In recent years, with the deepening of teaching reform, the theory of educational evaluation has made great progress. As teachers, we should combine the theory of educational evaluation with teaching work to make theory serve practice. Taking English teaching as an example, this paper discusses the application of descriptive assessment.

First, the value of descriptive evaluation

1. The position of descriptive evaluation in educational evaluation

Scientific educational evaluation is an important guarantee to achieve the goal of middle school English curriculum. The new curriculum standard requires the establishment of a diversified and diversified evaluation system, and pays attention to the role of formative evaluation in students' development. English Curriculum Standard for Senior High School (Experiment) points out: "Formative assessment is an important part and driving factor of teaching. The task of formative assessment is to evaluate students' performance, achievements and the development of emotions, attitudes and strategies in the daily learning process. Its purpose is to motivate students to learn, help them to effectively regulate their own learning process, make them gain a sense of accomplishment, enhance their self-confidence and cultivate the spirit of cooperation. "① Formative evaluation is a continuous evaluation of students' learning behavior, learning ability, learning attitude and cooperative spirit through teachers' observation, discussion or interview, activity records, questionnaires, reading notes, students' self-evaluation or mutual evaluation. The evaluation method can be the combination of testing and non-testing, or the combination of individuals and groups, and it is the evaluation of students, peers, teachers and parents. Formative evaluation is conducted in a relaxed, open and informal atmosphere. The evaluation results can be embodied in descriptive evaluation, grade evaluation or grading. Descriptive evaluation is one of the most basic forms of formative evaluation.

2. The significance of descriptive evaluation

Descriptive evaluation is of great significance to promote the development of non-linguistic factors. The new curriculum standard attaches importance to the development of non-linguistic factors and emphasizes the combination of linguistic goals and non-linguistic goals. In terms of curriculum objectives, in addition to language objectives such as language knowledge and language skills, some non-language objectives are also set. "The so-called nonverbal goal is the nonverbal result produced in language learning." The purpose of English course is to cultivate students' comprehensive language application ability, which is based on the all-round development of language skills, language knowledge, emotional attitudes, learning strategies and cultural awareness. Non-linguistic factors such as emotional attitude and learning strategies are closely related to language learning and have an important influence on the process and result of language learning. Due to the complexity of education and people, educational testing is beyond our power in many aspects, and grading the test results can not fully reflect the students' English learning level. Descriptive evaluation of interest, emotion, attitude, creativity and cooperative spirit in language can help students understand themselves more objectively, help teachers understand the teaching situation more comprehensively, and provide help and guidance for the development of students' non-linguistic factors.

3. Descriptive evaluation can guide the teaching direction.

Stufflebeam said: "The most important intention of evaluation is not to prove, but to improve." Modern evaluation theory holds that evaluation is not only to judge and evaluate the effect of teaching and learning, but also to point out the teaching direction for the evaluator and the evaluated. Descriptive evaluation is usually carried out in teaching, and there is no evaluation record. The results are not used as the basis for students' summative evaluation. Descriptive evaluation attaches importance to extracting information from students' daily performance. By collecting information about students' daily study, teachers' guidance and classroom atmosphere, teachers can understand the learning situation and needs of each student, adjust teaching contents and methods at any time, and improve English teaching efficiency. Teachers' praise or criticism, affirmation or negation in classroom teaching will also cause students to think, thus standardizing students' learning methods and behaviors.

Second, the diversity of descriptive evaluation.

1. Extended Language Environment

A teacher went shopping, and a little girl said to the teacher from a distance, "Hello! Good morning, teacher! How are you? " She had just studied three classes and told everything she knew. The teacher was surprised and talked to her soon, which surprised everyone around her. The next day, the teacher praised her in class, and the students' enthusiasm for speaking English after class was immediately mobilized. ③

Nowadays, students have a strong sense of self-expression. When they meet English teachers or classmates, they like to speak a word or two of English. Teachers should encourage them, stimulate students' enthusiasm in speaking English in life and expand the extracurricular language environment.

2. Change students' learning attitude

Once in an English class, the teacher found that a boy was always writing. After class, the teacher saw that all the students were writing beautifully in English. He asked the students why they always write English in class. The student replied, "I don't know English and I can't remember words." The teacher said to the students, "your handwriting is beautiful, which shows that you are a very clever student." As long as you study hard, I believe you can learn English well. " With the help of the teacher, the student changed his learning attitude and his English scores quickly caught up.

Teachers can change students' learning attitude, activate students' learning motivation, improve students' academic performance and even promote students' development in other aspects with a few descriptive words.

