Design communication language tests for grade 10th non-English majors at Bac Giang gifted high school = Thiết kế bài kiểm tra giao tiếp cho học sinh lớp 10 khôn20150227

Vietnam national university, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ĐẶNG THỊ HƯƠNG Designing COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TESTS FOR GIFTED

Vietnam national university, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

ĐẶNG THỊ HƯƠNG

Designing COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TESTS FOR

GIFTED HIGH SCHOOL

THI ẾT KẾ BÀI KIỂM TRA GIAO TIẾP CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 KHÔNG CHUYÊN ANH Ở TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN BẮC GIANG

M.A MINOR THESIS

Code: 60.14.10

HANOI, 12/2010

Vietnam national university, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

ĐẶNG THỊ HƯƠNG

Designing COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TESTS FOR

GIFTED HIGH SCHOOL

THI ẾT KẾ BÀI KIỂM TRA GIAO TIẾP CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 KHÔNG CHUYÊN ANH Ở TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN BẮC GIANG

M.A MINOR THESIS

Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: PHAN HOÀNG YẾN, M.A

HANOI, 12/2010

1.2.1 Communicative language teaching and learning 8

1.3.1 Principles of designing communicative test 15

2.1 Practical situation of teaching and testing English at Bac Giang gifted

2.1.1 Students of 10th form and their English ability 18 2.1.2 The teacher of 10th form and their teaching situation 19

2.2.3.1 Analysis from English teachers‟ questionnaire 22

2.2.3.1.1 Teachers' attitude towards communicative language tests 22 2.2.3.1.2 Teachers' attitude towards testing techniques 24 2.2.3.1.3 Teachers' difficulties in designing communicative tests 26 2.2.3.2 Analysis from students‟ questionnaire 27

2.2.3.2.1 Students' attitude towards the current tests 27

2.2.3.2.2 Students' attitude towards communicative tests 28 2.2.3.2.2 Students' attitude towards difficulties in taking the

Chapter III: Designing Communicative Language Tests for Grade

10 th non-English Majors at Bac Giang Gifted High School 31

3.8 Suggestions on the communicative testing construction 35

APPENDIX 3: Questionnaire for teachers VI

We know quite well that in teaching and learning a foreign language testing plays an important role "Both teaching and testing are so closely interrelated that it is virtually impossible to work in either field without being constantly concerned with the other" (Heaton, 1990) To make it simple, testing is rarely separated from teaching A test may either be designed as a device to reinforce learning and to motivate students or as a means of assessing students' performance in the language Therefore, tests are constructed based on the teaching contents However, until now most of the exams, even high-school leaving examination, are administered in the written form in which only Pronunciation, Reading and Grammar are tested

Among other subjects, English is a barrier to most of the students at Bac Giang gifted high school although their English test scores are rather higher than their peers‟ ones in other high schools of the province Only about one-third of the students can communicate in Basic English whereas the others may have troubles practicing such communicative skills as Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing in the classrooms They find it difficult to converse with their teachers or their classmates to contribute to their lessons There are many reasons for this problem, one of which may be the requirements of tests which do not test Listening, Speaking and Writing skills This leads students to have negative attitude towards learning these skills

As a teacher of English who has taught English for many years, I find that it is necessary to change students‟ attitude towards learning language skills such as listening and speaking skills which are crucial skills in communication Thus, changing the way of testing language skills can help to change my students‟ negative attitude and improve their communicative competence Therefore, a well-design test is necessary for every language level especially for high school level since it is the elementary level, which aims at improving both students' language knowledge and skills

Realizing the above mentioned problems, the researcher chose to work on the

theme: "Designing communicative language tests for Grade 10 th non-English Majors at

BG gifted high school" The study is carried out with the full hope of helping the teachers

with designing a good test of English to assess students' language competence appropriately

2 Aims of the study

The study aims at designing appropriate communicative tests for non- English majors

at Bac Giang gifted high school To obtain the aim, we have to reach the following objectives:

- To develop the main theoretical basis related to communicative language test design

- To investigate the current testing situations at Bac Giang gifted high school

- To propose communicative test construction for the 10th non- English majors at Bac Giang gifted high school and a sample test will be designed based on the proposed test construction

- To offer some practical recommendation for improvement of testing at Bac Giang gifted high school

3 The research questions

To achieve the above aims and objectives, the following questions are raised:

1 To what extent is communicative language testing used at BG gifted high school?

2 What language skills and areas can be tested communicatively?

3 How can a test be designed to measure students‟ communicative abilities?

4 How do students feel about communicative language testing?

4 Significance of the Study

This study has been conducted with the hope that it could enhance teachers' understanding of the importance of testing students' language ability communicatively Moreover, it would help teachers to grasp useful knowledge to design communicative tests Also, it is hoped that the findings will assist in raising educational administrators' awareness of teachers' difficulties in conducting communicative tests

5 Scope of the study

Because of knowledge, experience and time limitation, the researcher only intends to overview a brief of current situation of testing English of 10th form students, to identify teachers' difficulties in conducting communicative language tests Then, basing on the characteristics of the level and the situation background of the school, a sample of communicative test was designed to assess students' communicative competence In addition, teachers' and students' comments on the tests and their suggestion for its improvement will be presented in this thesis

6 Methods of the study

In order to achieve the aims of the research, a study has been carried out with data collected from a survey done on 5 high school teachers and 30 students to investigate the present situation of teaching and learning, to collect their view of testing and to design the communicative tests which can be implemented in Bac Giang gifted high school

Besides, more information and data needed for the study has been gathered by other methods such as discussions with teachers and students

7 The design of the study

The study is organized into 3 parts:

Part I: Introduction: presents the rationale, aims and significance of the study, scope of the study, research questions and methods of the study

Part II: Development: consists of three chapters:

