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Testing Overall Ability. When?. Separate information on different abilities (listening, speaking, reading, writing) are NOT needed. An estimate of candidates overall ability is enough. How?.
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When? • Separate information on different abilities (listening, speaking, reading, writing) are NOT needed. • An estimate of candidates overall ability is enough.
How? • One way of testing overall ability is to build a test with a number of components (e.g reading, listening, grammar, vocabulary) • Proficiency Test, TOEFL, IELTS
But… Such a test is not economical, especially when • overall ability is for decision making. • possible backwash is not a serious consideration. e.g Placement Test
Cloze Procedureeasy to construct, administer and score • Traditional Cloze Test (p. 188) is constructed by deleting every seventh word in a passage, leaving it blank, and requiring the person taking the test to attempt to replace the original words. Criticism The deletion of every nth word did created questions about the test validity
Selected Deletion Cloze ( see p. 190) The deletions were carefully chosen to provide interesting items although most of the Items are related to grammar; yet to get the correct response requires an overall ability. • Conversational Cloze ( pp. 191-192) It reflects oral and written abilities
Constructing Cloze Type Passages • The passages should be of an appropriate level • The passages should be of an appropriate style • Deletion should be made to fit the testing of interesting items • The passages should be tried out on native speakers • Clear instructions should be devised • The layout of the test should facilitates scoring (see p. 190) • Familiarity with the cloze test techniques on the part of test takers • Validating cloze test scores
Mini-Cloze Items • cover structures and vocabulary required. • are more economical example, A: What time is it? B: ____ a quarter to three.
The C-Test • A variety of cloze in which instead of whole words, it is the second half of every second word that is deleted (An example p. 194 ) • Advantages: It requires exact scoring Shorter passages are possible It takes little space and short time to complete It may include a large number of items Possible to design mini-c-tests • Disadvantages: Puzzle-like nature of the task Correct responses can often be found in the surrounding text However, research indicates that it functions well as a measure of overall ability in an EFL
Dictation Criticism: • It does not test word order and vocabulary • Words can be identified from context • It only tests spelling and punctuation But… • Research revealed high correlation with complex tests • Words and word order are not really given; the candidates heard only a stream of sound which had to be decoded into a session of words, stored, and recreated on paper • Identifying words from context is a very desirable ability to test • It involves listening ability • It is easy to administer
Mini-partial-dictation items • The passage determines the limits of what can be tested • A series of mini-dialogues, possibly mixed with monologues can be constructed An example, A: When can I see you again? B: How about …... Thursday? And hears: When can I see you again? How about a week on Thursday?
