Types of tests used in English Language Teaching Bachelor Paper

the students after listening to the tape are supposed to insert them.

Hence, it could be related to a gap-filling test. Here the cassette is

usually played for two times; first, the students listen for information

and attempt to insert the missing details. The second time allows them to

add what they had failed to understand at the beginning. The author of the

paper had not used that as a direct test format but as a while-listening

activity during her classes. According to her scrutiny the students with

more advanced language abilities were able to comprehend the texts

immediately, whereas the weaker students sometimes could not manage to

understand the message even listening for the tape for the third time. That

again proves the significance of usage of pre-, while and post-listening

activities in the language classroom. Weir (ibid.) states that such type of

testing involves the students’ short-time memory, which they need to switch

while listening to the tape.

According to Weir (ibid.), one of the advantages of listening recall

is uncomplicated construction, administration and marking.

Nevertheless, there are several disadvantages, as well. There is a

danger, that the students will read the passage before listening to the

tape, thus we will not be able to evaluate exactly their listening skills.

The author of the current paper had encountered the similar situation,

where the teacher warns the students not to read but just listen. However,

they start reading immediately after receiving the text, even though the

tape record being still turned off.

5.8 Testing Grammar Through Error-recognition Items and Word Formation

Tasks

One of the test formats for testing grammar is error-recognition

items. Here the teacher writes sentences underlining various words. One of

the words is obligatory wrong, and the students have to identify what word

is wrong and should be corrected. Heaton (ibid.) introduces a variation of

that type, saying that the teacher can supply the students with incorrect

sentences asking the students to provide the right variant. This again

demands a fairly good knowledge of the subject from the students to

differentiate between the right and wrong variants. In that case the error-

recognition format could be compared with multiple-choice format and even

called a branch of it. Below you can find the example of error-recognition

items format:

1. I can’t come to the phone – I have / I’m having a shower!

2. I watched/ I was watching TV when suddenly the telephone

rang.

3. I had been waiting/ I had waited in the rain for ages when

she finally turned up.

(First certificate Star, Luke

Prodromou, p.12)

Further, for testing grammar and language structures we often use

word-formation tasks, e.g.:

Making friends and ………people is a gift that some influence

………….people seem to be born with, while for others it luck

is a skill that has to be ……..through practice and acquire

hard work. It is, however, …….to know that most skills, comfort

particularly ………….skill, can be learnt and that it is never society

too late to start improving.

(First certificate Star, Luke

Prodromou, p.41)

or

|verb |noun |person |Adjective |

|Invent | | | |

| | |discoverer |- |

| |creation | | |

It is frequently used in centralized exams to know the students’

ability to coin new words that displays the students’ advanced level of the

language. The students are demanded coining nouns from verbs, adjectives

from nouns, etc. This requires certain knowledge of prefixes, suffixes and

roots in order to create a necessary word. Word coinage is an inevitable

skill for recognizing new word items either.

5.9 Controlled writing

In order to check the students grammar and writing ability the

teacher can use different test formats: transformation, broken sentences,

sentence and paragraph completion, form filling, notes and diaries.

According to Heaton (1990:32), transformation deals with re-writing

sentences. For example, the students are asked to change a sentence in

Active voice into a sentence in Passive voice. To differ the task the

teacher can put the required word in brackets at the end of each sentence.

The students will need to transform a sentence to fit the word in brackets.

Or another example of transformation could be changing the focus of the

sentence, e.g.:

1. Berlin is not an easy city to move about in.

Difficult

It………………………in Berlin.

2. I wonder if you could open the window.

Could

You couldn’t ………………….

3. When did you start to learn English?

Been

How…………………….English?

(First certificate Star, Luke

Prodromou, and p.40)

Further, he discusses the sentences that are divided into fragments

(he calls them broken sentences), and the student’s task is to arrange the

words in order to produce correct examples. Thus, the students have to know

grammar and syntaxes to make a right sentence with the correct word order.

Sometimes the students are asked to alter the words to make grammatically

correct sentences, e.g.:

1. a German/hunting/huge/black dog

2. a 25-year-old/Opera/tall singer

3. a brand-new/plastic/shopping/green bag

4. an English/young/interesting teacher

(First certificate Star, Luke

Prodromou, and p.80)

Afterwards, the students can be asked to complete the whole

paragraphs, finish dialogues, write diaries using the given information,

and fill the form, for example hotel check-in. The author of the paper had

used writing a diary in her 8th form, when the learners had to write the

diary of captain’s wife whose husband disappeared in the sea. They also had

to write the diary of the captain himself before the catastrophe. The

students liked the task immensely.

