scientific writing

IMPROVING VOCABULARY ABILITY AND FLUENCY BY USING REPORTING-BACK STRATEGY

Fitri yunita,Faculty of English Education and Teacher Training, Universitas Nusantara PGRI of Kediri, Indonesia

   Abstract

Learning vocabulary is one of the first steps in learning a second language, but a learner never finishes vocabulary acqusition. Wheter in one’s native language or a second language, the acqusition of new vocabulary is an ongoing process. As the focus of Indonesia educational research has shifted to studying the improvement of students’ vocabulary and fluency,the reporting back is becoming more effective strategy to educators and students. Reporting back  is the usual term for the process of feeding back material from group deliberations into a plenary session (the phrase is "reporting out" in the States). It is important because, except in some specialised circumstances, it is necessary in order to gave value to the group discussions. Members often put a lot of themselves into small group activities, and if they did not feel that sufficient attention is paid to their efforts, they may well be turned off the whole activity, and even the course. This paper analysed how to build vocabulary by using reporting-back strategy and how to motivate the students to apply it in their English. The research was guided by a conceptual framework leading to the using reporting back strategy through peer work to improve their motivation to speak English during the process of classroom communication interaction. The research type was an action research. The subject of this research was students of the first grade of Senior High School. 

Keywords : vocabulary ability, fluency, reporting strategy, group

Introduction

            This main aim of this paper is to analyze what is reporting strategy  and how to improving vocabulary and fluency by using reporting back strategy. By doing reporting back strategy will improve the vocabulary ability and the fluency of the students, as vocabulary is an important elements that should students mastery in learning English as a second language in the world. This paper will be explain  about whether there is significance or not and show the effectiveness of reporting back strategy.

            As a consequence English teachers are demanded to be responsible for the failure in making the students capable of using English for communication both productively and receptively. To alleviate this ordeal, educators, practitioners, and policy makers quite often pay very much attention to research dealing with the curriculum, methodology and teachers excluding such significant variables as the learner perspective.

            They have rarely taken the learner perspective into consideration as a very important contribution to the learning process. Does the failure have any relations to these factors? Some English textbooks written for young learners seem to neglect these factors. As a matter of fact, many research findings have shown the powerful role of the students in improving their learning outcome.

            Teaching vocabulary in Indonesia is considered to be the most difficult, pronunciation, structure, discourse, and the social context of culture and situation. In short, it needs the mastery of the linguistic and the cultural competence. Besides, as vocabulary is difficult, more effort is required on the part of the students and teachers. It is not enough for the students to listen or to speech only.

            The teachers need to give the students’ activities to practice the new speech among the four basic skills of language. Bourdons in Nunan (1993) stated that spoken language needs the mastery of vocabulary habit. This means that practice vocabulary needs much time to fulfil the requirements of the mastery of spoken English, either from school or the environment. To mastery English there are four aspects of language that we must give more attention. One of them is vocabulary ability. Paultson and Brunder (1975) stated that the objective of the language teaching is the production of the speaker’s competence to communicate in the target language. Rivers (1968) stated that the teacher should give the students opportunities to practice vocabulary. She further stated that if the students are able to practice the new speech habit throughout as the children do in his native language, the problem of vocabulary fluency of foreign language would be lessened.

            Teaching vocabulary as a second language in Indonesia is one of the main focuses in the English teaching. Therefore the English teachers should find out the effort on searching and creating a new model in presenting materials, in order to increase vocabulary ability.

            Based on the background above, the researcher formulates the following research questions: (1) Do the students have high motivation in vocabulary English using reporting-back strategy?; (2) Does the use of reporting-back through peer work significantly improve their ability to speak English?

            Related to the problem statement above, the objective of this research is then specified: (1) to know about the effectiveness of using reporting-back in improving their motivation to speak English through peer work; (2) to know about the effectiveness of using reporting-back through peer work in improving their fluency to speak English.

