Assessment

7. Authentic activities are seamlessly integrated with assessment

Standardised tests are administered and scored in a predetermined manner. Therefore, all test takers are tested from the same material, given the same questions, at the same time, under the same circumstances and expeted to give the same answer. All of the students are graded by their teacher in the same manner. So, while individual skills are not assessed, for a fair assessment all students need to provide predetermined answers based on predetremined standards. Matching, putting in the correct order, multiple-choice, true-false, short-answer questions, essay questions, or a mix of these question types are some examples.

Assessment in authentic activities, on the other hand, orients towards assessing higher-order thinking skills, portfolios, performances, and contributions to the problem solving processes. In this respect, Ellis (1997) argues that “the main way of investigating L2 (second language) acquisition is by collecting and describing samples of learner language” (p. 15) and this can be easily guided by the CEFR formulated “can do statements”. "Can do statements" can be used to indicate areas that the learner has achieved mastery over and their ability in using the target language for communication and the problem solving process. So, assessment is authentic if it reflects some reality outside of the classroom (Frey, Schmitt, & Allen, 2012) and considers idividual differences. You can download an example of CEFR assessment here.