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The nature of Reading
‘An estimated 122 million youth globally are illiterate, of which young women represent 60.7% .. 67.4 million children are out of school … deficient or non-existent basic education is the root cause of illiteracy’. (UNESCO)
Imagine what your life would be like if you didn’t know how to read. Approximately only 80% of the world’s population is reported to be able to read (Grabe & Stoller, 2002).
Reading is a fundamental skill for learners, not just for learning but for life (Traves 1994) with reading being defined as “…the ability to draw meaning from the printed page and interpret this information appropriately” (Grabe & Stoller, 2002, p. 9).
Why we need to develop reading skills
- Hear a word before you can say it
- Say a word before you can read it
- Read a word before you can write it (Linse 2005)
What this tells us is that young learners need a firm foundation in auditory and oracy skills before they can become proficient readers and writers of ANY language. Learning to read and then to write means the young learner has to link what they have heard or spoken to what they can see (read) and produce (write).
How to explore reading with young learners
Early literacy strategies
Phonemic awareness (grapho-phonics)
Young learners of English need explicit instruction on the link between the symbols (letters) in English and the sounds they make. They need to be taught that there is a direct link between the phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (letters) in order to be able to start ‘blending’ or sounding out simple words, e.g. vowel consonant (VC), followed by consonant vowel consonant (VC). The UK National Literacy strategy ‘Letters and Sounds’ is a good place to start for ideas on not only the order of letters and sounds to be taught but also the methodology to be used. Once a young learner has mastered blending sounds together, they can be taught how to ‘segment’ the sounds in words they can say. These skills of putting together and separating sounds will help them with both ‘decoding’ and spelling.
The whole point of human beings inventing symbols is to pass on information to each other. They have done this in many different ways, consider the Ancient Egyptians with their hieroglyphics, Chinese pictographs, Arabic text and Roman text to name a few. There are not just differences in symbols but also in directionality. These all have to be taught explicitly because they are man-made and not intuitive.
Semantics
Being able to ‘decode’ or read aloud is not useful on it’s own. The symbols carry meaning and so young learners need to be taught how to ‘encode’ the symbols and visuals in order to find out the message being shared.
Syntactics
In the same way that every language has differences in symbols, so they have in the ‘nuts and bolts’ or arrangement of their symbols. The grammar or syntax of language is best ‘acquired’ in the Krashen sense, rather than ‘learnt’ explicitly. Acquisition will occur through multiple exposures to language usage in different contexts. Dissecting language is not very useful to a young learner, however, some simple metalanguage from the age of 10 years old upwards can be helpful, e.g. identifying nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, articles, pronouns and word order. The reason being that there may be differences between the L1 and English and being helped to ‘notice’ these differences can help. A helpful publication to find out differences between 22 languages and English is edited by Swan and Smith (2001).
Developing literacy
You do not need access to a vast library or online literature to explore reading in your classroom. Techniques we have used, and ones learners have enjoyed are shared for you below. It is important to remember that activating background knowledge when needed may be key to a comprehensible reading activity as;
“Our background knowledge is like a lens through which we understand what we read” and it “allows teachers to unlock vocabulary before reading” (Anderson, 1999, p. 11).
Cameron (2001) gives a very useful list of ideas for creating a ‘literate environment in the classroom’ as this may be the only place young learners see print in the foreign language. This list includes:
“Our background knowledge is like a lens through which we understand what we read” and it “allows teachers to unlock vocabulary before reading” (Anderson, 1999, p. 11).
Cameron (2001) gives a very useful list of ideas for creating a ‘literate environment in the classroom’ as this may be the only place young learners see print in the foreign language. This list includes:
- Labels – labelling children’s trays, desks, coat hooks, as well as furniture and objects around the classroom and school.
- Posters – colourful posters are especially eye-catching which could include a rhyme that is being learnt, advertising something, e.g. reading, cleaning teeth
- Messages – for homework or ‘Don’t forget to bring …’
- Reading aloud – by teacher or older child
Some other activities that will help to make reading ‘pleasurable’ (Arnold 2009) which is crucial for success in literacy, include:
- Focusing on reading fluency may include timed repeated reading (Nation, 2009).
- Running dictation (in pairs, so all learners are involved in reading).
- Learners making their own story books (or comics) to share with each other (Wright, 1997, p.114-130).
