Checked by:

Head of the department, prof. G.M.Khashimov

________________
“_____” “_____________” 2018
Course: 3rd course/Term: 6
Groups:
Modul: Language assessment and testing
I. Theme: Lesson 7. Test methods
II. The objective: to give information about the basic principles of test methods.
The equipments: lap-top, handouts, slides, projects.
The procedure of the lesson
I. The organizational moment:
a) to greet the students;
b) to establish relation with the class, to raise students’ interests to the new lesson
II. Checking up the home-task.
III. PRE-ACTIVITY OF THE LESSON:
Brainstroming questions:
1 How was your English assessed at school? Did assessment help you learn English?
2 Which are belter assessments ol a learner's English: tests that locus on communication or tests
that focus on accuracy?
3. Which is more helpful to teaching and learning: informal or formal assessment?
IV. WHILE-ACTIVITY. The presentation of the new theme:
What is the difference between a task, an exercise and an activity?
Professor Richards Responds:
These terms are understood differently depending on who defines them. I use them as follows:
An exercise is a teaching procedure that involves controlled, guided or open ended practice of some aspect
of language. A drill, a cloze activity, a reading comprehension passage can all be regarded as exercises.
The term activity is more general and refers to any kind of purposeful classroom procedure that involves
learners doing something that relates to the goals of the course. For example singing a song, playing a
game, taking part in a debate, having a group discussion, are all different kinds of teaching activities.
A task is normally defined as follows:
 It is something that learners do, or carry out, using their existing language resources or those that
have been provided in pre-task work.
 It has an outcome which is not simply linked to learning language, though language acquisition may
occur as the learner carries out the task.
 It is relevant to learners’ needs.
 It involves a focus on meaning.
 In the case of tasks involving two or more learners, it calls upon the learners’
 use of communication strategies and interactional skills.
 It provides opportunities for reflection on language use.
We will now go on to look at testing and elicitation and in particular some different question types and their
functions, advantages and disadvantages.
TYPES OF TEST
Types of task
 Multiple choice
 Transformation
 Gap-filling
 Matching
  Cloze
 True / False
 Open questions
 Error correction
 Other techniques
Types of test
Before writing a test it is vital to think about what it is you want to test and what its purpose is. We must
make a distinction here between proficiency tests, achievement tests, diagnostic tests and prognostic tests.
A proficiency test is one that measures a student's overall ability in a language, it isn't related to a specific
course.
An achievement test on the other hand tests the students' knowledge of the material that has been taught on
a course.
A diagnostic test highlights the strong and weak points that a learner may have in a particular area.
A prognostic test attempts to predict how a student will perform on a course.
A placement test is used to place students in the appropriate class or level. For example, in language
schools, placement tests are used to check a student’s language level through grammar, vocabulary, reading
comprehension, writing, and speaking questions. After establishing the student’s level, the student is
placed in the appropriate class to suit his/her needs
There are of course many other types of tests. It is important to choose elicitation techniques carefully when
you prepare one of the aforementioned tests.
TYPES OF TASK
There are many elicitation techniques that can be used when writing a test. Below are some widely used
types with some guidance on their strengths and weaknesses. Using the right kind of question at the right
time can be enormously important in giving us a clear understanding of our students' abilities, but we must
also be aware of the limitations of each of these task or question types so that we use each one
appropriately.
MULTIPLE CHOICE
Choose the correct word to complete the sentence.
Cook is ________________today for being one of Britain's most famous explorers.
a) recommended b) reminded c) recognised d) remembered
In this question type there is a stem and various options to choose from. The advantages of this question
type are that it is easy to mark and minimises guess work by having multiple distracters. The disadvantage is
that it can be very time-consuming to create, effective multiple choice items are surprisingly difficult to
write. Multiple choice can be used to test most things such as grammar, vocabulary, reading, listening etc.
but you must remember that it is still possible for students to just 'guess' without knowing the correct
answer.
TRANSFORMATION
Complete the second sentence so that it has the same meaning as the first.
'Do you know what the time is, John?' asked Dave.
Dave asked John __________ (what) _______________ it was.
This time a student has to rewrite a sentence based on an instruction or a key word given. This type of task
is fairly easy to mark, but the problem is that it doesn't test understanding. A student may simply be able to
rewrite sentences to a formula. The fact that a student has to paraphrase the whole meaning of the sentence
in the example above however minimises this drawback.
GAP-FILLING
Complete the sentence.
Check the exchange ______________ to see how much your money is worth.
The student fills the gap to complete the sentence. A hint may sometimes be included such as a root verb
that needs to be changed, or the first letter of the word etc. This usually tests grammar or vocabulary. Gap-
fills can be used to test a variety of areas such as vocabulary, grammar and are very effective at testing
listening for specific words.
MATCHING
Match the word on the left to the word with the opposite meaning.
Fat old
Young tall
Dangerous thin
