Abacar Andinane Abacar

Bita Bichudo
Frenqui Mussa
Henriques Arcanjo
Hortêncio Manuel Baera
Valéria Lázaro Momade

Communicative tests
(Licenciatura em ensino de Inglês)

Universidade Rovuma
Nampula
2021
 Abacar Andinane Abacar
Bita Bichudo
Frenqui Mussa
Henriques Arcanjo
Hortêncio Manuel Baera
Valéria Lázaro Momade

Communicative tests
Essay to be presented to the Department
of Social Sciences and Language, in
fulfilment of the subject: Didactics of
English 3

Lecturer: Samuel Canda, MA

Universidade Rovuma
Nampula
2021
INTRODUCTION
The present piece of writing aims to talk about communicative tests. Broadly speaking,
communicative tests are the test which requires the students to complete an authentic task to
provide the teacher with information about the learners’ ability to perform in target language,
in certain context specific tasks.

Communicative tests play an important role in the process of language learning, because they
enable students to practice a variety of different tests to achieve a certain goal. Not only that
but also, it helps students hire people who communicate effectively. However, its value depends
on the learners big their existing language gaps are.

The main goal of this piece of writing in the process of language learning, is a successful
communication in the target language. And it focuses particularly in beginning, is on the
students communicating authentic message in their individual context and making themselves
understood.

The present paper, is organised as follows: (i) concepts of communicative tests; (ii) the purpose;
(iii) the division if the communicative tests; (v) conclusion and (vi) references.

For the success of this paper, it was necessary to conduct literature review in a systematic way,
and the references used for the production of the paper, are listed on the bibliography page.
 1. COMMUNICATIVE TESTS

According to HARMER (2003:30) “Communicative tests are those which exhibit the
characteristics at the communicative end of our continuum. Students are somehow involved in
activities that give them both the desire 'to communicate and a purpose which involves them in
a varied use of language. Such activities are vital in a language classroom since here the students
can do their best to use the language as individuals, arriving at a degree of language autonomy”.

1.1. The purposes of communicative tests

LITTLEWOOD (2010:17), provides the purposes of communicative tests, as follows:

They provide whole practice: in considering how people learn to carry out various
kinds of skilled performance, it is often useful to distinguish between (a) training in the
part-skills of which the performance is composed and (b) practise in the total skill,
sometimes called ‘whole-task practice’. Learning to swim, for example, usually
involves not only separate practise individual movements (part-skills), but also actual
attempts to swim short distance (whole-task practice). In foreign language learning, our
means of providing learners with whole-task is through various kinds of communicative
activities, structured in order to sweet the learners’ level of ability.

They improve motivation: the learners’ ultimate objective is to take part in

communication with others. Their communication to learn is more likely to be sustained
if they can see how their classroom learning is related to this objective and helps them
to achieve it with increasing success.

They allow natural leaning: language learning takes place inside the learner and, as
teachers know to their frequent frustration, many aspects of it are beyond their
pedagogical control. It is likely, if fact, many aspects of language learning can take place
only through natural processes which operates when a person is involved in using the
language in communication. If this is so, communicative activity (inside or outside the
classroom) is an important part of the local learning process.

They can create a context in which operates learning: communicative activities

provide opportunities for positive personal relationships to develop among learners and
between learners and teachers. These relationships can help to ‘humanise’ the classroom
and to create an environment that supports the individual in his efforts to learn.
 2. Division of Communicative Tests

According to HARMER (2003:67) there are two communicative tests, oral and written tests.

2.1. Oral Test

In oral test has seven activities such as: reaching a consensus, discussion, relaying instructions,
communication games, problem solving, talking about yourself, Simulation and role play.

So, is going to be focused on communicative games, problem solving and simulation and role
play.

2.1.1. Communicative games

a) Exercise

The teacher writes down the names of a number of common exercises (e.g. press-ups, sit-
ups, squat jumps, etc.) - or better still has drawings of them. These are given to individual
students (without the others seeing).

