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ENGLISH LANGUAGE
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ASSESSMENT: A Handout
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Lailatul Musyarofah, S.Pd., M.Pd.

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ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
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STKIP PGRI SIDOARJO

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Revised in 2016

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COURSE SYLLABUS

Course Title : English Language Testing I/II

Credit : 2 Credit hours
Instructor : Lailatul Musyarofah, S.Pd., M.Pd.

ELT I

Course Description

This course is designed to broaden your perspective on language testing. You will be
introduced to basic principles of language testing and be introduced with language
testing in Indonesian contexts whether in elementary, secondary and tertiary
education, whether in formal or informal education institutions. Then, you will be
asked to choose certain topics in language testing that interest you most. You will try
to deepen and broaden your understanding about the topics and share them with your
peers through classroom presentation. In addition, you will also be required to design
and construct a test, try it out and analyze it using relevant procedures manually or
using a certain software.

Course Objectives

At the end of the semester, you are expected to be able to:

1) Explain some basic principles in language testing.
2) Analyze language testing problems and issues in Indonesia
3) Construct a test batteries and analyze it.

Course Assessment

1) Attendance: 75%, weight: 15%

2) Assignment (test development and validation) 25%
3) UTS: 25%
4) UAS: 35%

2
ELT II

Course Description

This course is designed to enrich and deepen your knowledge in language assessment
and other key areas related to testing and evaluation as well as computer applications
in ELT. This also prepare you to be critical in analyzing the existing tests found in
school formative/ summative test or books.

Course Objectives

1) demonstrate the ability to reflect critically on teaching and learning experiences

on the course assessment and relate them to the Indonesian educational context;
2) demonstrate a working knowledge of the principles and practice of different
forms of modern language assessment;
3) analyse existing tests and reconstruct appropriate test ones.

Course Assessment

1) Attendance: 75%, weight: 15%

2) Project (Analyzing and categorizing test items) 40%
3) UTS: 20%
4) UAS: 25%

3
This handout is dedicated to my dearest students: you are my motivation to be a better
teacher.

4
 CHAPTER I

TESTING, ASSESSING, AND TEACHING

What are testing, assessing, and teaching?

A test, in simple terms, is a method of measuring a person’s ability, knowledge, or

performance in a given domain. Method is an instrument-a set of techniques,
procedures, or items-that requires performance on the part of test takers.
Measurement is a means for offering the test-takers some kind of result. Performance
implies to test-takers’ ability (competence).

Assessment, on the other hand, is an ongoing process that encompasses a much wider
domain. Whenever a student responds to a question, offers a comment, or tries out a
new word or structure, the teacher subconsciously makes an assessment of the
student’s performance.

Tests, then, are a subset of assessment; they are certainly not the only form of
assessment that a teacher can make. Test can be useful devices, but they are only one
among many procedures and tasks that teachers can ultimately use to assess students.

Teaching

Assessment

Test

Figure 1.1. Test, assessment, and teaching

5
Teaching sets up the practice games of language learning: the opportunities for
learners to listen, think, take risks, set goals, and process feedback from the “coach”
and then recycle through the skills that they are trying to master.

Informal and formal assessment

Informal assessment can take a number of forms, starting with coaching and other
impromptu feedback to the students. Examples include saying “Nice job!” “Good
work!” “Did you say can or can’t?,” or putting  on some homework. Informal
assessment does not stop there. A good deal of a teacher’s informal assessment is
embedded in classroom tasks designed to elicit performance without recording results
and making fixed judgments about a student’s competence.

On the other hand, formal assessments are exercises or procedures specifically

designed to tap into storehouse of skills and knowledge. They are systematic, planned
sampling techniques constructed to give teacher and students an appraisal of student
achievement. To extend the tennis technology, formal assessments are the tournament
games that occur periodically in the course of a regimen of practice.

Think: is formal assessment the same as test?

Formative and summative assessment

Formative assessment: evaluating students in the process of “forming” their

competencies and skills with the goal of helping them to continue that growth
process. The key to such formation is the delivery (by the teacher) and internalization
(by the students) of appropriate feedback on performance, with an eye toward the
future continuation (or formation) of learning.

Summative assessment aims to measure, or summarize, what a student has grasped,

and typically occurs at the end of a course or unit of instruction. A summation of
what a student has learned implies looking back and taking stock of how well student

6
has accomplished objectives, but does not necessarily point the way to future
progress. Final exams in a course and general proficiency exams are examples of
summative assessment.

Can you offer your students an opportunity to convert tests into “learning
experiences”?

Norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests

Norm-referenced tests, each test taker’s score is interpreted in relation to a mean

(average score), median (middle score), standard deviation, and percentile rank.
Scores are usually reported back to the test-takers in the form of numerical score. Ex.
TOEFL. Such test must have fixed predetermined responses in a format that can be
scored quickly at minimum expense. Money and efficiency are primary concerns in
these tests.

Criterion-referenced tests, on the other hand, are designed to give test-takers

feedback, usually in the form of grades or specific course or lesson objectives.
Classroom tests involving the students in only one class, and connected to a
curriculum, are typical of criterion-referenced testing. Here much time and effort on
the part of the teacher (test administrator) are sometimes required in order to deliver
useful, appropriate feedback to students or “instructional value.” In language
assessment, with an audience of classroom language teachers and teachers in training,
and with its emphasis on classroom-based assessment (as opposed to standardized,
large-scale testing), criterion-referenced testing is of more prominent interest than
norm-referenced testing.

7
Discrete-point and integrative testing

This historical perspective underscores two major approaches to language testing that
were debated in the 1970s and early 1980s. These approaches still prevail today, even
if in mutated form: the choice between discrete-point and integrative testing methods.
Discrete-point tests are constructed on the assumption that language can be broken
down into its component parts and that those parts can be tested successfully. These
components are the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and various
units of language (discrete points) of phonology/graphology, morphology, lexicon,
syntax, and discourse.

Such an approach demanded a decontextualization that often confused the test-taker.

So, as the profession emerged into an era of emphasizing communication
authenticity, and context, new approaches were sought. Oller (1979) argued that
language competence is a unified set of interacting abilities that cannot be tested
separately. His claim was that communicative competence is so global and requires
such integration (hence the term “integrative” testing) that it cannot be captured in
additive tests of grammar, reading, vocabulary, and other discrete points of language.

What does an integrative test look like? Two types of tests have historically been
claimed to be examples of integrative tests: cloze tests and dictations. A cloze test is a
reading passage (perhaps 150 to 300 words) in which roughly every sixth or seventh
word has been deleted; the test-taker is required to supply words that fit into the
blanks. Cloze test is claimed to cover knowledge of vocabulary, grammatical
structure, discourse structure, reading skills and strategies, and an internalized
“expectancy” grammar (enabling one to predict an item that will come next in a
sequence).

Dictation is a familiar language-teaching technique that evolved into a testing

technique. Essentially, learners listen to a passage of 100 to 150 words read aloud by
an administrator (or audiotape) and write what they hear, using correct spelling. The
listening portion usually has three stages: an oral reading without pauses; an oral

8
reading with long pauses between every phase (to give the learner time to write down
what is heard); a third reading at normal speed to give tes-takers a chance to check
what they wrote.

Exercises:

1. Review the distinction between norm-referenced and criterion-referenced

testing. Which one is appropriate in your classroom condition?
2. Why are cloze and dictation considered to be integrative test?
3. Brainstorm a variety of test tasks that class members have experienced in
learning a foreign language. Then decide which of those tasks are
performance-based, which are not.

9
 CHAPTER II

PRINCIPLES OF LAGUAGE ASSESSMENT

PRACTICALITY

An effective test is practical. This means that it

 Is not excessively expensive

 Stays within appropriate time constraints
 Is relatively easy to administer, and
 Has a scoring/ evaluation procedure that is specific and time-efficient

A test that is prohibitively expensive is impractical. A test of language proficiency

that takes a student five hours to complete is impractical- it consumes more time (and
money) than necessary to accomplish its objective. A test that requires individual
one-on-one proctoring is impractical for a group of several hundred test-takers and
only handful of examiners. A test that takes a few minutes for a students to take
several hours for an examiner to evaluate is impractical for most classroom situations.
A test that can be scored only by computer is impractical if the test takes place a
thousand miles away from the nearest computer. The value and quality of a test
sometimes hinge on such nitty-gritty, practical considerations.

RELIABILITY

A reliable test is consistent and dependable. If you give the same test to the same
students or matched students on two different occasions, the test should yield similar
results. The issue of reliability of a test may be addresses by considering a number of
factors that may contribute to the unreliability.

Student-Related Reliability

The most common learner-related issue in reliability is caused by temporary illness,

fatigue, a “bad day”, anxiety, and other physical or psychological factors, which may
make an “observed” score deviate from one’s true score. Also included in this

10
category are such factors as a test-taker’s “test-wiseness” or strategies for efficient
test taking.

Rater Reliability

Human error, subjectivity, and bias may enter into the scoring process. Inter-rater
reliability occurs when two or more scorers yield inconsistent scores of the same test,
possibly for lack of attention to scoring criteria, inexperience, inattention, or even
preconceived biases. Otherwise, intra-rater reliability is a common occurrence for
classroom teachers because of unclear scoring criteria, fatigue, bias toward particular
“good” and “bad” students, or simple carelessness.

Test Administration Reliability

The street noise that causes a tape recorder cannot be listened clearly, photocopying
variations, the amount of light in different parts of the room, variations of
temperature, and even the condition of desks and chairs.

Test Reliability

If a test is too long, test-takers may become fatigued by the time they reach the later
items and hastily respond incorrectly. Timed tests may discriminate against students
who do not perform well on a test with a time limit.

VALIDITY

Validity is the extent to which references made from assessment results are
appropriate, meaningful, and useful in terms of the purpose of the assessment.

Consequential Validity

Consequential validity encompasses all the consequences of a test, including such

considerations as its accuracy in measuring intended criteria, its impact on the
preparation of test-takers, its effect on the learner, and the (intended and unintended)
social consequences of a test’s interpretation and use.

11
Face Validity

Face validity refers to the degree to which a test looks right, and appears to measure
the knowledge or abilities it claims to measure, based on the subjective personnel
who decide on its use, and other psychometrically unsophisticated observers. Face
validity will likely be high if learners encounter

 A well-constructed, expected format with familiar tasks,

 A test that clearly doable within the allotted time limit,
 Items that are clear and uncomplicated,
 Directions that are crystal clear,
 Tasks that relate to their course work (content validity), and
 A difficulty level that presents a reasonable challenge.

AUTHENTICITY

Authenticity is define the as degree of correspondence of the characteristics of a

given language test task to the features of a target language task, and then suggest an
agenda for identifying those target language tasks and for transforming them into
valid test items. In a test, authenticity may be present in the following ways:

 The language in the test is as natural as possible.

 Items are contextualized rather than isolated.
 Topics are meaningful (relevant, interesting) for the learner.
 Some thematic organization to items is provided, such as through a story line
or episode.
 Tasks represent, or closely approximate, real-world tasks.