Chapter one presents the literature review on the basic concepts of testing, communicative competence in language testing, communicative language tests, and the design

of communicative tests

Chapter two discusses the teaching and testing of four language skills at Bac Giang gifted high school

Chapter three presents the proposed construction for communicative test for the 10th non-English majors at Bac Giang gifted high school

Part III Conclusion: summarizes the key issues in the study, points out the limitations and offers some suggestions for further study

The last one is the Appendix that includes the questionnaires, tables and a sample test

PART II-DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Language testing

1.1.1 Definitions of language testing

Up to now, there have been many books written about issues of language testing, so a number of definitions of testing have been given out

According to Brown (1994, p.252), a test is considered as "a method of measuring a person's ability or knowledge in a given area." In his book (1994, p.373), he also stresses that tests are seen by learners as dark clouds hanging over their heads, upsetting them with thunderous anxiety as they anticipate the lightning bolts of questions they do not know and worst of all a flood disappointed if they do not make the grade

Read (1983, p.3) who shares the idea says that a language test is a sample of linguistic performance or a demonstration of language proficiency In other words, a test is not simply a set of items that can be objectively marked; it can also involve a "subject" educational of spoken and written performance with the assistance of a checklist, a rating scale, or a set of performance criteria

In Heaton's point of view (1990, p.5) a test should be considered, first, as

a device to reinforce learning and motivate the student" and then "a means of assessing the students' performance in the language" In the former case, the test can determine the kind of teaching before that, meanwhile, in the latter case the content of the test should depend on the teaching that has taken place before In his view, testing and teaching are closely "interrelate" (p5)

From the above-mentioned definitions, we can understand a test is an effective means of measuring and assessing students' language knowledge and skills Moreover, it also helps the teachers to find out whether or not the materials used, their teaching methods and techniques are suitable to their learners' ability, needs, and expectations

1.1.2 Fundamental criteria of language tests

In order to make a well-designed test, teachers have to take into consideration the various factors such as the purpose of a test, the content of the syllabus, the students' background and so on In addition to these factors, test characteristics play very important role

in constructing a good test According to many scholars in testing, all good tests have four main characteristics such as reliability, validity, practicality and discrimination In this small section, only the main ideas are mentioned

1.1.2.1 Validity

Validity is the quality that most affects the value of a test, prior to, though dependent on, reliability A test is considered as valid when it measures what it is supposed to measure This means that if a test is designed to measure examinees‟ language ability, it should measure their language ability and nothing else Otherwise, it will not be a valid test for the purposes intended It is not always easy to measure and quantify validity There are several types of validity which are discussed in most measurement texts such as face, content, predictive, concurrent, construct validity However, face validity and content validity are the most important, which both involve the judgmental process

Face validity is a simple form of validity in which researchers determine if the test

seems to measure what is intended to measure Essentially, researchers are simply taking the validity of the test at face value by looking at whether a test appears to measure the target variable If a test has face validity then it looks like a valid test to those who use it Face validity can be compared with content validity, which describes how far the test actually measures what it aims to measure For Example, many public English exams have high face validity as they are seen as being very good tests by those who take them In the classroom, face validity is not an objective measure of how good a test may be However, it is as important as content validity, because learners and teachers need to think a test is credible if it

is to work

Content validity refers to the correspondence between the content of the test and the

content of the materials to be tested A test cannot include all the elements of the content to be tested Nevertheless, the content of the test should be a reasonable sample and representative

of the total content to be tested In order to determine the content validity of a test, a careful

examination of the direct correspondence between the content of the test and the materials to

be tested is necessary Although content validity, like face validity, is determined subjectively,

it is, however, crucial for the validity of the test Therefore, subjectivity should not imply insignificance It is just the only that way the content validity of a test can be determined

1.1.2.2 Reliability

Though validity is the quality that most affects the value of a test, it is dependent on reliability (Davies, et al 1999, p9) Reliability is a necessary characteristic of any good test For it to be valid at all, a test must be reliable as a measuring instrument Henning (1987, p.73) defines the reliability of a test as being related to the accuracy, consistency, dependability, and fairness of measurement This is judged from whether the measurement gives similar results when it is taken on different occasions, or with different instruments or by different persons

A reliable test is assessed in terms of following factors:

 Test organization

 Time allocation

 Instructions

 Nature of language

 The extent to which the tests represent the syllabus

 The test item level of difficulty

1.1.2.3 Practicality

A test must be practicable, in other words, it must be fairly straight-forward to administer The most obvious practical considerations concerning the tests are the length of time available for the administration of the test, the answer sheets, the stationary used, the tape recorder and the presentation of the test paper itself

1.1.2.4 Discrimination

Discrimination is another important feature of a test According to Harrison

(1994, p.14) discrimination is "the extent to which a test separates the students from each

other" However, the extent of the need to discriminate will vary depending on the purpose of

the test In many classroom tests, for instance, the teacher will be much more concerned with finding out how well the students have mastered the syllabus and will hope for a cluster of marks around the 80 per cent and 90 per cent brackets Nonetheless, there may be occurrences

in which the teacher may require a test to discriminate to some degree in order to assess relative abilities and locate areas of difficulty

1.1.3 Approaches to language testing

Language tests can be classified according to four main approaches to language testing: the essay translation approach, the structuralist approach, the integrative approach, and the communicative approach

1.1.3.1 The essay translation approach

This approach is referred to as the pre-scientific stage of language testing and closely related to the Grammar-Translation method of teaching Therefore, this approach requires no special skills or expertise in testing but the subjective judgment of the teacher The main types of tests are often essay writing, translation and grammatical analysis The tests also have a heavy literary and cultural bias However, only the test at upper intermediate and advanced levels resulting from this approach sometimes have aural or oral component which has been considered as an additional part not an integral one of the syllabus or examination

