Nation on testing

A good vocabulary test Has about 30 items Tests the aspects you want to test Easy to make, mark and interpret Has a good ‘washback’ effect

Aspects that can be taught Receptive Productive Spoken Written Word parts Form and meaning Concept and referents Associations Grammatical functions Collocations Constraints on use

Aspects that can be tested: basic advanced very advanced Receptive Productive Spoken Written Word parts, morphology Form and meaning Concept and referents (range of meanings) Associations Grammatical functions Collocations Constraints on use

Samples Spoken form R: Hear the word and choose the L1 translation (but this tests also meaning) P: Reading aloud Written form R: Say these written forms P: Word or sentence dictation Word parts R: Break the word into parts P: What do you call someone who paints houses? Form and meaning R: Translate these words into L1 P: Translate these words into L2

Concept and referents R: Translate the underlined words into L1: ‘It was a hard frost’ P: Choose the words that could translate this L1 word Associations R: Choose the words that you associate with this word P: Add to this list of associated words Grammatical functions R: Is this sentence correct? P: Use this word in a sentence Collocations R: Is this sentence (based on a collocation) correct? P: Produce collocations to go with this word Constraints R: Which of thse words represent UK use? P: What is the formal word for X?

Types of tests True/false sentences contextualizing the word Write T or F. Multiple choice, but with complex choices Choose four words that go with the target word. Choose at least two from each box.

Definition completion test Choose a word from the list to complete the sentences. Do not use the same word twice. A sensitive multiple-choice test

A translation test Yes/No test Tick the words you know

Multiple-choice tests – variation Interviews In-depth examination of knowledge. Can check knowledge of spoken forms..

Lexical Frequency Profile The learner’s written work is analysed using Lextutor to find out how many less frequent words are used in their essay. As a rough guide: an advanced essay will have about 90% up to K2, 10% beyond; intermediate will have about 95% up to K2, 5% beyond; beginner will have little nor nothing beyond K2, and mostly K1.

Points made by Nation about different formats In favor of multiple choice (easy to mark, reliable) But time-consuming to construct and difficult to get right Yes/no test – easy to construct, fairly reliable Translation test – easy to construct, reliable A number of variations on m/c: with context or without; number of possible right answers to select; gapfill or not; Multiple-choice tests only receptive (recognition) not productive (recall) (load of checking). Importance of providing context