WASHBACK

Wash back is the effect of testing on teaching and learning. Wash back enhances a
number of basic principles of language acquisition: intrinsic motivation, autonomy,
self-confidence, language ego, interlanguage, and strategic investment, among others.

12
One way to enhance wash back is to comment generously and specifically on test
performance.

Informal performance assessment is by nature more likely to have built-in wash back
effects because the teacher is usually providing interactive feedback. Formal test can
also have positive wash back, but provide no wash back if the students receive a
simple letter grade or a single overall numerical score.

APPLYING PRINCIPLES TO THE EVALUATION OF CLASSROOM TESTS

1. Are the test procedures practical?

a. Are administrative details clearly established before the test?
b. Can students complete the test reasonably within the set time frame?
c. Can the test be administered smoothly, without procedural “glitches”?
d. Are all materials and equipment ready?
e. Is the cost of the test within budgeted limits?
f. Is the scoring/ evaluation system feasible in the teacher’s time frame?
g. Are methods for reporting results determined in advance?
2. Is the test reliable?
a. Every student has a cleanly photocopied test sheet,
b. Sound amplification is clearly audible to everyone in the room,
c. Video input is equally visible to all,
d. Lighting, temperature, extraneous noise, and other classroom
condition are equal (and optimal) for all students, and
e. Objective scoring procedures leave little debate about correctness of
an answer.
3. Does the procedure demonstrate content validity?
a. Are classroom objectives identified and appropriately framed?
b. Are lesson objectives represented in the form of test specification?
i. Divide them into a number of sections
ii. Offer students a variety of item types, and

13
 iii. Give an appropriate relative weight to each section.
4. Is the procedure face valid and “biased for best”?
a. Directions are clear
b. The structure of the test is organized logically
c. Its difficulty level is appropriately pitched
d. The test has no “surprises”, and
e. Timing is appropriate

Test-Taking Strategies
 Before the Test
1. Give students all the information you can about the test: exactly what
will the test cover? Which topics will be the most important? What
kind of items will be on it? How long will it be?
2. Encourage students to do a systematic review of material. For
example, they should skill the textbook and other material, outline
major points, write down examples.
3. Give the practice or exercises, if available
4. Facilitate formation of a study group, if possible.
5. Caution students to get a good night’s rest before the test.
6. Remind students to get the classroom early.
 During the Test
1. After the test is distributed, tell students to look over the whole test
quickly in order to get good grasp of its different parts.
2. Remind them to mentally figure out how much time they will need for
each part.
3. Advise them to concentrate as carefully as possible.
4. Warn students a few minutes before the end of the class period so that
they can finish on time, proofread their answers, and catch careless
errors.
 After the Test
1. When you return the test, include feedback on specific things the
students did well, what he or she did not do well, and, if possible, the
reasons for your comments.
2. Advice students to pay careful attention in class to whatever you say
about the test results.
3. Encourage questions from students.
4. Advise students to pay special attention in the future to points on
which they are weak.
(Keep in mind that what comes before and after the test also contributes to its face
validity. Good class preparation will give students a comfort leel with the test,
and good feedback-wash back-will allow them to learn from it.

14
5. Are the test tasks as authentic as possible?
1. Is the language in the test as natural as possible?
2. Are items as contextualized as possible rather than isolated?
3. Are topics and situations interesting, enjoyable, and/or humorous?
4. Is some thematic organization provided, such as through a story line or
episode?
5. Do tasks represent, or closely approximate, real-world tasks?

Think the following two examples, which one is better multiple-choice task?

Example 1 “Going To”

1. What ________ this weekend?
a. You are going to do
b. Are you going to do
c. Your gonna do
2. I’m not sure. __________ anything special?
a. Are you going to do
b. You are going to do
c. Is going to do
3. My friend Melissa and I ______ a party. Would you like to come?
a. Am going to
b. Are going to
c. Go to
4. I’d love to! ______
a. What’s it going to be?
b. Who’s going to be?
c. Where’s it going to be?
5. It is _____ to be at Ruth’s house.
a. Go
b. Going
c. Gonna

Example 2
1. There are three countries I would like to visit. One is Italy.
a. The other is New Zealand and other is Nepal
b. The others are New Zealand and Nepal
c. Other are New Zealand and Nepal

2. When I was twelve years old, I used _____ every day.

15
 a. Swimming
b. To swimming
c. To swim
3. When Mr. Brown designs a website, he always creates it ____________.
a. Artistically
b. Artistic
c. Artist
4. Since the beginning of the year, I _______ at Millennium Industries.
a. Am working
b. Had been working
c. Have been working
5. When Mona broke her leg, she asked her husband ______ her to work.
a. To drive
b. Driving
c. Drive

6. Does the test offer beneficial wash back to the learner?

The design of an effective test should point the way to beneficial wash back.
A test that achieves content validity demonstrates relevance to the curriculum
in question and thereby sets the stage for wash back. When test items
represent the various objectives of a unit, and/or when sections of a test
clearly focus on major topics of the unit, classroom tests can serve in a
diagnostic capacity even if they aren’t specifically labeled as such.

Exercises:

1. Review the five basic principles of language assessment that are defined and
explained in this chapter. Be sure to differentiate among several types of
evidence that support the validity of a test, as well as four kinds of reliability.
2. It is stated that “Wash back is the effect of testing on teaching and learning.
Wash back enhances a number of basic principles of language acquisition:
intrinsic motivation, autonomy, self-confidence, language ego, interlanguage,
and strategic investment, among others.” Discuss the connection between
wash back and the above-named general principles of language learning and
teaching. Come up with some specific examples for each.

16
3. Wash back is described here as positive effect. Can tests provide negative
wash back? Explain.

17
 CHAPTER III

DESIGNING CLASSROOM LANGUAGE TEST

Designing Multiple-Choice Test Items

 The technique tests only recognition knowledge.

 Guessing may have a considerable effect on test scores.
 The technique severely restricts what can be tested.
 It is very difficult to write successful items.
 Wash back may be harmful.
 Cheating may be facilitated.

Primer terminology:

1. Multiple-choice items are all receptive, or selective, response items in that the
test-taker chooses from a set of responses (commonly called a supply type of
response) rather than creating a response. Other receptive item types include
true-false questions and matching list.
2. Every multiple-choice item has a stem, which presents a stimulus, and several
(usually between three and five) options or alternatives to choose from.
3. One of those options, the key, is the correct response, while the others serve
as distractors.

Four Guidelines for Designing Multiple-choice Items:

1. Design each item to measure a specific objective.

2. State both stem and options as simply and directly as possible.
3. Make certain that the intended answer is clearly the only correct one.
4. Use item indices to accept, discard, or revise items
a. Item Facility (IF) is the extent to which an item is easy or
difficult for the proposed group of test-takers. You may
wonder why that is important if in your estimation the item
achieves validity. The answer is that an item that is too easy

18
 (say 99 percent of respondents get it right) or too difficult (99
percent get it wrong) really does nothing to separate high-
ability and low-ability test takers. It is not really performing
much “work” for you on a test. The formula looks like this,
IF = #Ss answering the item correctly
Total # of Ss responding to that item
For example, if you have an item on which 13 out of 20
students respond correctly, your IF index is 13 divided by 20 0r
.65 (65 percent). Appropriate test items will generally have Ifs
that range between .15 and .85.
b. Item Discrimination (ID) is the extent to which an item
differentiates between high-and low-ability test takers.
Suppose your class of 30 students has taken a test. Once you
have calculated final scores for all 30 students, divide them
roughly into thirds-that is, create three rank-ordered ability
groups including the top 10 scores, the middle 10, and the
lowest 10. To find out which of your 50 or so test item were
most powerful in discriminating between high and low ability,
eliminate the middle group, leaving two groups which results
that might look something like this:
Item #23 # Correct #
Incorrect
High-ability Ss (top 10) 7
3
Low-ability Ss (bottom 10) 2
8

The formula for calculating ID

ID = high group # correct – low group # correct = 7 – 2 = 5 =
.50
½ x total of your two comparison groups 1/2x20 10
The result of this example item tells you that the item has a
moderate level of ID. High discriminating power would
approach a perfect 1.0, and no discriminating power at all

19
would be zero. In most cases you would want to discard an
item that scored near zero.

20
SCORING, GRADING, AND GIVING FEEDBACK

Scoring

Here are your decisions about scoring your test:

Items Percent of Range Possible total

total grade correct
Oral interview 40% 4 scores, 5 to 1 range x 2 40
Listening 20% 10 items @ 2 points each 20
Reading 20% 10 items @ 2 points each 20
Writing 20% 2 scores, 5 to 1 range x 2 20
Total 100

Grading

 How you assign letter grades to this test is a product of

 The country, culture, and content of this English classroom,
 Institutional expectations (most of them unwritten)
 Explicit and implicit definitions of grades that you have set forth,
 The relationship you have established with this class, and
 Students’ expectations that have been engendered in previous tests and
quizzes in this class.

Giving Feedback

You might choose to return the test to the student with one of, or combination of, any
of the possibilities below:

1. A letter grade
2. A total score
3. Four sub scores (speaking, listening, reading, writing)
4. For the listening and reading sections
a. An indication of correct/incorrect responses
b. Marginal comments
5. For the oral interview

21
 a. Scores for each element being rated
b. A checklist of areas needing work
c. Oral feedback after the interview
d. A post-interview conference to go over the results

6. On the essay
a. Scores for each element being rated
b. A checklist of areas needing work
c. Marginal and end-of-essay comments, suggestions
d. A post-test conference to go over work
e. A self-assessment
7. On all or selected parts of the test, peer checking of results
8. A whole-class discussion of results of the test
9. Individual conferences with each student to review the whole test

Review the nine different options for giving feedback to students on assessment.
Review the practicality of each ad determine the extent to which practicality is
justifiably sacrificed in order to offer better wash back to learners.

22
 CHAPTER IV

STANDARDIZED TESTING

A standardized test presupposes certain standard objectives, or criteria, that are held
constant across one form of the test to another. The criteria in large-scale
standardized tests are design to apply to a broad band of competencies that are
usually not exclusive to one particular curriculum. A good standardized test is the
product of a thorough process of empirical research and development. It dictates
standard procedures for administration and scoring. And finally, it is typical of a
norm-referenced test, the goal of which is to place test-takers on a continuum across a
range of scores and to differentiate test-takers by their relative thinking.

Examples:

SAT: Scholastic Aptitude Test

GRE: Graduate Record Exam

GMAT: Graduate Management Admission Test

LSAT: Law School Aptitude Test

TOEFL: Test of English as a Foreign Language

IELTS: International English Language Testing System

UCLES: University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate

Advantages:

 A ready-made previously validated product that frees the teacher from having
to spend hours creating a test.
 Administration to large groups can be accomplished within reasonable time
limits.

23
  In the case of multiple-choice formats, scoring procedures are streamlined (for
either scan able computerized scoring or hand-scoring with a hole-punched
grid) for fast turnaround time.
 There is often an air of face validity to such authoritative-looking instruments.

