TESTING GRAMMAR

Dr. Monika Gultom, S.S.,

M.A.
 Grammar
• ‘English grammar is chiefly a system
of syntax, that decides the order and
patterns in which words are arranged
into sentences.’ (Close, 1982)
• ‘….. That branch of the description of
language which accounts for the way
in which words are combined to form
sentences.’
 Testing
• Language testing is the practice and study of evaluating the
proficiency of an individual in using a particular language
effectively;
• Language testing is a field of study under the umbrella of
applied linguistics;
• Its main focus is the assessment of first, second or other
language in the school, college, or university context;
assessment of language use in the workplace and assessment
of language in the immigration, citizenship, and asylum
contexts;
• The assessment may include listening , speaking, reading,
writing, an integration of two or more of these skills, or other
constructs of language ability.
• Equal weight may be placed on knowledge (understanding
how the language works theoretically) and proficiency (ability
to use the language practically), or greater weight may be
give to one aspect or the other.
 Importance of Testing
• Well made tests of English can help
students in two ways: (1) create positive
attitudes towards the class; (2) benefit
for students to master the language;
• For teachers tests can be used to
diagnose their own efforts as well as of
students;
• Tests can provide insights into the ways
that teachers can improve the evaluation
process.
 Grammar Tests
• Grammar tests are designed to
measure student proficiency in
matters ranging from inflections
(bottles-bottles, bake-baked) to
syntax;
• Syntax involves the relationship of
words in a sentence, including
matters such as word order, use of
negative, question forms, and
connectives.
 Importance of Grammar
Testing
• There was a time when controlling of grammatical
structures was seen as the very core of language
ability and it was unthinkable not to test it;
• Now whether or not grammar has an important place
in an institution’s teaching, it has to be accepted that
grammatical ability, or rather the lack of it, sets limits
to what can be achieved in the way of skills
performance;
• The successful writing of academic assignments, for
example, must depend to some extent on the
command of elementary grammatical structures;
• The diagnostic tests of grammar are very useful for the
individual and the group.
 Writing Specifications
• For achievement tests where teaching
objectives or the syllabus list the grammatical
structures to be taught, specification of
content should be quite straightforward;
• When there is not such listing it becomes
necessary to infer from textbooks and other
teaching materials what structures are being
taught;
• Specifications for a placement test will
normally include all of the structures identified
in this way.
 Sampling
• This will reflect an attempt to give
the test content validity by selecting
widely from the structures specified;
• It should take account of what are
regarded for one reason or another
as the most important structures;
• It should not deliberately concentrate
on the structures that happen to be
easiest to test.
 Writing Items
• Whatever techniques are chosen for
testing grammar, it is important for
the text of the item to be written in
grammatically correct and natural
language;
 Techniques for Testing
Grammar
• Gap Filling
• Paraphrase
• Completion
• Multiple Choice
• Cloze Procedure
1) Gap Filling
• Ideally gap filling items should have just
one correct response;
• For example:
a) “What was most disturbing ….. that for the
first time in his life Ali was on his way.”
(was)
b) “He arrived late, ….. Was surprise.” (which)
c) “The council must do something to
improve transport in the city. …… they will
lose the next election.” (Otherwise)
1) Gap Filling
• An item with two possible correct responses
can be used. For example: “He displayed the
wide, bright smile ……. had charmed so many
people before. (which, that)”
• In this case one item is rejected;
• There can be used of more than two more
items for filling the sentence. For example:
“Dr: …..let her cry. She’ll stop in the end.”
(just, I’d, well, then, etc)
• This technique can be used to test a variety
of structures.
 2) Paraphrase
• Paraphrase items require the students to
write a sentence equivalent in meaning
to one that is given;
• It is helpful to give part of the paraphrase
in order to restrict the students to the
grammatical structure being tested.
• For example: testing passive, part
continuous form.
“When we arrived, a policeman was questioning the
bank clerk.
“When we arrive, the back clerk …………..”
3) Completion
• This technique can be used to test a variety of
structures;
• Simple completion items used for testing
grammar consist of a sentence from which a
grammatical element is removed. For example:
“He went …….school.”
• Three steps to follow in preparing simple-
completion grammar tests:
(1)Select the grammar points that need to be
tested;
(2)Provide an appropriate context;
(3)Write good instructions.
3) Completion
(1)The Option Form
• The easiest simple completion items
are like multiple choice questions
with two options. For example
Complete the following sentences with
“do” and “make!”
1) He …….a lot of money.
2) I always …….my best.
3) Completion
(2) The Inflection Form
• Testing the mastery inflections provides for
a productive response. These vary from
simple comparatives to verb tense
questions. For example:
He is the …… (tall) person in the class.
• Another technique is to use a separate
blank for each word in the verb phrase. For
example:
He ….. ….. ……. (sleep) for nearly an
hour.
3) Completion
(3) The Free Response Form
• It illustrates how common terminology can be used
occasionally. For example:
*Add a question tag to these sentence!
1) Hamlet was indecisive …………….. ?
2) Polonius knew a lot of aphorisms ….. ?

