WEB-ресурс научно-практических конференций

Kondria N.P.

Chernovtsy National University , Ukraine

ALTERNATIVE MODES OF TESTING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING

Testing is an aid to learning. Rather than being a ranking procedure tests should concentrate on enabling all students demonstrate what they can do with the level of language they possess. The test should be a learning experience that is a part of the ongoing process and reflect the objectives of the course which in their turn should reflect the objectives of the students. M. Thompson believes that students learn more when they have tests [4]. Moreover, according to J. Heaton [2, p.6], tests could be used to display the strength and weaknesses of the teaching process and help the teacher improve it. Besides, overtesting should be avoided as it tends to raise the anxiety level and diminish returns. The ways to guarantee and enhance the effectiveness of testing have been analyzed in a number of works on the topic [1-3]. One of the suggested methods is alternative testing.

Deciding which testing alternatives are the most appropriate for a particular language education context can be daunting, especially given the increasing variety of instruments, proce dures, and practices available for language testing. Such alternatives include not only test types with long traditions of use – such as multiple-choice tests, true-false tests, matching tests, cloze tests, gap-filling tests, essay tests, short answer tests, problem sets, oral exams, dictations, performance tests [1, p.365-367]) that are largely implemented in foreign language teaching. To increase students’ motivation new types of tests are being devised by educators . They include take-home tests, open-book tests, group exams, pair testing, portfolios, online testing [ 1 , p.376-369].

Take-home tests should accommodate longer and more complex questions and allow students to work at their own pace with access to books and materials. Problem sets, short answers, and essays are the most appropriate items for take-home exams. However, they should not be too difficult and should include the limits on the length of the response. A variation of a take-home test is to hand out the questions a week or more in advance but have the students write their answers in class.

Open-book tests allow the students to use some specific resources during the exam. Although open-book tests are less stressful for students, they may reduce some students’ motivation to study, and some students perform poorly because they devote more time to consulting their references than to answering the test questions.

According to researchers, group exams offer three advantages: group work promotes deeper understanding of the material, groups outperform individuals, and group tests are less stressful. Group exams could be assigned to groups in order to minimize differences between group scores, or to balance talkative and quiet students, or to cluster students who are performing at the same level. Each student receives the score of the group.

For paired testing, two students work on and submit a single exam. Pairs can be assigned in three ways: Random assignment breaks up cliques, avoids “ last chosen,” and prevents perceptions of instructor bias. Purposeful assignment pairs students based on level of achievement or other characteristics. In self- selection, students choose their partners, which may ease some students’ anxiety as well as relieve the teacher of responsibility if students attribute poor performance to their partner.

A portfolio is a selection of coursework that a student assembles in order to illustrate growth and accomplishment over the term. A portfolio might include one or more papers (drafts and revisions), journal entries, essay exams, lab reports, sketches, prototypes, or problem sets. The instructions for submitting a portfolio should state the principles for selecting the pieces, the kinds of class materials and acceptable media (hard copy, electronic files, audio, video, and so on), and the minimum and maximum amount of material to submit. Some campuses encourage students to set up electronic portfolios on the institution’s server.

For the most part, students’ online tests are similar to paper-and-pencil tests. An excellent use for online testing is to provide practice quizzes that students take while studying. Such quizzes are especially helpful because they provide students with immediate feedback about their performance. Some students complain that online testing prevents them from highlighting key terms and marking up the questions as they think about the topic and their response. Students also dislike online tests that do not allow them to skip items and return to them later. The investment of teachers’ effort into elaboration of online tests is repaid when the system generates individualized online quizzes; some systems even track how much time a student spends on each question. If the learning management system does not have an online quiz feature, some commercial software packages are available.

Thus, alternative modes of testing usually provide students with diverse formats of knowledge assessment, ways of test arrangement and completion. Such variety arouses students’ interest reducing stress and boredom at the same time requiring students to demonstrate skills and competencies . Before choosing a test mode teachers should analyze its diagnostic, informational, motivational, developmental and feedback issues.

References:

1. Davis B. G. Tools for teaching. – 2nd ed. – San Francisco : John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2009. – 592 p.

2. Heaton J. Classroom Testing. – L.: Longman, 1990 .

3. Jacobs L. C., and Chase C. I. Developing and Using Tests Effectively: A Guide for Faculty . – San Francisco : Jossey -Bass, 1992 .

4. Thompson M. Putting students to the test. – 2001. – Issue 20 .