APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE TESTING

Language tests can be classified to four main approaches to testing :

· The essay-translation approach

· The structuralist approach

· The integrative approach

· The communicative approach

A useful test will construct by combining several of these approach.

1. The essay-translation approach

The characteristic of this approach:

a. It is referred to pre-scientific stage of language testing.

b. No special skill or expertise in testing is required.

c. Tests usually consist of essay writing, translation and grammatical analysis.

d. The test also heavy in literary and cultural bias.

e. Public examinations resulting from the test sometimes have oral component at the upper
intermediate and advance level.

2. The structuralist approach

The Characteristic and Types of Tests of Structuralist Approach:

a. This approach views that language learning is chiefly concerned with a systematic acquisition of a
set of habit.

b. The structuralist approach involves structural linguistics in which the importance of constructive
analysis and the need to identify and measure the learners’ mastery of the separate elements of the
target language such as phonology, vocabulary and grammar.

c. In testing the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing are separated from another as much
as possible.

d. The psychometric approach to measurement with its emphasis on reliability and objectivity forms
an integral part of structuralist testing.

3. The Integrative Approach

The Characteristic and Types of Tests of Integrative Approach:

a. This approach involves the testing of language in context and is thus concerned primarily with
meaning and the total communicative effect of discourse.

b. Integrative tests are concerned with a global view of proficiency.

c. Integrative testing involves functional language but not the use of functional language.

d. The use of cloze testing, dictation, oral interview, translation and essay writing are included in
many integrative tests.

1. Cloze test

The principles of cloze testing is based on the Gestalt theory. It measures the reader’s ability to decode
interrupted or mutilated messages by making the most acceptable substitutions from all the contextual
clues. There are two methods of scoring a cloze test : acceptable answer and exact answer. Three types
of knowledge are required to perform success cloze test : linguistic knowledge, textual knowledge and
knowledge of the world.

2. Dictation

This type of test is a means of measuring students’ skills of listening comprehension.

Example of cloze test :

Site activity information. We keep {1}______ of some of the actions {2}______ take on Facebook, such
as {3}______ connections (including joining a group {4}______ adding a friend), creating a {5}______
album, sending a gift, poking {6}______ user, indicating you “like” a {7}______, attending an event, or
connecting {8}______ an application. In some cases {9}______ are also taking an action {10}______ you
provide information or content {11}______ us. For example, if you {12}______ a video, in addition to
{13}______ the actual content you uploaded, {14}______ might log the fact that {15}______ shared it.

4. The Communicative Approach

The Characteristic and Types of Tests of Communicative Approach:

a. Communicative tests are concerned primarily with how language is used in communication.

b. Language use is often emphasized to the exclusion of language usage.

c. Communicative testing results in an attempt to get different profiles of a learner’s performance in

the language.

d. The test content should totally be relevant for a particular group of testees and the tasks set should
relate to real-life situation.

e. Communicative testing introduces the concept of qualitative modes of assessment in preference to

quantitative modes of assessment.
So, a good test will combine features of these approaches depending on the particular purpose of the
test and also the various test constraints. Language testing involves making compromises between what
is ideal and practicable in certain situation and trying to devise a test which is as valid and reliable as
possible and which has useful backwash effect on the teaching and learning leading to the test.