Understanding Vocabulary

            Vocabulary is commonly defined as “all the words known and used by a particular person”( Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary). Knowing a word, however, is not as simple as simply being able to recognize or use it. Words that are generally understood when heard, read, or seen constitute a person’s receptive vocabulary. In this case, the students receptive vocabulary is likely tens, if not hundreds of words  but his or her active vocabulary is zero. When the students learn to speak,the active vocabulary begins increase. It is possible for the productive vocabulary to be larger than receptive vocabulary, for example in a second-language learners who has learned words through study rather than exposure, and can produce them,but has difficulty recognizing them in conversation as students though become more reliant on their ability to self-express. In the first grade,students who can read learns about twice as many words as one who cannot. Generally,this gap is not narrow later. When an English speaking students will have learned about 1500 words. It means that extensive vocabulary aids expression and communication (Sebastian Wren).

            The knowledge of the words deriving from the 3000 most frequent English words provides a comprehension of  95% of word use,and knowledge of  5000 word familiesis necessary for 99,9% word coverage (Adolphs and Schmitt,2003). One of useful method of building vocabulary in a keyword method of building vocabulary in a second language is the key word method. If times is available or one wants to amphasize a few key words, one can create mnemonic devices or wordassociations.although these strategy tend totake longer to implement and may take longer in recollection,they create new or unusual connections that increase retention.

            The keyword method  requires deeper cognitive processing, thus increasing the likelihood of retention (Saggara & Alba,2006). Paivio’s (1986), dual coding theory because it uses both verbal and image memory systems. However, this method is best for words that represent concrete and image able things. Abstract concepts or words that do not bring a distinct image to mind are difficult to associate. In addition,studies have shown that associate vocabulary learning is more successful with younger students. (Sagara & Alba,2006) older students tend to rely less on creating word associations to remember vocabulary. Vocabulary size has been directly linked to reading comprehension. 

 

Types of vocabulary

Reading vocabulary

A literate person's reading vocabulary is all the words he or she can recognize when reading. This is generally the largest type of vocabulary simply because a reader tends to be exposed to more words by reading than by listening. In many cases, notably Chinese characters, as in Chinese and Japanese kanji, where the pronunciation is not indicated by the written word, some words may be part of the oral vocabulary but not the written. For example, a Chinese speaker may not recognize that 麒麟 (giraffe) is pronounced qi lin, a Japanese speaker may not recognize that 麒麟 (giraffe) is pronounced kirin.

Listening vocabulary

A person's listening vocabulary is all the words he or she can recognize when listening to speech. This vocabulary is aided in size by context and tone of voice.

Speaking vocabulary

A person's speaking vocabulary is all the words he or she uses in speech. It is likely to be a subset of the listening vocabulary. Due to the spontaneous nature of speech, words are often misused. This misuse – though slight and unintentional – may be compensated by facial expressions, tone of voice, or hand gestures.

Writing vocabulary

Words used in various forms of writing from formal essays to Twitter feeds. Many written words do not commonly appear in speech. Writers generally use a limited set of words when communicating: for example if there are a number of synonyms, a writer will have his own preference as to which of them to use.

he is unlikely to use technical vocabulary relating to a subject in which he has no knowledge or interest.

Understanding Fluency

            Fluency is a speech language pathology term that means the smoothness or flow with which sounds, syllables, words and phrases are joined together when speaking quickly. "Fluency disorders" is used as a collective term for cluttering and stuttering. Both disorders have breaks in the fluidity of speech, and both have the fluency breakdown of repetition of parts of speech. Fluency disorders are most often complex in nature and they tend to occur more often in boys than in girls.

Language fluency

            Language fluency is used informally to denote broadly a high level of language proficiency, most typically foreign language or another learned language, and more narrowly to denote fluid language use, as opposed to slow, halting use. In this narrow sense, fluency is necessary but not sufficient for language proficiency: fluent language users (particularly uneducated native speakers) may have narrow vocabularies, limited discourse strategies, and inaccurate word use. They may be illiterate, as well. Native language speakers are often incorrectly referred to as fluent.

            Fluency in English is basically one’s ability to be understood by both native and non native listeners. A higher level would be bilingual, which indicates one is native in two languages, either having learned them simultaneously or one after the other.

