Giáo trình How to Teach English - Chương 1: Introduction to language testing

Nội dung text: Giáo trình How to Teach English - Chương 1: Introduction to language testing

1. Chapter 1: Introduction to language testing Source: Heaton, J.B. (1989). Writing English Language Tests. Longman & New York
2. 1. Testing & teaching  Testing & Teaching: closely related  Tests: - devices to reinforce learning & motivate Ss - means of assessing Ss’ lang. performance  Tests focusing on daily communication useful effects on learning  Good communicative tests + effects: learning, teaching & learning habits
3. 2. Why test?  Evaluating Ss’ performance (comp. & selecting)  Locating the precise area of Ss’ difficulty  Ascertaining difficult problems in curriculum  Measuring Ss’ performance w/o traps effective motivation
4. 3. What should be tested & to what standard?  Analyzing the language tested: important  Identifying the purpose of assessment: including aspects /skills tested  Before constructing tests: to questions standards
5. 4. Testing the language skills  Listening: short utterances, dialogues, talks & lectures  Speaking: interview, picture description, role play, problem-solving tasks (pair/group)  Reading: ability to understand gist, key information on specific points  Writing: letters, reports, messages
6. 5. Testing language areas  Grammar & usage: measuring Ss’ ability to recognize appro. gram forms & to manipulate structures  Vocabulary: meaning, pattern, collocations  Phonology: stress patterns, tunes (↑↓voice)
7. 6. Language skills & language elements  Skills, integrated skills, elements: purpose of tests & level of learners  All levels: measuring ability to communicate  A good lang. test: Ss’ performance in 4 skills used in real life
8. 7. Recognition & production  Recognition: words & language form- multiple-choice forms (easy to examine statistically)  Production: measuring learners’ ability to produce or use correct lang. forms in real life  A good language test: either recognition or production items, or combination of both
9. 8. Problems of sampling  The longer the test the more reliable a measuring instrument  The language tested= the one used in the classroom  Items based on contrastive analysis: effective for Ss from the same L1  Writing test specifications based on learning tasks included in the syllabus
10. 9. Avoiding traps for the Ss  Never trap Ss in giving incorrect answers  Not including items never taught  Finding out what Ss know, not trapping them  Gaining a deeper insight the language tested & learning process involved