Teaching & Assessment in Macroskills  Use variety of techniques and tools.

Assessment Purposes of Assessment

 Use basic concepts in language testing in assessing  1) assessment for learning;
language proficiency.  2) assessment as learning; and
 3) assessment of learning.
Module 1: Principles & Purposes of Language Assessment
Key Concepts The above order or sequence (for, as, of) is intentional, indicating
 Assessment the importance of assessment for learning and assessment as
 Testing learning in enhancing student learning.
 Language Testing
 Measurement Assessment of learning
 Evaluation  is used in making summative decisions.
Assessment  The purposes are distinct, but interrelated.
 is the act of gathering information on a daily basis in order Assessment as learning
to understand individual students learning and needs.  focuses on the role of the student as the critical
 In language teaching and learning, ‘assessment’ refers to connector between assessment and learning. The
the act of collecting information and making judgements a students actively monitor and critically assess their own
language learner’s knowledge of a language and ability to learning and use the feedback from this monitoring to make
use it.” (Carol Chapelle and Geoff Brindley) adjustments, adaptations, and even major changes in
 Assessment data inform the teachers of what, how, how what they understand and how they are learning.
much, and how well the students are learning what they Assessment for learning
are teaching, based on mutually agreed explicit  provides feedback to both the teacher and the student
criteria. of the latter's progress towards achieving the learning
Testing outcomes, which should be used by the teacher to
 refers to procedures that are based on tests. In learning, it revise and develop further instruction.
is a salient part of assessment.
Language Testing  Both assessment as learning and assessment for
 Is the practice and study of evaluating the proficiency of an learning occur throughout the learning process, making it
individual in using a particular language effectively.” formative in nature.
(Priscilla Allen)  Assessment of learning occurs at the end of the course,
Testing when teachers use evidence of student learning to make
 Language Testing is the practice and study of evaluating judgments on the student’s achievement against
the proficiency of an individual in using a particular competencies and standards stated as learning outcomes,
language effectively. making it summative in nature. Whatever the purpose of
 Language testing is a field of study under the umbrella of assessment, they all use a variety of assessment methods.
applied linguistics.  Examination questions should enable the student to
 Its main focus is the assessment of first, second or other demonstrate the deeper insights and higher order thinking
language in the school, college, or university context; skills (HOTS). Alternative modes of assessment, such as
assessment of language use in the workplace; and reflection papers, projects, portfolios, etc., can demonstrate
assessment of language in the immigration, citizenship, a range of competencies that cover analytical, critical, and
and asylum contexts. synthetic thinking.
 For example:
 The assessment may include listening, speaking, reading,  Assessment for an engineering class showing the
writing, an integration of two or more of these skills, or students’ theoretical knowledge, practical skills, and
other constructs of language ability. Equal weight may be creativity, could be through design or manufacturing a
product.
placed on knowledge (understanding how the language
 Assessment for a philosophy class demonstrating the
works theoretically) and proficiency (ability to use the students’ analytical and critical thinking could be through a
language practically), or greater weight may be given to discourse and reflection paper.
one aspect or the other.  Remember that in developing alternative modes of
evaluation and assessment, rubrics must be clear so that
Measurement the process maintains a certain objectivity and
 More broadly includes testing and other types of transparency. These rubrics will have to be developed
measurement, as well as other types of information that by each teacher (or by the department) and
result in quantitative data such as attendance, records, communicated to the students. This also means that the
questionnaires, teacher ratings of students, etc. students should take a more proactive role in their own
Evaluation learning.
 Is the culminating act of interpreting the information  Assessments of students should be:
gathered for the purpose of making decisions or -Valid (based on sound criteria)
judgements about student’s learning and needs, often at -Reliable-(accuracy of the assessment)
reporting time. It forms as part of assessment. -Comparable (they stand up when they are compared in
B. Assessment and Evaluation Principles other departments or schools.
 Derive from curriculum objectives and consistent with the
instructional and learning strategies. Functions of Language Tests
 Select appropriate techniques based on the students’ o In learning
learning style and purpose to give students the opportunity Tests are used to measure student’s language ability, to discover
to demonstrate the extent of their knowledge, abilities and how much they have been learning, to diagnose the students’
attitudes. strengths and weaknesses, and to motivate students in learning.
 Communicate evaluation strategies informing the students a. sometimes, language teachers choose to test students through
of the objectives and assessment procedures relative to periodical quizzes and tests of achievements.
the objectives. b. At other times, instructor assess their students language
 Fair and equitable. proficiency after several years of language study.
 Communicate with students, parents, guardians regularly.
 c. c. At other times, language teachers use tests for placement
and diagnostic reasons and other purposes.
3. Portfolios
o In Teaching Portfolios are personalized long-term documentation of student
a. Tests are used in teaching as a means to ensure effective mastery of course material. One essential element of portfolios is
teaching, to improve teaching quality, to obtain feedback student reflection on their own learning and progression towards the
on student learning place on course. mastery of the material documented in the portfolio. As such,
b. Test can have a “backwash” effect” which means that they portfolios are windows on the metacognitive process of students.
may have result in changes of instructional programs or Types of Portfolios
teaching strategies to reflect the test contents because In order to be useful as assessment tools the portfolio
should include entries that demonstrate a progression of student
language teachers want their students to do well on high
understandings and ultimately mastery of the concepts. Huba and
stake tests for many different reasons. Freed (2000) identify two different portfolio types.
o In Research  All-Inclusive Portfolios that contain a complete record of all
a. Language tests have a potentially important role in virtually work done by a student in a course or program.
all research, both basic and applied, that is related to the  Selection Portfolios that are focused on documenting the
nature of the language proficiency, language acquisition, achievement of mastery of specific course goals/objectives
language processing, language attrition, and language set by the course instructor.
teaching.

Module 2: Types of Language Assessments 4. Checklist

Kinds of Assessment and Evaluation
A checklist is a tool for identifying the presence or absence
1. Diagnostic Assessment and Evaluation- Occur at the beginning of conceptual knowledge, skills, or behaviors. Checklists are used for
of the school year and before each unit of study. identifying whether key tasks in a procedure, process, or activity
have been completed. The tasks may be a sequence of steps or
2. Formative Assessment and Evaluation- Its focus is on the include items to verify that the correct sequence was followed. You
process and products of learning. may need to observe the tasks being followed because, in general,
you cannot judge what tasks the learner did from the end product.
3. Summative Assessment and Evaluation- Occur most often at Remember that some attitudes may be indirectly observed.
the end of a unit of instruction and at term or year end when
students are ready to demonstrate achievement of curriculum
objectives. 5. Rubrics
Rubrics use a set of criteria to evaluate a student’s performance.
Types of assessment tools They consist of fixed measurement scale and detailed description of
the characteristic for each level of performance. These descriptions
[Link] focus on the quality of the product of performance and not the
Observation occurs during students’ daily reading, writing, quantity; e.g., not number of paragraph, examples to support and
listening, and speaking experiences. It is an unobtrusive means by idea, spelling errors.
which teachers (and students) can determine their progress during
learning. Observations can be recorded as anecdotal notes and on Rubrics are commonly used to evaluate student performance with
checklist or rating scales. the intention of including the result in a grade for reporting purposes.
Rubrics can increase the consistency and reliability of scoring. The
2. Anecdotal records inclusion of rubrics in teaching resource provide opportunities to
Anecdotal records are notes written by the teacher consider what demonstrations of learning look like, and to describe
regarding student language behavior, or learning. They document stages in the development and growth of knowledge, understanding
and describe significant daily events, and relevant aspects of student and skills.
activity and progress. These notes can be taken during student
activities or at the end of the day. Formats for collection should be To be most effective, rubrics should allow student to see the
flexible and easy to use. (On the succeeding page is a sample of an progression of mastery in the development of understanding and
anecdotal record.) skills.

Student: Luige Sister Age: 50 6. Rating scales

Observer: Michelle McGrady Date: July, 30 3020
Setting: Classroom Rating Scales allow teachers to indicate the degree or frequency of
Purpose: To observe Luige’s sentence structure with peers.
Observational question: Does Luige use simple sentences or more the behaviors, skills and strategies displayed by the learner. Rating
complex sentences when interacting with peers? scales state the criteria and provide three of four response selection
Observation Details: to describe the quality or frequency of student work. Teaching
Luige played with the drama materials for 15 minutes using the dress- students to use descriptive words, such as always, usually,
ups and examining himself in the mirror. He walked over to the home
corner table and said to another boy. ‘ Hey give me that, He took the sometimes and never helps them pinpoint specific strengths and
spoon from the other student. I spoke to Luige and asked him to give needs. Rating scales also gives students information for setting goals
the spoon back to the other student and said, I like choc milk and a and improving performance. In the rating scale, the descriptive words
biscuit too!’ is more important than the related number. The more precise the
I asked the children to pack away. Another adult approached Luige
asking him to help pack away. Luige replied to the adult, ‘And then descriptive words for each of these point, the more the reliable the
can we go outside?’ The adult replied, Yes!’ Luige shouted Yay and tool. Effective rating scales use descriptors with clearly understood
started packing away. measures, such as frequency. Scales that rely on subjective
Analysis: descriptors of quality such as fair, good or excellent are less effective
Luige was able to use both simple and complex sentence structure.
He demonstrated confidence in his interactions with his peers. Luige because the single adjective does not contain enough information on
was able to engage in appropriate ‘turn taking’ during his brief what criteria are indicated at each of these points on the scale.
conversation with an adult.
6. Speaking and Listening
Checklist, rating scales, and anecdotal notes used
throughout the lessons can provide information about the students’
oral progress. Oral presentations and incidental observations provide • The content of a proficiency test, is not based on the content or
opportunities to gather information about students’ listening and objectives of language courses that people taking the test may have
speaking abilities. A rubric which includes performance criteria can followed.
be useful for setting a mark for each student. Student should be
aware of the expectations of each level. Guidelines in making a proficiency test
Speaking or listening may be more heavily emphasized 1. Find a proficiency testing provider.
depending upon the particular unit or activities. Teachers possibly in 2. Create a proficiency testing plan.
collaboration with their student, will determine the way that the unit 3. Participate in proficiency testing schemes.
will be evaluated; however, it is important that the students know 4. Review and evaluate your results; and
from the beginning how they will be assessed and evaluated. 5. Submit your results to your accreditation body.
Proficiency have 5 major levels:
8. Interviews and conferences 1. Distinguished level;
Teacher-student interviews or conferences are productive 2. Superior level;
means of assessing individual achievement and needs. During these 3. Advanced level; (high, mid, low)
discussions, teachers can discover students’ perceptions of their own 4. Intermediate level; (high, mid, low), and
processes and products of learning. 5. Novice level. (high, mid, low)

9. Projects and Presentations 2. Achievement tests

Criteria should be developed and/or discussed with the These are directly related to language courses, their purpose
students at the outset of activities such as written reports, visual being to establish how successful individual students, groups of
representations, oral representations, or projects which combine use students, or the courses themselves have been in achieving
and understanding. Teachers may assess the attitudes, skill objectives.
development, knowledge, or learning processes demonstrated by
students as they engage in language activities. Date gathered during Two kinds of achievement tests:
student activities can be recorded as anecdotal records, on checklist, A. FINAL ACHIEVEMENT TESTS
rating scales, or by using a combination of these. Are those administered at the end of a course of study.
B. PROGRESS ACHIEVEMENT TESTS
10. Quizzes, tests and examinations Are intended to measure the progress that students are
Exams, tests and quizzes are the classic assessment tool used in making.
education. Constructing a well-designed test, however, can be 3. Diagnostic tests
challenging. -Is used to identify learners’ strengths and weaknesses. They
are intended primarily to ascertain what learning still needs to take
Use a variety of testing methods. Research shows that students vary place. It measures students’ understanding of a subject or skill base.
in their preferences for different formats, so using a variety of 4. Placement test
methods will help students do their best (Jacobs and Chase, 1992). -It is intended to provide information that will help to place at the
stage (or in the part of) of the teaching programs most appropriate to
Multiple-choice or short answer questions are appropriate for their abilities.
assessing students' mastery of details and specific knowledge, while Typically, they are used to assign students to classes at different
essay questions assess comprehension, the ability to integrate and levels.
synthesize, and the ability to apply information to new
situations. A single test can have several formats. Try to avoid A test given by the school to determine the academic or
introducing a new format on the final exam: if you have given all skill level of thee students, in order to place them in the correct class.
multiple-choice quizzes or midterms, don't ask students to write an
all-essay final. (Sources: Jacobs and Chase, 1992; Lowman, 1984; MODULE 3: Approaches and Techniques of Language Testing
McKeachie, 1986; Svinicki, 1987)
APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE TESTING
To measure analysis (recognition of unstated assumptions or logical Approximately, language tests can be categorized
fallacies, ability to distinguish between facts and inferences), ask according to four main approaches to testing. They are the essay-
these kinds of questions: Diagram, Differentiate, Distinguish, translation approach, the structuralist approach, the integrative
Illustrate, Infer, Point out, Relate, Select, Separate, Subdivide. approach and the communicative approach.