5.10 Free writing

Heaton (ibid.) believes that the most suitable way to check the

students’ writing skills is asking them to write a composition. The teacher

can include a variety of testing criteria there depending on what is really

being tested. The topics for a composition should be appropriate to the age

of the students and respond to their interest. However, the teacher has to

establish clearly what s/he is going to check (the material studied: e.g.

grammar) and what could be neglected. The students have to know whether

the teacher is interested in the context or may be s/he is concerned with

grammar and spelling, as well.

5.11 Test Formats Used in Testing Speaking Skills

We are not going to deep into details of test formats used for

testing speaking skills. Heaton (ibid.) displays that one of the most

essential elements of testing speaking is pronunciation. To check how the

students pronounce certain testing items the teacher may ask his/her

students to read aloud and retell stories. Moreover, the teacher will

receive the impression how well his/her students can operate with the

spoken language.

Afterwards, the teachers can use pictures to test the students’

speaking skills. This is widely used task, and a lot of teachers use it to

check the students speaking skills and the knowledge of the vocabulary.

Moreover, while describing the picture the student will have to imply the

correct grammar and knowledge of the English sentence structure. The

description could be done on the spot and does not require a lot of time

for preparation, though Heaton (ibid.) stipulates that the teacher should

ensure his/her students with a time during which they can formulate their

ideas before presentation.

Apart from the pictures the students could be offered to describe a

person if their topic is people’s appearance or jobs, stay the sequence of

events basing on the provided information or pictures accompanying the

task, spot differences between two pictures and compare them. Further,

Heaton (ibid.) displays a rather interesting task. The students receive a

picture with speech bubbles. They are asked to write what they think people

are saying. This in turn involves creativity from the students and could be

assessed as an additional element and contribute to the students’ marks.

Definitely, each teacher will develop and give the students various tasks

regarding the criteria and demands to be tested.

In conclusion we can say that the teacher can use a variety of test

formats, such as multiple-choice questions, transfer of information;

reordering the words, describe a picture, listening to the instructions to

check the language skills of his/her students. Every teacher has to choose

him/herself the tasks that will be appropriate to their way of teaching and

the needs of the students.

Below we have attached the table of four language skills and test

formats applicable for each skill.

| | |

|Language Skills |Test Formats |

| | |

|Reading skills |1 Multiple-choice items |

| |Short answers test |

| |Cloze test |

| |Gap-filling test |

| |False/true statement |

| | |

|Listening skills |Multiple-choice items |

| |False/true statements |

| |Gap-filling tests |

| |Dictations |

| |Listening recall |

| | |

|Writing skills |Dictations |

| |Compositions |

| |Reproductions |

| |Writing stories |

| |Writing diaries |

| |Filling-in forms |

| |Word formation |

| |Sentence transformation |

| | |

|Speaking skills |Retelling stories |

| |Describing pictures |

| |Describing people |

| |Spotting the differences |

Chapter 6

Analysis of the Test of English as a Foreign Language and Cambridge First

Certificate test according to test design criteria.

The present chapter deals with the practical part of the research. It

will be based on the analysis and comparison of two proficiency tests

formats TOEFL (The Test of English as a Foreign Language) test and CFC

(Cambridge First Certificate) test. We will start with the brief

description of their overall features; afterwards we will make an attempt

to contrast them and draw relevant conclusions.

The first test to be discussed is Cambridge First Certificate test. It

will usually consist of five papers: reading with the duration time 1 hour

and 15 minutes, writing -1 hour 30 minutes, use of English -1 hour 15

minutes, listening - 40 minutes and speaking approximately 14 minutes.

There is no absolute pass mark, but the candidates need to get about 60% of

the total marks to pass with a Grade C (Prodromou, 1998:6-7).

TOEFL test is an examination that intends to evaluate the level of the

English language of a foreign speaker (Gear, 1996:3-4). Moreover, it is

commonly one of the aspects included into the entrance exams of any

university in the USA. The institution the person requires the test for

could implement the demanded score here. Nevertheless, the highest score

does not differ from that of the CFC. TOEFL test as CFC test consists of

four different parts: listening comprehension that occupies approximately

35 minutes and consists of three parts, structure and written expression

with time limit 25 minutes composed of two tasks and reading comprehension

– 55 minutes, consisting of several passages.

