PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC MÔN TIẾNG ANH

List some test types you usually give your students.. Regular tests play an important role because 1.The tests tell the teacher : * What the students can and cannot do * How successfu

discussion

test or 45 – minute test with key answers

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1 Why and what should teachers give tests to

students ?

2 State what you know about innovation / change

in testing

3 List some test types you usually give your

students.

4 Suggest what should be done to make fair tests.

1.Why and what should teachers give tests

to students ?

Regular tests play an important role

because

1.The tests tell the teacher :

* What the students can and cannot do

* How successful the teaching has been

* What areas need to be taught in the

future

2 The tests tell the students :

* How well they are progressing

* Where they need to focus their

attention as learners

* Regular tests also encourage

students to take their learning

seriously, and give them a series of

definite goals to aim towards In sum,

* A class test enables the teacher to

increase his own effectiveness.

3 A good classroom test helps

* locate the areas of difficulty encountered by the

class or the individual students

* enable the teacher to diagnose his students

weaknesses or difficulties, and ascertain the

difficulty that lie in any part of the language

programme.

* provides the students with an opportunity to

recognize and produce correct forms of the

language and be able to learn from their errors and consolidate the pattern after the test.

What should teachers test?

In testing language, teachers should test :

1 Linguistic elements (grammar, vocabulary, spelling,

pronunciation) to find out what students have learnt

2 Language skills (listening, reading, speaking, writing) to find

out what students can do.

A Testing receptive skills

B Testing speaking (oral test)

C Testing writing

D Testing vocabulary

E Testing grammar

F Testing pronunciation

2 Innovation/Change in Testing

 In traditional language teaching, formal and informal tests are given to students by their teachers.

 Nowadays, based on student-centered approach, language testing includes tests, continuous/continual assessments.

- Formal tests : at the end of a semester/ school year, marked, and assessed by teachers.

- Continuous/continual assessments : during the course, students are assessed by teachers( teacher assessment), or classmates (peer assessment), or the student himself/herself (self-assessment).

3.Some test types

Teachers might use a variety of test

types which will depend on

b) The skills they want to test

A. Listening tests

1 Multiple choice

2 True-False

3 Open-ended questions

4 Grid-filling

5 Gap-filling (cloze)

C Speaking tests

1 Prompts/Picture prompts

2 Asking and answering questions

3 A set of topics

B Reading tests

1 Multiple choice

2 True-False

3 Open-ended questions

4 Grid-filling

5 Gap-filling

D Writing tests

 Guided writing tests:

- Gap-filling

- Re-ordering words

- Summary writing based on texts

 Free writing tests:

- Sentence writing

- Paragraph writing

- Essay writing

4.Some suggestions for making fair tests

accurately.

the test and use examples.

 Write clear test items.

Compare the following:

Item 1: Directions: Choose the best

response

Today it is rather cloudy.

A It will probably rain

B Yesterday the weather was nice

C Yes, I think so, too

Item 2: Directions: Choose the letter for the

answer which means the same as the statement Today it is rather cloudy.

A The clouds are dark.

B It is not too sunny today.

C It might snow tomorrow.

Which item is clear?

Item 2 is clear; Item 1 is unclear.

 When writing multiple choice questions, use

realistic distractors.

Distractors are wrong answers A test will not be reliable

if impossible distractors are used.

Consider the following question:

What color is the sun?

A Yellow ( This is intended correct answer)

B Orange ( too close to the correct answer)

C Soft (not a color & too far from the correct answer)

D Yes (It is a bad distractor because this is an answer

to a yes/no question)

A better set of answers to test knowledge of

colors would simply be a list of colors:

A blue B green C yellow D black

 Score tests consistently with a key.

When scoring, use a key that will help

teachers grade objectively The key should have examples of correct answers ( though other correct answers should be accepted) and the appropriate points/marks as well

 Avoid traps for students

A good test should never be constructed in such a way as to trap the students (testees) into giving an incorrect answer All tests

should be constructed primarily with the

intention of finding out what a student

knows _ not with trapping him

II Design:

 15 –minute test

 45 –minute test (with key answers)