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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.
The questions should be clear from the stem.



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:





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:




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:




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:


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:





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