            In the sense of proficiency, "fluency" encompasses a number of related but separable skills:

Reading: the ability to easily read and understand texts written in the language

Writing: the ability to formulate written texts in the language;

Comprehension: the ability to follow and understand speech in the language;

Speaking: the ability to produce speech in the language and be understood by its speakers.

Reading Comprehension : the level of understanding of text/messages.

            To some extent, these skills can be acquired separately. Generally, the later in life a learner approaches the study of a foreign language, the harder it is to acquire receptive (auditory) comprehension and fluent production (speaking) skills; however, the Critical Period Hypothesis is a hotly debated topic. For instance, reading and writing skills in a foreign language can be acquired more easily after the primary language acquisition period of youth is over.^]

Reading fluency

            Reading fluency is often confused with language fluency (see above). Reading fluency is the ability to read text accurately and quickly. Fluency bridges word decoding and comprehension. Comprehension is understanding what has been read. Fluency is a set of skills that allows readers to rapidly decode text while maintaining a high level of comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2001).

            Reading fluency encompasses both rate of words read per minute, as well as the ability to read with expression.

            A first benchmark for fluency is being able to "sight read" some words. The idea is that children will recognize on sight the most common words written in their native language and that such instant reading of these words will allow them to read and understand text more quickly.

            As children learn to read, the speed at which they read becomes an important measure of fluency.

Understanding Reporting  Back Strategy

Reporting back is a strategy used to support students in bridging the gap between spoken and written language (Gibbons,1993).  This strategy can be used as follow-up after any active-learning experience.  The students describe their  experience, using vocabulary that isconnected with the experience so that the rest of the class has a clear understanding of the materials and sequence of actions that were used. The students then write  their reporting-back summary to be included in the class daily-news,or their daily learning log.

Methodology

The order of reporting back strategy is by taking seven steps in  teaching learning. First, prepare the students for action. Teacher must prepare the students for an active-learning experience by giving direction for the activity and modeling what is expected. Then, follow up the demonstration by saying, “After you finished your activity, you will report back to the class describing what hapenned. For example, if you were reporting back to the class on the experience just demonstrated,you would say, ‘I opened the jar of the red paint and I opened  the jar of the blue paint. I took an eyedropper and use it to draw up some of the red paint and dropped two drops of red paint into the plastic cup. Next, used the eyedropper to draw up some blue paint and put two drops of blue paint into the plastic cup. I took a toothpick ad swirled the two colours together in th cup. When they mixed together , they turned into purple paint. I learned that red and blue paint mix together to make purple paint.’ After you finish your activity, you and your partner need to decide what to say when you report back to the class.”

            Second, list and review the steps. After explaining the procedure to the students,list the steps on the whiteboard or on a chart.

            Third, verbalize the action. In this step, during the activity, circulate throughout the classroom, reinforcing the vocabulary being used and scaffolding language by verbalizing what the teacher see going on. For example, as one pair is dropping paint into the cup the techer might say,’’ You are dropping the paint into the cup. I see you dropping one,two,three drops of  yellow into the cup”.

            Fourth, pair for verbal practice. It means that after the activity, the teacher give the pairs time to practice reporting back dialogues. Then,ask each each pair of students to report back to the group. This work best if each pair has a slightly different task. In the colour-mixing activity each pair might have different colours or different numbers of drops to use so that the reporting back stays interesting and non repetitive.

            Fifth, celebrate the achievements. After each pair reports back, list important words that they used on the whiteboard and celebrate their use of  interesting and important vocabulary. Emphasize the role the vocabulary in helping the audience to visualize exactly what the pair did.

            Sixth, write the report. After the students completing the reporting back, they write their verbal report and use it either as news items for the class daily news or as daily entries in their learning log.

            Seventh, as the last steps of reporting back strategy is asses students progress and undersatnding. While the students report back, take time to take brief notes to include in anecdotal records. Anecdotal record taken periodically over time serve as rich descriptions of students’ verbal communication progress and are important additions to individual students portfolios.

Variations on the Theme

            If the reporting-back takes the form of a list, take three or so items from the first group, three more from the next, and so on. Items which come up more than once can be underlined in the colour of the group mentioning them the second or third time.

