ASSESSING SPEAKING SKILLS

There are some key questions to ask yourself:

 Why am I testing? ----- The purpose of the test

 Who am I testing? ------Who are the test takers?
 What am I testing? ------The specific speaking skill (subskill)
 How am I testing? -------The different tasks in the test
 How am I scoring? -------How to assign marks
 How is my test benefiting learners? --------Impact of test in learning

Types of speaking to Test:

► IMITIATIVE, performance is the ability to simply parrot back (imitative) a word or

phrase or possibility a sentence. The only role of listening here is in the short-term storage
of a prompt, just long enough to allow the speaker to retain the short stretch of language
that must be imitated.

► INTENSIVE, it employed in assessment contexts is the production of short stretch of oral

language designed to demonstrated competence in a narrow band of grammatical, phrasal,
lexical, or phonological relationships. The speaker must be aware of semantic properties to
be able respond, but interaction with an interlocutor or test administrator is minimal at best.

► RESPONSIVE, it includes interaction and test comprehension but at the somewhat limited
level or very short conversation, standard greetings and small talk, simple requests and
comments, and the like.

► INTERACTIVE, the difference between responsive and

interactive speaking is in the length and complexity of the
interaction, which sometimes includes multiple exchangesand/or
multiple participants.

► EXTENSIVE (monologue), extensive oral production tasks include speeches, oral

presentations, and storytelling, during which the opportunity for oral interaction from listeners
is either highly limited or ruled out altogether.

Micro- and Macro speaking skills to tested

Micro- and Macro of Speaking

The micro-skills refer to producing the smaller chunks of language such s phonemes,
morphemes, words, collocations, and phrasal units.

The macro-skills imply the speaker's focus on the larger elements: fluency, discourse,
function, style, cohesion, nonverbal communication, and strategic options.
A. Designing Assessment Tasks: Imitative Speaking

1# Word and sentence repetition tasks (L,S)

 Test-takers hear: repeat after me:

Beat pause bit pause
Bat pause vat pause
I bought a boat yesterday
The glow of the candle is growing
When did they go on vacation?
Do you like coffee?
Test-takers repeat the stimulus.

Scoring scale for repetition tasks:

2 acceptable pronunciations
1 comprehensible, partially, correct pronunciation
0 silence, seriously, incorrect pronunciation

The longer the stretch of a language, the more possibility for error and therefore the more
difficult it becomes to assign a point system to the text.
B. Designing Assessment Tasks:

Intensive Speaking

1# Directed Responsive Tasks

The administrator elicits a particular grammatical form or a transformation of a sentence, but

they do require minimal processing of meaning in order to produce the correct grammatical
output.

 Test-takers

hear (L.S)

Tell me he went home.

Tell me that like rock music.
Tell me that you aren't interested in tennis.

2# Read-Aloud tasks

▸ Intensive read-aloud tasks include reading beyond the sentence level up to paragraph or
two.

▸ Teachers listening to the recording would then rate students on a number of phonological
factors (vowels, diphthongs, consonants, stress, and intonation) by completing a two-page
diagnostic checklist on which all error or questionable items were noted.

Some variations on the task of simply reading a short

passage:

Reading a scripted dialogue

Reading sentences containing minimal pairs

Reading information from a table or chart

 Dialogue or sentence completion

Interviewer : what did you do last weekend?

Test-taker: _____

Interviewer: what did you do after you graduated from this program?

Test-taker:

Interviewer:

Test-taker:

: I was in japan for two weeks.

: it's ten thirty.

Test-takers respond with an appropriate lines.

Picture Cued Elicitation

These pictures are used to elicit information. They could elicit adjectives, nouns, future
tense, past tense, giving directions or descriptions.

Translation

Translation is a meaningful communicative device in contexts in which the English-user is

called on to be an interpreter.

The test-taker is given a native-language word, phrase, or

sentence and is asked to translate it.

C. Designing Assessment Tasks: Responsive Speaking

1# Question & Answer

 Question & answer can consist of one or two questions from an interviewer or they
can make up a portion of a whole battery of questions and prompts in an oral
interview.
 The first question is intensive in its purpose: it is a display question intended to elicit a
predetermined correct response.
 Questions at the responsive level tend to be genuine referential questions in which the
test-taker is given more opportunity to produce meaningful language in response.
Responsive question may take following forms:

Questions eliciting open-ended responses Test takers hear: 1. what do you think about the

weather today?