Disadvantages:

 The inappropriate use of such tests, for example, using an overall proficiency
test as an achievement test simply because of the convenience of the
standardization.
 Some standardized tests include tasks that do not directly specify performance
in the target objective.

Exercises:

1. Tell the class about the worst test experience you’ve ever had. Briefly analyze
what made the experience so unbearable, and try to come up with suggestions
for improvement of the test and/or its administrative conditions.
2. Compile a brief list of pros and cons of standardized testing. Cite illustrations
of as many items in each list as possible.
3. Select a standardized test that you are quite familiar with. Mentally evaluate
that test using the five principles of practicality, reliability, validity,
authenticity, and washback.

24
 CHAPTER V

ASSESSING LISTENING

Micro- and macro skills of listening

Micro skills (attending the smaller bits and chunks of language, in more of buttom-up
process)

1. Discriminate among the distinctive sounds of English.

2. Retain chunks of language of different lengths in short-term memory.
3. Recognize English stress patterns, words in stressed and unstressed positions,
rhythmic structure, intonation contours, and their role in signaling
information.
4. Recognize reduced forms of words.
5. Distinguish word boundaries, recognize a core of words, and interpret word
order patterns and their significance.
6. Process speech at different rates of delivery.
7. Process speech containing pauses, errors, corrections, and other performance
variables.
8. Recognize grammatical word classes (nouns, verbs, etc.), systems (e.g., tense,
agreement, and pluralization), patterns, rules, and elliptical forms.
9. Detect sentence constituents and distinguish between major and minor
constituents.
10. Recognize that a particular meaning may be expressed in different
grammatical forms.

25
 11. Recognize cohesive devices in spoken discourse.

Macro skills (focusing on the larger elements involved in a top-down approach to a

listening task)

12. Recognize the communicative functions of utterances, according to situations,

participants, goals.
13. Infer situations, participants, and goals using real-world knowledge.
14. From events, ideas, and so on, described, predict outcomes, infer links and
connections between events, deduce causes and effects, and detect such
relations as main idea, supporting idea, and new information, given
information, generalization, and exemplification.
15. Distinguish between literal and implied meanings.
16. Use facial, kinesics, body language, and other nonverbal clues to decipher
meanings.
17. Develop and use a battery of listening strategies, such as detecting key words,
guessing the meaning of words from content, appealing from help, and
signaling comprehension or lack thereof.

INTENSIVE LISTENING

Recognizing phonological and morphological elements

Phonemic pair, consonants Phonemic pair, vowels

Test-takers hear: He’s from Test-takers hear: Is he living?
California
Test-takers read: (a) Is he living?
Test-takers read: (a) He’s from (b) Is he leaving?
California
(b) She’s from
California
Stress pattern in can’t One-word stimulus
Test-takers hear: My girlfriend can’t Test-takers hear: vine
go to the party
Test-takers read: (a) vine
Test-takers read: (b)wine
(a) My girlfriend can’t go to the

26
 party
(b) My girlfriend can go to the
party

Paraphrase recognition

Sentence paraphrase Dialogue paraphrase

Test-takers hear: Test-takers hear:
Hellow, my name’s Keiko. I come from Man: Hi, Maria, my name’s George.
Japan. Woman: Nice to meet you, George. Are
you American?
Test-takers read: Man: No, I’m Canadian
a. keiko is comfortable in Japan.
b. keiko wants to come to Japan. Test-takers read:
c. Keiko is Japanese. a. George lives in the U.S.
d. Keiko like Japan. b. George is American.
c. George comes from Canada
d. Maria is Canadian.

RESPONSIVE LISTENING

Appropriate response to a question Open-ended response to a question

Test-takers hear: Test-takers hear:
How much time did you take to do How much time did you take to do your
your homework? homework?

Test-takers read: Test-takers write or speak:

a. In about an hour. __________________________________
b. About an hour.
c. About ₴ 10.
d. Yes, I did.

SELECTIVE LISTENING

Listening cloze Information transfer

Test-takers hear: Test-takers hear:
Ladies and gentlemen, I now have some Choose the correct picture. In my back
connecting gate information for those of yard I have a bird feeder. Yesterday,
you making connections to other flights there were Test-takers hear:
out of San Francisco. Two birds and a squirrel fighting for the
last few seeds in the bird feeder. The

27
 Flight seven-oh-six to Portland will squirrel was on top of the bird feeder
depart from gate seventy-three at nine- while the larger bird sat at the bottom of
thirty p.m. the feeder screeching at the squirrel. The
Flight ten-forty-five to Reno will depart smaller bird was flying around the
at nine-fifty p.m. from gate seventeen. squirrel, trying to scare it away.

Test-takers write the missing words or Test-takers see 4 different pictures

phrases in the blanks. dealing with the description.

Some other alternatives:

1. Note-taking
2. Editing
3. Interpretative tasks
4. Retelling

Exercises:

1. Given that we spend much more time listening than we do speaking, why are
there many more tests of speaking than listening?
2. Look at the list of micro- and micro skills of listening. Brainstorm some tasks
that assess those skills.
3. It is noted that one cannot actually observe listening and reading performance.
Do you agree? And do you agree that there isn’t even a product to observe for
speaking, listening and reading? How then, can one infer the competence of a
test-taker to speak, listen, and read a language?

28
 CHAPTER VI

ASSESSING SPEAKING

Basic types of Speaking

1. Imitative. The ability to simply parrot back (imitate) a word or phrase or

possibly a sentence.
2. Intensive. This frequently employed in assessment contexts is the production
of short stretches of oral language designed to demonstrate competence in a
narrow band grammatical, phrasal, lexical, and phonological relationships
(such as prosodic elements – intonation, stress, rhythm, juncture) including
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. These assessments include interaction and test comprehension
but at the somewhat limited level of very short conversations, standard
greetings and small talk, simple requests and comments, and the like. The
stimulus is almost always a spoken prompt (in order to preserve authenticity),
with perhaps only one or two follow-up questions o retorts.

29
 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 multiple participants.
5. Extensive (monologue). It includes speeches, oral presentations, and story-
telling, during which the opportunity for oral interaction from listeners is
either highly limited.

Micro skills of oral production

1. Produce differences among English phonemes and allophonic variants.

2. Produce chunks of language of different lengths.
3. Produce English stress patterns, words in stressed and unstressed positions,
rhythmic structure, and intonation contours.
4. Produce produced forms of words and phrases.
5. Use an adequate number of lexical units (words) to accomplish pragmatic
purposes.
6. Produce fluent speech at different rates of delivery.
7. Monitor one’s own oral production and use various strategic devices – pauses,
fillers, self-corrections, backtracking-to enhance the clarity of the message.
8. Use grammatical word classes (nouns, verbs, etc.), systems (e.g., tense,
agreement, and pluralization), word order, patterns, rules, and elliptical forms.
9. Produce speech in natural constituents: in appropriate phrases, pause groups,
breathe groups, and sentence constituents.
10. Express a particular meaning in different grammatical forms.
11. Use cohesive devices in spoken discourse.

Macro skills

12. Appropriately accomplish communicative functions according to situations,

participants, and goals.

30
 13. Use appropriate styles, registers, implicate, redundancies, pragmatic
conventions, and convention rules, floor-keeping and –yielding, interrupting,
and other linguistic features in face-to-face conversations.
14. Convey links and connections between events and communicative such
relations as focal and peripheral ideas, events and feelings, new information,
generalization and exemplification.
15. Convey facial features, kinesics, body language, and other nonverbal cues
along with verbal language.
16. Develop and use a battery of speaking strategies, such as emphasizing key
words, rephrasing, providing a context for interpreting the meaning of words,
appealing for help, and accurately assessing how well your interlocutor is
understanding you.

IMITATIVE SPEAKING

Word repetition task

Test-takers hear: Score:

Repeat after me;
Beat (pause) bit (pause) 2  acceptable pronunciation
Bat (pause) vat (pause) 1  comprehensible, partially correct
pronunciation
I bought a boat yesterday. 0  silence, seriously incorrect
The glow of the candle is growing pronunciation

When did they go on vacation?

Do you like coffee?

Test-takers repeat the stimulus.

INTENSIVE SPEAKING

Directed response task Read-aloud stimulus, paragraph length

Test-takers hear Despite the decrease in size, quality – of our cultural
Tell me he went home world, there still remain strong differences between the
Tell me that you like usual British and American writing styles. The question is,
rock music. how do you get your message across? English prose

31
Tell me that you aren’t conveys its most novel ideas as if they were timeless
interested in tennis. truths, while American writing exaggerates; if you believe
Tell him to come to half of what is said, that’s enough. The former uses
my office at noon. understatement; the latter, overstatement. There are also
Remind him what time disadvantages to each characteristic approach. Readers
it is. who are used to being screamed at may not listen when
someone chooses to whisper politely. At the same time, the
individual who is used to a quiet manner may reject a
series of loud imperatives.

RESPONSIVE SPEAKING

Question and answer

Test-takers hear:
1. What do you think about whether today?
2. What do you like about the English language?
3. Why did you choose your academic major?
4. What kind of strategies have you used to help you learn English?
5. Have you ever been to the United States?
Giving instructions and directions
Test-takers hear:
Describe how to make a typical dish from your country.
What’s a good recipe for making ______?
How do you access email on a PC computer?
How would I make a typical costume for a ________ celebration in your country?
How do you program telephone numbers into a cell (mobile) phone?
How do I get from ______ to _________ in your city?

Test-takers respond with appropriate instructions/directions.

Paraphrasing
Test-takers hear: Paraphrase the following little story in your own words.

My weekend in the mountains was fabulous. The first day we backpacked into the
mountains and climbed about 2,000 feet. The hike was strenuous but exhilarating.
By sunset we found these beautiful alpine lakes and made camp there. The sunset
was amazingly beautiful. The next two days we just kicked back and did little day
hikes, some rock climbing, bird watching, swimming, and fishing. The hike out on
the next day was really easy-all downhill- and the scenery was incredible.
Test-takers respond with two or three sentences.

32
INTERACTIVE SPEAKING

Interview

Oral interview content specifications Sample questions

Warm-up 1. Warm-up:
1. Small talk How are you?
Level check: What’s your name? Etc.
Test-taker hear ... 2. Level check
2. Answers wh-questions How long have you been in this
3. Produces a narrative without (country, city)?
interruptions. Tell me about you family.
4. Reads a passage aloud. What is your (academic major,
5. Tells how to make something or job)?
do something. How long have you been at your
6. Engages in a brief, controlled, (degree, job)?
guided role play. Describe your home (city, town).
Probe: What are your (hobbies,
Test-taker... interests)?
7. Responds to interviewer’s 3. Probe
questions about something the What are your goals for learning
test-taker doesn’t know and is English in this program?
planning to include in an article Describe your (academic field,
or paper. job) to me. What do you like and
8. Talks about his or her own field dislike about it?
of study or profession. What is your opinion of (a recent
9. Engages in a longer, more open- headline news event)?
ended role play (for example, Describe someone you greatly
simulates a difficult or respect, and tell me why you
embarrassing circumstance) with respect that person.
the interviewer. If you could redo your education
10. Gives an impromptu presentation all over again, what would you
on some aspects of test-taker’s do differently?
field. 4. Wind-down
Wind-down: Did you feel okay about this
11. Feelings about the interview, interview?
information on results, further You’ll get your results from this
questions. interview.....
Do you have any question to me?
It was interesting to talk with
you. Best wishes.