To measure synthesis (integrate learning from different areas or 1. The Essay-Translation Approach
solve problems by creative thinking), ask these kinds of questions: a. Characteristics and Types of Tests in Essay Translation
Categorize, Combine, Compile, Devise, Design, Explain, Generate, Approach:
Organize, Plan, Rearrange, Reconstruct, Revise, Tell. 1. This approach is commonly referred to as the pre-
To measure evaluation (judging and assessing), ask these kinds of scientific stage of language testing
questions: Appraise, Compare, Conclude, Contrast, Criticize, 2. No special skill or expertise in testing is required.
Describe, Discriminate, Explain, Justify, Interpret, Support. 3. Tests usually consist of essay writing, translation, and
grammatical analysis.
Kinds of Language Test 4. Tests have a heavy literary and cultural bias.
5. Public examinations resulting from the tests using this
1. Proficiency Test approach sometimes have an oral component at the upper
What is language proficiency test? intermediate and advance levels.
b. Strengths of Essay-Translation Approach
•Proficiency refers to the ability to perform an action or function. 1. This approach is easy to follow because teachers will
The language proficiency test is an evaluation of how well a person simply use their subjective judgement.
can use language to communicate in real life. 2. The essay-translation approach may be used for testing
• Proficiency test are designed to measure people’s ability in any level of examinees.
language, regardless of any training they may have had in that 3. The model of tester can easily be modified based on the
language. essentials of the tests.
c. Weaknesses of Essay-Translation Approach
1. Subjective judgement of teachers tends to be biased.
 2. As mentioned, the tests have a heavy literary and 4. The Communicative Approach
cultural bias. a. Characteristics and types of tests of communicative Approach:
1. Communicative tests are concerned primarily with how
language is used in communication.
2. Language use is often emphasized to the exclusion of language
usage.
2. The Structuralist Approach
3. The attempt to measure different language skills in communicative
a. Characteristics and Types of Tests of the Structuralist tests is based on a view of language referred to as the divisibility
Approach: hypothesis.
1. This approach views that language learning is chiefly concerned
with a systematic acquisition of a set of habits. 4. The test content should totally be relevant for a particular group of
examinees and the tasks set should relate to real-life situation.
2. The structuralist approach involves structural linguistics which
stresses the importance of constructive analysis and the need to 5. Communicative testing introduces the concept of quantitative
identify and measure the learners mastery of the separate elements modes of assessment in preference to quantitative modes of
of the target language such as phonology, vocabulary and grammar. assessment.

3. Testing the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing is b. Strengths of Communicative Approach
separate from another as much as possible.
1. Communicative tests are able to measure all integrated skills of
4. The psychometric approach to measurement with its emphasis on students.
reliability and objectivity forms an integral part of structuralist testing.
2. The tests using this approach face students in real life so it will be
b. Strengths of Structuralist Approach very useful for them.
1. In testing students’ capability, this approach may objectively and
surely be used by testers.
3. Because a communicative test can measure all language skills, it
can help students in getting the score. Consider students who have a
2. Many forms of tests can be covered in the test in a short time.
poor ability in using spoken language but may score quite highly on
tests of reading.
3. Using this approach in testing will help students find their strengths
and weaknesses in every skill they study.
4. Detailed statements of each performance level serve to increase
the reliability of the scoring by enabling the examiner to make
c. Weaknesses of Structuralist Approach
decisions according to carefully drawn-up and well-established
1. It tends to be a complicated job for teachers to prepare
criteria.
questionnaires using this approach.
c. Weaknesses of Communicative Approach
2. This approach considers measuring non-integrated skills more
than integrated skills.
1. Unlike the structuralist approach, this approach does not
3. The Integrative Approach emphasize learning structural grammar, yet it may be difficult to
a. Characteristics and types of tests of integrative approach: achieve communicative competence without a considerable mastery
1. This approach involves the testing of language in context and is of the grammar of the language.
thus concerned primarily with meaning and the total communicative
effect of discourse. 2. It is possible for cultural bias to affect the reliability of the tests
being administered.
2. Integrative tests are concerned with a global view of proficiency.
Test Techniques
3. Integrative testing involves functional language but not the use of
functional language. What is a Test Technique?
It means of eliciting behavior from candidates which will tell us about
4. The use, of cloze test, dictation, oral interview, translation and their language abilities.
essay writing are included in many integrative tests. What is the purpose of a test?
• To assess how well students are achieving the stated goals.
• To provide the instructor with an opportunity to reinforce the
b. Strengths of Integrative Approach
stated objectives and highlight what is important for students to
1. The approach to meaning and the total communicative effect of
remember.
discourse will be very useful for students in testing.
• To provide a learning experience for students.
2. This approach can view students proficiency with a global view.
Test Techniques
• DIRECT vs. INDIRECT
3. A model cloze test used in this approach measures the reader’s
• DISCRETE POINT vs. INTEGRATIVE
ability to decode ‘interrupted’ or ‘mutilated’ messages by making the
• NORM-REFERENCED vs. CRITERION-REFERENCED
most acceptable substitutions from all the contextual clues available.
• OBJECTIVE vs. SUBJECTIVE
4. Dictation, another type using this approach, was regarded solely
as a means of measuring students’ skills of listening comprehension. Direct vs. Indirect Testing
c. Weaknesses of Integrative Approach DIRECT TESTING
Even if many think that measuring integrated skills is • Requires the candidate to perform precisely the skill that
better, sometimes there is a need to consider the importance of the test wishes to measure.
measuring skills based on students’ need, such as writing only, • Direct Test Items- is some sort of items or a question you
speaking only, etc. can use in assessment where the students will complete an
authentic action.
Examples: • Sometimes an integrative item is really more a
PROCEDURE than an item.
DIRECT
• Composition writing to know students’ writing skills. Norm-Referenced Vs. Criterion-Referenced Testing
• Objective: How well your students pronounce a language.
Norm-Referenced
• Direct testing method: get them to speak. • Scores are interpreted relative to each other in a normal
• For Speaking: Interiews and presentations distribution scheme.
• For writing: Essay questions • The idea is to spread the students out on a continuum of
• For reading: using reading material and responding to knowledge.
questions verbally and or in writing Criterion-Referenced
• For listening: Following oral directions to complete a task • Interpretation of scores is absolute and may be
representational.
Direct testing has a number of attractions: • Measures students’ ability against the predetermined
1. Relatively straightforward to create conditions. standards, e.g. the learning objectives of a specific course or
2. Assessment and interpretation are also quite unit of a course.
straightforward.
3. There is likely to be helpful backwash effect. Objective Vs. Subject testing
Objective
• No judgment is required– There is only one right answer.
INDIRECT TESTING
• Attempts to measure the abilities that underlie the skills in Subjective
which the test is interested. • If judgment is called for– free composition, looking for a series
Indirect Test Items- assess knowledge without authentic application. of factors (creativity, style, cohesion, grammar, and mechanics.)
EXAMPLES • If the scorer is not looking for any one right answer.
Grammatical knowledge contributes to writing ability, then a grammar
test may be used as an indirect test of writing. EXAMPLES
INDIRECT Objective Test Items- are those that require a specific answer.
• A writing test that requires students to identify grammatical • true/false, yes/no, matching test, fill in the blanks.
errors in sentences.
Close Items: Subjective Test Items- is evaluated by giving an opinion. It can be
Smiling, Tom said that he ____ the cake. Sarah smiled and compared with an objective test, which has right or wrong
gave him a _____. answers and so can be marked objectively.
Paraphrasing:
-”I’m sorry I did not go to the assembly”. • TEST CONSTRUCTION
-I wish _______________________. “The evaluation of pupils progress is a major aspect of the teacher’s
Sentence Re-Ordering job.” Evaluating Educational Outcomes (Oriondo & Antonio)
-Cat the store goes to
Some test are referred to Semi-Direct Test construction
Examples: • Writing items requires a decision about the nature of the item or
Tape recorded speaking skills. question to which we ask students to respond, that is, whether
discrete or integrative, how we will score the item;
Discrete Point vs. Integrative Testing • For ex. Objectively or subjectively, the skill we will purpose to
DISCRETE POINT test, and so on.
• Refers to the testing of one element at a time, item by item • A test item is a specific task test taker are asked to perform.
or series of items each testing a particular grammar Test Items can assess one or more points or objectives, and the
structure. actual item itself may take on a different constellation depending
on the text.
INTEGRATIVE TESTING • For ex. An item may test one point (understanding of a given
• Requires the candidate to combine many language vocabulary word) or several points ( the ability to obtain facts
elements in the completion of a task. from a passage and then make inferences based on the facts).
• Discrete point will always be indirect while • for example. There could be five items all testing one
grammatical point (e.g., tag questions). Items of a similar kind
• Integrative tests will tend to be direct. may also be grouped together to form subtests within a given
test.
EXAMPLES
DISCRETE POINT Classifying Items
• Form of a series of items testing a particular grammatical
structure. • Discrete – A completely discrete-point item would test simply
• Diagnostic test of grammar. one point or objectives such as testing for the meaning of a
• Ex. Choose the correct meaning of the word paralysis. word in isolation.
• a. Inability to survive • For Example:
• b. State of unconsciousness • Choose the correct meaning of the word paralysis.
• c. State of stuck a.) inability to move
b.) state of unconscious
INTEGRATIVE TESTING c.) state of shock
• Writing a composition, making notes while listening to a d.) being in pain
lecture.
• Demonstrate your comprehension of the following words • Integrative- An integrative item would test more than one point
by using them together in a written paragraph: ‘’paralysis”, or objective at a time.
“accident”, and “football”.
For Example:
• Demonstrate your comprehension of the following words by • What type of evaluation to be used? (Diagnostic, formative, or
using them together in a written paragraph: “paralysis,” summative)
“accident,” and “skiing.” • The criteria upon which student learning outcomes will be judge,
• Sometimes an integrate items is really more a procedure than and the most appropriate assessment techniques for gathering
an item, as in the case of a free composition. Which could test a information on a student progress.
number of objectives.
2. ASSESSMENT PHASE
• Select appropriate tools and techniques, then collect and collate
For example: information on student progress.
• Write a one page essay describing three sports and relative
likelihood of being injured while playing them competitively. 3. EVALUATION PHASE
• Interpret the assessment information and make judgments
Objective – A multiple-choice item about student progress.
• Provide information.
Ex. Is objective in that there is only one right answer. • Report progress.
• Encourage student.
Subjective – A free composition may be more subjective in nature if
the scorer is not looking for any one right answer, but rather for a 4. REFLECTION PHASE
series of factors (creativity, style, cohesion, and coherence, Teachers evaluate the utility, equity, and appropriateness of the
grammar, and mechanics). assessment techniques used.
THE SKILL TESTED AND THE INTELLECTUAL SKILLS NEEDED Assists teachers in making decision concerning improvements
• The Language skills that we test include the more receptive or adaptations to subsequent instruction and evaluation.
skills continuum- listening and reading, and the more productive
skills- speaking and writing. there are, other language skills that Stages of test construction
cross-cut these four such as vocabulary.
• Non-verbal Skills, may also be assessed such as gesturing, and TEST CONSTRUCTION
this can be both receptive (interpreting someone else’s  It is the set of activities involved in developing and
gestures) and productive (making one’s own gestures). evaluating a test of some psychological function.

The Intellectual Operation Required: STAGES OF TEST CONSTRUCTION

• PLANNING
• knowledge (bringing to mind the appropriate material); In planning the test, the teacher test developer determines a few
• Ex. Remembering facts, terms, concepts, definitions, principles essentials, before the actual writing begins.
• Comprehension (understanding the basic meaning of the a. Goal – Establishing a test’s goal is a vital step in the development
material). process. If the goal is assigning students to a level before a course
begins’ rather than evaluating them afterwards, your test design will
Example: reflect this.
• explaining/interpreting the meaning of material. b. Format – the test developer will have to consider a few format-
related dilemmas, such as paper-based test versus digital one.
Application (applying the knowledge of the elements of c. Tasks – there are myriad of possible test tasks, all of which can be
language and comprehension to how they interrelate in the used in different formats for different levels. A non-exhaustive list of
production of a correct oral written message). commonly used tasks might include the following:
 Multiple choice – General term for any task type where the
Example:
appropriate answer is picked from a list of alternatives.
• Using a concept or principle to solve a problem.  Single response – A multiple choice task where only one
option is possible.
• Analysis (breaking down a message into its constituent parts in  Multiple response – A multiple choice task where more
order to make explicit the relationships between ideas, including than one option is possible.
tasks like recognizing the connotative meanings of words).  True/False – The student is given a statement and should
indicate whether it is correct or not.
• Example:  Ranking – Students are given a list of items which they are
• Breaking material down its component parts to see asked to rank.
interrelationships/hierarchy of ideas.  Matching – A kind of multiple-choice question in which the
test taker is asked to combine two or more items that
• Evaluation (making quantitative and qualitative judgments about belong together.
material).  Hotspot – On a drawing or a picture, students are asked to
• Example: select a specific area.
• Making a judgment based on a pre-established set of criteria.  Open answer – Any type of question in which the test taker
is asked to produce written or spoken sentences or texts.
• SYNTHESIS (arranging parts so as to produce a pattern not  Test numeric – As an answer to a question, students fill in
clearly there before, such as in effectively organizing ideas in a words, short sentences or numbers
written composition).  Cloze – In a running text one or more words or numbers
• Example: have been deleted. It is up to the test taker to fill in the
• producing something new or original from component parts. gaps.
 C-cloze – A cloze test which includes the first letter of each
PHASES OF EVALUATION deleted word.
• Teacher as decision makers strive to make a close match  Extended response – Students can be asked to reply to an
between curriculum objectives, instructional methods, and open question or to produce longer.
assessment techniques.
Example of single response test
1. PREPARATION PHASE
• What is to be evaluated? Directions: Identify the form of the verb that correctly fills in the blank.
Darken the O that corresponds to your answer.
 rewritten and refined until the whole team is happy with the
1. The data in your report _____ to be clarified. test.
O need O needs • DEVELOPMENT
2. The news _____ too bad; my grandmother didn’t want to know it. a. Piloting – The test is distributed among a group of
O was O were representative and users in the same settings and
Example of multiple response test circumstances as the live test.
• Direction: From the list below, underline the count nouns, By analyzing the results from this piloting quantitatively
encircle the mass nouns, and box the collective nouns. and/or qualitatively the validity and reliability of the test can
• swarm ceiling corps advice light notebook be determined and refined.
weather tribe b. Revising – Based on the results from the piloting and the
• equipment colony herd examination sugar test analysis, the final test will be composed.
applause
• computer water milk parcel