Short safe
 With this question type, the student must link items from the first column to items in the second. This could
be individual words, words and definitions, parts of sentences, pictures to words etc. Whilst it is easy to
mark, students can get the right answers without knowing the words, if she has most of the answers correct
she knows the last one left must be right. To avoid this, have more words than is necessary. Matching
exercises are most often used to test vocabulary.
CLOZE
Complete the text by adding a word to each gap.
This is the kind _____ test where a word _____ omitted from a passage every so often. The student must
_____ the gaps, usually the first two lines are without gaps.
This kind of task type is much more integrative as students have to process the components of the language
simultaneously. It has also been proved to be a good indicator of overall language proficiency. The teacher
must be careful about multiple correct answers and students may need some practice of this type of task.
Cloze tests can be very effective for testing grammar, vocabulary and intensive reading.
TRUE / FALSE
Decide if the statement is true or false.
England won the world cup in 1966. T/F
Here the student must decide if a statement is true or false. Again this type is easy to mark but guessing can
result in many correct answers. The best way to counteract this effect is to have a lot of items.
This question type is mostly used to test listening and reading comprehension.
OPEN QUESTIONS
Answer the questions.
Why did John steal the money?
Here the student must answer simple questions after a reading or listening or as part of an oral interview. It
can be used to test anything. If the answer is open-ended it will be more difficult and time consuming to
mark and there may also be a an element of subjectivity involved in judging how 'complete' the answer is,
but it may also be a more accurate test.
These question types are very useful for testing any of the four skills, but less useful for testing grammar or
vocabulary.
ERROR CORRECTION
Find the mistakes in the sentence and correct them.
Ipswich Town was the more better team on the night.
Errors must be found and corrected in a sentence or passage. It could be an extra word, mistakes with verb
forms, words missed etc. One problem with this question type is that some errors can be corrected in more
than one way. Error correction is useful for testing grammar and vocabulary as well as readings and
listening.
Other Techniques
There are of course many other elicitation techniques such as translation, essays, dictations, ordering
words/phrases into a sequence and sentence construction (He/go/school/yesterday).
It is important to ask yourself what exactly you are trying to test, which techniques suit this purpose best and
to bear in mind the drawbacks of each technique. Awareness of this will help you to minimise the problems
and produce a more effective test.
V. POST-ACTIVITY
Activity 1. Here are ten assessment tasks. Can you name them and say what they aim to test?
1. The learner looks at a simple picture story, then tells the story to the teacher,
2. The learners listen to a recording describing the appearance of a girl. Then they complete a picture of the
girl by drawing her.
3. Learners take part in a speaking activity in which they act out parts.
4. The learners answer some simple questions about themselves orally.
5. The learners complete blanks with the correct form of the verb to have.
6. The learners choose the correct words for some pictures, and write them under the pictures.
7. The learners repeal words after the teacher.
8. The learners research and write about a topic.
9. The learners fill in sheets about their own progress
10. The teacher keeps notes on learners' difficulties with the area being taught, then discusses them with the
learners.
Answers:
1. Picture composition/storytelling; probably use of vocabulary and grammar, pronunciation, linking,
interaction, fluency, accuracy.
2. Listen and draw: probably listening for specific information.
3. Role-play: probably fluency, specific vocabulary certain functions and grammar.
4. Interview: speaking - probably use of vocabulary and grammar, pronunciation, interaction, fluency,
accuracy.
5. Gap/blank-fill: the form of the verb to have, accuracy.
6. Labelling: word and meaning recognition and possibly handwriting.
7. Repetition drill: pronunciation.
8. Project work: probably a range of reading skills, problem solving and speaking and writing skills.
9. Completing a self-assessment sheet: learners' ability to judge their own progress and/or performance.
10. Observation. Seeing what difficulties the learners have had in this area, and which areas may need furt
her teaching.
Activity 2. For questions 1 -5, match the instructions with the terms listed A-F. There is one extra
option which you do not need to use.
Instructions
1. Read the sentences and complete the blanks with one word only.
2. What are the names of these things? Write the name beside each picture.
3. Draw a line between the words on the left and their meanings on the right.
4. Exchange ideas on the topic with your classmates.
5. Look at these and write the story they tell.
Terms
A. labelling
В. jumbled sentences
С. picture composition
D. matching
E. gap-fill
F. discussion
Answers: 1E 2A 3D 4F 5C
Terms
A. labelling С. picture composition E. gap-fill
В. jumbled sentences D. matching F. discussion
Answers: 1E 2A 3D 4F 5C

HOME-TASK:
1 Which kinds of assessment took place in your school?
2 Look at a test from any coursebook. Decide on its purpose. Does it use objective or subjective tasks?
Does it focus on accuracy or communication? Does it match what and how you leach?
3 Think of one of your classes. What are you teaching them now? How could you carry out some informal
assessment of this area of learning? Write your answer.
4 Find the meaning of these terms: cloze test, continuous assessment, matching task, open comprehension
questions, oral test, sentence completion. Give examples for tasks.