1.1.3.2 The structuralist approach

This approach is characterized by the view that language learning is the systematic acquisition of a set of habits It draws on the work of structural linguistics, in particular the importance of contrastive analysis and the need to identify and measure the learner‟s mastery of the separate elements of the target language; phonology, vocabulary and grammar The skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing are tested separately from one another as much as possible because it is considered essential to test one thing at a time

However, the above-mentioned features of the approach are still valid for certain types of tests and for certain purposes According to Spolsky (1978), these kinds of tests are considered to be objective, precise, reliable and scientific Indeed, there are several features of the approach which merit consideration when constructing any good test

1.1.3.3 The integrative approach

This approach is aimed at testing the language in context It is, therefore,

"concerned primary with meaning and the total communicative effect of discourse" (Heaton, 1989) Consequently, integrative tests do not seek to separate language skills into neat division

in order to improve test reliability Such integrative tests are often designed to assess the students' ability to use more than one skill at the same time In other words, the main concern

of this approach is the students' global proficiency, not the mastery of a separate element or skill The typical types of tests following this approach are close tests, dictation, oral interview, translation, and essay writing

1.1.3.4 The communicative approach

The communicative approach to language testing is based on the assumption that language is learned to express different kinds of functions, and emphasizes the need of testing language by using processes of communication such as using language appropriately in different types of situations to interact with people and perform on a wide range of tasks Communicative test concerns primarily with how language is actually used in communication It considers language to be interactive, purposive, authentic, contextualized, and should be assessed in terms of behavioral outcomes (Morrow, 1979, as cited in Weir,

1990, p.79) Therefore, in order to deal with communicative language tests, the learners should have good language performance linguistically and communicatively That is, they must have

a good command of the components involved in communication Madson (1983) comments that the best exams in this communicative era are those that combine the various sub-skills necessary for the exchange of oral and written ideas He asserts that communicative tests need

to measure more than isolated language skills, to comprehensively indicate how well a person can function in another language

Obviously, communicative language testing is attracting more and more advocates and it is also the main concern of this study Further details of the communicative language testing will be discussed in the following section

1 2 Communicative language teaching and testing

1.2.1 Communicative language teaching and learning

Communicative language teaching (CLT) has been discussed by different authors such as Nunan (1989), Heaton (1989), Littlewood (1981), etc They all agree that CLT starts with a theory of language as communication Definition of CLT, given by Nunan (1989, p.194), has gained the most favor and popularity among those who are concerned with CLT

"CLT views language as a system for the expressions of meaning Activities involve oral communication, carrying out meaning tasks and using language, which is meaningful to the learners Objectives reflect the needs of the learner including functional skills as well as linguistics objectives The learner's role is as a negotiator and integrator The teachers' role is as a facilitator of the communication process"

This definition truly reflects several important characteristics of communicative language teaching First, in communicative language teaching, learners now have to participate in classroom activities that were based on a cooperative rather than individualistic approach to learning Students have to become comfortable with listening to their peers in group work or pair work tasks, rather than relying on the teacher for a model They were expected to take on a greater of responsibility for their own learning And the teachers now have to assume the role of facilitator and monitor Rather than being a model for correcting speed and writing and one with the primary responsibility of making students produce plenty

of error free sentences, the teachers have to develop a different view of learners' errors and of his/her own role in facilitating language learning Furthermore, the teachers have to be an organizer of the resources of materials, a guide within the classroom procedures and activities,

a researcher and a learner, a contributor in terms of appropriate knowledge, abilities and experience, a need, a counselor, and a group process manager

Moreover, CLT also emphasize the use of authentic materials in teaching language It encourages giving learners the opportunity to respond to genuine communicative needs in real-life situations This is to help learners develop strategies for understanding language as actually used by native speakers ( Canale and Swain, 1980, cited in Kim, 2003)

In short, CLT is considered a reasonable methodology to teach foreign languages as it helps learners be more active and responsible for their own learning

1.2.2 Communicative language competence in testing

It is known that the need of communicative competence in language testing emerged from the requirements for better criteria in assessing communicative competence and for catching up with new trends in language teaching Canale and Swain (1980, p.48) broadly viewed communicative competence as an integration of linguistic competence and sociolinguistic competence including discourse and strategic competence as well In other words, both knowledge of the rules of grammar and knowledge of the rules of language use are required in their communicative competence concept as it is stated:

"Communicative competence is composed minimally of grammatical competence, sociolinguistics competence, and strategic competence There is no strong theoretical and empirical motivation for the view that grammatical competence is any more or less crucial to successful communication that is sociolinguistic competence or strategic competence The primary goal of communicative approach must be to facilitate the integration

of these types of knowledge for the learners, an outcome that is not likely to result from overemphasis on one form of competence over the other throughout a second language program" (Canale & Swain, 1980, p.27)

As a result, in assessing communicative competence, it is not just assessing knowledge of language rules but also knowledge of rules of language use including many factors In order to put Canale and Swain's concept of communicative competence into practice, the design of communicative tests will employ their communicative competence model as follows:

Canale and Swain's communicative competence model: in their model, there are four

main models like these (1983, p 34)

* Grammar competence: Mastery of the language code: lexical items, rules of words formation, sentence transformation, literal meaning, pronunciation, and spelling

* Sociolinguistic competence: Mastery of appropriate use and understanding of language in different sociolinguistic contexts, with emphasis on appropriateness of both meaning (eg topic function) and form (eg: register, formulaic expression)

* Discourse competence: Mastery of how to combine and interpret meaning and forms

to achieve unified text in different genres (eg casual conversation, argumentative essay, or

recipe by using (a) cohesion devices to relate forms (eg use of pronouns, synonym, transition words, and parallel structures; (b) coherence rules to organize meaning (eg concerning the selection, sequencing consistency and balance of ideas.)