33
EXTENSIVE SPEAKING

Oral presentations

 Specify the criterion

 Set appropriate tasks
 Elicit optimal output
 Establish practical, reliable scoring procedures

Picture-cued story-telling

 Visual pictures
 Photographs
 Diagrams
 Charts

Retelling a story, news event

 Listening comprehension
 Production of (oral discourse features, fluency, and interaction with the
hearer)

Translation (of extended prose)

Longer texts are presented for the test-taker to read in the native language and then
translate into English. Those tests could come in many forms: dialogue, directions for
assembly of a product, a synopsis of a story or play or more, directions on how to
find something on a map, and other genres.

Exercises:

1. Review the five basic types of speaking that were outlined at the beginning.
Offer examples of each and pay special attention to distinguishing between
imitative and intensive, and between responsive and interactive.

34
2. What makes speaking difficult? Devise a list that could form a set of
specifications to pay special attention to in assessing speaking.

35
 CHAPTER VII

ASSESSING READING

Micro skills

1. Discriminate among the distinctive graphemes and orthographic patterns of

English.
2. Retain chunks of language of different lengths in short-term memory.
3. Process writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose.
4. Recognize a core of words, and interpret word order patterns and their
significance.
5. Recognize grammatical word classes, systems, patterns, rules, and elliptical
forms.
6. Recognize that a particular meaning may be pressed in different grammatical
forms.
7. Recognize cohesive devices in written discourse and their role in signaling the
relationship between and among clauses.

Macro skills

8. Recognize the rhetorical forms of written discourse and their significance for
interpretation.
9. Recognize the communicative functions of written texts, according to form
and purpose.

36
 10. Infer context that is not explicit by using background knowledge.
11. From described events, ideas, etc., infer links and connections between events,
deduce causes and effects, and detect such relations as main idea, supporting
idea, new information, generalization, and exemplification.
12. Distinguish between literal and implied meanings.
13. Detect culturally specific references and interpret them in a context of the
appropriate cultural schemata.
14. Develop and use a battery of reading strategies, such as scanning and
skimming, detecting discourse markers, guessing the meaning of words from
context, and activating schemata for the interpretation of texts.

Types of reading and the samples

1. Multiple Choice
Perceptive Reading Selective Reading
Minimal Pair Distinction 1. He’s not married. He’s
Circle “S” for same or “D” for _____________
different a. Young
1. Led let S D b. Single
2. Bit bit S D c. First
3. Seat sit S D d. A husband
4. Too to S D 2. If there’s no doorbell, please
______ on the door.
Grapheme Recognition Task a. Kneel
Circle the “odd” item, the one that b. Type
doesn’t “belong” c. Knock
1. Piece peace piece d. Shout
2. Book book boot 3. The bank robbery occurred
________ I was in the
restaurant.
a. That
b. During
c. While
d. which

2. Picture-cued Items
Perceptive Reading Selective Reading
Test-takers hear: Point to the part of Test-takers read a three-paragraph
the picture that you read about here. passage, one sentence of which is:

37
 Test takers see the picture and read During at least three quarters of the
sentence written on a separate card. year, the Arctic is frozen.

1. The man is reading a book. Click on the chart that shows the
2. The cat is under the table. relative amount of time each year
that water is available to plants in the
Arctic.

Test-takers see the pictures:

3. Editing
Selective Reading Interactive Reading
1. The abrasively action of the (1) Ever since super market first
wind wears away softer layers appeared, they have been take
of rock. over the world.
(2) Supermarkets have changed
2. There are two way of making people’s life styles, yet and at
a gas condense: cooling it or the same time, changes in
putting it under pressure. people’s life styles have
encourages the opening of
supermarkets.
3. Researchers have discovered (3) As a result this, many small
that the application of bright stores have been forced out of
light can sometimes be uses business.
to overcome jet lag (4) Moreover, some small stores
will be able to survive this
unfavorable situation.
Extensive Reading (Skimming Summarizing and Responding
Tasks)
What is the main idea of this text? Write a summary of the txt. Your
What is the author’s purpose in summary should be about one
writing the text? paragraph in length (100-150 words)
What kind of writing this....? and should include your
How easy or difficult do you think understanding of the main idea and
this text will be? supporting details

38
Exercises:

1. Look at the list of micro- and macro skills of reading. Brainstorm some tasks
that assess those skills.
2. What makes reading difficult? How to manage it into the test?

39
 CHAPTER VII

ASSESSING WRITING

Types of writing performance

1. Imitative. This category includes the ability to spell correctly and to perceive
phoneme-grapheme correspondences in the English spelling system.
2. Intensive (controlled). Producing appropriate vocabulary within a context,
collocations and idioms, and correct grammatical features up to the length of a
sentence.
3. Responsive. Assessment tasks require learners to perform at a limited
discourse level, connecting sentences into a paragraph and creating a logically
connected sequence of two or three paragraphs.
4. Extensive. It implies successful management of all the processes and
strategies of writing for all purposes, up to the length of an essay, a term
paper, a major research project report, or even a thesis.

MICRO- AND MACROSKILLS OF WRITING

Micro skills

1. Produce graphemes and orthographic patterns of English.

2. Produce writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose.
3. Produce an acceptable core of words and use appropriate word order patterns.

40
 4. Use acceptable grammatical systems (tense, agreement, pluralization),
patterns, and rules.
5. Express a particular meaning in different grammatical forms.
6. Use cohesive devices in written discourse.

Macro skills

7. Use the rhetorical and conventions of written discourse.

8. Appropriately accomplish the communicative functions of written texts
according to form and purpose.
9. Convey links and connections between events, and communicative such
relations as main idea, supporting idea, new information, given information,
generalization, and exemplification.
10. Distinguish between literal and implied meanings when writing.
11. Correctly convey culturally specific references in the context of the written
text.
12. Develop and use battery of writing strategies, such as accurately assessing the
audience’s interpretation, using prewriting deices, writing with fluency in the
first drafts, using paraphrases and synonyms, soliciting peer and instructor
feedback, and using feedback for revising and editing.

IMITATIVE WRITING

Tasks in Hand Writing Letters, Words, and Punctuation

1. Copying
2. Listening cloze selection tasks
3. Picture-cued tasks
4. Converting numbers and abbreviations to words

41
Spelling Tasks and Detecting Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondences

1. Spelling tests
2. Picture-cued tasks
3. Multiple choice techniques
4. Matching phonetic symbols

INTENSIVE (CONTROLLED) WRITING

Dictation and dicto-comp

A paragraph is read at normal speed, usually three or two times; then the teacher asks
students to rewrite the paragraph from the best of their recollection. In one of several
variations of the dicto-comp technique, the teacher, after reading the passage,
distributes a handout with key words from the paragraph, in sequence, as cues for the
students.

Grammatical transformation tasks

 Change the tenses in a paragraph.

 Change full forms of verbs to reduced forms (constructions).
 Change statements to yes/no or WH-questions.
 Charge questions into statements.
 Combine two sentences into one using a relative pronoun.
 Change direct speech to indirect speech.
 Change from active to passive voice.

Picture-cued tasks

1. Short sentences. A drawing of some simple action is shown; the test-taker

writes a brief sentence.
2. Picture description. A somewhat more complex picture may be presented
showing, say, a person reading on a couch, a cat under a table, books and
pencils on the table, chairs around the table, a lamp next to the couch, and a

42
 picture on the wall over the couch. Test-takers are asked to describe the
picture using the four of the following prepositions: on, over, under, next to,
around, as long as the prepositions are used appropriately, the criterion is
considered to be met.
3. Picture sequence description. A sequence of three or six pictures depicting a
story line can provide a suitable stimulus for written production. The picture
must be simple and unambiguous because an open-ended task at the selective
level would give test-takers so many options.

RESPONSIVE AND EXTENSIVE WRITING

Paraphrasing

Guided question answer is a guided question-and-answer format in which the test

administrator poses a series of questions that essentially serve as an outline of the
emergent written text.

Guided writing stimuli

1. Where did the story take place? (setting)

2. Who were the people in the story? (character)
3. What happened first? And then? And then? (sequences of events)
4. Why did ___________ do _____________? (reasons, causes)
5. What did ___________ think about ___________? (opinion)
6. What happened at the end? (climax)
7. What is the moral of this story? (evaluation)

Paragraph construction tasks

1. Topic sentence writing

a. Specifying the writing of a topic sentence,
b. Scoring points for its presence or absence, and
c. Scoring and/or commenting on its effectiveness in stating the topic.
2. Topic development within a paragraph
a. The clarity of expression of ideas
b. The logic of the sequence and connections
c. The cohesiveness or unity of the paragraph

43
 d. The overall effectiveness or impact the paragraph as a whole
3. Development of main and supporting ideas across paragraph
a. Addressing the topic, main idea, or principal purpose
b. Organizing and developing supporting ideas
c. Using appropriate details to undergird supporting ideas
d. Showing facility and fluency in the use of language
e. Demonstrating syntactic variety

44
 CHAPTER VIII

ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT

Characteristics:

1. Require students to perform, create, produce, or do something;

2. Use real-world contexts or simulations;
3. Are nonintrusive in that they extend the day-to-day classroom activities;
4. Allow students to be assessed on what they normally do in class every day;
5. Use task that represent meaningful instructional activities;
6. Focus on process as well as products;
7. Tap into higher-level thinking and problem-solving skills;
8. Provide information about both the strengths and weaknesses of students;
9. Are multicultural sensitive when properly administered;
10. Ensure that people, not machines, do the scoring, using human judgment;
11. Encourage open disclosure of standards and rating criteria; and
12. Call upon teachers to perform new instructional and assessment roles.

Performance-based assessment

The characteristics:

1. Students make a constructed response.

2. They engage in higher-order thinking, with open-ended tasks.

45
 3. Tasks are meaningful, engaging, and authentic.
4. Tasks call for the integration of language skills.
5. Both process and product are assessed.
6. Depth of a student’s mastery is emphasized over breadth.

This implies that teachers should:

 State the overall goal of the performance,

 Specify the objectives (criteria) of the performance in detail,
 Prepare students for performance in stepwise progressions,
 Use a reliable evaluation form, checklist, or rating sheet,
 Treat performances as opportunities for giving feedback and provide that
feedback systematically, and
 If possible, utilize self- and peer-assessments judiciously.