2. why did you choose your academic major? What kind of strategies have you used to help
you learn English?

Test-takers respond with a few sentences at most

 2# Giving Instructions and Directions

The technique is simple: the administrator poses the problem, and test taker responds.
Scoring is based primarily on comprehensibility, and secondary on other specified
grammatical or discourse categories. The choice of topics needs to be familiar enough so that
the test is not general knowledge but linguistic competence. Finally, the task should require
the test-taker to produce at least five or six sentences.

Eliciting instructions or

direction Test-takers hear:

Describe how to make a typical dish from your country?

How do you access e-mail on a PC? Test-takers respond with appropriate instruction.

3# Paraphrasing

The test-takers read or hear a short story or description with a limited number of sentences
(perhaps two or five) and produce a paraphrase of the story. The advantages is they elicit short
stretches of output and perhaps tap into test takers' to practice the conversational art of
conciseness by reducing the output/ input ratio.

D. Designing Assessment Tasks: Interactive Speaking

#1 Interview

A test administrator and a test-taker sit down in a direct face-to-face. exchange and proceed
through a protocol of questions and directives.

#2 Role Play

It frees students to be somewhat creative in their linguistic output. In some versions, role
play allows some rehearsal time so that students can map out what they are going to say. It
also has the effect of lowering anxieties as students can, even for few moments, take on the
persona of someone other than themselves.

The test administrator must determine the assessment objectives of the role play then devise
a scoring technique that appropriately pinpoints those adjectives.

# 3 Discussion and Conversation

Discussion may be especially appropriate tasks through which

 elicit and observe such abilities: Topic nomination, maintenance, and termination.

Attention getting, interrupting, control

Clarifying, questioning, paraphrasing

Comprehension signals

Negotiating meaning

Intonation patterns for pragmatic effect

Kinesics, eye contact, proxemics, body language

Politeness, and other sociolinguistics factors

4. Games

Crossword puzzles, information gap

E. Designing Assessment Tasks: Extensive

Speaking1# Oral Presentations

The rules for effective assessment must be involved:

Specify the criterion Set appropriate tasks

Elicit optimal output

Establish practical, reliable scoring process

For oral presentation, a checklist or grid is a common mears of scoring or evaluation. The
wash back effect of a such checklist can be enhanced by written comments from the teacher,
a conference with the teacher, peer evaluation using the same form, and self assessment.

2# Picture-Cued Storytelling

It considers a picture or a series of pictures as a stimulus for a longer story or description.

3# Retelling a Story, News Event [L, R, S] Test-takers hear or read a story or news event
that they are asked to retell.

The objectives in assigning is listening comprehension of the

original to production of a number of oral discourse features

(sequences and relationship of events, stress and emphasis

pattern), fluency, and interaction with the hearer.

► Scoring should meet the intended criteria.

4# Translation (of Extended Prose)

The longer texts are presented for the test-taker to read in the native language and then translate
into English. Those texts could come in many forms: dialogue, directions for assembly
product, a synopsis of a story, etc.

The advantage: control the content, vocabulary, and the grammatical and discourse features.
 LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Types of Listening Comprehension:

1) Intensive: listening for perception of the components (phonemes, words,

intonation, discourse markers, etc.) of a larger stretch of language.
2) Responsive: listening to a relatively short stretch of language (a greeting,
question, command, comprehension check, etc.) in order to make an equally short
response.
3) Selective: processing stretches of discourse such as short monologues for several
minutes in order to scan for certain information. The purpose of such performance
is not necessarily to look for global or general meanings, but to be able to
comprehend designated information in a context of longer stretches of spoken
language (such as classroom directions from a teacher, TV or Radio news items,
or stories). Assessment tasks in selective listening could ask students, for example,
to listen for names, numbers, a grammatical category, directions (in a map
exercise), or certain facts and events.
4) Extensive: listening to develop a top-down, global understanding of spoken
language. Extensive performance ranges from listening to lengthy lectures to
listening to a conversation and deriving a comprehensive message or purpose.
Listening for the gist, for the main idea, and making inferences are all part of
extensive listening.

Intensive

- Phonemes, words, intonation, discourse markers

Responsive

- short text-short response Question, greeting, command,

- comprehension check

Selective
- scanning for certain information

- names, numbers, directions, etc.