* Strategic competence: Mastery of verbal and non-verbal strategies both:

+ to compensate for breakdown in communication due to insufficient competence or to performance limitations (e.g of paraphrase)

+ To enhance rhetorical effect of utterance (e.g use of slow, soft speech)

In addition, to support the model of communicative competence presented by Canale and Swain that it is one of the most relevant models in assessing language learners' communicative competence in this present time It is interesting and beneficial to know that there are many other similar reviews on communicative competence which significantly agree with Canale and Swain's points of views

Savingnon (1983, p.22) viewed communicative competence as:

"Communicative competence may be defined as the ability to function in a truly communicative setting, that is, in a dynamic exchange in which linguistic competence must be adapt itself to the total information input, both linguistic and paralinguistic, of one or more interlocutor "

In summary, communicative competence shows a range of language aspects Not only are the students taught simply grammar but emphasis is put on acquiring four language skills

1.2.3 Communicative language tests

1.2.3.1 What is communicative language test?

It is said that trends in language testing tend to follow teaching methodology Since the approach of emphasizing communicative competence in language teaching is widely accepted, the testing tends to follow the trend

Seyyed Abbas Mousavi (2009, p.106) defined that "A communicative test is a test which requires candidates to perform communicatively like that of real-life situations In such tests, we evaluate samples of performance in a certain specific context of language use,

created under particular test constraints, for what they can tell us about a candidate's communicative capacity or language ability"

A communicative test has to meet some other strict criteria It has to test for grammatical, discourse, sociolinguistic, and illocutionary competence as well strategic competence It requires the learner to use language naturally for real communication and to put authentic language to use within a context And it should test the learner in a variety of language functions A communicative test takes into account performance tasks related to the testee's practical activities, that is, to the communicative context in which he would find himself

In the early 1970s thanks to Hymes' theory of communicative competence, communicative language tests developed and came to have the two following features:

+ They are performance tests which require assessment to be carried out when the candidate is engaged in communication, either receptive or productive, or both

+ They see language as a sociological phenomenon, focusing on the external, social functions of language while integrative and pragmatic tests see language as an internal phenomenon With this test, the use of authentic texts and real world tasks may be developed

(Mc Namara, 2000, p.16) One of those distinguishing features that supersede other types of tests is that besides systemic features of language, it requires students' careful study of the communicative roles and tasks

To conclude, a test which is communicative in nature must make it possible to find out "not only what the learner knows about the second language and how to use it (competence) but also to what extent the learner is able to actually demonstrate this knowledge

in a meaningful communication situation" Canale and Swain (1980, p.66)

1.2.3.2 Characteristics of communicative test

Communicative language tests also have some core characteristics that test makers should follow to create a successful test They are distinguished by four characteristics:

First of all, the authenticity of tests can be considered something worth attempting to

pursue Weir (1990, p.12) points out that inauthentic tasks may interfere with the measurement

of the learners' ability which we seek Tests of communicative language ability should be as direct as possible (attempt to reflect the „real life‟ situation) and the tasks candidates have to perform should involve realistic discourse processing He advocates the use of genuine texts can be taken with regard to task length and processing in real time This agrees with Davies et

al (1999, p13) who claims that an authentic language test should mirror "as exactly as possible as the content and skills under the test" Therefore, communicative tests can offer students the opportunity to encounter and use the language receptively and productively in authentic situations to show how strong their language ability is

Secondly, unpredictability is another feature of communicative language test

(Heaton, 1990; Weir, 1990) As a matter of fact, in real life communication, it is usually impossible to predict what speakers will say, i.e., language input or to prepare for one‟s reply, i.e., language output Hence, if the purpose of the test is to evaluate the students' communication skills, it is important to design and administer the test in such way that can minimize students' ability to forecast the information he or she would receive

Moreover, communicative test should be assessed qualitatively rather than

quantitatively (Morrow, 1982, cited in Kim, 2003; Heaton, 1990) Test should be designed to reveal not simply the number of items which are answered correctly, but to reveal the quality

of the candidate's language performance They all mean that language band systems should be introduced to assess the learners' levels of performance as detailed description of each performance level will increase the reliability of the scoring More importantly, "each student's performance is evaluated according to his or her degree of success in performing the language tasks set rather than solely in relation to the performance of other students' (Heaton, 1990, p.21), which reflects a more humanistic attitude to language testing

The last characteristic of a communicative test is that it will elicit the students‟ use of combined language skills, as is the case in real life communication In the tests of productive skills, the emphasis is placed on appropriateness rather than on ability to form grammatically correct sentences Receptive skills tests focus on understanding the communicative meanings of the speaker or writer rather than on picking out specific details

As a matter of fact, the two are often combined in communicative tests, so that the candidates

must both comprehend and respond in real time In real life, the different skills are not often used entirely in isolation Students in a class may listen to a lecture, but they later need to use information from the lecture in a paper In taking part in a group discussion, they need to use both listening and speaking skills Even reading a book for pleasure may be followed by recommending it to a friend and telling the friend why you liked it

In short, these features help us understand the reasons for the supreme role of communicative language tests in the field of testing students' communicative competence

1.2.3.3 The needs for communicative tests

The reasons why communicative tests are needed will be stated:

It started from the limitation of the traditional tests for example, translation and discrete-point tests e.g a multiple choice test for only one point of grammar or phonology etc

at a time It is argued that those can access some parts of students' competence According to this point, there are many evidences to support as follows:

Firstly, testing language has traditionally taken the form of testing knowledge about language, usually the testing of knowledge of vocabulary and grammar Nevertheless, there is much more to being able to use language than knowledge about it Dell Hymes (1972) proposed the concept of communicative competence He argued that a speaker can be able to produce grammatical sentences that are completely inappropriate In communicative competence, he included not only the ability to form correct sentences but to use them at appropriate times Since Hymes proposed the idea in the early 1970s, it has been expanded considerably, and various types of competencies have been proposed However, the basic idea

of communicative competence remains the ability to use language appropriately, both receptively and productively, in real situations