Example of a true or false test Module 4: AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

Directions: Write True if the statement is correct and False if not. What is Authentic Assessment?
_____1. Founded is the past tense of found.  Is an evaluation process that involves multiple forms of
_____2. “Used to doing” and “used to do” mean approximately the performance measurement reflecting the students’ learning,
same thing. achievement, motivation, and attitudes on instructionally-
relevant activities (Daniel Callison).
Example of ranking test  Is a subset of alternative evaluation processes.
• Direction: Write the numbers 1,2,3 and 4 according to the  In a broader sense, assessment is any systematic approach for
correct order or sequence of events. collecting information on student learning and performance,
• __ Super kid flew down to the tree and tried to grab the cat, usually based on different sources of evidences.
but it scratched her. Examples of Authentic Assessment
• __ Super kid used the blanket to grab the cat and flew it  Performance Assessment - consists of any form of assessment
down to the ground. Finally, the cat was safe. in which the student constructs a response orally or in writing.
• __ Super kid was flying around when she saw a cat that  Portfolio Assessment – is a systematic collection of student
was stuck in a tree. She wanted to help the cat get down. work that is analyzed to show progress over time with regard to
• __ After the cat tried to scratch her, Super kid got a great instructional objectives.
idea. She went and got a blanket.  Self-Assessment – offers opportunities for the student to self-
regulate learning, and the responsibility of appraising his/her
progress
• Example of hotspot test  Integrated Assessment - refers to evaluation of multiple skills or
assessment of language and content within the same activity.
 Alternative Assessment – involves approaches for finding out
what students know or can do other than through the use of
multiple-choice testing.

Characteristics of Student Performance that should be considered in

Authentic Assessment
(J. Michael O’Malley and Lorraine Valdez Pierce)

 Constructed Response: The students construct responses

based on experiences he/she brings to the situation and
new multiple resources are explored in order to create a
product.
 Higher-Order Thinking: Responses are made to open-
Example of an open answer test ended questions that require skills in analysis, synthesis,
• Question: and evaluation.
What is the difference between clauses and phrases?  Authenticity: Tasks are meaningful, challenging, and
Example of extended response test engaging activities that mirror good instruction often
• Question : relevant to real-world context.
 Imagine that you and a friend found a magic wand. Write a  Integrative: Tasks call for a combination of skills that
story about an adventure that you and your friend had with integrate language arts with other content across he
the magic wand. curriculum with all skills and content open to assessment.
 DESIGN  Process and Product: Procedures and strategies for
When the test has been planned, the teacher of deriving potential responses and exploring multiple
development team can get down to designing it. This solutions to complex problems are often assessed in
implies: addition to or in place of a final product or single-correct-
a. Collecting testing material – Collecting material with an response.
appropriate degree of situational and/or interactional  Depth in Place of Breadth: Performance assessments build
authenticity. over time with varied activities to reflect growth, maturity
b. Writing a draft version – One or few members of the test and depth leading to mastery of strategies and processes
development team gets down to writing a draft version of for solving problems in specific areas with the assumption
the test. that these skills will transfer to solving other problem.
c. Evaluating the draft version – The team members that 
were not involved in writing the draft version have a close Types of Authentic Assessment
look at the test and decide which questions will be omitted, Assessment Description Advantages
which items need further clarification. 1. Oral Reviews Teacher asks students  Informal and
d. Rewriting the draft – Based on the observations and questions about relaxed context
personal background,  Conducted over
suggestions made by the reviewers, the draft version is activities, reading, and successive days
interests. with each student
  Record • Ask yourself the following questions:
observations on an
interview guide
• How detailed do I want my feedback to be? How will I
2. Story or Test Retelling Students retell main  Student produces break down my expectations for this project?
ideas or selected details oral report • Are all of the tasks equally important? How do I want to
of text experienced  Can be scored on assess information?
through listening or content or
reading. language
• What standard must the students hit in order to acceptable
components or exceptional performance?
3. Writing Samples Students generate  Student produces • Am I grading based on the work or on participation? Am I
narrative, expository, written document grading on both?
persuasive, or reference  Can be scored or
paper content language Step 2: Choose a Rubric Type
components • Have a standard set to help you decide where to start. The
4. Projects/ Students complete  Students make following are widely used rubrics in teaching:
Exhibitions project in content area, formal  Analytic Rubric- This is the standard grid that many
working individually or presentation,
in pairs. written report, or teachers routinely use to assess students’ work. This is the
both optimal rubric for providing clear detailed feedback.
 Can observe oral  Holistic Rubric- This is the type of rubric that is much easier
and written to create but much more difficult to use accurately.
products and
thinking skills Step 3: Determine Your Criteria
5. Self It offers opportunities for  Students critically  This is where the learning objectives for the unit or course
the student to self- reflect their own come into play. Brainstorm a list of knowledge and skills
regulate learning, and learning progress you would like to assess the project. Group them according
the responsibility of and performance
appraising his/her  No peer pressure to similarities. Get rid of anything that is not absolutely
progress. when students critical. Try to stick with 4-7 specific subjects to create an
evaluate ambiguous, measurable expectations in the performance
themselves level.
6. Alternative It involves approaches  Provides valued
for finding out what skills and a more
Step 4: Create Your Performance Level
students know or can realistic setting for
do other than through student  Figure out what type of scores you will assign based on the
the use of multiple-  Focus on
choice testing. performance and
level of mastery. Most ratings scales include between and
the quality of work five levels (4 = Exceptional, 3 = Satisfactory). Other
performed by teachers simply assign numbers, percentages, letter
students
7. Teacher Teacher observes  Setting is grades, or any combination of the three for each level.
Observations student attention, classroom Arrange them from highest to lowest or lowest to highest.
response to environment
instructional materials,  Takes little time Step 5: Write Descriptors for Each Level of Your Rubric
or interactions with  Record  The most difficult step in creating a rubric. Write short
other students. observations with statements of your expectations underneath each
anecdotal notes or performance level for every single criterion. The description
rating scales
8. Portfolios Focused collection of  Integrates
should be specific and measurable. The language should
student work to show information from a be parallel to help with student comprehension and the
progress over time. number of degree to which the standards are met should be
sources. explained.
 Gives total picture
of student
Step 6: Revise Your Rubric
performance and  Go back through and limit your rubric to a single page. Too
learning many parameters will be difficult to assess students’
 Strong student mastery of a specific standard. Consider the effectiveness
involvement and
commitment
of the rubric, asking for student understanding and co-
teacher feedback before moving forward. Adjust the rubric
Designing Rubrics if necessary.
Assessment requires teacher evaluation of student. To aid
in making such judgement accurate and valid (teachers measure
what is intended to be measured), and reliable (performances tend to Module 5: Quantitative Analysis
be measured in the same manner from one situation to the next), a
scoring scale or rubric should be established. Criteria of a good test
Basically, a rubric is a tool that teachers and professors In creating a valid and reliable language test for general or specific
use to help them communicate expectations, provide focused purposes, a qualitative and quantitative test analyses are of the
feedback, and grade products. utmost importance
Indicator of Student Performance: 1. Integrates new information
A complete formal analysis requires thorough psychometric
into one’s own knowledge. knowledge, whereas information analyses are less rigid and can be
 Basic: Puts information together without processing it. undertaken with relative ease. The analysis described on the next
 Proficient: Integrates information from a variety of sources slide is feasible for most test developers and will improve the tests
to create meaning that is relevant to own prior knowledge quality considerably.
and draws conclusion. Few key concepts which are central to good tests prior to the
 Advanced: integrates information to create meaning that analysis component
connects with prior personal knowledge, draws conclusion, 1. Relevance- necessary that students are able to perform
and provides details and supportive evidence. task X.
2. Representativity- task x represents a real situation
Steps to Create a Rubric 3. Authenticity- the situation and the interaction are
Step 1: Define Your Goal meaningful and representative in the world of individual
• Decide what type of rubric you would like to use and that user
will largely be determined by your goals for the 4. Balance- each relevant topic/ability receives an equal
assessment. amount of attention
 5. Validity- the test effectively measures what it is intended to
measures.
6. Reliability- the consistency and stability with which a test
measures performance

Sub Classifications of Validity:

Concurrent Validity
A test is said to have in concurrent validity if the scores it gives
correlate highly with a recognized external criterion which
measures the same area of knowledge or ability.

Construct validity
A test is said to have a construct validity if scores can be shown
to reflect a theory about the nature of a construct or its relation
to the other constructs.

Content validity
A test is said to have in content validity if the items or tasks of
which it is made up constitute a representative samples of items
or tasks for the area of knowledge or ability to be tested. These
are often related to a syllabus or a course.

Convergent validity
A test is said to have in convergent validity when there
is a high correlation between scores achieved in a different
test measuring the same construct (irrespective of
method). This can be considered an aspect of construct
validity

Criterion-related validity
A test is said to have in criterion-related if a relationship can be
demonstrated between test scores and some external criterion
which is believed to be a measure of the same ability.
Information of criterion relatedness is also used in determining
how well a test predicts future behavior.
Discriminant validity

A test is said to have in discriminant validity if the correlation it

has with tests of a different trait is lower than correlation with
test of the same trait, irresp

There are no sources in the current [Link] of testing method. This can be considered an aspect of construct validity.

Face validity • Length-the test contains enough items. In multiple choice

The extent to which a test appears to candidates, or those at least 40 items are required
choosing it on behalf of candidates, to be an acceptable • Time- students should have sufficient time to perform a
measure of the ability they wish to measure. This is a subjective test/ task
judgement rather than one based on any objective analysis of • Item construction- a well-constructed question is better
the test, and face validity is often considered not to be a true than poor one.
form of validity. It is sometimes referred to as test appeal. Possible reasons for the inconsistency of an individual’s score in a
test
Predictive Validity • Scorer’s inconsistency
An indication of how well a test predicts future performance in a • Limited sampling of behavior
relevant skill. • Changes in the individual himself
Factors affecting reliability. Factors which influence the reliability of a
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE VALIDITY test
 Appropriateness of test items • Objectivity
 Directions • Difficulty of a test
 Reading vocabulary and sentence structure • Length of a test
 Difficulty of items • Adequacy
 Construction of test items • Testing condition
 Length of the test • Test administration procedures
 Arrangement of items
 Patterns of answers Module 6: Qualitative Analysis
It is a securities analysis that uses subjective judgement based on
Number of Variables influence test reliability unquantifiable information.
• Specificity-Questions should not be open to different
interpretation A. PURPOSE
• Differentiation- the test discriminates between good and NOT all topic in language nor literature can be measured statistically.
poor students Viewpoint, action and characteristic cant always be represented
• Difficulty-the test has adequate level of difficulty numerically and so need a qualitative approach.
 4. Task characteristics
B. Categories of approaches This type of validation research helps to examine the test tasks
1. Reflection and to determine to which to extent they correspond to the test goal.
This approach is aimed at gaining an insight into the thinking
processes and opinions of the test taker.
2. Verbal report or Verbal protocols are a way of collecting E. FEEDBACK METHODS
qualitative data. They offer an insight into the thought processes 1. Questionnaires
of information. Questionnaire gather data such as opinions and views that
can also be gathered through interviews.
A number of variables can be distinguished: There are two types of questionnaires:
 Closed- The informant replies to the question by ticking
 Talk aloud
boxes or by marking a scale.
 Think aloud
 Open- The informant replies in his/her words.
 Concurrent
 Retrospective
Before administering the actual questionnaire, it is useful to run it
 Mediated
through the following process:
 Non- mediated
*Consider all possible issues that your questionnaire should cover.
Some pointers when using verbal reports in test analysis *Write a draft.
Before: *Eliminate questions that do not address the questionnaire purpose.
 Consider Language *Group the questions thematically to spot overlaps.
 Is a concurrent verbal report more suitable than a *Format the questionnaire and administer it to a small group of target
retrospective one or vice versa? respondents for feedback.
During *Rewrite the questionnaire.
 Tell the information what a verbal report is.  Always avoid:
 Give the information the opportunity to practice before the *Doubled-barreled questions.
real report starts. *Unclear instructions
 Give feedback after the try outs. *Questions that do not apply to the respondent
After *Questions that rely memory
 Try to process the data as quickly as possible. *Hypothetical questions
 In any case, make notes for future reference. *Biased questions
3. Diary Studies 1. Checklist
Information keep a diary which allows researcher to get insight into  Are a way of determining whether all procedures have
their thoughts. Diaries are not often used in test validation research, been gone through, whether all necessary features are
but they have proven their worth in research into learning processes. present, etc.
A number of varieties 2. Interviews
 Unstructured  They are flexible a way of gathering data. There are
 Guided various kinds of interview, depending on the structure and
 Structured the number of informants interviewed at the same time.

