Testing English vocabulary

MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO FACULTY OF EDUCATION Department of English Language and Literature TESTING VOCABULARY Diploma Thesis Brno 2009 Author: Bc Ivana Pavlů Supervisor: Mgr Naděžda Vojtková Declaration: I declare that I have written my diploma thesis myself and used only the sources listed in the enclosed bibliography I agree with this diploma thesis being deposited in the Library of the Faculty of Education at the Masaryk University and with its being made available for academic purposes Ivana Pavlů Acknowledgements I would like to express my thanks to Mgr Naděžda Vojtková for her guidance, kind help and her comments on my work Content THEORETICAL PART Introduction TESTING Basic division of tests Reasons for testing .7 Principles of tests 11 3.1 Reliability 11 3.2 Validity .12 How to write tests .15 Types of tests 17 5.1 Multiple choice 18 5.2 Cloze test 19 5.3 Dictation 20 5.4 True/false 21 5.5 Questions and answers (open questions) 22 5.6 Gap-filling 22 5.7 Transformation 22 5.8 Rewriting 23 5.9 Matching 23 5.10 Error correction .24 5.11 Essay 24 5.12 Translation .25 5.13 Rearranging .25 5.14 Information transfer 25 VOCABULARY .26 Basic aspects of vocabulary .26 Selection and size of vocabulary 27 Why test vocabulary? .29 Vocabulary testing techniques 30 9.1 Multiple choice 31 9.2 Cloze test 32 9.3 Word formation 32 9.4 Matching 32 9.5 Odd one out .33 9.6 Writing sentences .34 9.7 Dictation .34 9.8 Sentence completion 34 9.9 Definitions 34 9.10 Translation .35 9.11 Writing .35 9.12 Reading 36 9.13 Oral testing 36 9.14 Associations .37 9.15 Placing .37 9.16 Synonyms and antonyms 37 9.17 Transformation 37 9.18 Substitution 38 PRACTICAL PART Introduction .39 10 Description of the tested groups .41 11 Criteria of measuring the effectiveness 43 12 Informal assessment .43 12.1 Cards - method of translation 43 12.2 Monolingual dictionary 48 12.3 Cards - method of definition 48 12.4 Self-testing through textbooks 50 12.5 Testing on the Internet .53 13 Formal testing 54 13.1 Definitions .55 13.2 Sentence completion and writing sentences 57 15.3 True/false, matching, odd one out 59 13.4 Dictation 63 13.5 Multiple choice 65 13.6 Oral testing 66 13.7 Cloze test 67 14 Summary of the practical part 68 Conclusion 70 Resume 71 Bibliography .73 Appendix 75 THEORETICAL PART Introduction The main subject of my thesis is testing vocabulary The thesis is divided into theoretical and practical part In the theoretical part I will try to summarize various kinds of tests, then I will focus on those methods of testing which would be suitable for testing vocabulary Besides I will also deal with the basic principles of tests such as validity and reliability and the question of size of vocabulary and if it is important to test it In the practical part I will use various methods of testing vocabulary in real classes As I teach at a secondary school, I have a great opportunity to use the methods in practice There was a significant reason why I have chosen this topic I have been teaching for about eight years and since the beginning of my teaching career I have been aware of my weakness in teaching and testing vocabulary It was partly caused by the fact that in my teaching practice I was influenced by my own English teacher at my grammar school She was a great teacher but concerning teaching vocabulary, she did not pay much attention to it and she paid even less attention to testing vocabulary The only way she tested us was translation of a list of Czech words into English We always learned an amount of words and wrote the test but we did not know many of the words after several days Consequently, I was always better at grammar than at vocabulary because the teacher devoted much more time to it in her lessons I proceeded exactly in the same way in my teaching practice but I was never satisfied with it and this thesis is a good chance how to change it In the thesis I want to explore some other ways of testing and my secret wish is to the testing more interesting or even amusing I want to stop the routine of CzechEnglish translations and started to be more creative Moreover, the other goal is to use the vocabulary more in practice or in context and to work with the words more intensively so that the students would remember them better Many of the techniques described in the theoretical part will be used in my lessons in more or less modified versions My goal is to find those methods which would be easy to prepare and to correct but also inventive and raising students´ interests in learning vocabulary In the thesis I will sometimes use the word teacher which is replaced by the pronoun she as there are more women than men teachers TESTING Basic division of tests Standardised and non-standardised tests • Standardised tests are those tests which were prepared by a team of professionals which means that they are highly reliable • Non-standardised tests are those prepared by an individual teacher according to what she wants to cover in class This means that the tests are not as reliable as standardised tests but still they play an important role in lessons (Berka, Váňová 10) Reasons for testing There are many reasons