based on the cloze test system; however, every second word there was
deleted. It could seem quite a complicated type, though it is not.
According to Weir (1990:47) in this type every deleted word is partially
preserved. Thus, the students, if they possess a fairly good knowledge of
the language and can activate their schemata, or background knowledge of a
topic or the world, they will succeed in completing the test. Such test
format could look as follows:
Cats ha…. always been surro………by superstitions. In anc……Egypt
ca….were cons……. sacred, but in medi…..Europe ma….. people beli…… cats we….
witches in disgu…… A popular supers……... about ca…. is that a blac…cat,
cros… your pa… from left to rig…., will bri… you bad lu…. However, in some
cult….. a black ca… is thought to be a go… omen rat… than a ba… one.
(First certificate Star, Luke
Prodromou, p.134)
Definitely there are advantages and disadvantages of the following
test format. According to Weir, due to the frequency of the deleted items
there is a great possibility to include more tested items in the test.
Moreover, this test is economical. However, despite all the advantages, the
test can mislead the students as it is fragmented. The examples are
deprived from the context that could be very helpful for the students’
guessing of the missing parts.
5.5 True/False items
This test format is familiar for all the teachers and students. Each
reading task will always be followed with true/false activities that will
intend to check the students’ comprehension of a text. The students will be
offered a set of statements some of which are true and some are wrong,
e.g.:
1. People went to see ‘Cats’ because of the story. T F
2. Lloyd Webber’s father helped his career. T F
3. Lloyd Webber comes from a musical family. T F
( Famous Britons, Michael
Dean)
They usually should be ticked, and in order to tick the correct variants
the students have to be able to employ various guessing strategies.
According to Weir (1990:48), the advantage of such test is found in
its applicability and suitability. One can write more true/false statements
for a test and use them to check the students’ progress or achievement.
Furthermore, the current sort of testing could be more motivating for the
students than a multiple-choice test. It will not make the students
confused offering just one possibility than a multiple-choice test, which
typically proposes more than one option to choose from. Moreover, it is
easy to answer for the students and check for the teachers.
5.6 Dictation
Another test format that could be applied in the language classroom is
dictation. We commonly use dictations to check spelling; nevertheless, it
could be applied to test listening comprehension, as well. It is obvious
that to dictate something we have either to speak or read. It means that
while writing a dictation the student has to be able to perceive the spoken
language efficiently enough to produce in on paper. For this purpose the
student will require a variety of techniques such as schemata and its
application, predictions, guessing and context clues, etc. Further, it also
is constrained that dictation help the students develop their abilities to
distinguish between phonemes, separate words and intonation. Besides,
dictations function in spoken language; thereof the students have an
opportunity to learn to understand the language through listening. To
conclude what has been mentioned above we can agree with Weir (1990:49)
that dictations will force the students to use the variety of skills:
listening, reading, speaking and writing skills.
Heaton (1990:28) advises that to enable the students comprehend
successfully, the teacher need to read carefully and clearly, however
avoiding slow, word for word reading. Moreover, to allow the students to
check what they have written the repetition will be required. The author of
the paper when giving dictations to her students had encountered the need
for repetition for a number of times. The following could be explained by
many factors, such as the students are not able to perceive spoken speech
through listening; they are not able to elaborate various guessing,
inferring of the meaning techniques or their pace of writing is simply
rather slow. Thus, we entirely support the next statement claimed by Heaton
that it is wise after the first reading of a dictation to ask a set of
comprehension questions to make the students aware of the general idea of a
text. It will simplify the process of the understanding.
Notwithstanding, even an ideal variant will definitely contain some
drawbacks. The same could be applied to dictations. First, to write a
dictation, the student requires a good memory. S/he has to retain
information they have heard in order to display it later; moreover, the
information should be identical to the original. Therefore, we can claim
that the student has to recognize at least seventy-eighty per cent of what
has been dictated. In that case we short-term memory should be well
developed.
Apart from memory, scoring could be problematic, as well. Weir
(1990:50) believes that is difficult to decide what to pay attention to:
whether to evaluate spelling and grammar, or just perceived information.
Thus, the teacher has to work out a certain set of criteria, as we have
already mentioned that in Chapter 1, the criteria s/he will be operating
with. Besides, the students should be acquainted with it, as well.
In addition, Weir (ibid.) says that dictating is more efficient if it
is recorded on the tape and is delivered by a native speaker. It could mean
that the students will have a chance to fell themselves in the real-life
situation; for this is the actual purpose they learn the language for. The
following has been expanded by Heaton (ibid.) that speaking face to face
with a speaker is even more beneficial, for we can compensate the lack of
understanding by his/her facial expression, gestures and movements.
Listening to a cassette does not provide us with such a chance, and
therefore, it is more challenging and requires more developed skills to
understand a recorded message.
5.7 Listening Recall
This test format is specifically applied to testing listening skills.
It differs from a dictation that it supplies the students with a printed
text. However, the text is given not as the complete script of the tape.
Certain words that carry the meaning load are deleted from a passage, and
the students after listening to the tape are supposed to insert them.