Techniques for monitoring student progress A. Unstructured- There is no fixed interview schedule, but rather a
o Make a video and audio recordings of a variety of formal and number of themes that are to be addressed.
informal oral language experiences, and then assess these B. Semi structured- The researcher follow a preset schedule but it is
possible to deviate from this when interesting issues arise.
according a pre-determined criterion which are based upon
C. Structured- This type of interview closely resembles a
student need and curriculum objective. questionnaire.
o Use checklists as concise methods of collecting information, and D. One on one- This kind of interview allows the researcher to zoom
rating scales or rubrics to assess student achievement. in on the views of individual respondents.
o Record anecdotal comments to provide useful data based upon E. Group- The advantage interviewing larger numbers at once is that
observation of students’ oral activities. group interactions might spark observations that would have gone
unnoticed.
o Interview student to determine what they believe they do well or
areas in which they need to improve. F. REFERENCING
 Think about the following before the interviews:
 Have student keep portfolios of their dated writing samples (a) Interviews should get the chance to practice their
and language abilities checklist and records. interview skills prior to the data collection.
 Keep anecdotal records of students reading and writing (b) Ideally, the pilot settings resemble the actual condition
activities and experiences. as accurately as possible.
 Have the students write in readers response journals. (c) During the interview, it’s useful to take note of the
 Confer with students during the writing and reading interview situations.
processes and observe them during peer conference. (d) The success of an interview largely depends on the
C. Types of Qualitative Analysis interviewer- respondent interaction.
1. Conversation analysis CA (e) Interviews are time consuming.
The assumption is that every interaction is contextual and
has table and predictable nature. Various kinds of referencing:
[Link] analysis DA Norm-referencing is the placement of learners’ rank order,
DA is the analysis of “text and talk as social practices” and their assessment and ranking in relation to their peers.
is mainly concerned with power relation, gender inequalities etc. Criterion-referencing is a reaction against norm referencing
3. Test Language Analysis in which the learner is assessed purely in terms of his or her peers.
An analysis of test input or test taker responses for lexical The mastery criterion-referencing approach is one in which
richness, rhetoric, genre, discourse markers, grammatical complexity a single ‘minimum competence standard’ or ‘cut-off point’ is set to
etc. divide the achievement of the objective being recognized.
 The continuum criterion-referencing approach is an
approach in which an individual ability referenced to a defined
continuum of all relevant degrees of ability in the area in question.

Module 7: TESTING THE RECEPTIVE SKILLS

Testing Listening

1. Sound Discrimination
For beginners of language learning, it is important that they
able to distinguish the sounds of the language clearly to help
them understand the message they hear. In English for
example, there are several sounds that are phonetically similar
but phonemically different. Words are the same except for one
sound may cause confusion to the listener who cannot
discriminate these different sounds.
Example:
A teacher who instructs his/her student to bring a ‘mop’ the
next day may find a ‘map’ instead, if the sound [o] instead of a
[a] was heard by the student.
 The same test types can be used for discriminating
consonant sounds like [p] and [f], [b] and [v], [s] and [z], 3. Statements & Dialogues
etc.
Examples: These items are designed to measure how well the students can
1. pill – fill understand short samples of speech and deal with a variety of
2. thought – taught signals on the lexical and grammatical levels of phonology.
3. best - vest
4. sip – sit
5. cool - call

2. For advanced level learners, the words may be used in

sentences which students will copy. Another way is asking
students to identify from a group of pictures one which is
referred to by the teacher in her sentences using words of
similar sounds. In this test, students are expected not only to
rely on their listening skills but also on their comprehension and
spelling skills.

Examples:
1. His cot is small. His cat is small.
2. She bought a fan. She bought a pan.
3. The child drew a lamp. The child drew a lamb. 4. Listening Comprehension
4. I placed the pin in my pocket. I placed the pen in my  Test on learning comprehension also vary according to
pocket. learners proficiency. For the intermediate group, task may
5. The lady stood in front of the glass. The lady stood in front consist of responding to requests, answering questions,
of the class. following directions, repeating messages, etc. Common
test types for these tasks are question-answer, stimulus-
[Link] on Stress and Intonation response, and listen-repeat.

Features of stress, intonations, rhythm and juncture are Examples:

generally considered more important in oral communication Directions: Do the action. (stimulus response)
skills than the ability to discriminate between phonemes, Erase the writings on the board and place the eraser on the
tests of stress and intonation are on the whole less table.
satisfactory than the phonemes discrimination tests. II. Direction: Answer the following questions.
(question-answers)

1. What are your parents’ occupations?

2. How long have you been staying in your current address?
III. Direction: Listen to the conversation between joana and kyle
in school. Circle the letter of the answer that best completes the
sentence based on the conversation. (listen-repeat)
(tape transcript)
 Kyle has been absent from classes because he has been
attending _______.
a. Choir practice
b. Basketball practice
c. Swimming practice

These may be made even simpler for beginners. For the

advanced level, tasks may consist of drawing inferences,
 listening for gist or intent, listening for specific information,
following a story line or sequence of events, etc.

4. Testing Comprehension through visual materials

Most of the item type in this section are more appropriate for
elementary stages of learning English. They are preferable to
the discrimination items as they involve the testing of grammar
and lexis through phonology. Pictures, maps and diagrams can
be used effectively for testing such skills, thereby making the
testees’ performance less dependent on other skills.
Understanding talks and lectures
The ability to understand both informal talks and formal lectures
is an important skill for students studying subjects in the medium
of English at intermediate and advanced levels.
 professional and technical literature in the foreign
language.
 There are few comprehensive systematic programs which
have been constructed from a detailed analysis of the skills
required for efficient reading.
 Much test material is still limited to short reading extracts
on which general comprehension questions are based. As
with listening comprehension, reading comprehension is
very closely related to the type of practice material used by
the teacher to develop reading skills.
 What is urgently required in many classroom tests is
greater awareness of the actual processes involved in
reading and the production of appropriate exercise and test
materials to assist in the mastery of these processes.

Reading tests may consist of the following:

 Skimming to identify the gist or intent
 Scanning to locate specific information
 Identifying a story line
 Identifying examples presented in a support of a fact or an
opinion
 Using the context to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words
or structures
 Recognizing organizational features of text
 Identifying referents of pronouns

At this stage in our examination of reading difficulties, it would

be helpful to attempt to identify some of the specific skills
involved in reading. Broadly speaking, these can be defined as
the ability to:
 Recognize words and word groups, associating sounds
with their corresponding graphic symbols;
 Deduce meaning of words by
(a) Understanding word formation (roots, affixation, derivation
and compounding);
(b) Contextual clues
 Understand explicitly stated information
 Understand relations within the sentence, especially,
(a) Elements of sentence structure
(b) Negation
(c) Fronting and theme
(d) Complex embedding
 Understand relations between parts of the text through both
lexical devices and grammatical cohesive devices, especially
anaphoric and cataphoric reference and connectives.
 Perceive temporal and spatial relationships, and also sequences
of ideas
 Understand conceptual meaning, especially,
 Quantity and amount
 Definiteness and indefiniteness
 Comparison and degree
Testing Reading  Means and instrument
 Cause, result, purpose, reason, condition, addition, contrast,
 One of the most commonly tested skills in school is concretion;
reading. Reading tests may consist of the following  Anticipate and predict what will come next in the text;
skimming to identify the gist or intent, scanning to locate  Identify main idea and salient features in the text;
specific information, identifying a story line, identifying  Generalize and draw conclusions;
examples presented in support of a fact or an opinion,  Understand information not explicitly used stated by
using context to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words or  Making inferences
structures, recognizing organizational features of text,  Understanding figurative language
identifying referents of pronouns, etc. The level of  Read critically
complexity of the test depends largely on the type of  Skim and scan looking for the general meaning and
reading passages. reading for specific information;
 Until recently many and diverse reading skills and  Adopt flexible approach and vary reading strategies
strategies for use in everyday situations have been largely according to the type of material being read and the
subordinate to a narrower range of skills required for purpose for what is being read.
dealing with simplified readers, especially at the
elementary levels. Initial stages of reading: Matching Tests
 On a few language courses, efficient reading skills have
 They test students ability to discriminate visually between words
been pushed into background in an attempt to develop oral
which are spell in fairly similar ways. These test items will assist
fluency skills.
in developing word recognition speed,. Though not administered
 Attempts at dealing with the main complex reading skills
as speed tests in the strict sense in the very early stage. Once
frequently come too late, at the tertiary level, when
the students have gained familiarity and confidence in this type
students suddenly find themselves confronted with
 of test, their performances should be timed so that they are The items will concentrate on word and sentence comprehension,
forced to read under some pressure. At first it is advisable to using pictures to test this skill.
confine the words used in the items to those who encountered
orally; later a number of words not encountered orally should be
introduced.

Word Matching
Testees are required to draw a line under the word which is the same
as the word on the left.

Type II.

Sentence Matching
Testees are required recognize as quickly as possible sentences
which consist of the same words in the same order.

Pictures and Sentence Matching

The items will concentrate on word and sentence comprehension, Type III.
using pictures to test this skill.

Intermediate and Advanced Stages of Reading

Pictures and Sentence Matching The following matching item shows how visuals can be used to test
the comprehension of definitions of certain words. Testees are
required to match the meaning of certain terms in a dictionary with
the appropriate shapes which those terms denote. The example
shows how the matching technique can be used at a more advanced
level and how it can lend itself to amore communicative testing of
reading. Above all, this particular item measures the ability of the
testee to understand the definitions usually found in the dictionary –
an essential skill required in learning and using foreign language.

Intermediate and Advanced Stages of Reading

Type I.

True or False Reading Tests

The true /false test is one of the most widely used tests of reading
comprehension. Not only the scoring is straightforward and quick, but
the scores are obtained by the testees can be very reliable indices of
reading comprehension provided that the items are well constructed
and that there are enough of them.
Disadvantages:
1. It can encourage guessing.
Type II. 2. The base score is 50 percent and thus the average test
The following item type is included to provide another example of difficulty generally in the region of the test may fail to
how reading comprehension matching tests can be based on a discriminate widely enough among the testees unless there
dictionary. Again, the item is intended for use at a fairly advanced are a lot of items.
level.
True or False Reading Tests
To penalize the testee for guessing and instructions on the lines of
the following may be included in the rubric:

Each correct answer will be awarded two marks. However, for each
wrong answer, one mark will be deducted from your score. It is better
therefore, not to guess blindly and to leave a blank if you do jot know
the correct answer. According to the passage, are the following
statements true or false, or is it impossible to draw any conclusion?

True or False Reading Tests

 measuring what it sets out to measure depends largely on the
effectiveness of each of the items used. The sampling of the reading
passage is the utmost importance and must be related to the broader
aims of the language teaching situation.

Multiple-Choice Items: A. Short Texts

Completion Items

Completion items measure recall rather than recognition. Although

such items are similar in many ways to open-ended questions in
tests of reading comprehension, they are often regarded as
belonging more to the objective category of test items.
Multiple-Choice Items: A. Short Texts

Multiple-Choice Items: A. Longer Texts

The multiple-choice tests offer a useful way of testing reading

comprehension. The extent to which a test is successful in
 Open-ended and Miscellaneous Items

The term open-ended is used to refer to those questions which

elicit a completely subjective response on the part of the
testees. The response required a range from a one-word
Arrangement Items answer to one or two sentences. When marking the open-ended
items which require.
These item type are particularly useful for testing the ability to
understand a sequence of steps in a process or events in a Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (PHIL-IRI)
narrative.
What is Phil-IRI?

The Philippine Informal Reading Inventory was created to

provide classroom teachers a tool for measuring and describing
reading performance. It is an assessment tool composed of
graded passages designed to determine a student’s reading
level. It is important to note that the Phil-IRI only provides an
approximation of the learner’s abilities and may be used in
combination with other reliable tools of assessment.

