DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN

SOUND
BY :
NUR IFFAH IZZATI BT YAZID
TIARA HEREENA BT HAIRY
ANUAR

 Students will probably have some difficulty in

actually
hearing the difference between one particular
sound
and another.
E.g.: two and too, hard and heart
If students have no equivalent sound in their
mother
tongue, they may face some problems.
E.g. : R sound in English (as in raw) does not exist
in
Cantonese, does students often tend to hear the

 In teaching and testing the ability to recognize the

different sounds, it is easier to start by
pronouncing the words in isolation.
However when we do this, we tend to emphasis
the difference between the two sounds when we
pronounce them.
Therefore, it is better to pronounce the words
naturally in sentences.
E.g.The policemans washing the car.
The policemans watching the car.
The final consonant sound in certain word and the
use of contraction can also cause problem.

 It is usually preferable to test sound differences in

a context.
The following item provides an illustration of just
one way in which this may be attempted.
Stress and intonation are very important for
inclusion
in progress tests at the early levels.
However a student may learn the correct stress
patterns for certain words but still unable to
implement.

 Item testing stress and intonation are often dull

and artificial
Hearing test should short and used primarily for
a particular teaching purpose
It is far better to concentrate on testing
students understanding of short conversations
and talks as natural way as possible
Above all, it is important to realize that the
ability to hear sound differences is not
necessarily the same as the ability to understand
the spoken messages.

TESTING LISTENING
COMPREHENSION:

DICTATION
NUR AZNIDA BT AZAHRI
NADHIRA NAJWA BT MOHD ROZLI

DICTATION
Dictation refers to a person reading some text
aloud so that the listener(s) can write down
what is being said.
Dictation is also a decoding-recoding activity.

DICTATION
Some teachers think of dictation chiefly as a test of spelling.
It is an integrative activity that involves all the skills.
Listening: as the passage is dictated for students to transcribe.
Writing : when students write down the dictated material.
Reading : as a follow-up students may read the passage first
silently to check for mistakes, then loudly to practice
pronunciation.
Speaking: when the passage is used as a starting point for a
discussion activity.
Dictation is include in this chapter because it has long been closely
associated with listening comprehension.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE DICTATION

Dictation passage is usually read out 3 times.
First time
- Reading through the whole dictation passage at almost
normal speed.
- Student are expected to listen and get the gist of the passage.
Second time
- A little slower, with pauses, breaking the passage into
meaningful chunks.
- Dictate meaningful units of words (phrases and short clauses)
by reading them aloud as clearly as possible.
Third time
- Students will be given opportunity to check the spelling of
words, editing it for errors and check their overall
understanding of the text.

DICTATION
DOS
Teacher must choose a
suitable text for dictation.
Clarity of voice, expression
and pace or tempo.
The sentence in the passage
should be an active voice.
Teacher should know the
length of the pauses between
bursts.

DONTS
Reading out the text very
slowly word by word.
It can be very harmful as it
encourages students to
concentrate on single
words.

MARKING THE DICTATION TEST!

Straightforward marking.
For each error will be deducted half a
mark or one mark.
Spelling and punctuation errors are
treated less seriously.
Focused more on grammar errors.

CONT..
However, it is recommend to deduct
one mark for each mistake.
Eg: Out a total of twenty.
Give short text for both listening
comprehension and for dictation.

HOW TO DICTATE?
1) Read the text aloud in a natural way.
2) Ask a few questions before you read the text for
a second time.
3) Read the text aloud for dictation.
Eg: Give the second reading in short
meaningful units.
4) Read the text for final time. It is for students to
check their dictation.

Characteristic of
The Spoken
Language
By
Nurzaidah Azharuddin
Azam Syahin Akid
Muhammad Hakim Firdaus Muhammad Halip

What is Spoken Language ?

Language, message that we orally send by
language that we use frequently.
Consider what is involved in understanding the
spoken language.

The characteristic :
1. Repeating information
-. Contains redundancy
-. Meaning is usually reinforced or repeated in
several ways.
Eg: This is the paper that I will handing out,
keep it secret! Some of you are labelled as A
and some of you are B. Do not show it to your
friends. You have to work in pair and describe it
to your partner.

The characteristic
2. Pausing
- Often hesitate and pause when we speak and
filling in the gaps with sound.
Eg: err, uhh , emm
- Sometimes we start a sentence, change your
mind and start it all over again.

The Characteristic
False starts and hesitation features are an
important part of the spoken language,
actually helping us to follow what is being said.