            If the researcher is looking for "good" and "bad" features of a topic, or any similar contrasting construct, use three columns on the flip-chart instead of two, there are always likely to be some items which can be both or either depending on the circumstances, so a middle column is useful.

            If reseacher is sufficiently familiar with the technique, and using a large whiteboard or chalkboard instead of a flip-pad, use the reports to build up a mind-map of the topic area instead of taking them down in a linear fashion. This helps to group the ideas for later discussion.

            Researcher can similarly use Post-it (similar trademark disclaimer) notes with key-words on them. If researcher have an outline or structure on a whiteboard, the group reporters can come up and place their sticky notes wherever they think they best fit on the outline. Since such notes will be rather small, make sure everyone gets a chance to mill around the board and read everything: if a break follows the reporting-back, so much the better .

The Plenary Discussion

            First, make sure that researcher have one: if the researcher plough straight on to the next topic, studentsnts will feel all their efforts have been ignored. 

            Respect the reported findings. Be careful about how soon the point out errors in the findings, or points which have not been mentioned. In particular, if there is an "official" answer to the question, do not reveal it in such a way as to "trump" or devalue what the groups have come up with.

            Small groups can be swayed by the strong convictions of one member, particularly someone speaking from direct experience (however atypical). Researcher will have checked that the report truly represents the group's views, but be careful how teacher handle the vociferous and opinionated member, who often gets her- or himself selected as a reporter. She or he can set up arguments which drift from the main topic, and (usually) the most effective strategy is to recall the plenary to that topic, without dismissing the vocal one.

            Sometimes there is no response from the whole group. This is discouraging, and can lead to collusion with anyone who is prepared to say something, however marginally relevant. If the plenary group is secure enough, use silence, there is nothing in your contract which says you have to fill every gap! If not, show that you value the work they have done, by identifying themes in the reports and commenting on them, ask if anyone has anything they would like to add or ask, and move on. The duration of plenaries is unpredictable, so have something available as a standby in case the discussion does not last.

But, having dealt with the problem symptomatically, do ask yourself about the underlying reasons, and try to provide the security which will let people contribute.

Conclusion

This paper presented an analysis of what is reporting strategy  and how to improving vocabulary and fluency by using reporting back strategy. Which is doing reporting back strategy will improve the vocabulary ability and the fluency of the students, as vocabulary is an important elements that should students mastery in learning English as a second language in the world. As a consequence English teachers are demanded to be responsible for the failure in making the students capable of using English for communication both productively and receptively. To alleviate this ordeal, educators, practitioners, and policy makers quite often pay very much attention to research dealing with the curriculum, methodology and teachers excluding such significant variables as the learner perspective.

References

Adolphs & Schmitt (2003) Lexical Coverage of Spoken Discourse .

Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary.

Paivio, A (1986) Mental Representations : A Dual Coding Approach. New York: Oxford University Press

Sagarra,Nuria & Alba (2006). The keys in the keyword : L2 Vocabulary Learning Methods with Beginning Learners of Spanish. The Modern Language Journal, 90,ii.p.228-243.

Wren,Sebastian. Balanced Reading.com.

http://www.balancedreading.com/vocabulary.html

Stahl, Steven A (1999). Vocabulary Development. Cambridge: Brookline Books p. 3. "The Cognitive Foundations of Learning to Read: A Framework", Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, p. 14.

Bruce Harrell (2007). "Speech-language pathologist".

Fluency Disorders". StatPed. Retrieved 2007-03-28.

Dodson, Dawn (2010). "Teaching Reading Fluency". Lesson Planet.

LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT

INDIVIDUAL  ASIGNMENT OF LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT

        By :

1.  Fitri Yunita                NPM. 12.1.01.08.0215P

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

UNIVERSITY OF NUSANTARA PGRI KEDIRI

Jl. K. H. Achmad Dahlan No. 76 Kediri, Phone : (0354) 771576

Kediri , 2013

1.TESTING, ASSESSING, TEACHING

·         What is a test ?

