LEARNING 0BJECTIVES

At the end of the Module, students should be able

o:

describe test construction, test items and how

they are classitied

2. identify the different phases of the evaluation

process.

. explain how each phase should be carried out.

4. discuss the stages of test construction.

5. acknowledge the importance of knowing the steps

in constructing a test for ellicient testing

A. THE MECHANICS OF TEST cONSTRUCTION

Writing items requires a decision about the nature

of the item or question to which we ask students to

respond, that is, whether discreet or integrative, how

we will score the item; the skill we purport to test,

and others.

What follows are descriptions o1 the varied

considerations lor constructing items.

B. WHAT ARE TEST ITEMS?

A test item 1s a speciliC task test takers are asked

to perform. Test items can asseSs one or more points

or objectives, and the actual item itselt may take on a

different constellaton depenaing On the context.

For example, an item may test one point (under

standing of a gven vocabutary wora) or several points

(the ability to obtain Jacts Jrom a passage and then make

inferences based on the Jacts) Lkewise, a given objective

may be tested by a series of items. For example, there

could be five items all testing one grammatical point

(e.g tag questions) Items ot a similar kind may also

C. THE SKILL TESTED AND THE INTELLECTUAL

SKILLS NEEDED

ne language skills that we test nciude the more

Teceptive skills on a continuumistening and reading,

and the more productive skills peaking nd writing.

nere are, other language skilis thatx cro55-Cut these

Tour skills, such as vocabulary. ASsessing vocabulary

will most likely vary to a certaln extent acr0Ss the

1our skills, with assessment ol vocaDulary in listening

and reading perhaps coveting a DrOder Tange than

assessment of vocabulary in speaking and writing.

Nonverbal skills, may also be assessed such as

gesturing. and this can be both receptive (interpreting

someone else's gestures) and productive (making one's

Own gestures).

There are test items which may require test

takers to use different levels of intellectual skills to

produce a response. These will require the domains of

learningas identified in Bloom's Revised Cognitive

Taxonomy:
, knowle dge (bringing to mind the appropriate

material;

comprehension (understanding the basic meaning8

nela

o of the material;

application (applying the knowledge of the

de cds elements of language and comprehension to how

they interrelate in the production of a correct ora

or written message)

analysis (breaking down a message into its

constituent parts in order to make explicit the

relationships between ideas, including tasks like

Tecognizang the connotative meanings of words and

correctly processing a dictation, and making

inlerences);
evaluation (making quantitative and qualitatuve

Judgments about material).

synthesis (arranging parts so as to produce a pattern not clearly there betore, such as in effectively
organizing ideas jn a written

composition); and

lt is important to remember that these levels increase to greater cognitive Control as one moves from
knowledge to synthesisthat, for example, effective operation at more advanced levels, such as
evaluation and synthesis, would call 1or more advanced control of the second language.

c'ngle mples

D. PHASES OF EVALUATION

Teachers as decision makgrs strive to make a close match between curriculum objectives, instructional

methods, and assessment techniques. The evaluation

process carried out parallel to instruction is a cyclical one that involves lour phases: preparation,
assessment, evaluation, and retlection.

In the preparation phase, teachers decide what is to be evaluated, the type of evaluation to be used
(diagnostic, formative, or summative), the criteria upon which student learning outcomes

will be judged, and the most appropriate assessment techniques for gathering information on student
progress, Teachers may make these

decisions in collaboration with student

2. During the assessment phase, teachers select

appropriate tools and techniques, then collect and collate intormation on student progress.

Teachers must determine where, when, and how assessments w1ll be conducted, and students

must be consulted and informed.

3. During the evaluation phase, teachers interpret the assessment information and make judgments

about student progress. These judgments (or

evaluation) provide information upon which teachers base decisions 'about student idea

ana repo o StudentS and parents guardians. Students are encouraged to monitorltheir own learning by
evaluating their

achievements on a regular basis. Encouraging

students to participate in evaluation nurtures

gradual acceptance of responsibility for their

oWn progress and helps them to understand and

appreciate their growth as readers and writers.

4. The reflection phase allows teachers to consider

the extent to which the previous phases in the

evaluation process have been successful.

