TESTING

GRAMMAR

Karina Mendoza
Diana Monzón
Zonia Castro
Francis Merck
TESTING GRAMMAR
 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.
WHY TEST GRAMMAR?
 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.
SO, SHOULD WE TEST
GRAMMAR?

 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.
SAMPLING
 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.
WRITING ITEMS
 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.
GAP FILLING
 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]
GAP FILLING
 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]
PARAPHRASE
 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____________
COMPLETION
 Can be used to test a variety of
structures.
 Usually in a form of conversational
transcript.
MULTIPLE CHOICE
 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. must

MULTIPLE CHOICE
 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 working
b) has been working
c) is working
d) had worked
SCORING PRODUCTION GRAMMAR
TESTS
 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.
TESTING PRODUCTION ABILITY
USING PICTURES
 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.
TESTING PRODUCTION ABILITY
DEFINITIONS
 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.
TESTING PRODUCTION ABILITY
GAP FILLING
 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.
REMINDERS:
 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.