A test, in simple terms, is a method of measuring a person’s ability; knowledge, or performance in a given domain. Let’s look at the components of this definition. A test is first a method. It is an instrument- a set of techniques, procedures, or items that requires performance on the part of test-taker. Second, a test must measure. Some tests measure general ability, while others determine a general ability level; a quiz on recognizing correct use of definite articles measure specific knowledge.

Next, a test measures an individual’s ability; knowledge, or performance. Testers need to understand who the test-takers are. What their previous experience and background? Is the test appropriately matched to their abilities? How should test-takers interpret their scores? Finally, a test measures in given domain. In the case of proficiency test, even though the actual performance on the test involves only a sampling of skills, that domain is overall proficiency in a language-general competence in all skill of a language.

A well-constructed test is an instrument that provides an accurate measure of the test-takers’ ability within a particular domain.

·         Assessment and teaching

Assessment is popular and sometimes misunderstood term in current educational practice. You might be to think of testing and assessing as synonymous terms, but they are not. Tests are prepared administrative procedures that occur at identifiable times in a curriculum when learners muster all their faculties to offer peak performance, knowing that their responses are being measured and evaluated.

Assessment, on the other hand, is an ongoing process that encompasses a much wider domain. Whenever a student responds to a question, offers a comment, or tries out a new word or structure, the teacher subconsciously makes an assessment of the student’s performance.

At the same time, during these practice activities, teachers are indeed observing students’ performance and making various evaluations of each learner: How did the performance compare to previous performance? Which aspects of the performance were better than others? Is the learner performing up to an expected potential? How does the performance compare to that of others in the same learning community? In the ideal classroom, all these observations feed into the way the teacher provides instruction to each student.

·         Informal and Formal Assessment

One way to begin untangling the lexical conundrum created by distinguishing among tests, assessment, and teaching is to distinguish between informal and formal assessment. Informal assessment can take a number of forms, Starting with incidental, unplanned comments and responses, along with coaching and other impromptu feedback to the students. A good deal of teacher’s informal assessment is embedded in classroom tasks designed to elicit performance without recording results and making fixed judgment about a student’s competence.

On the other hand, formal assessments are exercises or procedures specifically designed to tap into a storehouse of skills and knowledge. They are systematic, planned sampling techniques constructed to give teacher and students an appraisal of students’ achievement.

·         Formative and summative assessment

Another useful distinction to bear in mind is the function of assessment: how is the procedure to be used? Two functions are commonly identified in the literature formative and summative assessment. Most our classroom assessment is formative assessment: evaluating students in the process of “forming” their competencies and skills with the goal of helping them to continue that growth process. The key to such formation is the delivery (by the teacher) and internalization (by the students) of appropriate feedback on performance, with an eye toward the future continuation (or formation) of learning.

Summative assessment aims to measure, or summarize, what a student has grasped, and typically occurs at the end of a course or unit of instruction. A summation of what a students’ has learned implies looking back and taking stock of how well the student has accomplished objectives, but does not necessarily point the way to future progress.

·         Norm-Referenced and Criterion-Referenced tests

Another dichotomy that is important to clarify here and that aids in sorting out common terminology in assessment is the distinction between norm-referenced and criterion-referenced testing. In norm-referenced tests, each test-takers’ score is interpreted in relation to mean (average score), median (middle score), standard deviation (extent of variance score), and/or percentile rank. The purpose in such tests is to place test-takers along in the form of numerical score.

Criterion-referenced test, on the other hand, are designed to give test-takers feedback, usually in the form of grades, on specific course or lesson objectives. Classroom tests involving the students in only one class, and connected to a curriculum, are typical of criterion-referenced testing. In a criterion-referenced test, the distribution of students’ score across a continuum may be of little concern as long as the instrument assesses appropriate objectives.

2. APPROACHES TO TEACHING, LEARNING, AND LANGUAGE TESTING

A brief history of language testing over the past half-century will serve as a backdrop to an understanding of classroom-based testing. Historically, language-testing trends and practices have followed the shifting sands of teaching methodology. For example, in the 1950s an era of behaviorism and special attention to contrastive analysis, testing focused on specific language elements such as the phonological, grammatical, and lexical contrast between two languages.

