The document discusses various approaches to language testing, highlighting the historical context and the evolution of testing methods, from prescientific to communicative approaches. It categorizes testing into different trends, including structuralist and integrative approaches, emphasizing the significance of context and communicative competence in modern assessments. Additionally, performance-based assessment is introduced as a motivational and authentic testing method, despite its complexity and resource demands.

1. Language Testing/Assessment
Approaches to Language
Testing
Reported by:
Ann Liza D. Sanchez

2. • Approaches to Language Testing
There has always been a close relationship
between testing and teaching. A look at
the state of the art in language testing
reveals that different testing methods have
been developed in accordance with various
teaching methods. The history of language
testing shows that it is almost impossible
to work in the field of testing without
being constantly concerned with teaching.

3. • Spolsky (1978) maintains:
It is useful, though an overgeneralization,
to divide language testing into three
major trends which I will call the
prescientific, the psychometric
structuralist, and the integrative
sociolinguistic. The trends follow in order
but overlap in time and approach. The
third picks up many elements of the first,
and the second and the third coexist and
compete

4. Madsen (1983) classifies the testing history
into three stages of intuitive, scientific, and
communicative. Heaton (1990) is the other
scholar who classifies the testing history into
four main eras. They are the essay
translation, the structuralist, the integrative,
and the communicative approaches. Farhady
(1980) also divides the history into four
periods of translation, discrete point,
integrative, and functional.

5. The Essay- Translation Approach
• This is commonly referred to as the
pre-scientific stage of language
testing.
• No special skills or expertise in
testing is required.
• Test usually consist of essay writing,
translation and grammatical analysis.

6. • Public examinations resulting from
the test using this approach
sometimes have an oral component
at the upper intermediate and
advance levels.

7. Strengths
• This approach is easy to follow
because teachers will simply use
their subjective judgement
• It may be used for testing any level of
examinees.
• The model of tester can easily be
modified based on the essentials of
the test.

8. Weaknesses
• Subjective judgement of teachers
tends to be biased.
• The tests have a heavy literary and
cultural bias

9. The Structuralism Approach
• The structural approach to
English views the language as
being divided into several
components; these components
interact with each other and form
the rules of language.

10. • The structural approach involves
structural linguistics which stresses
the importance of constructive
analysis and the need to identify and
measure the learners’ mastery of the
separate elements of the target
language.

11. • Grammar translation is another
structuralist method of teaching
English language.
• Structualism in the classroom relies
heavily on repetition and trial-and –
error.
• Teaching in this manner is often
tedious.

12. The Integrative Approach
• This involves the testing of language
in context and is thus concerned
primarily with meaning and total
communicative effect of discourse.
• This approach stated that
communicative competence is so
global that requires the integration
of all linguistic abilities.

13. • According to Oller (1983), if
discrete items take language skill
apart, integrative test put it back
together.

14. The Communicative Approach
• Communicative language testing is
intended to provide the teacher with
information about the learners’ ability to
perform in the target language in a
certain context- specific task.

15. The principles of testing in the
communicative language testing can
be describe as the following (Anon,
1990):
• Task in the test should be resemble
as far as possible to the ones as
would be found in real life in terms
of communicative use of language

16. • There is a call for test items
contextualization
• There is a need to make test
items that address a definite
audience for a purposeful
communicative intent to be
envisioned

17. • Test instructions and scoring plans
should touch on effective,
communication of meaning rather
than on grammatical accuracy.

18. Requirements of Communicative Testing
• Brown (2005) identifies five
requirements that make up what is to be
called a communicative test.
1. Meaningful communication
2. Authentic situation
3. Unpredictable language input
4. Creative language output
5. Integrated language skills

19. The Performance Approach
• Performance- based assessment believes
that the students will learn best when
they are given a chance to perform and
show what they know according to their
own plan, collect data, infer pattern,
draw conclusion, take a stand or deliver
presentation.

20. • According to Brown (2004), in
developing performance-based
assessment, should consider the
following principle:
 state the overall goal of the
performance
 specify the objectives of the
performance in details

21.  prepare the student in stepwise
progressions
 use a reliable evaluation form,
checklist or rating sheet
 treat performances as opportunities
for giving feedback and provide that
feedback systematically

22. Strengths
Increasing learning
motivation
Meaningful
Authentic
Challenge high order
thinking of students
Weaknesses
• Time consuming
• Expensive
• Challenge the
teacher to match
performance
assessment to
classroom goals and
learning objectives.

23. References:
• Corpuz, B. & Salandanan, G., (n.d.), Principles
Of Teaching 2, Lorimar Publishing, Q.C..
• Angeles, M. (2013, January 25). Language
Testing: Approaches and Techniques.
• Mantra, I. (2013, October 13). Communicative
Language Testing.
• Rhalmi, M. (2012, June 12). Language Testing.
• http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/1
0603/144425/11/10_chapter%20ii.pdf