Extensive

- gist, main idea, inferences

Microskills

1. Discriminate among the distinctive sounds of English.

2. Retain chunks of language of different lengths in short-term memory.
3. Recognize English stress patterns, words in stressed and unstressed positions, rhythmic
structure, intonation contours, and their role in signalling information.
4. Recognize reduced forms of words. 5. Distinguish word boundaries, recognize a core of
words, and interpret word order patterns and their significance.
6. Process speech at different rates of delivery.
7. Process speech containing pauses, errors, corrections, and other performance variables.
8. Recognize grammatical word classes (nouns, verbs, etc.), systems (e.g.. tense, agreement,
pluralization), patterns, rules, and elliptical forms.
9. Detect sentence constituents and distinguish between major and minor constituents.
10. Recognize that a particular meaning may be expressed in different grammatical forms.
11. Recognize cohesive devices in spoken discourse.

Macroskills

12. Recognize the communicative functions of utterances, according to situations,

participants, goals.
13. Infer situations, participants, goals using real-world knowledge.
14. From events, ideas, and so on, described, predict outcomes, infer links and connections
between events, deduce causes and effects, and detect such relations as main idea, supporting
idea, new information, given information, generalization, and exemplification.
15. Distinguish between literal and implied meanings.
16. Use facial, kinesic, body language, and other nonverbal clues to decipher meanings.
17. Develop and use a battery of listening strategies, such as detecting key words, guessing
the meaning of words from context, appealing for help, and signaling comprehension or lack
thereof.
Designing Intensive Listening Tasks

Recognizing phonological and morphological elements

Phonemic pair, consonants

Test-takers hear:

Test-takers read:

He's from California.

(a) He's from California. (b) She's from California.

is he living?

(a) is he leaving? (b) is he living?

In both cases above, minimal phonemic distinctions are the target. If you are testing
recognition of morphology, you can use the same format:

Morphological pair, -ed ending

Test-takers hear:

Test-takers read:

I missed you very much.

(a) I missed you very much. (b) I miss you very much.

Phonemic pair, vowels

Test-takers hear:

Test-takers read:

Stress pattern in can't

Test-takers hear

Test-takers read:
My girlfriend can't go to the party.

(a) My girlfriend can't go to the party. (b) My girlfriend can go to the party.

vine

(a) vine (b) wine

One-word stimulus

Test-takers hear

Test-takers read:

Test-takers hear

Test-takers read:

Hellow, my name's Keiko. I come from Japan.

(a) Keiko is comfortable in Japan.

(b) Keiko wants to come to Japan

(c) Keiko is Japanese.

(d) Keiko likes Japan.

Dialogue paraphrase

Test-takers hear

Man: Hi, Maria, my name's George

Woman: Nice to meet you, George. Are you American? Man: No, I'm Canadian

(a) George lives in the United States

(b) George is American
(c. George comes from Canada
(d) Maria is Canadian.
DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS: RESPONSIVE LISTENING

A question-and-answer format can provide some interactivity in these lower-end listening

tasks. The test-taker's response is the appropriate answer to a question.

Appropriate response to a question

Test-takers hear

Test-lakers read:

How much time did you take to do homework?

(a) In about an hour (b) About an hour

(c) About $10 (d) Yes, I did.

Open-ended response to a question

Test-takers hear

Test-takers write or speak:

How much time did you take to do your homework?

ASSESSMENT TASKS: SELECTIVE LISTENING

1.Listening Cloze

Listening cloze

Test-takers hear:

Ladies and gentlemen, I now have some connecting gate information for those of you making
connections to other flights out of San Francisco.

Flight seven-oh-six to Portland will depart from gate seventy-three at nine-thirty P.M. Flight
ten-forty-five to Reno will depart at nine-fifty P.M. from gate seventeen. Flight Jour-forty to
Monterey will depart at nine-thirty-five PM. from gale sixty. And fight sixteen-oh-three to
Sacramento will depart from gate nineteen at ten-fifteen PM.
Test-takers write the missing words or phrases in the blanks.

Information transfer: single-picture-cued verbal multiple-choice

Test-takers see:

a photograph of a woman in a laboratory setting, with no glasses on, squinting through a

microscope with her right eye, and with her left eye closed.

Test-takers hear:

(a) She's speaking into a microphone.

