CHAPTER 4 TESTING Gürşen SARIALTIN

Why is it difficult to test pronunciation? It is possible for people to produce practically all the correct sounds but still be unable to communicate their ideas approximately and effectively. On the other hand, people can make numerous errors in both phonology and syntax and yet succeed in expressing themselves fairly clearly. (Heaton 1988:88) One of the greatest problems in oral testing is administration. It is often impossible to manage the large number of students to be tested. Testing equipment, like laboratories or tape recorders, is scarce in many countries where English is taught. Even when such material is available, testing may be rendered impossible by the lack of even more basic facilities like electricity.

Assumptions 1-The Critical Period Hypothesis 2-Pronunciation is an acquired skill, and therefore cannot be learned.

Checking the individual sounds that students could pronounce was common during the audio-lingual period following World War II. Many feel that too much stress used to be placed on pronunciation. Because; 1-Even after much training, very few adolescents or adults ever achieve perfect pronunciation in their second language, 2-Very effective communication is possible without complete mastery of this subskill. Today’s pronunciation items tend to incorporate context and meaning. (greater emphasis on broad listening and speaking)

WHAT TO TEST? How advanced are your students? How accurate do you think they should be? What have you been teaching?

How should we test pronunciaton? The ideal way of testing pronunciation is to actually listen to the learner. But since this is not always possible or suitable, the alternatives discussed below can be used for testing segments and word stress.

WHAT TO TEST? Did he go home? Yes, he did. Who did he send the letter ‘‘to’’? /uw/ going to town /ə/ Assimilation : Can’t you ……………? / /

Not Necessary Juncture (word or phrase boundaries) I scream / ice-cream Linguistic matters such as phonetic symbols Terminology (palatal assimilation, diphthongs …)

LIMITED RESPONSE Individual Testing : Oral Repetition Advantages: -useful for those who cannot read or write English -reading skills are not mixed with pronunciation skills. -the easiest of all examples to prepare (no distractors, no clever sentence frames, no drawings ,etc.)

LIMITED RESPONSE Individual Testing : Oral Repetition Disadvantages; -time-consuming -scoring, packing too much into each item may result in confusion and inaccuracy, -recording the response on tape reduces the problem, but it is time consuming and boring to play the tape back again and again. -can test aptitude as much as present skill -a need for a native speaker to model the sentence

2- Hearing Identification This testing method is based on the assumption that, most often, if the learner has a different pronunciation of a word, he will not understand it when it is read with a different pronunciation. For example, if a student’s pronunciation of sword is [swOd], he/she will not understand and therefore not spell it correctly if it is read [sOd].

Same-Different Items The testees listen to a pair of words or pairs of sentences and indicate whether they are the same or different; e.g., a. sock - sock b. but - bought c. sit - seat d. hut - hurt e. Is that my pen? Is that my pan? f. It’s raining It’s raining?

Sound Discrepancy The testees listen to one word or sentence and circle the one they hear. a. suck - sock b. but - bought c. sit - seat d. hut - hurt

Odd Man Out The testees listen to a list of words and mark the one that is different. 1. a. pot b. pot c. port 2. a. bid b. bit c. bid

Alternate Forms 1-Substitution Drill -Grapes aren’t cheap now. (figs) -He doesn’t have to leave yet. (his brother) 2-Phrase items -into the house 3-Sentence Completion -The American flag is red, ______ , and blue.

Hearing Identification Advantages -combines pronunciation and meaning -enables teachers to test students with limited language skills Disadvantages -difficult to find suitable pictures -limited number of testing options

Sentence Completion

MULTIPLE-CHOICE HEARING IDENTIFICATION Gap-Filling Testees listen to a sentence and select from a set of words the one they hear. 1.Did you see the _______you were looking for? a.people b. pupil c. purple 2. He died at the age of ________. a. forty b. fourteen c. four

Multiple-Choice Hearing Identification Advantages -a helpful combination of pronunciation and meaning Disadvantages -difficult to prepare suitable distractors

Alternate Reading Aloud Items: Paper and Pencil 1-Stress Marking He’s in the basement. A B C *D intervene (syllable stress) A B *C

Alternate Reading Aloud Items: Paper and Pencil 2-Sound-Symbol Which vowel sound is different? go got close smoke A *B C D

READING ALOUD Advantages Disadvantages -easy to prepare -can provide good control -can test almost all pronunciation items -can test how to pronounce spelling combinations Disadvantages -limited to those who can read -no direct relationship between ability to read aloud and pronounciation in normal coversation.

You can also try …

Regrouping The testees are given a list of words and asked to regroup the words that have the same sound (it can be specified whether the common sound is a vowel or a consonant): let, say, gene, meat, rate, maid, says, sad

Intonation Pattern Testees listen and identify the speaker’s intention according to his intonation pattern. Listen to the following tag questions and circle the speaker’s intention according to his/her intonation pattern. a. You work here, don’t you? (Confirm/Ask) b. She is a teacher, isn’t she? (Confirm/Ask) c. They play baseball, don’t they? (Confirm/Ask) d. I’m assigned here, aren’t I? (Confirm/Ask)

Sound Definition A word is heard, and several different definitions, including one that is correct for the word, are given. Testees are asked to select the correct definition for the word they heard. It implies lexis and grammar knowledge. 1. bought vehicle that moves in the sea past participle of buy coordinating conjunction

Matching The testees are asked to find words that have the same sound as a given word. Find and circle from the list below words that have the same sound as the following: push swamp, buffalo, cook, one, swallow, bosom, country, squander, bush, thing, either, although, three,

Example Items 1. Are son and sun pronounced the same way? Yes No   2. Does basic have an s or z sound? s z   3. Does rule rhyme with fool? Yes No   4. Are where and were pronounced the same way? Yes No