Chapter 02: Approaches to language testing

Chapter 2 Approaches to language testing Language tests are chronologically classified according to four main approaches: (1) the essay translation approach; (2) the structuralist approach; (3) the integrative approach; and (4) the communicative approach (1) the essay translation approachCharacteristics:No special skill or expertise in testingSubjective judgment of teacherEssay writing, translation & grammatical analysis (comments about the language)Disadvantages: tests  a heavy literary and cultural bias an aural/ oral component at the upper intermediate & advantage levels as something additional & not an integral part of the syllabus or examination(2) the structuralist approachLanguage learning  chiefly concerned with the systematic acquisition of set of habits.Focusing the importance of contrastive analysis & the need to identify & measure learners’ mastery of separated elements of L2:phonology, vocabulary & grammar Listening, speaking, reading & writing are separated from one another & it’s essential to test one skill at a time.The need for statistical measures of reliability & validity - important in testing multiple choice item (3) the integrative approachinvolving the testing of language in context & concerned with the meaning and the total communicative effect of discourse.assessing the learners’ ability to use two or more skills simultaneously, or a global view of proficiency.involving functional language but not the use of functional language.Forms: cloze test & dictationCloze testingPrinciple: the Gestalt theory of “closure”Purpose: measuring the reader’s ability to decode ‘interrupted’ or ‘mutilated’ messages by making the most acceptable substitutions from all the contextual clues available Requirements: to fill in each blank in the text itselfMethods of scoring: one mark  acceptable answer; another  each exact answer. misspelling not be penalizedmeasuring familiarity with the grammar of the language rather than readingEvidence from research studiesperformance on cloze tests correlates highly with listening, writing & speakingclose testing: a good indicator of general linguistic abilitylinguistic knowledge, textual knowledge & knowledge of the worldcloze tests: achievement, proficiency tests, classroom placement tests & diagnostic tests DictationPurpose: previously regarded solely as a means of measuring students’ skills of listening comprehension. Auditory discrimination, the auditory memory span, spelling, the recognition of sound segments, a familiarity with grammatical and lexical patterning of the language, and overall textual comprehension good predicators of global language ability, but recent research has found that dictation tends to measure lower-order language skills- straightforward comprehension rather that high-order skills- inference.(4) the communicative approach concerned primarily with how language is used in communicationCommunicative competence achieved without a considerable mastery of grammarresulting in an attempt to obtain different profiles of a learner’s performance in the languageThe score obtained on a communicative test several measures of proficiency rather than simply one overall measure.Reflecting the culture of a particular country because of its emphasis on context and the use of authentic materials.Introducing the concept of qualitative modes of assessment in preference to quantitative ones