my material of learning LT 1

1. Language Testing I
Simplified from Heaton, J.B
by Dr. Alauddin Madjid, M.Pd

2. Testing & Teaching
 Both testing and teaching are so closely
interrelated that it is virtually impossible to
work in either field without being constantly
concerned with the other.
 Test may be constructed primarily: as
devices to reinforce learning and to
motivate the students, or as a means of
assessing the student’s performance in the
language.

3. Why test?
 For purposes of comparison or selection
 To enable teachers to increase their
own effectiveness by making ajustment
in their teaching to enable certain groups
of students/individuals in the class to
benefit more.
 To locate the precise areas of difficulty
encountered by the class or by the
individual student.

4. Testing the language skills
 Four major skills in communicating
through language are often defined as
listening, reading, speaking, and writing.

 The test writer should also integrate
the skills which appear directly relevant
to the ability to use language for real-life
communication.

5. Ways of assessing performance
in the four language skills
 Listening comprehension, in which
short utterences, dialogues, talks and
lectures are given to the testees.
 Speaking ability, usually in the form of
an interview, a picture, description, role
play, and a problem solving task
involving pair work or group work.

6. Continued ....
 Reading comprehension, in which
questions are set to test the students’ ability
to understand the gist of a text and to
extract key information on specific points in
the text.
 Writing ability, usually in the form of
letters, reports, memos, messages,
instructions, and accounts of past events,
etc.

7. Testing language areas
In an attempt to isolate the language
areas learned, a considerable number of
tests include sections on:
 grammar and usage
 vocabulary (concerned with word
meanings, word formation and
collocations)
 phonology (concerned with phonemes,
stress and intonations).

8. Cont..1. test of grammar and
usage
e.g,
Although it (1) .... quite warm now, (2) ....will change
later today,it (3) .... much colder and there may even be
a little snow.
1. a. seems 2. a. weather 3. a. is
b. will seem b. the weather b. will go to be
c. seemed c. a weather c. is going to be
d. had seemed d. some weather d. Would be
(This tests measure students’ ability to recognize
appropriate grammatical forms and to manipulate
structures).

9. Cont...2. test of vocabulary
e.g.,
Did you .... that book from the school
library?
A. beg
B. borrow
C. hire
D. lend
E. ask

10. Cont...3. test of phonology
e.g.,
(Spoken)
Indicate which of the three sentences
you hear!
1. Just look at the large ship over there
2. Just look at the large sheep over there
3. Just look at the large ship over there

11. Language Skills & Language Elements
The question shoud be posed is to what
extent should we concentrate on testing
students’ ability in language elements and
to what extent should we concentrate on
testing the integrated skills?
 the answer is it depends on both the level
and the purpose of the test.

12. Continued ...
 If the students have been learning English
for only a relatively short period, it is highly
likely that we shall be briefly concerned with
their ability to handle the language
elements correctly.
 If the aim of the test is to sample as wide
as field as possible, a battery of tests of the
language lements will be useful not only in
providing a wide coverage of this ability but
also in locating the problem areas.

13. Continued ...
 At all levels but the most elementary it
is generally advisable to include test
items which measure the ability to
communicate in the target language.

14. Recognition
Choose the correct answer and write A, B, C, or D!
I’ve been standing here .... half an hour.
A. since
B. during
C. while
D. for
(this test item tests students’ ability to recognise
the correct form, this ability is obviously not
quite the same as the ability to produce and use
the coorect form in real-life situation).

15. Production
If the four choices were omitted, the
item would come closer to being a test of
production.
e.g.,
Complete the blank with the correct
word!
I’ve been standing here .... half an hour.

16. Continued ...
The following examples illustrate the
difference between testing recogition and
testing production.
e.g.,
Choose the best reply in List B for each
sentence in List A and write the letter in
the space provided!

17. Continued ...
1. List A List B
1. What’s the forecast weather
for tomorrow? ........
a. Soon after lunch
2. Would you like to go
swimming? ..... .
b. We can take our umbrellas
3. Where shall we go? ..... . c. All afternoon
4. Fine, what time shall we set
off? ..... .
d. Yes, that’s a good idea
5. How long shall we spend
here? ..... .
e. It’ll be quite hot
6. What shall we do if it rains?
..... .
f. How about Clearwater Bay?

18. Write B’s part in the following
dialogue!
A: What’s the forecast for tomorrow?
B: It’ll be quite hot.
A: Would you like to go swimming?
B: .......................
A: Where shall we go?
B: ....................... (etc.)

19. Problems of sampling
The test must cover an adequate and
representative section of language areas
and skills which are desired to test.
Examp 1 is related to the students’ difficulty
to differ present perfect from present
simple.
Examp 2 concerns with confusion in the use
of look for.

