AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT IN ELT: HOPES, CHALLENGES, AND PRACTICES

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the need of authentic assessment in English language teaching in Indonesia. After the implementation of 2013 curriculum (Discovery Learning Curriculum), the evaluation that must be done by teacher is not only emphasized on cognitive domain but also in psychomotoric and affective domains. The authors reviewed the authentic assessment from both the information literacy and instructional design which can be applied by EFL teachers in their classes. Overall, this paper gives an outlook on what, why and how all about authentic assessment in ELT.


INTRODUCTION
English Language Teaching (ELT) is a program. Main components of a program include goal, implementation, and evaluation. Any program needs evaluation. In its broader sense, evaluation is a process which determines the extent to which objectives have been achieved. In the education program, more specifically in the context of teaching, the evaluation methods could be test or non-test. However, before the socalled "2013 Curriculum" -which globally refers to Discovery Learning -was launched, evaluation had been always linked to tests and examination due to the emphasis of cognitive domain in the earlier KTSP (Education Unit Level Curriculum). It has been a revolutionary change from this "mere" cognitive domain evaluation mode to more holistic domains of cognitive -affective -psychomotoric evaluation method implemented in the recent curriculum.

AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT: MORE THAN JUST A TEST
Tests methods could be objective tests as opposed to subjective tests, spoken tests as opposed to written tests, and so on. Non-test methods could be observation (using checklists, observation sheet), questionnaire (e.g. rating scales), journals (e.g. logs, diaries), document (e.g. portfolios), etc. So, time has changed. Now with the 2013 Curriculum, classroom practioners without exception, willy nilly, have to become familiar with techniques for data collection like researchers. It is not surprising, as a teacher serves also as a classroom researcher.
Some terms that are closely associated with evaluation in education program are assessment, test, examination, rating, marking, and scoring. Assessment, according to many articles in International Journal of Testing (IJT), covers data collection and decision making activities. Tests and examinations are quite similar (no need to distinguish!). Rating, marking and scoring are also similar. Since the 2013 Curriculum was implemented, the socalled Authentic Assessment has been popular. The rest of this paper will discuss assessment and authentic assessment in particular.
Let us start with assessment in relation to teacher's role. As touched on previously, assessment covers the activities of data collection and decision making. In the earlier curriculum, a teacher collected data on student competence, knowledge, performance, ability, skill, and mastery through tests for a decision. As a form of assessment, tests and testing are very crucial.
First of all, "…tests are important tools with significant consequences for the persons tested and organizations using the scores…" (Evers, et. al., 2017). Secondly, tests and testing are as important as teaching. It is because tests and testing can bring effect to teaching and learning. Some writers use term "washback" or "backwash" for describing the effects or influences brought by tests or examinations (Pan, 2016). Numerous studies have shown that test and testing influences beneficially and harmfully in teaching and learning. If the effect is beneficial, then it is stated as positive backwash and if the effect is harmful, it is called as negative backwash. Siddiek (2010) states that positive backwash can yield good influence on both the teacher and learner and negative backwash can yield bad results on the teaching and learning processes. Negative backwash happens if the test material is not consistent to teaching content. Just imagine what happens to students if your test material is not consistent to your teaching content? Now, with the recent curriculum, a teacher needs to use methods other than test too for a better insight and right decision, i.e. the one that considers varied aspects. This refers to authentic assessment. To most teachers this dramatically leads to a harder job!
In the field of assessment, traditional assessment methods are often contrasted to authentic (real world) assessment. Other sources label traditional assessment as formal assessment, while authentic assessment is also known as informal assessment, performancebased assessment, or alternative assessment. However, those all are just names. Sunarti and Rahmawati (2014) and also Lampiran Permendikbud RI tentang Standar Penilaian Pendidikan (2013) define authentic assessment as an assessment that is done comprehensively to assess learning input, process, and output. By doing so, the assessment covers all domains of cognitive, affective, and psychomotoric as to consider learners characteristics and level. In the lower level affective aspect is loaded more heavily. In contrast to, in the higher level cognitive aspect is given more portions.
While in traditional assessment an assessment is very formal in the sense it is done at the end of teaching, in authentic assessment an assessment goes along the way the teaching, in such a way that both seem inseparable. In other words, assessment is done continuously and sustainably in the course of teaching and learning process. This seems realistic because in real life situation learning takes place this way. It can be achieved by using varied evaluation methods. The advantage is that the teacher is able to obtain the whole picture of learners' learning progress, to monitor process, progress, and continuous improvement. With regard to domains coverage authentic assessment does not only measure what learners know, but also what they can do.