(b) She's putting on her glasses.

(c) She has both eyes open.

(d) She's using a microscope.

Information transfer: chart-filling

Test-takers hear:

Now you will hear information about Lucy's daily schedule. The information will be given
twice. The first time just listen carefully. The second time, there will be a pause after each
sentence. Fill in Lucy's blank daily schedule with the correct information. The example has
already been filled in.

You will hear: Lucy gets up at eight o'clock every morning except on weekends. You will fill
in the schedule to provide the information.

Now listen to the information about Lucy's schedule. Remember, you will first hear all the
sentences; then you will hear each sentence separately with time to fill in your chart.

Information transfer: single-picture-cued verbal multiple-choice

Test-takers see:

a photograph of a woman in a laboratory setting, with no glasses on, squinting through a

microscope with her right eye, and with her left eye closed.
Test-takers hear:

(a) She's speaking into a microphone. (b) She's putting on her glasses.

(c) She has both eyes open.

(d) She's using a microscope.

Information transfer: chart-filling

Test-takers hear:

Now you will hear information about Lucy's daily schedule. The information will be given
twice. The first time just listen carefully. The second time, there will be a pause after each
sentence. Fill in Lucy's blank daily schedule with the correct information. The example has
already been filled in.

You will hear: Lucy gets up at eight o'clock every morning except on weekends.

You will fill in the schedule to provide the information.

Now listen to the information about Lucy's schedule. Remember, you will first hear all the
sentences; then you will hear each sentence separately with time to fill in your chart.

3.Sentence repetition
Students can be asked to listen to sentences and they will be asked to repeat them.

DESIGNING COMPREHENSION TASKS: EXTENSIVE LISTENING

1.DICTATION

Dictation

First reading (natural speed, no pauses, test-takers listen for gist):

The state of California has many geographical areas. On the western side is the Pacific Ocean
with its beaches and sea life. The central part of the state is a large fertile valley. The
southeast has a hot desert, and north and west have beautiful mountains and forests. Southern
California is a large urban area populated by millions of people.

Second reading (slowed speed, pause at each // break, test-takers write):

The state of California // has many geographical areas. // On the western side // is the Pacific
Ocean with its beaches and sea life. // The central part of the state // is a large fertile valley. //
The southeast has a hot desert, // and north and west // have beautiful mountains and forests.
// Southern California // is a large urban area // populated by millions of people.

Third reading (natural speed, test-takers check their work).

COMMUNICATIVE STIMULUS-RESPONSE TASKS

Dialogue and multiple-choice comprehension items

Test-takers hear

Directions: Now you will hear a conversation between Lynn and her doctor. You will hear
the conversation two times. After you hear the conversation the second time, choose the
correct answer for questions 11-15 below. Mark your answers on the answer sheet provided.

Doctor: Good morning. Lynn. What's the problem?

Lynn: Well, you see, I have a terrible headache, my nose is running, and I'm really dizzy.

Doctor: Okay. Anything else?

Lynn: I've been coughing, I think I have a fever, and my stomach aches.

Doctor: I see. When did this start?

Lynn: Well, let's see, I went to the lake last weekend, and after I returned home I started
sneezing.

Doctor: Hmm. You must I have the flu. You should get lots of rest, drink beverages, and stay
warm. Do you follow me?

Lynn: Well, uh, yeah, but... shouldn't I take some medicine?

Doctor: Sleep and rest are as good as medicine when you have the flu.

Lynn: Okay, thanks, Dr. Brown.

Test-takers read:
11. What is Lynn's problem?
(A) She feels horrible.
(B) She ran too fast at the lake.
(C) She's been drinking too many hot beverages.

12. When did Lynn's problem start?

(A) When she saw her doctor.
(B) Before she went to the lake.
(C) After she came home from the lake.

AUTHENTIC LISTENING TASKS

These include:

Note-taking tasks: listen and take notes

Editing tasks-listen to audio and edit/correct

Interpretive tasks: listen to a story and a song or news report and answers questions based
on it.