Phil-IRI may be used to:

a. Group Reading Level- to determine a whole class reading

level and identify particular students who may need more
assistance in performing reading tasks.
b. Individual Reading Level- to determine a student’s
independent, instructional and frustration levels for three
types of literacy tasks: Oral Reading, Silent Reading, and
Listening Comprehension
c. Group Reading Level- to determine a whole class reading
level and identify particular students who may need more
assistance in performing reading tasks.
d. Individual Reading Level- to determine a student’s
independent, instructional and frustration levels for three
types of literacy tasks: Oral Reading, Silent Reading, and
Listening Comprehension

Cloze Procedure

The cloze test was intended to measure the reading difficulty

level of a text. It is reliable means of determining whether or not
certain texts are at an appropriate level for a particular groups of
students.
 Module 8:
TESTING THE PRODUCTIVE SKILLS

A. TESTING SPEAKING
Testing the speaking and writing skills of a student is used to
evaluate listening and reading skills; spoken and written skills of
learners are directly and immediately manifested, thus a teacher
could tell off-hand if they are proficient or not in the language.

On the other hand, there are language specialists who believe that it
is more difficult to assess the student’s productive skills with
precision because of the simultaneous use of different language
abilities in speaking and writing; either of the four/five components
are recognized as part of the speaking/writing process.

Regardless of its simplicity or complexity, the construction of tests for

the productive skills is as varied as that of the receptive skills in
terms of levels, types, and, formats. Speaking here does not refer to
the eloquence of delivering a prepared speech but to one’s ability to
carry out a conversation using the language learned effortlessly.

In assessing the spoken ability of learners, several components have

to be considered:
1. pronunciation
2. grammar
3. word choice
4. fluency

1. TESTING PRONUNCIATION
• No fixed criteria for judging good or bad pronunciation.
Traditionally, correct pronunciation is measured by the accuracy
of imitating a native speakers’ way of pronouncing words (i.e. to
speak English correctly, one has to speak either the American
or British way).
• With the advent of the communicative approach in
teaching/learning language, the emphasis shifted from accuracy
to clarity/comprehensibility. As long as the pronunciation does
not impede the clarity of the message of the listener’s
Example activities of: understanding of it, the pronunciation is considered acceptable.

A. Skimming to identify the gist • Still, in testing specific sound production, one has to follow
Directions: Encircle the letter corresponding to the correct certain standards.
answer. • For beginners, the following types of tests for pronunciation are
 The whole passage states that accounts about aliens on common: 1. recognition of similar sounds, 2. putting proper
earth are: stress in words and sentences, 3. loud reading, etc.
a. Entirely true
b. Absolutely false Example: Recognition of similar sounds/stress.
c. Awaiting confirmation
ACTIVITY
Direction: From a list of words in each group, read the word that has
B. Scanning to locate specific information the same vowel sound as the guide words.
Directions: answer the question Guide Words:
 When and where did the Roswell incident happen? 1. beat steak great leave break
2. food mood blood foot stood
C. Making inferences 3. map mall play said fast
Direction: select the most probable meaning of the underlined 4. saw small plow wow tough
word based on the context within which it is used in the 5. let sit end leaf grid
sentence.
 People have continued to report that they have seen UFOs Some difficulties in testing the speaking skills
and extraterrestrial creatures. • At all stages beyond the elementary levels of mimicry and
a. Horribly ugly repetition an ability to speak is an extremely difficult skill to
b. Out-of-this-world test.
c. Supernatural • Questions relating to the criteria for measuring the
d. Heavenly speaking skills and to the weighting given to such
components as correct pronunciation remain largely
unanswered.
• It is possible for people to produce practically all the correct
sounds but still be unable to communicate their ideas
appropriately and effectively. On the other hand, people
can make numerous errors in both phonology and syntax
and yet succeed in expressing themselves fairly clearly.
• Furthermore, success in communication often depends as
much on the listener as on the speaker: a particular listener
may have a better ability to decode the foreign speaker's
 message or may share a common nexus of ideas with him required. (The testees read or hear the situation and them make
or her, thereby making communication easier. the appropriate responses, shown in the brackets.)

• In many tests of oral production it is neither possible nor • Examples:

desirable to separate the speaking skills from the listening
skills. • Mrs Green lives in a flat. She doesn't like living in a flat and
• It is impossible to hold any meaningful conversation without would like to live in a small house with a garden. (She wishes
understanding what is being said and without making
she lived in a small house with garden. )
oneself understood at the same time.
• However, this very interdependence of the speaking and
• Its raining heavily. Tom and Anna are waiting impatienty at
listening skills increases the difficulty of any serious
attempt to analyse precisely what is being tested at any
• home to set off on their picnic. (They wish it would stop raining.)
one time.
• The examiner of an oral production test is working under
• 1. Mr. Black has a small car but his neighbors all have large
great pressure all the time, making subjective judgements
as quickly as possible. cars. He would like a large car too.
• Another difficulty in oral testing is that of administration.
• It is frequently impossible to test large numbers of students • 2. Anna hasn't learn to swim yet but most of her friends can
because of the limited time involved. swim.
• Excluding tests of reading aloud and one or two others
similar tests. • 3. Tom is waiting for Bill outside the cinema. The show is just
about to start but Bill has not arrived yet.
Types of Oral Test
Reading Aloud • 4. Mrs. Robinson doesn't like living in towns: she wants to live in
the country.
• In which the student is given a short time to glance through an
extract before being required to read it aloud. • (etc.)
• Tests involving reading aloud are generally used when it is
desired to assess pronunciation as distinct from the total • Type 2 This type of test item s similar to the previous type but
speaking skills. not as strictly controlled. No model responses are given by the
• For example, the following instructions relate to a situation in
examiner and the students are free to use whatever patterns
which a teacher or a class monitor maybe asked to read aloud:
they wish.
• First put the headset on. Make sure it is in its most comfortable
• A friend of yours has forgotten where he has put his glasses. He
position with the headband over the centre of the head. The
cannot see too well without them. What will you say to him? (Let
microphone should be about 1 inches from the mouth.
me help you to look for them, etc.)
• To record, put the white switch to the position marked Work. Put
• You are on your way to school when it starts to rain heavily.
the red switch to Speak and press the red recording button,
Unfortunately, you and your friends have no raincoats. There is
which will not light up (etc.)
nowhere to shelter but your school is a hundred yards away.
• A test more useful in many ways than reading aloud is the What do you say to your friend? (shall we make a dash for i?/
retelling of a short story or incident. Lets run the rest of the way.)

Conversational exchanges 1. You are trying to get to the public library but you are lost. Ask
a police officer the way.
• These drills are specially suitable for the language
2. Your friend has just returned from a holiday abroad. What do
• laboratory and can serve to focus attention on certain aspects of you say to him?
the spoken language, specially in those countries where English
is taught as a foreign language and the emphasis is primarily on 3. A waitress has just brought you the bill but has totalled it up
the reading skills. incorrectly. What do you say to her?

• However, several of the test items themselves are from 4. A friend of yours wants to see a film about a murder. You
communicative in any sense at all and do not allow for authentic have already arranged to see it another evening, but you know
interaction of any kind. she would be hurt if she knew. Make up an excuse.

• The item types range from items presenting the testees with • Type 3 The students hear a stimulus to which they must
situations in which they initite conversations to incomplete respond in any appropriate way. (his test often relies on
conversations with the part of one speaker omitted (i.e. a one- conventional greetings, apologies, acceptable ways of
sided dialogue). expressing polite disagreement, etc.)

• Tests containing such item types are on the whole reliable, but Do you mind if I use your pencil for a moment?
(Not at all/Certainly/Please Do/Go ahead/etc.)
they cannot be described as being valid tests of speaking.
What about a game of tennis?
(Yes I'd love a game/All right. I don't mind/etc.)
• Type 1 The testees are given a series of situations and are
1. Please don't go to a lot of trouble on my behalf.
required to construct sentences on the lines of a certain pattern 2. Oh dear, it's raining again. I hope it stops soon.
or group of patterns. Again, it is essential that two or three 3. We shan't be late. Shall we?
models be given to the testees so that they know exactly what is 4. Karen asked me to say she's sorry she can't come tonight.
• Type 4 This is similar to the previous type of item, but the stimuli • Advertisements, posters and strip cartoons may be used in
and responses form part of a longer dialogue and the situation is this way for class tests, provided that there are enough
thus developed. Because of its total predictability, however, this available to prevent the students from preparing one or two
type of item is sometimes referred to as a dialogue of a deaf! set pieces.
The man in the dialogue below continues regardless of what the
testees say. • Careful selection of the picture used for the examination
will help in controlling the basic vocabulary required and
You're on your way to the supermaret. A man comes up and may, to some extent determine the type of sentence
speaks to you. structure that predominates.

MAN: Excuse me, I wonder if you can help me at all. I'm looking • If the pictures depict a story or sequence of events, it is
for a chemist's. useful to give the testees one or two sentences as a starter
PAUSE FOR TESTEES REPLY thereby familiarizing them with the tense sequencing they
MAN: Thank you. Do you know what time it opens? should employ
PAUSE FOR TESTEE'S REPLY
MAN: Thanks a lot. Oh, er, by the way, is there a phone box Examiner: Last summer Lucy
near
here? spent a few days with her uncle and aunt in the country.
PAUSE FOR TESTEE'S REPLY When it was time for her to return home, her uncle and aunt
MAN:Oh dear, I'll need some coin. do you have any change for took her to the station. Lucy had made a lot of friends and
a she felt sad on leaving them. She got on the train and waved
• 5? goodbye to them... Now you continue to tell the story.
• PAUSE FOR TESTEE'S REPLY
• MAN: Well, thanks a lot. You've been most helpful.

TYPE 5 This item takes the form of an incomplete dialogue with

prompts (shown in bracket in the following example) whispered
in student's cat.

You are at the reception desk of a large hotel. The receptionists

turn to address you.

RECEPTIONIST: Can i help you?

(You want to know if there is a single room available.)
YOU: ........................................................................
......
RECEPTIONIST: Yes, we have a single room with an attached
bathroom.
(Ask the price.)
YOU: ........................................................................
......
RECEPTIONIST: Thirty-four pounds fifty a night.
(You want to know if this includes breakfast.)
YOU: ..............................................................................
RECEPTIONIST: Yes, that's with continental breakfast.
(You have no idea what continental breakfast is.)
YOU: ..............................................................................
RECEPTIONIST: Its fruit juice, coffee or tea or bread rolls.
(This receptionist is speaking too quickly. what do you
say?)
• The most effective type of oral examination using pictures
YOU: ..............................................................................
requires not only narration or picture description on the part of
RECEPTIONIST: Fruit juice, coffee or tea, and bread rolls.
the students but also a discussion about the picture(s)
(Book the room for two nights.)
concerned.
YOU: ..............................................................................
RECEPTIONIST: Certainly, room 216. The porter will take your bag
• The student is given a card bearing a letter (A,B,C,D or E); the
and will show you where it is.
(Thank the receptionist.) examiner cannot see the letter. The student is required to
YOU: .............................................................................. describe the appropriate picture (according to the letter). The
examiner then selects a picture according to the description,
assessing the student not only on the correctness and fluency of
Using pictures for assessing oral production his or her speech but also on the length of time taken before the
• Pictures of single objects can be used for testing the students description results in identification of the appropriate
productive of significant phoneme contrasts, while a picture picture. The examiner then checks the card.
of a scene or an incident can be used for examining the
total oral skills.

• The students are given a picture to study for a few minutes;

they are then required to describe the picture in a given
time (e.g two or three minutes).

• Occasionally, the number of words each student speaks is

counted by one examiner in the room, while the other
examiner counts the number errors made.
• Another effective way of assessing the student's ability to speak, The oral interview
however, is to give pairs or groups of students a simple ask to
perform. • Like many other examinations of oral production, the
• Working in pairs, students can describe their own picture before scoring of the interview is highly subjective and thus
listening to their partner's description of a similar (but not sometimes has only low reliability.
identical) picture. They can then discuss in which ways the two
• In addition, the performance of a student in a particular
pictures are the same and which ways they differ.
interview may not accurately reflect his or her true ability.

• Supporters of the oral interview claims that the examination

at least appears to offer a realistic means the total oral skill
in a natural speech situation.

• Others, however, argue that the examination nevertheless

is artificial and unrealistic: students are placed not in
natural, real-life speech situations but in examination
situations.
• If students are examined in small groups, one of the most
useful activities involving pictures is for them to be given a • They are thus susceptible to psychological tensions and
sequence of pictures to rearrange. also to constraints of style and register necessary in such a
situation.
• Students should begin by describing their own picture
without showing it to the other members of the group. After • One solution to this problem is to have the class teacher as
each picture has been described and discussed in relation the interviewer: if an external examiner is required, he or
to the other pictures, the groups decide on appropriate she may sit at the back of the room or in any other obscure
sequence. Each member of the groups then puts down his place.
or her picture in the order decided upon.
• Another solution to these problems caused by tension and
language constraints is to interview students in pairs or in
threes, thus not only putting them more at ease through a
presence of a friend or classmate but also enabling them to
speak to each other as members of the same member
group.

• For example, how should the replies this question be

scored?

• (Tester) 'What are you going to do this weekend?'

• (Student A) ‘I'm quite well, thank you.'

• (Student B) 'I go to fish. I fish in river near the big wood.'

 • The scoring of the interview can range from an impression • Radio activity from a nuclear power station accident will
mark to a mark arrived at on the basis of a fairly detailed reach your area in a few hours: There is a small but very
marking scheme. The following marking scheme (using a 6 safe nuclear fallout shelter nearby, but there is room for
point scale) is given as just one example of a number of only six people out of a total of twelve. Which six people
such schemes in present-day use. from the following list do you think it would be most useful
to save in the interest of future generations? List them in
order of priority.

