Bài giảng Phương pháp kiểm tra và đánh giá học tập - Chapter 2: Approaches to language testing

Chapter 2
Approaches to language testing
Language tests are chronologically classified 
according to four main approaches:
(1) the essay translation approach; 
(2) the structuralist approach; 
(3) the integrative approach; and 
(4) the communicative approach 
(1) the essay translation approach
Characteristics:
No special skill or expertise in testing
Subjective judgment of teacher
Essay writing, translation & grammatical 
analysis (comments about the language)
Disadvantages:
 tests a heavy literary and cultural bias
 an aural/ oral component at the upper 
intermediate & advantage levels as 
something additional & not an integral part 
of the syllabus or examination
(2) the structuralist approach
Language learning chiefly concerned 
with the systematic acquisition of set of 
habits.
Focusing the importance of contrastive 
analysis & the need to identify & measure 
learners’ mastery of separated elements of 
L2:phonology, vocabulary & grammar
Listening, speaking, reading & writing are 
separated from one another & it’s essential 
to test one skill at a time.
The need for statistical measures of 
reliability & validity - important in testing 
multiple choice item 
(3) the integrative approach
involving the testing of language in context 
& concerned with the meaning and the 
total communicative effect of discourse.
assessing the learners’ ability to use two 
or more skills simultaneously, or a global 
view of proficiency.
involving functional language but not the 
use of functional language.
Forms: cloze test & dictation
Cloze testing
 Principle: the Gestalt theory of “closure”
 Purpose: measuring the reader’s ability to 
decode ‘interrupted’ or ‘mutilated’ 
messages by making the most acceptable 
substitutions from all the contextual clues 
available 
 Requirements: to fill in each blank in the text 
itself
 Methods of scoring:
one mark acceptable answer; another 
 each exact answer. 
misspelling not be penalized
measuring familiarity with the grammar of 
the language rather than reading
Evidence from 
research studies
performance on cloze tests correlates 
highly with listening, writing & speaking
close testing: a good indicator of general 
linguistic ability
linguistic knowledge, textual knowledge & 
knowledge of the world
cloze tests: achievement, proficiency tests, 
classroom placement tests & diagnostic 
tests 
Dictation
Purpose: previously regarded solely as a 
means of measuring students’ skills of 
listening comprehension. 
Auditory discrimination, the auditory 
memory span, spelling, the recognition of 
sound segments, a familiarity with 
grammatical and lexical patterning of the 
language, and overall textual 
comprehension 
good predicators of global language 
ability, but recent research has found that 
dictation tends to measure lower-order 
language skills- straightforward 
comprehension rather that high-order 
skills- inference.
(4) the communicative approach 
concerned primarily with how language is 
used in communication
Communicative competence achieved 
without a considerable mastery of 
grammar
resulting in an attempt to obtain different 
profiles of a learner’s performance in the 
language
The score obtained on a 
communicative test several 
measures of proficiency rather than 
simply one overall measure.
Reflecting the culture of a particular 
country because of its emphasis on 
context and the use of authentic 
materials.
Introducing the concept of qualitative 
modes of assessment in preference to 
quantitative ones