Thursday, October 13, 2011

Techniques for testing.












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Licda: Cleopatra Noel Drummond


The second chapter has to do with the techniques uses to prepare a test and all that it takes. The balances between the objective and subjective formats, the strives for authentic use of target language through texts and communicative tasks, and others.


Classifying test items and tasks

The classification of a test can be as selection or supply. The selection is where students select the correct answer from a number of presented options such as: true/false, matching and multiple choice. Supply items students must supply or construct the correct answer examples of these are short answer or completion, cloze, gap fill and essay questions.

Subjective or objective questions
Objective test items are those that can be score base only on following an answer key, it requires neither expert judgment nor specialist knowledge. The objective items are usually short answer – closed response items. Objective test items are very popular with language teachers and test developers because these items are easy and quick to mark. They are flexible in that objective test items can be used to test both global and detailed understanding test. 
Subjective test requires that the maker have knowledge of the content area being tested and it depends on impression, human judgment, and opinion at the time of scoring. This kind of items usually requires the students to produce longer, more open-ended responses. The emphasis is that students make come up with an answer rather than select it from a list of alternatives.

Multiple choice questions
This type of item is the most common one used. Teachers all over the world are familiar with the format from their own learning experience. The popularity of the multiple choice questions is based on several advantages associated with this format:
Ø  If they are written well they are very reliable because there is only one answer possible.
Ø  They can be useful at various educational levels.
Ø  The assessment is not affected by test takers writing abilities because they are only required to circle the correct response.

Some of the disadvantages of using these MCQs are:
v  It does not permit the testing of productive language skills or language as communication.
v  It encourages guessing which can have an effect on exams results.
v  It is challenging and time consuming to write plausible distracters are produces good items.

     Whenever teachers are going to write MCQs they are some tips to take in considerations such as:
       The questions should be clear from the stem.
*      Take background knowledge into account.
*      Provide as much context as possible.
*      Standardize the number of response options.
      All response options should be similar in length and level of difficulty.

True/false format
True/false questions are typically written as statements, and the students’ task is to decide whether they are true or false. They are attractive to many test developers because when they use this questions type, they can test large amounts of content, it require less time for students to respond to them, the scoring is quick and reliable and can be accomplished efficiently and accurately.
These are some tips for writing good true/false questions:
*      Question should be written at a lower level of language difficulty.
*      Consider the effects of background knowledge.
*      Questions should appear in the same order as the answer appears in thetest.
*      Avoid absoluteness clues
*      Focus each item on a single idea from the text.

       Matching format
Matching is an extended form of MCQ that draws on the student’s ability to make connections among ideas, vocabulary, and structure. The format presents the students with two columns of information and the students must find the matches between the columns.
Some tips for writing matching items are:
*      Give more options than premise.
*      Number the premise and letter the options.
*      Make options shorter than premises.
*      Options and premises should be related to one central theme.

Cloze/gap-fill items
The cloze testing item is as a test of reading comprehension. The student’s task is to complete the gaps with appropriate fillers
In gap-fill items a word or phrase is replaced by a blank in a sentence. The student’s task is to fill in the missing word or phrase.

They are two types of gap fills:
v      Function gaps such as prepositions, articles, conjunctions.
v     Semantic gaps such as nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs.
Some of the tips for writing cloze/gap-fill items are:
*      Ensure that answers are concise.
*      Provide enough contexts.
*      Blanks should be of equal length.
*      Develop and allow for a list of acceptable responses.

       Short answer/completion items
They are items that ask students to answer in a few words, phrases, or sentences. They have some advantages such as: they encourages students to learn and know the answer rather than just recognize it, students must produce the answer, there is less guessing, they are especially good for checking gist, and these questions types can test higher-order thinking skills.
Two things to know when you are writing these items:
*      There should be only one short, concise answer.
*      Allow for partial credit.

Essay questions
Essay questions offer students the greatest opportunity to construct their own responses. Essay questions are the most useful format for assessing higher-order cognitive processes such as analyzing, evaluating, summarizing, and synthesizing.
These questions not only assess content knowledge, they place a premium on writing ability.
Some of the tips to build these essay questions are:
*     1. Make all questions similar I level of difficulty,
*     2.   Write questions that force students to use higher-order thinking skills.
*     3. Allow students enough space to write their answer.
*    4.  Assess content selectively.
*      Share the scoring rubric with students prior to the exam.
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