Tests for young

learners
 Particular demands

• Young children have a relatively short attention

span. For this reason test should not be long
• Children enjoy stories and play. We can include the
kind of word games we can find in comics and
puzzle books.
• Children respond well to pictures, attractive
typography, and color. Test should include these
features. The content of all pictures must be
unambiguous and they may be included even if they
are not necessary to complete the task.
• First language and cognitive abilities are still
developing. Task should be ones that the children
could be expected to handle comfortably in their own
language.
• Since children learn through social interaction, it is
appropriate to include tasks that involve interaction
between two or more children. This assumes, of
course, that similar tasks are used when they are
learning the language.
• Create the conditions that allow the children to
perform at their best. Be sympathetic, test them in
familiar surroundings, make sure they understand
what they have to do (since outset) and include
easy tasks at the beginning in order to give them
confidence to tackle the more difficult ones.
 Recommended techniques

• Listening
• Placing objects or identifying people.
• Multiple choice pictures
• Color and draw on existing line drawing
• Information transfer
• Reading
• Multiple choice (you can use pictures so that they do not
have to read)

• Writing
• Anagrams
• Cartoon story
• Gap filling with pictures
• Oral ability
• Asking questions about the child and their family
• Scene card (a card with a scene they have to
describe)
• Give the child small cards, each with an object
drawn on it, and ask the child to place then on a
particular location.
• Give the child two pictures with differences
• Give the child a short series of pictures to tell a
story.