And the other reason for the need of communicative tests is due to the new trend of teaching The new trend of teaching which is closely related to the trend of testing has moved from traditional grammar translation and audio-lingual methods to communicative teaching method which emphasizes the ability to use language in communication effectively

So in order to follow the new trend of teaching as it is said that "trend in language teaching

tends to follow trends in linguistics and trends in testing tend to follow the trend in language teaching"

1.2.3.4 Challenges in Communicative Testing

Communicative language tests are those which make an effort to test language

in a way that reflects the way that language is used in real communication It is, of course, not always possible to make language tests communicative, but it may often be possible to give them communicative elements As a result, test makers will have to cope with many difficulties when designing communicative tests

The first reason is the issue of predictive validity When designing a test of communicative ability, identifying test takers‟ needs based on communicative encounters that they are likely to experience is one of the basic principles However, it is not certain if test makers can guarantee that testees performing well on a test in class are also able to do well outside the classroom in a real life situation One reason for this is that real life communication is characterized by unpredictability Studies have proved that test designers have tried to make real-world tasks, but encountered difficulties from the varied or diverse nature of contexts

The second problem is assessment Reliability was considered one of the most important criteria of a good test However, as was mentioned above, one of the characteristics

of communicative language tests is that they are normally assessed qualitatively rather than quantitatively, which inevitably throws some doubt on their reliability because of the involvement of subjective judgments It is quite likely that different observers have different interpretation for a candidate performance As Weir points out (1990, p.13), “the holistic and qualitative assessment of productive skills and the implications of this for test reliability need

to be taken on board.”

1.3 The design of communicative tests

1.3.1 Principles of designing communicative test

Communicative language tests are used with the goal of measuring language learners‟ ability to take part in acts of communication or to use language in real life situations Communicative tests, which cover the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and

writing, are designed on the basis of communicative competence According to Canale and Swain (1980), communicative competence involves linguistic competence (knowledge of linguistic forms), sociolinguistic competence (the ability to use language appropriately in contexts), discourse competence (coherence and cohesion), and strategic competence (knowledge of verbal and non-verbal communicative strategies) (p 4) Understanding the model of communicative competence is necessary and helpful for developing communicative language tests, which involves formulating test objectives and considering the effects of the test on teaching and learning Following the model of communicative competence, several authors constructed the principles of communicative language tests Swain (1985, p.36-44) precisely presents principles of communicative test design

Principle 1: Start from somewhere: This means it is intended to suggest that

from both a theoretical and practical viewpoint, test development should be built from existing knowledge and examples When designing the test, test makers should state carefully what they expect test takers to perform when they use the target language in a specific context, which means that test writers must know what they want to test After that, test makers can establish scales and criteria in assessment procedures to measure exactly the stated features of testees‟ performance

Principle 2: Concentrate on content It refers both to the content of materials

used as basis of communicative language activities and the tasks used to elicit communicative language behaviors The content of the materials used for generating communicative activities must be sufficient to generate each component of communicative performance Appropriate content matches or fits learners‟ or test takers‟ age, proficiency level, interests, and goals/needs For instance, some tasks for students at grade 10th may include introducing themselves and others, giving instructions, making a complaint and so forth The tasks should aim to be authentic and have clear reference in reality These tasks match students' proficiency level and age Students are supposed to be able to do the tasks because what they do is what society expects of them in real life

Principle 3: Bias for the best It means doing everything possible to elicit the

learners' best performance It is important to minimize the effect of measurement techniques

on the test-taker's performance Thus, to bias for the best is to provide the test taker with useful suggestions as to what and how to respond, to provide adequate time to complete the tasks and in case of written work, to have access dictionaries or other reference materials as well as to have opportunity to review and revise their work Swain (1984) declared that in order to create an assessment procedure which is biased for best, test makers and teachers should provide students or test takers appropriate review to help them to be well-prepared and ready for the test, suggest strategies that will be beneficial, and construct the test in a way that

it is modestly challenging to the best students/testees and yet the weaker will not be overwhelmed

Principle 4: Work for Washback Washback refers to the effect a test has on

teaching practice through the means of involving teachers in the development and/or administration and scoring the test, then it is hoped on not only to change aspects of what is taught, but also to suggest alternative teaching-learning strategies As Hughes (2003) indicated that “backwash is now seen as a part of the impact a test may have on learners and teachers, on educational systems in general, and on society at large” (p 53) In order to obtain positive

washback, test writers should create clear scoring criteria that will be provided to both

teachers and test takers Course objectives and test content are also put into consideration in the hope of promoting positive washback

1.3.2 Communicative Test Tasks

Communicative tests are often very context-specific A test for testees who are going to British universities as students would be very different from one for testees who are going to their company's branch office in the United States If at all possible, a communicative language test should be based on a description of the language that the testees need to use Though communicative testing is not limited to English for Specific Purposes situations, the test should reflect the communicative situation in which the testees are likely to find themselves In cases where the testees do not have a specific purpose, the language that they are tested on can be directed toward general social situations where they might be in a position

to use English

This basic assumption influences the tasks chosen to test language in communicative situations A communicative test of listening, then, would test not whether the testee could understand what the utterance, "Would you mind putting the groceries away before you leave" means, but place it in a context and see if the testee can respond appropriately to it

If students are going to be tested over communicative tasks in an achievement test situation, it is necessary that they be prepared for that kind of test, that is, that the course material covers the sorts of tasks they are being asked to perform For example, you cannot expect testees to correctly perform such functions as requests and apologies appropriately and evaluate them on it if they have been studying from a structural syllabus Similarly, if they have not been studying writing business letters, you cannot expect them to write a business letter for a test

