- •16.6.4.6. Interpretation tests
- •16.6.4.7. Correction tests
- •16.6.4.8. Free-response tests
- •16.7. Conclusions
- •17. Teaching English in the primary classroom
- •17.1. Identifying priorities and their implications
- •17.2. Natural capacities and instincts children bring to the classroom
- •17.2.1. Children’s ability to grasp meaning
- •17.2.2.Children’s creative use of limited language resources
- •17.2.3. Children’s capacity for indirect learning
- •17.2.4. Children’s instinct for play and fun
- •17.2.5. The role of imagination
- •17.2.6. The instinct for interaction and talk
- •17.3. Attitude goals and content goals
- •17.3.1. High priority of attitude goals
- •17.3.2. The special nature of language
- •17.3.3. The significance of the way we check understanding
- •17.3.4. The significance of the way we treat mistakes
- •1 7.3.5. Making language exercises into real exchanges
- •17.3.6. Teaching language lessons in the target language
- •17.4. Realistic English as the intended product
- •17.4.1. Stimulation vs. Settle down activities
- •17.4.2. Mental engagement and actual occupation
- •17.4.3. Choosing the style to suit the mood
- •17.4.4. Keeping the lesson simple
- •17.4.5. Reusing materials
- •17.4.6. Reusing a core of ideas
- •17.5. Conclusions
- •18. Special techniques for problem classes
- •18.1.2.1. An initial presentation lesson for understanding only
- •18.1.2.2. Presenting a new structure with one verb only
- •18.1. Dealing with weak classes
- •18.1.1. Limitations of aims and objectives
- •18.1.2. Simplification of material
- •18.1.2.1. An initial presentation lesson for understanding only
- •18.1.2.2. Presenting a new structure with one verb only
- •18.1.3. Tighter control over learner production
- •18.2. Dealing with large classes
- •18.2.1. Teaching room
- •18.2.2. Group work
- •18.2.3. The English corner and the English walls
- •18.2.4. Blackboard
- •Station
- •18.3. Dealing with mixed ability classes
- •18.3.1. Flexible grouping arrangements
- •18.3.2. Dictation
- •18.3.3. Reading comprehension
- •18.3.4. Writing
- •18.3.5. Drama
- •18.4. Disruptive behaviour
- •18.4.1. Causes of discipline problems
- •18.4.1.1. The teacher
- •18.4.1.2. The students
- •18.4.1.3. The institution
- •18.4.2. Action in case of indiscipline
- •18.5. Conclusions
- •Glossary
- •Bibliography
16.6.4.6. Interpretation tests
Interpretation tests are used at a more advanced level of study to check receptive understanding skills. After having read/ listened to a text, the students may be a) given a number of conclusions drawn from the text and asked to refer to them as right or wrong; or b) asked to arrange fragments of the text in a logical order. The fragments may differ from the actual wording of the text. E.g.
Instruction: Read/listen to the text about a fisherman’s son (see above) and mark the following sentences as true or false:
The fisherman spoiled his son by giving him too much money.
The boy was not really kind, he was after the old man’s money.
The old man must have been childless.
One should never be ashamed of his kin.
Instruction: Read/listen to the text about a fisherman’s son and arrange the following fragments in the logical order:
On the way home he noticed a man lying by the roadside. The man was obviously on the point of death.
- I am a teacher’s son, named Mustafa.
– Who are you, my dear boy, and how can I find you to thank for your kind help?
Once upon a time there lived a poor fisherman. He had a son named Ali.
As he wasn’t at all a bad boy, he came up to the old man, raised him to his feet and helped him get to the nearest hospital.
The old man, though rather well off, felt grateful to the boy and wanted to express his gratitude in the only way he could. He asked him:
The boy didn’t want to admit that he was a poor fisherman’s son, so he lied:
If he had known that a rich stranger wanted leave all his money to him, he would have been honest.
16.6.4.7. Correction tests
Correction tests may be aimed at either only finding an error in test material or at eliminating it. Tests in finding an error may be of multiple-choice or of intrusion kind. Tests in eliminating errors are close to free-response kind and involve reproductive activity.
A correction multiple-choice grammar test:
Instruction: Define which of the underlined words in the sentence are erroneous:
I want you come in time tomorrow.
A B C D
A global intrusion test:
Instruction: Delete those words that do not belong to the text:
Once there was lived a boy called name Ali. He was a poor to become fisherman’s son. As while he was going to home one evening, he had saw an old man which lying by near the side of the road, seriously very ill. The boy was a very kind, and he had been helped the old man to the nearest hospital. Etc.
16.6.4.8. Free-response tests
Free-response tests are used to check both receptive and productive skills (writing mostly). Testing reading or writing, they may elicit both verbal and non-verbal response, e.g.:
Instruction: Read/listen to the text and define the main character’s occupation.
Instruction: Read/listen to the text and paint the picture correspondingly.
Instruction: Read/listen to the text and express its main idea in 2-3 short sentences.
Instruction: Rewrite the following text as a dialogue.
Instruction: Read/listen to the following dialogue and write what, in your opinion, the interlocutors are actually thinking while saying every remark.