Evaluation Techniques 3rd Page
Source:
General Guidelines and Curricula for the Basic and Secondary Stages,
Ministry of Education, 2002
ENGLISH LANGUAGE CURRICULUM AND ITS GENERAL
GUIDELINES FOR THE BASIC EDUCATION STAGE,
Ministry of Education, Amman, 1991
EVALUATION OF LISTENING TECHNIQUES
Identification of sounds in the early stages:
1. The student hears a sound in isolation and must identify it.
2. The sound is in the context of a word, possibly in a sentence,
and the student must identify it.
Discrimination of sounds
1. The student is to indicate whether two sounds are the same or
different, or he is to indicate which sound of three or more is
different from the others.
2. The student ticks words that rhyme or marks the one
of three words that does not rhyme with others.
3. The student is shown a picture accompanied by three or
four words spoken. He chooses the word represented by
the picture, or he is shown four pictures with one word
spoken and he is to choose the right picture.
4. The student chooses the word spoken from among three
words presented to him in a setting, or chooses
from several definitions.
Intonation and stress
1. The student is to indicate whether two sentences have
the same intonation
2. The student chooses the stressed syllable in a spoken
word or sentence.
3. The student chooses the most appropriate description
of an utterance
spoken from several descriptions presented to him in a setting.
Listening Comprehension
1. A picture is used together with spoken statements and
the student indicates whether they are true or false.
2. A series of pictures and a series of spoken sentences are presented
and the student matches each sentence with its picture.
3. A passage is read aloud, and the student is required to indicate
whether or not certain short statements about the passage
are true or false.
4. The student performs actions according to instructions
5. The student hears a question or a statement and must choose
a correct answer or response.
6.The student has to find the appropriate continuation for a statement.
7. Dictation can serve as a listening comprehension exercise
if it is given at a fast enough pace so that it is not only for spelling.
The student hears a dialogue, then selects the most
appropriate form from a range of situations.
HIGHLIGHTING SPEAKING SKILLS
1. The SPEAKER says a word or a sentence and
the student repeats it.
2. The speaker says a sentence and the student transforms
it into a certain form ( question, negative, passive,..)
the speaker gives the cues.
3. The speaker asks an oral question and the student gives
an oral answer to the question.
4. The student hears a spoken stimulus and responds in
an appropriate way.
5. The student has a picture or pictures to study, then he must
describe it/ them or answer questions about it / them.
6. The student reads short passages aloud: the interlocutor
listens for specific points of pronunciation, stress, intonation
and responds quizzically ,
7. Recorded interviews of the students
HIGHLIGHTING READING SKILLS
Initial Stages of Reading ---Matching FORMS:
Word matching:
1. The student is required to draw a line under the
word that is the same as the word on the left.
Sentence matching:
The student is required to recognize
as quickly as possible sentences which consist of the same
words, in the same order. He reads a sentence followed
by four similar sentences, only one of which is exactly
the same as the previous one.
Pictures and sentence matching:
1. The student looks at four pictures and then reads a sentence
about one of the pictures. He is required to identify
the correct picture.
2. The student looks at a picture and reads four sentences, only
one of which refers to the picture. He then has to select
the correct sentence.
3. The student is required to write T or F at the side of each
sentence according to whether or not the sentence agrees
with the content of the picture.
Reading Comprehension
True / False reading forms
The items might be complete in themselves:
the student’s comprehension of each true/ false item
is indicated by means of a series of general truths.
The items might be based on a reading passage at
the student’s level.
Multiple-choice items
1. The student is required to identify the correct paraphrase
of a statement from a choice of four.
2. The student is required to circle the number of the best
of four or more answers.
Completion items
1. The student is required to write some words to complete
sentences based on the passage.
2. The student is required to choose the best completion of
a given sentence by circling or ticking a letter.
3. The student is required to answer open-ended questions
on the passage.
Speed reading exercises
1. Pupils are presented with a certain text to read ; a counter
checks the time taken by each pupil to complete the reading,
then transformation formats/scenes that pre-/post his
comprehension of the passage / text.
2. The pupils are given a certain time limit for reading;
then the guide on the screen notes where each pupil has reached
and again records his level of comprehension.
(Note: when dealing with reading speed, 70% comprehension
is considered satisfactory )
HIGHLIGHTING WRITING SKILLS
1. The student is required to complete sentences with the most
suitable word / phrase / clause in a list.
2. The student rearranges jumbled words into a correct sentence.
3. The student rearranges jumbled sentences to make
a coherent paragraph.
4. The pupils answer a set of questions on a certain text.
5. The pupils join sentences using certain connectives,
coordinators and adverbials, either from a given list or
supplied by the pupils themselves.
6. The student makes a written description of a picture oral
series of pictures.
7. The students write stories they have previously
listened to or read.
8. The student completes a letter when the beginning
or the outline has been given.
9. The student writes a letter, probably in reply to a given letter.
10. The student completes a dialogue, given the speech
of one of the two speakers.