Portfolios

Materials:

 Essays and compositions in draft and final forms;

 Reports, project outlines;
 Artwork, photos, newspaper or magazine clippings;
 Audio and/or video recordings of presentations, demonstrations, etc.;
 Journals, diaries, and other personal reflections;
 Tests, test scores, and written homework exercises;
 Notes on lectures; and
 Self- and peer-assessments – comments, evaluations, ad checklists.

Six possible attributes:

 Collecting
 Reflecting
 Assessing

46
  Documenting
 Linking
 Evaluating

Benefits:

 Foster intrinsic motivation, responsibility, and ownership,

 Promote student-teacher interaction with the teacher as facilitator,
 Individualize learning and celebrate the uniqueness of each student,
 Provide tangible evidence of a student’s work,
 Facilitate critical thinking, self-assessment, and revision processes.
 Offer opportunities for collaborative work with peers, and
 Permit assessment of multiple dimensions of language learning.

Steps and guidelines:

1. State objectives clearly.

2. Give guidelines on what materials to include.
3. Communicate assessment criteria to students.
4. Designate time within the curriculum for portfolio development.
5. Establish periodic schedules for review and conferencing.
6. Designate an accessible place to keep portfolios.
7. Provide positive wash back-giving final assessment.

Journals

Steps:

1. Sensitively introduce students to the concept of journal writing.

2. State the objective(s) of the journal (language-learning logs, grammar
journals, responses to readings, strategic-based learning logs, self-assessment
reflections, and diaries of attitudes, feelings, and other effective factors).
3. Give guidelines on what kinds of topics to include.
4. Carefully specify the criteria for assessing or grading journals.

47
 5. Provide optimal feedback in your responses:
a. Cheerleading feedback, in which you celebrate successes with the
students or encourage them to persevere through difficulties,
b. Instructional feedback, in which you suggest strategies or materials,
suggest ways to fine-tune strategy use, or instruct students in their
writing, and
c. Reality-check feedback, in which you help the students set more
realistic expectations for their language abilities.

Conferences and Interviews

Functions and subject matters:

 Commenting on drafts of essays and reports

 Reviewing portfolios
 Responding to journals
 Advising on a student’s plan for an oral presentation
 Assessing a proposal for a project
 Giving feedback on the results of performance on a test
 Clarifying understanding of a reading
 Exploring strategies-based options for enhancement or compensation
 Focusing on aspects of oral production
 Checking a student’s self-assessment of a performance
 Setting personal goals for the near future
 Assessing general progress in a course.

Observations

 Sentence-level oral production skills

 Discourse level skills
 Interaction with classmates
 Reactions to particular students, optimal productive pairs and groups.

48
  Frequency of student-initiated responses
 Quality of teacher-elicited responses
 Latencies, pauses, silent periods
 Length of utterances
 Evidence of listening comprehension
 Affective states
 Evidence of attention-span issues, learning style preferences
 Students’ verbal or nonverbal response to materials, types of activities,
teaching styles..
 Culturally specific linguistic and nonverbal factors.

Self- and Peer-Assessment

Indirect self-assessment rating scale:

I demonstrate active listening in class 5 4 3 2 1

I volunteer my comments in small-group work 5 4 3 2 1
When I don’t understand a word, I guess from 5 4 3 2 1
context
My pronunciation is very clear 5 4 3 2 1
I make very few mistakes in verb tenses 5 4 3 2 1
I use logical connectors in my writing 5 4 3 2 1

49
 CHAPTER IX

ERROR ANALYSIS

Error Analysis
Brown (2000: 218) calls error analysis as the fact that learners do make errors,
and that these errors can be observed, analyzed, and classified to reveal something of
the system operating within the learner, led to surge of study of learners’ errors.
While Nation and Newton (2009: 141) argue that error analysis is the study of errors
to see what process gave rise to them. And correcting errors is best done if there is
some understanding of why the error occurred.

Error analysis became distinguished from contrastive analysis by its

examination of errors attributable to all possible sources, not just those resulting from
negative transfer of the native language (Brown, 2000: 218). Error analysis easily
superseded contrastive analysis, as it is discovered that only some of the errors a
learner makes are attributable to the mother tongue, that learners do not actually make
all the errors that contrastive analysis predicted they should, and that learners from
disparate language backgrounds tend to make similar errors in learning one target
language. Errors-overt manifestations of learners’ system-arise from several possible
general sources: interlingual errors of interference from the native language,
intralingual errors within the target language, the sociolinguistic context of
communication, psycholinguistic or cognitive strategies, and no doubt countless
affective variables (Brown, 2000: 218).

Since errors constitute an important part of the learners’ language, error

analysis has become a useful technique of investigating and describing learners’
language. The practical aspect of error analysis lies in its function in guiding the
remedial activities to correct an unsatisfactory state of affairs for the learner or the
lecturer. In the classroom, an active second language learner will not need a great
deal of overt correction of errors if the constructive and meaningful feedback of

50
communicative contexts is present. However, some correction is beneficial. The
lecturer has to determine what errors to correct and how to correct them.

Dulay, Burt, and Krashen (1982: 140) state the instant and widespread appeal
of error analysis (EA) stemmed perhaps from the refreshing alternative it provided to
the prevailing but more restrictive “contrastive analysis” approach to errors.
Contrastive analysis (CA) treatment of errors, rested on a comparison between the
two learner’s native and target languages. It was thought that contrastive analysis of
the learner’s two languages would predict the areas in the target language that would
pose the most difficulty.

Kinds of Error

In order to analyze learner language in an appropriate perspective, it is crucial

to make a distinction between mistakes and errors, technically two very different
phenomena. A mistake refers to a performance error that is either random guess or a
“slip”, in that is failure to utilize a known system correctly. Hesitations, slips of the
tongue, random ungrammaticalities, and other performance lapses in native-speaker
production also occur in second language speech. Harmer (1986: 35) identifies an
error is the result of incorrect rule learning; language has been stored in the brain
incorrectly, a mistake is less ‘serious since it is the retrieval that is faulty not the
knowledge; student knows the rule, but makes a slip when producing it. Mistakes,
when attention is called to them, can be self-corrected. On the other hand, an error
cannot be self-corrected, according to James (1998) in Brown (2000: 217), while
mistakes can be self-corrected if the deviation is pointed out to the speaker.

A number of different categories for description of errors have been identified

in research on learner language. Errors may be viewed as either global or local (Burt
& Kiparsky, 1972) in Brown (2000: 223). Global errors hinder communication; they
prevent the hearer from comprehending some aspect of the message, local errors do
not prevent the message from being heard, usually because there is only a minor

51
violation of one segment of a sentence, allowing the hearer/reader to make an
accurate guess about the intended meaning.

Lennon (1991) in Brown (2000: 223) suggests that two relate dimensions of
error, domain and extend should be considered in any error analysis. Domain is the
rank of linguistic unit (from phoneme to discourse) that must be taken as context in
order for the error to become apparent, and extent is the rank of linguistic unit that
would have to be deleted, replaced, supplied, or reordered in order to repair the
sentence.

Based on Linguistic Category Taxonomy, errors are classified according to

“both the language component and the particular linguistic constituent the error
affects” (Dulay, Burt, Krashen, 1982: 146). In this study language components are
limited to morphology and syntax, which follow Politzer and Romirez’s model as a
guideline.

Politzer and Ramirez, who studied 120 Mexican-American children learning

English in the United States, classified the errors into (1) morphology; indefinite
article incorrect, possessive case incorrect, third person singular verb incorrect,
simple past tense incorrect, past participle incorrect, and comparative incorrect. (2)
Syntax; noun phrase, verb phrase, verb and verb construction, word order, and some
transformations.

To describe the errors, Dulay, Burt, and Krashen (1982:138-139) state that
there are six most common errors produced by the learners as the following table:

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 Learners’ Common Errors

No Common Errors Example

1 Omitting grammatical morphemes: items that do He hit car

not contribute much to the meaning of sentences.

2 Double marking a semantic feature (e.g. past She didn’t went back
tense)

3 Regularizing rules Womans for women

4 Using archiform-one form in place of several- I see her yesterday. Her

such as the use of her for both she and her. dance with my brother.

5 Using two or more forms in random alternation random use of he and she
even though the language requires the use of each regardless of the gender of
only under certain conditions. the person of interest

6 Misordering items in constructions that require a What you are doing

reversal of word-order rules that had been
They are all the time late.
previously acquired or misplacing items that may
be correctly placed in more than one place in the
sentence.

Other classification of errors is comparative taxonomy. The classification of

errors in a comparative taxonomy is based on comparisons between the structure of
L2 errors and certain other types of constructions (Dulay, Burt, Krashen, 1982: 163).
For example, if one were to use a comparative taxonomy to classify the errors of an
Indonesian student learning English, one might compare the structure of the student’s
errors to that of errors reported for children acquiring English as a first language.

53
 In the research literature, L2 errors have most frequently been compared to
errors made by children learning the target language as their first language and to
equivalent phrases or sentences in the learner’s mother tongue. Those comparisons
have yielded the two major error categories in this taxonomy: developmental errors
and interlingual errors. Two other categories that have been used in comparative
analysis taxonomies are derived from the first two: ambiguous errors, which are
classifiable as ether developmental or interlingual; and, of course, the grab bag
category, Other, which are neither.

Developmental errors are errors similar to those made by children learning the
target language as their first language, for example, dog eat it. Developmental errors
consist of omissions, additions, misformations, and misordering. Interlingual errors
are similar in structure to a semantically equivalent phrase or sentence in the learner’s
native language, for example the man skinny. Interlingual errors here, simply refer to
L2 errors that reflect native language structure, regardless of the internal processes or
external conditions that spawned them. Ambiguous errors are those that could be
classified equally well as developmental or interlingual. That is because these errors
reflect the learner’s native language structure, and at the same time, they are of the
type found in the speech of children acquiring a first language, for example in the
utterance I no have car. Other errors are the errors that do not fit into any other
category, for example in the utterance She do hungry (Dulay, Burt, and Krashen,
1982: 165-172). Some researches had been conducted about errors made by the
learners, although precise proportions differ from study to study, all the investigations
conducted to date have reached the same conclusion: the majority of errors made by
second language learners are not interlingual, but developmental.

Corder (1981) simply comments that errors can be classified through a

comparison process between the data being the original erroneous utterance and the
constructed one that is the process similar to that of contrastive analysis. He seems to
have exclusively on one alternative for classifying errors, i.e. error types in terms of
linguistic categories.

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 In this study, error analysis was used to categorize and to find out the types of
students’ errors given corrective feedback by the lecturer. Students’ errors were
classified, analyzed, commented, and grouped based on their categories. Thus, there
is clear explanation about findings presented in this study. Linguistic categories
proposed by Corder (1981) are used to categorize students’ errors given corrective
feedback by the lecturer. Those are errors on grammar and errors on vocabulary.

Sources of Errors
To know why certain errors are made and what cognitive strategies and styles
even personality variables underlie certain errors, identifying sources of errors is
important to take another step toward understanding how the learners’ cognitive and
affective processes relate to the linguistic system and to formulate an integrated
understanding of the process of second language. Brown (2000: 224-227) stated there
are four factors causing errors; interlingual transfer, intralingual transfer, context of
learning, and communication strategies.

