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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The Process of Developing Assessment.

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Licda: Cleopatra Noel Drummond

The first chapter as to do with the process of developing assessment in the same you will find a summary of the most important points on this subject. What is assessment? It is said that assessment is an integral part of the entire curriculum cycle, not something tacked on as an afterthought to teaching. 

For such reason it includes the phases of planning, development, administration, analysis, feedback, and reflection. 

Planning

The planning for assessment must consider why are we assessing and choose a type of assessment that fits the students needs. What is the purpose of the assessment, and what kind of information do we need to get from it?

Specifications

A specification is a detailed description of exactly what is being assessed and how it is being done. Specifications can be simple or complex, depending on the context for assessment. As a rule, the more formal and higher-stakes the assessment, the more detailed specifications need to be to ensure validity and reliability.

They are steps a simpler specifications might include:

• a general description of the assessment.
• a list of skills to be tested and operations students should be able to do.
• the techniques for assessing those skills.
• the expected level of performance and grading criteria

Constructing the Assessment

At this point after used the specifications we have to be sure that the assessment is constructed the right way, whenever a teacher builds her test she/he needs to prepare an answer key. No matter how good you believe your test is, always try it out on a human being before administering it to your actual target group.  

Preparing Students

Students need accurate information about assessment, and they need to develop good test-taking skills. In many cases teachers need to have outcome statements from the beginning of the course so the students can know what is expected of them. Some teachers post these outcomes in the classroom as a reminder of the goals to be achieved.

Finally I will say the things we need to remember about this topic is that assessment is an integral part of the teaching/learning cycle, transparency and accountability are the hallmarks of good assessment, prepare grading criteria and answer keys along with tests, and plan time for reflection on assessment.

  

Assessing English Language Learners

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Licda: Cleopatra Noel Drummond

Welcome

The Assessing English Language Learners course 

 Dr. Gilberto Hernandez Quiros  

"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God,

that giveth to all men liberally,

and upbraideth not;

and it shall be given him."

James: 01: 05 

"For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand,
 saying unto thee. 
Fear not; I will help thee.
Isaiah: 41: 13

podcast No books 150 students Poderato.com/mirna

podcast No books 150 students Poderato.com/mirna

The Calendar Song - Kids + Children Learn English Songs

Personalization

  

By: Teacher Licda Cleopatra Noel Drummond

The principle I am going to define is the seven one that speaks about personalization, but to understand this we need to know first what is personalize? and after seeking in different sources I finally define it as "to take in a personal manner" or " To attribute human or personal qualities to; personify."

It is important that students feel they are related to as individuals and are not simply numbers on a list. Sad to say that it is easy to fall in a routine in large classes; and by doing this we don't give the students the important part in the classroom, students feel that they don't count and that there is really no point in expressing their opinion.

But according to the reading it is doubly important, in large classes, to provide opportunities in which students may share opinions, relate to their own future plans, and explore their ideas on important issues. To reach to this point teachers can use any reading text, listening passage, and speaking activity to be adapted in such a way that it allows personalization.

Points to take in account:

• After reading about a controversial topic, students can write letters to the editor.
• Students can give mini-presentations about their hopes or dreams for the future.
• Students can investigate the professional requirements of their hoped-for profession.
• Students can talk about a person they admire.

To conclude I will say that the more we give the students participation in the classroom the more they will express themselves, use the language in a meaningful way, feel that they are important for the teacher, and finally increase their self-esteem. Take your students in account and give them their place for a successful learning-teaching process.

Principles of effective materials development

By Licda. Cleopatra Noel Drummond

According to the author "Brian Tomlinson" the materials we are going to use is not to be taken from any random recreation nor crafty clones but it has to be creative and be coherent. 
The materials should be:


1. Expose the learners to language in authentic use.
2. Help learners to pay attention to features of authentic input.
3. Provide the learners with opportunities to use the target language to achieve communicative purposes.
4. Provide opportunities for outcome feedback.
5. Stimulate intellectual, aesthetic, and emotional involvement.

The author also emphasizes the six principles of language acquisition and four principles of language teaching that is useful to give a lot more attention in materials development. Those principles of language acquisition are:

1. A prerequisite for language acquisition is that the learners are exposed to a rich, meaningful, and comprehensible input of language in use. In order to acquire the ability to use the language effectively, the learners need a lot of experience of the language. Make sure that the materials contain plentiful spoken and written texts. Make sure that the language the learners are exposed to is authentic in the sense that the language is contextualized. Make sure that the learners are exposed to sufficient samples of language in authentic use to provide natural recycling.

2. In order for the learners to maximize their exposure to language in use, they need to be engaged both effectively and cognitively in the language experience. If the learners do not think and feel while experience the language, they are unlikely to acquire any elements of it. Prioritize the potential for engagement. Make use of activities that make the learners think about what they are reading or listening to and respond to it personally.

3. Language learners who achieve positive affect are much more likely to achieve communicative competence than those who do not. Language learners need to be positive about the target language, about their learning environment, about their teachers, about their fellow learners, and about their learning materials. Make sure the texts and tasks are as interesting, relevant, and enjoyable.

4. Language learners can benefit from using those mental resources that they typically utilize when acquiring and using their L1. In particular, they can gain from multidimensional representation of both the language they experience they intend to produce. Make use of activities that encourage learners to visualize and or use inner speech before, during and after experiencing a written or spoken text.

5. Language learners can benefit from noticing salient features of the input. If learners notice for themselves how a particular language item or feature is used. Rather tan drawing the learners' attention to a particular feature of a text and then providing explicit information about its use, it is much more powerful to help the learners to make discoveries for themselves.

6. Learners need opportunities to use language to try to achieve communicative purposes. If they are participating in interaction, they are also being pushed to clarify and elaborate. Provide many opportunities for the learners to produce language in order to achieve intended outcomes. Try to ensure that opportunities for feedback are built into output activities and are provided for the learners afterwards.

The following are Principles of language teaching:

1. The teaching such be consisted with the objectives of the course and should meet the needs and wants of the learners. The materials need to be written in such a way that the teacher can make use of them as a resource, they must be built in flexibility to the course that helps the teachers and learners to make principled decisions.

2. The teaching should be designed to help learners to achieve language development and no just language acquisition. The activities should not be restricted to the practice of language forms and functions. The materials should help the teacher to assess the learners and to give constructive feedback in relation to achievement.

3. The teachers should provide the learners with learning opportunities to help them develop educationally. The material should be cross-curricular in that they relate to other subject areas and are not narrowly focused on language learning.

4. The teacher needs to be able to personalize and localize the materials and to relate them in different ways to the needs, wants, and learning-style preferences of individual learners. The materials should provide the teacher with ideas for localizing and personalizing generic activities.

It is necessary to have materials in our classroom to make the lesson more meaningful for students to learn by having fun.