For Uzbekistan, the XXI century started as a century of information and new technologies, culture, economy and scientific innovations. Innovative factors are one of the peculiarities of modern educational system. Starting from the first years of independence, educating harmoniously developed generation is defined as one of the priorities of the state policy. Here, official acts of the Republic of Uzbekistan, decrees, enactments and social-political ideas of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, National Program, decrees of Cabinet of Ministers, and other legislative and legal documents define the essence and significance of reforms in education have been elaborated. Nowadays, while implementing the third phase of National program of preparing personnel, all new specialists undergoing the higher educational system are required to know one or several foreign languages. In connection with this, huge tasks are set before teachers of English language; teachers became one of the main subjects of educational reforms. Therefore, if a teacher is open to welcome new pedagogical innovations, he can provide goal-oriented introduction of innovative ideas into educational process. Lately, range of significant official acts were issued on accelerating and developing the foreign languages teaching; per se, they define the state policy towards teaching foreign languages.
New approaches in the system of education also influenced on the learning and teaching of foreign languages, as language is the major factor of person’s development. The first President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov highlighted the organization of a complex system of learning and teaching foreign languages in the country, focused on the upbringing of comprehensively developed, educated and intellectual young generation of people, who can meet the requirements of the time. After the Presidential Decree “On measures to further improve of foreign language learning system” a lot of projects have been done as an implementation of this important document. We can mention that from 2013/2014 academic year teaching of foreign languages, mainly English, started from the first grade of the primary school in the format of games and informal conversation lessons and since the second class schoolchildren learned the alphabet, studied grammar and developed speaking skills. In addition, regular training programs shown in the mass media are giving positive results not only in acquisition of knowledge and skills, but also in motivating Uzbek children to foreign language learning. Within this short period in any part of our country, we can meet parents who are proud of their children speaking English. Therefore, the necessary conditions for successful learning of foreign languages at all grades are being created in the country.
As the environment of language teaching and learning was based on traditional way, the implementation of a new system of teaching, learning and assessing foreign languages (CEFR) into educational process become the demand of time. It plays the important role in accelerating the quality of teaching and learning to new stage. As a result, many tasks in creating opportunities, facilities and appropriate educational atmosphere based on CEFR should be carried on.
The degree of progress and result of any approach in teaching usually identified through assessment, which is one of the essential subjects in my opinion, as there is a significant difference between traditional and CEFR assessment. Accordingly, assessment is considered as the process of collecting, analyzing and recording information about students’ progress towards achievement of syllabus outcomes. An important purpose of it is to design appropriate learning programs for all students. Of course, it should be based on learning outcomes that exactly state what students already know, understand and are able to.
Assessing student work is essential to determining if students have achieved important skills and knowledge. This is especially true for writing because this is both knowledge and skill based. Many western scholars recommended efficient ways of assessing students’ writing. For instance, Englert, Raphael, Anderson, Anthony and Stevens (1991) provided a model of a five-step writing process using the acronym POWER Figure 1:
Each step has its own sub steps and strategies that become sophisticated as the students become more mature as writers, accommodating their style to specific structures and purposes of writing. Assessment of the writing process can be done through observation of students as they go through the steps of writing. However, we should take into account that the students are practicing writing process, they cannot be experts or we cannot expect them full finished piece of writing. Every teacher wants her students to write well. However, the stacks of paperwork can intimidate her.
As Frank Holes mentioned in his article that before using state is rubrics which assesses everything, writing students should practice fundamentals, skills and the most advanced techniques. It is the daily practice on these little skills and fundamentals where the greatest improvements can occur.
In order to achieve this improvement during the lessons we need to breakdown the overall rubrics into manageable pieces. To success on this, it is recommended the FCAs (Focal Correction Areas). So, what is FCA? The answer is -Focus Correction Areas (FCAs) are a powerful tool to help students target areas of improvement and allow teachers to grade papers quickly and efficiently. Focus correcting is a selective approach to grading student writing that allows students to concentrate on a few growth areas at a time out of hundreds of possibilities.
Form and format can be most common to start. Teacher should teach the students how he or she wants their writing to look. This includes the student name and topic at the top of the page (along with whatever else is required). Moving into the format of the sentences paragraph, or essay it is required brainstorming and organizing, complete sentences, topic sentences supports and clinchers in each paragraph. Students work on these aspects until they are automatic parts of the writing. It will reinforce their skills if they are given interesting, easy topics and provide plenty of activities to practice. If the FCAs include topic sentences or clinchers, students should underline those sentences. If three supports or using particular vocabulary and terms are required, students should be asked to put the number in the margin or circle them. It is better to have the students score their papers and add up the points they earned on their FCAs. This will be a checklist, ensuring they actually covered all of the assignment’s requirements. This will save hours of time and allow teachers to provide many more writing activities.
References:
- Krashen and Terrell, The natural approach: Language acquisition in the classroom. Alemany Press,1983.-p.-64
- Peter,W. The teaching of English as an International Language,1998.-p.-143
- Shaughnessey, Mina P. Errors and Expectations- guide for the teacher of basic writing. Oxford University Press, 1977.-p.-234.
- Tomlinson, Carol Ann, How to Differentiate Instructions in Mixed Ability Classrooms, Alexandria, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2001.-p.74
- http:// littlemissteacherkl.blogspot.com
- http://www.collinsed.com/cwp.htm