Here we can notice some differences between CFC and TOEFL tests: when

TOEFL test consists of just four parts, CFC includes a speaking part more.

Moreover, each part of each test will include a various range of tasks,

i.e. each part TOEFL test will mainly be composed of two tasks, whereas

CFC will classically contain four different activities.

Doing the tests in both cases the students will get special answers

sheets where they will have to mark the answers they think are the right

ones. The instructions before the taking the test usually warn the

participants not to write in the books with questions. Moreover, both tests

are checked by the scoring machine, therefore the students should be aware

of what type of marking the answers they have to use. In both cases it

should be a black lead pencil for the scoring machine to read. The answers

should not be circled or lightly marked; in TOEFL test the students are

supposed to fill in an oval answer with a letter inside corresponding to

the question, whereas in CFC the students will have to fill in a small

rectangular under a certain letter. Together the two tests remind the

participants to choose only one answer. If the student changes his/her mind

and decides to choose another answer, s/he can easily rub out the previous

answer.

We can call the both tests valid, for they test what is supposed to be

tested and measured and they usually have the same format and length;

regarding reliability, we cannot say exactly whether there is reliability

or not, for if the student was not lucky for the first time taking the

test, s/he can study hard and take the test again for the second time and,

thus, score a better result.

Both of the tests involve the four skills: reading, listening, speaking

and writing. The difference could be found in the sequence of them, for

example if CFC test will start with reading first, TOEFL test will deal

with listening. The types of tasks and activities implied in the test

differ as well. We will start our analysis with reading part.

Reading Comprehension Part

CFC reading paper will test the students’ ability to read in a variety of

ways: reading for gist (understanding of the text), reading for details,

understanding how a text is organized and deducing the meaning from the

context. (Typically, the students could be given four parts to fill)

(Prodromou, 1998:8). For that purpose CFC reading paper will offer the

students multiple matching. The students will have to match headings or

summary sentences to the parts of the text. They will have to show their

ability to grasp the overall meaning of the text involving various kinds of

knowledge such as morphological, semantic and syntactical one. For example:

Meet the Flinstones, a modern Stone Age family. From the town of Bedrock,

here’s a bit about their history….

1. Somewhere in the world, every hour of every day, The Flinstones is being

broadcast. An incredible 300 million fans tune in to watch it regularly.

Whether you like them or not, Fred, Wilma and their neighbours are

impossible to avoid….

A) Rocky jokes B) A Stone Age family in skins C) A new idea D) A

popular show, etc.

Prodromou, First Certificate Star,

1998

Thus, basing on the theory we have discussed in the first part of our

paper, we can claim that it is integrative type of test, though being

direct, that denotes testing one particular skill directly, but not through

other language skills.

Afterwards, CFC may offer the students multiple choice, gapped texts and

again multiple matching only connected with information. In multiple-choice

activity the students will have to answer four-option multiple-choice

questions about a text. For example:

Mad Cow Disease is a deadly illness of the brain and it is the non-

technical term for BSE or Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis. This so difficult

to say that journalists and even some doctors prefer the more vivid Mad Cow

Disease…

1. We use the expression Mad Cow Disease because

A) it is more accurate.

B) It is easier to say.

C) It links cows with people.

D) It sounds less scientific.

Prodromou, First Certificate Star,

1998

It is obvious that only one answer will be the right one, but the others

will be distractors that will try to confuse the reader. It will limit the

students and make them use a variety of reading strategies, knowledge of

vocabulary and syntaxes to discover the right variant. However, the

students will not have an opportunity to support their choices and prove

why the answer they have chosen is the exact one. Moreover, the students

will be checked whether they understand the general meaning of the text,

its details, whether they can infer the meaning from the text and

understand references (who refers who). Thus, we can declare that this type

of test is integrative, for it involves the students’ abilities to apply

various reading strategies and still direct, for it tests just reading

skills.

The same could be said about gapped texts that will check the students’

knowledge of reading strategies, such as organization of the text, reading

for gist, etc. (examples available in Appendix p.17) To complete it the

students will have to show their knowledge of the certain areas of the

language. Multiple matching will require the students to match pieces of

information either with a certain text divided into fragments or with

several texts joined together with one topic (examples available in

Appendix p.8).

CFC will display various types of texts in order to see how well the

students can cope with any authentic material when dealing with reading.

They will have to show their capability of dealing with advertisements,

letters, stories, travelling brochures, guides, manuals, and magazine and

Страницы: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7