Students have to get their colleagues to do the exercises using only words (no gestures, etc.).

This activity can be very amusing, and certainly involves real communication. Apart from
physical exercises, students can instruct each other in a dance, in certain mimes, etc.

b) Making models

A small group of students is given material to make models with (e.g. building bricks, Lego,
etc.)

They are told to make a model.

The original group now has to instruct another group or groups so that they can duplicate the
original model. It is, of course, necessary for the original model to be hidden from the second
group or other groups at this stage.

c) Describe and draw

One of the most popular instruction games is 'describe and draw' in which one student is given
a picture which the other student cannot see. The second student has to draw an identical picture
(in content, not style) by listening to the first student's instructions.
The students must be put in pairs and they must be told not to look at each other's pictures until
they have finished the activity. It is because Student B cannot see Student A's picture that the
communication takes place. Communication games are based on the principle of the
information gap. Students are put into a situation in which they have to use all or any of the
language they possess to complete a game-like task.

2.1.2. Problem solving

The groups are told that they must reassemble the poem - it is a one stanza poem. Students can

read the lines aloud, but they may not show them to anyone else.

The groups are told that they must decide on a title for the poem.

Problem-solving activities encourage students to talk together to find a solution to (a set of)
problems or tasks.

a) Desert dilemma

Students are given a complex situation and told to work out a means of survival.

All the students are told to read the following:

The situation

It is about ten o'clock in the morning in July, and you have just crashed in a small aeroplane in
the Sonora desert in Northern Mexico. The pilot and co-pilot are dead and the aeroplane is a
burnt-out shell. One of the passengers is injured.

The aeroplane had no radio, and the survivors think that they were about 100 kilometres off
course when they crashed. Just before the crash the pilot told the passengers that they were 120
kilometres south of a small mining camp.

From experience you know that daytime temperatures can reach 43° centigrade
(110°Fahrenheit) and night-time temperatures reach freezing. All the passengers are dressed in
light clothes. The area is flat and arid as far as the eye can see.

Instructions

The following is a list of items that came out of the crash in good order:

 Flashlight with four batteries

  Jack knife

 Detailed pilot's chart of the area

 Large plastic poncho

 Compass

 Instrument to measure blood pressure

 Loaded .45 pistol

 One red and white parachute

 Bottle of 1000 salt tablets

 One quart of water per person

 Book Edible Desert Animals

 One pair of sunglasses per person

 Two bottles of vodka

 One overcoat per person

 One pocket mirror

Now do the following:

(a) Individually write down a list of the seven most important items on this list to ensure
survival and/or rescue.

(b) Agree with the other members of the group what these items are.

They are then put in groups. Each group must follow the instructions and work out how to
survive this desert situation. The teacher can then check to see how ingenious (or otherwise)
the solutions are. (One proposed solution is as follows: the seven important items are the mirror,
the flashlight, one quart of water per person, the plastic poncho, sunglasses, overcoats and a
parachute. Walking is inadvisable owing to the heat, so a signalling mirror (by day) and
flashlight (by night) will be useful.
The parachute can be used for shelter and as a sign for searching planes. Sunglasses can prevent
blindness and overcoats keep people warm in the cold desert nights. The water is clearly
important, and the plastic poncho can be used to create more water.

E.g. stone condensation

2.1.3. Talking about yourself

This reading or discussion exercise is suitable for intermediate students. Apart from organising
the groups and conducting feedback, the teacher can leave the students very much on their own.

(b) Fast food

A welcome development in language teaching has been the introduction of computers into

the classroom. Despite the scepticism of some teachers they provide a valuable aid for language
learning.

Fast Food is one of a series of computer games where the user has to take decisions which will
affect the outcome of the game. In this program students run a fast food stall and they have to
decide how many rolls, sausages, drinks, etc. to order for their stall and what price to charge
for them. They are given information about the weather, etc. If they make the right decisions
they prosper, if they make the wrong decisions they start to lose money.

