INCREASING PUPILS INTEREST AND ENGAGEMENT DURING LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT PROCESS THROUGH SMARTFORMS

Learning a language, especially a second language, is not as straightforward as it seems. In fact, it is a complex process that involves several skills, which will lead to the ultimate goal of language comprehension and output. When learning a language, pupils need to understand what they have listened or read so that teachers can evaluate their comprehension level of the subject content. In order to ensure that pupils will be engaged during the assessment process, many new and different teaching strategies and methods that incorporate ICT elements have to be applied. In this modern age where rapid advancement in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is evident, this concept is especially relevant and crucial in the 21st-century classrooms today. The question is how can we move away from the traditional method of assessing language comprehension using exercise books and worksheets? These conventional methods of assessing language comprehension have decreased in popularity and slowly losing its ability in engaging pupils in the assessment process. Hence this paper was set to investigate how the innovation, SmartForms could increase the interest and engagement of pupils in the process of completing the language assessment tasks. In context, 50 Year-3 pupils from two primary schools in Melaka Tengah, Malacca and Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia had been selected to participate in the study carried out using this innovation during English lessons. Data for this action research was collected through the use of pre and post- perception questionnaire survey after pupils participated in the intervention carried out. Research findings revealed that this innovation increased pupils’ interest and engagement during the language assessment process. SmartForms has the potential to be used as an alternative tool to evaluate pupils’ comprehension skill of other academic and non-academic subjects.