Reflection - Unit 4

Rodriguez Pintle Eric

Reflection UNIT 4

In this Unit I have learned how to evaluate specific skills such as; writing, reading, speaking, and listening, in order to design an effective language test. I think the readings were very useful because they provide us specific information and examples which we can use or take as a model to create ours.



Evaluating skills

Rodriguez Pintle Eric

Activities for each Skill

From my perspective and experience in language learning, a student has to create with what is learned in order to make the knowledge part of him/her. For this reason I chose these activities:

Reading:

·         True or false

·         Guess the title of a text based on the context

With these activities the student will develop his/her reading skills, such as scanning, skimming, etc.

Writing:

·         Alternative endings to stories

·         Free writing

·         Role-plays with dialogues created by the students

In order to be creative a student must create, that is why I chose those activities in which the learner must invent and come up with some original ideas to complete the tasks.

Listening:

·         Authentic spoken conversations (Can be found in some text-books)

·         Comprehension (You can use movies, some songs, etc.)

Authentic language has to be used when learning a language, and these activities are useful to get used to the real language.

Speaking:

·         Class discussions

·         Role-plays

Fluency is an important aspect, so I decided to improve it with tasks where the originality and creativity of the students are applied.

Do not forget that when students are creating the teacher must pay more attention, because there can be more errors than when learners are just doing objective activities



Reflection - UNIT 3

Rodríguez Pintle Eric

Reflection - UNIT 3

In this unit I have learned how to classify a test in order to determine if is appropriate to our students or to its’ purpose.

This knowledge is very important for us as teachers, because it allows us to be aware of the different kinds of test and their function.

Every type of test can be used in the classroom; all depends on the objective or purpose of the test. I would use them all to improve my teaching techniques, because the better you know your students the better you can teach.



Validity, Reliability, Practicality, and Backwash Effects

Rodriguez Pintle Eric

Validity: it is the extent of a test in measuring the skills that were said to be measured. It is necessary that a test is valid in order to interpret and use the results of a test correctly and accurately.

Reliability: In order for a test to be reliable, it must be coherent on its results, in other words, the results shown by a test should be similar when it is applied to different students with the same level in the use of a language in different occasions.

Practicality: A test has to be practical, which means, it has to be economical and easy for both, teacher and student, but without stopping being effective.

Backwash effects: It is how students see the test and how they are going to work with it. This perspective of the test will depend on how the teacher manage the instructions and the use of the test with the students; if they feel the test is just another tool for learning, or improve learning, they probably will acquire a positive idea or concept of a test, if not, the results could be the other way around.

Analysis of a Test

Rodriguez Pintle Eric

Test from a second level Italian class

What is the porpuse of the test?

To measure the achivement of students´ knowledge about the first unit of the second level of Italian.  Includes prepositions (preposizioni), past tense (passato prossimo), adverbs (avverbio), future tense (futuro semplice).

Does it represent direct or indirect testing? Or a mixture of boths

A mix of both, since there are activities were is only necessary to change the time of a verb, direct testing is being used. Also, there is a part where the student must write a 80-100 words-letter, here the teacher wants to see the students´ ability to use the present and future tense.

Are the items discrete point or integrative?  Or a mixture of boths

There are some discrete and some integrative. Some questions ask for an spefict tense, and other itmes ask for a combination of all the language knowledge.

Which items are subjective and which are objective? Can you order the subjective according to the degree of subjectivity?

Almost the whole examn is done in an objective way because there is only one correct answer, except the last item, where the student have to write a letter using his imagination. However, the grammar must be correct.

Is the test non-referenced or criterion-referenced?

It can be consider both, because it shows if the classes are working at a same level for all the students, and if the students are ready for the next unit of the course.

Does the test measures communicative abilities? Would you describe it as a communicative test? Justify your words

Since the test determines if a student is or not able to  use the first units´ content, and shows the cmmunicative skills of the students, it is considered a communicative test.

What relation is there between the answers to question 6 and the answers to the other questions?

The first 5 questions deal with types of testing, which means ,  different ways to measure knowledge of a language that invloves reading, writing, reading comprehension, etc. and the 6^th question is about measuring communicative aabilities, and readin, writing, etc. are cmmunicative abilities.

Different Types of Test

Rodriguez Pintle Eric

Different Types of Tests

Proficiency Test: It is used to measure the level of a person in a determined language. This kind of test is not based on any previous course, only on what the person already knows.

I.e. Placemment test (Examen de acomodación)

Achievement test: These types of tests are related languages courses, and it is divided into two categories:

·         Progress achievement: This test measures the progress of the students according to pre-established objectives

·         Final achievement: A final test that shows what the students have learned

I.e. A final exam of the 5^th level Italian course

Diagnostic test: It is basically used to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the students in the use of a language.

I.e. The test that is applied at the beginning of a course to evaluate previous knowledge

Placement test: This test is useful when a school have to classify the students’ different levels of a language, it divide them separated groups, and in each group the level of a language profiency is basically the same.

I.e. The placement test used in UABC Centro de Idiomas

Direct vs. indirect testing:  Direct testing is when we actually ask students hoping for an specific answer in order to evaluate a certain skill, while indirect testing try to measure the abilities behind a skill.

I.e. Questioner to direct measure knowledge. Reading report could be used to evaluate comprehension skills (indirect testing).

Discrete point vs. integrative testing: Discrete is about testing each skill, but not a combination of them, just one by one. And integrative is when a combination of skills is evaluated.

I.e. Recorded conversation to measure listening skills (Discrete), and a dialogue to measure fluency, vocabulary, and pronunciation (Integrative)

Norm-reference vs. criterion-reference testing: The first one compares the performance one student with other student’s performance. The second one is used to determine if a person is able to perform a determined task and how he/she is going to do it.

I.e. Regular knowledge exams (Norm-reference). An informal assessment plan can be used for criterion, because the teacher can determine if the group is ready to do certain activity.

Objective vs. subjective testing:  Objective refers to specific information, like in activities of filling the gaps, true or false, or matching columns, because the responses are limited to specific answers. In the other hand, subjective is a task where the point of view of the student can be expressed, and there is place to different answeres.

I.e. Objective: Filling the gaps exercise. Subjective: a reflection about what students have learned in the course.

Computer adaptive testing: In this kind of tests the principal tool is the computer, which will measure the time, quality, and some other aspects when doing an exam.

I.e. Psychometric test of UABC

Communicative language testing: What a teacher use every day to evaluate the continuous progress of the students when learning a language.

I.e. Any test to evaluate our students’ performance.