*Write in the missing part of the two word verb.

1) What time did he get ….this morning?

• Example of free response with a minimum amount

of contextual control:
You would get better sooner if ……………
4) Multiple Choice
• In this test an incomplete sentence is
followed by four multiple choice options for
completing the sentence. For example:
1) While she ……the house, her children were
playing outside.
a. has been cleaning b. cleaned
c. has cleaned d. was cleaning
2) He has lived in this town for only a week
and he already has ……friends.
a. few b. a few c. not many d. the
few
4) Multiple Choice
• It is an efficient way to test grammar but
teachers should follow specific procedure in its
preparation.
1) Choose the grammar points that they need to
test; Choosing grammar points to test is
usually easy. It can be chosen from the
structures the teacher has taught since the last
test.
2) Prepare the right kind of sentence context for
the grammar structure. A good context is very
important: for example:
They left at seven. They ……be home by now.
a. can b. could c. will d. must
 4) Multiple Choice
3) Select three logical distractors. For example:
-These are the incorrect options which we put
with the correct word or phrase to complete
the sentence!
“…..the ones who know the answers.”
a. they are b. there c. they’re d. their
- Teacher should avoid such distractions that
sound a like. For example:
“Several years ago I ….. English”
a. studied b. study c. have studied d. will
study
 4) Multiple Choice
3) Select three logical distractors. For example:
-Unnecessary material confuse the students so it
is should not be added in the test. Example:
“If I had a new fur coat, …...”
a. I showed b. I’d show c. I’ve shown d. I’ll show
4) Prepare clear, simple instruction. All the
instructions for solving the questions should
be clear.
5) Cloze Procedure
• Cloze tests are prose passages, usually a
paragraph or more in length, from which words
have been deleted.
• The students rely on the context in order to
supply the missing words.
• The cloze is simply a story or essay from which
a number of words have been deleted.
• In this test, the overall meaning and surrounding
grammar help to replace the missing parts.
• Sentence-completion vocabulary and grammar
items are similar in a way to cloze tests
• Cloze passages simply have much larger
contexts.
 5) Cloze Procedure
Every day thousands of people jog. Why has jogging-
running slowly for long distances-become so popular?
Donald Robbins, who is forty-two years old ____ (1) works
in an office, began jogging _______ (2) few years ago
because he felt _____ (3) was too fat. At first, he ____ (4)
only run about 100 yards, and ____ (5) took him almost
three months to ____ (6) able to run a full mile. ____ (7)
two years later, he ran in _____ (8) eastern marathon
race-over twenty-six miles.
____(9) you jog too? If you decide ____ (10), be sure
to ask your doctor ____ (11) advice.
Does jogging cost much? No, _____ (12) costs almost
nothing. But most agree _____ (13) good running shoes
are very important. _____ (14) protect your feet and legs
from _____ (15) shock of running on hard surfaces.
 5) Cloze Procedure
If you start jogging, it could make your
heart stronger and also help you to feel
better about yourself.

Key: and, a , he, could, it, be, but, an,

should, to, for, it, that, they, the
 Scoring Productive Grammar
Tests
• Gap Filling and multiple choice items are easy to
score;
• The important thing when scoring other types of
item is to be clear about what each item is testing,
and to reward points for that only;
• There should be one element, such as subject-
pronoun-verb inversion, and all available points
should be awarded for that;
• It two elements are being tested in an item, then
points should be assigned to each of them;
• In this case both elements have to be correct for
any points to be rewarde.
 References
• Hughes, A. (2003). Testing for
language teacher (2nd ed).
Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
• Madsen, H.S. (1983). Techniques in
testing. New York: Oxford University
Press.