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LANGUAGE TESTS, REFERENCE http://skripsi-fkip-inggris.blogspot…
LANGUAGE TESTS
iv) THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH
Characteristics:
To measure language learner's ability to take in acts of communication or to use language in real life situations.
Designed on the basis of communicative competence.
Involves linguistic competence (knowledge of linguistic forms), sociolinguistic competence (the ability to use language appropriately in contexts), discourse competence (coherence and cohesion), and strategic competence (knowledge of verbal and non-verbal communicative strategies).
According to Brown (2005), the characteristics of communicative approach are - meaningful communication, authentic situation, unpredictable language input, creative language output, and integrated language skills.
Principles:
To "start from somewhere" - means to state carefully what they expect test takers to perform when they use the target language in a specific context.
To do "concentration on content"- refers to not only topics but also tasks that will be implemented.
"Bias for best" - means that test makers should bear in mind that they should create a test that can exploit test takers' performance at their best.
"Working on washback" - test writers should create clear scoring criteria.
Strength:
Feasible and it promises positive effects on English training and teaching.
Provide students better command of English as well as teaching methods.
Weakness:
Requires training to have the necessary language testing expertise.
Needed more studies of test elements, such as test tasks, focus, and content because these elements contribute to the validity of a test.
Example:
TOEFL iBT or the
IELTS.
i) THE ESSAY-TRANSLATION APPROACH
Strengths and Weakness
a) Strengths
Easy to do - teachers simply use their subjective judgement
May be used for testing any levels of tests
Can easily be modified based on the tests essential
b) Weakness
Subjective judgement of teachers tends to make bias
The tests have a heavy literadry and cultural bias
Characteristics
a) This approach is commonly refered to as the pre-scientifi stage of language testing
b) No special skill or expertise in testing is required
c) Test usually consist of essay writing, translation and grammatical analysis
d) Tests have a heavy literary and cultural bias
e) Public examinations - have an oral component at the upper intermediate and advance levels
Examples
essay writing, translation, and grammatical analysis
iii) THE INTEGRATIVE APPROACH
Characteristics:
Involves the testing of the language in context.
Focuses on the meaning and the total communicative effect of discourse.
Do not seek for separation of language skills - to assess a learner’s capacity to use many bits all at the same time.
Strength:
Can view students' proficiency with a global view.
Useful for students in testing.
Measuring students' skills of listening comprehension.
Designed to assess the learner's ability to use two or more skills simultaneously.
Weakness:
Do not seek to separate language skills into neat divisions in order to improve test reliability.
Involve the functional language but not its use.
Provided a measure of the candidate’s competence rather than measuring the candidate’s performance.
The scoring is not efficient and not reliable.
Example:
Cloze test involves taking an authentic reading passage and removing words from it. Which words remove depends on the test creator.
Dictation is simply writing down what was heard. This also requires the use of several language skills simultaneously in a realistic context.
ii) THE STRUCTURALIST APPROACH
Principles
a)The structural approach is based on the assumption that language teaching can best be done through systematic selection and grading of structures or sentence patterns.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
a) may objectively and surely be used by testers.
b) many forms of tests can be covered in the test in a short time.
c) help students find their strengths and weaknesses in every skill they study.
Weaknesses
a) a complicated job for teachers to prepare questionnaires using this approach.
b) measuring non-integrated skills more than integrated skills.
Characteristics
a) Concerned with the systematic acquisition of a set of habits.
b) Gives importance to constrastive analysis and learner's mastery of the separate elements of the target language (phonology, vocabulary and grammar).
c) The skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing - tested separately or one thing at a time.
d) The psychometric approach - emphasized (object/multiple-choice test)
Examples
-focus more on teaching the proper order of the following words, with less emphasis on teaching what the words actually mean.
INTEGRATIVE APPROACH VS COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH
Integrative approach test all of the language skills simultaneously while the communicative approach tests the learner's capabilities to implement the knowledge.
Integrative approach emphasises solely the learner's level of language skills while the communicative approach focuses on the learner's communication competency in real-life situations.
Both approaches are to measure learners' communication skills and language skills.
Both approaches need context.
REFERENCE
http://skripsi-fkip-inggris.blogspot.com/2014/04/approaches-to-language-testing.html
https://educationalresearchtechniques.com/2017/03/10/discrete-point-and-integrative-language-testing-methods/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322208951_APPROACHES_IN_LANGUAGE_TESTING_Sub-topic_Constructing_Test_Kind_of_Test#:~:text=Integrative%20Testing%20Approach%20This%20approach,integration%20of%20all%20linguistic%20abilities
.
https://hpu.edu/research-publications/tesol-working-papers/spring-2008/6_1_02Phan.pdf