- Creating backstories for character in a puppet family and creating a class binder to refer back to when reading peers stories about the family. This can be developed over a semester with learners taking in turns in small groups to create dramas to share with the class in written form, so peers read, and can be followed through with role plays.
- Motivation – ask your learners to bring in materials they enjoy reading – whether it is football results, recipes or song lyrics, use these as a springboard for discussion and reading.
- Make it purposeful – if learning food lexis, bring in packets / tins of food, read where different kinds of food originate from, and classify them by country or by noun basis (countable/ uncountable). (Ellis & Brewster, 1991, p.57).
- Extensive reading is where learners read a lot of easy material in the new language. They choose their own material and read it independently from the teacher. (Krashen, 1988). This develops confidence in their abilities and promotes an enjoyment of reading for pleasure.
Conclusion
Reading is a rewarding process and can be enjoyed by learners and the teacher alike. Our last note is simply this, approach reading with the intention of having fun in the learning process and your intention will be mirrored by your learners. Happy reading!
References
Anderson, N. (1999). Exploring second language reading: Issues and strategies. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
Arnold W.H. (2009) ‘Ensuring reading is pleasurable for YL’ in Spring 2009 Children and Teenagers CATS. UK: IATEFL YLT SIG
Cameron, L (2001) Teaching Languages to Young Learners. UK:Cambridge University Press
Carrell, P., Pharis, B., & Liberto, J. (1989). Metacognitive strategy training for ESL reading. TESOL Quarterly, 23, 647-678.
Ellis. G & Brewster. J. (1991). The storytelling handbook for Primary Teachers. UK:Penguin, p.57.
Grabe, W. (2009). Reading in a second language: Moving from theory to practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Grabe, W., & Stoller, F. L. (2002). Teaching and researching reading. Harlow, UK:Pearson Education.
Krashen, S. (1988). Do we learn to read by reading? The relationship between free reading and reading ability. In D. Tannen (Ed.) Linguistics in context: Connecting observation and understanding (pp. 269-298). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Linse, C.T (2005) Young Learners. USA:McGraw Hill
Nation, I. S. P. (2009). Teaching ESL/EFL reading and writing. New York:Routledge.
Paris, S. G., Wasik, B. A., & Turner, J. C. (1991). The development of strategic readers. In R. Barr, M. L. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, & P. D. Pearson (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (pp. 609-640). White Plains, NY: Longman.
Swan, M and Smith, B (2001) (eds) Learner English. UK: Cambridge University Press
Traves, P. (1994) Reading In S Brindley (Ed.) Teaching English. London: Routledge.
UK National Literacy Strategy ‘Letters and Sounds’. Accesse 151015:https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/190599/Letters_and_Sounds_-_DFES-00281-2007.pdf
UNESCO. Accessed 151015: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/education- building-blocks/literacy/resources/statistics
Wimmer, H. & Goswami, U. (1994). The influence of orthographic consistency on reading development: Word recognition in English and German children. Cognition, 51, 91-103.
Wright, A. (1997) Creating Stories with Children. Oxford:Oxford University Press.
Assessing Writing
Writing assessment can be used for a variety of appropriate purposes, both inside the classroom and outside: providing assistance to students, awarding a grade, placing students in appropriate courses, allowing them to exit a course or sequence of courses, certifying proficiency, and evaluating programs-- to name some of the more obvious. Given the high stakes nature of many of these assessment purposes, it is crucial that assessment practices be guided by sound principles to insure that they are valid, fair, and appropriate to the context and purposes for which they designed. This position statement aims to provide that guidance.
Guiding Principles for Assessment
1. Writing assessment is useful primarily as a means of improving teaching and learning. The primary purpose of any assessment should govern its design, its implementation, and the generation and dissemination of its results.
As a result…
A. Best assessment practice is informed by pedagogical and curricular goals, which are in turn formatively affected by the assessment. Teachers or administrators designing assessments should ground the assessment in the classroom, program or departmental context. The goals or outcomes assessed should lead to assessment data which is fed back to those involved with the regular activities assessed so that assessment results may be used to make changes in practice.B. Best assessment practice is undertaken in response to local goals, not external pressures. Even when external forces require assessment, the local community must assert control of the assessment process, including selection of the assessment instrument and criteria.C. Best assessment practice provides regular professional development opportunities.Colleges, universities, and secondary schools should make use of assessments as opportunities for professional development and for the exchange of information about student abilities and institutional expectations.