• (Note: M= Male F= Female)

• Finally, oral interviews do not simply happen The following is an example of an extremely simple role play suitable
spontaneously. for use at the elementary level.

• There are dangers, however, in adhering to a very rigid

structure or plan.

Some other techniques for oral examining

The short talk

• In certain examinations students are required to prepare a

short talk on a given topic. They may be allowed several
days or only a few minutes in which to prepare the talk and
in some cases, they may be provided with notes or
reference material.

• Vague subjects are best avoided; many topics are best

presented as questions:
• Should country spend huge sums of many on space
Testing the Writing Skills
• exploration?
• Do demonstrations serve any useful purpose? 1. The Writing Skills
• Do people ever really learn anything from the mistakes
• they make? • The writing skills are complex and sometimes difficult to
teach

Group discussion and role playing • It requires mastery not only of grammatical and rhetorical
devices but also of conceptual and judgmental elements.
• Through group discussion and role playing the teachers
can discover how students are thinking and using the The following analysis that attempts to group varied skills necessary
target language. for writing good prose into five general components

• Students are thus given an opportunity to use what can be • Language use – ability to write correct and appropriate
termed 'explanatory talk'. sentences

• In this latter type of activity, the members of the group are • Mechanical skills – ability to correctly those conventions
given a particular situation and instructed to make various peculiar to the written language
decisions.
 • Stylistic skills - ability to manipulate sentences and A brief description of various grades of achievement expected to be
paragraphs, and use language effectively. attained by the class.

• Judgement skills- ability to select, organize and order 18-20 Excellent

relevant information 16-17 Very Good
12-1 Good
2. Testing Composition Writing 8-11 Pass
5-7 Weak
• Composition writing / free composition. 0-4 Very poor

• Can be a useful testing tool.

6. Treatment of written errors
• Provides students an opportunity to demonstrate the ability
to organize language material using their own words and Spelling( A multiple choice items)
ideas to communicate. 1. a. theif b. belief c. ceiling d. seize e. decieve
2. a. happening b. offering c. occurring d. beginning e.
The following are types of writing benefiting
3. a. illegal b. generally c. summary d. beggar e.
• Basic level- no confusing grammar vocabulary; able to produce necessary
simple unsophisticated sentences In some tests only four words are given as options, the fifth option
being No mistakes or All correct
• Intermediate level- a basic level , plus guide; set of instructions e.g. a. exhibition b. punctuality c. pleasure d. obeyed
must be accurate, grammar, vocabulary and spelling,
expression must be clear and appropriate using a fare range of
language. [Link] tests: style and register

• Advance level- extremely high standards of grammar, Style:

vocabulary and spelling. Ability to produce organized , coherent
writing. • the multiple items below are concerned chiefly with
measuring the students sensitivity to style.
• In the composition test the student should be presented with a
clearly defined problem which motivates them to write. • Some of the distractors in the two examples are incorrect
on grammatical grounds while others are grammatically
Example: correct.

(a) write a letter , telling a friend about any interesting school • Example:
excursion on which you have been.
• Some of the reviewers were favorable to the new play.
(b) you have just been on a school to a nearby seaside town.
• a. and as many were unfavorable
3. Setting The Composition
• b. although others of the same amount were
• A good topic for a composition determines the register and
style to be used in the writing task by presenting the • unfavorable
students with a specific situation and context in which to
write. • *c. while an equal number were unfavorable

• An accident ‘black spot’ • d. but the same number were unfavorable

Register
• The use of the correct register denotes the ability to write a
specific purpose with a specific audience in mind.
• Confusion and embarrassment result from the use of
inappropriate register.

• Example:

• The following type (advance) register tests requires the student

to identify those words which are incongruous, replacing each
with a much more suitable word.

• It has now been made out beyond any doubt what so ever that
the nicotine contained in tobacco smoke is poisonous. One
minute drop of pure nicotine plunged in to the blood stream of a
rat is sufficient to kind. It has also been proved that the nicotine
contained in tobacco smoke sends up the pulse rate and the
[Link] The Composition blood preassure. There is also strong evidence that the nicotine
 content in fags is a primary cause of loose of weight and expansion (by modification, subordination, coordination,
hungriness. It is also likely that a few heavy etc.), word transformation in context (past to present
tenses, singular to plural nouns, nouns to pronouns, etc.).
Example:
EXAMPLE
• The following type (advance) register tests requires the student A. SENTENCE CONVERSION
to identify those words which are incongruous, replacing each Direction: Read the following statements aloud and change to
with a much more suitable word. questions answerable by yes/no.
1.) My friend Luisa, lives in Makati.
• It has now been made out beyond any doubt what so ever that
2.) She and her sisters are renting a condominium along
the nicotine contained in tobacco smoke is poisonous. One
Buendia.
minute drop of pure nicotine plunged in to the blood stream of a
3.) They used to go home every day to Bulacan after school or
rat is sufficient to kind. It has also been proved that the nicotine
work.
contained in tobacco smoke sends up the pulse rate and the
4.) After a few months, they realized it was impractical.
blood preassure. There is also strong evidence that the nicotine
5.) Now they have more time for study and leisure.
content in fags is a primary cause of loose of weight and
hungriness. It is also likely that a few heavy smokers will loose
Directions: Go back to sentence 1-5, change each into a
control of their finer muscles and be unable to play around with
question using the following question words:
objects with ease and precision. Such a loose of muscle activity
1.) Who
may widen the eyes and spoil vision. Moreover, smoking puts
2.) Where
back growth in adolescents and lowers athletic ability.
3.) What
• However, the most serious disease connected with smoking 4.) When
is cancer of the lungs: the direct connection between smoking 5.) How
and cancer has recently been established so assuredly that
cancer research folk and public health authorities throughout the B. ANSWERING QUESTIONS
world have begun intensive campaigns against smoking. In Directions: Answer the following question appropriately.
certain countries not only are cigarette advertisements banished 1.) What do you like most about your school?
from cinema and television screens but also makers and forced 2.) How will you describe your classmates in three words? Your
to print on each packet a warning concerning the dangers of teachers?
smoking. 3.) Why is college education important to you?
4.) What are your immediate goals after college?
• Controlled writing
Grammar tests are designed to measure student proficiency in
• There are several ways of controlling student's freedom of matters ranging from inflections (bottle-bottles, bake-baked) to
expression in their written work and as a consequence, syntax.
increasing the reliability of the scoring.
Syntax involves the relationship of words in a sentence,
• However useful such methods are as teaching devices, they will including matters such as word order, use of negative, question
only prove useful for testing purposes if each student is forms, and connectives.
completely familiar with the particular task performed: hence the
important of clear instructions followed by one example. 3. TESTING WORD CHOICE

• Type 1 The students are given a short reading extract and then One’s choice of words reflects his/her level of proficiency in the
required to write a similar paragraph using the notes they have language. The richer the vocabulary is, the more proficient the
given e.g learner is expected to be. In oral communication, vocabulary
proficiency may be tested through word substitutions, supplying
appropriate words in the missing parts of sentences, selecting
from a given list of words the most appropriate for the sentence,
etc.

4. TESTING FLUENCY/ EASE AND SPEED OF THE FLOW OF

SPEECH

The speaker’s fluency in terms of ease and speed of the flow of

speech may be difficult to measure accurately because there are no
standard rules as to what speed is sufficient or insufficient. This may,
however, be gauged from the speaker’s ability to answer questions
Module 9: Testing Grammar spontaneously or speak on any topic informally with ease and
Grammar Tests fluency.

• Grammar tests involve correct usage of verb and tenses, Speed alone will not constitute fluency, because some speakers tend
nouns and pronouns, adjective, and adverb forms, etc. in to speak fast, but they stammer or falter several times in their talk
oral communication, grammatical usage may be tested which hinders the smooth flow of communication.
through sentence conversion (from negative to affirmative,
statement to question, etc.), answering questions,
5. TESTING COMPREHENSION  When there is not such listing it becomes necessary to
infer from textbooks and other teaching materials what
Comprehension is an easy part of communication. One’s oral structures are being taught.
communication ability depends on his/her ability to understand
the message received to which he/she needs to respond to.  Specifications for a placement test will normally include all
of the structures identified in this way.
It can be tested focusing on the speaker’s ability to reply quickly
to a remark or a question clearly and completely. Sampling
 This will reflect an attempt to give the test content validity
All these component part of speech can be rated simultaneously by selecting widely from the structures specified
in an interview using an evaluation sheet. The teacher devise  It should take account of what are regarded for one reason
this sheet his/herself. It must reflect the five component being or another as the most important structures
 It should not deliberately concentrate on the structures that
rated according to assigned numerical values.
happen to be easiest to test.
It is advisable not to fill in the score sheet during the interview as
it might affect the performance of the speaker. It is better to
Writing items
record the scored interview and rate the speaker using the score
sheet afterwards.
Whatever techniques are chosen for testing grammar, it is important
___ 5. Speaks very fast; message is very clear. for the text of the item to be written in grammatically correct and
___ 4. Speaks fast; message is fast. natural language.
___ 3. Speaks moderately fast; part of the message is unclear.
___ 2. Speaks slow; message is difficult to understand. Techniques for testing grammar
___ 1. Falters many times in speaking; message cannot be
understood. Common Types of Objective Items Used to Test Awareness of the
Grammatical Features of the Language

TESTING WRITING 1. Multiple-choice items

2. Error-recognition items
• Like in speaking, the teacher’s concern in testing the written skill 3. Rearrangement items
does not pertain to specific forms of writing such creative or 4. Completion items
5. Transformation items
technical writing. Ability to write these forms is later developed
6. Items involving the changing of words
after the student has gained mastery of the basic writing skills. 7. ‘Broken sentence’ items
• Testing writing is focused primarily on evaluating the students’ 8. Pairing and matching items
ability to express their ideas in writing, taking into consideration 9. Combination items
its five component parts: content, form, grammar, style and 10. Addition items
mechanics (Harris, 1969).
1. MULTIPLE- CHOICE ITEMS
The type of multiple-choice item favored by many
2. TESTING THE CONTENT
constructors of grammar tests is the incomplete statement type, with
a choice of four or five options. This item may be written in any of the
It refers to the idea expressed in the writing. Oneness of general idea
following ways:
must be observed by the writer. All parts of the composition must Type 1: Tom ought not to ………. (A. tell B. having told C. telling D.
relate to one main idea. Test items focusing on content may include Have told) me your secret, but he did.
writing specific details on a general topic, writing a general statement
encompassing all specific details, identifying and deleting unrelated Type 2: Tom ought not to………. me your secret but he did.
sentences in a paragraph. A. tell
B. having told
Importance of grammar testing C. be telling
D. have told
 There was a time when controlling of grammatical Type 3: Tom ought not to
A. tell me your secret, but he did.
structures was seen as the very core of language ability
B. having told
and it was unthinkable not to test it. C. be telling
D. have told
 Now whether or not grammar has an important place in an
institution’s teaching, it has to be accepted that Type 4: Tom ought not to have told me your secret, but he did.
grammatical ability, or rather the lack of it, sets limits to A. no change
what can be achieved in the way of skills performance B. tell
C. having told
 The successful writing of academic assignments D. be telling

 The diagnostic tests of grammar are very useful for the  Item type 2 and 3 are preferable to 1 because the options do not
individual and the group. interrupt the flow of meaning in the sentence.
 Unfortunately, type 1 confuses the reader because of the long
Writing Specifications parenthesis.
 Item type 4 shows the correct( or incorrect ) form as part of the
 For achievement tests where teaching objectives or the sentence.
syllabus list the grammatical structures to be taught,
 Another item type, but it is not recommended since it
specification of content should be quite straightforward. requires the testees to spend time on unnecessary reading.
Type 5: A. Tom ought not to tell me your secret, but he did.  When we arrived, the bank clerk……………………
B. Tom ought not to having told me your secret, but he did. Completion
C. Tom ought not to be telling me your secret, but he did.  This Technique can be used to test a variety of structures.
D. Tom ought not to have told me your secret, but he did.  Simple completion items used for testing grammar consists
of a sentence from which a grammatical element is
The following method is useful for testing short answers and removed
responses:  He went……….school

Type 6: Tom ought not to have told anyone the secret. Steps in preparing simple-completion grammar tests.
A. ‘So ought you’ 1. Select grammar points that need to be tested
B. ‘Nether ought you’ 2. Provide an appropriate context
C. ‘Nether you oughtn’t.’ 3. Write good instructions
D. ‘So oughtn’t you.’ Three Basic Kinds of Simple Completion Grammar tests

The Option Form

Item type 7 requires the student to select the alternative  The easiest simple completion items are like multiple
which is true according to the information conveyed in each choice questions with 2 options
sentence. Such in item maybe included either in a test of reading Directions: Complete the following sentences with Do and Make.
comprehension or in a test of grammar: a knowledge of the particular 1. He ……….a lot of money
syntax is necessary of the understanding of the sentence. 2. I always …………my best.

