Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2004. Vol. 4. Eger Journal of English Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 30)

KATALIN LAZAREVICS Testing Written English through Pairwork

152 Katalin Lazarevics Participants Testing written performance through pairwork is not possible unless candidates share the same idea about it, i.e. everybody agrees. Young adults (students) are usually happy to cooperate because of obvious reasons and, in return, they are ready to promise not to use cheat sheets. Primary school pupils were surprised at their teacher's proposal about paired testing but, after the first shock, they were quite positive about it. Anyway, testing in pairwork should never happen because of the authority, or under the pressure of, the teacher. It is also important that each student give their consent prior to test taking to accept the same score and the same mark awarded by the teacher, with no regard to their individual contribution. Pairing Pupils Making pairs can be organized in two ways: (1) candidates are free to choose their partners, or (2) it is the teacher who decides about it. Provided that pairwork had not been announced in advance and students did not have the opportunity to agree who is learning what for the test we can assume that they come to the classroom decently prepared. In this case friendship, realiability and trust are the major considerations for their choice. Motivation for choosing a partner was investigated in all groups concerned, and it was interesting to find that nobody wished to benefit from a much better student's performance. Moreover, all college students held the belief that everybody else was better prepared than themselves, consequently they were ready to accept anyone for a partner in the group. Those college students who came late could work with a person left alone if there was one, or join an existing couple. A third choice was to work individually, which was not popular and can be considered evidence for feeling safer with a partner. The case is a little bit different in the lower forms of primary school where gender differences are a serious concern. Young children are not willing to choose a partner from the opposite sex which is natural for their age, but makes their choice limited. In certain cases it is the teacher who must take the responsibility for making couples. Marks and Results Is it always crucial to find out about each candidate's individual performance? Is it really so very important? In some cases, it is. But, if the couples have agreed to accept the same mark why should the teacher not rely on their judgement? Each pupil has an idea about how they are going to perform and they choose a partner accordingly. Accepting the same mark is part of their self assessment and peer assessment because they expect their