2. Writing is by definition social. Learning to write entails learning to accomplish a range of purposes for a range of audiences in a range of settings.
As a result…
A. Best assessment practice engages students in contextualized, meaningful writing.The assessment of writing must strive to set up writing tasks and situations that identify purposes appropriate to and appealing to the particular students being tested. Additionally, assessment must be contextualized in terms of why, where, and for what purpose it is being undertaken; this context must also be clear to the students being assessed and to all stakeholders.B. Best assessment practice supports and harmonizes with what practice and research have demonstrated to be effective ways of teaching writing. What is easiest to measure—often by means of a multiple choice test—may correspond least to good writing; choosing a correct response from a set of possible answers is not composing. As important, just asking students to write does not make the assessment instrument a good one. Essay tests that ask students to form and articulate opinions about some important issue, for instance, without time to reflect, talk to others, read on the subject, revise, and have a human audience promote distorted notions of what writing is. They also encourage poor teaching and little learning. Even teachers who recognize and employ the methods used by real writers in working with students can find their best efforts undercut by assessments such as these.C. Best assessment practice is direct assessment by human readers. Assessment that isolates students and forbids discussion and feedback from others conflicts with what we know about language use and the benefits of social interaction during the writing process; it also is out of step with much classroom practice. Direct assessment in the classroom should provide response that serves formative purposes, helping writers develop and shape ideas, as well as organize, craft sentences, and edit. As stated by the CCCC Position Statement on Teaching, Learning, and Assessing Writing in Digital Environments, “we oppose the use of machine-scored writing in the assessment of writing.” Automated assessment programs do not respond as human readers. While they may promise consistency, they distort the very nature of writing as a complex and context-rich interaction between people. They simplify writing in ways that can mislead writers to focus more on structure and grammar than on what they are saying by using a given structure and style.
3. Any individual's writing ability is a sum of a variety of skills employed in a diversity of contexts, and individual ability fluctuates unevenly among these varieties.
As a result…
A. Best assessment practice uses multiple measures. One piece of writing—even if it is generated under the most desirable conditions—can never serve as an indicator of overall writing ability, particularly for high-stakes decisions. Ideally, writing ability must be assessed by more than one piece of writing, in more than one genre, written on different occasions, for different audiences, and responded to and evaluated by multiple readers as part of a substantial and sustained writing process.B. Best assessment practice respects language variety and diversity and assesses writing on the basis of effectiveness for readers, acknowledging that as purposes vary, criteria will as well. Standardized tests that rely more on identifying grammatical and stylistic errors than authentic rhetorical choices disadvantage students whose home dialect is not the dominant dialect. Assessing authentic acts of writing simultaneously raises performance standards and provides multiple avenues to success. Thus students are not arbitrarily punished for linguistic differences that in some contexts make them more, not less, effective communicators. Furthermore, assessments that are keyed closely to an American cultural context may disadvantage second language writers. The CCCC Statement on Second Language Writing and Writers calls on us "to recognize the regular presence of second-language writers in writing classes, to understand their characteristics, and to develop instructional and administrative practices that are sensitive to their linguistic and cultural needs." Best assessment practice responds to this call by creating assessments that are sensitive to the language varieties in use among the local population and sensitive to the context-specific outcomes being assessed.C. Best assessment practice includes assessment by peers, instructors, and the student writer himself or herself. Valid assessment requires combining multiple perspectives on a performance and generating an overall assessment out of the combined descriptions of those multiple perspectives. As a result, assessments should include formative and summative assessments from all these kinds of readers. Reflection by the writer on her or his own writing processes and performances holds particular promise as a way of generating knowledge about writing and increasing the ability to write successfully.
4. Perceptions of writing are shaped by the methods and criteria used to assess writing.
As a result…
A. The methods and criteria that readers use to assess writing should be locally developed, deriving from the particular context and purposes for the writing being assessed. The individual writing program, institution, or consortium, should be recognized as a community of interpreters whose knowledge of context and purpose is integral to the assessment. There is no test which can be used in all environments for all purposes, and the best assessment for any group of students must be locally determined and may well be locally designed.B. Best assessment practice clearly communicates what is valued and expected, and does not distort the nature of writing or writing practices. If ability to compose for various audiences is valued, then an assessment will assess this capability. For other contexts and purposes, other writing abilities might be valued, for instance, to develop a position on the basis of reading multiple sources or to compose a multi-media piece, using text and images. Values and purposes should drive assessment, not the reverse. A corollary to this statement is that assessment practices and criteria should change as conceptions of texts and values change.C. Best assessment practice enables students to demonstrate what they do well in writing. Standardized tests tend to focus on readily accessed features of the language (grammatical correctness, stylistic choices) and on error rather than on the appropriateness of the rhetorical choices that have been made. Consequently, the outcome of such assessments is negative: students are said to demonstrate what they do wrong with language rather than what they do well. Quality assessments will provide the opportunity for students to demonstrate the ways they can write, displaying the strategies or skills taught in the relevant environment.
