Лингводидактическое тестирование по английскому языку в начальной школе. Учебное пособие

Resource File

A  Better examples would be: (Understanding request for help)

I don’t suppose you could show me where this goes, could you? Response:

a)No, I don’t suppose so.

b)Of course I can.

c)I suppose it won’t go.

d)Not at all.

(Recognizing and understanding suggestions)

I’ve been thinking. Why don’t we call Charlie and ask for his opinion? Response:

a)Why is this his opinion?

b)What is the point of that?

c)You think it’s his opinion?

d)Do you think Charlie has called?

Multiple choice can work well for testing lower level skills, such as phoneme discrimination.

The candidate hears bat and chooses between pat mat fat bat

B  Other than in exceptional circumstances (such as when the candidates are required to take notes on a lecture without knowing what the items will be), candidates should be given sufficient time to familiarize themselves with the items. As was suggested for reading, there seems no sound reason not to write items and accept responses in the native language of the candidates. This will in fact often be what would happen in the real world, when a fellow native speaker asks for information that we have to listen for in the foreign language.

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C  Specifying what the candidate should be able to do.

As with the other skills, the specifications for listening tests should say what it is that the candidates should be able to do.

Content

Operations

Some operations may be classified as global, inasmuch as they depend on overall grasp of what is listened to. They include the ability to:

•• obtain the gist;

•• follow an argument;

•• recognize the attitude of the speaker.

Other operations may be classified as informational and interactional. In writing specifications, it is worth adding to each operation whether what is to be understood is explicitly stated or only implied.

Informational:

•• obtain factual information;

•• follow instructions (including directions);

•• understand requests for information;

•• understand expressions of need;

•• understand requests for help;

•• understand requests for permission;

•• understand apologies;

•• follow sequence of events (narration);

•• recognize and understand opinions;

•• understand comparisons;

•• recognize and understand suggestions;

•• recognize and understand comments;

•• recognize and understand excuses;

•• recognize and understand expressions of preferences;

•• recognize and understand complaints;

•• recognize and understand speculation.

D  It is essential when including note taking as part of a listening test that careful moderation and, if possible, trialling should take place. Otherwise, items are likely to be included that even highly competent

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speakers of the language do not respond to correctly. It should go without saying that, since this is a testing task which might otherwise be unfamiliar, potential candidates should be made aware of its existence and, if possible, be provided with practice materials. If this is not done, then the performance of many candidates will lead us to underestimate their ability.

Partial dictation. While dictation may not be a particularly authentic listening activity (although in lectures at university, for instance, there is often a certain amount of dictation), it can be useful as a testing technique. As well as providing a ‘rough and ready’ measure of listening ability, it can also be used diagnostically to test students’ ability to cope with particular difficulties (such as weak forms in English).

E  It may also be thought worthwhile testing lower level listening skills in a diagnostic test, since problems with these tend to persist longer than they do in reading. These might include:

•• discriminate between vowel phonemes;

•• discriminate between consonant phonemes;

•• interpret intonation patterns (recognition of sarcasm, questions in declarative form, etc., interpretation of sentence stress).

Texts. For reasons of content validity and backwash, texts should be specified as fully as possible.

Text type might be first specified as monologue, dialogue, or multiparticipant, and further specified: conversation, announcement, talk or lecture, instructions, directions, etc.

Text form include: description, exposition, argumentation, instruction, narration.

Length may be expressed in seconds or minutes. The extent of short utterances or exchanges may be specified in terms of the number of turns taken.

Speed of speech may be expressed as words per minute (wpm) or syllables per seconds (sps).

Dialects may include standard or non-standard varieties. Accents may be regional or non-regional.

If authenticity is called for, the speech should contain such natural features as assimilation and elision (which tend to increase with speed of delivery) and hesitation phenomena (pauses, fillers, etc.).

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Intended audience, style, topics, range of grammar and vocabulary may be indicated.

