UNIT 4

UNIT 4

TESTING AND ASSESSMENT THE FOUR SKILLS

Which assessment techniques do you prefer? Why?

According with our learning objectives of the unit 6 of the book New Headway, and our assessment plan, we prefer to assess the four skills with the following assessment techniques:
READING AND LISTENING
20% Reading and listening skills could be test by these techniques:
· True, False, Don’t know, example Mark the sentences T/F or dk Lions are cats F. REASONS: easy to write. Quite realistic. Test gist or intensive understanding well.
· Multiple choice, example Choose the correct answer: Carolina swims a) rarely b) sometimes c) never. REASONS: Very easy to mark thus good for checking gist or intensive understanding.
· Sequencing (texts/pictures), example Listen and put the paragraphs in order. REASONS: Easy to construct. Good for stories (listening) and for linking of discourse.
· Text completion, example Listen and complete the information on about the film. REASONS: quite realistic. Good for listening for specific information.
· Identify topic (text/paragraph), example Match the title with the text. REASONS: Good for gist reading. Easy to construct and mark.
· Linking, example what does the underlined word refer to? It arrived late. REASONS: Good for testing intensive understanding. Linking with text (cohesion).
· Identify linking words in a text, example after/ next. REASONS: Good for working out how a text holds together (cohesion)
· Discrepancies, example Read the text then listen and list the differences. REASONS: Realistic integrative test of both reading and listening.
LANGUAGE
20% Grammar and Vocabulary could be test by these techniques:
Gap-fill selected words in a text are blanked out; students have to fill in the blanks. REASONS: Good for testing different structures, provides clear contexts. Easy to write and mark.
Identifying structures, example tenses/ parts of speech. Underlying the correct verb form in the sentences: while he rode/was riding in the forest he lost/was losing his wig. REASONS: Test knowledge of grammatical system and of metalanguage.
Table completion, example Complete the table with these adjectives. REASONS: Good for testing knowledge of irregulars and word-building.
Lexis classification, example Match the words with the topics. REASON: Good for testing lexical sets.
Matching words/definitions, example in a list will be a list of verbs and in the second list nouns and phrases related with some verb, so if the students know the vocabulary could associate the verb with the phrase. REASONS: Good for specific words and link with dictionary skills.
We prefer these techniques for reading - listening and language (vocabulary and grammar) because I want to get high reliability in the formal assessment. The before techniques could provide short and very practical answers and often are quick and easy to mark for the students.
WRITING
20% writing could be test by these techniques:
Guided writing. Using pictures, notes, diagrams (giving students some input of information). REASONS: More realistic than essays, because input can create reason for communication. Gives student help, thus good for lower levels. Easier to mark than free writing.
Punctuation (punctuating test). REASONS: Good for testing specific knowledge of punctuation.
Dictation, example Listen and write down the text. REASON: realistic. A good integrative test of listening and writing (spelling).
Combined, example: Read the letter and write a reply. REASON: Realistic and very good for writing.
SPEAKING
20% speaking could be test by the following techniques:
· Role play. Students assume roles (with or without cued information). REASONS: Very good for testing interaction and commonly used task in most materials.
· Oral presentations. Students prepare and give shorts talks. REASONS: Realistic and gives the tester time to assess performance.
· Picture description (using drawing or photo). REASON: Gives tester time to listen and students something concrete.
We prefer the before techniques for writing and speaking, because I would like to get also validity of my formal assessment, so I propose integrative and open-ended techniques as the before ones. Because using these techniques as teachers could involve students in communication and interaction.
Finally, If we use as discrete test with reliability techniques as integrative test with validity techniques, both have advantages and disadvantages. Consequently the solution is to combine them, so we prefer focus in the reliability techniques for receptive skills as reading, listening and language (grammar and vocabulary) and use the validity techniques for the productive skills as speaking and writing.



ACTIVITY 2 “ITEMS”

LEVEL LOW NTERMEDIATE

READING ITEM

1. - Read the story “The bald Knight”.

