Types of tests used in English Language Teaching Bachelor Paper

multiple-choice test to avoid troubles connected with its inadequacy that

later can lead to the disaster for the students receiving bad marks due to

the fact that the test’s examples were too complicated or too ambiguous.

The next advantage concerns the format of the test that clearly implies

the idea of what the learner should do. The instructions are clear,

unambiguous. The students know what they are expected to do and do not

waste their precious time on trying to figure out what they are supposed to

do.

The last advantage displayed by Weir is that the MCQs in a certain

context are better than open-ended or short-answer questions, for the

learners are not required to produce their writing skills. This eliminates

the students’ fear of mistakes they can make while writing; moreover, the

task does not demand any creative activity, but only checks the exact

knowledge of the material.

Having considered the advantages of MCQs, it is worth speaking about its

disadvantages. We will not present all of them only what we find of the

utmost interest and value for us.

The first disadvantage concerns the students’ guessing the answers;

therefore, we cannot objectively judge his/her true knowledge of the topic.

We are not able to see whether the student knows the material or have just

luckily ticked or circled the right variant. Therefore, it could be

connected with another shortcoming of the following test format that while

scoring the teacher will not get the right and true picture of what the

students really know.

Another interesting point that could be mentioned it that multiple-

choice differ from the real-life situation by the choice of alternatives.

Usually, in our everyday life we have to choose between two alternatives,

whereas the multiple-choice testing might confuse the learner by the

examples s/he even has not thought about. That will definitely lead to

frustration, and, consequently, to the student’s failure to accomplish the

task successfully.

Besides, regarding Weir (ibid.) who quotes Heaton (1975) we can

stipulate that in some cases multiple-choice tests are not adequate and it

is better to use open-ended questions to avoid the pro-long lists of

multiple-choice items. This probably will concern the subject, which will

require a more precise description and explanation from the students’ side.

To finish up with the drawbacks of MCQs we can declare that they are

relatively costly and time-consuming to prepare. The test designer should

carefully select and analyse each item to be included in the test to avoid

ambiguity and imprecision. Furthermore, s/he should check all possible

grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes, evaluate the quality of

information offered for the learners’ tasks and choose the correct and

relevant distractors for the students not to confuse them during the test.

To conclude we can cite Heaton (1990:17) who stipulates that designing a

multiple-choice items test is not so fearful and hard as many teachers

think. The only thing you need is practice accompanied by a bit of theory.

He suggests for an inexperienced teacher to use not more than three options

if the teacher encounters certain difficulties in supplying more examples

for the distractors. The options should be grammatically correct and of

equal length. Moreover, the context should be appropriate to illustrate an

example and make the student guess right.

5.2 Short answer tests

A further format that is worth mentioning is short answer test

format. According to Alderson (1996:223) short answer tests could be

substitutes to multiple-choice tests. The only difference is that apart

from the optional answers the students will have to provide short answers.

The author of the paper had not used this test format, thus, she cannot

draw on her experience. Therefore, she will just list the ideas produced by

other linguists, to be more exact Alderson’s suggestions.

Alderson (ibid.) believes that short answer tests will contribute to

the students’ results, for they will be able to support their answers and,

if necessary, clarify why they responded in that way but not the other. It

could be explained that the students will have an opportunity to prove

their answers and support them if necessary.

Nevertheless, the short answer tests are relatively complicated for

the teacher to be designed. The teacher has to consider a variety of ideas

and thoughts to create a fairy relevant test with fairly relevant items.

May be that could explain the fact why this test format is not such a

common occasion as MCQs are.

At this point we have come to advantages and drawbacks of short

answer tests. Weir (1990:44) says that this type of testing differs from

MCQs by the absence of the answers. The students have to provide the answer

themselves. That will give the marker the clear idea whether the students

know what they write about or not. Certainly, the teacher will be definite

about the students’ knowledge, whereas in MCQs s/he can doubt whether the

students know or have just guessed the correct answer. Moreover, short

answer test could make the students apply their various language skills

techniques they use while dealing with any reading, listening or speaking

activity.

Finally, Weir (ibid.) stipulates that if the questions are well

formulated, there is a high chance the student will supply short, well-

formulated answer. Therefore, a variety of questions could be included in

the test to cover a broader field of the student’s knowledge, and certainly

it will require a great work from the teacher.

Nevertheless, there are certain drawbacks displayed by the following

test format. One of the major disadvantages could be the students’

involvement in writing. For if we are determined to check the students

reading abilities, it is not appropriate to give the students writing tasks

due to the high possibility of the spelling and grammar mistakes that may

occur during the process. Therefore, we have to decide upon our priorities

– what do we want to test. Furthermore, the students while writing can

produce far different answers than expected. It will be rather complicated

to decide whether to consider them as mistakes or not.