3. Create a harmonious English learning atmosphere

English classroom game activities can enliven the classroom atmosphere, such as suffix games, which can well mobilize the enthusiasm of all students. Teachers' descriptive evaluation of games with incentive methods can effectively prevent students from feeling bored and create a harmonious English learning atmosphere.

4. Improve the effect of English communication

The mission of communication is to perform certain communicative functions, the most important of which are information function, adjustment function, emotion function and evaluation function. Teachers can let students perform textbook plays, stimulate students' imitation of language through descriptive evaluation of students' social roles, make students experience the happiness of success, increase the internal motivation of learning English, and thus improve the level of students' communication in English. The descriptive evaluation method of performance is as follows: (1) Do not correct the shortcomings, but only provide the correct things for students to evaluate themselves or each other. (2) Evaluate language factors, such as language fluency, coherence, accuracy and vividness. (3) Assess non-verbal factors, such as emotional input, performance skills, whether role-playing is in place, and whether image-building is realistic. (4) Through comments, discover and praise the advantages of students as much as possible, so as to mobilize the enthusiasm of students to participate.

5. The application of descriptive evaluation in examination paper evaluation.

Test scores generally produce two different results. First of all, some students study hard under the influence of scores. If you get low marks and want to change, then study hard; If you get a high score, try to keep it so as not to fall from a height. Second, some students have poor test scores, and in order to "earn" good scores, they will take chances and cheat in the exam, and develop some immoral qualities; Other students often show off themselves in front of their classmates when they get good grades, forming some bad qualities, such as pretentiousness and vanity.

Zankov said that grades do not directly affect students' learning process. If it can be expressed in this way, there are a series of internal activities between grades and their external consequences, because students are thoughtful, emotional and interested after all. Then, what can be done to make the score play a symbolic role in students' knowledge and skills, which not only helps to objectively evaluate students' achievements, but also stimulates students' enthusiasm for learning and promotes their mental health development? Looking at exams and scores from multiple angles and combining descriptive evaluation with paper evaluation can give full play to the incentive function and improve the function of exams and eliminate the negative effects brought by scores.

First of all, teachers should study the test papers and students' grades carefully. We should pay attention to three points, that is, students know their usual learning situation, the content and depth of the test questions, and the scores of the test questions. Through the examination results, we can gain insight into students' minds and understand the influence of students' learning behavior and achievements on students and parents. Talk to some students and parents and ask their opinions on English study and examination. Descriptive comments that may have a negative impact on the test results are equivalent to giving students a "vaccination."

Secondly, the paper should talk about something other than the paper. It is necessary to summarize the learning situation some time ago, such as learning content, interest, attitude and methods in learning English. It is also necessary to summarize the review and examination situation, such as whether students review carefully, whether they take exams seriously, and whether the examination style is normal. , and clearly explain to students the factors related to exam results. We should not only look at scores, but also look at students from a developmental perspective and attach importance to their different development. Students' progress is their achievement. We should not take the examination as a means to force students to study, but take the evaluation process as a process to correct students' learning attitude, stimulate students' interest in learning and improve their psychological quality.

Third, students participate in the evaluation. Teachers should also let students participate in evaluation when giving lectures. For example, in reading comprehension, translation and writing, students can be divided into several groups to discuss questions, exam answers and grading standards freely. Students can also evaluate themselves and others and fully express their opinions, and teachers can comment again on the basis of synthesizing students' opinions.

Finally, optimize the evaluation process. Students decide what they need to learn according to the information provided by the teacher's evaluation. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the pertinence, closely follow the proposition and answer ideas, and take into account the emotional changes of students after the exam, so that listening to lectures and evaluating classes will play a multiplier role. Teachers can let students discuss the thinking and interference factors of answering questions, or extend a certain knowledge point in the comments to broaden their knowledge.

Evaluation is a measure of the value of people or things, and descriptive evaluation is an evaluation of teaching achievements. In teaching evaluation, the role of descriptive evaluation is other evaluation.

What is irreplaceable by price form. We should deeply explore and rationally use this evaluation method in teaching practice to effectively improve the teaching level.

To annotate ...

① People's Republic of China (PRC) Ministry of Education: English Curriculum Standards for Senior High School (Experiment), People's Education Press, 2003, p.41.

② Richards J. Curriculum Development in Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press, 200 1

③ Chen et al.: Practical Encyclopedia of Middle School English Classroom Teaching Method, Inner Mongolia University Press, 1998, p. 823.

4 [Su] column? Operator? Zankov: Dialogue with Teachers, edited by Du Dianzhong, Education Science Press, 1980, p. 145.

Authors: Jintang Experimental Middle School in Sichuan Province

(Editor Tian Xinxin)