WHY IS IT THEN AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT?
Long before the present curriculum was implemented, a teacher of English has been supposed to see that in communicative language teaching (CLT), the capacity or ability to use language communicatively involves both competence and demonstration of the ability to use this competence. Therefore, the performance tasks candidates are faced with in communicative tests should be representative of the type of task they might encounter in their own real life situation and should correspond to normal language use where an integration of communicative skills is required with little time to reflect on, or monitor language input and output. The emphasis is no longer on linguistic accuracy, but on the ability to function effectively through language in particular contexts of situation.
It has been unfair so far, for example, that students are not sufficiently trained to write just because teachers assume that writing is difficult both to teach and rate. While this could be a matter of ignorance in the part of teachers, writing can be taught and assessed in a simpler and more communicative way. With technology advancement, students' writing performance can be assessed more practically by using certain scoring programs (see Almond 2014).
Teachers can also administer more communicative tests of English such as: 1) Students write a letter to the editor in response to a newspaper editorial about a local issue, 2) Students discuss and analyse a current event, 3) Students write a journal entry after reading a thougt-provoking story, 4) Students write and illustrate their own autobiographical memoirs, 5) Working in pairs, one student assumes the role of a character from a story read in class, while the other student interviews the character to learn about his or her life, 6) Students write and perform poetry to demonstrate understanding of figurative language.
Likewise, in discovery learning, where the teacher employes real-world teaching, assessment should be in favour of the teaching.
Let us say Project-Based Learning explicitely mentioned within the recent curriculum. Alternatively, Social Investigation or Social Inquiry where learners are involved in intensed team-work and student-centered learning mode, it might seem unfair if their mastery is measured using language only subskill test of grammar or vocabulary. Even, it remains unfair if their learning mastery is measured using isolated skill test of writing, speaking, listening, or reading.
As far as discovery learning is concerned, assessing students using traditional assessment modes (i.e. essays, multiple choice, fill-in-theblank, etc.) will also not make sense. Simply testing an isolated skill or a retained fact does not effectively measure student's collective abilities. Limited English proficient students frequently have difficulty expessing their mastery of content unless they have a certain level of English proficiency. These students with collective abilities but inadequate English proficiency will take the benefit of more varied assessments, such as portfolios, mini-projects, products, and selfassessment.

AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT IN ELT
As briefly discussed above, authentic assessment covers wider domains of cognitive, affective, and psychomotoric through more varied methods of tests and non-tests.

Assessing Cognitive Domain
According to Bloom's taxonomy, cognitive domain consists of six levels, from the simplest level to more complicated one, namely: knowledge, understanding, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. These can be assessed through tests/questions or assignment.
Let us assume that good teachers of English recognise tests and testing, and therefore, it is unwise to discuss tests and testing here in more details.
a Frequent gross errors and a very heavy accent make understanding difficult, require frequent repetition 3 Foreign accent requires concentrated listening, and mispronunciation lead to occasional misunderstanding and apparent errors in grammar and vocabulary 4 Marked foreign accent and occasional mispronunciations which do not interfere with understanding 5 No conspicious mispronunciation, but would not be taken for a native speaker 6 Native pronunciation, with no trace of foreign accent Grammar 1 -6 Vocabulary 1 -6 Fluency 1 -6 When a rubric itself is considered not enough, do scoring using an inter-raters procedure.

c. Assignment/Projects
Example (Pronunciation Class): Find a video on YouTube that shows a conversation in which wh-questions are used. Make a video clip of similar kind in which wh-questions are used and submit it to suwartono2006@yahoo.co.id no later than 1.00 PM, May 10, 2017. A scoring rubric is also needed here. It might read as follows: Attitude is a tendency to respond to an object, situation, concept, or person, either like it or not like it. Student attitude toward English Suwartono, Tono., and Riyani, Cici AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT IN ELT: HOPES, CHALLENGES, AND PRACTICES REFLEKSI EDUKATIKA : Jurnal Ilmiah Kependidikan, Volume 9, Nomor 2, Juni 2019, hlm 112-120 116 as a school subject contitutes an indicator of the teacher's success in conducting the English lesson. Many studies show the more positive student attitude is the more likely he/she will achieve success in learning. The most popular instrument for collecting data on student attitude is questionnaire. Here is a sample of attitude questionnaire. Interest is learner's curiosity to an object condition organised through experience that drives someone to have the object, understanding, and skills for attention or achievement purpose. Research shows the higher student interest is the more likely the students will achieve success. Data on student interest can be measured by using questionnaire. The following is a sample of interest questionnaire. To prepare a questionnaire, as any other instruments for data collction, first of all, we must think about conceptual definition (aspects to cover) and operational definition (indicators). One thing necessary to note is that one indicator cannot always be broken down to more than one item -under such condition then the indicator itself is the item (question/statement).