Retelling tasks: listen to a story for example and retell it Interactive listening: listening and
interacting (dialogues or conversations, or interviews)
 ASSESSING READING COMPREHENSION

Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices -H. Douglas Brown

Reading, the most essential skill for success in all educational contexts, remains a skill of paramount
importance as we create assessments of general language ability.
Two primary obstacles must be cleared in order to become efficient readers:
a. Be able to master fundamental bottom-up strategies for processing separate letters, words and
phrases, as well as top-down, conceptually driven strategies for comprehension.
b. 2nd language readers must develop appropriate content and format schemata-background
information and cultural experience- to carry out those interpretations effectively.
The assessment of reading ability does not end with the measurement of comprehension.
Genres of reading:
1. Academic reading:
- general interest articles (in magazines, newspapers)
- technical reports (e.g., lab reports), professional journal articles
- reference material
- textbooks, theses
- essays, papers
- test directions
- editorials and opinion writing
2. Job-related reading:
- message (ex. Phone messages)
- letters/emails
- memo (ex. interoffice)
- reports (ex. job evaluations, project reports)
- schedules, labels, signs, announcements
- forms, applications, questionnaires
- financial documents (bills, invoices)
- directories (telephone, office)
- mauuals, directions
3. Personal reading:
- newspapers and magazines
- letters, emails, greeting cards, invitations
- messages, notes, lists
- schedules (train, bus, plane)
- recipes, menus, maps, calendars
- advertisements
- novels, short stories, jokes, drama, poetry
- financial documents (ex. Checks, tax forms, loan applications)
- forms, questionnaires, medical reports, immigration documents
- comic strips, cartoons
Importance of genres of reading:
It enables the readers to apply certain schemata that will assist them in extracting appropriate meaning.
Efficient readers have to know what their purpose is in reading a text, the strategies for accomplishing
that purpose and how to retain the information.

Micro skills for Reading:

1. Discriminate among the distinctive graphemes and orthographic patterns of English.
2. Retain chunks of language of different lengths in short term memory.
3. Process writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose.
4. Recognize a core of words and interpret word order patterns and their significance.
5. Recognize that grammatical word classes (nouns, verbs), systems (tense, agreement,
pluralization), patterns, rules, and elliptical forms.
6. Recognize that a particular meaning may be expressed in different grammatical forms.
7. Recognize cohesive devices in written discourse and their role in signaling the relationship
between and among clauses.
Macro skills for Reading:
1. Recognize the rhetorical forms of written discourse and their significance for interpretation.
2. Recognize the communicative functions of written texts, according to form and purpose.
3. Infer context that is not explicit by using background knowledge.
4. From described events, ideas, etc., infer links and connections between events, deduce causes and
effects and detect such relations as main idea, supporting idea, new information, given
information, generalization and exemplification.
5. Distinguish between literal and implied meaning.
6. Detect culturally specific references and interpret them in a context of the appropriate cultural
schemata.
7. Develop and use a battery of reading strategies such as scanning and skimming, detecting
discourse and markers.
Reading Comprehension strategies:
1. Identify your purpose in reading a text.
2. Apply spelling rules and conventions for bottom-up decoding.
3. Use lexical analysis (prefixes, roots, suffixes, etc.) to determine meaning.
4. Guess at meaning (of words, idioms, etc.) when you are not certain.
5. Skim the text for the gist and for main ideas.
6. Scan the text for specific information (names, dates, key words).
7. Use silent reading techniques for rapid processing.
8. Use marginal notes, outlines, charts, or semantic maps for understanding and retaining
information.
9. Distinguish between literal and implied meanings.
10. Capitalize on discourse markers to process relationships.
Types of Reading:
Perceptive:
- Involves attending to the components of larger stretches discourse: letters, words, punctuation and
other graphemic symbols.
- Bottom-up processing is implied.
Selective:
- This is largely an artifact of assessment formats.
- Certain typical tasks are used such as picture-cued tasking, matching, true/false, multiple choice.
- Stimuli include sentences, brief paragraphs and simple charts and graphs.
- Brief responses are intended and a combination of bottom-up and top-down processing may be
used.

Interactive:
Includes stretches of language of several paragraphs to one page or more in which the reader must
interact with the text.
Genres: anecdotes, short narratives and descriptions, excerpts from longer texts, questionnaires, memos,
announcements, directions, recipes and the like.
Focus: to identify relevant features (lexical, symbolic, grammatical and discourse) within texts of
moderately short length with the objective of retaining the information that it processed.
Extensive:
It applies to texts of more than a page, up to and including professional articles, essays, technical reports,
short stories, and books.
purpose: to tap into a learner's global understanding of a text, as opposed to asking test-takers to "zoom
in" on small details.
- 'Top-down processing is assumed for most extensive tasks.