Interlingual transfer is a significant source of error for all learners. The

beginning stages of learning a second language are especially vulnerable to
interlingual transfer from the native language, or interference. In these early stages,
before the system of the second language is familiar, the native language is the only
previous linguistic system upon which the learner can draw. For example, “sheep” for
“ship”, or “the book of Jack” instead of “Jack’s book”. All these errors is the result of
transfer from the native language, many such errors are detectable in learner speech.
Fluent knowledge or even familiarity with a learner’s native language of course aids
the lecturer in detecting and analyzing such errors.

Researchers have found that the early stages of language learning are
characterized by a predominance of interference (interlingual transfer), but once
learners have begun to acquire parts of the new system, more and more interlingual
transfer-generalization within the target language- is manifested. This of course
follows logically from the tenets of learning theory. As learners progress in the

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second language, their previous experience and their existing subsumers begin to
include structures within the target language itself. Negative intralingual transfer, or
overgeneralization, has already been illustrated in such utterances as “Does John can
sing?.” “He goed,” “I don’t know what time is it.” Once again, lecturer and researcher
cannot always be certain of the source of an apparent interlingual error, but repeated
systematic observations of a learner’s speech data will often remove the ambiguity of
a single observation of an error.

A third major source of error, although it overlaps both types of transfer, is the
context of learning. “Context” refers, for example, to the classroom with its lecturer
and its materials in the case of school learning or the social situation in the case of
untutored second language learning. Students often make errors because of a
misleading explanation from the lecturer, faulty presentation of a structure or word in
a text book, or even because of a pattern that was rotary memorized in a drill but
improperly contextualized. Two vocabulary items presented contiguously-for
example, point at and point out-might in later recall be confused simply because of
the contiguity of presentation.

Communication strategy is the last source of errors stated by Brown (2000:

224-227). Learners obviously use production strategies in order to enhance getting
their message across, but at times these techniques can themselves become a source
of error. Once an ESL learner said, “Let us work for the well-done of our country.”
While it exhibited a nice little twist of humor, the sentence had an incorrect
approximation of the word welfare. Likewise, word coinage, circumlocution, false
cognates, and prefabricated patterns can all be sources of error.

The following table is the example of error and the causes found by Richards
(1974), Duskofa (1969), and Lennon (1991) in Nation and Newton (2009: 141):

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 Learners’ Errors and Causes

Cause Example error Explanation

Interference from There are too many differences. The first language does not
the first language When I was young I was very mark singular and plural.
sick. But now that I am a virgin I Virgin and adolescent are
can take care of myself. the same word in the first
language.
Interference from One factor which aids second The use of aid is modeled
the second language learning to occur. on the use of help.
language
Reduction to Big square on top of small The learner was under time
increase efficiency square. pressure to complete a task
and so left out unnecessary
items.
Accidental error I said … told him not to do it. Self-correction indicates
that the learner knows
what to say.

The second type of lecturer feedback is negative feedback. It is provided to

inform students about the proper answers following students’ response to a similar
query. It is delivered through explanation, elicitation or provision of better or other
alternative answers. Nevertheless there are some points before delivering negative
feedback: whether it is necessary to correct learner’s error, when it should be done,
which error that should be corrected and how to correct it (Chaudron, 1988: 135). It is
expected that the considerations can help the lecturers control classroom management
and the process of teaching and learning.

According to Ur (1996: 242), the use of positive and negative feedback should
not be separated since both support the students’ output in the second language.

57
When a lecturer gives negative feedback to the students, they may think that
something was wrong within their response in L2. To avoid over-judgmental
behavior, the lecturers are expected to provide positive feedback and make them
understand that mistakes are natural.

In analyzing the data, sources of the errors were considered as the students’
background in producing the errors. So, besides categorizing the errors into
grammatical errors, meaning errors and mispronunciation, students’ errors were
analyzed based on the source of the errors.

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 CHAPTER X

BARRET TAXONOMY

The Barrett Taxonomy of Cognitive and Affective Dimensions of Reading

Comprehension

In reading methods courses, textbook manuals, and lists of behavioral

objectives, three kinds of questions are usually mentioned: 1) literal, 2) inferential,
and 3) assimilative, which includes critical questioning for factual material and
creative questions for stories, poems, plays, etc... The reading manuals are usually
very helpful to the teacher in guiding questioning, but the other subject areas rarely
have manuals with such explicit help. Teachers often try to use the literal, inferential,
and assimilative categories in the content areas, but find there is need for clarification
or examples of the categories.
The Barrett Taxonomy (Clymer, 1968), designed originally to assist
classroom teachers in developing comprehension questions and / or test questions for
reading, is especially useful for classroom questioning in other content areas as well.
The first two categories, literal comprehension and reorganization, deal with the facts
as presented orally or in the books the students have read, and thus result in closed
questions that have a single correct response. A possible exception is Synthesizing
(2.4) if the combination of facts presented leads to a totally new idea. Under those
conditions, the student has creatively added his or her uniqueness to the presented
information. However, in classroom learning, synthesis is most often the putting
together of facts to reach a generalization or concept or definition.
The remaining categories will always involve the student’s own background
of experience. As a result, it is possible to have as many different, but correct,
responses as there are students present, since each brings to school a different
background of home, family, friends, and learnings. These categories therefore lead
to the development of open-ended questions.

59
 Although the classroom teacher who focuses on these higher questions has to
allow more time for the varied responses, the degree of learning that can be evaluated
is at least as great, and often greater, since adequate response to questions at these
levels must incorporate the information that could have been gathered by “fact”
questions. Therefore, as much or more can be gained for teacher and for students
from a lesson with only a few higher level questions and the varied responses, since
all the “facts” are checked while the students get practice in using higher cognitive
thinking processes.

Quick Reference Outline of The Barrett Taxonomy

1.0 Literal Comprehension
1.1 Recognition
1.1.1 Recognition of Details
1.1.2 Recognition of Main Ideas
1.1.3 Recognition of a Sequence
1.1.4 Recognition of Comparison
1.1.5 Recognition of Cause and Effect Relationships
1.1.6 Recognition of Character Traits

1.2 Recall
1.2.1 Recall of Details
1.2.2 Recall of Main Ideas
1.2.3 Recall of a Sequence
1.2.4 Recall of Comparison
1.2.5 Recall of Cause and Effect Relationships
1.2.6 Recall of Character Traits

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2.0 Reorganization
2.1 Classifying
2.2 Outlining
2.3 Summarizing
2.4 Synthesizing

3.0 Inferential Comprehension

3.1 Inferring Supporting Details
3.2 Inferring Main Ideas
3.3 Inferring Sequence
3.4 Inferring Comparisons
3.5 Inferring Cause and Effect Relationships
3.6 Inferring Character Traits
3.7 Predicting Outcomes
3.8 Interpreting Figurative Language

4.0 Evaluation
4.1 Judgments of Reality or Fantasy
4.2 Judgments of Fact or Opinion
4.3 Judgments of Adequacy and Validity
4.4 Judgments of Appropriateness
4.5 Judgments of Worth, Desirability and Acceptability

5.0 Appreciation
5.1 Emotional Response to the Content
5.2 Identification with Characters or Incidents
5.3 Reactions to the Author’s Use of Language
5.4 Imagery

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The Complete Barrett Taxonomy
1.0 Literal Comprehension
Literal comprehension focuses on ideas and information which are explicitly stated in
the selection. Purposes for reading and teacher’s questions designed to elicit
responses at this level may range from simple to complex. A simple task in literal
comprehension may be the recognition or recall of a single fact or incident. A more
complex task might be the recognition or recall or a series of facts or the sequencing
of incidents in a reading selection. (Or these tasks may be related to an exercise
which may itself be considered as a reading selection.) Purposes and questions at this
level may have the following characteristics.

1.1 Recognition
Recognition requires the student to locate or identify ideas or information explicitly
stated in the reading selection itself or in exercises which use the explicit ideas and
information presented in the reading selection. Recognition tasks are:

1.1.1 Recognition of Details

The student is required to locate or identify facts such as the names of characters, the
time of the story, or the place of the story (or just about any other kind of explicit fact
or detail requiring literal comprehension.)

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. Locate the name of _____
2. Find the following information: date of flight, time in orbit, speed of the
space craft, and the height reached.
3. Watch for details as you read.
4. Find the story by using the Contents pages.
5. Read and find out: If _____ thinks _____ ; the time of day _____.
6. Add each explorer to your chart telling “Who,” “What,” “Where,” and

62
 “When.” (This exercise even though it involves the recognition of sixteen
separate details is considered on question.) Skim (or read) for locations,
names, or dates.

1.1.2 Recognition of Main Ideas

The student is asked to locate or identify an explicit statement in or from a selection
which is a main idea of a paragraph or a larger portion of the selection. (At times
caution and real discernment must be utilized to distinguish a main idea from a
detail.)

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. Find out what _____ is going to do.
2. What happened when or during _____ ?
3. What important thing did the character find out?
4. What part did the character play in _____ ?
5. Underline the main ideas in this _____ .

1.1.3 Recognition of a Sequence

The student is required to locate or identify the order of incidents or actions explicitly
stated in the selection.

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. Read to find out : What did _____ do first?
2. What did _____ do next?
3. What did _____ do last?
4. Be prepared to tell how Geraldine changed her white dress to red and yellow and
what happened then. (This sentence contains two separate questions: how Geraldine
changed her dress requires the recognition of a sequence, Level 1.13; what happened
then requires the recognition of a main idea and is classified at level 1.12.

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1.1.4 Recognition of Comparison
The student is requested to locate or identify likenesses and differences in characters,
times, and places that are explicitly stated in the selection. (Levels 1.14, 1.24, and 3.4
involve comparisons. Seeing likenesses and differences, seeing relationships, and
making comparisons between characters, incidents, and situations are fairly
synonymous at these levels. However, when a cause and effect relationship exists, it
shall be classified at the next higher level of the taxonomy provided the criteria of
some other level are not more nearly met. There is a level for cognition of
comparisons, a level for recall of comparisons, and a level for inferring of
comparisons. Examples for each of these levels define what constitutes a comparison
question.)

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. Read to find out the differences between _____ and _____ .
2. Look for ideas which conflict with each other.
3. Are _____ and _____ the same?
4. Find similes; find metaphors.
5. Read to find out how _____ changed.

1.1.5 Recognition of Cause and Effect Relationships

The student in this instance may be required to locate or identify the explicitly stated
reasons for certain happenings or actions in the selection. (Cause and effect are not
restricted to motivations and interests. For example, there are cause and effect
relationships which are inorganic.)

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. Find out the reasons for _____ ?
2. What caused _____ ?
3. What were the results of _____ ? (In this example the effect has to be

64
 recognized.)
4. Find the sentence that tells why _____ did (or was) _____ .
5. What happened to shorten his stay at _____ ?