Specifically, teachers evaluate the utility, equity,

and appropriateness of the assessment

techniques used. Such reflection assists teachers

in making decisions concerning improvements or

adaptations to subsequent instruction and

evaluation.
E. STAGES OF TEST CONSTRUCTION

The first two phases comprise test construction. in

the preparation and assessment phases the following

stages are carried out:

1. Planning

Once the need for a language test arises, the

teacher or test developer determines a few

essentials, before the actual writing begins.

a. Goal Establishing aotest's goal is a vital step in

the development process. If the goal is assigning

students to a level before a course begins,

rather than evaluating them afterwards, your test

design will reflect this. For one, a placement test

should not assume any topic-specific background

knowledge, whereas a final test might.

b. Format The test developer will have to consider

a few format-related dilemmas,

such as

paper-based test versus digital one.

c. Tasks There are a myrjad of possible test tasks,

all of which can be used in different formats for

different levels,. A pon-exhaustive list of

commonly used taskS might include the

following

Design

When the test has been planned, the teacher

of development team can get down to designing it.

This implies;

2.

a. Collecting testing material Collecting material with

an appropriate degree of situational and/or

interactional authenticity. This implies that the

situations and the interactions in the test reflect

situations and interactions that appear both

meaningful and realistic to each testee.

b. Writing a draft version One or a fewW members of

the test development team gets down to writing a

draft version of the test. This draft will often

contain more questions and items than are taken

down to the final test version.

C. Evaluating the draft version The team members

that were not involved in writing the draft version

have a close look at the test and decide which

questions will be omitted, which items need

further clarification, etc:

d. Rewriting the draft version Based on the

Observationsand suggestions made by the

reviewers, the draft version is rewritten and refined

until the whole team is. happy with the test

3. Development

a. Piloting The test is distributed among a group

of representative end users (i.e. people who

represent the 'real' test takers as accurately as

possible) in the same settings and

circumstances as the live test.

By analyzing the results from this piloting

quantitatively and/or qualitatively the validity

and reliability of the test can be determined

and refined.

b. Revising Based on the results from the piloting

and the test analysis, the final test will be

composed.

DISCUSSION POINTS

1. What are the different phases of evaluation?

2. How does each phase contribute to the

development of an effective evaluation?

3.

What are the stages of test construction?

4. Identify the components of planning a test.

5. Explain the steps in designing a test.

6. Enumerate and give examples of test tasks

commonly given to students.

POST-DISCUSSION ACTIVITIES

1. Plan a test you will give a group of first year

high school students. Consider the different levels

of the intellectual skills in Bloom's cognitive taxonomy.

2. Identify your goals and the different tasks you will

give.

3. Design a test for the same group as a result of your plan. Follow the steps given
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS

LEARNING 0BJECTIVES:

At the end of the Module, the students should be

able to:

1. identify the criteria of a good test.

2. explain the meaning of each criterion

3. discuss the different statistical formulas common to language test.

A. CRITERIA OFA GOOD TEST

In creating a valid and relhable langu age test for

general or specilic purposes, a quantitative and qualitative

test analyses are ot the utmost importance,

A complete formal analysis requires a thorough

psychometric knowledge, whereas informal analyses are less

rigid and can be undertaken with relative ease. The

analysis described below is feasible for most test developers

and wil improve the test quality considerably.

Prior to the analysis component, there are a few key

concepts which are central to good tests.

1. Relevance: the extent to which it is necessary

that students are able to perform task x.

Representativity : the extent to which task

represents a real situation

3. Authenticity: the extent to which the situation

and the interaction are meaningful and

representative in the world of the individual user

Balance: the extent to which each relevant

topic/ability receives an equal amount o

attention
. Validity: the extent to which the test effectively

measures what it is intended to measure.

Sub classifications of validity

a. Concurrent validity

the scores it gives correlate highly with a

A test is said to have concurrent validity if

recognized external criterion which measures the

same area of knowledge or ability.

b. Construct validity

A test is said to have construct validity if

Scores can be shown to reflect a theory about

the nature of a construct or its relation to other

constructs. It could be predicted, for example,

that two valid tests of listening comprehension

would rank learners in the same way, but each

would have a weaker relationship with scores on

a test of grammatical competence.

c. Content validity

A test is said to have content validity if the

items or tasks of which it is made up constitute

a representative sample of items or tasks for the

area of knowledge or ability to be tested. These

are often related to a syllabus or course.

d. Convergent validity

A test is said to have convergent validity

when there is a high correlation between scores

achieved in it and those achieved in a different

test measuring the same construct (irrespective of

method). This can be considered an aspect of

construct validity.

e. Criterion-related validity

A test is said to have criterion-related validity

if a relationship can be demonstrated between test

scores and some external criterion which is

believed to be a measure of the same ability.

