TESTING STUDENTS

JEREMY HARMER

Emilia Babowicz
Anna Mizerek

THE CHARACTERISTIC OF TESTS

Different types of tests:

•

Placement tests- placing new students in the

right class in a school is facilitated with the use

of placement tests

•

Diagnostic test- whilcan be used to expose

learner difficulties, gap in their knowledge and

skill deficiences during a course

•

Progress of acheivement test- designed to

measure learners’ language and skill progress

in relation to the syllabus they have been

following

•

Proficiency test- give a general picture of

students knowledge and ability (rather than

measure progress)

CHARACTERISTIC OF A GOOD TEST



Validity- test is valid if it test what is
supposed to test



Reliability- a good test should give
consistance results

TYPES OF TEST ITEM



Indirect- items which try to measure a
student’s knowledge and ability by getting at
what lies beneath there receptive and
productive skills



Direct- a test item, which asks candidates to
perform the communicative skill which is
being tested

INDIRECT TEST ITEM TYPES



Multiple choice – where considered to be
ideal test instruments for measuring
students’ knowledge of grammar and
vocabulary



Close procedures- seems to offer us the
ideal indirect but integrative testing item

•

Transformation and paraphrase- test items
ask candidates to rewrite sentences in a
slightly different form, retaing the exact
meaning of the original

•

Sentence re-ordering- getting students to put
words in the right order to make appropriate
sentences tells us quite a lot about their
underlying knowledge ig syntax and lexico-
grammatical elements

DIRECT TEST ITEM TYPES



Create a ‘level playing field’- receptive skill
testing needs to avoid making excessive
demands on the student’s general of
specialist knowledge



Replicate real- life interaction- modern test
writers now include tasks which attempt to
replicate features of real life

REPLICATE REAL- LIFE INTERACTION

Speaking:



An interviewer
questioning candidate
about themselves



‘Information gap’



‘Decision making’



Using picture for
candidates to
compare and contrast



Role-play activities

Writing:



Writing compositions
and stories



‘Transactional letters’



Information leaflets
about their school or
a place in their town



Set of instructions for
some common task



Newspaper articles
about a recent event

REPLICATE REAL- LIFE INTERACTION

Listening:



Completing charts with

facts and figures from

a listening text



Identifying which of a

number of object is

being described



Identifying which says

what



Identifying whether

speakers are

enthusistic, amused



Following directions on

a map and identifying

the correct place

Reading:



Multiple choice questions



Matching writen descriptions

with pictures of the items



Transfering writen

information to charts, graphs



Choosing the best summary

of a paragraph or a whole

text



Matching jumbled headings

with paragraphs



Inserting sentences provided

by the examiner in the

correct place in the text

WRITING TESTS



Assess the test situation



Decide what to test



Balance the elements



Weight the scores



Making the test work

MARKING TESTS



Training



More than one score



Global assessment scale



Analytic profiles



Scoring and interacting during oral tests

TEACHING THE TESTS

•

Training for test types- we can give students

training to help them approach such items more

effectively

•

Descussing general exam skills- most students

benefit from being reminded about general test and

exam skills

•

Doing practise tests- students need to practise

taking the test to feel experienced and confident

•

Promoting autonomy- students need to do some

exercises on their own

•

Having fun- tests should not be done in a boring or

tense manner

•

Ignoring the tests- we need to ignore the exam

from time to time so that we have opportunities to

work on general language issues