After the game has been explained, the teacher puts students into small groups. Each group is

assigned to a computer and told to run their stall. The discussion that takes place is frequently
fast and furious with students anxious to ensure the success of the venture.

Where a school only has one or two mini-computers activities like Fast Food can be reserved
for students who finish other group work early; teachers can set up small English computer
clubs so that students who are keen can work after class.

The students themselves are often an underused resource in particular we can use their lives
and feelings for any number of interpersonal exchanges. Such activities fall into the
'Humanistic' category and are often useful at the beginning of classes to warm things up
('warmers') or to create a good and positive atmosphere in new groups which are a bit 'icy' ('ice
breakers').

It will look at three simple activities that are quick and easy to organise:

(a) Your name

The teacher puts the students in pairs and asks them to tell each other:

• how they feel about their first name (do they like it, and so forth.)

• what name they would choose for themselves if they had to choose one that was different
from the one they have (and why)

Clearly this activity is very simple, but it demonstrates the advantages of 'talking about yourself.
Many people have strong opinions about their names and from such simple questions an
interesting personal discussion can develop.

2.2. Written test

In written test have five activities such as: relaying instructions, writing reports and

advertisements, correcting written work, projects and learner training.

So, it is going to look at three activities: relaying instructions, correcting written work and
projects.

2.2.1. Relaying instructions

One group of students has information for the performance instructions of a task, and they

have to get another group to perform the same task by -giving them written instructions. It will
look at three examples (HARMER, 2003:77).

a) Making models

Oral instructions the original group of students have to write directions.

A small group of students is given material to make a model with (e.g. building bricks, Lego,
and so forth) and they are told to make a model.

The group now writes instructions which will enable other people to duplicate the model.

Other students are given the instructions and told to build the model by reading the instructions.

There is, of course, immediate feedback. The original group can see how well they have written
instructions by watching the efforts of the other students to duplicate their model.

(b) Giving directions

In this activity students write directions which other students have to follow.
Students are told to write directions from the place where they are studying to some other place
in the same town or city. They are told not to mention the destination by name.

Students give their directions to a partner who has to guess what the destination is by following

the directions.

The same effect can be created by letting the students work from a street plan of a town with
clearly marked buildings, and so forth.

(c) Writing commands

Students write each other messages which contain commands.

The teacher tells students to write a command for one of their classmates on a piece of paper.
The student might write something like this:

Maria:

Take off your left shoe!

2.2.2. Correcting written work

Reading and writing that number of letters every week on top of preparation and other kinds of
homework marking would be quite impossible.

There is a way of using this communication which is not so impractical, however, and that is
the use of student journals. In these diaries students can write what they want about anything
that interests them. They can comment on the classes they are experiencing, they can write
about their personal lives, they can talk about politics (not an easy subject in the classroom) or
they can write stories. On more than one occasion teacher have been surprised and delighted by
the level of English displayed in journals and by the interest and creativity which they have
found there.

Two issues have to be considered if students are to be asked to keep diaries, however. When
should they write them and what should the teacher do with them if and when he or she reads
them?

Correction of written work can be done by both teacher and student. If you are correcting written

work always remember to react to the content of the work, showing the student where the work
was effective and where it was not.
Where teachers wish to correct the English in the written work, they may wish to use a variety
of symbols. They can underline the mistake in the written work and put a mark in the margin
to show what kind of mistake it was. The teacher will need symbols for spelling, wrong tense
usage, concord (the agreements between subject and verb), wrong word order, inappropriate
language, punctuation, a word missing and unclear meaning, among others. However, whatever
the symbols are the students should understand clearly what they mean.

Ideally written work can form the basis for student-student correction, which in itself can be

classed as a communicative activity. Students work in pairs, exchanging their work. They then
look for mistakes in each other's writing and attempt to correct them (HARMER, 2003:81).

