parts of the world) may be characterized by a lack of concern for
statistical matters or for such notions as objectivity or reliability.
90
REA D I N G S
In its simplest form, it assumes that one can and must rely com
pletely on the judgment of an experienced teacher, who can tell
after a few minutes' conversation, or after reading a student's
essay, what mark to give. In the pre-scientific mode, oral exami
nations of any kind were the exception: language testing was
assumed to be a matter of open-ended written examination . . . .
The next period, however, sees the invasion of the field by
experts. The psychometric-structuralist trend, though hyphen
ated for reasons that will become apparent, is marked by the
interaction (and conflict) of two sets of experts, agreeing with
each other mainly in their belief that testing can be made precise,
objective, reliable, and scientific. The first of these groups of
experts were the testers, the psychologists responsible for the
development of modern theories and techniques of educational
measurement. Their key concerns have been to provide "objec
tive" measures using various statistical techniques to assure relia
bility and certain kinds of validity . . . .
The better known work of the testers was the development of
short item, multiple choice, "objective" tests. The demands of
statistical measures of reliability and validity were seen as of para
mount importance . . .
There were two results from this emphasis. First, tests like this
required written response, and so were limited to reading and lis
tening. Second, the items chosen did not reflect newer ideas about
language teaching and learning . . . .
The second major impetus of the "scientific" period, or
approach, then, was when a new set of experts added notions
from the science of language to those from the science of educa
tional measurement . . .
There was at the time still an easy congruence between
American structuralist views of language and the psychological
theories and practical needs of testers. On the theoretical side,
both agreed that knowledge of language was a matter of habits;
on the practical side, testers wanted, and structuralists knew how
to deliver, long lists of small items which could be sampled and
tested objectively. The structural linguist's view of language as
essentially a matter of item-and-arrangement fell easily into the
tester's notion of a set of discrete skills to be measured . . . .
The marriage of the two fields, then, provided the basis for the
READ I N G S
9 1
flourishing of the standardized language test, with its special
emphasis on . . . the 'discrete structure point' item.
[>
Spolsky implies that one of the implications of the transition
between the two periods he describes was a transfer of the pri
mary responsibility for tests from language teachers to testing
experts in applied linguistics. What are the potential advan
tages and disadvantages of such a transfer?
[>
Spolsky argues that structuralist linguistics contributed to
tests which featured 'discrete structure point' items. Look
back at the material by Lado in Text
2
and suggest what the
content of such items might be.
Text 4
J O H N
w.
O L L E R : Language Tests at School.
Longman
I 979,
pages 3 8-3
9
In this passage, Oller attempts to define language tests not in
terms of the elements of knowledge to be tested, but in terms
of the language processing operations required of learners. He
makes a sharp distinction between what he calls pragmatic
tests and the older tradition of discrete point tests associated
with the work of Lado and which were the hallmark of tests
within the psychometric-structuralist tradition.
It is possible to be somewhat more precise in saying what a prag
matic test is: it is any procedure or task that causes the learner to
process sequences of elements in a language that conform to the
normal contextual constraints of that language and which
requires the learner to relate sequences of linguistic elements via
pragmatic mapping to extralinguistic context . . . .
In order for a test to say something meaningful (valid) about
the efficiency of a learner's developing grammatical system, the
pragmatic naturalness criteria require that the test invoke and
challenge that developing grammatical system. This requires pro
cessing sequences of elements in the target language (even if it is
the learner's first and only language) subject to temporal contex
tual constraints. In addition, the tasks must be such that for
examinees to do them, linguistic sequences must be related to
extralinguistic contexts in meaningful ways.
92
READ INGS
Examples of tasks that do not qualify as pragmatic tests include
all discrete point tests, the rote recital of sequences of material
without attention to meaning; the manipulation of sequences of
verbal elements, possibly in complex ways, but in ways that do
not require awareness of meaning. In brief, if the task does not
require attention to meaning in temporally constrained sequences
of linguistic elements, it cannot be construed as a pragmatic lan
guage test. Moreover, the constraints must be of the type that are
found in normal use of the language, not merely in some class
room setting . . . .
C>
What does Oller mean, do you think, when he speaks of the
normal constraints operating in relation to the use of lan
guage? How can these be reproduced in the test setting?
C>
Oller lists examples of tests which he would not classify as
pragmatic tests. Give examples of tests that Oller would clas
sify as pragmatic tests, i.e. that meet the requirements he sets
down for such tests.
Text S
M I C H A E L C A N A L E
and M E R R I L L S W A I N : 'Theoretical
bases of communicative approaches to second language
teaching and testing' in
Applied Linguistics
r , r 9 8 o,
pages 28-30
In one of the most-cited
discussions in applied
linguistics,
Canale and Swain apply the insights of Hymes to formulate a
model of communicative competence for second language
contexts, introducing the important notions of sociolinguistic
and strategic competence in a second language.
Our own tentative theory of communicative competence mini
mally includes three main competencies: grammatical compe
tence, sociolinguistic competence, and strategic competence . . . .
Grammatical competence.
This type of competence will be
understood to include knowledge of lexical items and of rules of
morphology, syntax, sentence-grammar semantics, and phonol
ogy . . . .
Sociolinguistic competence.
This component is made up of two
sets of rules: sociocultural rules of use and rules of discourse.
R EA D I N G S
9 3
Knowledge of these rules will be crucial in interpreting utterances
for social meaning, particularly when there is a low level of trans
parency between the literal meaning of an utterance and the
speaker's intention.
Sociocultural rules of use will specify the ways in which utter
ances are produced and understood appropriately with respect to
the components of communicative events outlined by Hymes . . . .
Until more clear-cut theoretical statements about rules of dis
course emerge, it is perhaps most useful to think of these rules in
terms of the cohesion (i.e. grammatical links) and coherence (i.e.
appropriate combination of communicative functions) of groups
of utterances . . . .
Strategic competence.
This component will be made up of ver
bal and non-verbal communication strategies that may be called
into action to compensate for breakdowns in communication due
to performance variables or to insufficient competence. Such
strategies will be of two main types: those that relate primarily to
grammatical competence (e.g. how to paraphrase grammatical
forms that one has not mastered or cannot recall momentarily)
and those that relate more to sociolinguistic competence (e.g. var
ious role-playing strategies, how to address strangers when
unsure of their social status).
[>
Give examples of contexts where sociolinguistic competence
could assume special importance, and therefore would be a
Chia sẻ với bạn bè của bạn: |