5.3 The cloze test and gap-filling tests

Before coming to the theory on cloze tests we assume that it is

necessary for us to speak about a term “cloze”. Weir (1990:46) informs that

it was coined by W.L. Taylor (1953) from the word ‘closure’ and meant the

individual’s ability to complete a model.

However, to follow the model one has to posses certain skills to do

so. Hence, we can speak about introduction of such skill that Weir calls

deduction. Deduction is an important aspect for dealing with anything that

is unknown and unfamiliar. Thus, before giving a cloze test the teacher has

to be certain whether his/her students are familiar with the deduction

technique.

Alderson (1996:224) assumes that there are two cloze test techniques:

pseudo-random and rational cloze technique. In the pseudo-random test the

test designer deletes words at a definite rate, or as Heaton (1990:19)

places it, systematically, for example every 7th word should be deleted

occasionally with the initiate letter of the omitting word left as a

prompt:

Although you may think of Britain as England ,i...is really four

countries in one. There a.. …..four very distinct nations within the

British I………: England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, each with their

o…..unique culture, history, cuisine, literature a…..even languages.

(Discovering Britain, Pavlockij B.

M., 2000)

However, the task could be more demanding if the teacher will not

assist the learners’ guesses and will not provide any hints:

Scotland is in the north and Wales in the west were………separate

countries. They have different customs,……………….., language and, in Scotland’

s case, different legal and educational……………….

(ibid.)

The examples shown above do not yield to be ideal examples at all.

Without doubt, the material used in the task should more or less provide

the students with the appropriate clues to form correct guessing.

Notwithstanding, the author of the paper has used such tests in her

practice and according to her observations; she can conclude that the tasks

with the first letter left are highly motivating for the students and

supply a lot of help for them. Moreover, having discussed the following

test format the teacher has revealed that the students like it and receive

a real pleasure if they are able to confirm their guess and find the right

variant.

However, according to Alderson (ibid.), the teacher commonly does not

intend to check a certain material by the cloze test. The main point here

is the independence of the student and his/her ability to apply all the

necessary techniques to fill in the blank spaces. Concerning the mentioned-

above scholars, we have to agree that the following type of test is

actually relatively challenging, for it demands vast language knowledge

from the student. Heaton (ibid.) believes that each third or fourth deleted

word can turn into the handicap for the learner due to the lack of

prompting devices, such as collocations, prepositions, etc. Whereas, the

removal of each ninth word may even lead to the exhausting reading process.

On the contrary, the rational cloze technique, or as it is usually

called gap-filling, is based on the deletion of words connected with the

topic the teacher wants or intends to check. At this time the teacher

controls the procedure more than it is in the pseudo-random test discussed

above. Moreover, s/he tries to delete every fifth or sixth word, but does

it rather carefully not to distort the meaning and mislead the learner.

Besides, a significant factor in this type of testing is that the teacher

removes exactly the main words that are supposed to be checked, i.e.:

Britain…….a deceptively large island and ……surrounded by some very

beautiful coastline. The south of England has popular sandy beaches,

especially in the west. But the coast in the south west Wales…..a unique

coastal National Park. Its beaches…… great for sunbathing and the rock

pools and cliffs ……..havens for wildlife. Up in Scotland, the striking

white beaches of the west coast and islands……excellent places for

explorative walks.

(Discovering Britain, Pavlockij B. M., 2000)

It is evident that the teacher’s aim by the help of the rational cloze

test is to check the students’ knowledge of the Present simple of the verb

“to be”. Thereof, the cloze tests could be successfully used for testing

grammar, as well.

We have come again to the point when we are going to mention the

advantages and disadvantages of cloze and gap-filling testing coined by

Weir. Regarding Weir, there are more disadvantages than advantages in

applying the cloze tests. He says that to design a cloze test is fairly

easy, and they are easy to evaluate, and it is the best means to check

reading comprehension. Concerning the drawbacks, we can emphasise that

randomly removed words usually will act as distractors and will not be of

true importance for the students to comprehend a message if, for example,

it is a reading task.

Compared to the cloze test, gap filling is more material based, for

it checks the students’ knowledge of a particular topic. Therefore, we can

speak about the first advantage that is the learners will know exactly what

they should insert. Moreover, the selectively deleted items allow focusing

exactly on them and do not confuse the student.

The last what could be said about gap filling tests is that this

technique limits us to check only a certain language skill, e.g. a

vocabulary on different topics.

5.4 C-Tests

It is worth mentioning that in the 80s German school introduced an

alternative to cloze test another type of testing – C-Tests. This test was

based on the cloze test system; however, every second word there was

deleted. It could seem quite a complicated type, though it is not.

