Test preparation:The Elements of Reading and Writing Đặng Hiệp Giang SED-MOET

Reading: Question Techniques for Beginners True-false and matching True-false questions taken from the text. Matching here means students matching material in the passage with material in the question. A "guessing correction" may be used!

Reading: Question Techniques for More Advanced Students Standard Multiple-Choice: supposedly one of the best! The number of passages and the length of each depend on your particular test. Usually longer passages will run from 100 to 300 words. Selections for less advanced students will run from about 100 to 200 words. Those for more advanced students will generally range from 150 to 300 words.

Three questions per hundred words, or four at the most. Use at least three to five passages from different sources to give students fair treatment. Students who read fairly well can answer about a question a minute-including the reading of the passage. Slower students and those reading difficult technical material may need almost twice as much time.

Use a variety of types of questions on your reading test. Paraphrase Synthesis Inference Things to remember: (1) Questions should not ask for words or phrases exactly as they appear in the passage. (2) Avoid illogical distractors. (3) They shouldn't be written in such a way that they can be answered from general knowledge.

Advantages of Passage Comprehension 1. This is the most integrative type of reading test. 2. It is objective and easy to score. 3. It can evaluate students at every level of reading development. Limitations of Passage Comprehension 1. Passage comprehension is more time consuming to take than other kinds of tests. 2. One pitfall in preparing this kind of test is utilizing questions that deal with trivial details. 3. Passage comprehension tests which use questions on trivial details encourage word-by- word reading.

Writing: Question Techniques There are many kinds of writing tests. There are usually distinct stages of instruction in writing, such as pre-writing, guided writing, and free writing. Each stage tends to require different types of evaluation. A great number of factors: mechanics (including spelling and punctuation), vocabulary, grammar, appropriate content, diction (or word selection), rhetorical matters of various kinds (organization, cohesion, unity; appropriateness to the audience, topic, and occasion); as well as sophisticated concerns such as logic and style.

Limited response 1. Sentence combining 2. Sentence expansion 3. Sentence reduction Advantages of Limited-Response Items 1. These are generally quite easy to construct. 2. These are suitable for students with limited ability in English. 3. Except for the open-ended variety, these are rather objective for a writing-related task. Limitations of Limited-Response Items 1. These do not measure actual writing skill. 2. These can be rather slow to correct-especially the open- ended variety.

Guided writing Objectives: to check student ability to handle controlled or directed writing tasks. Multiple-choice sentences can be used! Unrelated sentence. Sentence reordering.

Building from a Paragraph Outline Example: I / buy / new white swimsuit / I forget I bring / I / mad / Becky / mother / take / we / shop / Monday night / I find / pretty blue / not expensive. / I start / pay / wallet / gone /I / borrow / money / Becky / mother / I / certainly / upset The student paragraph might read: I bought a new white swimsuit, and then I forgot to bring it. I was really mad. But Becky's mother took us shopping Monday night, and I found a pretty blue one. It was not very expensive. I started to pay for it, and my wallet was gone! I borrowed some money from Becky's mother, but I was certainly upset.

Students may write a paragraph, beginning with a topic sentence: I have read _________. (Give an account of reading that has given you special insights.) I have talked to _________. (Tell about people from whom you have learned a lot.) Or Directions: Write a paragraph of about seventy-five words describing a store or business that you know very well. Base your paragraph on answers to the following questions: 1. What is it called? 2. When did it start to do business? 3. How many employees does it have? 4. What do the employees have to do? …

Advantages of Guided-Writing Tests 1. Guided-writing tests are rather quick and easy to construct. 2. Because they require an active rather than a passive response, guided testing techniques give the appearance of being an effective measure of writing. 3. Guided-writing tests provide appropriate control for those students who are not ready to write on their own. Limitations of Guided-Writing Tests 1. Guided-writing tests do not measure ingredients such as organization found in extended writing. 2. Guided writing of the paragraph-outline variety is often rather time consuming and difficult to grade. 3. Guided writing of the paragraph-outline variety is difficult to score with real consistency.

Free Writing The purpose is to evaluate the effectiveness of the total composition including sentence-level accuracy, larger rhetorical matters such as unity, coherence, and organization, as well as effectiveness in conveying ideas to the intended audience – including socially appropriate language and appropriate selection of supporting details.

Use pictures or simple charts, tables, or diagrams to help students and teachers in controlling the contents of the writing. Another way to control content is to provide a situation that determines what students are to write about.

Evaluating Student Writing Analytical or holistic? The analytical method attempts to evaluate separately the various components of a piece of writing. The holistic method evaluates the writing paper as a whole and little punishment is made on mechanics as well as other unrelated issues in communication.

Advantages of Free-Writing Approaches 1. Despite in limitations, this is an important, sound measure of overall writing ability. 2. This can have a good effect on instruction: Students will be more motivated to write in and out of class, knowing that their test will be an actual writing task. 3. There is virtually very little chance of getting a passing grade on a free-writing test by cheating. Limitations of Free-Writing Approaches 1. Grading of free writing tends to lack objectivity and consistency. 2. Free writing is time consuming to grade.

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