F  Since it is listening that is meant to be tested, correct spelling should probably not be required for a response to be scored as correct. However, it is not enough for candidates simply to attempt a representation of the sounds that they hear, without making sense of those sounds. To be scored as correct, a response has to provide strong evidence of the candidate’s having heard and recognized the missing word, even if they cannot spell it. It has to be admitted that this can cause scoring problems.

The gap may be longer than one word:

While this has the advantage of requiring the candidate to do more than listen for a single word, it does make the scoring (even) less straightforward.

G  If recordings are made especially for the test, then care must be taken to make them as natural as possible. There is typically a fair amount of redundancy in spoken language: people are likely to paraphrase what they have already said (‘What I mean to say is…’), and to remove this redundancy is to make the listening task unnatural. In particular, we should avoid passages originally intended for reading, like the following, which appeared as an example of a listening comprehension passage for a wellknown test:

She found herself in a corridor which was unfamiliar, but after trying one or two doors discovered her way back to the stone-flagged hall which opened onto the balcony. She listened for sounds of pursuit but heard none. The hall was spacious, devoid of decorations: no flowers, no pictures.

This is an extreme example, but test writers should be wary of trying to create spoken English out of their imagination: it is better to base the passage on a genuine recording, or a transcript of one. If the authentic text is altered, it is wise to check with native speakers that it still sounds

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natural. If a recording is made, care should be taken to ensure that it fits with the specifications in terms of speed of delivery, style, etc.

Suitable passages may be of various lengths, depending on what is being tested. A passage lasting ten minutes or more might be needed to test the ability to follow an academic lecture, while twenty seconds could be sufficient to give a set of directions.

H Moderating the items. The moderation of listening items is essential. Ideally it should be carried out using the already prepared recordings or with the item writer reading the text as it is meant to be spoken in the test. The moderators begin by ‘taking’ the test and analyze their items and their reactions to them. The moderation checklist for reading items needs only minor modifications in order to be used for moderating listening items.

Task 2: Discussion

1.What are the reasons for the testing listening separately from speaking?

2.Why does the testing of listening parallel the testing of reading?

3.What are the special problems in constructing listening tests?

4.What global operations should the candidate be able to do while listening?

5.What informational operations should be considered as objects of testing? Comment on them.

6.What interactional operations should a test writer have in mind while designing a listening test?

7.Why is it important that a test writer should include into specification the fact that the information is explicitly sated or only implied?

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8.Why should the texts for listening be specified as fully as possible?

9.How should the texts for listening be selected?

10.What are the requirements for using multiple choice technique for listening tests?

11.How could you comment on using short answer technique for the testing listening?

12.When is it advisable to use gap filling?

Task 3: Activities

1.Take a recording of a three-minute text which you can use in your classroom. Analyze the content of the text and design some short-answer items. Administer the test to your students. Discuss the results with your students going through the test item by item.

2.Construct a listening test meant for measuring specific skills related to informational and interactional operations. Use different kinds of texts (dialogues, descriptions, narrations). Design about 20 items.

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Unit 10 TESTS FOR YOUNG LEARNERS

Task 1: Reading the Gapped Text

The text you are going to read lacks supporting information, e.g. argumentation, examples, references, etc. It can be found in the quotations from English language methodology readings collected the resource file that follows the text. Choose the information required and fill the appropriate letter in the table.

While in some countries, for example Norway, children have been learning foreign languages at primary school for decades, in recent years it is has become an increasingly common phenomenon in many other parts of the world. Therefore it seems appropriate to consider here the particular requirements for the successful testing of young learners and make suggestions as to how this may best be done. By young learners we have in mind children aged from about five to twelve.

