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The Essay-Translation EssayApproach a pre-scientific stage 1950 pre Associated with grammargrammartranslation approach to language teaching
TestTest-Types Translation free composition writing Very cultural bias E.g. Write about American Civil War and its Impact on USA.
Influenced by structuralist linguistics (Robert Lado Language Testing) Associated with audio-lingual audiomethod of language teaching and behaviorism
based on assumption that language learning is concerned with the systematic acquisition of habit forming
Seeing language as consisting of features of the language system (vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar)
DeDe-contextualizing the language knowledge to be tested and test language aspects in isolation (discrete point testing)
Measuring students mastery of separate elements of language macro language skills (reading, writing, etc.) are tested in isolation Testing discrete structural points taught in audio-lingual methods audio-
Main concerns: objectivity, reliability, validity Tests were carefully constructed by specialists and trained teachers Tests become more scientific, scientific, more reliable, use of statistics reliable,
Test Types: Types: testing discrete language points through multiple choice, T-F. Tmatching
Advantages: Very objective easy to score reliable covering a wide range of language points
Test Examples
1. Is Mary still in Bangkok? No, _____ in Chiangmai since 2004. 1. she lives
The old woman was too _____ to push open the heavy door. a. feeble b. deaf c. sincere d. generous
listening
Criticism
John Oller
Discrete point analysis necessarily breaks the elements of language apart and tries to teach them or test them separately with little or no attention to the way those elements interact in a larger context of communication
Oller
Morrow
Knowledge of the elements of a language is useless if the user is not able to combine them in new and appropriate ways to use the language
Main concerns: creative, more than a sum of discrete language knowledge Global testing, integrating knowledge of pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, with appropriate context
Believing in Unitary Competence Hypothesis Performance on a whole range of tests depends on the same underlying capacity in the learners the ability to integrate grammatical, lexical, contextual and pragmatic knowledge in test performance
Advantages:
More
Advocate: Advocate: John Oller General Language Proficiency (GLP) is a single language factor underlying all language skills. skills.
Society offers many jobs and it is wise to consider carefully many aspects before applying for a position. When applying for a_job you must always be realistic _____ the one you apply for. You might be good yet ___ no interest in that particular work.
Disadvantages:
Problems with Cloze Test not realistic, measuring linguistic knowledge rather than actual performance moderately correlated with other language skills Changes of word order = changes in test scores
Influenced by Hymess notion of communicative competence Knowing a language is more than knowing its rules of grammar An ability to use language appropriately for different situations
Assessing learners ability when he is engaged in an extended act of communication and considering the social roles he is likely to assume in real word settings.
Competence
1. Grammatical Competence:
Knowledge
of lexical items and of rules of morphology, syntax, sentencesentence-grammar semantics, and phonology
2. Discourse competence
ability to connect sentences in stretches of discourse and to form a meaning series of utterances in extended use of language in context.
3. Strategic competence
verbal and non-verbal noncommunicative strategies used to compensate for breakdowns in communication due to imperfect or insufficient linguistic competence in the second language.
4. Sociolinguistic competence
Thus, constructing a test requires a careful study of communicative roles and tasks facing the learners
Problems
1. Which communicative task to be included in the test? e.g. a group of students in English for Secretaries
Problems 2. the more specific the task, the less we can generalize about the students ability 3. Conditions for actual realreallife communication are not replicable in a test situation.
Problems 4. How much to be included in the test: The larger the sample of tasks, the more realistic the test, but the longer the test 5. How to score: reliability ?