Evaluation in the teaching/ learning process of foreign languages: the case of higher education business programmes

• Author: Armasar I.P.
• Pages: 237-242

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series V: Economic Sciences • Vol. 10 (59) No. 2 - 2017

Evaluation in the teaching/ learning process of

foreign languages: the case of higher education

business programmes

Ioana Paula ARMĂSAR1

Abstract: An essential element of the teaching practice, student assessment has

individualizing features in the language teaching / learning progress. This article aims at

optimizing the evaluation process, by analyzing both its positive and undesirable effects.

Integrating the theoretical background of the documents developed by the Council of Europe

into language teaching practice can have a formative, evaluative and self-evaluative benefit.

The switch of the assessment actors (teachers evaluated by the students) aims at adapting the

didactic strategies to real situations while preserving the principles and the values system.

Keywords: assessment, evaluator, didactics, teaching st rategy, educational system,

objectivity, competences

1. Assessment – a fundamental element of the didactic process

At all levels of any educational system, evaluation (in addition to objectives,

content, methods etc.) is an essential component of the didactic process, featuring

emblematic characteristics that distinguish it from the other fields of social life

where it is frequently encountered. Preliminary actions imply setting the purposes

and the objectives of the assessment, as well as the mitigating measures stemming

from its results. The role of the teacher is essential in the evaluation of the obtained

data and of the conclusions drawn. In addition, it is fundamental for the adjustment

of the students' behaviour, as it might also require the adjustment of the initial

objectives, of the didactic material and of the teaching techniques and, not least, of

the teacher's own behaviour. “In this process, the teacher is the keeper of the values

and norms governing the interpersonal academic space, therefore he epitomizes

authority and holds power. [...] The evaluation is rationally based on the appraisal

results, on the pedagogical norms and principles, but it also has subjective roots,

depending on the values, on the pedagogical vision, on the beliefs or stereotypes of

the evaluator, which are difficult to recognize and manage.”(Cocoradă, 2008: 84)

1 Transilvania University of Braşov, armasar@unitbv.ro