Journal of Linguistics and Language Teaching
Volume 14 2023 Issue 1
Inez De Florio: From Assessment to Feedback. Applications in the Second / Foreign Language Classroom. New York et al.: Cambridge University Press, 2023 (X + 267 pages) (ISBN 978-1-109-21893-1).
Inez De Florio, linguist researcher and professor emerita at Kassel University (Germany), has written a comprehensive Feedback Guide focusing on teaching foreign languages in mainstream classrooms. Apart from several diverse TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), examples related to the 16 chapters in her book, an extensive and very detailed overview of the contents (V-IV) serves as an easily comprehensible and structured outline of the subject areas involved. As it is not to be assumed that her book would be read from cover to cover in one sitting, it can be used as a compass to follow up the three major focal points, the basic concepts of assessment and feedback (7-62), their different manifestations (63-207), and the combination of summative assessment with formative feedback (209-251). What might seem to be a certain imbalance between these three main parts is an expression of the guide’s aims and objectives, i.e. to provide a succinct theoretical Part I, then practice-oriented advice and examples in presenting the implications of different varieties of assessment and feedback in Part II, and the implementation of summative and formative assessment / feedback in Part III. The 24 TEFL examples provide ample illustrations and opportunities to adapt the main ideas explained in the book to the specific contexts of learning groups and teaching preferences even beyond foreign language instruction. The references include relevant documents and publications as recent as 2022.
The content and structure of De Florio’s Feedback Guide follow a certain pattern, in that it starts from strategies and techniques with a focus on foreign language teaching in a common school classroom, and the variety of assessment and feedback models to finally combine these elements. As opposed to didactic teaching, the scientific evidence for the effectiveness of direct instruction is already outlined in the introduction. According to the author, independent learning is meant to be desirable but cannot be achieved by letting students work without preparation. Instead, they need to understand the reasons for independent learning as much as the procedures associated with it, and they ought to practice the respective processes. The emphasis on an exaggerated variety of methods remains debatable to the author, because in any teaching unit, methods need to be coordinated, and the learning context and the learners’ needs and interests are decisive, never mind the personality of a teacher. Apart from these aspects of successful learning and teaching, the choice of strategies and techniques depends on subject-specific goals; in other words, content demands are a priority, and although this approach is described in some publications, subject-specific goals and content are rarely specified. Real-life situations should be at the core of communication in the classroom; unfortunately, many methods are too artificial, and a great deal of effort is needed to utilize authentic activities in TEFL. In this context, the think-pair-share technique is, for example, an option and easily implemented.
Part I (5-62) deals with the current assessment and feedback formats in the foreign language classroom, which are defined and presented with conclusive examples. Chapter 1 (“Feedback in everyday situations” (7-17) prepares the reader for the overall concept of explaining and evaluating the performance and general actions of other people, students, employees, etc. in a supportive rather than a derogative way. Whether engaging in conversation with a counterpart or discussing alternatives to help close gaps in knowledge, feedback conversations need to be guided by advice and flexible perspectives. These tenets are exemplified by looking at particular discourse forms such as counselling (“How to write a resumé”) or dealing with differences in “Englishes” like the British and International variety - referring to the example of Spiegel-online, the translation service of a leading German political magazine, where formulations frequently deviate from Standard English taught in TEFL classrooms.
Chapters 2 - 4 (18-62) focus on the perspectives of language teaching at school. They start with analysing “different forms of assessment and feedback in language teaching and learning” (18), followed by presenting different feedback models and pointing out the prerequisites of feedback as a result of changes in teaching strategies and a focus on independent learning. A closer look at the development of assessment and feedback in language instruction helps clear the educational terminology deployed here.
Whereas in former times teachers seem to have limited their comments to grading student work (either orally or in writing), feedback has, in the meantime, been widely extended by including other aspects of learning; teaching perspectives have undergone significant changes as well. Thus, some differentiation is important to the author: whereas feedback can, in general, be based on evaluation or assessment, the evaluation itself refers to assessment in a broad sense (21). In the domain of school teaching, the term evaluation has been replaced by or less frequently used than the term assessment. In this context, it is helpful to remember that the function of grading needs to be maintained – despite the reluctance of some instructors to rely on grades that, from their point of view, do not provide clues for further learning (24). Overall, it would be necessary to strictly distinguish between formative and summative assessment, a point taken up in Part III of the publication. At this stage during a language activity, the working definition attributes the aim of improving learning to formative assessment, whereas, at a certain moment in the process, the sum of learning is captured by summative assessment.
