Karina Mendoza

Diana Monzón

Zonia Castro

Francis Merck

Why Test Grammar?

As far as proficiency tests are

concerned, there has been a shift

towards the view that since it is

language skills that are usually of

interest, then it is these which should

be tested directly, not the abilities

that seem to underlie them.

Probably, most proficiency tests that

are administered on a large scale

still retain a grammar section.

One reason for this must be the ease

with which large number of items

can be administered and scored

within a short period of time.

The question of content validity: if

we decide to test writing ability

directly, then we are severely

limited in the number of topics, style

of writing and the grammatical

elements that we can cover in any

version of the test.

Wherever the teaching of grammar

is thought necessary, then

consideration should be given to the

advisability of including a grammar

component in achievement area.

Whether or not grammar has an

important place in an institution’s

teaching, it has to be accepted that

grammatical ability, or rather the

lack of it, sets limits to what can be

achieved in the way of skills

performance.

Reflect an attempt to give the test content validity by selecting widely from the structures specified.

It should also take into account of what are regarded as the most important structures.

It should not deliberately concentrate on the structure that happen to be easiest to test.

Whichever techniques are chosen, it is

important for the text of the item to be

written grammatically correct and in

natural language.

E.g. We can’t work in this class because

there isn’t enough silence.

To avoid unnatural language, it is

recommended to use corpus based

examples.

4 techniques are presented here:

gap filling, paraphrase, completion

and multiple choice. The first 3

require the candidate’s production,

the last calls only for recognition.

An item with two possible correct

responses may be acceptable if the

meaning is the same, whichever is

used.

E.g. My dad works in a company

_________ makes Nike Shoes.

[that/which]

This item may be improved by including

the words “then”, and “just” so that it

cannot fill the gap.

Doctor: Then _________ just let her cry.

She’ll stop in the end. [I’d , you]

Require the student to write a sentence

equivalent in meaning to one that is

given.

It is helpful to give part of the

paraphrase in order to restrict the

students to the grammatical structure

being tested.

When I came, my mom was setting

up the dinner table.

When I came, the dinner

table____________

Can be used to test a variety of

structures.

Usually in a form of conversational

transcript.

There are times when gap filling will

not test what we want to test

because there are too many

possibilities.

Multiple Choice:

A: They left at 7. They _________ be

home by now.

B: Yes, but we can’t count on it, can’t

we?

a. can b. could c. will d.

Can be used to test discontinuous elements.

A: Poor man, he ________at that for days now.

B: Why doesn’t he give up?

a) was workingb) has been workingc) is workingd) had worked

The important thing when scoring is to be

clear about what each item is testing,

and to award points for that only.

Nothing should be deducted for non-

grammatical errors, or for errors in

elements of grammar which are not being

tested by the item.

If two elements are being tested in an

item, then points may be assigned to

each of them.

Alternatively, it can be

predetermined that both elements

have to be correct for any points to

be awarded.

To ensure scoring is valid and

reliable, careful preparation of the

scoring key is necessary.

The main difficulty in testing

productive lexical ability is the need

to limit the candidate to the lexical

item that we have in mind using only

words. One way around this is to use

pictures.

However, this method is obviously

restricted to concrete nouns that

can be unambiguously drawn.

May work for a range of lexical

items.

But not all items can be identified

uniquely from a definition

Not all words can de defined

entirely in words more common or

simpler than themselves.

This can take the form of one or

more sentences with a single word

missing.

Often there is an alternative word to

the one we have in mind. This

problem can be solved by giving

the first letter of the word (possibly

more) and even an indication of the

number of letters.

While grammar contribute to

communicative skills, they are rarely

to be regarded as ends in

themselves.

It is essential that tests should not

accord them too much of

importance, and so create a

backwash effect that undermines

the achievement of the objectives

of teaching and learning where

these are communicative in nature.