5. Assessment programs should be solidly grounded in the latest research on learning, writing, and assessment.
As a result…
A. Best assessment practice results from careful consideration of the costs and benefits of the range of available approaches. It may be tempting to choose an inexpensive, quick assessment, but decision-makers should consider the impact of assessment methods on students, faculty, and programs. The return on investment from the direct assessment of writing by instructor-evaluators includes student learning, professional development of faculty, and program development. These benefits far outweigh the presumed benefits of cost, speed, and simplicity that machine scoring might seem to promise.B. Best assessment practice is continually under review and subject to change by well-informed faculty, administrators, and legislators. Anyone charged with the responsibility of designing an assessment program must be cognizant of the relevant research and must stay abreast of developments in the field. The theory and practice of writing assessment is continually informed by significant publications in professional journals and by presentations at regional and national conferences. The easy availability of this research to practitioners makes ignorance of its content reprehensible.
Applications to Assessment Settings
The guiding principles apply to assessment conducting in any setting. In addition, we offer the following guidelines for situations that may be encountered in specific settings.
Assessment in the Classroom
In a course context, writing assessment should be part of the highly social activity within the community of faculty and students in the class. This social activity includes:
- a period of ungraded work (prior to the completion of graded work) that receives response from multiple readers, including peer reviewers,
- assessment of texts—from initial through to final drafts—by human readers, and
- more than one opportunity to demonstrate outcomes.
Self-assessment should also be encouraged. Assessment practices and criteria should match the particular kind of text being created and its purpose. These criteria should be clearly communicated to students in advance so that the students can be guided by the criteria while writing.
Assessment for Placement
Placement criteria in the most responsible programs will be clearly connected to any differences in the available courses. Experienced instructor-evaluators can most effectively make a judgment regarding which course would best serve each student’s needs and assign each student to the appropriate course. If scoring systems are used, scores should derive from criteria that grow out of the work of the courses into which students are being placed.
Decision-makers should carefully weigh the educational costs and benefits of timed tests, portfolios, directed self placement, etc. In the minds of those assessed, each of these methods implicitly establishes its value over that of others, so the first impact is likely to be on what students come to believe about writing. For example, timed writing may suggest to students that writing always cramps one for time and that real writing is always a test. Machine-scored tests may focus students on error-correction rather than on effective communication. In contrast, the value of portfolio assessment is that it honors the processes by which writers develop their ideas and re-negotiate how their communications are heard within a language community.
Students should have the right to weigh in on their assessment. Self-placement without direction may become merely a right to fail, whereas directed self-placement, either alone or in combination with other methods, provides not only useful information but also involves and invests the student in making effective life decisions.
If for financial or even programmatic reasons the initial method of placement is somewhat reductive, instructors of record should create an opportunity early in the semester to review and change students’ placement assignments, and uniform procedures should be established to facilitate the easy re-placement of improperly placed students. Even when the placement process entails direct assessment of writing, the system should accommodate the possibility of improper placement. If assessment employs machine scoring, whether of actual writing or of items designed to elicit error, it is particularly essential that every effort be made through statistical verification to see that students, individually and collectively, are placed in courses that can appropriately address their skills and abilities.
Placement processes should be continually assessed and revised in accord with course content and overall program goals. This is especially important when machine-scored assessments are used. Using methods that are employed uniformly, teachers of record should verify that students are appropriately placed. If students are placed according to scores on such tests, the ranges of placement must be revisited regularly to accommodate changes in curricula and shifts in the abilities of the student population.
Assessment of Proficiency
Proficiency or exit assessment involves high stakes for students. In this context, assessments that make use of substantial and sustained writing processes are especially important.
Judgments of proficiency must also be made on the basis of performances in multiple and varied writing situations (for example, a variety of topics, audiences, purposes, genres).
