The document discusses reading assessment. It notes that reading overlaps with and is similar to the other language skills of listening, speaking and writing. Assessments also overlap these skills. Reading performance is classified into selective, extensive, and interactive types, mirroring classifications for listening and speaking. The document outlines numerous assessment tasks used to evaluate reading and the variations that exist. It concludes that isolating reading from the other skills is difficult as assessments overlap skills.

1. Cathy C. Suarez
BBL 5053
University of Texas as San Antonio

2. Reading is _c_o_m_p_lic_a_t_e_d___.
 Alderson (2000) describes reading as , “The most extensively
researched and the most enigmatic of the so-called language skills.”
 Goodman (1970) refers to reading as,” A psycholinguistic guessing-game.”

3. Key Points
1. Overlap among the four skills
2. Similarities in the types of performance among the four skills
3. Assessment tasks: the most popular, most researched, most common
and the oldest

4. Observable Performance of the fours skills
 Can the teacher directly observe………?
Process Product
Yes
Yes Yes
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
(Brown and Abeywickrama , p.159)
No No
Yes No*
No No
Yes Yes

5. 1. Reading Skills
 Bottom up, top down, and schemata strategies
 Micro and Macro skills for comprehension
 Comprehension strategies

6. 2. Types of Reading Performance
● Perceptive: Letters, words, punctuation (Bottom-up processing)
● Selective: assessment formats: picture cued-tasks, multiple-choice,
matching, true/false
● Interactive: reader interacts with the text, “the process of negotiating
meaning” (Top-down processing)
● Extensive: big picture understanding of longer texts

7. 3. Assessment Tasks
 Almost 20 types of tasks, corresponding to different types of reading
performance
 Over 30 examples, most with overlap of skills being assessed
 Reading Aloud (S,R)
 Written Response (R,W)
 Picture cued-items(R, L)
 Multiple-Choice (R)
 Editing for grammatical
errors (R)
 Gap-Filling (S,R)
 Matching (R)
 Short-Answer Tasks (R,W)
 Scanning (R)
 Ordering Tasks (R)
 Information Transfer (R,S,W)
 Interpretation of graphic
information ( R,S,W)
 Skimming (R, S/W)
 Summarizing and Responding
(R,W)
 Notetaking and Outlining (R,W)

8. Most popular, researched, oldest
 Multiple-Choice (R)
 Cloze Procedure (L,S,R, W)
 Impromptu Reading with comprehension questions

9. Let’s Practice!
 I wonder if the person next to me is really ____________.
 I’m glad the presenter hasn’t put me to _______________.
 Will they ever get the ____________ right in this classroom?
 Is it 9:00 _________?

10. Summary
 It is difficult to isolate reading from listening, speaking, and writing.
Most assessment tasks overlap with at least one of the other skills.
 Types of reading performance are similarly classified:
 Selective and extensive reading, similar to listening
 Similar to speaking there is interactive and extensive
 There are numerous types of assessment tasks and variations to choose
from.

11. Dr. Caroline Clapham

12. References
 Brown, H., & Abeywickrama, P. (2010). Language assessment: Principles and
classroom practices (2nd ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.
 Fulcher, G. and Thrasher, R. Language Testing Videos. In association with ILTA,
available: http://languagetesting.info. Retrieved from
http://languagetesting.info/video/main.html
 Goodman, K. S. (1970). Reading: A Psycholinguistic Guessing Game. In D. V.
Gunderson (Ed.), Language and Reading: An Interdisciplinary Approach. (pp. 107-
119): CAL. Retrieved from
https://login.libweb.lib.utsa.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.libweb.lib.u
tsa.edu/docview/54337249?accountid=7122