Specific Language Tests
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Transcript of Specific Language Tests
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CHAPTER 7
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Language ability is a skill and therefore there are
specific formats used to access language ability.
The two specific test formats for testing language are
:
The Cloze Test
Dictation
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The Cloze Test is a test often associated with
language proficiency testing.
It is more than simply filling in blanks in a
passage as it has a theoretical basis.
The term cloze comes from the word closure,
reflects a psychoanalytical human tendency to
close any incomplete object.
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The cloze test is thought to elicit a respondents
language competency by requiring the respondent
to complete a passage which has been mutilated
with blanks.There are many different types of cloze tests, two of
the more common are The Fixed Deletion Cloze
and The Rational Deletion Cloze.
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Consists of a passage with blanks
The first sentence is left intact without any blanks.
It also provides other information such as to indicate
the tense of the passage.
In order not to provide a cue as to what the word is,the length of every blank in the passage is the same
length
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Length of the text
Familiarity of vocabulary and structures
Length and complexity of the sentences
Familiarity with topic and discourse genre
Frequency with which blanks are spaced
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There are two methods to how a cloze test can be
graded. These methods are :
The exact word method
The acceptable word method
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Only one answer is accepted for each blank.
More objective and more reliable
However, stifles creativity
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Accept any suitable answers.
More subjective and less reliable
However, it does not suffer from being unnecessarily
rigid and stringent.
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The C-test is a variant of the cloze test in which thesecond half of every word is deleted and replaced byspaces representing each letter deleted.
The advantages of the C-test : it is highly correlated to the cloze test . by providing half of the word, it is also seen to be
more reliable and objective.
the C-test assesses the final half of the word which isseen to be relevant especially to the English language inwhich many of the inflections occur at the end of theword.
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The disadvantages of the C-test :
looks complicated and may therefore confuse the
students.
merely tests spelling and not an overallunderstanding of the English language.
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The dictation test involves candidates listening to
and taking down a text that is read out, often
several times and at different rates of reading.
The paragraph that has been selected must be
appropriate to the students language ability as well
as cultural background
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Usually read out three times.
The first time it is read out, it is done at a normal rate of
reading.
Students are expected to listen and get the gist of thepassage.
The second reading is a little slower and students are
expected to take down what is read. Teacher usually
pauses to break the passage into meaningful chunksreferred to as bursts.
Finally, the passage is read a third times and students
are expected to check their work, editing for errors.
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Some of the factors are :
the length of the phrase or burst
the length of the pauses between bursts
The content of the dictation passage The syntactic and structural properties of the
sentences in the passage.
Clarity of voice, expression and pace or tempo.
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There are two general methods to score a dictation
which is called the traditional method and the
pragmatic method.
The main difference between the two methods is the
treatment of spelling errors.
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The graded or graduated dictation
simply a technique where the dictation passage
becomes difficult.
This is done by increasing the number of words in aburst.
May begin with a burst consisting of two words and
the number of words increases until thirteen or
fourteen words in a burst. The processing load becomes too high when a burst
exceeds seven words.
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The partial dictation
is essentially like a listening cloze activity.
Students are provided the passage with some words or
phrases deleted. They are expected to listen to a passage and fill in words
or phrases.
o The dictocomp
the students are expected to use the information they
hear to construct a coherent piece of composition instead
of taking down the passage exactly as it was dictated.
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Teacher determine the key elements of the original
passage which is the student is expected to include in
the composition.
Dictocomp also tests writing ability as well becausethe students are expected to write a cohesive piece
based on the passage that was dictated to them.