1.1.6 Recognition of Character Traits

The student is required to identify or locate explicit statements about a character
which help to point up the type of person he or she is.

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. Read orally the parts which prove that he was clever, bold, kind, courageous,
and intelligent.
2. Find the words and phrases which describe the characters. (Some of these
words and phrases describe character traits. Of course, many descriptive
words and phrases do not pertain to character traits.)
3. Find agnomens. (Nicknames)

1.2 Recall
Recall requires the student to produce from memory ideas and information explicitly
stated in the reading selection. Recall tasks are:
1.2.1 Recall of Details
The student is asked to produce from memory facts such as the names of characters,
the time of the story, or the place of the story. (Recall of almost any explicit fact or
detail from the selection is included. A single detail as well as several details
scattered throughout the story are both level 1.21 questions.)

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. What hardships were endured?
2. How much land was claimed?
3. Who paid for his journey?

65
 4. Over what kind of land did they travel? (This question requires recall of
details from several places in the story; however, no sequencing or
reorganization is asked for.)
5. Write a list of all the details you can remember.
6. Recite the _____ listed.

1.2.2 Recall of Main Ideas

The student is required to state the main idea of a paragraph or a larger portion of the
selection from memory, when the main idea is explicitly stated in the selection.

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. What did the _____ mean to this world?
2. What important statement did he make?
3. What uses were made of _____ ?
4. What knowledge was gained from _____ ?
5. What did he or she do _____ ?
6. What did he or she say? (This question refers to what Stanley says when he
first met Livingston and in this instance constitutes a level 1.22 thought
process.)
7. What happened to _____ ?

1.2.3 Recall of a Sequence

The student is asked to provide from memory the order of incidents or actions
explicitly stated in the selection. (A sequence will be constituted only when order of
occurrence is specifically required.)

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. Describe in correct sequence _____ .
2. Look at the illustrations and tell the story in sequence. (The illustrations aid

66
 the recall but are not sufficient.)
3. Number these _____ in the order in which they took place in the selection.
4. Make a chart that shows the _____ throughout the selection.
5. Tell in correct order _____ .
6. What happened on the fourth day?

1.2.4 Recall of Comparison

The student is requited to call up from memory the likenesses and differences in
characters, times, and places tat are explicitly stated in the selection. (Questions are
classified at this level if they ask for likenesses and/ or differences.)

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. Compare and contrast one journey with another journey as to: climate,
terrain, natives, length of time, difficulties and successes.
2. How was this _____ different from others?
3. In what ways were _____ and _____ similar? different?
4. Compare and contrast each of the following pairs: (Each pair constitutes a
question.)
5. Compare the size of _____ and _____ .

1.2.5 Recall of Cause and Effect Relationships

The student is requested to produce from memory explicitly stated reasons for certain
happenings or action in the selection.

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. Why did _____ do _____ ?
2. Why was _____ so determined to _____ ?
3. What was the purpose of _____ ?
4. What caused _____ ?

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 5. Why did _____ decide to _____ ?
6. How did _____ accomplish _____ ? (This action in such instances causes an
effect.)
7. What was the reaction of _____ to _____ ?

1.2.6 Recall of Character Traits

The student is asked to call up from memory explicit statements about characters
which illustrate the type of persons they are.

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. Why are they well suited to _____ ?
2. How did Stanley feel? (The story states that Stanley felt shy.)
3. How had he shown he was _____ ?
4. What was _____ like?
5. Summarize her attitude toward life. (In spite of the use of the word
summarize, this question actually calls for no more than the recall of an
explicit statement.

2.0 Reorganization
Reorganization requires the student to analyze, synthesize, and/ or organize ideas or
information explicitly stated in the selection. To produce the desired thought product,
the reader may utilize the statements of the author verbatim or he or she may
paraphrase or translate the author’s statements. Reorganization tasks are:

2.1 Classifying
In this instance the student is required to place people, things, places, and / or events
into categories. (When pupils are asked to recognize or recall certain kinds of details,
relationships, or traits, they are in effect classifying, but at a lower level of the
taxonomy. The key to this level is that things must be sorted into a category or a
class.)

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 EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:
1. Read each phrase below. Does it tell you “who,” “what,” “when,” “how,” or
“where?”
2. “Sank here.” (A phrase taken from a selection)
3. Which of the following are _____ ?
4. Place the following under the proper heading.
5. Classify the following according to _____ .
6. Which of the following _____ does not belong. (Where based upon the
selection and not merely a matter of word meaning. Care also has to be
exercised in such cases to make sure the inferring of a comparison, level 3.4
is not necessitated.)

2.2 Outlining
The student is requested to organize the selection in outline form using direct
statements or paraphrased statements from the selection.

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. Organize the facts into main heads and subheads to form an outline.
2. Complete the following outline.
3. Divide the story into _____ parts.

2.3 Summarizing
The student is asked to condense the selection using direct or paraphrased statements
from the selection. (This level is interpreted as also being applicable when less than
the entire selection is condensed.)

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 EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:
1. What has happened up to this point?
2. Tell the story in your own words.

2.4 Synthesizing
In this instance, the student is requested to consolidate explicit ideas or information
from more than one source. (The pupil is required to put together information from
more than one place. More is required than just a collecting of information for this
information must become fused so that information from more than one source
provides a single answer to a question. While the taxonomy refers to a single
selection, quite often in order t answer a question, information obtained from a
previous selection or selections must be utilized. The intent of the taxonomy, despite
its restrictive reference to the selection, is not only the reading comprehension
questions from review units, lessons, and exercise, but also many other reading
comprehension questions.)

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. How long did the entire _____ last ?
2. Fill in your time line.
3. What was the speed of the _____ ?
4. Did _____ have enough _____ ?
5. Compute _____ .
6. How many times did _____ take place ?
7. On what day did _____ happen ?
8. Figure out _____ .

3.0 Inferential Comprehension

Inferential comprehension is demonstrated by the student when he or she uses the
ideas and information explicitly stated in the selection, his or her intuition, and his or
her personal experience as a basis for conjectures and hypotheses. Inferences drawn

70
by the student may be either convergent or divergent in nature and the student may be
asked to verbalize the rationale underlying his or her inferences. In general, then,
inferential comprehension is stimulated by purposes for reading and teachers’
questions which demand thinking and imagination that go beyond the printed page.
(Personal experience is interpreted to include formal learning experiences, as well as
those things which the reader has personally experienced in a first hand situation.
Prior knowledge, regardless of where this knowledge came from, is an integral part of
inference. The crucial factor distinguishing inference questions from recognition and
recall questions is that their answers are not explicitly stated but must be inferred.)

3.1 Inferring Supporting Details

In this instance, the student is asked to conjecture about additional facts the author
might have included in the selection which would have made it more informative,
interesting, or appealing. (Whether or not additional details are indeed “more
informative, interesting, or appealing” is largely subjective. If the inferring of a detail
is required, the question is to be placed at this level.)

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. Did he realize _____ ?
2. Was the discovery planned or accidental? (The classification of this question
at this level is another example of making a debatable decision in favor of
the higher category. The statement in the text says, “He sailed west toward
Greenland, but because of bad storms he went off course and came instead
upon an unknown land.”)
3. How did she converse with the natives?
4. What was the weather like?
5. Do you think _____ ?
6. Did _____ believe? (Such a question may go beyond inference and require
level 5.2, Identification.)

71
3.2 Inferring Main Ideas
The student is required to provide the main idea, general significance, theme, or
moral which is not explicitly stated in the selection. (Such questions may pertain to
part of a selection.)

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. What is the main idea of this _____ ?
2. Discuss the significance of _____ ?
3. Read these short workbook selections and then select or write the best
4. title for each. (This question goes beyond synthesis and requires inference.)
5. What is the poem or story saying?
6. Answer this riddle. (Where more than mere word meaning is required.)
7. Read these paragraphs and then write or select the main idea of each.
8. Write a sentence summarizing the main idea of _____ .

3.3 Inferring Sequence

The student, in this case, may be requested to conjecture as to what action or incident
might have taken place between two explicitly stated actions or incidents, or he or she
may be asked to hypothesize about what would happen next if the selection had not
ended as it did but had been extended.

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. Many days from _____ through _____ are omitted in her report.
2. Suggest the events that happened in those days.
3. What will happen next?
4. What happened between _____ and _____ ?
5. Place these _____ in logical order.

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3.4 Inferring Comparisons
The student is requited to infer likenesses and differences in characters, times, places,
things, or ideas. Such inferential comparisons revolve around ideas such as : here and
there, then and now, he and she, and she and she.

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. Compare: effectiveness and value to future explorers.
2. Compare _____ as to completeness and importance or detail.
3. How does _____ resemble _____ ?
4. Compare _____ with _____ .
5. Are _____ and _____ related?
6. Complete the following similes or metaphors. (If based on ideas in the
7. selection.)

3.5 Inferring Cause and Effect Relationships

The student is required to hypothesize about the motivations of characters and their
interactions with time and place. He or she may also be required to conjecture s to
what caused the author to include certain ideas, words, characterizations, and action
in his or her writing. (“Why” and “Because” are often clues to this category.)

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. Why did Marco Polo say, “Take this book and cause it to be read to
2. you?” (The answer requires inferring why people would have to have the
3. book read to them.)
4. Why was it necessary to _____ ?
5. Why would _____ ?
6. How did _____ know _____ ?
7. Why did they _____ ?
8. Why did the author include _____ ?

73
 9. What is the result of _____ ?
10. What might have happened if _____ ?
11. What makes this _____ a _____ ?
12. What makes you think _____ ?
13. Did _____ because _____ ?
14. How could _____ ?
15. Why is it helpful to have a _____ ?

3.6 Inferring Character Traits

In his case, the student is asked to hypothesize about the nature of characters on the
basis of explicit clues presented in the selection.

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. List their character traits.
2. What did _____ prove about their attitudes toward _____ ?
3. What does _____ tell us about her?
4. Is _____ very wise?
5. What kind of person is _____ ?
6. What words will describe _____ ?
7. What was _____ ’s attitude about _____ ?

3.7 Predicting Outcomes

The student is requested to read an initial portion of a selection and on the basis of
this reading he or she is required to conjecture about the outcome of the selection.
(An initial portion of a selection may be no more than the title.)

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. Do you think _____ will _____ ?
2. What do you think will happen?

74
 3. Will he help them?
4. Someone may predict _____ ?
5. Read _____ and guess what will happen.

3.8 Interpreting Figurative Language

The student, in this instance, is asked to infer literal meanings from the author’s
figurative use of language.

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. What is meant by the phrase, “continue unrolling the map”?
2. Interpret the following figurative expressions: ...

4.0 Evaluation
Purposes for reading and teacher’s questions, in this instance, require responses by
the student which indicate that he or she has made an evaluative judgment by
comparing ideas presented in the selection with external criteria provided by the
teacher, other authorities, or other written sources, or with internal criteria provided
by the reader’s experiences, knowledge, or values. In essence evaluation deals with
judgment and focuses on qualities of accuracy, acceptability, desirability, worth, or
probability of occurrence. (Evaluative judgment is the key to this category.)
Evaluative thinking may be demonstrated by asking the student to make the following
judgments.