·         Discrete-point and Integrative Testing

Discrete-point tests are constructed on the assumption that language can be broken down into its component parts and that those parts can be tested successfully. These components are the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing and various units of language (discrete language) of phonology, graphology, morphology, lexicon, syntax, and discourse. It was claimed that an overall language proficiency test, then should sample all four skills and as many linguistic discrete points as possible.

What does an integrative test look like? Two types of tests have historically been claimed to be examples or integrative tests: cloze tests and dictations. A cloze test is a reading passage (perhaps 150 to 300 words) in which roughly every sixth or seventh word has been deleted the test-taker is required to supply words that fit into those blanks. Dictation is familiar language-teaching technique that evolved into a testing technique. Essentially, learners listen to passage of 100 to 150 words read aloud by an administrator (or audiotape) and write what they hear, using correct spelling.

Supporters argue that dictation is an integrative test because it taps into grammatical and discourse competencies required careful listening, reproduction in writing of what is heard, efficient short-term mem

·         Communicative Language Testing

A new theory of language and language use that exerted significant influence on language teaching and therefore language testing from the early 1970s was the theory of communicative competence.Communicative competence is a linguistic term which refers to a learner’s second language ability. It refers to a learner’s ability to: apply and use grammatical rules,form correct utterances,use these utterances appropriately

The term was coined by Dell Hymes (in 1966) who was inspired by Noam Chomsky‘s distinction on linguistic competence and performance. According to Chomsky (1965) a speaker’s language ability comprised two components: linguistic competence and linguistic performance. Hymes proposed that knowing a language entailed knowing more than its grammar and rules. According to Hymes there culturally specific rules that created a relationship between:the language used,features of the communicative context. e.g. What is appropriate language for communication with a sibling may not be appropriate for communication with an employer or lecturer.

Before the theory of communicative competence, language was often described from a psychological perspective, but this theory marked a profound shift in how language was perceived as it presented language as an internal phenomenon.

With the appearance of the communicative competence theory the focus shifted to a more sociological one, where the focus was on external, social functions of language.

The relevance of Hymes’ theory to language testing was almost immediately recognized when it appeared.

However, it was a decade later that its actual impact was felt on practice with the development of communicative language testing

Communicative language tests (CLT) are distinguished by two main features:

a.       CLTs are performance tests and therefore require assessment to be carried out when the learner or candidate in engaged in an extended (receptive/productive) act of communication

b.      CLTs pay attention to the social roles candidates would assume and hence considers the roles that candidates would assume in the real world on passing the test and offers a means of specifying the demands of such roles in detail

Models of communicative ability

Thought it was a challenge to shift perspectives not to mention focuses of language tests, there was a continuous theoretical engagement with the idea of communicative competence and its implications for the performance requirements of communicative language testing since the advent of the theory of communicative competence.

A number of writers have tried to specify the components of communicative competence in second languages and their role in performance.

The purpose of this is to provide a comprehensive framework for: test development,testing research , an interpretation of test performance.

The first such models specified the components of knowledge of language without dealing in detail with their role in performance.

In 1980, Michael Canale and Merrill Swain published a paper that specified four components of communicative competence:

Grammatical competence- knowledge of systematic features of grammar, lexis and phonology

Sociolinguistic competence - knowledge of rules of language use in terms of what is appropriate in different contexts

Strategic competence - ability to compensate for incomplete or imperfect linguistic resources in a second language by using (other) successful communication strategies

Discourse competence - ability to deal with extended use of language in context (cohesion and coherence)ory; and to an extent.

·         Performance-Based Assessment

Performance-based assessment of language typically involves oral production, written production, open-ended responses, integrated performance, group performance and other interactive tasks. To be sure, such assessment is time-consuming and therefore expensive, but those extra efforts are paying off in the form of more direct testing because students are assessed as they perform actual or stimulated real-world tasks. In technical terms, higher content validity is achieved because learners are measures in the process of performing the targeted linguistic acts.

3. SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD ENGLISH TEST

·         Practicality: a practical test is easy to administer and to score without wasting too much time or effort.

·         Reliability : a test is considered reliable if it is taken again by the same students under the same circumstances and the score average is almost the constant , taking into consideration that the time between the test and the retest is of reasonable length.

·         Validity: a test is considered as valid when it measures what it is supposed to measure.

·         Authenticity: the language of a test should reflect everyday discourse.

·         Washback

Any language test or piece of assessment must have positive washback (backwash), by which I mean that the effect of the test on the teaching must be beneficial. This should be held in mind by the test constructors; it is only too easy to construct a test which leads, for example, to candidates learning material by heart or achieving high marks by simply applying test-taking skills rather than genuine language skills

4. DESIGNING AUTHENTIC  CLASSROOM LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT

·          Types of Authentic Assessment

The first task you face in designing a test for your students is to determine the purpose for the test. Defining your purpose will help you choose the right kind of test and it will also help you to focus on the specific objectives of the test. Two types to create as a classroom teacher – language aptitude tests and language proficiency tests, and three types that you will almost certainly need to create – placement test, diagnostic tests, and achievement tests.

a.      Language Aptitude Tests

A language aptitude test is designed to measure capacity or general ability to learn a foreign language and ultimate success in that undertaking. Language aptitude tests are ostensibly designed to apply to the classroom learning of any language.

Task in the modern language aptitude test

1. Number learning : Examinees must learn a set of numbers through aural input and then discriminate different combination of those numbers.

2. Phonetic script : Examinees must team a set of correspondences between speech sounds and phonetic symbols.

3. Spelling dues : Examinees must need words that are spelled some what phonetically

4. Word in sentence : Examinees are given a key word in a sentence and are then asked to select a word in second sentence that performs the same grammatical action as the key word.

5. Paired associates : Examinees must quickly team a set of vocabulary words from another language and memorize their English meaning.

b.      Proficiency Tests

A proficiency test is not limited to any one course, curriculum, or single skill in the language, rather, is tests overall ability. Proficiency tests have traditionally consisted of standardized multiple. Choice items on grammar vocabulary, reading comprehension and aural comprehension. Some times also writing is added.

Proficiency test are almost always summative and norm – referenced. For example test of English as a foreign language (TOEFL) produced by the educational testing service.

c.       Placement Tests

Certain proficiency tests can act in the role of placement tests, the purpose of which is to place a student into a particular level or section of language curriculum or school. Placement tests come in many varieties; Assessing comprehension and production, responding through written and oral performance, ended and limited responses, selection (multiple - choice) and gap-filling formats, depending on the nature of a program and its needs.

d.      Diagnostic Tests

A diagnostic tests is designed to diagnose specified aspects of a language. A test in pronunciation, for example. Might diagnose the phonological features of English that are difficult for learners and should there fore become part of a curriculum.

There is also a fine line of difference between a diagnostic test and a general achievement test. Achievement test analyze the extent to which students have acquired language features that have already been taught, diagnostic tests should elicit information on what students need to work on in the future. In a curriculum that has a form – focused phase, for example, a diagnostic test might offer information about a learner’s acquisition of verb tense, modal auxiliaries, definite articles, relative clause and the like.

e.       Achievement Tests

An achievement test is related directly to classroom lessons, units, or even a total curriculum achievement tests are (or should be) limited to particular material addressed in curriculum within a particular time frame and are offered a course has focused on the objectives in question.

Achievement tests are often summative because they are administered at the end of a unit or term of study. The specifications for an achievement test should be determined by :

• The objectives of the lesson, unit, or course being assessed

• The relative importance (or weight) assigned to each objective

• The tasks employed in classroom lessons during the unit of time.

