Chapter 3: Assessing Reading

Most language teachers assess reading through the component sub skills. Since reading is a receptive language skill, we can only get an idea of how students actually process texts through techniques such as think aloud protocols. It is not possible to observe reading behavior directly. For assessment, we normally focus on certain important skills which can be divided up into major and minor (or contributing) reading skills.

Major reading skills include:

·         Reading quickly to skim for gist, scan for specific details, and establish overall organization of the passage

·         Reading carefully for main ideas, supporting details, author’s argument and purpose, relationship of paragraphs, fact vs. opinion

·         Information transfer from nonlinear texts

·         Drawing inferences from both stated and implied content

Minor or enabling reading skills include:

·         understanding at the sentence level

-      syntax, vocabulary, cohesive markers

·         understanding at inter-sentence level

-      identifying what pronouns to refer to recognize, discourse markers

·         understanding components of nonlinear texts

-      the meaning of graph or chart labels, keys, and the ability to find and interpret intersection points.

Considerations in Designing Task

Reading tests use many of the formats already discussed. Recognition formats include MCQs, TFNs, matching and cloze with answers provided. If limited production formats such as short answer are used, usually the emphasis is on meaning, not spelling. Of course, there will be authentic tasks such as reading directions for form-filling where accuracy is important.

Specifications

As with all skills assessment, it is important to start with a clear understanding of program objectives, intended outcomes and target uses of English. Once these are clear, you can develop specifications or frameworks for developing assessment. Specifications will clearly state what and how you will assess, what the conditions of assessment will be (length and overall design of the test), and will provide criteria for marking or grading. Here are typical features of specifications:

Content

·         What material will the test cover? What aspects of this material?

·         What does the student have to be able to do? For example, in reading, perhaps a students has to scan for detailed information.

·         A propos reading passages, specifications state the type of text (prose or nonlinear), the number of words in the passage and readability level.

·         Acceptable topics and the treatment of vocabulary are usually set forth in specifications. For instance, topics may be restricted to those covered in the student book and vocabulary may focus on core vocabulary in the course.

Conditions

·         Specifications usually provide information about the structure of the examination and the component parts. For example, a reading examination may include 5 subsections which use different formats and texts to test different subskills.

·         Specific formats or a range of formats are usually given in specifications in addition to the number of questions for each format or section.

·         Timing is another condition which specifications state. The time for the entire test may be given or sometimes for each individual subsection. For example, you can place time-dependent skills such as skimming and scanning in separately timed sections or you can place them at the end of a longer reading test where students typically are reading faster to finish within the allocated time.

Grading criteria

·         Specifications indicate how the assessment instrument will be marked. For instance, the relative importance of marks for communication as contrasted to those for mechanics (spelling, punctuation, capitalization) should reflect the overall approach and objectives of the instructional program. Similarly, if some skills are deemed more important or require more processing than other skills, they may be weighted more heavily.

Texts

Texts can be purpose written, taken directly from authentic material or adapted. The best way to develop good reading assessments is to constantly be on the watch for appropriate material. Keep a file of authentic material from newspapers, magazines, brochures, instruction guides – anything that is a suitable source of real texts. Other ways to find material on particular topics are to use an encyclopedia written at an appropriate readability level or to use an Internet search engine. Whatever the source, cite it properly.

Microsoft Word provides word counts and readability statistics. First, highlight the passage, and then select word count from the Tool menu. To access readability information, go to Options under the Tool menu, then Spelling and Grammar, and tick “Show Readability Statistics”. Readability is based on word and sentence length as well as use of the passive voice. You can raise or lower the level by changing these. You can also add line numbers and other special features to texts.

Questions

Make sure that questions are written at a slightly lower level than the reading passages. Reading questions should be in the same order as the material in the passage itself. If you have two types of questions or two formats based on one text, go through the text with different colored markers to check that you have evenly covered the material in order.

For objective formats such as multiple choice and true/false/not given, try to make all statements positive. If you phrase a statement negatively and an option is negative as well, students have to deal with the logical problems of double negatives. Whenever possible, rephrase material using synonyms to avoid students scanning for verbatim matches. Paraphrasing encourages vocabulary growth as positive wash back.

Chapter 4: Assessing Writing

How important is writing in your program? Assessing writing skills are important because good writing ability is significant for higher education and employers.

Two major approaches to writing assessment are: indirect and direct.

Indirect measures of writing assessment assess correct usage in sentence level constructions, and assess spelling and punctuation via objective formats like multiple choice and cloze test.

Direct measures of writing assess a student's ability to communicate through the written mode based on the actual production of written texts.

Considerations in Designing Writing Assessment Task

According to Hyland, to design a good writing assessment tests and tasks involves four basic elements:

·          Rubric: instructions

·          Prompt: the task

·          Expected response: what students will do with the task.

·         Post-task evaluation: assessing the effectiveness of the writing task.

Techniques for Assessing Writing
The ESL/EFL literature addresses two types of writing: free writing and guided writing.
Free writing: requires students to read a prompt that poses a situation and write a planned response based on a combination of background knowledge and knowledge learned from the course.
Guided writing: I contrast requires students to manipulate content that is provided in the prompt, usually in the form of a chart or diagram.

Authentic Writing Assessment

Student-Teacher conferences

The questions teachers might ask during conference include:

·          How did you select this topic?

·         What do you do to generate content for this writing?

·         Before you started writing, did you make a plan or outline?

·         During the editing phase, what type of errors did you find in your writing?

·         What do you feel are your strengths in writing?

·         What do you find difficult in writing?

What would you like to improve about your writing?