Monitoring and assessment of pre-service foreign language and culture teachers testing competence

Abstract

When testing pre-service foreign language and culture teachers methodological competence formation it is important to monitor as well the process and outcomes of its constituents formation. One of the prerequisites of efficient professional pre-service foreign language and culture teachers training is a scientifically and methodically appropriate selection of forms, methods, techniques and means of monitoring testing competence (as a constituent of methodological competence), which is developed in pre-service teachers within the framework of the course “Modern approaches to testing foreign languages and cultures teaching”. The purpose of monitoring testing competence is to evaluate students’ academic achievements and define the correlation between the foreseen and objective results of mastering specific methodological knowledge and skills of developing linguodidactic tests by preservice foreign language and culture teachers. The assessment is actualized through current, midterm and final control. The methods of testing competence formation assessment under implementing its various types are oral interviews, written testing and a module test, which is realized in the form of individual project tasks presentation. The assessment objectives are methodological knowledge and skills as the constituents of testing competence. The article also highlights the criteria for assessing methodological knowledge and fulfilling professional tasks (current control), the criteria and parameters for evaluating individual project tasks (mid-term control), the criteria for evaluating students’ answers during the interview and the results of the practical tasks completion (final control). In terms of its arrangement, testing competence assessment is individual and performs such functions as feedback, training and evaluation.