Information on criterion-relatedness is also used in

determining how well a test predicts future

behavior

f. Discriminant validity

A test is said to have discriminant validity if

the correlation it has with tests of a different

trait is lower than correlation with tests of the

same trait, irrespective of testing method. This

can be considered an aspect of construct vaidity.

g. Face validity

The extent to which a test appears to

candidates, or those choosing it on behalf of

candidates, to be an acceptable measure of the

ability they wish to measure. This is a subjective

judgment rather than one based on any objective

analysis of the test, and face validity is often

considered not to be a true form of validity. It is

sometimes referred to as 'test appeal'.

h. Predictive validity

An indication of how well a test predicts

future performance in a relevant skill.

Factors that influence validity:

1. Appropriateness of test items

2. Directions

3. Reading vocabulary and sentence structure

4. Difficulty of items

5. Construction of test items

6. Length of the test

7. Arrangement of items

8. Patterns of answers
5. Time- Students should have sufficient time to

perform a test/task.

6. Item construction- A well-constructed question

is better than a poor one.

Over thè past years, the focus of test

construction has shifted from reliability to validity and

more specifically construct validity. Additionally, tests

are increasingly considered as part of the educational

practice.

The more reliable a test is, the less random

error it contains. A test which contains systematic

error, e.g. bias against a certain group, may be

reliable, but not valid.

Possiblereasons for the inconsistency of an

individual's score in a test

Scorer's inconsistency

Limited sampling of behavior

Changes in the individual himself

Factors Affecting Reliability. factors which

1nfuence the reliability of a test

Objectivity

Difficulty of the test

Length of the test

Adequacy

Testing condition

Test administration procedures

POST-DISCUSSION ACTIVITIES

FOUR-CORNERS: Take a stand.

Which of the statements is/are generally true?

Group yourselves according to your choice. Present

the arguments in defense of your choice,

1. A test cannot be valid without being reliable.

2. A test cannot be reliable without being valid.

3. A reliable test is not necessarily valid.

4. A valid test is not necessarily reliable.

nusn- a dudds

B. IMPORTANCE OF QUANTITATIVE ANALYSISs

1 Purpose Quantitative analysis is meant to give

some idea about the reliability of the test. It is

not always casy to determine on sight which

questions are unclear or problematic in some way.

Statistical data can make problematic 1tems more

visible.

Getting started During the development phase of

the test development process,

a sample group of

at least 20 representative end-users is gathered to

whom the test is administered and solved using a

statistical program. Usually, the help of a

statistician is necessary at this point. When this

has been done, the descriptive statistics, the

correlations, and the item reliability analyses can

be checked.

C. COMMON STATISTICAL FORMULAS

1. Descriptive statistics

Descriptive statistics are intended to offer a

general idea about the test scores. A review of the

following important terms and concepts on

descriptive statistics is important:

a. N indicates the number of tests reviewed

Minimum singles or the lowest score from the

population.
MODULE VII- TESTING SKILLS THE RECEPTIVE

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

At the end of the Module, students should be able

to

1. identify the different types of tests for listening

and reading skills.

2. prepare samples of each test type.

3. appreciate the opportunity of acquiring these

testing skills as essential part ot language

teaching.

A. Testing Listening

The four language skills of speaking, listening, writing

and reading are seen as interrelated skills that occur

simultaneously in oral or written communication. Tests

for each skill may involve not only one but two or

more skills, however, this Module and the next will

attempt to present distinct classifications of assessments

involved in each type in terms of tasks and test

formats.

In general, the skill of listening may be tested in two

ways: through sound discrimination and listening

comprehension. (Harris, 1969)

1. Sound Discrimination

For beginners of languagé learning, it is important

that they are able to distinguish the sounds of the

language clearly to help thém understand the message

they hear. In English for/ example, there are several

sounds that are phoneticálly similar but phonemically

different. Words that are the same except for one sound

may cause confusion to the listener who cannot dis-

criminate these different sOunds. A teacher who

instructs his/ her student to bring a mop the next

day may 1ind a map instead, if the sound IO]

instead of|al was heard by the student.

A common task for students in testing auditory

discrimination 1s distinguishing sounds in minimal pairs.

