TESTING TECHNIQUES

Challenges may be found in elaborating test items and tasks because test items are the foundation of tests and other assessment instruments. Therefore, we will start by explaining a classification of test items according to the type of response from the test taker. There are selection items and supply items. Selection items are the items in which the student selects the correct answer from a number of presented options. These may be true/false, Multiple Choice, Matching, Numbering Sequence. On the other hand, in supply items, the test takers must supply or construct the correct answer. These items may be Cloze or Gap-Fill (No response provided), or Essay questions.

Test items may be also classified according to the scoring scoring procedure, into objective and subjective items. Thus, objective items are scored following an answer key, which does not requirethe marker (the person who corrects the tests) to have any knowledge of the subject being evaluated. These are "short answer-closed response items" (p.17) of recognition that are corrected easily and rapidly, reliable when there are plenty items, but difficult to properly construct. They can be used to test global and detailed understanding. Set in opposition, subjective items make imperative to have a marker knowledgeable of the subject being evaluated where much human judgment is required, although they are easy to construct. In addition, these items demand from the testers to produce open-ended responses and from the markers time and difficulty in checking.

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

Multiple choice questions (MCQ) are conventionally used in textbooks and in English language proficiency tests at the recall and comprehension levels. Their basic structure is a stem and response. The stem is usually written as a question or an incomplete statement and one response, or key, among two or three other choices or distractors. The test taker identifies the correct or most appropriate response, called the key. When testing reading, vocabulary and grammar, there are four choices, but only three for listening, not to rely much on the student´s memory. The advantages of MCQ are: their reliability, their usefulness in various levels, the test taker´s abilities in writing are irrelevant to these, they can be scored by computer, and students everywhere are familiarized with them. Teir disadvantages are that they encourage guessing, they are time consuming to write, they do not test productive language skills, and frequently, teachers forget MCQs can be used to asses higher-order thinking skills.

There are common MCQ item violations that can be mended. These violations are:

-grammatical inconsistency

-extraneous cues or clues

-three for one split (Three distractors are parallel and one is not.)

-impure items (They test more than one concept.)

-apples and oranges (Two response options have no relation to the other two.)

-subsuming response options (The key and one of the distractors could both be correct.)

-unparallel options (Key and distractors are not parallel in length or in grammatical consistency.)

-gender bias in language

-sensitivity (negative emotional impact material should be avoided.)

-double answer or key (More than one response option is correct.)

-no answer (There is no key among the response options.)

-Giveaway distractors

True/False Format

True/false questions are a specialized form of the MCQ format, written as statements, with only two possible alternatives. The two response categories are: True/False, Yes/No, Correct/Incorrect, Right/Wrong or Fact/Opinion. Their advantages include being able to test large amounts of content, they require less time to be responded and more items can be incorporates into the tests, which increases reliability, and scoring is rapid, reliable, and accurate. Their disadvantages are the guessing factor of 50% and that you need to include ample number for them to be reliable.

Matching Format

Matching format is an extended form of MCQ. It brings forth the test taker´s ability to make connections among ideas, vocabulary, and structure. It is presented in two columns of information where items in the left-hand column are called premises or stems, and the items in the right-hand column are called options. Some advantaages of this format are that test takers have more distractors per item, and writing these are easier than writing MCQs.

ASSESSMENT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

When teachers are involved in the assessment development process, we can benefit by understanding all of its phases. This is of value for most of the times, we are involved in one or more of these phases as part of our activities.These phases are planning, development, administration, analysis, feedback, and reflection.We have to consider that "assessment is an integral part of the entire curriculum cycle,"

Planning

As we start planning, we must consider why we are assessing what type of assessment fits our needs. At this point, the target language use domain, TLU, which is delineated as the tasks that the test taker is likely to encounter outside of the test itself, and to which we want our inferences about language ability to generalize (Bachman and Palmer), is consideredin the initial stages of our planning to choose assessment tasks that reflect TLU domains, be these real-life domains or language instruction domains. We also have to decide the best means of assessment for our objectives, envisioning the skills we want to asses, the time and resources, seeing what realistic options we have in our situation.

LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT

LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT

The following are comments based on the reading of the book, A practical guide to assessing English language learners, by Christine Coombe, Keith Folse, Nancy Hubley, and the remarkable dissertation from Dr. Gilbert Hernandez.

All tasks and activities that teachers perform to evaluate the improvement and production of our students, on a daily basis, are enfolded in the concept of assessment. These vary in the manner and diversification that our students need so that us, teachers, may be able to make decisions about the best way to help them in the teaching/ learning process, or instructional decision-making.

One step that must be considered is the initial diagnostic assessment.Through it, we may identify the language proficiency of the students, their strengths and weaknesses in the academic performance, their achievement and mastery considering course goals.

COPING WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES

CHOOSING A TEXTBOOK

CHOOSING A TEXTBOOK AND OTHER PRINTED MATERIALS
by Curtain, H & Pesola, CA (1994)

As teachers of English as a foreign language, choosing a textbook becomes a prime mission at any level we teach. The following reflection, based on Curtain and Pesola´s article and my own insights, intends to cover the relevant aspects in this choice.

