OLD AND NEW METHODS OF EVALUATION FOR ESP
OLD AND NEW METHODS OF EVALUATION FOR ESP

Summary/Abstract: The evaluation methods of English for Specific Purposes have been debated over the last decades by all the professors and researchers involved in teaching English for law, medicine, engineering etc. The tests evolved from theoretical questions with ample answers, to multiple-choice tests with one or more correct answers, due to the fact that the university students need to learn specialty vocabulary mainly in English, as an international language and one of the most frequently used languages within European Union. At the same time the evaluation evolved from pen and paper to modern means of testing using computers. Nowadays computers with internet connection are used in the process of teaching and they are, or should be used for evaluation. A useful method of evaluating students’ knowledge both for English language and specialty may be by using real images of objects or short documentaries or even real images of activities being performed by people in a certain domain, with multiple choice test items following them, or several images to choose from which should correspond to a term, in order to connect more closely the academic education to the reality of our students’ future jobs. The method may be related to other types of evaluation and might include a listening part and perhaps, even a writing part. Designing such a test can be time consuming, but, in our opinion, the results may give the ESP teacher a real picture of students’ knowledge.

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