11. The student composes a dialogue along certain lines.
Integrative / Chain exercises
LISTENING / SPEAKING
1. Interviews/ Dialogues
2. Pair and group discussions
3. Repetition of utterances heard
4. Responses to an utterance heard
LISTENING / WRITING
1. Dictation / Spelling games
2. Taking notes from a talk or dialogue/ conversation
3. Taking down a spoken message
4. Oral cloze
READING / WRITING
1. Subjective answers following a reading passage
2. Various kinds of summarizing and note-taking
3. Writing a reply to a given letter
4. Transferring information from a text to table, diagram,
map or vice versa.
5. The cloze procedure ( deleting every nth word)
TEST ITEMS INVOLVING MORE THAN TWO SKILLS
The student hears a complete text spoken by a speaker or on tape,
he is then given the same passage on the screen with certain words
omitted, he reads this and then writes out the omitted items.
COMMUNICATIVE / INTERACTIVE
Communicative testing aims at assessing the student’s
communicative ability when he is put in a certain simulated
social context. It concentrates on language use rather than
usage. Concentration on usage is concerned with formal patterns
whereas use is concerned with communicative functions.
For example:
To test the student’s ability to express apology, he is given
a task like the following:
==You arrive late for your English class.
How would you apologize, giving good reasons?
To test the student’s ability to give advice,
he may be given a task like the following
== Your friend failed the last examination
because he didn’t study well.
What would you advise him to do next time?
For the purpose of this kind of testing, teachers will have to
build up a set of activities and situations and test students’
linguistic reaction in those situations in speech and/ or in writing.
Teachers are encouraged to create situations which require
knowledge of the language functions taught in the course.
However, communicative testing has some limitations,
one of which is the difficulty of obtaining accurate assessment
of the learner’s performance due to the complexity of
the skills involved. In addition, the students’ responses cannot
be easily controlled. It is thus more amenable to informal
testing and overall evaluation rather than to the more required
formal school tests where objectivity and
accuracy are strictly required.
INTERACTIVE FORMS
LISTENING
Sound discrimination ability
1.Students indicate with numbers whether they hear the
difference between one or more sounds
2.From two columns of words students match words
containing the same sounds
3.Students underline in sentences the words
with the target sound.
Listening-comprehension
1.Action response to a command or request. Use one command
with beginners and more than one with more advanced students.
For example:
- Go to the board.
- Go to the board and write your name.
- Go to the board , write your name and then erase it.
2. Students draw hands on clocks as times are dictated.
3. Students match dictated sentences with pictures.
4. Students answer multiple-choice or True/false
questions based on single utterances
5. A short conversation between two speakers
6. A passage of connected writing read by the presenter
Oral Production Test forms
1.Repetition
2.Oral reading
3.Statements about pictures
4. Telling a story with or without cues
Structure forms
1. Rewrite sentences making changes in tense, gender, number,
person, word-order
2. Select the appropriate word from two or three words
by underlining, numbering or writing on the screen.
3. For example: the ( boy, boys) walk to the door.
4. Answer questions of various types. ( Indicate whether
you want a Yes or No answer; whether you want
a short or long answer.)
5. Combine sentences
6. Ask direct questions based on indirect questions in
a three-person setting/ conversation.
For example:
Ask Fadi how old he is
7. Matching parts of sentences to form complete sentences:
We eat He is standing I’ll go They left | for Amman there to Damascus at the bus-stop | next week every day yesterday now
|
Knowledge of vocabulary
Complete a sentence:
1. The cow ( barks, moos, shrieks).
2. Indicate whether a statement is True/False.
Spring comes before summer.
3. Select an unrelated word from a group of words:
Meat, soup, eraser, peas
4. Give a synonym or choose one from a list: start : (begin)
5. Give an antonym or choose one from a list: finish : ( start)
6. Make nouns from the following verbs: arrive, deny, permit
7. Make adjectives from the following nouns: man, child, wisdom
8. Use the prefix meaning not in these words: able, important
Reading comprehension ability
1. Select the appropriate idiomatic or structural item for
completion of sentences:
e.g. He always fulfills his promises, so he is -----------
- a man of his word
- an intelligent man
- a very brave man
2. Answer questions on the meaning of words, phrases
or general content of a short reading passage.
4. Choose the correct answer from given answers about the
main point of a paragraph or short reading selection
5. Filling spaces in a passage with item to complete the
meaning in a contextualized setting/ sentence/short paragraph.
Writing ability
1. Dictation
2. Complete sentences or passages in which words
have been omitted.
3. Write answers to questions
4. Write sentences or a short paragraph based on a picture
5. Choose from a sequence of sentences the right items
to form a related and meaningful passage.
References
Assessment and Evaluation, Home page. 30 April 2006
<http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/mla/assess.html>
Sample Assessment Tasks, Alaska Department of Education &
Early Development, Home page. 30 April 2006
<http://www.educ.state.ak.us/tls/frameworks/langarts/41task.htm>
R.J. Dietel, J.L. Herman, and R.A. Knuth, What Does
Research Say About Assessment? NCREL, Oak Brook, 1991
<http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/stw_esys/4assess.htm>
Jason Beale, MEd (TESOL),Assessing interactive
oral skills in EFL contexts, Home page. 30 April 2006
<http://www.jasonbeale.com/essaypages/assessment.html>