The Bald Knight

Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was a knight who, as he grew older, lost all his hair. He became as bald as an egg. He didn’t want anyone to see his bald head, so he bought a beautiful, black, curly wig.
One day some lords and ladies from the castle invited him to go hunting with them, so of course he put on his beautiful wig. ‘How handsome I look! He thought to himself. Then he set off happily for the forest.

However, a terrible thing happened. His wig caught on a branch and fell off in a full view of everyone. How they all laughed at him! At first the poor night felt very foolish, but then he saw the funny side of the situation, and he started laughing, too.
The knight never wore his wig again.
The following sentences have been taken from the story. Read it again and decide where they fit.

2. - The following sentences have been taken from the story. Read it again and decide where they fit in the text. You have to place the correct letter in the text. There is only one choice to each letter.

A …as he was dressing in front of his mirror.
B He was riding along, singing merrily to himself, when he passed under an oak tree and…
C They were all still laughing when they arrived back at the castle.


GRAMMAR ITEM

Read the story “The bald Knight”. Put the verb in brackets into the Past Simple. They are all irregular.

The Bald Knight

Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was a knight who, as he______ (grow) older, ______(lose) all his hair. He_____(become) as bald as an egg. He didn’t want anyone to see his bald head, so he______ (buy) a beautiful, black, curly wig.
One day some lords and ladies from the castle invited him to go hunting with them, so of course he ______ (put) on his beautiful wig. ‘How handsome I look! He_______(think) to himself. Then he________ (set) off happily for the forest.

However, a terrible thing happened. His wig_______(catch) on a branch and _______(fall) off in a full view of everyone. How they all laughed at him! At first the poor night_______(feel) very foolish, but then he_______(see) the funny side of the situation, and he started laughing, too.
The knight never_______(wear)his wig again.


LISTENING ITEM

Practice pronunciation of the words. Listening the next words and write the numbers that correspond to each ending pronunciation in the right column, according to the pronunciation of –ed.
1 /t/ 2 /d/ 3 /ed/

Arrived __________ __________ __________
Cooked __________ __________ __________
Wanted __________ __________ __________
Finished __________ __________ __________
Started __________ __________ __________
Lived __________ __________ __________
Traveled __________ __________ __________
Visited __________ __________ __________
Laughed __________ __________ __________
Danced __________ __________ __________
Listened __________ __________ __________
Invited __________ __________ __________


SPEAKING ITEM

1. - Get together with a partner and make a short conversation. Tell him/her what you did last weekend and then listen to him/her. You may use such questions as:

· What did you do last Saturday?
· Did you do anything fun?

Note: Do not forget to use the past tense.
Remember that the assessment criteria will be the use of the correct past simple. Focus in the ending of the verbs, in the use of the yes/no questions, and in the sequence of the events.


REFLECTION OF THE UNIT 4

In this unit “Testing and assessing the four skills” we learnt to focus in planning our assessment program. The questions that helped us to organize our plan were: what level are we going to assess? When are we going to test? And the most important factor what are we going to test? Depending of the skills that you as a teacher select and also taking in mind the percentages of each skill.

We noticed that the syllabus priorities are: speaking, listening, reading, writing, grammar and the vocabulary. Also we review the concepts of reliability, validity, and practicality, because these concepts are very important to decide which techniques are the best choices for our own classes.

We reviewed some techniques for the four skills and we learnt to focus in testing not teaching. We realized of the different techniques such as multiple choice, filling gaps, summaries, picture description, etc. Each technique was based in specific characteristics of reliability, validity or practice of the teacher choice.

The most useful part of this unit was to look at some items in some book or design them, because we already focus in the kind of techniques that offer more objectivity and which are easier to grade and clear for the students. Always we were thinking to include the reliability, validity, and practicality in our tests.

In this unit we also correct our mistakes; we look for extra information in books and compare the better techniques for our own English classes. Because the three classmates of this team, we are working as English teachers in an elementary school, so for us this unit was very useful. In fact we planed, select, and use the better techniques to test our students, these based in their proper characteristics as level and age. In summary, the kind of test selected was depending of the purpose of our assessments. We are very happy to use already this important knowledge. Thank you.