The assessment criteria should be clearly connected to desired outcomes. When proficiency is being determined, the assessment should be informed by such things as the core abilities adopted by the institution, the course outcomes established for a program, and/or the stated outcomes of a single course or class. Assessments that do not address such outcomes lack validity in determining proficiency.
The higher the stakes, the more important it is that assessment be direct rather than indirect, based on actual writing rather than on answers on multiple-choice tests, and evaluated by people involved in the instruction of the student rather than via machine scoring. To evaluate the proficiency of a writer on other criteria than multiple writing tasks and situations is essentially disrespectful of the writer.
Assessment of Programs
Program assessment refers to evaluations of performance in a large group, such as students in a multi-section course or majors graduating from a department. Because assessment offers information about student performance and the factors which affect that performance, it is an important way for programs or departments to monitor and develop their practice.
Programs and departments should see themselves as communities of professionals whose assessment activities reveal common values, provide opportunities for inquiry and debate about unsettled issues, and communicate measures of effectiveness to those inside and outside the program. Members of the community are in the best position to guide decisions about what assessments will best inform that community. It is important to bear in mind that random sampling of students can often provide large-scale information and that regular assessment should affect practice.
Assessment for School Admission
Admissions tests are not only high stakes for students, they are also an extremely important component for educational institutions determining if they and a student are an appropriate match. Consequently, where students’ writing ability is a factor in the admissions decision, the writing assessments should consist of direct measures of actual writing. Moreover, the assessment should consist of multiple writing tasks and should allow sufficient time for a student to engage in all stages of the writing process.
Assessments should be appropriate to educational institutions’ distinctive missions and student populations, although similar institutions may collaborate to create assessments. Assessment should be developed in consultation with high school writing teachers.
Assessments should be appropriate to educational institutions’ distinctive missions and student populations, although similar institutions may collaborate to create assessments. Assessment should be developed in consultation with high school writing teachers.
ASSESSING SPEAKING
Basic Types of Speaking (Brown:2004)
1. Imitative
At one end of a continuum of types of speaking performance is the ability to simply parrot back (imitate) a word or phrase or possibly a sentence. While this is a purely phonetic level of oral production, a number of prosodic, lexical and grammatical properties of language may be included in criterion performance.
2. Intensive
A second types of speaking frequently employed in assessment contexts is the production of short streches of oral language designed to demonstrate competence in a narrow band of grammatical, phrasal, lexical, or phonological relationships (such as prosodic elements – intonation, stress, rhytm, juncture). Examples of intensive assessment tasks include directed response tasks, reading aloud, sentence and dialogue completion; limited picture-cued tasks including simple sequences; and translation up to the simple sentence level.
3. Responsive
This assessment tasks include interaction and test comprehension but at the somewhat limited level of very short conversation, standard greeting and small talk, simple requests and comments, and the like. The stimulus is almost always a spoken prompt (in order to preserve authebticity), with perharps only one or two follow-up questions or retorts :
A. Mary : Excuse me, do you have the time ?
Doug : Yeah. Nine-fifteen
B. Jeff : Hey, Stef, how’s it going ?
Stef : Not bad and yourself ?
Jeff : I’m good
Stef : Cool. Okay,gotta go
4. Interactive
The difference between responsive and interactive speaking is in the length and complexity of the interaction, which sometimes includes multiple exchanges and/or paricipants. Interaction can take the two forms of transactional language, which has the purpose of exchanging specific information, or interpwrsonal exchanges, which have the purpose of maintaining social relationships. (in two dialogues cited above, A was transactional and B was interpersonal). In interpersonal exchanges, oral production can become pragmatically complex with the need to speak in a casul register and use colloquial language, ellipsis, slang, humor, and the other sociolinguistic conventions.
5. Extensive (monologue)
Extensive oral production tasks include speeches, oral presentations, and story telling, during which the opportunity for oral interaction from listeners is either highly limited (perhaps to nonverbal responses) or ruled out altogether.
Micro and Macroskills of Speaking
The microskills refer to producing the smaller chunks of language such as phonemes, morphemes, words, collocations, and phrasal units. The macroskills imply the speaker’s focus on the larger elements: fluency, discourse, function, style, cohesion, nonverbal communication, and strategic options. The micro- and macroskills total roughly 16 different objectives to assess in speaking.
