- Continuous/continual assessments: during the course, students are assessed by teachers( teacher assessment), or classmates (peer assessment), or the student himself/herself ([r]
(1)TESTING
I Questions for
discussion
II Design a 15 – minute
(2)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.
(3)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
(4)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
(5)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
(6)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
(7)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
(8)3.Some test types
Teachers might use a variety of test types which will depend on
a) The level of students
b) The skills they want to test
c) The language points they want to test
(9)A. Listening tests
Multiple choice True-False
Open-ended questions Grid-filling
(10)
C Speaking tests
Prompts/Picture prompts
Asking and answering questions A set of topics
B Reading tests
Multiple choice True-False
Open-ended questions Grid-filling
(11)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
(12)4.Some suggestions for making fair tests
Ask enough questions to test
accurately.
Write clear instructions/directions for
the test and use examples.
Test what has been taught in class.
(13) 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
(14)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?
(15) 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:
(16) 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
(17)II Design:
15 –minute test 45 –minute test