Type 7: ‘Tom ought not to have told me’ The Inflection Form
A. Tom did not tell me, but he should.  Testing the mastery of inflections provides for a productive
B. Perhaps Tom may not tell me. response. These vary from simple comparatives to verb
C. Tom told me but it was wrong of him. tense questions
D. It was necessary for Tom not to tell me. 1. He is the …………….(tall) person in class
2. He…………… (sleep) for nearly an hour
The free response form
It may be argued that an understanding of syntactic patterning is just
 It illustrates how common terminology can be occasionally.
as necessary for the following item:
Example:
‘………. Was Robert late last week?’
add a question to tag these sentence:
‘Three times’.
Hamlet was indecisive, ………………………..?
A. How much C. How
Polonius knew a lot of aphorisms,………………………?
often
Write in the missing part of the two word verb.
B. How many D. How
long 1. What time did he get ……… this morning?
Items which appear in a test of grammar and structure Example of a free response with a minimum amount of contextual
should be made to sound as natural as possible. The following control:
mechanical test item: 1. You would get better sooner if………………
This book belongs to Peter, but that is…….....
A. Peter’s book C. The book of Peter Multiple Choice
B. the book to Peter D. The book of Peter’s  In this test an incomplete sentence is followed by four
options for completing the sentence.
Can be written as follows: While she………………the house, her children were playing
This book belong to Peter, but that is …………. outside
A. Mary’s book C. The book of Mary A. has been cleaning
B. The book to Mary D. The book of Mary’s B. Cleaned
Note that the distractors should generally be correct both in
C. has cleaned
writing and in speech. The following item provided unsuccessful
when it was included in a test because many of the more able D. was cleaning
students selected option D. The reason being that they pronounce
used to quite correctly as use to. Cloze procedure
 Cloze test are prose passages, usually a paragraph or
more in length, from which words have been deleted.
Gap Filling  The students rely on the context in order to supply the
 Ideally gap filling items should have just one correct response. missing words
 For example: What was most disturbing………. that for the first  It is easy to prepare and easy to score
time in his life Ali was on his way. (was)  The cloze is simply a story or essay from which a number
 He arrived late, ……… was a surprise. (which) of words have been deleted.
 The council must do something to improve transport in the city.  Sentence-completion vocabulary and grammar items are
………. they will lose the next election. (Otherwise) similar in a way to cloze tests

Paraphrase Types of Oral Test

Reading Aloud
 Paraphrase items require the students to write a sentence
equivalent in meaning to one that is given • In which the student is given a short time to glance through an
 It is helpful to give part of the paraphrase in order to restrict extract before being required to read it aloud.
the students to the grammatical structure being tested • Tests involving reading aloud are generally used when it is
desired to assess pronunciation as distinct from the total
speaking skills.
For Example: Testing passive, past continuous form • For example, the following instructions relate to a situation in
 When we arrived, a policeman was questioning the bank which a teacher or a class monitor maybe asked to read aloud:
clerk
• First put the headset on. Make sure it is in its most comfortable • You are on your way to school when it starts to rain heavily.
position with the headband over the centre of the head. The Unfortunately, you and your friends have no raincoats. There is
microphone should be about 1 inches from the mouth. nowhere to shelter but your school is a hundred yards away.
What do you say to your friend? (shall we make a dash for i?/
• To record, put the white switch to the position marked Work. Put Lets run the rest of the way.)
the red switch to Speak and press the red recording button,
which will not light up (etc.) 1. You are trying to get to the public library but you are lost. Ask
a police officer the way.
• A test more useful in many ways than reading aloud is the
retelling of a short story or incident. 2. Your friend has just returned from a holiday abroad. What do
you say to him?
Conversational exchanges
3. A waitress has just brought you the bill but has totalled it up
• These drills are specially suitable for the language incorrectly. What do you say to her?

• laboratory and can serve to focus attention on certain aspects of 4. A friend of yours wants to see a film about a murder. You
the spoken language, specially in those countries where English have already arranged to see it another evening, but you know
is taught as a foreign language and the emphasis is primarily on she would be hurt if she knew. Make up an excuse.
the reading skills.
• Type 3 The students hear a stimulus to which they must
• However, several of the test items themselves are from respond in any appropriate way. (his test often relies on
communicative in any sense at all and do not allow for authentic conventional greetings, apologies, acceptable ways of
interaction of any kind. expressing polite disagreement, etc.)

• The item types range from items presenting the testees with Do you mind if I use your pencil for a moment?
situations in which they initite conversations to incomplete (Not at all/Certainly/Please Do/Go ahead/etc.)
conversations with the part of one speaker omitted (i.e. a one- What about a game of tennis?
sided dialogue). (Yes I'd love a game/All right. I don't mind/etc.)
1. Please don't go to a lot of trouble on my behalf.
• Tests containing such item types are on the whole reliable, but 2. Oh dear, it's raining again. I hope it stops soon.
they cannot be described as being valid tests of speaking. 3. We shan't be late. Shall we?
4. Karen asked me to say she's sorry she can't come tonight.
• Type 1 The testees are given a series of situations and are
• Type 4 This is similar to the previous type of item, but the stimuli
required to construct sentences on the lines of a certain pattern
and responses form part of a longer dialogue and the situation is
or group of patterns. Again, it is essential that two or three thus developed. Because of its total predictability, however, this
models be given to the testees so that they know exactly what is type of item is sometimes referred to as a dialogue of a deaf!
required. (The testees read or hear the situation and them make The man in the dialogue below continues regardless of what the
the appropriate responses, shown in the brackets.) testees say.

• Examples: You're on your way to the supermaret. A man comes up and

speaks to you.
• Mrs Green lives in a flat. She doesn't like living in a flat and
would like to live in a small house with a garden. (She wishes MAN: Excuse me, I wonder if you can help me at all. I'm looking
for a chemist's.
she lived in a small house with garden. )
PAUSE FOR TESTEES REPLY
MAN: Thank you. Do you know what time it opens?
• Its raining heavily. Tom and Anna are waiting impatienty at
PAUSE FOR TESTEE'S REPLY
MAN: Thanks a lot. Oh, er, by the way, is there a phone box
• home to set off on their picnic. (They wish it would stop raining.)
near
here?
• 1. Mr. Black has a small car but his neighbors all have large
PAUSE FOR TESTEE'S REPLY
cars. He would like a large car too. MAN:Oh dear, I'll need some coin. do you have any change for
a
• 2. Anna hasn't learn to swim yet but most of her friends can • 5?
swim. • PAUSE FOR TESTEE'S REPLY
• MAN: Well, thanks a lot. You've been most helpful.
• 3. Tom is waiting for Bill outside the cinema. The show is just TYPE 5 This item takes the form of an incomplete dialogue with
about to start but Bill has not arrived yet. prompts (shown in bracket in the following example) whispered
in student's cat.
• 4. Mrs. Robinson doesn't like living in towns: she wants to live in
the country. (etc.) You are at the reception desk of a large hotel. The receptionists
turn to address you.
• Type 2 This type of test item s similar to the previous type but
not as strictly controlled. No model responses are given by the RECEPTIONIST: Can i help you?
(You want to know if there is a single room available.)
examiner and the students are free to use whatever patterns
YOU: ........................................................................
they wish. ......
RECEPTIONIST: Yes, we have a single room with an attached
• A friend of yours has forgotten where he has put his glasses. He bathroom.
cannot see too well without them. What will you say to him? (Let (Ask the price.)
me help you to look for them, etc.)
 YOU: ........................................................................
......
RECEPTIONIST: Thirty-four pounds fifty a night.
(You want to know if this includes breakfast.)
YOU: ..............................................................................
RECEPTIONIST: Yes, that's with continental breakfast.
(You have no idea what continental breakfast is.)
YOU: ..............................................................................
RECEPTIONIST: Its fruit juice, coffee or tea or bread rolls.
(This receptionist is speaking too quickly. what do you
say?)
YOU: ..............................................................................
RECEPTIONIST: Fruit juice, coffee or tea, and bread rolls.
(Book the room for two nights.)
YOU: ..............................................................................
RECEPTIONIST: Certainly, room 216. The porter will take your bag
and will show you where it is.
(Thank the receptionist.)
YOU: ..............................................................................

Using pictures for assessing oral production

• Pictures of single objects can be used for testing the

productive of significant phoneme contrasts, while a picture
of a scene or an incident can be used for examining the • The most effective type of oral examination using pictures
total oral skills. requires not only narration or picture description on the part of
the students but also a discussion about the picture(s)
• The students are given a picture to study for a few minutes; concerned.
they are then required to describe the picture in a given
time (e.g two or three minutes). • The student is given a card bearing a letter (A,B,C,D or E); the
• Occasionally, the number of words each student speaks is examiner cannot see the letter. The student is required to
counted by one examiner in the room, while the other describe the appropriate picture (according to the letter). The
examiner counts the number errors made. examiner then selects a picture according to the description,
assessing the student not only on the correctness and fluency of
• Advertisements, posters and strip cartoons may be used in his or her speech but also on the length of time taken before the
this way for class tests, provided that there are enough
students description results in identification of the appropriate
available to prevent the students from preparing one or two
set pieces. picture. The examiner then checks the card.

• Careful selection of the picture used for the examination

will help in controlling the basic vocabulary required and
may, to some extent determine the type of sentence
structure that predominates.

• If the pictures depict a story or sequence of events, it is

useful to give the testees one or two sentences as a starter
thereby familiarizing them with the tense sequencing they
should employ

Examiner: Last summer Lucy

spent a few days with her uncle and aunt in the country.
When it was time for her to return home, her uncle and aunt
took her to the station. Lucy had made a lot of friends and
she felt sad on leaving them. She got on the train and waved
goodbye to them... Now you continue to tell the story.

• Another effective way of assessing the student's ability to speak,

however, is to give pairs or groups of students a simple ask to
perform.
• Working in pairs, students can describe their own picture before
listening to their partner's description of a similar (but not
 identical) picture. They can then discuss in which ways the two • They are thus susceptible to psychological tensions and
pictures are the same and which ways they differ. also to constraints of style and register necessary in such
a situation.

• One solution to this problem is to have the class teacher as

the interviewer: if an external examiner is required, he or
she may sit at the back of the room or in any other obscure
place.

• Another solution to this problems caused by tension and

language constraints is to interview students in pairs or in
• If students are examined in small groups, one of the most threes, thus not only putting them more at ease through a
useful activities involving pictures is for them to be given a presence of a friend or classmate but also enabling them to
sequence of pictures to rearrange. speak to each other as members of the same member
group.
• Students should begin by describing their own picture
without showing it to the other members of the group. After • For example, how should the replies this question be
each picture has been described and discussed in relation scored?
to the other pictures, the groups decide on appropriate
sequence. Each member of the groups then puts down his • (Tester) 'What are you going to do this weekend?'
or her picture in the order decided upon.
• (Student A) 'I'm quite well, thank you.'

• (Student B) 'I go to fish. I fish in river near the big wood.'

• The scoring of the interview can range from an impression

mark to a mark arrived at on the basis of a fairly detailed
marking scheme. The following marking scheme (using a 6
point scale) is given as just one example of a number of
such schemes in present-day use.

The oral interview

• Like many other examinations of oral production, the

scoring of the interview is highly subjective and thus
sometimes has only low reliability.
•
• In addition, the performance of a student in a particular
interview may not accurately reflect his or her true ability. • Finally, oral interviews do not simply happen
spontaneously.
• Supporters of the oral interview claims that the examination
at least appears to offer a realistic means the total oral skill • There are dangers, however, in adhering to a very rigid
in a natural speech situation. structure or plan.

• Others, however, argue that the examination nevertheless Some other techniques for oral examining
is artificial and unrealistic: students are placed not in
natural, real-life speech situations but in examination The short talk
situations.
• In certain examinations students are required to prepare a
short talk on a given topic. They may be allowed several
days or only a few minutes in which to prepare the talk and
 in some cases , they may be provided with notes or Testing the Writing Skills
reference material.
3. The Writing Skills
• Vague subjects are best avoided; many topics are best
presented as questions: • The writing skills are complex and sometimes difficult to
• Should country spend huge sums of many on space teach
• exploration?
• It requires mastery not only of grammatical and rhetorical
• Do demonstrations serve any useful purpose?
devices but also of conceptual and judgmental elements.
• Do people ever really learn anything from the mistakes
• they make? The following analysis that attempts to group varied skills necessary
for writing good prose into five general components
Group discussion and role playing • Language use – ability to write correct and appropriate
sentences
• Through group discussion and role playing the teachers
can discover how students are thinking and using the • Mechanical skills – ability to correctly those conventions
target language. peculiar to the written language
• Students are thus given an opportunity to use what can be • Stylistic skills - ability to manipulate sentences and
termed 'explanatory talk'. paragraphs, and use language effectively.
• In this latter type of activity, the members of the group are • Judgement skills- ability to select, organize and order
given a particular situation and instructed to make various relevant information
decisions.
2. Testing Composition Writing
• Radio activity from a nuclear power station accident will
reach your area in a few hours: There is a small but very • Composition writing / free composition.
safe nuclear fallout shelter nearby, but there is room for
only six people out of a total of twelve. Which six people • Can be a useful testing tool.
from the following list do you think it would be most useful
• Provides students an opportunity to demonstrate the ability
to save in the interest of future generations? List them in
to organize language material using their own words and
order of priority.
ideas to communicate.
• (Note: M= Male F= Female)
The following are types of writing

• Basic level- no confusing grammar vocabulary; able to produce

simple unsophisticated sentences

• Intermediate level- a basic level, plus guide; set of instructions

must be accurate, grammar, vocabulary and spelling,
expression must be clear and appropriate using a fare range of
language.

