How to Teach Reading for Exams.

1. Variation 2: Passing the message on
 Gives the learner a message that he is to pass on to the interviewer
 It may deliberately contain a number of specific details
 It is given before, during or after the test

2. Retelling a story from written form
 Tell it in their own words
 Using notes (academic purposes) (Analyze the vocabulary they are using)
 Using a set text (Asked to explain its meaning or find its order + open
questions)
 Using an unseen text (Few minutes to read an unknown text, ask open or
specific questions) (Help him by clarifying unknown words)

3. Reading aloud
 Read a passage, dialogue or text to the interviewer
 Advantages
 The passages can be chosen
 More comparable and reliable if it is only one
 These are simple to administer and quick to mark
 Disadvantages
 They are not authentic
 Good performance depends on god reading skills
 People do not feel comfortable doing so

4. Reading aloud
 Reading a part of a dialogue with someone else reading the other part (Might
better or worsen the situation)
 Reading texts with phonetic markers (expressions, stream-of-speech features
such as assimilation, liaison, or contractions)
 Reading sentences containing minimal pairs (Pronunciation and speech
management)
 Spelling aloud (ESP)
 Reading from a table (Tech-talk)

5. Translating/ interpreting
 In both directions (Translation to test comprehension)
 Translating an unprepared passage (Short time to prepare = real
comprehension) - Translating test in the language lab
 Translating disconnected words or phrases (Small text, scored easy)

6. Sentence completion from aural or
written stimulus
 Read the sentence and complete it…
 Using written test
 Using gap fill to check discourse reference (relative clauses, etc.) (that)
 Text completion (read a sentence and suggest another sentence that could
precede it)
 Using spoken cues (register, politeness, etc.) (Complete: Sorry, I can’t make it
today, I…)
 Complete well-known saying (It’s like looking for a needle…) (Warning)

7. Sentence correction and transformation
 1) Correcting an error made by others or by themselves
 Transforming speech
 Reported speech
 Via telephone

8. Marking systems
 Test marking (Main problem: reliability when taking oral tests)
 Avoid subjective tests
 Face and accept that human judgment is subjective
 The number of assessors (Take the oral tests, interview you as teacher) (The
more the merrier)
 Selection of assessors (Big and important process) (10 meetings)

9. Marking recorded oral tests
 Video or audio, one may interview the other may listen afterwards (Biased, it
is not direct communication)
 First marking of laboratory tapes

10. Marking and marking categories
 They exist to help guide the test (anticipate problems, maintain the aims of
the test by marking the areas, describe the purpose of each item)
 Marking are there to help categorize what is being tested (Skill…improving
reliability…always focusing on communication)

11. Weighting
 Refers to the power we give to certain skill:
 Marks help to determine the score
 It helps to determine which factor is more important
 It sets marking parameters (He did not do well in grammar but...)
 It depends on the level too (differential weighting)

12. Rating Scales
 Short descriptions of different levels of language ability.
 Based on the typical learner of a language
 It may be wise to adapt the scale to each learner