for testing which authors of different methodological books present and they divide them according to various criteria The most common reason is that tests show a kind of ability We need tests to find out the level of some knowledge of something According to Hughes “it is difficult to imagine British and American universities accepting students from overseas without some knowledge of their proficiency in English The same is true for organisations hiring interpreters or translators They certainly need dependable measures of language ability ” (4) We cannot avoid testing almost anywhere, Mcnamara says that “language tests play a powerful role in many people´s lives, acting as gateways at important transitional moments in education, in employment, and in moving from one country to another” (4) For teachers the reason for testing is clear as they need to find out about their students´ progress (Hughes 4) Although tests are not very popular among students they need to be taken regularly because teachers must learn if their students understand a language matter or not and in that case, it should be a signal for some revision of those pieces of language which were not understood well Moreover, at most Czech schools tests have to be done so that students could be marked according to them To be more specific, students have to be examined several times a semester The way of examination depends on every school management or even on the teacher of a particular subject However, the usual way of assessment is done through written tests or oral examinations which are the main criteria for the final marks Heaton divides teacher´s reasons for testing into several categories: • Finding out about progress • Encouraging students • Finding out about learning difficulties • Finding out about achievement • Placing students • Selecting students • Finding out about proficiency (9-17) In the following part the categories of reasons will be described in more detail Finding out about progress This is done through so called progress tests which “look back at what students have achieved and are the most important kinds of tests for teachers” (Heaton 9) The author also claims that in progress tests student´s results should be very good, most of them should have about 80% or even 90% of correct answers, otherwise the subject of the test was not mastered and the teachers should find the mistake which may be in the content of the test or in the bad method of teaching The author adds that “the best progress test is one which students not recognise as a test but see as simply an enjoyable and meaningful activity” (Heaton 9) Encouraging students Tests can also be useful in terms of showing students how they improve Consequently, students, encouraged by their improvements, have new motivation for future studying The author highlights that people are always motivated by good results in everything they not just exams while bad results mostly discourage them (Heaton 10) This claim is very true and valid also for learning English, therefore students with excellent test results like learning English while the weaker students not Moreover, test can enable students to experience success According to BBC: in the 1970´s students in an intensive EFL program were taught in an unstructured conversation course They complained that though they had a lot of time to practise communicating, they felt as if they had not learned anything Not long afterwords a testing system was introduced and helped to give them a sense of satisfaction that they were accomplishing things (Frost, Testing and Assessment) Finding out about learning difficulties Teachers can learn about students´ problems with the language through tests Such tests are called diagnostic tests and are used mainly for finding out student´s difficulties The test must be well-prepared so that it could really find out what students not know The best time for such a test is at the beginning of a course or a school year (Heaton 11-12) Finding out about achievement For this we use so called achievement tests which are tests covering a large amount of curriculum, for example, they may test whole year or even several years of study For teachers at elementary or secondary schools these kinds of tests are very difficult to prepare, because of the big amount of curriculum covered through whole year or several years and teachers not know what to put into the test and what not to as everything seems important to them Heaton advises to work with other colleagues on that to be more objective (Heaton 13-14) Placing students So called placement tests are used to divide students into groups according to their level of knowledge The tests must not focus only on one part of English such as present simple but on the knowledge in broad term because we want to have an objective picture of student´s present level of English These tests should include various types such as blank-filling , dictation or multiple choice (Heaton 15) Selecting students Tests for selecting students - we can come across such tests when we look for a job The main aim of these tests is to find the best candidate for a position which means that we not measure their performance according to