Chapter 2 :Approaches to language testing pdf

Chapter 2Approaches to language testing Language tests are chronologically classified according to four main approaches: 1 the essay translation approach; 2 the structuralist approach;

Chapter 2

Approaches to language testing

Language tests are chronologically classified

according to four main approaches:

(1) the essay translation approach;

(2) the structuralist approach;

(3) the integrative approach; and

(4) the communicative approach

(1) the essay translation approach

Characteristics:

 No special skill or expertise in testing

 Subjective judgment of teacher

 Essay writing, translation & grammatical analysis (comments about the language)

 tests  a heavy literary and cultural bias

 an aural/ oral component at the upper

intermediate & advantage levels as

something additional & not an integral part

of the syllabus or examination

(2) the structuralist approach

with the systematic acquisition of set of habits.

analysis & the need to identify & measure learners’ mastery of separated elements of L2:phonology, vocabulary & grammar

 Listening, speaking, reading & writing are separated from one another & it’s essential

to test one skill at a time.

 The need for statistical measures of

reliability & validity - important in testing multiple choice item

(3) the integrative approach

 involving the testing of language in context

& concerned with the meaning and the

total communicative effect of discourse

 assessing the learners’ ability to use two

or more skills simultaneously, or a global view of proficiency

 involving functional language but not the use of functional language

 Forms: cloze test & dictation

Cloze testing

 Principle: the Gestalt theory of “closure”

 Purpose : measuring the reader’s ability to

decode ‘interrupted’ or ‘mutilated’

messages by making the most acceptable substitutions from all the contextual clues available

 Requirements: to fill in each blank in the text itself

 Methods of scoring :

 each exact answer

the language rather than reading

Evidence from research studies

 performance on cloze tests correlates

highly with listening, writing & speaking

 close testing: a good indicator of general linguistic ability

 linguistic knowledge, textual knowledge & knowledge of the world

 cloze tests: achievement, proficiency tests, classroom placement tests & diagnostic

tests

 Purpose: previously regarded solely as a

means of measuring students’ skills of

listening comprehension

 Auditory discrimination, the auditory

memory span, spelling, the recognition of sound segments, a familiarity with

grammatical and lexical patterning of the language, and overall textual

 good predicators of global language

ability, but recent research has found that dictation tends to measure lower-order

language skills- straightforward

skills- inference

(4) the communicative approach

 concerned primarily with how language is used in communication

 Communicative competence achieved

without a considerable mastery of

grammar

 resulting in an attempt to obtain different profiles of a learner’s performance in the

 The score obtained on a

communicative test several

measures of proficiency rather than

simply one overall measure

 Reflecting the culture of a particular

country because of its emphasis on

context and the use of authentic

materials

 Introducing the concept of qualitative modes of assessment in preference to