2.2.3. Projects

HARMER (2003:81) states that the teacher will need symbols for spelling, wrong tense usage,
concord (the agreements between subject and verb), wrong word order, inappropriate language,
punctuation, a word missing and unclear meaning, among others. Whatever the symbols are the
students should understand clearly what they mean When teachers first use the system of
symbols they may underline the word in the text and put the symbol in the margin. Later it will
only be necessary to put the symbol in the margin for the students to identify the error. When
students correct each other's work (see below) no symbols will be necessary. When teachers
hand back written work with comments on content and the correction symbols in the margin,
they should allow the students time, during the class, to identify their mistakes and correct them.
In this activity the teacher is acting as a resource, and can help where students do not know
what is wrong. If this kind of stage is not gone through, however, students may not be able to
take advantage of the system of correction symbols. Ideally written work can form the basis for
student-student correction, which in itself can be classed as a communicative activity. Students
work in pairs, exchanging their work. They then look for mistakes in each other's writing and
attempt to correct them.

Where a piece of student writing contains a number of common errors, the teacher may want to

photocopy the work (erasing the writer's name) and show it to the whole class, asking them to
identify problems. In this way the attention of the class can be drawn to common mistakes and
the photocopied document can form the basis for remedial work.

Another variation which will help students to concentrate on particular aspects of language is
to tell them that you are going to correct a piece of work for only one thing. It could be tense
usage, it could be spelling, it could be punctuation. By doing this you ensure that the students'
work will not be covered by red marks, and you also encourage them to concentrate on
particular aspects of written language use.

One way of ensuring genuinely communicative uses of spoken and written English is through
the use of projects - longer pieces of work which involve investigation and reporting. The end-
product is the most important thing here, and all the language use that takes place is directed
towards the final version. Although students studying in target language communities (Britain,
the USA, etc.) obviously have much greater access to English speakers, TV stations, radio and
written material, etc., there are a whole range of project types that do not require this of contact.
It will look at only two kinds of project here.

a) The smoking report

In this project students devise a questionnaire and then use it to get results which are interpreted

and written up as a report. The project can easily be used in non-target language situations since
students can interview each other - or students in other classes - to get the results they want.

The project is organised in the following way:

Students are told they are going to work in groups to write a report on attitudes to smoking
based on a questionnaire that they will design.

The teacher discusses with the class what kind of information they might want to obtain and
the kind of questions they could use to get it. For example, the following areas might be
selected:

Smokers:

• their smoking habits

• their reasons for smoking

• their feelings about smoking in public places and on public transport

• their attitude to smokers who complain

Non-smokers:

• their reasons for not smoking

• their reasons for having given up (in some cases)

• their attitude to smoking in public places and on public transport

• their suggestions for change

The groups write their different questionnaires. The teacher can act as a resource or as

a prompter.

The groups then administer their questionnaires. In an English-speaking community they can

question members of the public. In other countries they can question fellow classes and fellow
students.

The groups study the information they have collected and write a report in which they reach

conclusions about the results of their investigations. The reports can then be compared. Groups
can read other groups' work and discuss the similarities and differences with their own.

Clearly this project requires commitment and dedication from the students. It could well occupy
of an intermediate class's time. Smaller versions could be done, however, simply focusing on
how many people smoke and how many cigarettes they smoke a day. The same kind of thing
could be done with other topics like hobbies, travel to and from work or study, eating habits,
and so forth.
CONCLUSION

Throughout the production of this paper, it could clearly be understood that the communicative
tests aim to help students to foster their productive and receptive skills. Though the
communicative tests, students can also develop motivation, create a context whereby learning
process could take place without problems.

However, teachers should take into account the levels and ages of the students they are dealing
with. It is also worthy to highlight that teachers have to design the tests taking into account the
types of the communicative tests which have been described throughout this paper.
Bibliography

HARMER, J. (2003) The practice of English Language Teaching. 3rd edition, Longman-United
Kingdom.

LITTLEWOOD, William (2010). Communicative Language Teaching. Cambridge CUP.