MODULE III: LANGUAGE TESTING:
Approaches and Techniques
APPROACHES TO LANGUANGE TESTING
4 Main Approaches to Testing:
 Essay – Translation Approach
 Structuralist Approach
 Integrative Approach
 Communicative Approach
Essay – Translation Approach (Pre – scientific Movement)
 This approach has no specific rules and procedures,
intuitive testing
Structuralist Approach (Psychometric – Structuralist
Movement)
 Certain principles and procedures should be
followed, this approach was developed by
psychologists and it has some characteristics
including: a) deciding on the tested area (reading,
writing, sound, etc.), b) use of objective itemized
tests (multiple choices questions), c) focus on
specific language elements or skills, d) the use of
statistics to see the average (validity and reliability
of the designed test)
Integrative Approach (Integrative – Sociolinguistic
Movement)
 It doesn’t test language and from among the
famous people of this approach is Oller. According
to him test should be general, speaking and
listening for example must go together because
they are interrelated (discrete tests must be used).
As an example for such a kind of tests, it combines
many skills which are tested at the same time.
Oller has also suggested (Cloze test), a test where
in some items are deleted and students are asked
to attempt to fill the blanks and reach the deleted
items. However, such a kind of test is used for
reading comprehension in nowadays, but for Oller
it is an integrative test. He also adds dialogues
which are the closest to his introduced approach as
they combine language sub-skills.
Communicative Approach
 There is an emphasis on communicative
competence (use= appropriateness) and (usage=
grammar). Actually, a test in this approach would
combine between pure and hybrid tests, the ability
to use language for communicative purposes,
focusing on LANGUGAE and not on
KNOWELDGE of language.
TEST TECHNIQUES
Direct vs. Indirect Testing
Two Approaches to Test Construction
• Direct Testing – requires the candidate to perform
precisely the skill that the test wishes to measure.
Example:
Objective: how well candidates pronounce a language
Direct testing method: get them to speak
Direct testing has a number of attractions:
1. It is relatively straightforward to create the conditions
which will elicit the behavior on which judgment will be
based.
2. At least in the case of productive skills, the assessment
and interpretation of students’ performance are also quite
straightforward.
3. Since practice for the test involves practice of the skills
to foster, there is likely to be a helpful backwash effect.
• Indirect Testing - attempts to measure the abilities that
underlie the skills in which the test is interested.
Example:
Grammatical knowledge contributes to writing ability,
then a grammar test may be used as an indirect test of
writing.
Additional examples:
• underlined items which the student needs to identify as
erroneous or inappropriate in formal standard English
• a paper and pencil test in which the student has to
identify pairs of words which rhyme with each other (Lado,
1961)
• Semi-direct tests - these tests are semi direct in the sense
that, although not direct, they simulate direct testing.
Example:
Candidates respond to tape-recorded stimuli, with their
own responses being recorded and later scored.
Discrete Point vs. Integrative Testing
• Discrete Point - refers to the testing of one element at a
time, item by item.
Example:
One-point objective: Testing for the meaning of a word in
isolation.
Choose the correct meaning of the word paralysis.
A. Inability to move
B. State of unconscious
C. State of shock
D. Being in pain
• Integrative Testing - requires the candidate to combine
many language elements in the completion of a task.
Examples:
• writing a composition
• making notes while listening to a lecture
• taking a dictation
• completing a cloze passage.
• Integrative test - refers to an integrative item that would
test more than one point of objective at a time. Example:
Instruction: Demonstrate your comprehension of the
following words by using them together in a written
paragraph: "paralysis," "accident," and "football.
Norm-referenced vs. Criterion referenced Testing
Two Basic Types of Language Test
• Norm-referenced testing - students' scores are interpreted
relative to each other in a normal distribution scheme (bell
curve).
• Criterion-referenced Testing – measures student ability
against a predetermined standard.
Objective vs. Subjective Testing
• Objective Test – there is only one right answer .
• Subjective Test - the scorer is not looking for only one
right answer, but rather for a series of factors.