Tests intended to test communicative language are judged, then, on the extent

to which they simulate real life communicative situations rather than on how reliable the results are In fact, there is an almost inevitable loss of reliability as a result of the loss of control in a communicative testing situation If, for example, a test is intended to test the ability to participate in a group discussion for students who are going to a British university, it

is impossible to control what the other participants in the discussion will say, so not every testee will be observed in the same situation, which would be ideal for test reliability However, according to the basic assumptions of communicative language testing, this is compensated for by the realism of the situation

1.4 Conclusion

For the theoretical base of the study, this chapter has reviewed essential issues

in language testing such as definition of a language test, criteria of a good language tests, and approaches to language testing More specifically, this chapter looks at communicative language tests with definition, characteristics of a communicative test and the needs for

communicative tests It also reviews principles of designing communicative test and

communicative test tasks This chapter has provided a justification for undertaking research into the proposed research questions

CHAPTER II: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

2.1 Practical situation of teaching and learning English at Bac Giang gifted high school

In this chapter, the writer provides information about the current teaching, learning and testing situations at Bac Giang gifted high school as the setting of the study The analyzed data from survey questionnaires is provided in this chapter

2 1.1 Students of 10th form and their background

Students at Bac Giang Gifted High School are streamed into classes according

to the subjects they have decided to major in These subjects include Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Information Technology, Vietnamese Literature and Foreign language (English and French) The 10th grader aged from 15 to 16 and all of them have had at least 4 years of learning English at lower-secondary schools They are not the same at English proficiency levels About two-thirds of students are really good, so their motivation of learning English is rather high They always make great endeavor to complete their academic years with high flying colors

At grade 10, as the requirement of the national education curriculum, students are taught to perceive an appropriate amount of language knowledge at a level that is suitable for their level and age Students are also required to use English as a means of communication at basic level including four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing

Moreover, at Bac Giang Gifted High School, English is taken under much consideration Besides the major subjects, all of our students are required to study well English, hence, it is undeniable that our students‟ attitude toward English as well as their English proficiency is rather good and they are really interested in learning English Especially, in my school most graders 10 must have a 2.5 hour extra class in the afternoon every week because our school sets a goal, that is, students can use English to communicate with foreigners after leaving high school Besides, our school has been offered good conditions for teaching and learning English We have two computer labs with 50 computers linked to the internet and a multimedia room for different-purpose classes Although the

student's English levels are different, their primary concern is to fulfill their expectation that they can not only communicate effectively but get good marks at English tests as well The question here is how to design appropriate tests to meet the demands of students and requirement of the school

2.1.2 The teacher of 10th form and their teaching situation

The English Group has 9 B.A teachers and 2 M.A ones who are always the pioneers in all activities relating methodology, technology and outdoor activities They vary

in age and experience The most experienced teacher is 53 and the youngest one is 28 Most of them, who graduated from English Department, College of Foreign Languages, National University, Hanoi, are very active and devoted to teaching English This year, there are 4 teachers in charge of teaching grade 10 They are all experienced and well-qualified teachers who are able to deliver effective English lessons, using Communicative Language Teaching

In short, all of our teachers are well-trained enough to meet the requirements of Bac Giang Gifted High School‟s targets

2.1.3 Teaching materials

The Basic English textbook 10 is chosen to be taught for the 10th form of

non-English majors at Bac Giang gifted high school This material consists of 16 lessons and six revisions Each unit consists of 4 sections for teaching 4 skills - Reading, Speaking, Listening and Writing – and 1 section for teaching Language Focus which is used for teaching Pronunciation and Grammar; meanwhile, each revision is displayed in form of TEST YOURSELF which helps students self-measure their achievements after every three units The table below shows the current English High School Syllabus Grade 10

2.1.4 The current testing situation

Testing is one of the most important things for teachers and students at Bac Giang gifted high school The students have to take the examination on the three subjects of their group and English every month or every two months to evaluate their progress The monthly-English tests for non-English major students often last 90 minutes And they also have a forty-five minute test after every two units and one achievement test at the end of each term Besides, teachers give oral tests at the beginning of each teaching period and 15-minute

tests after every two lessons Therefore, together with the students' major subjects, English is considered very important The teachers of English regard these tests as a means to estimate the students' results in learning as well as to reinforce their knowledge and motivate their learning During academic year, students will have many tests, and teachers will choose the higher marks At the examination, different codes of tests of about the same content are given

to different classes in order to avoid cheating

Up to now, there has not been an English standard item for students at Bac Giang gifted high school Therefore, English tests are mainly taken from grammar book designed for students at the elementary level such as sentences building, sentences transformation, etc The content of the tests is sometimes found to be rather unrelated to the course objectives and may lack the most important criteria for a good test concerning its validity, reliability and practicality As a result, the content of the tests is likely to fail to measure the language skills and language components

Moreover, it could be clearly seen from the textbook that students are supposed

to practice all four language skills equally including Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing and three language components which are Pronunciation, Vocabulary and Grammar at the same time As a matter of fact, most of the tests given at Bac Giang gifted high school now focus on vocabulary and grammar The testing of the reading skills is examined through two types of exercise: gap-filling and reading comprehension The reading comprehension directly tests the ability to read for general, detailed as specific information However, most of the questions fall under the low level of recognition which only uses restatement of ideas The limited question types make the tests less reliable since they fail to distinguish students from the excellent level to the lower one

The writing skills are also tested but not properly enough It is claimed that writing skill is examined through sentence transformation and mistake correction multiple choice questions The tested items only limit in sentence writing, not paragraph, passage or composition writing as what is taught in class Furthermore, the questions aim at the testing grammar more than writing skills Consequently, writing is not directly tested and questions seem to be ineffective in testing students' writing targeted skills in the syllabus

Two fifths of the English lessons taught at school are speaking and listening with different sub-skills However, it is a pity that students' speaking and listening skills are not tested in these tests The oral test which is given at the beginning of each teaching period, also aims to test vocabulary and grammatical structures Sometimes students are asked to make up sentences with new words or retell the text Although it is called "oral test", students

do not have to speak much There is no listening test in any examinations at Bac Giang gifted high school, which means that all the listening sub-skills taught in the textbook are excluded from the tests The tests, therefore, fail to evaluate whether one of most important goals of the course is achieved or not