20. Examp 1
Write down A,B,C, D or E according to the
best alternative needed to complete the
sentence!
Television .... only for the last fifty years.
A. exists
B. was existing
C. has existed
D. existed
E. is existing

21. Examp 2
“Here is your book, John. You left it on
my desk.”
“Thanks, I’ve .... it everywhere.”
A. looked for
B. fetched
C. found
D. attended to
E. watched over

22. Before writing any test items, a test
constructor should draw up a detailed table
of specification showing aspects of the skills
being tested and giving a comprehensive
coverage of the specific language elements
to be included.
A classroom test should be closely related to
the ground covered in the class teaching, an
attempt being made to relate the different
areas covered in the test to the length of
time spent on teaching those areas in the
class.

23. Avoiding traps for the students
A good test should never be constructed
in such a away as to trap the students
into giving an incorrect answer. Such as:
1. When I met Tim yesterday, it was the
first time I .... him since Christmas.
A. saw
B. have seen
C. had seen
D. had been seing

24. 2. The animals tried to find .... from the
fire by running into the lake.
A. sanitation
B. safety
C. saturation
D. salutation

25. Approach to Language Testing
 The Essay-Translation Method
 The Structuralist Approach
 The Integrative Approach
 The Communicative Approach

26. The essay translation method is also
known as the pre-scientific stage of
language testing.
No skills or expertise in testing is
required: the subjective judgement of
the teacher is considerd to be paramount
importance.
Tests consist of essay writing,
translation, and grammatical analysis.

27. The structuralist approach is characterised
by the view that language learning is chiefly
concerned with the systematic acquisition of
a set of habits.
It draws on the work of structural
linguistics, in particular the importance of
contrastive analysis and the need to identify
and measure the learnenr’s mastery of the
seperate elements of the target language.
This approach tests phonology, vocabulary,
and grammar.

28. The skills of listening, speaking, reading
and writing are also seperated from one
another as much as possible because it is
considered essential to test one thing at
a time.

29. The integrative approach involves the
testing of language in context and is thus
concerned primarily with meaning and the
total communicative effect of discourse.
Integrative test do not seek to seperate
language skills into neat divisions in order to
improve test reliability, insted they are often
designed to assess learner’s ability to use
two ore more skills simultaneously.

30. Integrative testing involves ‘functional
language’ but not the use of functional
language.
Intergrative test is best characterised by the
use of cloze testing and of dictation.
Oral interviews, translation and essay
writing are also included in many integrative
tests—a point frequently overlooked by
those who take too narrow a view of
integrative testing.

31. The communicative approach to language
testing is sometimes linked to the
integrative approach.
Both approaches emphasise the importance
of the meaning of utterences rather than
their form and structure, but they have
fundamental differences between the two
approaches:
Communicative tests are concerned
primarily with how language is used in
communication.

32. Communicative testing result in an attempt to
obtain different profiles of a learner’s
performance in the language.
Communicative testing has to reflect the culture
of a particular country because of their
emphasis on context and the use of authentic
materials.
The most important criterion of communicative
test is that they should be based on precise and
detailed specification of the needs of the
learners for whom they are constructed.

33. Written english
Paper 1, the items to be tested are:
Writing of formal/informal letters, initiating
letters and respond to them, messages, notices,
signs, postcards, lists, etc.
Paper 2, the items to be tested are:
the use of a dictionary, ability to fill in forms,
ability to follow instructions, to read for the
general meaning of a text, to read in order to
select specific information.

34. Spoken English
Section 1, Social English.
Candidates must be able to:
(a) Read and write numbers, letters, and
common abbreviation
(b) Participate in short and simple conversation,
possibly using stimuli.
(c) Respond appropriately to everyday situations
described in very simple terms.
(d) Aswer questions in a directed situation.

35. Srutinizing Teacher’s made test at SMP
Negeri 1 Kendari
Bab I. Introduction
Bab II. Analysing T’s Made
Test based on the Four
Approaches in Language
Testing
Bab III. Conclusion

36. A.
B.
C
D

37. Test of Reading
Operations-Basic level
a. Scan text to locate specific information.
b. Search trough text to decide whether the
whole or part is relevant to an established
need.
c. Search through text to evaluate the content
in terms of previously received information.

38. Text types and Topics-Basic level
Form Type
Leaflet Announcement
Guide Description
Adverticement Narration
Letter Comment
Postcard Anecdote/Joke
Form Report/Summary
Set of instruction
Diary entry
Time table
Map/Plan

39. Test of Oral Interaction
Operations-Basic Level
Expressing thanks: thanks
requirements
opinions
comment
attitude
confirmation
apology
want/need
information

40. Narrating : sequence of events
Eliciting : information
directions
service (and all areas above)