This document provides an overview of communicative language testing. It begins with the historical perspective and debates around the nature of language. It then defines communicative testing as intended to assess a test-taker's ability to perform language tasks in specific contexts. It discusses types of communicative competence and principles of communicative language testing. Advantages include assessing integrated language skills in realistic tasks. Weaknesses include difficulty assessing grammar separate from communication and potential cultural bias. The document provides examples of communicative language test questions.

1. COMMUNICATIVE
TESTING
By :
Ningsih Sri Mulyani

2. Historical Perspective
Definition of Communicative
Testing
Approach
Communicative
Testing
Types of Communicative
Competence
Generic Test
Principles of Communicative
Language Testing
Advantages of Communicative
Testing
The Weaknesses of
Communicative Testing

3. Historical Perspective
IntegrativePragmative
Approach
Debate over the
nature of language:
divisible or unitary
Communicative
Approach
Answer the long and
tiring controversy
over the nature of
language ability

4. What is communicative testing?
• Communicative Language Testing is intended to
provide test-takers with information about the testtaker’s ability to perform the target language in
certain context-specific tasks.
• It has to be recognized that given the constrains of
time and practicality, only a small sample of the
tester-test-takers’ language can be collected
• However realistic the tasks may be intended to be,
the students’ performance will inevitably reflect the
fact the s/he was performing under tests conditions.

5. CA
Function of
Language
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
Means of
communication

6. Types of Communicative Competence
(Canale & Swain :1980)
Grammatical
Sociolinguistic
Discourse
Strategic

7. Language
competence
Knowledge
structures
Language
Ability
Components
(Bachman:1990)
Context of
situation
4
Psychological
mechanisms
Strategic
competence

8. Speaking
Writing
Generic
Test
Reading
Listening

9. Characteristic and Tests Types of
Communicative Approach
Language is used in communication
Emphasized to the exclusion of
language usage
Measurement based on divisibility
hypothesis
Test content  relevant to test-takers
 relate to real-life situation.
Quantitative modes of assessment.

10. • Tasks in the test should resemble as far as possible
to the ones as would be found in real life in terms
of communicative use of language;
• There is a call for test items contextualization;
• There is a need to make test items that address an
obviously definite audience for purposeful
communicative intent to be envisioned;
• Tests instructions and scoring plans should touch
on effective communication of meaning rather
than on grammatical accuracy;
• Language should be productively drawn off as a
result of the test, rather than merely recognized.

11. • Communicative tests are able to measure all
integrated skill of pupils
• The tests using this approach face pupils in real life
so it will be very useful for them
• Due to the fact that Communicative test can measure all
language skills; it can help pupil in getting the score.
Consider pupils have a poor ability in using spoken
language but may score quite highly on tests of reading
• Detailed statements of each performance level
serve to increase the reliability of the scoring by
enabling the examiner to make decisions according
to carefully drawn-up and well-established criteria.

12. The Weaknesses of Communicative
Testing
• Different from structuralism
approach this approach will not
be able to grasp structurally
because communicative
competence can ever be achieved
without a considerable mastery
of the grammar of a language
• It is unavoidable that cultural
bias affects the reliability of the

13. Write an application to the position as
advertised of about 200 words. You very much
want to be in the position. So, be convincing
and make yourself sound fitting to the
position. Your application should be clear,
well-organized and easy to read.

14. EXAMPLE:
• ‘That woman over there looks confused’
‘Why don’t you ask her______?’
a. does she need help?
d. do you need help
b. if she need help
e. she needs helps or not
c. whether she needs helps
(SPMB 2006-711:13)
• ‘Your haircut looks cool, Jane. I like it’
‘_______’
a. Come on. Don’t be joking
b. Oh really? Thanks a lot
c. Well, I have it hair-done
d. It is my style, you know?
e. I don’t think so. But thanks