Achievement tests range from five or ten – minute quizzes to three hour final examinations, with an almost in finite variety of item types and formats. Here is the outline for a midterm examination offered at the high intermediate level of an intensive English program in the US:

Section A Vocabulary

Part 1 (5 items) : Match words and definitions

Part 2 (5 items) : use the words in a sentence

Section B Grammar

(10 sentences) : error detection (Underline or circle the error)

Section  C Reading Comprehension

(2 one paragraph passage) : Four short – answer items for each

Section D Writing

Respond to a two-paragraph article on Native American culture

  5. SOME PRACTICAL STEPS TO TEST CONSTRUCTION

·         Designing Multiple-Choice Test Items

This is a back-to-basics article about the undervalued and little-discussed multiple choice question. It’s not as exciting as discussing 3D virtual learning environments, but it might be just as important. If you need to use tests, then you want to reduce the errors that occur from poorly written items.

The rules covered here make tests more accurate, so the questions are interpreted as intended and the answer options are clear and without hints. Just in case you’re not familiar with multiple choice terminology, it’s explained in the visual below.

Here are the ten rules. If you have any others, please add them through the Comments form below.

Rule 1: Test comprehension and critical thinking, not just recall

Multiple choice questions are criticized for testing the superficial recall of knowledge. You can go beyond this by asking learners to interpret facts, evaluate situations, explain cause and effect, make inferences, and predict results.

Rule 2: Use simple sentence structure and precise wording

Write test questions in a simple structure that is easy to understand. And try to be as accurate as possible in your word choices. Words can have many meanings depending on colloquial usage and context.

Rule 3: Place most of the words in the question stem

If you’re using a question stem, rather than an entire question, ensure that most of the words are in the stem. This way, the answer options can be short, making them less confusing and more legible.

Rule 4: Make all distractors plausible

All of the wrong answer choices should be completely reasonable. This can be very hard to accomplish, but avoid throwing in those give-away distractors as it detracts from the test’s validity. If you’re really stuck, get help from your friendly SME. (BTW, this word can also be spelled as “distracter.”)

Rule 5: Keep all answer choices the same length

This can be difficult to achieve, but expert test-takers can use answer length as a hint to the correct answer. Often the longest answer is the correct one. When I can’t get all four answers to the same length, I use two short and two long.

Rule 6: Avoid double negatives

No big news here, right? Don’t use combinations of these words in the same question: not, no, nor, the -un prefix, etc. For example, this type of question could confuse test-takers: ‘Which of the following comments would NOT be unwelcome in a work situation?’ Flip it around and write it in the positive form: ‘Which of the following comments are acceptable in a work situation?’

Rule 7: Mix up the order of the correct answers

Make sure that most of your correct answers aren’t in the “b” and “c” positions, which can often happen. Keep correct answers in random positions and don’t let them fall into a pattern that can be detected. When your test is written, go through and reorder where the correct answers are placed, if necessary.

Rule 8: Keep the number of options consistent

Did you ever have to convince a SME that he or she can’t have answer choices that go to ‘h’ in one question and ‘c’ in the next? It’s something of a user interface issue. Making the number of options consistent from question to question helps learners know what to expect. Research doesn’t seem to agree on whether 3 or 4 or 5 options is best. Personally, I like to use 4 options. It feels fair.

Rule 9: Avoid tricking test-takers

As faulty as they are, tests exist to measure knowledge. Never use questions or answer options that could trick a learner. If a question or its options can be interpreted in two ways or if the difference between options is too subtle, then find a way to rewrite it.

Rule 10: Use ‘All of the Above’ and ‘None of the Above’ with caution

I hate this rule because when you run out of distractors, All of the Above and None of the Above can come in handy. But they may not promote good instruction. Here’s why. All of the Above can be an obvious give-away answer when it’s not used consistently. Also, the All of the Above option can encourage guessing if the learner thinks one or two answers are correct. In addition, the downside to None of the Above is that you can’t tell if the learner really knew the correct answer.

·         Designins Close Test And Essay

Cloze test: A gap-filling task, where words are deleted at fixed stages in a text and the candidate has to replace them. For example, a cloze test may have every 6th word deleted. Cloze tests are easy to prepare, but because of the random effect of the deletion of every nth word, different cloze tests behave very differently from one another. They should, therefore, undergo item analysis before they are given to candidates.

Composition/ Essay: A task where candidates have to produce at least a paragraph of their own written language. Such tasks are marked subjectively (see analytic and holistic marking scales).