4.1 Judgments of Reality or Fantasy

Could this really happen? Such a question calls for a judgment by the reader based on
his or her experience.

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 EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:
1. Is _____ imaginary?
2. How many unreal things can you find?
3. Did _____ really happen?
4. Is _____ fact or fiction?
5. Is _____ possible?

4.2 Judgments of Fact or Opinion

Does the author provide adequate support for his or her conclusions? Is the author
attempting to sway your thinking? Questions of this type require the student to
analyze and evaluate the writing on the basis of the knowledge he or she has on the
subject as well as to analyze and evaluate the intent of the author.

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. Do you think _____ had anything to do with _____ ?
2. Which _____ seem to be correct?
3. What strange ideas did _____ have?
4. Which _____ are fact? opinion?
5. Based on the facts that are given, does _____ seem reasonable?

4.3 Judgments of Adequacy and Validity

Is the information presented here in keeping with what you have read n the subject in
other sources? Questions of this nature call for the reader to compare written sources
of information with an eye toward agreement and disagreement and completeness and
incompleteness.

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. Did _____ ever actually _____ ?
2. Continue to check on _____ .

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 3. Why was _____ true? not true?
4. Is adequate information given about _____ ?
5. Is _____ really _____ ?
6. Which ideas are still accepted and which ones are no longer believed?
7. Label each _____ true or false.
8. Find proof from other sources that _____ ?

4.4 Judgments of Appropriateness

What part of the story best describes the main character? Such a question requires the
reader to make a judgment about the relative adequacy of different parts of the
selection to answer the question. (It is believed that this level should not be limited to
the main character, nor should it be limited to just narrative text. One can judge the
appropriateness of text support to prove a subject or topic.)

4.5 Judgments of Worth, Desirability and Acceptability

Was the character right or wrong in what he or she did? Was his or her behavior good
or bad? Questions of this nature call for judgments based on the reader’s moral code
or his or her value system. The same holds true for judging the moral character of a
political, social, or economic policy in informational or expository text as well as
evaluating an author’s proposal.

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. Do you like this character?
2. How do you feel about this character?
3. Is _____ the right thing to do?
4. Is _____ acting fairly?
5. Why was it wrong for _____ to _____ ?
6. What do you think of _____ ’s attitude?
7. Is a high degree of _____ a good quality to have?

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5.0 Appreciation
Appreciation involves all the previously cited cognitive dimensions of reading, for it
deals with the psychological and aesthetic impact of the selection on the reader.
Appreciation calls for the student to be emotionally and aesthetically sensitive to the
work and to have a reaction to the worth of its psychological and artistic elements.
Appreciation includes both the knowledge of and the emotional response to literary
techniques, forms, styles, and structures.

5.1 Emotional Response to the Content

The student is required to verbalize his or her feelings about the selection in terms if
interest, excitement, boredom, fear, hate, amusement, etc. It is concerned with the
emotional impact of the total work on the reader. (The emotional impact of the total
work on the reader is not considered necessary.)

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. Are you surprised?
2. Why did you like or dislike this selection?
3. Was this selection interesting? funny?
4. What part of the story did you find most exciting?
5. Select your favorite story or passage.
6. Questions requiring the pupil to respond to the plot.
7. Did the story have a happy ending?
8. Which _____ did you enjoy the most?

5.2 Identification with Characters or Incidents

Teachers’ questions of this nature will elicit responses from the reader which
demonstrate his or her sensitivity to, sympathy for, and empathy with characters,
happenings, and ideas portrayed by the author.

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 EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:
1. What words will describe the feelings of _____ ?
2. How did they feel when _____ ?
3. Will _____ be difficult for _____ ? (This goes beyond level 3.7, prediction.)
4. Would you _____ ?
5. Encourage pupils to identify with _____ .
6. Do you think he will follow the advice?
7. Did she act recklessly? (This would be an example of level 4.5, except that in
order to make a decision as to whether or not she acted recklessly, the
situation must be identified with.)
8. Write your own ending to this story. (It is believed that this question goes
beyond inferring of a sequence and the making of a prediction and falls at
level 5.2.)
9. Devise a conversation between _____ and _____ .
10. What would you do if you were _____ ?
11. What is _____ thinking?
12. How would you have felt if you were _____ ?
13. How did _____ talk when _____ ?
14. Relate _____ to you own life.

5.3 Reactions to the Author’s Use of Language

In this instance the student is required to respond to the author’s craftsmanship in
terms of the semantic dimension of the selection, namely, connotations and
denotations of words. (Level 5.3 pertains essentially to the appreciation of the
author’s skill and craftsmanship in selecting and using words. Such appreciation is
dependent upon the denotation and connotations of words. Emotions are inherent in
appreciation.)

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 EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:
1. Questions requiring recognition or discussion of qualifiers.
2. Why is _____ a good term?
3. Demonstrate how _____ ’s voice sounded when he spoke _____ .
4. What personifications, allegory, puns, malapropisms did the author use?
5. What “loaded” language was used? propaganda? understatements?
exaggerations? emotion-laden words?
6. How did the author express the idea of _____ ?
7. In what way is the word _____ used in the selection?

5.4 Imagery
In this instance, the reader is required to verbalize his or her feelings with regard to
the author’s artistic ability to pain word pictures which cause the reader to visualize,
smell, taste, hear, or feel.

EXAMPLES AND PATTERNS:

1. Picture may be drawn to illustrate the different phases of the antelope hunt.
(This was classified at level 5.4 which would be perfectly congruent if
Barrett had used the word express instead of verbalize.)
2. Based upon the selection draw a picture or make a design. (Caution must be
exercised in determining that such questions do require appreciation of the
author’s artistic ability to create imagery and not just understanding of word
or sentence meaning.)
3. Read rhythmically and expressively. (Includes choral reading.)
4. Dramatize the story.
5. Read the part the way the character might have talked. (This question goes
beyond identifying as spelled out at level 5.2 and requires level 5.4.)
6. Find the phrase which helps you build a mental picture of _____ .
7. In a mind’s-eye picture, how did the _____ look?

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8. Reenact the _____ scene.
9. How does _____ make you feel?
10. Take the role of _____ . (This goes beyond identification)
11. Questions requiring appreciation of dialogue may require utilization of this
level.
12. What _____ has the author created?
13. How did the author cause you to _____ ?

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 CHAPTER XI

CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK

Notion of Corrective Feedback

To facilitate language learning, lecturers must perform a balancing complicated
act of two necessary but seemingly contradictory roles. They must establish positive
affects among students, yet also engage in the inherently confrontational activity of
corrective feedback on error (Magilow, 2005) in Jarkasi (2007). The positive affect
derives from a variety of lecturers behaviors, including humor, encouragement,
personal interest, and a natural use of language. Corrective feedback conveys, in
many ways, precisely the opposite messages confrontation, potential discouragement,
and focus on forms instead of content.
In teaching L2, it is necessary to response towards the students’ speech
production as one of many ways to show the attention of the lecturer to the students.
Feedback is an important thing in English Communicative Teaching Learning
Activities. During the activities the students somehow involved in interaction that
gives opportunities, desires and purposes which is able to empower the students to get
in touch with the language they learn. This English classroom interaction will lead the
students to do their best toward the target language. Along with these activities,
lecturers are allowed, to indicate the students’ errors of incorrectness of language
output, which is technically known as corrective feedback (Lightbown and Spada,
1994) in Jarkasi (2007).

A piece of corrective feedback is a response from an addressee to a speaker’s

erroneous utterance. The incorrect utterance can consist of grammatical errors,
meaning errors or inappropriate use of lexical items. According to Ellis, Loewen and
Erlam (2006) in Basiron (2008) corrective feedback is a response to a learners
erroneous utterance by: i) indicating where the error has occured, ii) providing the

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correct structure of the erroneous utterance, or iii) providing metalinguistic
information describing the nature of the error, or any combination of these.

All corrective feedback is classified either as explicit or implicit form (Ellis et

al and Long) in Basiron (2008). Explicit corrective feedback tells overtly that an error
has occurred whereas implicit feedback does not. Studies identified six different types
of corrective feedback employed by language lecturers (Panova& Lyster, 2002) in
Basiron (2008). Table shows the various types of corrective feedback:

Various Types of Corrective Feedback

Corrective Feedback Explanation

Explicit Correction Clearly indicating that the students’ utterance was

incorrect, the lecturer provides the correct form. e.g. …
the coyote, the bison and the cr…crane.” “And the
crane. We say crane.”

Recast Without directly indicating that the student’s utterance

was incorrect, the implicitly reformulates the student’s
error, or provides the correction. e.g. “Maple sap.
Good.”

Clarification request By using phrases like “Excuse me?” or “I don’t

understand,” the lecturer indicates that the messages has
not been understood or that the student’s utterance
contained some kind of mistake and that a repetition or a
reformulation is required. e.g. “Pardon?”

Metalinguistic clues Without providing the correct form, the lecturer poses
questions or provides comments or information related to
the formation student’s utterance. e.g. “Do we say it like
that?”, “Is it femininie?”

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 Elicitation The lecturer directly elicits the correct form from the
student by asking questions (e.g. “How do we say that in
French?”), by pausing to allow the students to complete
the lecturer utterance (e.g. “It’s a…”)or by asking
student to reformulate the utterance (e.g. “Say that
again.” Elicitation questions differ from questions that
are defined as metalinguistic clues in that they require
more than a yes/no response.

Repetition A lecturer repeats a student’s incorrect utterance and

raises her voice to highlight the error. e.g. “The giraffe?”

There are different types in giving corrective feedback toward students’ errors,
this study will use Lyster and Ranta (1997) model to identify lecturer’s techniques in
giving corrective feedback with some considerations. First, it has complete types
catering explicit and implicit corrective feedback. Second, the explanation is clear to
differentiate one type to another. After the study, the most frequently types used in
the oral classroom will be found.

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 REFERENCES

Basiron, Halizah. (2008). Corrective Feedback in Dialogue-based Computer Assisted

Learning. NZCSRSC ([email protected])
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Brown, Douglas H. (2004). Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom
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Corder, S.P. (1981). Error Analysis and Interlanguage. London: Oxford University
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Dulay, H., Burt, M., and Krashen, S. (1982). Language Two. New York: Oxford
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Fulcher, Glenn and Fred Davidson (2007). Language Testing and Assessment: An
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Jarkasi, Imam. (2007). Corrective Feedback in the English Class. Didaktika Vol. 8.
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Lyster, R. & Ranta, L. (1997). Corrective Feedback and Learner Uptake: Negotiation
of Form in Communicative Classrooms. Studies in Second Language
Acquisition, 19, 37-66. In Heift, T. (2004). Corrective Feedback and Learner
Uptake in CALL. Cambridge University Press 16: 418.
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