Testing young learners
Testing young learners
What is testing
Testing is one of the
techniques for assessing
children’s performance
on a specific task.
What is testing
The test checks in an
objective way whether
the learner has acquired
some aspects of
language.
What is testing
The results are usually
given in the form of grades
or percentages and show
an individual’s achievement
against the whole class.
What is testing
Testing is an element of
assessment.
It provides quantitative
information.
What is testing
Testing is one of the
forms of assessment.
Assessment is a wider
domain than testing.
What is testing
Formal testing is not the
most common way of
assessing young learners.
Teachers use tests to
measure their pupils’
progress at a certain point
of a language course.
Principles of testing
Tests should include the
types of tasks children
are familiar with.
Principles of testing
Tests should cover all
language skills.
Tests for pre-school children
can be based on listening
and speaking only.
Principles of testing
Tests should contain
visual stimulation to
indicate meaning and
test understanding.
Principles of testing
The tasks should be of
different difficulty to
ensure success of all
children.
Principles of testing
The test should not be long.
The instructions have to be
short, simple and clear.
The test should be piloted
on a comparable group.
Principles of testing
When teaching children
using formal tests is rare.
Observation and noting
progress are crucial –
informal assessment.
Testing oral skills
Can only be done during
pair- or group-work or when
children are individually
interviewed by the teacher.
There are four categories
of tasks:
Testing oral skills -
tasks
Reacting to a visual stimulus
Dialogues in pairs
Acting out scenes and
dialogues (supervised)
Memory games (vocab)
Techniques for testing
oral skills
Responding with one word
Dialogues in pairs
Acting out scenes/dialogues
Memory game
Describing a
picture/retelling a story
Techniques for testing
receptive skills and
writing
Picture dictation
Listening and circling the
right picture
Number dictation
Listening and T/F marking
Techniques for testing
receptive skills and
writing
Matching words and pictures
Listening and filling in a chart
Sequencing pictures in a story
Gap filling in a text
Solving crosswords
Techniques for testing
receptive skills and
writing
Grouping words into categories
Writing sentences from
memory
Describing/labelling pictures
Completing and transforming
sentences
Techniques for testing
receptive skills and
writing
Correcting mistakes in
sentences
Arranging words into
sentences
Free writing of a few
sentences
The enumerated
techniques can also be
used in testing
grammar, vocabulary
and pronunciation.
Thank you for your
attention