The characteristic:
3. Differences between speaking and writing
- Structure of the spoken language differs from that of the
written language.
- We organize language in sentence when we write.
- When we speak, we generally organize language in
clauses.
- Often connect these clauses with words like, and, but and
so.
- Seldom use complete sentences in spontaneous speech.

The characteristic:
4. What do we remember?
- General meaning of a sentences rather than the actual
words.
Eg: The train slowly rounded the bend and came to the
halt a few minute later.
- We only remember that train stopped after it had slowly
gone round the bend.
- The meaning but not the actual words which we normally
remember.

The characteristic:
5. The importance of context.
Identifying the features of different kinds of speech is
the first step in understanding spoken language.
The second is hearing how speech changes to fit
different contexts.
Example Linda talked a lot
Criticism
Compliment
Favourable comment

The characteristic:
6. Using recorded material
- The use of gestures are very important.
- Helping the listener to understand well.
- That is why it is important always more difficult
to understand when we talking on the phone.

IMPLICATIONS FOR
LISTENING TESTS.

Farah Hani
Siti Nor Syahirah

1. Talking- not
Try to talk to the students
reading
Avoid reading aloud long written texts

Jot down main points that you will mention in the written
questions
Avoid rehearsing, and talk spontaneously
Use pictures during listening comprehension

2. Reading texts
Make changes to the written text first by :
aloud

Rewrite the text in complex sentence and short

Use coordinating conjunctions instead of subordinate conjunctions

Rewrite the talk and repeat the important points
Pause slightly longer at the end of clauses or sentences

3. Using
recordings
The advantages of using cassette tape recordings :

Help to make listening more reliable.

Able to use the recorded voices of native-speaker of
English.
Able to play recordings of conversations involving 2 or
more speakers.

Short statements and conversation

Nurul Jasimah binti Mohamed Iqbal
Nurul Asyiqin Bt Junaidi
Syaza Binti Juhari

Simple instructions

Basic and clear instruction for listening comprehension.

Straightforward task and can be done anytime.
example: situation in a school hall. teacher ask students to
1) please line up
2) hands up
3)hands down
4) do not push your friends
5) listen carefully
6) arrange your shoes according to size
7) wash your hand.
Useful to test the elementary and intermediate levels.
Difficult to test large group of students.

Statements, questions and short conversations.

This type of questions need students full attention and focus.
Sometimes students will get confused.
They need to listen to the statements, questions and short conversations and
choose the right answer.

STATEMENTS
Example: students hear If dad knew I had an accident he would not scold me
Students read:
A) dad never scold him
B) dad know that he had an accidents so dad scold him
C) dad do not know about the accident and scold him
D) dad always scold him
There are many possible answer. The KEY is to understand the conversation.
Also test an awareness of grammar and limited usage.

Questions

Usually used in a real speech situation but still it is

considered artificial.
Useful for elementary and intermediate level
Example:
Students hear:
Why were your absent yesterday?
Students read:
A. Im fine, thank you
B. Because I was sick
C. Yes, I was
D. Its sunny outside

Short
conversations
Known as conversational changes.
Mostly useful for beginners and lower level students.
Example students hear

Me
: Can I ask you something?
Uncle : Yes sure, what is it?
Me
: When is the clinic opening?
Uncle : Oh, it will open in the morning at nine oclock but the doctor
at ten o'clock.
Me
: Okay, thank you uncle.
Students will read
At what time he can consult with the doctor?
A) 9.00 a.m.
B) 10 p.m.
C) 10 a.m.
D) 9.00 p.m.

will come

Completing pictures.

Good for intermediate students.

Using classroom, pencil and paper tests.
More preferable because they involved in
drawing not writing.
Still give instruction but students carry
the instructions quietly while sitting at
their place.
For example: you ask them to complete
the shape according the picture.

Examples of completing pictures

Students need to follow the steps to complete the
drawings.

Following directions
This kind of test needs students high
involvement in reading and
understanding the directions.
Little or no actual drawing will be used
and students need to have pencils or
colours and follow the instruction.

Examples of following the directions.

Longer Conversation and talks

Adham zahyn
Nur izzatul nabila
Nur syafika

Types of reports

Weather and traffic reports

Reports on todays event
Sports reports and results
News reports
Advice programmes

TALKS AND LECTURES

It should not become a test of memory
Make sure the student understand the
important point in the talk
Make sure to repeat or restated the important
point if you are read aloud a talk
Do not hesitate to re-write the talk if there is not
repetition of the important point

TALKS AND LECTURES

Inform the student to concentrate and not
overspending time to the audio even though
they facing difficulty in completing a line of note
They will have second chance to listen the
audio and complete any missing info in the
note.