Selecting the textbook is a very important duty that us teachers of English as a foreign language have as our responsibility. The situation varies in the diverse levels of teaching, mainly due to the changing needs of the students in the diverse levels. Most of the material we have comes from abroad, and has been made for learners of English as a second language who live in an English speaking environment, which is certainly, not our situation. In our Costa Rican schools, we teach English as a foreign language in a Spanish speaking environment, and only in some areas of the country, English is a second language spoken on the streets, heard on radio stations,written on local newspapers, church bulletins, and varied information for tourists.


At present, primary schools may have a syllabus that can be easily followed at the first levels, but there is a need of support in the higher levels. Therefore, materials developed for elementary schools that have been prepared by professionals are required. Some publishers offer such professionally developed text series that may be adapted to the teacher´s needs when they are age-appropriate and contemporary. Thus, books that include hands-on, integrated learning that fulfill students´needs and interests and the syllabus, shall be the best choice.

In the next level, the secondary, there are particular characteristics and learning needs. We have to clarify that in U.S.A., middle schools run from grades five to eight, and high schools include levels nine to twelve. Conversely, in Costa Rica, the secondary includes levels from seven to eleven and in the technical schools there is level twelve. The situation is that students in the lower secondary levels will enjoy hands-on, integrated learning, while the higher levels need books developed for their age and interests, along with supplementary materials and activities.

CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING TEXTBOOKS AND OTHER PRINTED MATERIAL

When we look for books for our students, there are some recommended criteria we must consider.

Goals

Goals should be clearly stated, compatible with local programs, with carefully developed scope and sequence for the level. Thus, materials must reflect authentic use of the target language and culture so students can really express themselves.

Communication

Among the organizing principles, communication rather than grammar must prevail. Work with grammar must focus on function, not on analysis. That is why the use of English in student´s materials and experiences must be encouraged in the activities, reflecting an understanding of the use of physical response strategies and immersion methodology.Books must provide opportunities for meaningful, purposeful language use that helps develop a base to build reading and writing skills.

Culture

Culture must be integrated to the materials giving emphasis on experiencing rather than learning about it. The situations and language presented must be culturally authentic, promoting appreciation to the value and richness of cultural diversity.

Subject Content and Thinking Skills

Subject content must be appropriate for the level. There must also be suggestions for interdisciplinary content and activities. All materials must be conductive to develop higher order thinking skills.

Bias

All illustrations and texts must be free of racial, gender, and cultural bias. At this point, I may add that us teachers of English within the Caribbean culture, find this aspect of much relevance, but difficult, because we belong geographically to America and our access is mostly to books published in U.S.A. Naturally, we find cultural and sometimes, even political bias in some of the available printed materials. Although we have access to European textbooks, and materials of other continents, too, this is not so commonly incorporated into our classrooms.

Flexibility

Materials must be easily adapted to the program models and designated class time providing options for students with diverse learning styles.

Physical Characteristics

All the materials must be durable, being able to withstand handling over a period of time. We have had awful experiences when in the second month of the school year, textbooks come apart as if they were loose-leaf paper in need of a ring binder! Then, too, the presentation has to be colorful, visually attractive, with proper illustrations and photographs, and well organized use of space and font size, to make it easily readable.

Support Materials

Look for a valuable teacher´s manual, with abundant relevant activities,suggestions, plans, clear instructions. Other materials such as charts, flash cards, maps, pictures, filmstrips, videos and CD´s with voices of native speakers in songs, conversations or stories must be relevant and effective.

Budget

All materials must be affordable. There is no sense in selecting materials that in the end are not affordable to our community, being them students, parents and administrators of the institution.

Our mission is significant when choosing a textbook. I invite the readers to consider these criteria next time we have to select one.

Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon

69. CHAINS

In 1929, there was a Hungarian writer who published a volume of short stories, being one of them "Chains" or "Chain-Links." The story dealt with the problems for future generations within the field of network. It described a theory about people on Earth being closer. According to Karinthy´s theory, there was a random interconnection, and highly caotic, because technological advances in communication and increased and expanded density of humans resulted in an increased and expanded network of friends or acquaintances, making the current social distance smaller.Thus, anyone, anywhere, using the network of acquaintances, could contact any selected person using no more than five individuals.

After Karinthy´s short story became popular, his theory served as inspiration for other productions. One of them was John Guare, who wrote a play, and later a film, in which the phrase "six degrees of separation" became popular. Moreover, varieties of films and TV series like J.J.Abrams´,"Six Degrees," the TV series that describes the life of six New Yorkers who are not aware about how their decisions affect each one until they meet one another. Let me admit that this TV series was how I knew about this theory for the first time.

In addition to the productions mentioned above, two scientists from the Microsoft Company, Eric Horvitz and Jure Leskovec, developed a study where any two people are connected for not more than 6,6 degrees of separation.

Furthermore, in the early nineties, college students in the U.S.A. developed a game called, "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," where the challenge was to link celebrities to Kevin Bacon, and later, to link themselves to him through an acquaintance of the actor or someone who had worked with him. In fact, in the year 2007, Kevin Bacon himself, launched a web site, "sixdegrees,org," to inspire people to give charity online, connecting people to accomplish something good.

I would like to highlight the concept of all being connected to accomplish something good, hoping that we learn from this theory and from Kevin Bacon. That is why I invite you to watch the video, "Six degrees of Kevin Bacon, CBS."