Hence, it could be related to a gap-filling test. Here the cassette is
usually played for two times; first, the students listen for information
and attempt to insert the missing details. The second time allows them to
add what they had failed to understand at the beginning. The author of the
paper had not used that as a direct test format but as a while-listening
activity during her classes. According to her scrutiny the students with
more advanced language abilities were able to comprehend the texts
immediately, whereas the weaker students sometimes could not manage to
understand the message even listening for the tape for the third time. That
again proves the significance of usage of pre-, while and post-listening
activities in the language classroom. Weir (ibid.) states that such type of
testing involves the students’ short-time memory, which they need to switch
while listening to the tape.
According to Weir (ibid.), one of the advantages of listening recall
is uncomplicated construction, administration and marking.
Nevertheless, there are several disadvantages, as well. There is a
danger, that the students will read the passage before listening to the
tape, thus we will not be able to evaluate exactly their listening skills.
The author of the current paper had encountered the similar situation,
where the teacher warns the students not to read but just listen. However,
they start reading immediately after receiving the text, even though the
tape record being still turned off.
5.8 Testing Grammar Through Error-recognition Items and Word Formation
Tasks
One of the test formats for testing grammar is error-recognition
items. Here the teacher writes sentences underlining various words. One of
the words is obligatory wrong, and the students have to identify what word
is wrong and should be corrected. Heaton (ibid.) introduces a variation of
that type, saying that the teacher can supply the students with incorrect
sentences asking the students to provide the right variant. This again
demands a fairly good knowledge of the subject from the students to
differentiate between the right and wrong variants. In that case the error-
recognition format could be compared with multiple-choice format and even
called a branch of it. Below you can find the example of error-recognition
items format:
1. I can’t come to the phone – I have / I’m having a shower!
2. I watched/ I was watching TV when suddenly the telephone
rang.
3. I had been waiting/ I had waited in the rain for ages when
she finally turned up.
(First certificate Star, Luke
Prodromou, p.12)
Further, for testing grammar and language structures we often use
word-formation tasks, e.g.:
Making friends and ………people is a gift that some influence
………….people seem to be born with, while for others it luck
is a skill that has to be ……..through practice and acquire
hard work. It is, however, …….to know that most skills, comfort
particularly ………….skill, can be learnt and that it is never society
too late to start improving.
(First certificate Star, Luke
Prodromou, p.41)
or
|verb |noun |person |Adjective |
|Invent | | | |
| | |discoverer |- |
| |creation | | |
It is frequently used in centralized exams to know the students’
ability to coin new words that displays the students’ advanced level of the
language. The students are demanded coining nouns from verbs, adjectives
from nouns, etc. This requires certain knowledge of prefixes, suffixes and
roots in order to create a necessary word. Word coinage is an inevitable
skill for recognizing new word items either.
5.9 Controlled writing
In order to check the students grammar and writing ability the
teacher can use different test formats: transformation, broken sentences,
sentence and paragraph completion, form filling, notes and diaries.
According to Heaton (1990:32), transformation deals with re-writing
sentences. For example, the students are asked to change a sentence in
Active voice into a sentence in Passive voice. To differ the task the
teacher can put the required word in brackets at the end of each sentence.
The students will need to transform a sentence to fit the word in brackets.
Or another example of transformation could be changing the focus of the
sentence, e.g.:
1. Berlin is not an easy city to move about in.
Difficult
It………………………in Berlin.
2. I wonder if you could open the window.
Could
You couldn’t ………………….
3. When did you start to learn English?
Been
How…………………….English?
(First certificate Star, Luke
Prodromou, and p.40)
Further, he discusses the sentences that are divided into fragments
(he calls them broken sentences), and the student’s task is to arrange the
words in order to produce correct examples. Thus, the students have to know
grammar and syntaxes to make a right sentence with the correct word order.
Sometimes the students are asked to alter the words to make grammatically
correct sentences, e.g.:
1. a German/hunting/huge/black dog
2. a 25-year-old/Opera/tall singer
3. a brand-new/plastic/shopping/green bag
4. an English/young/interesting teacher
(First certificate Star, Luke
Prodromou, and p.80)
Afterwards, the students can be asked to complete the whole
paragraphs, finish dialogues, write diaries using the given information,
and fill the form, for example hotel check-in. The author of the paper had
used writing a diary in her 8th form, when the learners had to write the
diary of captain’s wife whose husband disappeared in the sea. They also had
to write the diary of the captain himself before the catastrophe. The
students liked the task immensely.
5.10 Free writing
Heaton (ibid.) believes that the most suitable way to check the
students’ writing skills is asking them to write a composition. The teacher
can include a variety of testing criteria there depending on what is really
being tested. The topics for a composition should be appropriate to the age
of the students and respond to their interest. However, the teacher has to
establish clearly what s/he is going to check (the material studied: e.g.
grammar) and what could be neglected. The students have to know whether
the teacher is interested in the context or may be s/he is concerned with
grammar and spelling, as well.
5.11 Test Formats Used in Testing Speaking Skills
We are not going to deep into details of test formats used for
testing speaking skills. Heaton (ibid.) displays that one of the most
essential elements of testing speaking is pronunciation. To check how the
students pronounce certain testing items the teacher may ask his/her
students to read aloud and retell stories. Moreover, the teacher will
receive the impression how well his/her students can operate with the
spoken language.
Afterwards, the teachers can use pictures to test the students’
speaking skills. This is widely used task, and a lot of teachers use it to
check the students speaking skills and the knowledge of the vocabulary.
Moreover, while describing the picture the student will have to imply the
correct grammar and knowledge of the English sentence structure. The
Страницы: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
|