Longer Conversation
Buy or make recordings of fluent speakers
having a conversation.
Easier to write true/false statements about
a conversation.
Conversation sound more natural &
interesting than talk.
Use variety of materials in a listening

Testing Oral
Production
PRONUNCIATION
By
Siti Aishah
Nurul Aida Afrina

What is Pronunciation?
Pronunciation is the way a word or language
is spoken, or the manner in which someone
utter a word. The act or result of producing
the sounds of speech, including articulation,
stress and sound.

 Pronouncing words in isolation

When we learn foreign language, we often hear sounds which
are completely new and unfamiliar to us.
Although we may not distinguish between certain sounds in
our own language, this differences in English may be crucial.
For example:
i) There is no difference in Spanish between the vowel sound
of ship and sheep because in Spanish there is no word
starting with s.

In the early stages of leaning English, it is useful to base our

pronunciation tests on minimal pairs: that is, pairs of words
which differ only in one sound
Minimal Pairs

Minimal Pairs

nip
nib

boss
bus

bud
bird

ferry
fairy

pill
pail

knit
lit

ball
bowl

fry
fly

sheet
seat

support
sport

In early stages of learning English, students can be shown

pictures and asked to identify the object in each picture. Each
picture is based on a possible source of confusion.

Picture 1: Ship and Sheep Picture 2: Bird and Bud Picture 3: Pen
and Pan

 Pronouncing words in sentences

You can asked students to read aloud sentences containing
the problem sounds which you want to test.
They help to discourage students unnaturally exaggerating a
certain sound when they pronounce it in an oral test.
They were several people standing in the hole.
(hole/hall)
Are you going to sail your boat today?
( sail/sell)
Do you like this sport?

 Reading aloud
Reading aloud can offer a useful way of testing pronunciation.
Give a student a few minutes to look at the reading text first.
When you choose suitable texts to read aloud, it is useful to
imagine actual situations.
Ask yourself what someone may actually want to read aloud in
real life.
Sometimes, for example, people read aloud letter or instruction.

 The following examples consists of simple instruction on how to

use a public telephone.
The student would be given a copy instruction only, but the
examiners copy might appear as follows:
TEXT :
listen

First pickup the handset and

for a dialing tone.
Then put in a fifty cent coin.

Now dial the number you

require and
listen for a ringing tone.
If you hear an engaged tone,
replace the
handset and try again later.
Your coin will be returned
automatically.

 Retelling stories
A test which is more useful in certain ways than reading
aloud is
re-telling of a story or incident:
- Give the student a story to read silently first.
- Then ask the student to tell the story he or she just
read.
If the story has been carefully chosen, the student will
use those elements of pronunciation which you wish to
test.
Remember that the main purpose of such test is
pronunciation and do not deduct marks for any incorrect

ILYA SYIQREEN BINTI ANUAR

NUR AFIQAH BINTI AFRIZIL

USING PICTURES

PICTURES
FOR
DESCRIPTI
ON

MAPS

PICTURES
WITH
SPEECH
BUBBLES

PICTURES
FOR
COMPARIS
ON

SEQUENCE
OF
PICTURES

USING PICTURES

Pictures are useful for testing the speaking skills.

How?
Choose picture(s) very carefully as a picture often influence
the language forms which the students use.
Make sure the students can see the pictures a few minutes
before they have to describe them.
Remember that oral work based on pictures is often best
assessed as part of a lesson rather than as part of a test.

PICTURES FOR DESCRIPTIONS

When preparing a test, give

students plenty of practice
describing the pictures of
objects, people and scenes.
Required
to
use
their
imagination and say what
they think has just happened
or is about to happen.

PICTURES FOR COMPARISON

Description of two fairly similar pictures.

Purpose: to find out in what ways the two pictures
are different without either student actually
seeing both pictures.
Genuine conversation is thus encouraged in addition
to the more formal descriptions of the pictures.
Students can ask each other questions,
contradict, agree to achieve a particular task.

A sequence of
pictures telling
story can also be
used to test
speaking ability.

Sequence of
pictures

Students should be
instructed to tell a
story rather than
simply describe what
is happening in each
pictures.

Students need to
guess what the
people in the
pictures are
saying..
Example : comic
picture stories and
cartoons that
contain speech
bubbles.
Simply delete the
words in the speech
bubbles and ask
the students to
guess what the
character are

Pictures
with speech
bubbles
However, remember
that we are not
interested primarily
in whether students
guess correctly or
not.
Our sole concern is
the language they
use for this purpose.

