Exploratory task 1.10

Rewrite the given sentences starting with the given words. The new sentence must be close in meaning to the original. Comment on your problems and mark the time you needed to perform the test

It was my best friend who helped me pay the mortgage. If it ___________________________________________________________ The moment I entered the room I found out that something was wrong. No sooner ______________________________________________________ He clicked the car door leaving the key inside He locked ______________________________________________________ The burglar was scared by the dog’s barking and ran out of the room The dog _______________________________________________________ I told myself not to come here again Never _________________________________________________________

Test analysis is necessary in order to process the results and to draw conclusion on the learners’ performance. There are two chief methods of marking the test results. They are the error-count method and the analytic method. The error-count method involves counting up the number of errors and deducting this number from the maximum total scoring for the test. The analytic method of marking is useful because it informs the test-takers about their performance against certain criteria. Possible criteria for assessing a piece of free writing is given below:

5 points. Clear message. Coherent discourse (very logical writing). Topical vocabulary. Perfect cohesion (excellent use of connectives). Correct grammar.

4 points. Clear message with an occasional deviation from the subject. On the whole coherent discourse with some parts “falling out”. Mostly topical vocabulary. Use of connectives. Adequate grammar.

3 points. A message is recognizable. Some passages do not belong to the subject. Some topical vocabulary is used. Some connectives are erroneous. There are grammar errors.

2 points. The message is poorly conveyed. Only a small part of the writing actually carries the subject. Much topical vocabulary is missing. Connectives are mostly out of place. Grammar errors make the comprehension difficult.

1 point. The writer has missed the message. The whole text is off the given subject. There is no use of the topical vocabulary. Textual grammar makes the piece incomprehensible.

(After Heaton, J. 1999. Classroom Testing. Longman. P. 108-117)

An important consideration in test analysis is discrimination, i.e. the ability of the test to signal the individual differences in the learners’ language performance. Discrimination can be measured with the help of the formula:

Upper half of the group – Lower half of the group

D iscrimination =

Total number of students

In this formula, numerator shows the number of students in the half of the group with the lower scoring, and the number of students in the half of the group with the higher scoring. Denominator shows the total number of students in the group. If D (discrimination) is 0, the discrimination capacity of the test is very high and it definitely shows the difference in the performance of the test-takers. It is neither too difficult, nor too easy. If D is approaching+1, there is little or no discrimination in individual language performance and the test produces either very high results, thus being either too easy. This test is useless in assessing the learners’ performance. If D is approaching –1, then the test is definitely too difficult and can’t be used as a measuring tool (for test analysis see Heaton, J. 1988. Writing English language Tests. Longman).