Language Testing:

Approaches and
Techniques
test

Anggolo, Pineda, Lumbo-an

 At the end of the discussion, the students should be
Objectives: able to:

1. 2. 3.
identify and
differentiate the
different discuss the various
language test realize the
approaches to usefulness of the
language testing techniques:and,
lesson’s teaching.
and explain their
strengths and
weaknesses,
Approaches
to
Language Testing
 Four Main Approaches :

Essay Translation
Approach Structuralist Intergrative Communicative
Approach Approach Approach
1. 2. 3. 4.
1.

The Essay
Approach
Characteristics and types of Test in Essay-
Translation Approach:
- Commonly referred to as the scientific
stage of language testing.

- No special skill or expertise in testing is

required.

- Usually consist of essay writing, translation,

and grammatical analysis.
Characteristics and types of Test in Essay-
Translation Approach:

-Have heavy literary and cultural bias.

-Results using this approach sometimes

have an oral component at the upper
intermediate and advance levels.
Strengths and Weaknesses:

Strengths: Weaknesses:

- Easy to follow.
- Subjective judgment of
- This approach may be used
teachers tends to be biased.
for testing any level of
examinees.
- The test have a heavy literary
and cultural bias.
- The model of tester can easily
be modified based on the
essentials of the test.
 2.

Structuralist
Approach
Characteristics and types of Test in Structuralist
Approach:

-Views the language learning is chiefly

concerned with a systematic acquisition
of a set of habits.

-Involves structural linguistics.

Characteristics and types of Test in Structuralist
Approach:

-Testing the Macro-skills from another as much

as possible.

-The Psychometric Approach to measurement

with its emphasis on reliability and
objectivity forms in integral part of
structuralist.
Strengths and Weaknesses:

Strengths: Weaknesses:

- This approach may objectively

- Tends to be a complicated job
and surely be used by testers.
for teachers.
- Can be covered in the test in a
- This approach considers
short time.
measuring non-integrated
skills more than integrated
- This approach will help students
skills.
find their strengths and weaknesses
in every skill they study.
 3.

Intergrative
Approach
Characteristics and types of Test in Integrative
Approach:

-Involves the teaching of Language in context

and is thus concerned primarily with meaning
and the total communicative effect of
discourse.

-Concerned with a global view of proficiency.

Characteristics and types of Test in Integrative
Approach:

-Involves functional language but not the use of

functional language.

-The use of cloze test, dictation, oral interview ,

translation and essay writing are included in
many integrative tests.
S
T -The approach to meaning and the total
R communicative effect of discourse will be very useful
E for students in testing.

N
G -Views student’s proficiency with a global view.
T
H
S
S
T -A model cloze test used in this approach measures
R the reader’s ability to decode interrupted or
E mutilated messages.

N
G -Dictation, another type of this approach , was
regarded solely as the means of measuring student’s
T skills of listening comprehension.
H
S
 Weakness:

-Even if many think that measuring integrated

skills is better, sometimes there is a need to
consider the importance of measuring skills
based on students’ need, such as writing only,
speaking only, etc.
4.

Communicative
Approach
Characteristics and types of Test in Communicative
Approach:

-Communicative tests are concerned primarily

with how the language is used in
communication.

-Language use is often emphasized to the

exclusion of language usage.
Characteristics and types of Test in Communicative
Approach:

-Attempts to measure different language skills in

communicative tests is based on a view of
language referred to as the divisibility hypothesis.
Characteristics and types of Test in Communicative
Approach:

-Test content should totally be relevant for a

particular group of examinees and the tasks set
should relate to real-life situation.
Characteristics and types of Test in Communicative
Approach:

-Communicative testing introduces the concept of

qualitative modes of assessment in preference to
quantitative modes of assessment.
 Strengths:

-Communicative tests are able to measure all integrated

skills of students.

