Introduction

Evaluation, assessment and learner autonomy

Learner autonomy entails that learners take charge of their learning, which necessarily involves them in reflection; and reflection that guides the planning and implementation of learning depends upon and generates evaluative judgements. Thus, in the autonomy classroom all aspects of teaching and learning are subject to evaluation: procedures and activities, materials and content, the interactive dynamic of the classroom, the learning environment, the participants and what they contribute to the learning process, and of course language learning outcomes. In general educational usage 'assessment' refers to the grades the teacher awards to the work she requires her learners to hand in, the tests she devises and administers, and external examinations. In the autonomy classroom assessment is continuous with evaluation, because both are shaped by reflective processes that are rooted in collaborative interaction: like evaluation, assessment involves the learners as much as the teacher. Taking account of curriculum requirements, the teacher helps the learners to generate the criteria on which evaluation and assessment are based, so when she grades her learners she applies criteria that they have helped to define and have used to assess themselves and one another.

Structure and content of the chapter

We begin the chapter by summarizing traditional views of assessment and briefly reviewing recent work that emphasizes the positive contribution assessment can make to teaching and learning. Against this background we go on to explain what is distinctive about our view of the role played by evaluation and assessment in the autonomy classroom. In the second part of the chapter we describe how a class of beginners in English was introduced to evaluation and assessment, and then illustrate some of the ways in which evaluation and assessment can be implemented as learners' TL proficiency and learning skills develop. Evaluation and assessment are confirmed as the hinge on which the processes of autonomous learning turn: without them learner autonomy is an empty concept.