Both forms of feedback are useful during the learning process, which, without denying its dynamic character, has a clearly defined beginning and end, still aptly expressed by Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). This model helps to understand how to bridge the gap between what learners already know and what they can do, and where they are supposed to arrive at the end of a distinctive learning step or sequence, reaching certain aims and objectives. Although Vygotsky’s concept is mentioned in a later chapter (3.2, 38-39) as well as in “Review, Reflect, Practise” (44) and explained briefly at the end of the Glossary (260), it would have made sense to already include it at this stage. The more so because the ZPD is instrumental in understanding how formative and summative feedback work in relation to each other and how they are two sides of the same coin. As the author later states: “Without Vygotsky’s theories, the well-known feedback model(s) of William and Hattie would be inconceivable” (38).
The option to sum up the achievement of learning aims and teaching objectives is embedded in evaluation, preceded by formative and summative assessment; but primarily, formative procedures are constituent parts of the ZPD, by enhancing learning content and practising skills. In this regard, it is useful to distinguish between assessment of learning (a stage reached at a certain time), assessment for learning (formative hints for improving) and assessment as learning (in the context of performance) (22). This distinction between of–for–as bears a certain resemblance to Do Coyle’s (2010) “language triptych”3, developed in the context of content-based language learning, without the Aberdonian linguist being referred to explicitly in this guide. Do Coyle differentiated between ‘language of learning’ to cover different domains of knowledge and skills in a particular subject area, ‘language for learning’ enabling learners to actively perform language skills in a defined content domain, and ‘language through learning’ encouraging students to articulate their understanding of working processes and recycle the necessary linguistic resources? Although both concepts differ in the usage of the as and through prepositions, they are instrumental in covering the aforementioned gaps within the ZPD. After succinct differentiations within the terminology of-for-as/through, we are introduced to the “four steps of the assessment cycle” (Chapter 2.6; 27) that consist of following the definition and planning of learning outcomes, selecting appropriate assessment measures, analysing learning results and adjusting and/or improving teaching modules (28-29).
In Chapters 3 and 4, the theoretical perspective is broadened by describing evidence-based research into the different formats of assessment and feedback, and their long-standing tradition. It culminates in William’s & Hattie’s (2011, 2012) model of formative feedback; both varieties (complemented by Timperley’s research 2007) aim at the implementation of a feedback culture by concrete recommendations summarised in three questions for learners: feed up (where am I going?), feed back (how am I progressing?) and feed forward (whereto next?) (41). Another author, the mathematician Christoph Maitzen (2021), has also analysed these models in a German context, relying heavily on Hattie & Timperley and propagating a missing feedback culture at school (“Feedback-Kultur in der Schule”).
The theoretical part of the book is concluded in Chapter 4 by focusing on the prerequisites of feedback and developing the concepts of “differentiated learning” – what learners deal with; “individualised learning” – the related when; “personalised learning” – the how of creating learning opportunities and having a greater say in them (47). Again, TEFL examples demonstrate the scope of these concepts and refer to “competition: a problem?”, “staying focused on your goals” and “developing a positive mindset”. The ensuing part of “review, reflect, practise” (62) is particularly helpful in revising terminology and concepts in a practical and more personalised way without disregarding more recent developments in cooperative learning and the importance of learning styles.
In Part II (63-207) “different manifestations” of assessment and feedback open the more practice-oriented passages in the book. They include – among a greater number of TEFL examples (9 out of 24) – how to implement successful feedback, the ways to create a productive classroom climate and opportunities of involving students in important decisions (Chapter 5; 65-85). A discussion of the suggestion “no hands up, except to ask a question” (63) underlines the necessity of allowing sufficient wait time for learners to answer. Alternative ideas for learning objectives, success criteria based on worked examples as well as the use of rubrics are at the core of Chapter 6 (86-106), which also delineates possibilities of alternative lesson designs as a student initiative, e.g. “redesigning a lesson about the roots of Jazz” (103 - 106).