Designing Assessment Tasks:

Perceptive reading
At the beginning level of reading a second language lies a set of tasks that are fundamental and basic:
recognition of alphabetic symbols, capitalized and lowercase letters, punctuation, words and grapheme-
phoneme correspondences.
Literacy tasks: implying that learner is in the early stages of becoming “literate”.
Reading aloud:
- The test takes sees separate letters, words, and/or short sentences and reads them aloud, one by
one, in the presence of an administrator.
- Any recognizable oral approximation of the target response is considered correct.
Written response:
- The same stimuli is presented, and the test taker’s task is to reproduce the probe in writing.
- Evaluation of the test taker’s response must be carefully treated.
Multiple choice Grapheme recognition task :
Test takers read: circle the “odd” item, the one that doesn’t “belong”.
1. Piece peace piece
2. Book book boot

Minimal pair:
Test takers read: Circle “S” for same or “D” for different.
1. Led let S D
2. Bit bit S D
3. Seat set S D
4. Too to S D
Picture-cued items:
- Test takers are shown a picture along with a written text and are given possible tasks to perform.

DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS:

Selective Reading:

 Focus on formal aspects of language (lexical, grammatical and a few discourse features).

 It includes what many incorrectly think of as testing "vocabulary and grammar”.

Multiple Choice
Multiple-choice vocabulary/grammar tasks.
1. He’s not married. He’s ____________.
A. Young
B. Single
C. First
D. A husband

2. If there’s no doorbell, please _________ on the door.

A. Kneel
B. Type
C. Knock
D. Shout

Contextualized multiple-choice vocabulary/grammar tasks

1. Oscar: Do you like champagne?
Lucky: No, I can’t ________.
A. stand
B. prefer
C. hate

2. Manager: Do you like to work by yourself?

Employee: Yes, I like to work ____________.

A. independently
B. definitely
C. impatiently

Multiple-choice cloze vocabulary/grammar tasks

I've lived in the United States (21) live in Costa Rica. I (28) homesick, but now I enjoy (25)
home (27) three years. I (22) speak any English. I used to (24). here. I never (26) I came to
the United States, but I might (28) to visit my family soon.

21. 23. 25. 27.

A. since A. couldn't A. live A. when
B. for B. could B. to live B. while
C. during C. can C. living C. since
 22. 24. 26. 28.
A. used to A. been A. be A. go
B. use to B. be B. been B. will go
C. was C. being C. was C. going

Matching Tasks
Vocabulary matching task
Write in the letter of the definition on the right that matches the word on the left.

______1. exhausted
______2. disappointed
______3. enthusiastic
______4. empathetic

a. unhappy
b. understanding of others
c. tired
d. excited

Selected Response fill-in vocabulary

1. At the end of the long race, the runners were totally _____.
2. My parents were _____ with my bad performance on the final exam.
3. Everyone in the office was _____ about the new salary raises.
4. The _____ listening of the counselor made Christina feel well understood.
Choose from among the following:
Disappointed
Empathetic
Exhausted
Enthusiastic
Matching task ADVANTAGE
o It offers an alternative to traditional multiple-choice or fill in the blank formats and are easier
to construct than multiple choice item.

Matching task DISADVANTAGE

o It becomes more of a puzzle-solving process than a genuine test of comprehension as test-
takers struggle with the search for a match.

EDITING TASKS
o Editing for grammatical or rhetorical errors is a widely used test method for assessing
linguistic competence in reading.

o It does not only focus on grammar but also introduces a simulation of the authentic task of
editing or discerning errors in written passages.

Multiple-choice grammar editing task

Choose the letter of the underlined word that is not correct.

1. The abrasively action of the wind wears away softer layers of rock.
2. There are two way of making a gas condense: cooling it or putting it under pressure.
3. Researchers have discovered that the application of bright light can sometimes be uses to
overcome jet lag.

PICTURE-CUED TASKS
Multiple-choice picture-cued response
(Phillips, 2001, p. 276)
Carlo has a bar of chocolate. He gives half a bar of chocolate to his brother. See the following
four pictures. Choose the picture that shows the relative amount of chocolate left to Carlo.
Diagram-labeling task

bathtub mirror shower

sink soap toilet
toothbrush toothpaste towel

GAP-FILLING TASKS
o the response is to write a word or phrase.
o to create sentence completion items where test-takers read part of a sentence and then
complete it by writing a phrase.