MA
P

Maps can be
used for testing
students ability
to give direction.

Oral Interviews
Nurina Fadhilah Binti Mohamad Amri
Nur Atiqah Binti Osman

Oral Interview
This part is designed
partly to obtain important
information from the
students being
interviewed and partly put
them at ease.

An excellent way of
testing speaking as
it can be assesses in
a natural situation.
When the speaking
tests forms part of an
achievement or
proficiency test, it is
useful to start asking
the students personal
details

Example:
Their names,
addressed,
hobbies and
etc

Types of Oral Interview

Asking
questions

Marking

Testing
students in
pairs.

1. Asking question
Need to be careful not to turn the interview into interrogation.
Resembling interrogation:

When do you get up every morning?

What do you have for breakfast?
Important to draw up a list of suitable questions which can be ask to the students

and choose the appropriate question.

Try to ask question which may lead to interesting answers, but always be ready to

respond to any answer with your own comments and observations.

Talk naturally as you can in English: a real speaking test is concerned with

communication or soften some of the questions.

Instead of asking straight forward questions in quick succession, make statements

and ask questions more subtly:

Ive often wondered where Plum Tree Road is ..

2. Marking
Never mark in front of a student
Nothing is more discouraging for a student than to enter into conversation with

someone who is constantly breaking off to enter marks and comments.

The students should be constantly reassured that what he or she says being heard

and understood.

If possible, wait until the student has left the room before you enter your marks

and comment.

3. Testing students in pairs

One way of making interview less tenses is to test two students at the same time
Enable you to hear the students talking to someone in their own peer group equal

to equal rather than inferior to superior.

If teacher give them a task to perform, they will able to demonstrate their ability

to use language naturally for real purpose.

Grading Oral Interview

A major difficulty in testing speaking is the actual method used of awarding marks.
Whatever system is adopted, the marking itself is very subjective

Avoid students personality to influence the grade we awarded the main concerned

is :

the language ability

achievement in progress or placement test.

1.Grammatical accuracy

Example 1

We can understand the

student without much
difficulty at all and thus we
may ignore the mistakes.

Examiner: Youre very late for

the interview
Students: yes, Im being sorry
for my late arriving to
interview. My mother is being
very ill in the hospital with
the rheumatism
How would you mark a
student who has
succeeded in
communicating what he
or she wants to express
but who has made a lot
of grammatical errors?

REMEMBER !!!
However there may be times
when you wish to avoid giving the
impression to students that
anything they say is perfectly
acceptable.

Grading oral ability

When a student makes a grammatical error in the spoken language, first ask

yourself if the error causes a breakdown in communication.

Do you have difficulty in understanding what the students is staying?

If so, you should penalise the student when you award the mark.
If the mistake does not really interfere with what is being communicated, then it is

advisable to ignore it.

2. Using a rating scale

A rating scale containing short descriptions of each grade in the scale.
To grade students. Teacher will simply read through the scale and choose the most

appropriate description for the particular student.

Grading oral ability

Scale
6
5
4
3
2
1

Pronunciation good
Pronunciation slightly influenced by L1
Pronunciation influenced a little by L1
Pronunciation influenced by L1
Several serious pronunciation error
A lot of serious pronunciation errors

Using A Language
Laboratory
HUWAIDA BINTI ARIF
NASRIN FATINI BINTI ROSLIHUDDIN
AFIFA SYAHIRAH BINTI BAHARUDIN

Language laboratory?

1) Questions about likes and

dislikes
students are ask using tape and their answer will be
recorded on the same tape.
as example: what is your favourite fruits ?
answer: (pause)___________
relate to real life situation, however it is little real use.
the test usually is much difficult.

2) Question and statement in social

situation
Express agreement, disagreement, complaint and
apologies many more.
example :
question: do you mind if I close the window?
answer: (pause) _____________

3) Mini situation

in this test students are given real-life situation

the question can be in recorded on tape or printed form
respond appropriately to each situation
example :
question : someone asks you for dates but you dont like
him/her. What do you say ?

4) Conversation (1)
No script & students can only respond to what they hear
on the tape.
Question is based on daily situations.
Students can reply to the questions & even ask questions.
Dialogue of the deaf.

5) Conversation (2)
Overcomes the weakness because prompts are whispered
indicating how students should respond.
Work better as a stimulus for controlled conversation.

6) Conversation (3)
Take part in a short conversation.
Need to read a diary extract containing a weeks
appointments.

Testing speaking with other

skills
Contain a written text for students to discuss
Group discussion and debating
Student may be required to read an article or a report so
that they can discuss it with their friends.