• Advance level- extremely high standards of grammar,

vocabulary and spelling. Ability to produce organized, coherent
writing.

• In the composition test the student should be presented with a

clearly defined problem which motivates them to write.
The following is an example of an extremely simple role play suitable
for use at the elementary level. Example:

(a) write a letter, telling a friend about any interesting school

excursion on which you have been.

(b) you have just been on a school to a nearby seaside town.

3. Setting the Composition

• A good topic for a composition determines the register and

style to be used in the writing task by presenting the
students with a specific situation and context in which to
write.

• An accident ‘black spot’

 • Example:

• The following type (advance) register tests requires the student

to identify those words which are incongruous, replacing each
with a much more suitable word.

• It has now been made out beyond any doubt what so ever that
the nicotine contained in tobacco smoke is poisonous. One
minute drop of pure nicotine plunged in to the blood stream of a
rat is sufficient to kind. It has also been proved that the nicotine
contained in tobacco smoke sends up the pulse rate and the
blood preassure. There is also strong evidence that the nicotine
content in fags is a primary cause of loose of weight and
hungriness. It is also likely that a few heavy

Example:

• The following type (advance) register tests requires the student

[Link] the Composition to identify those words which are incongruous, replacing each
with a much more suitable word.
A brief description of various grades of achievement expected to be
attained by the class. • It has now been made out beyond any doubt what so ever that
the nicotine contained in tobacco smoke is poisonous. One
18-20 Excellent minute drop of pure nicotine plunged in to the blood stream of a
16-17 Very Good rat is sufficient to kind. It has also been proved that the nicotine
12-1 Good
contained in tobacco smoke sends up the pulse rate and the
8-11 Pass
blood preassure. There is also strong evidence that the nicotine
5-7 Weak
0-4 Very poor content in fags is a primary cause of loose of weight and
hungriness. It is also likely that a few heavy smokers will loose
control of their finer muscles and be unable to play around with
7. Treatment of written errors objects with ease and precision. Such a loose of muscle activity
may widen the eyes and spoil vision. Moreover, smoking puts
Spelling (A multiple choice items)
back growth in adolescents and lowers athletic ability.
4. a. theif b. belief c. ceiling d. seize e. decieve
5. a. happening b. offering c. occurring d. beginning e. • However, the most serious disease connected with smoking
benefiting is cancer of the lungs: the direct connection between smoking
6. a. illegal b. generally c. summary d. beggar e. and cancer has recently been established so assuredly that
necessary cancer research folk and public health authorities throughout the
In some tests only four words are given as options, the fifth option world have begun intensive campaigns against smoking. In
being No mistakes or All correct certain countries not only are cigarette advertisements banished
from cinema and television screens but also makers and forced
e.g. a. exhibition b. punctuality c. pleasure d. obeyed to print on each packet a warning concerning the dangers of
smoking.

[Link] tests: style and register • Controlled writing

Style: • There are several ways of controlling student's freedom of

expression in their written work and as a consequence,
• the multiple items below are concerned chiefly with
increasing the reliability of the scoring.
measuring the student’s sensitivity to style.
• Some of the distractors in the two examples are incorrect • However useful such methods are as teaching devices, they will
on grammatical grounds while others are grammatically only prove useful for testing purposes if each student is
correct. completely familiar with the particular task performed: hence the
• Example: important of clear instructions followed by one example.
• Some of the reviewers were favorable to the new play.
• a. and as many were unfavorable • Type 1 The students are given a short reading extract and then
• b. although others of the same amount were required to write a similar paragraph using the notes they have
• unfavorable given e.g
• *c. while an equal number were unfavorable
• d. but the same number were unfavorable

Register
• The use of the correct register denotes the ability to write a
specific purpose with a specific audience in mind.
• Confusion and embarrassment result from the use of
inappropriate register.
 [Link] on Stress and Intonation d. Choir practice
e. Basketball practice
Features of stress, intonations, rhythm and juncture are f. Swimming practice
generally considered more important in oral communication
skills than the ability to discriminate between phonemes, These may be made even simpler for beginners. For the
tests of stress and intonation are on the whole less advanced level, tasks may consist of drawing inferences,
satisfactory than the phonemes discrimination tests. listening for gist or intent, listening for specific information,
following a story line or sequence of events, etc.

6. Testing Comprehension through visual materials

Most of the item type in this section are more appropriate for
elementary stages of learning English. They are preferable to
the discrimination items as they involve the testing of grammar
and lexis through phonology. Pictures, maps and diagrams can
be used effectively for testing such skills, thereby making the
testees’ performance less dependent on other skills.

5. Statements & Dialogues

These items are designed to measure how well the students can
understand short samples of speech and deal with a variety of
signals on the lexical and grammatical levels of phonology.

4. Listening Comprehension
 Test on learning comprehension also vary according to
learner’s proficiency. For the intermediate group, task may
consist of responding to requests, answering questions,
following directions, repeating messages, etc. Common
test types for these tasks are question-answer, stimulus-
response, and listen-repeat.

Examples:
Directions: Do the action. (stimulus response)
Erase the writings on the board and place the eraser on the
table.
II. Direction: Answer the following questions.
(question-answers)

6. What are your parents’ occupations?

7. How long have you been staying in your current address?
III. Direction: Listen to the conversation between joana and kyle
in school. Circle the letter of the answer that best completes the
sentence based on the conversation. (listen-repeat)
(tape transcript)
 Kyle has been absent from classes because he has been
attending _______.
Understanding talks and lectures
The ability to understand both informal talks and formal lectures
is an important skill for students studying subjects in the medium
of English at intermediate and advanced levels.
Testing Reading

 One of the most commonly tested skills in school is

reading. Reading tests may consist of the following
skimming to identify the gist or intent, scanning to locate
specific information, identifying a story line, identifying
examples presented in support of a fact or an opinion,
using context to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words or
structures, recognizing organizational features of text,
identifying referents of pronouns, etc. The level of
complexity of the test depends largely on the type of
reading passages.
 Until recently many and diverse reading skills and
strategies for use in everyday situations have been largely
subordinate to a narrower range of skills required for
dealing with simplified readers, especially at the
elementary levels.
 On a few language courses, efficient reading skills have
been pushed into background in an attempt to develop oral
fluency skills.
 Attempts at dealing with the main complex reading skills
frequently come too late, at the tertiary level, when
students suddenly find themselves confronted with
professional and technical literature in the foreign
language.
 There are few comprehensive systematic programs which
have been constructed from a detailed analysis of the skills
required for efficient reading.
 Much test material is still limited to short reading extracts
on which general comprehension questions are based. As
with listening comprehension, reading comprehension is
very closely related to the type of practice material used by
the teacher to develop reading skills.
 What is urgently required in many classroom tests is
greater awareness of the actual processes involved in
reading and the production of appropriate exercise and test
materials to assist in the mastery of these processes.

Reading tests may consist of the following:

 Skimming to identify the gist or intent
 Scanning to locate specific information
 Identifying a story line
 Identifying examples presented in a support of a fact or an
opinion
 Using the context to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words
or structures
 Recognizing organizational features of text
 Identifying referents of pronouns

At this stage in our examination of reading difficulties, it would

be helpful to attempt to identify some of the specific skills
 involved in reading. Broadly speaking, these can be defined as Sentence Matching
the ability to: Testees are required recognize as quickly as possible sentences
 Recognize words and word groups, associating sounds which consist of the same words in the same order.
with their corresponding graphic symbols;
 Deduce meaning of words by
(c) Understanding word formation (roots, affixation, derivation
and compounding);
(d) Contextual clues
 Understand explicitly stated information
 Understand relations within the sentence, especially,
(e) Elements of sentence structure
(f) Negation
(g) Fronting and theme
(h) Complex embedding
 Understand relations between parts of the text through both
lexical devices and grammatical cohesive devices, especially
anaphoric and cataphoric reference and connectives.
 Perceive temporal and spatial relationships, and also sequences
of ideas Pictures and Sentence Matching
 Understand conceptual meaning, especially,
 Quantity and amount The items will concentrate on word and sentence comprehension,
 Definiteness and indefiniteness using pictures to test this skill.
 Comparison and degree
 Means and instrument
 Cause, result, purpose, reason, condition, addition, contrast,
concretion;
 Anticipate and predict what will come next in the text;
 Identify main idea and salient features in the text;
 Generalize and draw conclusions;
 Understand information not explicitly used stated by
 Making inferences
 Understanding figurative language
 Read critically
 Skim and scan looking for the general meaning and
reading for specific information;
 Adopt flexible approach and vary reading strategies
according to the type of material being read and the
purpose for what is being read. Pictures and Sentence Matching

Initial stages of reading: Matching Tests The items will concentrate on word and sentence comprehension,
 They test student’s ability to discriminate visually between words using pictures to test this skill.
which are spell in fairly similar ways. These test items will assist
in developing word recognition speed. Though not administered
as speed tests in the strict sense in the very early stage. Once
the students have gained familiarity and confidence in this type
of test, their performances should be timed so that they are
forced to read under some pressure. At first it is advisable to
confine the words used in the items to those who encountered
orally; later a number of words not encountered orally should be
introduced.

Word Matching
Testees are required to draw a line under the word which is the same
as the word on the left.

Type II.
Type III. The following item type is included to provide another example of
how reading comprehension matching tests can be based on a
dictionary. Again, the item is intended for use at a fairly advanced
level.

Intermediate and Advanced Stages of Reading

The following matching item shows how visuals can be used to test
the comprehension of definitions of certain words. Testees are
required to match the meaning of certain terms in a dictionary with
the appropriate shapes which those terms denote. The example
shows how the matching technique can be used at a more advanced
level and how it can lend itself to amore communicative testing of
reading. Above all, this particular item measures the ability of the
testee to understand the definitions usually found in the dictionary –
an essential skill required in learning and using foreign language.

Intermediate and Advanced Stages of Reading

Type I.

True or False Reading Tests

The true /false test is one of the most widely used tests of reading
comprehension. Not only the scoring is straightforward and quick, but
the scores are obtained by the testees can be very reliable indices of
reading comprehension provided that the items are well constructed
and that there are enough of them.
Disadvantages:
3. It can encourage guessing.
4. The base score is 50 percent and thus the average test
difficulty generally in the region of the test may fail to
discriminate widely enough among the testees unless there
are a lot of items.

True or False Reading Tests

To penalize the testee for guessing and instructions on the lines of
the following may be included in the rubric:

Each correct answer will be awarded two marks. However, for each
wrong answer, one mark will be deducted from your score. It is better
therefore, not to guess blindly and to leave a blank if you do jot know
the correct answer. According to the passage, are the following
statements true or false, or is it impossible to draw any conclusion?

Type II.
True or False Reading Tests effectiveness of each of the items used. The sampling of the reading
passage is the utmost importance and must be related to the broader
aims of the language teaching situation.

Multiple-Choice Items: A. Short Texts

Completion Items

Completion items measure recall rather than recognition. Although

such items are similar in many ways to open-ended questions in
tests of reading comprehension, they are often regarded as
belonging more to the objective category of test items.
Multiple-Choice Items: A. Short Texts

Multiple-Choice Items: A. Longer Texts

The multiple-choice tests offers a useful way of testing reading

comprehension. The extent to which a test is successful in
measuring what it sets out to measure depends largely on the
 Open-ended and Miscellaneous Items

The term open-ended is used to refer to those questions which

elicit a completely subjective response on the part of the
testees. The response required a range from a one-word
answer to one or two sentences. When marking the open-ended
items which require.

Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (PHIL-IRI)

What is Phil-IRI?

The Philippine Informal Reading Inventory was created to

provide classroom teachers a tool for measuring and describing
reading performance. It is an assessment tool composed of
graded passages designed to determine a student’s reading
level. It is important to note that the Phil-IRI only provides an
approximation of the learner’s abilities and may be used in
combination with other reliable tools of assessment.

Phil-IRI may be used to:

Arrangement Items
e. Group Reading Level- to determine a whole class reading
These item type are particularly useful for testing the ability to
level and identify particular students who may need more
understand a sequence of steps in a process or events in a
assistance in performing reading tasks.
narrative.
f. Individual Reading Level- to determine a student’s
independent, instructional and frustration levels for three
types of literacy tasks: Oral Reading, Silent Reading, and
Listening Comprehension
g. Group Reading Level- to determine a whole class reading
level and identify particular students who may need more
assistance in performing reading tasks.
h. Individual Reading Level- to determine a student’s
independent, instructional and frustration levels for three
types of literacy tasks: Oral Reading, Silent Reading, and
Listening Comprehension

Cloze Procedure

The cloze test was intended to measure the reading difficulty

level of a text. It is reliable means of determining whether or not
certain texts are at an appropriate level for a particular groups of
students.