For beginning level groups, these are often formulated jin

selection test types where the examinee identifies the

diflerentsounds in a group of similar sounds except

one.

Examples: . Directions: Write Yes if the two words

heard in each pair have the same vowel sounds; No, if

they have different sounds.

1. meat metPe

2. still - steel

2. draw -draw

3. feel

feel

4. green grin

I. Directions: Write the letter of the word that that

has a different vowel sound in each group. If all the

words sound the same, write S.

1. a. been

b. beann

C. bean

a. cop

b. cop

C.

cap

b.

ill

C.
eel

O.

a. eel

b. hymnn

hymn

C.

4.

a. hem

n1

For advanced level learners, the words may be

used in sentences which students will copy. Another

way is asking students to identify from a group of

pictures one which is referred to by the teacher in her

sentences using words of similar sounds. In this test,

students are expected not only to rely on their listening

skills but also on their comprehension and spelling

skills.

Example: Directions: On your paper, copy the following

pairs of sentences:

1. His cot is small. His cat is small

2. She bought a fan. She bought a pan.

3. The child drew a lamp. The child drew a lamb.

4. I placed the pin in my pocket. I placed the pen

in my pocket.

5. The lady stood in front of the glass. The lady

stood in front of the class.

The same sentences may be accompanied by

pictures illustrating them, from which students will pick

the right choice.

2. Listening Comprehension

Tests on listening comprehension also vay

according to learner's proficiency

group, tasks may consist of responding to reguests

answering questions, following directions, repeating

messages, etc. Common test types for these tasks

question-answer, stimulus-respon.se, and isten-repeat

Por the intermetiate

Examples: Directions: I Do the following actions:

1. Erase the board and place the eraser on the

table.

2. Face the student behind you and shake his/be

hand.

3. Open the door and the window nearest to t

4. Stand in front and place both hands on the

table.

5. Take your bag and hold it with your left hand

Directions: I1 Answer the following questions.

What are your parents occupations?

2. How long have you been staying n your

current address

3. Why did you choose to study in this school?

4. What do you often do during your free time

5. Where would you want to travel, give the

chance

These may be made even simpler for beginners.

For the advanced level, tasks may consist of drawing

nerences, l1stening for the gist or intent, listening for

specitic 1nlormation, following a story line or sequence ol

events, etc.
Example: Directions: Listen to the conversation

Detween Joanna and Kyle in school, Circle the letter of

the answer that best completes the sentence based on

the conversation.

(Taped transcript9

Joanna: Hi Kyle! Have you written your essay in

English 101?

Kyle: Not yet. had to attend the choirs rehearsal

last weeK.

Joanna: Ah, yes! I heard you are competing in

Malaysia next month

Kyle: Right. But I have been missing some classes

because of it.

Joanna: You could probably ask our teachers for

some make-up assignments.

Kyle: I'm planning to, this week. Tm going to the

orary now to Write mny essay.

Joanna: Good luck! See you in class.

. Joanna and Kyle are classmates

A. only in English 101.

B. in several subjects,

all 5ubjects.

2. Kyle has been absent from classes because he

has been attending

A. choir practice.

B. basketball practice.

C.

swimming practice.

3. The choir is scheduled to compete in Malaysia

A. next week.

B. next month.

C. next year.

4. Kyle's problem is he has not

A. been attending classes.

B. passed his essay.

C. spoken to his professors yet.

5. Which statement best describes Kyle?

A. He is a happy-go-lucky student.

B. He prioritizes his extracurricular activities

Over his academic subjects.

C. He ties to balance his academic duties with

his non-academic interest.

B. Testing Reading
One of the most commonly tested skills in school

is reading. Many aualifying examinations in elementary,

secondary, and tertiary schools focus on reading or

consist largely of reading comprehension. Perhaps,

educators believe that one's reading proficiency is a

reflection of his/her written language skills and other

sub-skills such as constructing correct sentences, using

appropriate words to express ideas, organizing ideas

logically, etc.

Reading tests may consist of the following:

skimming to identity the gist or intent, scanning to0

locate spe'cific information, 1dentilying a story line,

identifying examples presented in support of a fact or

an opinion, using context to guess the meaning of

unfamiliar words or structures, recognizing organizational

features of text, identifying referents of pronouns, etc.

The level of complexity of the test depends largely on

the type ot reading passages.

Test formats include multiple choice, short answer,

summary, information transfer, etc.

