OTHER TEST ITEMS

In language tests, there are other options of common subjective items we can use. Among these, we may use cloze and gap fill, short answer and completion items, and essay questions. The following is a brief description of these items.

CLOZE AND GAP-FILL ITEMS

Cloze testing

The fist time that Cloze testing was used was around 1950´s to evaluate reading comprehension. In this test, a word is systematically deleated from any written text. Now, in a conventional cloze test, we remove a word every five to eight words, and the student has to read around the word to complete the text with an appropriate term, in meaning and structure.

Gap-fill

Gap-fill testing has a blank in a sentence. The student has to fill in the missing word or phrase. The gap may be a function word (articles, prepositions, conjuntions) with only one correct answer, or semantic (noun, adjectives, verbs, adverbs) with a variety of possible correct answers.

Rational deletion cloze

This is an item similar to gap fill. It has words deleted for assessment purposes, for example, focused on certain grammar points like articles, prepositions, pronouns, verb tense, and agreement, within one same paragraph. It can be formatted into a multiple choice cloze, too, so that the student has a limitted amount of options to select the word that is best for each space.

Some general recommendations to write cloze/gap-fill items are the following:

- Make sure there is enough space to write the answers (which should not be very long).

-Offer enough context for students to presume what goes in the blank.

-Provide the same length of blanks. The main body of thw question should predeed the blanks.

-Allow more than one possible answer when grading.

-Let the initial sentence in the paragraph complete to set context, so put the gap after it.

SHORT ANSWER/ COMPLETION ITEMS

There are some advantages and disadvantages in short answer/completion items. Among the advantages, these items help students not only to recognize but to learn and know the answer. Another advantage is less guessing, for they must produce the answer. Also, they are easy to construct. Besides, they are valuable to check what, where, when, who content, intense text comprehension, gist, and higher order thinking skills. Last, they are easy to construct. On the other hand, some disadvantages include discouraging memorization of fact since students produce language to answer, the time it takes the student to answer, and the time it takes the teacher to score them, and the potential unreliability through inter-rater and intra-rater issues. Inter-rater reliability refers to consistency between two or more graders, and intra-rater reliability alludes inner consistency between one marking session and another.

Some recommendations to write these types of items are:

-Only one short, concise response should be allowed.

-Partial credit should be given to the various degrees of correctness.

ESSAY QUESTIONS

There are some advantages and disadvantages in essay questions. Some advantages include their usefulness to assess higher-order cognitive processes such as analysis, evaluation, summary and synthesis, and the autonomy the student has to decide the organization of the answer regarding the approach, ideas, contents and conclusions. Contrary to these, the disadvantages may be the required writing ability, they are time consuming, their potential reliability problems emerging from subjective scoring, and the scoring workload for the teacher.

The following are recommendations to write essay questions.

-The level of difficulty in essay questions should be similar.

-Essay questions should force students to use higher-order cognitive processes such as, evaluating, summarizing, alayzing, and synthesizing.

-Allow plenty linear space for students to write their essays.

-Specify the type and amount of information required in the essay.

-Asses content that is appropriate for the essay format.

-The specific scoring rubric should be shared wih the students before or during the exam to decreasse student´s anxiety.

According to Coombe et al, these are the ten things to remember about testing techniques.

"1. Design tests and assessmentt tasks based on blueprints or test specifications."

"2. Ensure the format remains the same within one section of the exam."

"3. Make sure the item format is correctly matched o the test purpose and course content."

"4. Include items of varying levels of difficulty." (Follow the 30/40/30 principle of students´ range abilities.)

"5. Start with an essay question first."

"6. Avoid ambiguous items, negatives, and especially double negatives."

"7. Avoid race, gender, and ethnic background bias."

"8. Prepare answer keys in advance of test administration."

"9. Employ items that test all levels of thinking."

"10. Give clear instructions."