CHAPTER 8:

Testing the Productive Skills

A. TESTING
SPEAKING
 CHAPTER 8:
Testing the Productive Skills

1. Testing
Pronunciation
 CHAPTER 8:
Testing the Productive Skills

2. Testing Grammar
 CHAPTER 8:
Testing the Productive Skills

3. Testing Word Choice

 CHAPTER 8:
Testing the Productive Skills

4. Testing Fluency/ Ease

and Speed of the Flow
of Speech
 CHAPTER 8:
Testing the Productive Skills

5. Testing
Comprehension
 CHAPTER 8:
Testing the Productive Skills

B. TESTING WRITING
 CHAPTER 8:
Testing the Productive Skills

1. Testing the Content

 CHAPTER 8:
Testing the Productive Skills

2. Testing the Form

 CHAPTER 8:
Testing the Productive Skills

3. Testing Grammar
 CHAPTER 8:
Testing the Productive Skills

4. Testing Syntactic
Pattern
 CHAPTER 8:
Testing the Productive Skills

5. Testing
Style
 CHAPTER 8:
Testing the Productive Skills

6. Testing
Mechanics
A. TESTING SPEAKING
This consider testing the speaking and writing
skills of students easier to evaluate than
testing their listening and reading skills.
Speaking here does not refer to the eloquence
of delivering a prepared speech but 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.
1. Testing Pronunciation
There are no fixed 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.

Guide Word
(1). Beat steak great leave break
(2). Food mood blood foot stood
2. Testing Grammar
Grammar tests involve correct usage of verb
forms and tenses, nouns, and
pronouns, adjective and adverb forms, ect. In
oral communication, grammatical usage may
be tested through sentence conversation,
answering questions, expansion (by
modification, subordination, coordination etc.),
word transformation in context (past to present
tenses, singular to plural nouns, nouns to
pronouns, ect.)
Example:
a. Sentence conversation
Direction: read the following statements aloud and
change to question answerable by yes/ no.
1) My friend Luisa, lives in Makati.
2) After few months, they realized it was
impractical.
3) Now, they have more time for study and leisure.
b. Answering question
Direction: answer the following questions
appropriately.
1) What do you like most about your school?
2) Why is college education important for you?
3) What are your immediate goal after college?
3. Testing Word Choice
One’s choice of words reflects his/her level og
proficiency in the language. The richer the
vocabulary is, the more proficient the learner is
expected to be. In oral communication,
vocabulary proficiency may be tested through
word substitutions, supplying appropriate
words in the missing parts of sentences,
selecting from a given list or words the most
appropriate for the sentences.
Example:
a. Word Substitution
Direction: read the sentences aloud and substitute new
but appropriate words
to underline words.
1) Life in the city is tedious
2) You need to wake up early everyday to avoid traffic
congestion.
b. Supplying appropriate words to missing parts
Direction: Complete each sentences by supplying the
missing parts with appropriate words.
1) ____ Along Rizal Park on a Sunday morning can be
a ______ experience.
2) Armed with you ____ lunch and an umbrella, you
____a bus or a jeep and _____ along Taft Avenue.
4. Testing Fluency/ Ease and Speed of the
Flow of Speech
The speaker’s fluency in term 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.
Speed alone will not constitute fluency,
because some speakers tend to speak fast, but
they
stammer or flatter 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
communication ability depends 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.
Example of an evaluation scale for
fluency:
____5. speaks very fast; message very
clear
____4. speaks fast; message is clear
____3. speaks moderately fast; part of
the message unclear
____2. speaks slow; message is difficult
to understand
____1. falters many times in speaking;
message cannot be understood.
B. TESTING 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
evaluating the student’s ability to express
their ideas in writing taking into
consideration its five component parts:
Content, form, grammar, style and mechanics
(Harris 1969).
1. Testing the Content
Content refers to the ideas expressed in the
writing. Oneness of general idea must
be observed by the writer. All parts of the
composition must be 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.
a. Providing specific details to a
general ideas.

b. Writing a general statement to

express the main idea of each group of
sentences.
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, ect.; connecting ideas using
appropriate connectors; using topic sentences
at strategic points and trying up ideas with a
clincher sentence.
a. Ordering sentences in logical
order
b. Connecting ideas using an
appropriate connector
c. Writing a topic sentence and a
clincher sentence
3. Testing Grammar
A proficient speaker or writer must have good
command of the grammar of the language
he/she is using. A test in grammar is a test in
grammatical forms and syntactic patterns.
Grammatical form refer to the use of correct
parts of speech like the plural and possessive
forms of nouns; the case, number and gender
forms of pronouns tense forms of verbs;
derivational and comparative forms of
adjectives and adverbs.

a. Testing grammatical forms

4. Testing Syntactic Pattern
Direction: Combine the following groups of
words into coherent sentences.

1) and the candle in the other

Micheal Angelo painted with a brush
from covering his masterpiece
legend has it that
in one hand
in progress
to prevent his shadow
1) Michelangelo painted with a
brush in one hand and a candle in
the other to prevent his shadow from
covering his masterpiece in
progress.
5. Testing Style
Testing style pertains to choice of structures and
lexical items to give a particular tone or favor to
writing. Choice of structures refers to various
ways of expressing sentences. They may start with
the subject, the verb, or the modifies; they may be
expressed in active or passive voice; they may be
simple, compound or complex, ect.
Miscommunication can occur for using inexact
words. Variety is the third guide. It prevents
monotony and redundancy.
a) Testing Variety of structures
b) Testing lexical items
6. Testing Mechanics
The mechanics of writing refers to the proper
use or graphic symbols such as punctuation,
capitalization, and abbreviation. Certain rules
govern the use of these graphic symbols since
they are important in written communication,
students must gain mastery in using this
symbols by following rules. A complete
handbook on the mechanics of writing is
available in the library.

a) Test punctuation
b) Testing abbreviations and capitalizations.