-The tests using this approach ace students in real life so it

will be very useful for them.
 Strengths:

-Because a communicative test can measure all language

skills , it can help students in getting the score. Consider
students who have a poor ability in using spoken language
but may score quite highly on tests of reading.
 Strengths:

-Detailed statements of each performance level serve to

increase the reliability of the scoring by enabling the
examiner to make decisions according to carefully drawn-
up and well-established criteria.
 Weaknessess:

-Unlike the structuralist approach, this approach does not

emphasize learning structural grammar yet it may be
difficult to achieve communicative competence without a
considerable mastery of the grammar of a language.
 Weaknessess:

-It is possible for cultural bias to affect the reliability of the

tests being administered.
 4 TEST TECHNIQUES:
1. Direct versus Indirect Testing

2. Discrete Point VS Integrative Testing

3. Norm-referenced VS Criterion-referenced
Testing

4. Objective VS Subjective Testing

 Direct versus 1.
Indirect Testing
 1. Direct Testing

- Requires the candidate to perform precisely

the skill that the test wishes to measure.

- The task and text that are used should be as

authentic as possible.

- Direct testing is easier to carry out when it is

intended to measure the productive skills of
speaking and writing.
 1. Direct Testing

-With listening and reading, however, it is

necessary to get students not only listen or
read but also to demonstrate that they have
done this successfully.
Number of Direct Teaching’s Attraction

At least in the case of productive

It provided the abilities that should be
assessed is clear, it is relatively
straightforward to create the conditions
which will elicit the behaviour in which
judgement will be based.
skills, the assessment and
interpretation of students’
performance are also quite
straightforward.

Examples:
Since practice for the test involves
1.Get them to write
practice of the skills to foster, there is
likely to be a helpful Backwash effect.
compositions
2. Get them to speak
 Indirect Testing

-Attempts to measure the abilities that

underlie the skills in which the test is
interested.

-It contains underlined items which the

student needs to identify as erroneous or
inappropriate in formal standard English.
 Semi - direct Testing

- Semi-Direct Testing in the sense that,

although not direct, they stimulate direct
testing.
Discrete Point VS 2.
Integrative Testing
 Discrete Point Test

– refers to the testing of one element at a

time, item by item.

-Work’s on the assumption that language

can be reduced to several discrete
-Multiple choice
component “points” and that these
“points” can be assessed. -True/false
-Fill in the blank
Examples: tests like -spellings
 Integrative Testing

– Requires the candidate to combine many

language elements in the completion of a task.

– Refers to an integrative item that would test

more than one point or objective at a time.
 Discrete Point VS Integrative Testing

- Discrete point test will almost always be

indirect, while integrative tests will tend to be
direct.

- As with many other concepts in education, the

best choice between discrete-point and integrative
testing is a combination of both. The exclusive use
of either will not allow the students to demonstrate
mastery of the language.
Norm-referenced
VS Criterion- 3.
Referenced Testing
 Norm-Referenced Test

-Student’s scores are imterpreted

relative to each other in a
normal distribution scheme (bell curve).

-The idea is to spread out on a

continuum of knowlegde/ability in
order to facilitate proficiency
and placement decision.
 Norm-Referenced Test

Examples :

-IQ Test
-LET
-SATs
-ACTs
and any other standardized tests.
 Criterion-Referenced Test

-Measure the students ability against a

predermined standard.

-This test is by far the most commonly used

by the teachers in language courses.

Examples:
- the learning objectives
- end-unit exams or midterm
& final exams
 Objective
4.
VS
Subjectivie
Testing
Objective Test

- there is only one right answer

- refers to the scoring that indicates there is
only one correct answer.

Examples:
-multiple choice
-true/false
-fill-in-the-blanks
Subjective Test

- refers to a free composition which may be more subjective

in nature if the scorer is not looking for any right answer,
but rather for a series of factors.

Examples:
- craft answers in the form of an essay
- problem solving
- performance test items
 SUMMARY

 Language Testing is a broad category of testing that

assesses aspects of a person’s ability to understand or
communicate in a particular language.

 There are four approaches to language test;

The essay-translation approach, The structulist Approach,
The integrative Approach, The Communicative Approach
 SUMMARY

 There are four test techniques;

direct vs indirect testing,
discrete point vs integrative testing,
Norm-referenced vs Criterion-referenced
testing
and objective vs subjective testing.
THANKS!