Example: For the intermediate high proficiency group:

ALIEN CREATURES ON EARTH? A Roswell Incident

In stories, alien creatures have visited the Earth for

thousands of years. The ancient Grecks and Romans told

tales of gods who visited the Earth from the heavens and

who possessed cxceptional powers. Although science has

proven that these tales are mythical, people have reported

and continue tò report seeing unidentified flying objects

(UFOS) and extraterrestrial creatures who come to the

Earth from outer space.

Little evidence exists of most UFOs sightings except for

the testimony of the witnesses, and without physical

evidence, these people cannot prove that their experiences

are true. However, a few stories are more convincing. One

such event happened on July 5, 1947, near Roswell, New

Mexico, USA.
about seven meters wide and heel-shaped with scalloped

edges at the back and a rounded nose. The impact, had

torn the front, so some of the interior could be seen.

They described the five dead bodies as slender and

approximately 1 to 1.5 meters tall with very large heads

and long, thin arms, definitely not human. The facial

features were human-like, but the eyes were much larger

than a human's and the skulls were covered with fuzz, not

hair. Those at the crash knew the bodies were not human

and later told other officers and family members that they

had seen creatures.

The bodies were put in bags and taken by the

ambulance to the military base. At night they were taken

to Washington, D.C., so that top government officials could

see the bodies. The craft was sent to Wright Field in Ohio,

USA where the army could study the wreckage. To date,

there is no reliable report of an attempted preliminary

autopsy at the military base and no report on the craft.

(To learn more about the Roswell Incident, visit

www.iufomrc.com)

From "Close Encounters of a'Word Kind,

English Teaching Forum, Vol. 37,

Number 4 (Oct-Dec 1999), p. 37.

Activities: A. Skimming to identify the gist

Directions: Encirale the letter corresponding to the

correct answer. The whole passage states that accounts

about aliens on carth are:

A. entirely true.

B. absolutely false

C. awaiting confirmation.

B. Scanning to locate specific information

Directions: Answer the following questions:

1. When and where did the Roswell Incident

happen?
2. Who were the direct witnesses of the

incident?

3. From the description of the witnesses how

did the craft and the creatures inside look?

4. Where were the craft and the bodies taken

and why?

C. Making inferences

Directions: Encircle thTe letter corresponding to the

correct answer for each sentence.

1. It is difficult to establish the truth of the stories

about aliens because

A. there are no eyewitnesses to confirm them

B. there are no physical evidences to prove

them
C. they are just product of man's imagination

2. The most probable reason why to date, no

confirmation of the Roswell Incident has been

released by the US government is that

A. the findings might be a threat to national

securityy.

B. the US doesn't have the scientific and techni-

cal capability to examine the craft and the

bodies to establish valid conclusions.

they were discovered as hoax.

D. Guessing Meanings of Unfamiliar Words through

Contextt
Directions: Select the most probable meaning of

the underlined word based on the context

within which it is used in the sentence.

1. People have continued to report that they have

seen UFOs and extraterrestrial creatures.

A. horribly ugly

B. out-of-this-world

C. supernatural

D. heavenly

2. Major Easley immediately cordoned off the area

around the craft while it was checked for

radiation.

A. examined

B. investigated
C. enclosed

D. marked

3. Dr. Holden and his students were taken to the

air base for further interrogation.

A. examination

B. investigation

C. study

D. questioning

4. The skulls were covered with fuzz not hair.

A. fluffy particles

B. rubbery strands

C. sharp objects

D. moles and warts

5. Science has proven that tales of Greek anc

Roman gods are mythical.

A. legendary

B. imaginative

C. superstitious

D. extraordinary

DISCUSSION POINTS

1. What are the two common types of listening

tests?

2. What tasks does a reading test usually comprise?

3. How does a teacher differentiate test tasks

according to students' proficiency?

4. Why is it important for language teachers to

acquire the skills of testing listening and reading

using various types?

POST-DIScUSSION ACTIVITIES

1. Get at least 3 samples each of actual tests in

listening and in reading, used by English teachers

in their classes and prepare to discuss their types

and formats.

2. Prepare 3 samples each of listening and reading

tests patterned atter actual tests brought to class

or chosen from the list discussed in the module.

MODULE VII
TESTING THE PRODUCTIVE

SKILLS

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of the Moduie, students should be able

tO:

1. identify the different types of tests for speaking

and writing

2. construct tests for each type.

