diagnostic assessment

[nedira]

I want to know what diagnostic assessment means and how should any FL teacher apply it in his classroom?.I am supposed to carry out a diagnostic assessment at the beginning of the school year but I do not know what does it exactly mean.Thanks

[RonBee]

A diagnostic assessment doesn't seem to me like something a teacher would do.

Diagnostic Assessment

[RonBee]

Um, what's an FL teacher?

[Raymott]

I want to know what diagnostic assessment means and how should any FL teacher apply it in his classroom?.I am supposed to carry out a diagnostic assessment at the beginning of the school year but I do not know what does it exactly mean.Thanks

There are various reasons for testing students - selection, feedback, evaluation, experimental ....
You can test for achievement - to see how much a person has learnt from a set course.
You can test for proficiency - to see generally how well a student has mastered the subject.
You can test for aptitude - to decide whether it's worth putting a student through a new course.
A diagnostic test is to determine if there is a need for remedial testing. It's like the reverse of an achievement test. You are interested in what the student gets wrong rather than what they get right. A diagnostic test of your pupils could actually be a test of your teaching, and what you need to improve.
In your case, it sounds like you are to get an idea of each student's weaknesses, so that you know what to concentrate on for them.

[konungursvia]

Yes, schoolteachers following the "new wave" of assessment philosophy (see Talk about assessment by Damien Cooper) use three kinds of assessment regularly:

Diagnostic assessment: before each lesson, to ensure students are capable of the tasks involved
Formative assessment: marked work which doesn't "count" but helps students identify where they are doing well, where they are not
Summative assessment: marked work that "counts" on the reports.

Most assessments should be the first two types, according to the philosophy.

Examples of diagnostic assessment: asking questions related to the lesson task; having the class perform a small part of the task, to see if they can...

[nedira]

FL teacher is a foreign language teacher.

[carelessman]

diagnostic assessment allows you to know your student's current class readiness.

it could take various forms including quiz test, direct questions, 5 minutes paper test, or PPT documents, etc.

and then teacher generalize students current ability to know on what levels of target does he/she is going to teach.

it could be used everytime before the class or skipped.

For further reference look for ESL or EFL teaching books or dictionaries.