Successful feedback from teachers to learners drives Chapter 7 (107-123), the preconditions of which are the diagnosis of learning levels and assessment, respectively. In this context and more generally, feedback should refer to and regard tasks, learning processes and students’ self-regulation. Here, Hattie et al. (2007) insist that the fourth feedback level, addressing the ‘self’ of the learner, is more concerned with personality rather than supporting the learning process and might, although used frequently in classroom situations, be detrimental. Feedback in general would be based on students’ statements, explaining what they were learning and how to improve unanswered questions. As outlined in Chapter 8 (124-136), peer feedback is desirable but needs to be trained and practised. The issue is how teachers can help students to develop appropriate skills and feedback procedures; the adaptation and adequate use of the Jigsaw Puzzle (131) seem to be a way out.
Self-assessment, as explained in Chapter 9 (137-158), is a means to take responsibility for one’s actions and is therefore highly recommended. It is positioned in the context of independent learning and self-set goals and leads to the question “What about the self-assessment of teachers?” On the learners’ end, different formats of self-assessment are amply documented and connected through coursebooks and workbooks using digital technology; another possibility are portfolios like the European Language Portfolio (ELP, 145). What has not yet attained the importance that it should have gained is collegial feedback (Chapter 10; 159-174). So far, collegial feedback seems limited to external evaluation, and proposals are made to change the situation, such as the EMU Project (Helmke 2018), ), thus comparing learners’ assessment with teachers’ self-assessment and that of their peers. In the foreground of these activities, there are ways to improve student learning and give and accept feedback. Chapter 11 (175-192) focuses on electronic assessment and feedback. Electronic teaching devices require sufficient knowledge of teachers and students concerning digital technologies. So far, electronic assessment and feedback seem to be limited to higher education, and the general question remains of how to make use of the new media in the foreign language classroom.
As digital processes follow their own accelerated dynamics, a new development can only be mentioned here from hindsight: the ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer) creates new challenges but at this stage, the differentiation between formative and the more common summative assessment gains a new meaning. Whereas the tools of summative assessment will have problems handling this phenomenon, formative feedback might be useful in enhancing students’ competencies of creatively using this recent variety of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and go ways beyond it. ChatGPT is a complex digital tool; if implemented well, it can be used to create new texts, images, videos, audios and other data. Instead of banning it from schools and language tuition in particular, formative feedback applied to ChatGPT will make student texts more transparent, help to achieve better results and evaluate their products more appropriately in a final, summative assessment.
Finally, in Chapter 12 (193-207) other hybrid and remote learning and teaching formats are discussed. They include teaching and learning models such as homeschooling, and remote and distance learning. Also pointed out are the challenges of synchronous and asynchronous learning and the omnipresence of video conferencing. Extended forms of e-learning, like the flipped classroom and blended learning, are briefly mentioned (198, 207), but including these terms in the Glossary (252-260) might have been an option.
Chapter 13 (211-224) starts with a look at Bloom’s well-known taxonomy of lower and higher-order thinking skills and marks the beginning of Part III (209-251), which is concerned with the strongly advocated combination of summative assessment and formative feedback. As taxonomies are known to facilitate teaching and learning in general, they are augmented by the description of the so-called SOLO taxonomy, the acronym of Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome (215-219) with the elaborate TEFL example “Is time travelling possible?”. Bloom’s taxonomy would seem to be slightly outdated but was redefined and updated by Anderson & Krathwohl (2001, presented in Doyle et al. 2010: 31). Taxonomies, the SOLO variety and Bloom’s refined version are useful tools for developing critical thinking. A further development is Bloom’s “Question and Task Design Wheel” which, unfortunately not mentioned in this chapter. For German readers the task verbs, presented on this wheel for six cognitive levels, would be of particular interest, because they are comparable to the exam-directed cognitive levels I-III of assignments and thus of high practical value for teaching purposes, as they combine task verbs with learning tasks and projects as target activities.
