.K. spoke on the first question, in particular Burkitbayeva A.G. dwelled on the issues of assessing foreign language’s practical classes.
In her presentation she focused on the advantages of criteria-based assessment technology, because it teaches students to self-study in the subject and also improves the quality of the covered material.
Altynai Gazizovna proposed three options for assessing practical classes, thereby causing some discussion among teachers. Senior lecturer Khamitova A.G. offers to change the points for attending classes, because the attendance of the classes is a mandatory component and classes are held 3 times per week.
C.p.s, acting associate professor of the Department Ustelimova N.A., in turn, wants to offer her own assessment model, which she is currently developing on the basis of scientific sources. She also suggested that the members of the department should individually test the proposed options and by the end of the semester at the meeting of the department to accept the appropriate department’s assessment criteria.
Senior lecturer Mussina S.K. urged the members of the department to take an active part in the discussion of these criteria, due to the fact that the department needs an unified system of criteria for practical classes and SIW, because teachers have a different approach to assessing classes and it is necessary to update the syllables, change the methodological recommendations and to develop the necessary descriptors for the SIW implementation.
In her speech senior lecturer Mussina S.K. focused on the methodological recommendations for writing essays and preparing presentations, which are included in the list of SIW tasks. The compositional structures of the essay and its design were proposed. Saulesh Kaissarovna proposed assessment criteria that are based on Argumentation, Compositional Integrity and Consistency, Culture of Writing, Use of vocabulary and grammar of the class according to the unit and Essay design, compliance with requirements.
The discussion was continued by senior lecturer Khamitova A.G. and the teacher of the department Bakhyt A., who offered their ideas on the volume and content of the written assignments.
On the second issue, acting associate professor of the department Kurmanayeva D.K., who dwelled on methodological recommendations on the criteria and scales for assessing classes in academic writing for non-linguistic specialties of the ENU master's program. In her speech, she noted that only 1/4 of the lecturers teach for master students due to the fact that lecturers with scientific level work with the master's program and this academic year each group is filled with 30 master students. Kurmanayeva D.K briefly dwelled on the master's program, thereby acquainting the members of the department with it, who do not teach master's programs. This program includes 1) Description of the discipline "Foreign language (professional), 2) Learning outcomes, 3) Tasks and objectives of the discipline, 4) The system for assessing the results of educational achievements of students. Dina Kassymbekovna demonstrated her criteria for assessing regular practical classes and SIW, which are divided into five aspects.
According to this presentation, acting associate professor P.Zh. Balkhimbekova, associate professor M.Zh. Tussupbekova took part in the discussion. Senior lecturer Mussina S.K., in particular, according to the criteria for assessing practical classes, suggested to reduce the score for attending classes, thereby adding a score to the section "Class activity" and "Fluency and Academic Skills"
Associate professor Tussupbekova M.Zh. notes in her speech that it is impossible to develop uniform criteria, because each teacher has her own vision for assessment, because it depends not only on the teacher, but also on the level of the group. In her opinion each class is assessed differently, therefore she proposes to develop only General Criteria, but each teacher should have her own approach to assessing classes and SIW.
Summing up the results of the seminar, the participants expressed a single positive opinion about the relevance of the considered issues, their value of the information received for further practice. It was decided that by the end of the 1st semester of the 2021-2022 academic year, to adopt the General Criteria for Assessing Practical Classes and SIW of Students, which will need to be adopted at a meeting of the department, having previously passed approbation of the stated criteria for bachelor's and master's specialties.