Sentence Completion task

Oscar: Doctor, what should I do if I get sick?
Doctor: It is best to stay home and ____.
If you have a fever,____ .
You should drink as much___ .
The worst thing you can do is ___.
You should also ___.

Gap Filling Task - DISADVANTAGES

o It has a questionable assessment of reading ability. The task requires both reading and
writing performance, thus, rendering it of low validity in isolating reading as the sole
criterion.
o Scoring the variety of creative responses that are likely to appear is another drawback. A
number of judgments is needed on what comprises a correct response
Designing Assessment Tasks: Interactive Reading
Interactive Reading:
o Tasks at this level have a combination of form-focused and meaning-focused objectives but
with more emphasis on meaning.
o It implies a little more focus on top-down processing than on bottom-up.
o Texts are a little longer from a paragraph to as much as a page or so in the case of ordinary
prose. Charts, graphs and other graphics are somewhat complex in their format.

CLOZE TASKS:
o The ability to fill in gaps in an incomplete image (visual, auditory or cognitive) and supply
(from background schemata) omitted details.
o Cloze tests are usually a minimum of two paragraphs in length in order to account for
discourse expectancies.
o Typically, every seventh word (plus or minus two) is deleted (known as fixed ratio deletion)
but many cloze test designers instead use a rational deletion, procedure of choosing
deletions according to the grammatical or discourse functions of the words.

Two approaches to the scoring of cloze test:

Exact word method- gives credit to test-takers only if they insert the exact word that was
originally deleted.
Appropriate word method - gives credit to the test taker for supplying any word that is
grammatically correct and that makes good sense in the context.

Cloze procedure, fixed ratio deletion

The recognition that one's feelings of (1) ____ and unhappiness can coexist much like (2) ___
and hate in a close relationship (3) _ offer valuable clues on how to (4) ____ a happier life. for
(5) ____ that changing or avoiding things that (6) ____ you miserable may well make you (7)
_____ miserable but probably no happier.

Cloze procedure, rational deletion

The recognition that one's feelings (1) ____ happiness (2) _____ unhappiness can coexist much
like love and hate (3) _____ a close relationship may offer valuable clues (4) ____ how to lead a
happier life. It suggests, (5) ____ example, that changing (6) _____ avoiding things that make
you miserable you may well make you less miserable (7) _____ probably no happier.
Impromptu reading plus comprehension questions
The traditional “Read a passage and answer some questions" technique which is the oldest and
the most common.

SHORT-ANSWER TASKS
A reading passage is presented, and the test-taker reads questions that must be answered in a
sentence or two.

Open-ended reading comprehension questions

1. What do you think is the main idea of this passage?
2. What would you infer from the passage about the future of air travel?
3. In line 6, the word sensation is used. From the context, what do you think this word means?
4. Why do you think the airlines have recently experienced a decline?

EDITING (LONGER TEXTS) ADVANTAGES:

o Authenticity is increased.
o The task simulates proofreading one's own essay, where it is imperative to find and correct
errors.
o If the test is connected to a specific curriculum, the test designer can draw up specifications
for a number of grammatical and rhetorical categories that match the content of the courses.

SCANNING
It is a strategy used by all readers to find relevant information in a test.
Test-takers are presented with a text (prose or something in a chart or graph format) and
requiring rapid identification of relevant bits of information.
Possible stimuli include:
o A one-to-two-page news article
o An essay
o A chapter in a textbook
o A technical report
o A table or chart depicting some research findings
o An application forms.
The test-taker must locate:
o A date, name or place in an article;
o The setting for a narrative story;
o The principal divisions of a chapter;

The principal research finding in a technical report;

o A result reported in a specified cell in a table;
o The cost of an item on a menu; and
o Specified data needed to fill out an application.

ORDERING TASKS
o Sometimes called the "strip story" technique.
o Variations on this can serve as an assessment of overall global understanding of a story
and of the cohesive devices that signal the order of events or ideas.