The pros and cons of grading, in combining summative assessment with formative feedback are the content of Chapter 14 (225-237). Here, the consistent distinction between assessment and feedback does make sense, because grading and giving marks during and at the end of learning sequences is as important as developing learning processes within the ZPD, which is enhanced by formative feedback. This kind of feedback should be combined with supplementary tools like margin columns, criteria grids and cover sheets, for example.
The last two chapters (15; 238-247 & 16; 248-251) deal with state requirements and details of explaining the grading of oral and written work performance. It is noteworthy that written work is usually rated higher than its oral counterpart. Students need to gain insight into these grading procedures, and the efforts made in favour of the comparability of standards should be intensified. From a teacher’s perspective, the essential requirements of assessment and feedback are underlined with an emphasis on the formative model. Teachers should be encouraged to implement the latter variety step by step to substantiate their initiatives and practices overall and, in this way, raise further awareness for the procedures involved.
Inez De Florio’s Feedback Guide is a book for all seasons and goes well beyond everyday practices in the foreign language classroom. In our day and time of digital learning, flipped classrooms, and the influence of new gadgets like the infamous ChatGPT, one has to wonder how teachers and students can deal with copycats and how they can be sure of what they get when assessing language composition. ChatGPT, one would argue, is even ‘worse’ than Wikipedia and other encyclopedias in that it is a very clever tool to replace individual creativity and implement language skills. Partly, the answer is presented in this book, although it was written just before the emergence of this modernistic variety of Artificial Intelligence. In this context, the emphasis on formative feedback is a very effective means to assess student projects and written products as far as authorship and genuine self-generated contributions are concerned, as opposed to ‘borrowed’ or otherwise adapted versions, and thus can avoid confusing misunderstandings.
While formative feedback has dominated research in recent decades (Hattie & Clarke 2018), teachers usually limit their efforts to summative assessment in the form of grading and ann occasional praise. Using numerous practical examples from teaching English as a foreign language, the author shows how summative procedures can be combined with formative feedback in such a way that students not only achieve better learning results but are also encouraged in their personal development. The publication is structured clearly; the five-page table of contents facilitates an overview and a selection of areas of interest to the reader. The 24 TEFL examples in the overview listed at the beginning of the book (page X) can be transferred not only to other foreign languages but for the most part to other school subjects in social studies, history, mathematics and natural sciences. This book also opens up a new chapter in dealing with digital processes and AI in the context of teaching and can therefore also be recommended from this point of view.
Along similar lines and directed at a German-speaking audience of student and in-service teachers as well as practitioners, De Florio (2022) summarises the different feedback formats and additionally focuses on assessment regulations. In this context, the impact of feedback on emotional and social aims and objectives of Foreign Language Teaching is scrutinised, and possible improvements in effective language learning are discussed.
On the downside, there are many text boxes with repetitive information. Fluent reading is made less pleasant because many passages are in bold letters without following an obvious structure. These points, however, in no way lessen the merit of this extremely well-researched, skillfully written and highly topical presentation of an essential building block of effective and student-centred teaching: formative feedback as a catalyst for successful learning within the Zone of Proximal Development.
References
Coyle, Do et al. (2010). CLIL – Content and Language Integrated Learning. New York etc.: Cambridge University Press.
De Florio-Hansen, Inez (2022). Feedback lernwirksam gestalten. Strategien und Techniken für den Fremdsprachenunterricht. Hannover: Klett/Kallmeyer.
Hattie, John (2012). Visible Learning. A Synthesis of over 800 Meta-analyses Relating to Achievement. London: Routledge.
Helmke, Andreas et al. (2018). Unterrichtsdiagnostik mit EMU: Evidenzbasierte Methoden der Unterrichtsdiagnostik. Version 7. www.unterrichtsdiagnostik.de (accessed 04.04.2023).
Klewitz, Bernd (2022). Bilingual Unterrichten. CLIL Fachdidaktik. Stuttgart: Ibidem. 9-11; 50.
Maitzen, Ch. (2021). Feedback-Kultur in der Schule. Augsburg: Auer.
William, Dylan (2011). Embedded formative assessment. Bloomington: Solution Tree Press.
Reviewer:
PD Dr Bernd Klewitz
Lecturer (University of Osnabrück, Germany)
Author and Teacher Trainer
Marburg
Germany
Email: b.klewitz@web-horizon.de