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Assessing Grammar: TSLB3182 Teaching Grammar in The Primary Esl Cpassroom

The document discusses various methods for assessing grammar in ESL classrooms, including achievement tests, writing test items, and developing test items. It provides guidelines for writing tests, such as not testing what hasn't been taught. It also describes different types of test items like multiple choice, fill-ins, sentence completion, sentence reordering, transformations, and sentence writing. Specific examples are given for each type of test item to illustrate how they can be used to test grammar.

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316 views27 pages

Assessing Grammar: TSLB3182 Teaching Grammar in The Primary Esl Cpassroom

The document discusses various methods for assessing grammar in ESL classrooms, including achievement tests, writing test items, and developing test items. It provides guidelines for writing tests, such as not testing what hasn't been taught. It also describes different types of test items like multiple choice, fill-ins, sentence completion, sentence reordering, transformations, and sentence writing. Specific examples are given for each type of test item to illustrate how they can be used to test grammar.

Uploaded by

ebellaamayrahaisyah
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ASSESSING

GRAMMAR
TSLB3182
TEACHING GRAMMAR IN THE PRIMARY ESL CPASSROOM
1
Assessing Grammar
We will be emphasising on test given in school.
These are called Achievement Tests. These are
given after a semester or year’s work. The aim of
such tests is to see if students have learnt and
acquired the language they have been studying .
Writing Achievement Tests
Good tests show both teacher and students how well they
are all doing. Test can often go wrong, not just because of
the students’ lack of knowledge, but also because of
problems in the writing of tests themselves. When writing
tests – teachers should bear in mind the following ‘rules’

2
Assessing Grammar
1. Don’t test what you haven’t taught- the purpose of
test is to find out how well students have achieved what
they have been studying, so it is not fair to test things
that they haven’t been exposed to.
2. Don’t test general knowledge – test on knowledge of
English – not their knowledge of the world.
3. Don’t forget to test the test – the instruction given
must be clear and proofread by other colleagues to
ensure no obvious mistakes or problems made.
4. Don’t introduce new techniques in tests.

The test items are as shown below on the table


3
Assessing Grammar
Types
of
Tests

Rules of Writing
Tests

Developing test
item

Multiple Sentence Transformation


choice Fill - ins completion s

Sentence Parallel Writing


Sentence
Writing reordering
4
Rubrics.
◦ Rubrics tell the candidate clearly what he or she has
to do. Use the imperative
◦ Circle the correct answer;
◦ Fill in the blanks with the correct option, etc.
◦ Write the letter of the correct option in the blank or
in a box placed in the margin;
◦ Shading the letter of the correct option in the answer
sheet;
◦ Underline the correct option;
◦ Put a tick or cross in the box provided next to the
correct option.
TYPES OF TESTS
◦ MULTIPLE CHOICE
◦ FILL-INS
◦ SENTENCE COMPLETION
◦ SENTENCE RE-ORDERING
◦ TRANSFORMATIONS
◦ SENTENCE WRITING
◦ PARALLEL WRITING
◦ ERROR IDENTIFICATION
Multiple Choice

◦ Students have to choose the correct answer from a


number of alternatives.
◦ Can be used to test the students’ grammatical knowledge
and for comprehension questions.
◦ M.C.Q have the advantage of being easy to mark but it
is difficult to write the ‘distractors’. They are not tests of
the students’ productive ability.
EXAMPLE:

Circle the correct answer A, B, C or D.


1. Charles ____________ to work yesterday.
A. doesn’t go
B. hasn’t gone
C. didn’t go
D. Isn’t going
◦ A multiple choice item must have only one correct answer
which seems to be common sense, but it is very easy to
write an item with two correct answers. The item below, for
example, has two correct answers:

A as well as the expected C.

◦ How .................. sugar do you take in your coffee?


◦ A little B few C much D many
Multiple Choice
Wherever possible, the items of tests should be set
in context.
Thus, the item becomes more meaningful:

Can I get you anything?


.................... a pen and a piece of paper.
A I like
B I’ll like
C I’d like
D I’m liking
Multiple choice items can be made a greater test of all-round comprehension if they
are part of a passage or dialogue, for example:
Hilary : Where are you (on, in, off, out) to?
Jane: I’m just going to the shops.
Hilary: Could you (post, take, bring, buy) this letter with you?
Jane: Yes, of course.
Hilary: And you’d better (take, to take, taking, took) an
umbrella.
Jane: Why?
Hilary: Because it’s going to rain
Fill-ins
◦ Students need to fill in blanks with a word or words. This is
a good test of student’s comprehension as well as of their
knowledge of individual grammatical items.
◦ Fill-in items are easy to write, although sometimes difficult
to ensure that students can put in only one answer. It is
possible for students to come up with more than one word
to put in the blank which could be correct.
◦ In this type of exam, you have to change the form of a word
(in brackets) to complete the sentence. For example:
My dad _____ (work) in a shop.
My sister _____ (not like) swimming.
This song is much _____ (good) than that one.

rani/ipgkpp/2019 12
Look at Jenny’s postcard to Joanne. There are some missing words. Write one word for each
space.