References:
Retrievred from https://iezhkuncung.wordpress.com/2012/12/04/assesing-speaking-in-evaluation-on-elt/
http://www.ncte.org/cccc/resources/positions/writingassessment
ASSESSING LISTENING
OBSERVING THE PERFORMANCE OF THE FOUR SKILL
Before focusing on listening itself, think about the two interacting concepts of performance and observation. All language users perform the acts of listening. Speaking, reading & writing. They of course rely on their underlying competence in order to accomplish these performances. When you propose to asses that person’s competence, but you observe the person’s performance.
THE IMPORTANCE OF LISTENING
Listening has often played second fiddle to its counterpart, speaking in the standardized testing industry, a number separate oral production test are available (Test of spoken English, Oral proficiency inventory and phone pass. to name several that are described chapter 7 of this book, but it is rare to find just a listening test. on reason for this emphasis is that listening is often implied as a component of speaking. in addition the overtly observable nature of speaking renders it more empirically measurable than listening.
We therefore need to pay close attention to listening as a mode of performance for assessment in the classroom in this chapter we will begin with basic principals and types listening, than move to a survey of task that can be used to assess listening.
BASIC TYPES of LISTENING
Ass all with effective test, designing appropriate assessment tasks in listening begins wait the specification of objectives, or criteria those objective may be classified in term of several types of listening performance.
1. You recognize speech sounds and hold a temporary “imprint” of them in short term memory.
2. You simultaneously determine the type of speech event (monologue, interpersonal dialogue, transactional dialogue) that is being processed and attend to its context (who the speakers is location purpose)
3. You use (bottom up) listening decoding skill and /or (top-down) background schemata to bring a plausible interpretation to the message and assign a literal and intended meaning to the utterance.
4. In most cases (expect for repetition task, which involve short-term memory only)
Each of these stages represents a potential assessment objective:
Comprehending of surface structure elements such as phonemes word intonation, or a grammatical category
understanding of pragmatic context
determining meaning of auditory input
developing the gist, a global or comprehensive understanding
From these stages we can derive four commonly identified types of listening performance, each of which comprises a category within which to consider assessment tasks and procedures.
1. intensive
2. Responsive
3. selective
4. extensive
INTENSIV LISTENING
Once you have determined objectives, your next step is to design the task including making decisions about how you will elicit performance and how you will expect the test-taker to respond. We will look at tasks that range from intensive listening performance, such as minimal phonemic pair recognition to extensive comprehension of language in communicative context. The focus in this section is on the micro skill of intensive listening.
Recognizing Phonological and Morphological Elements
A typical form of intensive listening at this level is the assessment of recognizing of phonological and morphological elements of language. A classic test task gives a spoken stimulus and asks test-takers to identify the stimulus from two or more choices.
PARAPHRASE RECOGNITION
The next step up on the scale of listening comprehension micro skills is words, phrases and sentences which are frequently assessed by providing a stimulus sentences and asking the test-taker to choose the correct paraphrase from a number of choices.
RESPONSIVE LISTENING
A question and answer format can provide some interactivity in these lower end listening tasks. The test-taker’s response is the appropriate answer to a question.
SELECTIVE LISTENING
A third type of listening performance is selective listening in which the test-taker listens to a limited quantity of aural input and must discern within it some specific information. A number of techniques have been used that require selective listening.
Listening Cloze
Listening cloze tasks (sometimes called cloze dictations or partial dictations) require the test-taker to listen to a story, monologue, on conversation and simultaneously read the written text in which selected words or phrases have been deleted. Cloze procedure is most commonly associated with reading only (see chapter 9). In its generic form, the test consists of a passage in which every nth word (typically every seventh word) is deleted and the text-taker is asked to supply an appropriate word. in a listening cloze task, test-taker see a transcript of the passage that they are to listening to and fill in the blanks with the words or phrases that they hear.
Information Transfer
Selective listening can also be assessed through an information transfer technique in which aurally processed information must be transferred to a visual representation, such as labeling a diagram, identifying an element in a picture, completing a form, or showing routes on a map.
SENTENCE REPETITION
Sentence repetition is far from a flawless listening assessment task. buck (2001 p. 79) noted that that such tasks “are not just tests of listening, but tests of general oral skills”. Further, this tasks may tests only recognition of sounds, and it can easily be contaminated by lack of short-term memory ability, thus invalidating it as an assessment toning comprehension error from an oral production error. therefore, sentence repetition tasks should be used with caution.
