PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC MÔN TIẾNG ANH

TESTING
I. Questions for discussion
II. Design a 15 – minute test or 45 – minute test with key answers
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Why and what should teachers give tests to students ?
2. State what you know about innovation / change in testing.
3. List some test types you usually give your students.
4. Suggest what should be done to make fair tests.

1.Why and what should teachers give tests
to students ?
Regular tests play an important role because
The tests tell the teacher :
* What the students can and cannot do
* How successful the teaching has been
* What areas need to be taught in the future
2. The tests tell the students :
* How well they are progressing
* Where they need to focus their attention as learners
* Regular tests also encourage students to take their learning seriously, and give them a series of definite goals to aim towards. In sum,
* A class test enables the teacher to increase his own effectiveness.
3. A good classroom test helps
* locate the areas of difficulty encountered by the class or the individual students.
* enable the teacher to diagnose his students weaknesses or difficulties, and ascertain the difficulty that lie in any part of the language programme.
* provides the students with an opportunity to recognize and produce correct forms of the language and be able to learn from their errors and consolidate the pattern after the test.
What should teachers test?
In testing language, teachers should test :
Linguistic elements (grammar, vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation) to find out what students have learnt
Language skills (listening, reading, speaking, writing) to find out what students can do.
A. Testing receptive skills
B. Testing speaking (oral test)
C. Testing writing
D. Testing vocabulary
E. Testing grammar
F. Testing pronunciation
2. Innovation/Change in Testing
In traditional language teaching, formal and informal tests are given to students by their teachers.
Nowadays, based on student-centered approach, language testing includes tests, continuous/continual assessments.
- Formal tests : at the end of a semester/ school year, marked, and assessed by teachers.
- Continuous/continual assessments: during the course, students are assessed by teachers( teacher assessment), or classmates (peer assessment), or the student himself/herself (self-assessment).
3.Some test types

Teachers might use a variety of test types which will depend on
The level of students
The skills they want to test
The language points they want to test


Listening tests
1. Multiple choice
2. True-False
3. Open-ended questions
4. Grid-filling
5. Gap-filling (cloze)

C. Speaking tests
1. Prompts/Picture prompts
2. Asking and answering questions
3. A set of topics
B. Reading tests
1. Multiple choice
2. True-False
3. Open-ended questions
4. Grid-filling
5. Gap-filling
D. Writing tests
Guided writing tests:
- Gap-filling
- Re-ordering words
- Summary writing based on texts
Free writing tests:
- Sentence writing
- Paragraph writing
- Essay writing


4.Some suggestions for making fair tests
Ask enough questions to test accurately.

Write clear instructions/directions for the test and use examples.

Test what has been taught in class.


Write clear test items.
Compare the following:
Item 1: Directions: Choose the best response.
Today it is rather cloudy.
A. It will probably rain.
B. Yesterday the weather was nice.
C. Yes, I think so, too.
Item 2: Directions: Choose the letter for the answer which means the same as the statement.
Today it is rather cloudy.
A. The clouds are dark.
B. It is not too sunny today.
C. It might snow tomorrow.

Which item is clear?
Item 2 is clear; Item 1 is unclear.
When writing multiple choice questions, use realistic distractors.
Distractors are wrong answers. A test will not be reliable if impossible distractors are used.
Consider the following question:

What color is the sun?
A. Yellow ( This is intended correct answer)
B. Orange ( too close to the correct answer)
C. Soft (not a color & too far from the correct answer)
D. Yes (It is a bad distractor because this is an answer to a yes/no question)
A better set of answers to test knowledge of colors would simply be a list of colors:
A. blue B. green C. yellow D. black
Score tests consistently with a key.
When scoring, use a key that will help teachers grade objectively. The key should have examples of correct answers ( though other correct answers should be accepted) and the appropriate points/marks as well.
Avoid traps for students
A good test should never be constructed in such a way as to trap the students (testees) into giving an incorrect answer. All tests should be constructed primarily with the intention of finding out what a student knows _ not with trapping him.


II. Design:
15 –minute test
45 –minute test
(with key answers)