According to Weir (1990:47) in this type every deleted word is partially

preserved. Thus, the students, if they possess a fairly good knowledge of

the language and can activate their schemata, or background knowledge of a

topic or the world, they will succeed in completing the test. Such test

format could look as follows:

Cats ha…. always been surro………by superstitions. In anc……Egypt

ca….were cons……. sacred, but in medi…..Europe ma….. people beli…… cats we….

witches in disgu…… A popular supers……... about ca…. is that a blac…cat,

cros… your pa… from left to rig…., will bri… you bad lu…. However, in some

cult….. a black ca… is thought to be a go… omen rat… than a ba… one.

(First certificate Star, Luke

Prodromou, p.134)

Definitely there are advantages and disadvantages of the following

test format. According to Weir, due to the frequency of the deleted items

there is a great possibility to include more tested items in the test.

Moreover, this test is economical. However, despite all the advantages, the

test can mislead the students as it is fragmented. The examples are

deprived from the context that could be very helpful for the students’

guessing of the missing parts.

5.5 True/False items

This test format is familiar for all the teachers and students. Each

reading task will always be followed with true/false activities that will

intend to check the students’ comprehension of a text. The students will be

offered a set of statements some of which are true and some are wrong,

e.g.:

1. People went to see ‘Cats’ because of the story. T F

2. Lloyd Webber’s father helped his career. T F

3. Lloyd Webber comes from a musical family. T F

( Famous Britons, Michael

Dean)

They usually should be ticked, and in order to tick the correct variants

the students have to be able to employ various guessing strategies.

According to Weir (1990:48), the advantage of such test is found in

its applicability and suitability. One can write more true/false statements

for a test and use them to check the students’ progress or achievement.

Furthermore, the current sort of testing could be more motivating for the

students than a multiple-choice test. It will not make the students

confused offering just one possibility than a multiple-choice test, which

typically proposes more than one option to choose from. Moreover, it is

easy to answer for the students and check for the teachers.

5.6 Dictation

Another test format that could be applied in the language classroom is

dictation. We commonly use dictations to check spelling; nevertheless, it

could be applied to test listening comprehension, as well. It is obvious

that to dictate something we have either to speak or read. It means that

while writing a dictation the student has to be able to perceive the spoken

language efficiently enough to produce in on paper. For this purpose the

student will require a variety of techniques such as schemata and its

application, predictions, guessing and context clues, etc. Further, it also

is constrained that dictation help the students develop their abilities to

distinguish between phonemes, separate words and intonation. Besides,

dictations function in spoken language; thereof the students have an

opportunity to learn to understand the language through listening. To

conclude what has been mentioned above we can agree with Weir (1990:49)

that dictations will force the students to use the variety of skills:

listening, reading, speaking and writing skills.

Heaton (1990:28) advises that to enable the students comprehend

successfully, the teacher need to read carefully and clearly, however

avoiding slow, word for word reading. Moreover, to allow the students to

check what they have written the repetition will be required. The author of

the paper when giving dictations to her students had encountered the need

for repetition for a number of times. The following could be explained by

many factors, such as the students are not able to perceive spoken speech

through listening; they are not able to elaborate various guessing,

inferring of the meaning techniques or their pace of writing is simply

rather slow. Thus, we entirely support the next statement claimed by Heaton

that it is wise after the first reading of a dictation to ask a set of

comprehension questions to make the students aware of the general idea of a

text. It will simplify the process of the understanding.

Notwithstanding, even an ideal variant will definitely contain some

drawbacks. The same could be applied to dictations. First, to write a

dictation, the student requires a good memory. S/he has to retain

information they have heard in order to display it later; moreover, the

information should be identical to the original. Therefore, we can claim

that the student has to recognize at least seventy-eighty per cent of what

has been dictated. In that case we short-term memory should be well

developed.

Apart from memory, scoring could be problematic, as well. Weir

(1990:50) believes that is difficult to decide what to pay attention to:

whether to evaluate spelling and grammar, or just perceived information.

Thus, the teacher has to work out a certain set of criteria, as we have

already mentioned that in Chapter 1, the criteria s/he will be operating

with. Besides, the students should be acquainted with it, as well.

In addition, Weir (ibid.) says that dictating is more efficient if it

is recorded on the tape and is delivered by a native speaker. It could mean

that the students will have a chance to fell themselves in the real-life

situation; for this is the actual purpose they learn the language for. The

following has been expanded by Heaton (ibid.) that speaking face to face

with a speaker is even more beneficial, for we can compensate the lack of

understanding by his/her facial expression, gestures and movements.

Listening to a cassette does not provide us with such a chance, and

therefore, it is more challenging and requires more developed skills to

understand a recorded message.

5.7 Listening Recall

This test format is specifically applied to testing listening skills.

It differs from a dictation that it supplies the students with a printed

text. However, the text is given not as the complete script of the tape.

Certain words that carry the meaning load are deleted from a passage, and

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