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ASSESSING LANGUAGE KNOWLEDGE: GRAMMAR & VOCABULARYPrepared by Maria Verbitskaya, Elena Solovova, Svetlana SannikovaBased on material by Carolyn Westbrook
Goals and Objectives
• To understand the purpose of teaching and testing vocabulary and grammar in an EFL classroom.
• To analyze the pros and cons of different types of tasks aimed at assessing grammar and vocabulary.
• To choose appropriate tasks for classroom based assessment / standardized tests at different levels of language proficiency.
Key Questions
1. Why teach grammar and vocabulary? Use or usage? (language vs speech, rules vs communication)
2. Why assess grammar and vocabulary? 3. What should we assess? What is the construct of
grammar and vocabulary tests? 4. What are the benefits and limitations of different
grammar and vocabulary tasks and tests?
• linguistic competence (А1-С2)• sociolinguistic competence (А1-С2)
Why teach grammar and vocabulary?
Why teach grammar and vocabulary?
• accuracy;• fluency;• language usage (the system of language -
rules);• use of English (speech - communicative
skills);• educational purposes: pragmatic and
developmental.
Pragmatic educational purposes:
• range of vocabulary and grammar as the basis for communicative skills in EGP, EAP, ESP, EBP, etc.;
• grammar functions vs speech functions;• CEFR and levels of language proficiency.
Developmental educational purposes:
• cognitive development;• generalizations;• language and info search;• semantic field and thesaurus;• mind mapping;• etc.
Grammar: what to assess?
The test construct:•syntax•morphology•semantics and pragmatics.
Definitions
Syntax - the study of the principles and processes by which words are joined together into sentences and sentences are constructed.
Morphology - the study and description of word forms and word formation in language. Words may be analyzed into morphemes, classed as: roots, or stems; affixes (prefixes, suffixes, infixes), including: word-forming affixes (e.g. re-, un-, -ly, -ness); inflexional affixes (e.g. s, -ed, -ing).
Definitions
Semantics and pragmatics are concerned with the meanings of linguistic units and how these are used to do things in the world. What is the communicative effect of using a passive form in a certain context? When is it more appropriate to use the word woman than lady?
This is much more difficult to test!
Definitions
Grammar: what to assess?
Nouns:•plural number•possessive case•articles with nouns.
Verbs:•tense and aspect forms (e.g. continuous vs simple forms, present perfect);•active voice vs passive voice;•non-finite forms (participle, infinitive, gerund).
Grammar: what to assess?
Adjectives:•degrees of Comparison (regular and irregular);-clever-cleverer-the cleverest;-beautiful-more beautiful-the most beautiful;-bad-worse- the worst.
Grammar: what to assess?
Personal and possessive pronounsPersonal pronouns vs object pronouns e.g. he – him we – usPersonal pronouns vs possessive pronouns e.g. he – his we – our
Grammar: what to assess?
AdverbsDegrees of comparison (regular and irregular)
Grammar: what to assess?
Testing grammar: techniques
• gap filling• completion• multiple choice• transformation • paraphrase• cloze• error correction• constructed response (e.g. essay writing).
Gap fillingFill in the gaps with the appropriate form of the word given in the marginIt was Ann’s first day at school. Many __________ brought CHILD flowers to their teachers.
Testing grammar: techniques
Multiple choice.
It was _______ first day of the vacation.
a) a b) an c) the d) 0
Testing grammar: techniques
Transformation
Yesterday Ann went to school for the first time.
It was ___________________day at school.
Testing grammar: techniques
Transformation1. I expect that he will get there by lunchtimeI expect him ______________ by lunchtime.2. Something must be done quickly to solve the problem of homelessness.Urgent measures______________________3. You could be arrested for not giving a breath sample to the police.Refusal ___________________________
Testing grammar: techniques
Cloze (Hughes, 2003)
Why test grammar?
Can one justify the separate testing [ ] grammar? There was a
time when this [ ] have seemed a very odd question. [ ]
of grammatical structures was seen as [ ] very core of
language ability and it [ ] have been unthinkable not to test it.
control of the would would having
Testing grammar: techniques
Traditional cloze – every nth word is deleted from a text.Modified cloze - test designer decides exactly which words should be replaced by gaps.Open cloze – examinees supply the missing word.Banked cloze - examinees choose from a set of options.
Testing grammar: techniques
Marking open cloze:•‘exact word’ – only the word deleted from the original text is taken as a correct response;•‘acceptable word’ – a list of acceptable responses is given to markers.
Testing grammar: techniques
Testing vocabulary
Knowing a word means knowing its: • graphological and sound forms• meaning/s• connotation/s• collocations• prepositional use (if necessary).
• testing recognition ability• testing productive ability
Testing vocabulary:
Testing recognition ability: techniques
• recognize the appropriate picture for the word;• recognize definitions;• recognize synonyms (antonyms?);• recognize appropriate word for the context
(production?);• recognize appropriate preposition to go with the word
in the given context (production?).
Testing productive ability: techniques
pictures (label) definitions, synonyms, antonyms gap filling multiple matching multiple choice finding and correcting mistakes transformation cloze.
Testing wordbuilding: techniques
• gap filling• transformation • multiple choice• cloze.
Transformation
You can’t rely on Ann.
Ann is a very ________________ person.
Testing wordbuilding: techniques
CEFR can-do statements A2-C2:
• no direct information;• the English Profile and its purposes.
http://www.englishprofile.org
Washback effect: discussion
similarities and differences in testing and assessing the ‘Use of English’ in international and national exams;
analysis of mistakes and changes in methods of teaching grammar and vocabulary.
