The Effect of Performance Based Assessment on Language Accuracy of Tenth Grade English Language Students at Mafraq Borough Directorate of Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of using performance-based assessment on tenth grade students' language accuracy achievement in Mafraq Borough Directorate- Jordan. Equivalent pre/post-test two group design was used. through a pre/post-test comprehension test with grammar components was constructed to measure students' achievement in language accuracy. The sample of this study consisted of 128 tenth grade students; sixty-four were male students from The First Secondary School for Boys, and sixty-four were female students from Princess Alia Bent Al-Hussein School for Girls during the first semester of the academic year 2009/2010.  The subjects of the study were distributed among four groups (a female experimental group and control group, and a male experimental group and control group). The experimental groups were evaluated using performance based Assessment, while the control groups were evaluated via traditional pencil and paper test. The subjects were (32) male students for the experimental group and (32) male students for the control group, while the female students for the experimental and control group were (32) and (32) respectively. Those subjects were distributed among four purposefully selected sections in two schools that were also selected purposefully. The findings of the study indicated that there were statistically significant differences in the post- test between the control group and the experimental group in favor of the experimental group, and there was a statistically significant difference in the students' achievement due to gender in favor of females. There was statistically significant difference due to the interaction between gender and group in favor of female students in the experimental group.

Keywords: Performance Based Assessment. Language Accuracy. 10th grade students. Mafraq. Jordan