No
In addition to questionnaire, data on affective domain can also be gathered through observation. Consider the following observational checklist of student activity in discussion: Other methods that can be taken to assess affective domain are journal reports, inter-peer assessment, and interviews.

Assessing Psychomotoric Domain
Assessing performance is done by observing the students doing something. The aspects assessed consist of: 1) imitating, 2) constructing, 3) doing with a procedure, 4) doing well and precisely, and 5) doing an action naturally. In ELT, performance is language use, either spoken or written. In order to be practical when doing assessment a rating skill or checklist is needed. For instance, teacher asks students to deliver a speech. For assessing students' speech, teacher can use check list and rating scale as in table 1  and table 2 (Sa'idah, Yulistianti, dan Farida, 2017). For assessing the learning, it is done by evaluating an assignment which covers the activities of designing, implementing and reporting. The assignment must be completed within a certain period/time (Ditjen Pendidikan Dasar dan Menengah, 2017). For example, teacher gives an assignment that students in a group of 5 must create a video of narrative story.
For assessing students' work, teacher can use both check list and rating scale. Several studies (e.g. Hung, 2016) report that portfolio is good for use in language teaching and assessment. It is supported by Akhter (2017) that using portfolio in language teaching; knowledge can be shown by students and information to judge students in their learning progress can be accumulated by the teacher. Portfolio assessment allievates students' anxiety towards English tests. Some students also expressed they have higher English learning motivation while their teachers implemented portfolio assessment to replace traditional assessment. This authentic assessment can directly portrait the students' attitude, knowledge and skill is portfolio. It is an assessment based on a collection of reflective-integrative information that shows the development of students' abilities in a given period. Practically speaking, with portfolio students may collect their work in a folder and will submit it to the teacher at a specified time. For instance, a teacher will assess students writing skill whose topic is 'My Diary'. For this, students should write minimum two products of written form work every week for three months and collect them in a folder. At a specified time, students submit their works to the teacher and the teacher can use the form below to assess the students' works, for example:

No.
Student's name 2. Story or text retelling 3. Writing samples --generating a text, paper 4. Projects/exhibitions 5. Experiments/demonstrations 6. Constructed-rsponse items --responding in writing to open-ended 7. Portfolios --focused collection of student work to show progress over time

THE WEAKNESSES OF AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT
As written above, authentic assessment to most teachers dramatically leads to a harder job. It is because applying the authentic assessment is time-consuming. Take for an example, a teacher who teaches 24 hours per week has to teach 12 classes each of which consists of 36 students. It will be equal to a 432-student work correction. It does not only take time and energy to do, but also there will be threat of evaluator bias (accordingly in need of inter-raters procedure and rubric). Aliningsih and Sofwan (2015) state that the teachers' main problem in applying the authentic assessment is that they have large number of students, exhausting and timeconsuming activities, and complicated administration. Therefore, it is challenging for teachers of English to implement authentic assessment.

BENEFITS OF AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT
Good chance for students who have high anxiety level under traditional testing situations (heavily language dependent). Not only the language is important in learning a language, content is also important. What happens if a student writes in a very good English, but unfortunately it does not make sense? Empowering students to take control of their own learning/to become independent thinkers and users of language. Bridging the "distance" between learning within the walls of the school and that of informal life (no wonder if adults outside the schools and parents are involved).
Those all above are promising in the sense that our English language teaching, learning, and testing would most probably be better sooner or later with the implementation of authentic assessment. It is because authentic assessment is beneficial in most learning contexts and it is necessary for every age (Reynisdottir, 2016). It is also stated by Fox, et al, 2017) that authentic assessment also touches a socio-cultural standpoint; it offers students the opportunity to learn through engagement peers and with the wider community. Complaint in the part of teachers is most likely a temporary reaction over a demanding new system, until they recognise this as a valuable investment that gives positive impact on their teaching and learning, as wise words say 'no pain no gain'.

CONCLUSION
In the context of teaching, authentic assessment uses multi-sources of data to get a comprehensive picture of student's capacity with regard to a particular course. The multi-sources of data demands that teachers have good teaching learning administration such as teaching journal, students' attitude assessment, students' knowledge assessment, students' psychomotoric assessment, teaching learning diary, etc. It is hoped that the administration make teachers stay comfortable in their class and feel more enthusiastic in teaching their students.
To better practice authentic assessment willy nilly a teacher must learn data collection (and, of course. data analysis) techniques. By doing so, an EFL teacher also practices their knowledge of research. Hopefully, by practicing authentic assessment well, teacher's research passion would also increase because a teacher also serves as a classroom researcher.