EXTENSIVE LISTENING
Drawing a clear distinction between any two of the categories of listening referred to hear is problematic, but perhaps the fuzziest division is between selective and extensive listening. As we gradually move along the continuum from smaller to larger stretches of language, and from micro- to macro skill of listening. the probability of using more extensive listening task increases.
DICTATION
Dictation is a widely researched genre of assessing listening comprehension. in a dictation, test takers hear passage, typically of 50 to 100 word, recited three times: first at normal speech; than, with long pauses between phrases or natural word groups, during which time test takers write down what they have just heard; and finally, at normal speech once more so they can check there work and proofread.
Scoring criteria for several possible kinds of errors:
Spelling error only, but the word appears to have been heard correctly
Spelling and / obvious misrepresentation of word, illegible word
Grammatical error (for example, test-takers hears I can’t do it, writes I can do it)
skipped word or phrase
permutation words not in the original
replacement of a word with an appropriate synonym
Communicative stimulus – response tasks
Example of extensive listening is found in a popular genre of assessment tasks in which the task-takers is presented with a stimulus monologue or conversation and than is asked to respond to a set of comprehension questions.
Authentic listening tasks
Ideally, the language assessment field would have a stockpile of listening test types that are cognitively demanding, communicative, and authentic, not to mention interactive by means of integration with speaking. The nature of test as a sample of performance and a set of task with limited time frames implies an equally limited capacity to mirror all the real-world contexts of listening performance.
There is no such thing as a communicative test, “stated back (2001.p92).”Every test requires some components of communicative language ability, and no test covers them all similarly, with the nation of authenticity every task shares some characteristics with target-language tasks, and no test is completely authentic.
1. Note-taking. in the academic world, classroom lectures by professors are common features of a non-native English-user’s experience . These notes are evaluated by the teacher on a 30-points system, as follows:
Scoring system for lecture notes
0-15 points
Visual representation: Are your notes clear and easily to read? Can you easily find and retrieve information from them? Do you use the space on the paper to visually represented ideas? Do you use indention headers, numbers, etc?
0-10 points
Accuracy: Do you accurately indicate main ideas from lectures? Do you note important details and supporting information and examples? Do you leave out unimportant information and tangents?
0-5 points
Symbols and abbreviations: Do you use symbols and abbreviations as much as possible to save time? Ado you avoid writing out whole words and do you avoids writing down every single word the lectures say?
2. Editing. Another authentic task provides both a written and a spoken stimulus, and requires the test-taker to listen for discrepancies. Scoring achieves relatively high reliability as there are usually a small number of specific differences that must be identified. Here is the way the task proceeds.
3. Interpretive tasks. One of the intensive listening tasks described above was paraphrasing a story or conversation. An interpretive task extends the stimulus material to a longer stretch of discourse and forces the test – takers to infer a response potential stimulus include.
Song lyrics
(recited) poetry
radio/television news reports and
an oral account of an experience
4. Retelling. in a related task, tasks takers listen to a story or news event and simply retell it, or summarize it, either orally (on an audiotape) or in writing. In so doing, test takers must identify the gist, main idea, purpose, supporting points.
STANDARDIZED TESTING
A standardized test is any form of test that requires all test takers to answer the same questions, or a selection of questions from common bank of questions, in the same way, and that (2) is scored in a “standard” or consistent manner, which makes it possible to compare the relative performance of individual students or groups of students. While different types of tests and assessments may be “standardized” in this way, the term is primarily associated with large-scale tests administered to large populations of students, such as a multiple-choice test given to all the eighth-grade public-school students in a particular state, for example.
In addition to the familiar multiple-choice format, standardized tests can include true-false questions, short-answer questions, essay questions, or a mix of question types. While standardized tests were traditionally presented on paper and completed using pencils, and many still are, they are increasingly being administered on computers connected to online programs (for a related discussion, see computer-adaptive test). While standardized tests may come in a variety of forms, multiple-choice and true-false formats are widely used for large-scale testing situations because computers can score them quickly, consistently, and inexpensively. In contrast, open-ended essay questions need to be scored by humans using a common set of guidelines or rubrics to promote consistent evaluations from essay to essay—a less efficient and more time-intensive and costly option that is also considered to be more subjective. (Computerized systems designed to replace human scoring are currently being developed by a variety of companies; while these systems are still in their infancy, they are nevertheless becoming the object of growing national debate.)