To sum up, in general, the English tests at Bac Giang gifted high school look good and reasonable for students To some extent, the tests prove to be well-matched with the teaching content in terms of language components and reading skill However, the test content

of tests is likely to fail to assess such language skills as writing, speaking and listening

2.2 Results and discussion

2.2.1 The subjects

This study is intended to be carried on the mathematic class of about 30 students with the average age at 16 They all have been learning English for at least 5 years at their lower secondary school And their levels are similar The second subject of the study is five teachers of English who are in charge of teaching grade 10

2.2.2 Instruments for collecting data

Two sets of questionnaires have been designed and conducted to get the data The purpose of the first set of questionnaire is to collect information about the communicative language test design

The first questionnaire for English teachers has three sections designed to identify their attitudes towards communicative tests, techniques and their difficulties that the teachers are faced with when designing and conducting the communicative tests

The second questionnaire designed for the students is also divided into 3 sections

Section I finds out the attitudes on the current tests

Section II focuses on students' attitudes towards communicative tests Section III concerns with students' attitude towards difficulties when they do the communicative tests

The second set of questionnaire is to find out how the teachers and students feel about the Sample Communicative tests for 10th grade of non-English major students at Bac Giang gifted high School

We delivered the 35 copies of the first set of questionnaires in January, the beginning

of the second semester and all of them were returned with reasonable answers Then we started to analyze them to take the findings for the tests After the trial test was finished, the

second set of survey questionnaires for comments was given to the teachers and students

2.2.3 Data analysis

2.2.3.1 Analysis from English teachers’ questionnaire

2.2.3.1.1 Teachers' attitude towards language communicative testing

7 5%

2 5%

5 0%

3

Which of the following principles that you frequently apply in testing your students? (you can

choose more than 1 option)

A Testing students' language ability by grammar and vocabulary tasks

B Choosing test tasks which resemble real life situations

1 00%

2 5%

0

%

0

%

C offer students the opportunity to encounter and use the language receptively and productively in

authentic situations to show how strong their language

ability is

D Making use of authentic situations to achieve meaningful communication

Table 1: Teachers' perception about communicative language testing

Figures collected in table 1 reveals a surprising fact that the majority of teachers (75%) in Bac Giang gifted high school had never been officially trained in communicative language testing What they knew about language testing was attributed to their self-study and self-research The minority of teacher (25%) stated that they were taught about communicative language testing when taking part in MA course Also, when being asked whether communicative approach was followed in testing, half of the teachers answered that they had not followed this approach and a quarter revealed their uncertainty

Question 3 was presented with the hope of finding out whether the distinctive features of communicative language testing, mentioned in section 1.2.2, were used As can be realized, all the teachers reflect that they frequently evaluate students' language ability by grammar and vocabulary tasks while only 25% of the teachers have an attempt at employing test tasks which reflected real-life situation Unluckily, authentic and meaningful communication was hardly perceived as no teachers asked usually employed these in testing

All of these well confirmed a finding that teachers were not provided with efficient knowledge about language testing, except for those completing MA course on methodology, and communicative approach to test have not employed at Bac Giang gifted high school yet

English teaching?

A very important

B quite important

C not very important

D not important at all

B get students feel familiar with communicative tests

C improve students' communication skills

D encourage students to study language skills

8 0%

2 0%

4 0%

4 0%

Table 2: Teachers' attitude towards the importance and purposes of communicative tests

When being asked about the importance of communicative tests, 80% of the teachers claimed that communicative tests were significant A minority of the teachers indicated that communicative tests were not very important When being interviewed, this teacher said that much emphasis was put on teaching and testing grammar in English class because his main goal of teaching is to help students get good marks for grammar tests Moreover, a great number of the teachers questioned said that the communicative tests could help them to check how much already taught knowledge was grasped by students Improving students‟ communication skills and encouraging students to study language skills equally ranked the second with 40%, leaving the help of getting students feel familiar with the tests at

2.2.3.1.2 Teachers' attitude towards testing techniques

Types of reading tests

Frequency of use by numbers

of teachers

O ften

Some times

Ne ver

Table 3: Types of reading test items used at Bac Giang gifted high school

According to table 3, the most frequently used techniques for testing reading skills were multiple choice items Multiple-choice items are most frequently used probably because the marking, as well as being reliable, is simple and more rapid than other forms of written test Besides the multiple-choice items, the True/False items and open-ended questions are also widely used to test reading comprehension All the teachers who are asked use True/ False items and open-ended questions to test reading comprehension; among these 40% often and 60% sometimes use this type of test items Cloze tests are also frequently used, 80% and 20% of the teachers sometimes and often apply this item to test, respectively On the other hand, the other types of items for testing reading are still not used very often For example, only 20% of the teachers give completion items and none of them give rearrangement items

In fact, each type of test items has its own advantages and this not only helps teachers test the reading skills more effectively but also makes reading more interesting activity to the students

Types of writing tasks Frequency of use by numbers of

teachers

metimes

N ever Sentence transformation

% Sentence combining

%

0

% Completion items

Table 4: Types of writing test items used at Bac Giang gifted high school

From the teachers' questionnaire responses illustrated in table 4, among the various types of writing tasks, only a few types of sentence transformation, sentence building and broken sentences have been used, most of which are not based on real life situation Sentence transformation which focuses on the testing of grammar and structures is often used

by all the teachers Sentence building and broken sentences are also commonly applied in testing writing, which correspondingly make up 80% and 40% Besides, such tasks as paragraph writing, writing for a specific purpose and essay writing tasks have never been used

