Abstract:

For a long time the approach to assessment in ELT (English Language Teaching) has been reduced to error correction. The introduction of CBE (Competence- Based Education) throughout all levels of education in Russia presents challenges in the area of assessment and makes it necessary for English teachers to reconsider their assessment practices. The article considers the advantages and disadvantages of different assessment criteria in the context of teaching English at a technical university. The authors focus on the significance of error correction methods among other criteria for the assessment of learners’ progress on the English course for IT specialists at Bauman Moscow State University. The results of the research concerning learners’ preferences for the most effective methods of dealing with mistakes are presented. In the given teaching context the necessity to enhance the students’ responsibility and autonomy and TBA (Task Based Approach) activities has become an essential part of ELT. Since one of the key principles of assessment is that it should reflect what has been taught, the task repetition method is very promising both for learning and evaluation purposes. The emphasis is placed on a case study of applying the method of task repetition to improve students’ accuracy and fluency in preparation for formative and summative testing throughout the university course.

Keywords:

Assessment criteria, error correction techniques, ESP teaching context, learners` preferences, task repetition method.