Transcript Testing Grammar and Vocabulary

Jeremy
69100001
Is testing grammar required?
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 Control of grammatical structures was seen as the very core
of language ability.
 Now, there has been a shift towards the view that since it is
language skills that are usually of interest, then they should
be tested directly, not the abilities that seem to underlie
them.
 Most proficiency test that are administered on a large scale
still retain a grammar section.
 It cannot ensure that a grammar test includes a good
sample of all possible grammatical elements.
Writing Specification

 For achievement test where teaching objectives or the
syllabus list the grammatical structures to be taught,
specification of content should be quite straightforward.
 For proficiency and diagnostic tests, the van Ek and Trim
publication referred to a notional-functional approach and
Cobuild English Usage.
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Writing Items

 Whatever techniques are chosen for testing grammar, it is
important for the text of the item to be written in
grammatically correct and natural language.
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4 Techniques for testing grammar
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Gap Filling
Paraphrase
Completion
Multiple choice
The first three requires production on the part of the
candidates, while multiple choice calls only for
recognition.
Gap Filling
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What was most disturbing ___________ that for the first time in
his life Henry was on his own.
1. What was most disturbing : Noun Clause as the subject.
2. That for the first time in… : Noun Clause as the object.
(preceded by the conjunction “that” ).
3. Subject (noun clause) + _____________ + Object (noun
clause)
4. “_________ “ should be filled by verb
Answer: “was”
Paraphrase

 Paraphrase items require the student to write a
sentence equivalent in meaning to one that is given.
It is helpful to give part of the paraphrase in order to
restrict the student to the grammatical structure
being tested.
 Testing passive, past continuous form.
When we arrived, a policeman was questioning the bank clerk.

When we arrived, the bank clerk _________________
Steps to explain:
1. Past continuous form.
2. Passive form.
Answer : was being questioned.
 Testing present perfect with for
It is six years since I last saw him.

I ____________________________ six years.
Steps to explain:
1. Present perfect.
2. The adverb of time for perfect tense “for” and
“since”
Testing Vocabulary
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1. Writing Specifications
If vocabulary is being consciously taught, then presumably
all the item thereby presented to the students should be
included in the specifications.
We can add all the new items that the students have met in
other activities (reading, listening, etc).
The usual way to specify the lexical items that may be
tested is to make reference to one of the published word
lists that indicate the frequency with which the words have
been found to be used. http://www.wordfrequency.info/
http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/
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Sampling
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 Words can be grouped according to their frequency
and usefulness.
 From each of the groups, items can be taken at
random, with more being selected from the group
containing the more frequent and useful words.
Writing Items
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 Testing Recognition Ability
Recognize synonyms:
Choose the alternative (a,b,c,d) which is the closest in
meaning to the word on the left of the page.
Gleam a. gather
b. shine
c. welcome
d. clean
 Recognise definitions

Loathe means
a. Dislike intensely
b. Become seriously ill
c. Search carefully
d. Look very angry
Recognise appropriate word for
context

That strong wind ________the man’s efforts to put
up the tent.
a. disabled
b. hampered
c. deranged
d. regaled
Testing production ability

 The testing of vocabulary productivity is so difficult
that it is practically never attempted in proficiency
tests as information on receptive ability is regarded
as sufficient.
Pictures
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 Write down the names of the objects
Definitions
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______________ is a person who looks after our teeth.
______________ is a fine misty rain.
Group Project
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 Construct items to test the following:
a. 3rd conditional sentence : if……had….., …..would
have….
b. Relative clause
c. Phrasal verb