Types of oral tests Frequency of use by numbers of

teachers

Oft

en

Someti mes

Nev

er

% Presentation with preparation

% Interaction tasks

% Oral interview

% Free talk

% role play

%

Table 5: Types of oral test items used at Bac Giang gifted high school

As can be seen from table 5, reading aloud and translating sections are still in frequent use, mentioned 60% and 20% of the teachers, respectively Presentation with preparation is of little use, only 20% of them In fact, the oral skills are generally considered to

be the most difficult among the four main language skills to test However, if the speaking tests are carefully constructed, they can be conducted to assess students' speaking ability

In short, the weakest point in language testing in Bac Giang gifted high school

is now the testing of speaking and listening skills Although there are listening and speaking lessons in the teaching curriculum, speaking and listening tests have not been taken seriously

As a result, this seem to be irrational because teaching and testing are so closely interrelated that it is impossible to work in either field without being constantly concerned with the others (Heaton, 1990:p5) Therefore, it is hard to have a good outcome of communicative language teaching without application of communicative language testing because of negative backwash effect

2.2.3.1.3 Teachers' attitude towards the difficulties in designing communicative tests

E Excessive work in addition to classroom

teaching

F large classes

Table 6: Teachers' difficulties in designing communicative tests

Four out of five teachers indicated lack of materials as the barrier for their conducting communicative tests They usually took the tasks from teacher‟s books, grammar books and students‟ workbook And the same numbers of them said it was often quite hard and time-consuming to find suitable tasks Moreover, nearly all of the teachers felt that the problem resulting from the insufficient knowledge of the teachers on communicative language testing was the shortage of understanding of different communicative techniques Two participants identified excessive work in addition to classroom teaching as a great hindrance to conducting communicative tests According to these teachers, they have to train excellent students for English Olympic or the Excellent students‟ National exam Any additional works was a burden and stress itself for the teachers This was the reason why teachers could not have enough time to equip themselves with new testing method and discover new materials elsewhere However, the main problem is limited class time because all the teachers agree that they find it difficult to conduct an integrated skill test within 45-minute class Understandably, there are from 24 to 35 students in a class, whereas, in comparison with the number of students per class in other school, the student number in Bac Giang gifted high school is smaller Though this number may not be ideal enough for a foreign language learning class, it

is acceptable in Vietnamese context Thus, it is quite comprehensible that problem of large classes was not indicated by any teachers surveyed

2.2.3.2 Analysis from students’ questionnaire

2.2.3.2.1 Students' attitude towards the current tests

Q

1 What do you think about the current

tests you have taken

A They are very long and difficult

B They are not related to what I have learnt

C They can not assess our real language ability

D They are suitable to our levels

2 7%

1 3%

1 7%

4 3%

2 Which testing items do you want to

2 7%

8 3%

3 3%

1 00%

3 Which format of a test do you like?

A multiple choice question

B Essay

C Mixture

7 3%

7

%

2 0%

Table 7: Students' attitude towards the tests

According to table 7, nearly half of the students (43%) agree that the existing tests are suitable to their levels However, only 27% of them consider that the existing tests are suitable to their levels More than one quarter think that the existing tests are not related to what they have learnt and their real language ability can not be assessed by those tests Among testing items, Grammar and vocabulary exercises are chosen to test by all of the students Reading skills rank the second by 83% Speaking, listening and writing skills are tested with a much lower levels of agreement, approved by only 20%, 27% and 33% of the participants, respectively

Unsurprisingly, most of the students want the test items to be multiple choice questions In their opinion, this kind is easy to guess the answer and quick to finish the test items However, there are still some students who want to test in the essay form as they stated that they were good at writing

2.2.3.2.2 Students' attitude towards communicative tests

C not very important

D not important at all

7 3%

2 3%

7 3%

2 7%

7

%

1 6%

B Have a good mark in your English study

C improve your communication skills

D motivate you to study and to guide you progress

8 7%

3

%

7 7%

2 7%

Table 8- Students' attitude towards communicative tests

In accordance with table 8, it is clear that most of the students are aware of the importance of the communicative tests To explain why communicative tests were highly evaluated, students said that the main purpose of learning English is to communicate with foreigners in public Communicative tests help students realize strength and weaknesses in communication skills Only one student out of 30 does not regard the importance of communicative tests at all

About the frequency of the communicative tests, surprisingly, 67% of the students expect that the teachers sometimes give the tests with the increasing levels ranging from easy one to more difficult 16% feel more interested when the teachers sometimes give the tests for them to practise language skills The rest of them also want to take this kind of test regularly and they are happier if the teachers give them higher marks

Also from the survey, students expect not only to check their language ability and knowledge but also to improve their communication skills, constituting 87% and 77% respectively 27 % of the students think that the communicative test will motivate them to study English

2.2.3.2.2 Students' attitude towards difficulties in taking the communicative tests

5 0%

3 7%

4 7%

B Time limitation

C New types of test items

D unfamiliar words and structures

Table 9- Students' difficulty in taking communicative tests

All students think that they may have difficulties in doing communicative tests The first difficulty mentioned by 43% of them is that the instructions are not easy for them to understand because they have never been checked this kind of test And 40% of them find unfamiliar with new types of test items It seems common since the tests which they have ever done before have not included listening and speaking skills 17% think that classtime is limited they need more time to do this kind of tests

Summary

To sum up, this chapter aims at finding out the answer to the first question of the research There was a mismatch between approach to teaching English and approach to testing English, which resulted from total neglect of educational administrators on training teachers with communicative language testing Speaking and listening are not tested although they make up an equal proportion as the other skills in the teaching contents In addition, writing is not directly tested and the questions seem to be ineffective in testing students' writing target skills in the syllabus

Except for large classes, five problems that teachers at Bac Giang gifted high school encountered in conducting communicative language tests were lack of materials, poverty in knowledge of language testing, time-consumption and excessive work in addition

to classroom teaching