3. acknowledge the importance of effective tests to

language teaching and learning.

A. Testing Speaking
Some language teachers consider testing he speaking

and writing skills of students easier to evaluate than

testing their listening and reading skills. The spoken

and written skills of learners are directly and

immediately manifested, thus a teacher could tell off

hand if they are proficient or not in te language.

On the other hand, there are language specialists

who believe that it is more difficult to assess the

students productive skills with precision because of the

simultaneous use of diferent language abilities in

speaking and writing. Erther four or five components are

recognized as part of the speaking writing process.

Regardless of its simplicity or complexity of

evaluation, the construction of tests for the productive

skills is as varied as that of the receptive skills in

terms

levels, tyYpes, and formats.

Speaking here does not refer to the eloquence of

delivering a prepared speech but to one's ability to carry

out a conversation using the language learned

effortlessly.

In assessing the spoken ability of learners, several

components have to be considered: pronunciation,

grammar, word choice, fluency. Often, these are the

criteria used tor evaluatin8 a person's oral

communication Skill. Content and organization are not

given as much emphasis as the first four (Harris,

1969).

1. Testing Pronunciation

There are no fixed criteria for Judging good or

bad pronunciation. Traditionally, correct pronunciation

is measured by the accuracy of imitating a native

speakers way of pronouncing words. To speak

English correctly, one has to speak either the

American or British way.

With the advent of the communicative approach

of teaching/learning language, the emphasis has

shifted from accuracy to clarity/ comprehensibility. As

long as the pronunciation does not impede the

clarity of the message or the listener's understandin8

of it, the pronunciation is considered acceptable. Still,

1n testing specitic sound production, one has to

follow certain standards.

For beginners, the following types of tests 1or

pronunClation are common: recognition. ol sina

sOunds, putting proper stress in wordsa

sentences, loud reading. etc.

EXample: Recognition of similar sounds/ stre

Dire From a list of words in each Broup

Tead the word that has the same vowel sound as the

guide word's.

2. Testing Grammar

Grammar tests involve correct usage o verb

torms and tenses, nouns and pronou

die

and adverb forms, etc. In oral communicaon

tve

icat

grammatical usage may be tested through sentence

conversion (from negative to affirmative, statemernt to

question, etc), answerin8 questions, expansion (by

modilication, subordination, coordination, etc.), word

transtormation in context (past to present tenses,

Singular to plural nouns, nouns to pronouns, etc.).

Examples: a. Sentence conversion

Directions: Read the following statements aloud and

change to questions answerable by yes/ no.

1) My friend, Luisa, lives in Makati.

1) Shee and her sisters are renting a condominium

along Buendia.

3) They used to go home everyday to Bulacan

alter school or work.

4) Atter a few months, they realized it was

impractical.

5)NoW they have more time for study and

leisure

Directions: Go back to sentences 1-5, change each into

a queston usin8 the 1olowing question words:

1)

Who

Where
What

When

How

b. Answering questions

Directions: Answer the following questions appropriately.

1) What do you like most about your school?

2) How will you describe your classmates in three

words? Your teachers?

3) Why is college education important to you?

4) What are your immediate goals after college?

5) Whom do you consider your closest friend hereand why?

3. Testing Word Choice

One's choice of words reflects his/her level of proficiency in the language. The richer the

vocabulary is, the more proficient the learner is expected to be. In oral communication, vocabulary

proliciency may be tested through word substitutions,

Supplying appropriate words in the missing parts of Sentences, selecting from a given list of words the
most appropriate tor the sentence, etc.

Examples: a. Word substitutions

Directions: Read the sentences aloud and substitute

new but appropriate words to underlined words.

1) Life in the city is tedious.-ber

2) You need to wake uP early everyday to avoid

traffic congestionn

3) Going home is also a problem especially if your last class is Late.

4) You have to stand in line for long before you can get a ride.

5) Even 1 you are luckY enough to lind a seat,

you still need to wait hours inside a jeep or a

bus that moves and stalls every so oiten

amidst a tangled traffic.

b. Supplying appropriate words to missing parts

Directions Complete each sentence by supplying the

missing parts with appropriate words.

along Rizal Park on an early Sunday

mornin8 can be a

experience.