Sentence-ordering task
It was almost midnight. John was still awake because he did not have to get up early in the
morning. His favorite actor's movie on TV had just finished. The bell rang. He opened the door.
It was his flat-mate, Tom. He had forgotten his keys at home in the morning. He seemed too tired
to chat with John, so he went to bed as soon as possible. John felt lonely and decided to go to
bed. He went to the bathroom and brushed his teeth. When he came into his bedroom, he noticed
some candies on the table. He ate a few of them. The candies reminded him of his childhood.
Since he did not want to sleep, he decided to look at some old photos. He felt sad when he saw
his ex-girlfriend Laura in a photo. He remembered the days they had spent together. He checked
his watch and went to bed.

Put the scrambled sentences into the correct order that they happened.
(.....) A. John ate some candies.
(.....) B. John felt sad.
(.....) C. Tom went to bed and John felt lonely.
(.....) D. John watched a film on TV.
(.....) E. John remembered his childhood.
(.....) F. The bell rang, and Tom came home.
INFORMATION TRANSFER: READING CHARTS, MAPS, GRAPHS, DIAGRAMS

o It requires not only an understanding of the graphic and verbal conventions of the medium
but also a linguistic ability to interpret the information to someone else.
o It is often accompanied by oral or written discourse in order to convey, clarify, question,
argue and debate, among other linguistic functions.
o To comprehend information in this medium, learners must be able to:
▸ comprehend specific conventions of the various types of graphics;
▸ comprehend labels, headings, numbers and symbols;
▸ comprehend the possible relationships among elements of the graphic; and
▸ make inferences that are not presented overtly.

The act of comprehending graphics includes the linguistic performance of oral or written
interpretations, comments, questions, etc. This implies a process of information transfer from one
skill to another, in this case, from reading verbal/nonverbal information to speaking/writing.

Designing Assessment Tasks: Extensive Reading

o It involves somewhat longer texts. Journal articles, technical reports, longer essays, short
stories and books fall into this category.
o Reading of this type of discourse almost always involves a focus on meaning using mostly
top-down processing, with only occasional use of targeted bottom-up strategy.

Tasks that can be applied in extensive reading:

▸ impromptu reading plus comprehension questions
▸ short answer tasks
▸ editing
▸ scanning
▸ ordering
▸ information transfer and
▸ interpretation
SKIMMING TASKS
o It is the process of rapid coverage of reading matter to determine its gist or main idea.
o It is a prediction strategy used to give a reader a sense of topic and purpose of text, the
organization of the text, the perspective or point of view of the writer, its case or difficulty
and its usefulness to the reader.

The test-taker skims the text and answer the following questions.
What is the main idea of this text?
What is the author's purpose in writing the text?
What kind of writing is this (newspaper, article, manual, novel, etc.)?
What type of writing is this (expository, technical, narrative, etc.)?
How easy or difficult do you think this text will be?
What do you think you will learn from the text?
How useful will the text be for your (profession, academic needs, interests)?

SUMMARIZING AND RESPONDING

SUMMARIZING
o It requires a synopsis or overview of the text.
Directions for Summarizing:
Write a summary of the text. Your summary should be about one paragraph in length (100-150
words) and should include your understanding of the main idea and supporting ideas.

Evaluating summaries is difficult.

Criteria for assessing a summary (Imao, 2001, p. 184)
1. Expresses accurately the main idea and supporting ideas.
2. Is written in the student's own words; occasional vocabulary from the original text is
acceptable.
3. Is logically organized.
4. Displays facility in the use of language to clearly express ideas in the text.
RESPONDING
o It asks the reader to provide his/her own opinion on the text as a whole or on some
statement or issue within it.

Directions for Responding

In the article "Poisoning the Air We Breathe", the author suggests that a global dependence on
fossil fuels will eventually make air in large cities toxic. Write an essay in which you agree or
disagree with the author's thesis. Support your opinion with information from the article and
from your own experience.

Scoring is also difficult in responding because of the subjectivity.

Holistic Scoring scale for summarizing and responding

3 Demonstrate clear, unambiguous comprehension of the main and supporting ideas.
2 Demonstrates comprehension of the main idea but lacks comprehension of some supporting
ideas.
1 Demonstrates only a partial comprehension of the main and supporting ideas.
0 Demonstrates no comprehension of the main and supporting ideas.

NOTE-TAKING and OUTLINING

o They fall on the category of informal assessment.
o Their utility is in the strategic training that learners gain in retaining information through
marginal notes that highlight key information or organizational outlines that put supporting
ideas into a visually manageable framework.