While standardized tests are a major source of debate in the United States, many test experts and educators consider them to be a fair and objective method of assessing the academic achievement of students, mainly because the standardized format, coupled with computerized scoring, reduces the potential for favoritism, bias, or subjective evaluations. On the other hand, subjective human judgment enters into the testing process at various stages—e.g., in the selection and presentation of questions, or in the subject matter and phrasing of both questions and answers. Subjectivity also enters into the process when test developers set passing scores—a decision that can affect how many students pass or fail, or how many achieve a level of performance considered to be “proficient.” For more detailed discussions of these issue, see measurement error,test accommodations, test bias and score inflation.
Standardized tests may be used for a wide variety of educational purposes. For example, they may be used to determine a young child’s readiness for kindergarten, identify students who need special-education services or specialized academic support, place students in different academic programs or course levels, or award diplomas and other educational certificates. The following are a few representative examples of the most common forms of standardized test:
- Achievement tests are designed to measure the knowledge and skills students learned in school or to determine the academic progress they have made over a period of time. The tests may also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of a schools and teachers, or identify the appropriate academic placement for a student—i.e., what courses or programs may be deemed most suitable, or what forms of academic support they may need. Achievement tests are “backward-looking” in that they measure how well students have learned what they were expected to learn.
- Aptitude tests attempt to predict a student’s ability to succeed in an intellectual or physical endeavor by, for example, evaluating mathematical ability, language proficiency, abstract reasoning, motor coordination, or musical talent. Aptitude tests are “forward-looking” in that they typically attempt to forecast or predict how well students will do in a future educational or career setting. Aptitude tests are often a source of debate, since many question their predictive accuracy and value.
- College-admissions tests are used in the process of deciding which students will be admitted to a collegiate program. While there is a great deal of debate about the accuracy and utility of college-admissions tests, and many institutions of higher education no longer require applicants to take them, the tests are used as indicators of intellectual and academic potential, and some may consider them predictive of how well an applicant will do in postsecondary program.
- International-comparison tests are administered periodically to representative samples of students in a number of countries, including the United States, for the purposes of monitoring achievement trends in individual countries and comparing educational performance across countries. A few widely used examples of international-comparison tests include the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study(PIRLS), and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study(TIMSS).
- Psychological tests, including IQ tests, are used to measure a person’s cognitive abilities and mental, emotional, developmental, and social characteristics. Trained professionals, such as school psychologists, typically administer the tests, which may require students to perform a series of tasks or solve a set of problems. Psychological tests are often used to identify students with learning disabilities or other special needs that would qualify them for specialized services.
Standardized Tests: Advantages
Student: So are all standardized tests good to use?
Expert: Well, actually, there are multiple advantages and disadvantages of these types of tests. Let's talk about the advantages first.
There are many advantages of standardized testing:
- Standardized tests are practical, they're easy to administer, and they consume less time to administer versus other assessments.
- Standardized testing results are quantifiable. By quantifying students' achievements, educators can identify proficiency levels and more easily identify students in need of remediation or advancement.
- Standardized tests are scored via computer, which frees up time for the educator.
- Since scoring is completed by computer, it is objective and not subject to educator bias or emotions.
- Standardized testing allows educators to compare scores to students within the same school and across schools. This information provides data on not only the individual student's abilities but also on the school as a whole. Areas of school-wide weaknesses and strengths are more easily identifiable.
- Standardized testing provides a longitudinal report of student progress. Over time, educators are able to see a trend of growth or decline and rapidly respond to the student's educational needs
Standardized Tests: Disadvantages
Expert: There are disadvantages of standardized testing. Standardized testing is also highly scrutinized. Critics cite the following disadvantages for the use of standardized testing:
- Standardized test items are not parallel with typical classroom skills and behaviors. Due to the fact that questions have to be generalizable to the entire population, most items assess general knowledge and understanding.
- Since general knowledge is assessed, educators cannot use standardized test results to inform their individual instruction methods. If recommendations are made, educators may begin to 'teach to the test' as opposed to teaching what is currently in the curriculum or based on the needs of their individual classroom.
- Standardized test items do not assess higher-level thinking skills.
- Standardized test scores are greatly influenced by non-academic factors, such as fatigue and attention.
From :
http://edglossary.org/standardized-test/
http://study.com/academy/lesson/standardized-tests-in-education-advantages-and-disadvantages.html