some criteria but we compare the candidates with one another and try to choose best one Heaton talks about normreferenced testing “That is, we compare the performance of an individual with the other individuals in the group (i.e the norm)” (Heaton 16) In the Czech Republic children sometimes have to to pass an entrance examination when they want to attend a secondary school The examination is mostly a written test containing the main subject of the discipline which the child wants to study For example, a child who wants to study a technical school will probably take the entrance exam from mathematics,however, the requirements may vary from school to schools In connection with these selection tests Heaton talks about so called washback effect, which is quite a familiar term in methodology expressing how testing influences learners, what impact it has on learning and teaching This means that the test can have either positive or negative effect on our teaching If the examination is well-prepared then both students and their teacher will profit from it but if the test is bad, it will have a negative effect on them (16-17) Hughes explains that a test can influence people either positively or negatively Negative washback happens when all the work in the class starts to comfort to the demands of the test For example, the test we are going to write with our students contains only gap-filling activities, so the teachers practise only similar exercises so that her students were successful but generally it is harmful because students will be good only at one area So to reach a positive washback, the test should provoke improvement of all students´ skills and preferably arise student´s taste for learning (1) Finding out about proficiency Mcnamara says that “whereas achievement tests relate to the past in that they measure what language that students have learned as a result of teaching, proficiency 10 Appendix Appendix Cards 75 Appendix Cards - definitions 76 Appendix Definitions - test 77 Appendix Definitions - test 78 Appendix Sentence completion, writing sentences 79 Appendix Sentence completion, writing sentences 80 Appendix True/false, matching, odd one out 81 Appendix True/false, matching, odd one out 82 Appendix Dictation 83 Appendix 10 Dictation 84 Appendix 11 Paused dictation 85 Appendix 12 Multiple choice 86 87 Appendix 13 Oral testing name Pavel Jiří Lukáš Martin content 4 fluency -3 overall mark -3 name Daniel Richard Filip Jakub Michal content -1 fluency 1 overall mark 1 -1 88 Appendix 14 Cloze test Environment - the whole text Many things that people nowadays release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and gases trap energy The result is global warming and increase in the Earth´s temperature It is the biggest ecological problem facing the world at the moment But there are some small things we can all that will make a big difference We still use cars as our main form of transport We can reduce the amount of gases that we put into the air by walking or by using public transport We can also recycle our rubbish Recycled paper saves trees and they absorb carbon dioxide Recycling other rubbish such as plastic, metal and glass also helps save natural resources Every time we use electricity we are contributing to global warming It really helps to switch off the lights, the television, the computer and other electrical items when we have finished using them Alternative energy such as solar panels and wind generators will also help reduce the effect of global warming So, think about what you can and how can make a difference Environment think about glass atmosphere rubbish temperature the computer energy 8.recycle the biggest 10 cars 11 switch off 12 global 13 wind generators 14 public transport 15 solar panels 16 recycled 17 increase Many things that people nowadays release greenhouse gases into the _, and gases trap energy The result is global warming and _ in the Earth ´s _ It is _ ecological problem facing the world at the moment But there are some small things we can all that will make a big difference We still use _as our main form of transport We can reduce the amount of gases that we put into the air by walking or by using _ _ We can also _our _ _paper saves trees and they absorb carbon dioxide Recycling other rubbish such as plastic, metal and also helps save natural resources Every time we use electricity we are contributing to _ warming It really helps to _ _ the lights, the television, _and other electrical items when we have finished using them Alternative _such as _ and _ will also help reduce the effect of global warming So, _ _ what you can and how can make a difference 89 ... transfer 25 VOCABULARY .26 Basic aspects of vocabulary .26 Selection and size of vocabulary 27 Why test vocabulary? .29 Vocabulary testing techniques... teaching vocabulary, she did not pay much attention to it and she paid even less attention to testing vocabulary The only way she tested us was translation of a list of Czech words into English. .. account; passive versus active vocabulary Active vocabulary are words that students are able to use in speech and which they remember whilst passive vocabulary means vocabulary which students recognize