One might ask first why we have to test young language learners at all. This is a good question. Not everyone does it. In Norway, for example, where the learning of English appears to be highly successful, children up to the age of thirteen are not formally tested in the subject. One answer to the question might be that we want to be sure that the teaching programme is effective, that the children are really benefiting from the chance to learn a language at an early age. But this invites a further question: Why is testing rather than assessment by other means necessary? The answer that may be given is that there is a need for a common yardstick, which tests give, in order to make meaningful comparisons. So people do test young learners and this being so, I believe it is worthwhile considering what is the best way to do this.

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The second recommendation is that feedback from the tests (and feedback from assessment generally) should be immediate and positive.

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By being immediate its value will be maximized . By telling children not only what their weaknesses are but also what they have done well the potential demoralizing effect of test results is lessened.

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Particular demands

Although we want children to take tests in a relaxed setting, this does not mean that we should relax our own standards for test development. We still need to make sure that our tests are valid and reliable. And the need to seek positive backwash is more important than ever. It would not be appropriate to recapitulate here the advice given earlier on how to make tests valid and reliable, and have a beneficial backwash. It is worth saying, however, that crucial elements are the writing of full specifications and the choice of appropriate test techniques.

Before considering specific techniques, let us ask what it is about young learners that might require their test to have special features.

•• Young learners have a relatively short attention span. For this reason tests should not be long. Individual tasks should be brief and varied. If necessary, what would for other learners have been a single test can be broken down into two or more tests.

•• Children enjoy stories and play. If we want them to become engaged in tests, the tasks should reflect this. Games can include versions of the kind of word games to be found in comics and puzzle books.

•• Children respond well to pictures, attractive typography, and colour. Tests should include these features if possible. With computers, colour printers and inexpensive scanners generally available, there is usually no reason why they can’t be included. It goes without saying that the content of all pictures should be unambiguous for all the children who may take the test. This might involve testers in checking that children with different cultural backgrounds are familiar with the conventions (such as the different kinds of bubble for speech and for thought) that are used in the test pictures. Pictures may be included even where they are not necessary to complete a task.

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Recommended techniques

In what follows the attention is concentrated on techniques that seem particularly suited to young learners. This does not mean that techniques presented previously will never be appropriate. The older the children are, the more likely they are to respond well to techniques used with teenagers or adults. Whatever techniques are used with young learners, it is essential that the children have plenty of opportunities to practice with them before they meet them in tests. Ideally, the techniques should be used in learning exercises as well as in testing.

Techniques to test listening

Placing objects or identifying people

The children see a picture with objects placed outside its frame. They have to draw lines to show where the objects are to be placed.

The children hear:

A:Look at the picture. Listen to and look.

B:Put the book on top of the bookcase.

C:Pardon?

B: Put the book on top of the bookcase.

A:This is an example. Can you see the line? Now you listen and draw a line.

B:Put the socks on the on the bed.

C:Where?

B: Put the socks on the bed.

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Multiple choice pictures

The children see four pictures, under each of which there is an empty box. They have to tick the box beneath the appropriate picture. For example there may be pictures of four fruits. What the children hear may be as simple as:

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It’s an apple.

Or it could be a brief dialogue:

A:Did you say Harry was eating an orange?

B:No, it was an apple.

Colour and draw on existing line drawing

The following example is taken from a Cambridge Young Learners sample paper. The children see a line drawing and a task Listen and colour and draw. There is one example.

They hear:

A:Look at the fish under the ducks.

B:I can see it. Can I colour it?

A:Yes, colour it red.

B:The fish under the ducks – colour it red. and:

A:Now draw a fish.

B:Where?

A:Draw a fish between the boat and the box.

B:OK. Between the boat and the box.

A:And colour it green. Colour the fish green.

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Techniques to test reading

Multiple choice

Reading can be tested by multiple choice in the usual way or, probably better when possible, with pictures. The following example of the latter is taken from EVA materials.

Baby Elephant stolen

Three young men were seen late last night near the circus.

The first was a bald-headed young man, who was seen around ten o’clock. The man was wearing a long grey raincoat, and gave an angry look to a lady as she went past him.

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