2) Armed with your

umbrella, you Dus or a Jeep and

along Talt Avenue

2) You walking from the giant map of the

Philippines to the of Rizal to the Quirino

Grandstand, of the inauguration of many

of our

lunch and an

Testing Fluency/ Ease and Speed of the Flow of

Speech
The speaker's fluency in terms of ease and

speed of the flow of speech may be difficult to

measure accurately because there are no standard

rules as to what speed is sufficient or insufficient

This may, however, be gauged from the spcaker's

ability to answer questions spontaneously or speak

on any topic informally with ease and fluency. Speed

alone will not constitute fluency, because some

speakers tend to speak fast, but they stammer or

falter several times in their talk which hinders the

smooth flow of communication.

5. Testing Comprehension

Comprehension is an essential part of

communication. One's oral commnunication ability de-

part

of

pends on his/her ability to understand the

message received to which he/she needs to respond

to. Comprehension can be tested focusing on the

speaker's ability to reply quickly to a remark or a

question clearly and completely.

the

All these component parts of the speech process

can be rated simultaneously in an interview using

an evaluation sheet. The teacher can devise the

evaluation sheet himself/herself. It must reflect the

five components being rated, each consisting of a

scale of qualities to be rated according to assigned

numerical values. It is advisable not to fill in the

score sheet during the interview as it might affect

the performance of the speaker. It is better to

record the scored interview and rate the speaker

using the score sheet afterwards

Example of an evaluation scale for fluency

5. Speaks very fast; message is very clear.

4. Speaks fast; message is clear.

3. Speaks moderately fast; part of the messpge

is unclear.

2. Speaks slow; message is difficult to

to

understand.

1. Falters many times in speaking: message

cannot be understood.

B. Testing Writing

Like in speaking, the teacher's concern in testing

the written skill does not pertain to specific forms of

wTiting such as creative or technical writing. Ability to

write these forms is later developed after the student

has gained mastery of the basic writing skills.

Testing writing is focused primarily on evalu ating

the students ability to express their ideas in TIting

taking into consideration its five component part

COntent, form, grammar, style and mechanics tta

1969)
1. Testing the Content

Content refers to the ideas expressed in the

Writing. Oneness of general idea nust be observed

by the writer. All parts of the composition must

relate to one main topic. Test items focusing on

content may include writing specific details on

a general topic, writing a general statement

encompassing all specific details, identifying and

deleting unrelated sentences in a paragraph.

Examples are given below.

a. Providing specific details to general ideas

Directions: Write 5 specific details related to the

given general statements.

1) Traveling to foreign countries is rewarding.

2) The Filipino drama series reflect the country's

cultural practices.
3) Some Filipino cultural traits are negative.

4) My best friend and I are the exact opposites.

5) Life is like a stage.

b. Writing a general statement to express the

main idea of each group of sentences.

Directions: Write a general statement to express

the main idea of each group of sentences.

1) He is often absent in class.

2) He seldom recites.

3) He fails most of his quizzes.

4) He seldom passes an assignment or a

seatwork.

5) He sometimes cuts classes.

1) She' s always near when I need her.

2) She remembers the special occasions in ny

ife.

3) She can keep sensitive matters a secret.

4) We ike almost the same things.

5) She's lavish with her praises but candid wit

her criticisms.

2. Testing the Form

Form refers to the organization of the content

into a unified, coherent written presentation. Tests

of this type include ordering ideas into logical order

chronological, spatial, inductive, deductive, etc.;

connecting ideas using appropriate connectors; using

topic sentences at strategic points and tying up

ideas with a clincher sentence.

a. Ordering sentences in logical order

Directions: Arrange the following sentences in jumbled

order into one coherent paragraph. Place the letter

corresponding to the first in the order in number

1, the next in number 2, etc.

1. (a) Each leap year we add that day onto the

end of February

2. (b)

Because of this, every 4 years an extra

day is added to the calendar so we don't fall

behind in the natural cycle of things.

3. (c) The earth's solar orbit takes 365 and a

quarter days.

In this way, the calendar is readjusted

(d)

into the astronomical timetable.

hard work

DISCUSSION POINT

What are the different tests for productive skills?

2 What are the component parts o tests

speaking?

. How may fluency and comprehension be tested

in speaking?

4. What are component parts of tests for Writing

5.Why is listening generally considered more

difficult to test than writingg?

POST-DIsCUSSION ACTIVITIES

1. Prepare a complete evaluation scale for speaking

tests showing all the component parts of the

test.

2. Construct sample tests 1Or all types ot speaking

and writing tests.