Dear Joanne,
Rome ____ a beautiful city! The people ____ very nice. Susan ______ not like the
city very much, but ____ likes the meals. (She loves shaghetti!) Susan has two
friends in Rome ____ Parlo and Kurt. ____ live ____ the north-west of Rome. Kurt
is an artist. _____ pictures are very good. Parlo is Italian and Kurt is German. He
is ____ Hamburg. I ____ speak Italian or German, but Parlo and Kurt can speak
English very well.
See you soon,

Love,
Jenny
Sentence Completion
◦ Sentence completion methods are presentations of the
beginning of sentences which then requests that the
subjects complete the sentence any way they would like.
◦ This method is based on the idea that it will reveal more
about thoughts, fantasies, and emotional conflicts than
testing with direct questions (Weiner & Greene, 2008).
◦ Generally speaking, sentence completion tests are easier to
interpret since the answers provided will be more detailed
than in a word association test.
◦ Test more of the students’ knowledge and use of English.
Sentence Completion

For example, the following sentences would provide


striking differences in how they were completed
depending on the personality of the respondent:
A beach vacation is……………………..
Golfing is for ……………………
People who visit museums are ……………..
Complete the sentences below so that they make sense.

1. A: Are you sure you’ll be all right?


B: Don’t worry – I’m _________ looking after myself.
2. Both teams were exhausted. They __________ for three hours.
3. The old lady, who __________, suddenly sat up and asked for
some tea.
4. He was born between 1940 and 1942, so he must be in
______________
Sentence Reordering
This type of test item explores the students’ knowledge
of syntax and is a useful addition to a test.
Put the words in order to make correct sentence.
E.X he lives/ John is/and/in London./ a student
___________________________________

17
Sentence Transformation
◦ A test of the students’ knowledge of syntax and structure
is sentence transformation.
◦ Here students have to rewrite sentences so that they
have the same meaning but different grammatical
structures.
◦ Students should have a lot of grammatical knowledge to
be able to transform sentences correctly.
Sentence Transformation
Transformation-of-Sentences is done in various ways.
1. The nature of the sentences can be changed without changing
the meaning of the sentences.-
This shirt is small for me.
This shirt is so small that it is not suitable for me.
2. Interchange of Degrees of Comparison: :
The Transformation-of-Sentences, containing comparatives, can
be done as follows with out changing the meaning of the
sentences.
• Positive: This razor is not as sharp as that one.
• Comparative: That razor is sharper than this one.

19
Sentence Transformation

3.Interchange of Active and Passive voice: A sentence in


the Active form can be changed into Passive form.
Passive: Promises should be kept.
Active: One should keep one’s promises.
4. Interchange of affirmative and negative sentences: The
affirmative sentence can be changed into a negative
sentence by using ‘not’.
Affirmative: Everybody was present.
Negative: Nobody is absent.

20
Complete the sentences so that they mean the same as the
original sentence.

Start with the words given.


1. John is taller than Mary.
Mary isn’t ___________________________.
2. ‘I haven’t seen her for years’, he said.
He said that __________________________.
3. I won’t come unless you ring.
I’ll come ____________________________.
4. She wasn’t strong enough to lift the suitcase.
The suitcase _________________________.
Sentence Writing
◦ Writing a good sentence is an art, and you can master that art
by developing your awareness of what makes a sentence work.
As you become more familiar with the relationships among
sentence elements, you will strengthen your writing skills and
will be better able to make your meaning clear to your reader

◦ The most common sentence problems in student writing are:


comma splice and fused (or run-on) sentence, sentence
fragment (or incomplete sentence), agreement, and shifts.
◦ If you are unfamiliar with these terms and others such as
subject, verb, object, complement, phrase, main clause,
independent clause, subordinate clause, coordinating
conjunction, number, person, etc than writing good sentences
would be difficult.

22
Sentence Writing
Write four sentences about these pictures using there is and there are

1. _______________________________________
2. _______________________________________
3. _______________________________________
4. _______________________________________

This activity certainly tests the students’ ability to write correct sentences-
and their ability to use there with is and are correctly,

23
Parallel Writing
Encik Zain likes gardening, collecting stamps and fishing but he likes
fishing best. It is his favourite hobby. Every Sunday he goes fishing in
a sampan. He always goes alone.
Encik Zain always fishes in the river near his house. He does not like
to fish in the sea. He always uses a hook and line. He never uses a
net.

Write about your father.


Parallel Writing

Adjectives should be paralleled by adjectives, nouns by nouns,


dependent clauses by dependent clauses, and so on.
◦ WRONG: Your new training program was stimulating and a
challenge. (Adjective and noun.)
◦ RIGHT: Your new training program was stimulating and
challenging. (Two adjectives.)

rani/ipgkpp/2019 25
Error correction
Anand have a small vegetable park at the back of her house.
He grow different type of vegetables. He looks at the plants
properly. His mother, Mr Kumar, sometime helps he in him
garden.
Anand buys his vegetables to his neighbours and enemies.
They likes selling his vegetables because they vegetables are
stale on clean.
THE END

27

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