Communication & Design of Language Tests, ch 2
This chapter takes us through the history of language testing. First was a discrete point testing where parts of a language were tested separately (vocabulary, grammar). Then came the skills testing where the skills (reading, writing, listening) were tested. Foreign students wishing to study abroad led to integrative tests where pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary were tested but those were time consuming and expensive tests. By the 1970’s pragmatic tests, where language use was tested (how the learner integrates grammar, vocabulary, and context), and this was when cloze tests began. When communicative competence theory came out there was a change in the way testing was viewed. This view was that language use is different in different situations, and that knowledge of language was much more than knowing vocabulary or grammatical structures.
Today in our school we are using a language test that was when… in 1970’s? Was it ever revised? I think it’s about time our school looked into language assessments, but how would we capture how students use their new language? Right now the way I know a child is acquiring a language is through observation. Thinking about our Yugtun language heightens my interest in language assessment.
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13 years ago
2 comments:
Hi Sally,
Are you talking about the Yup'ik Oral Proficiency test? If so, I wonder if we're required, this year, to give those tests to our students. I some times wonder about the reliability and validity (more so recently) because i read today that the test was a direct translation of an English test. Interesting, huh?
Interesting points about the oral Yup'ik test. I think it does warrant a second look. What are the goals of the test? Have they changed? Does it give you important information about your students?
Marilee
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