A teacher and a group of young learners sat on the floor cross-legged. The learners have their hands up

Assessing young learners

The materials in this toolkit were developed as part of a British Council funded research project which explored teacher attitudes to assessment and their training needs.

In this module we will explore why assessing young learners might be challenging and offer some practical suggestions. Download the 'Assessing young learners toolkit' below to find out more.

The emphasis in the materials is on practical approaches, but in line with our participants’ stated needs it includes a basic introduction to theoretical perspectives. Each of the topics can be read as a stand-alone unit. We would, however, encourage readers to look at all six units. The training materials cover:

To find out more about the research by Huddersfield University, read the following research reports:

Thank you for the informative toolkit. Technical Feedback: Audios in slides 15, 26 work like a charm. Hyperlinks in slides 6, 28, 38 do not work. I assume those were available during the session? Ta.

Thanks for that feedback - I will check the links and see if I can get them back up. Best wishes, Cath TE Team

Thanks for letting us know! Sorry about that - I've fixed the links, so they should work now :) Ellen TeachingEnglish Team

Hi Everyone! I am quite new to teaching English as a foreign language. This is my first year as a foreign teacher. I have just been put in charge of assessing all the school's students speaking ability. The age range is quite vast, from Grade 1 - 7. But they all have more or less the same level of English, the majority of students only started taking English as from this year. I would really appreciate any tips, and advice on how to go about assessing their speaking. I have a few ideas from my own research I did the last few days. Hope someone can help calm my nerves. Thank you :) Oh, by the way. I am based in China, about 100km outside Beijing.

Thank you for material and information. I am interested with material. I will implement this material in the class.

it is useful for me

Thank you for the information, I can now make learning more interesting using fun activities to stimulate active and positive response in class.
Each age group has different learning needs and speeds of development. but they all need to have some elements of fun and interest in a language test, this will help them to show their knowledge to the very best of their ability.

It’s good learn about this language frame work understanding it through the key concepts and CEFR descriptors. I like the social agency and action approach. The tools shared are very useful for the designing the lessons and assessments.