13.Test techniques and testing overall ability.

a) Multiple choice (choosing between abc variants): it is objective and is easy to implement and score; but this technique test only recognition level; 1/3 of it on avarage is guessing; it restricts whatever is being tested; destractors are either not available or harmful – so feedback might be harmful as well. Distractors are variants which are wrong: they always present a problem since the candidate may resort to content clues; redundancy in the structure might slow him down; the testor might fall in love with philosophy and present items which cannot be regarded as either right or wrong; some distractors might present mixed items e.g. lexis instead of grammar; and finally most distractors are entirely ungrammatical and might lead to fossilization of mistakes. What is more often than not checked is general test-wiseness – experience in doing similar tasks and using all the possible clues – deduction but not precisely command of the language. An alternative to multiple choice is an open-end test which has a unique correct one-word response which the candidates produce themselves.

b) Cloze- is omission of every 7th or 9th word in a text for students to reconstruct it. It is an economic procedure, but not entirely objective, since students might provide a number of contextual variants. Educated native speakers also vary as to performance – some actually do worse with prediction than non-native ones. A conversational cloze might be considered a variarion – here students have to substitute missing utterances in a dialogue.

c) C-test –omission of every second part of every second word in a sentence. It is quick but limited in its application, since it checks anticipation and orthography mostly.

d) Dictation testing was for a time considered totally misguided (What does it test? Vocabulary? Grammar?) It turned out, however, that dictation tests results where similar to those obtained through other techniques: it is a good instrument to test ability or strength, but rather problematic in pin-pointing the particular student problems or weaknesses. Partial dictation has the merit of being less time-consuming (there is a printed handout with some parts missing for students to fill them in).

e) Gap-filling;

f) Matching; while fairly effective and quickly implemented this technique entails a lot of guessing; the last pair will be correct by default.

g) Sequencing;

h) Information transfer;

i) Editing (identifying mistakes); the danger here is not to encourage memorization of the wrong variant.

The form of a lesson plan may vary from teacher to teacher, but the essential components of a lesson plan should be:

1. Aim(s). The teacher (T) should identify the overall aim that he will attempt to accomp by the end of the class, cause it serves as a unifying theme of the lesson. Usually, the aim incl. the develop-t of the students' learning strategies, emotion strategies, cult. Aware-s, as well as lang. knowledge and skills that we hope to cultivate in the students (S). 2.Objectives. Based on the overall aim(s), the T should state the lang. learning objectives for the class exactly, cause the lang. learning objectives form the content of learning for the lang., embodying lang. forms and functions, the four lang. skills of list., speak., read. and wr.. Obj. can help to: 1) be sure that he is clear about what it is he wants to accomp.. 2)maintain the unity of his lesson 3)determine what is the key teaching point(s). 4) eval. students' success at the end of class.

There is another thing the T must pay atten. to when he sets the lang. learning objectives. That is distinctions b/w terminal and enabling objectives. By termin. Obj., they mean final learning outcomes that the T will measure and evaluate. While enabling obj. are interim steps that build up each other and lead to terminal obj.. Here are examples: Terminal obj.: S will successfully request info. about train arrivals and depart.. Enabling obj.: S will read and understand a train timetable.

4. Procedures As a guide to follow, the plan should have clear procedures. Generally, they are as following: 1) An opening work Usually, an OW is an activity used for a "warm up" or for shifting the students' atten. 2) Stating the learning object-s 3) Revision The aim of revising the familiar lang. items which can help the S to learn the new ones. 4) Presentation. This stage is usually kept short, so as to get the S to have more opport. to experience the new lang. through practice and use. 4) Practicing the new lang. This stage aims at getting the S trying to use the new lang. they have just learnt in a context that is diff. from that used for presentation. Practice activities are usually done in pair, group and team work. And the T at this stage works as a manager. 5) Using the new lang. The most import. thing of all is that by the end of the class, the S should be able to communicate in Eng., not just to do gram. exercises or choose A or D as the correct answer. The activities at this stage are usu. in the forms of making similar dialogues, retell. the stories in one's own words etc. 6) Evaluation of both T & S 7) Assignments which should: reinforce and facilitate what the S have learnt in the lesson, provide oppor-s for further develop. of lang. and skills, encourage active indepen. leaning, develop interest and confidence, stimulate thinking, foster a closer relation. b/w learning in and after school. 7) Ending (by sing a song or very game.) 5. Individual differences, 6. Blackboard designing: Blackb. is a very useful visual aid. The T should take advantage of it by making full use of it. III. Principles for planning: Scientificity, it means that the aim(s) and the lang. learning objectives the T sets are in accord. with the demands of the curriculum. Variety means that the T can perform diff. techniques and activities in the lesson. By flexibility, it refers to the T's ability of adapting any No of diff. techniques. A flexible T should never be a slave to one methodology when he plans a lesson. Creativity means the T should not be a slave to the textbook nor the T's book. IV. Plan techniques: 1)Sequencing (easier aspects or activities are better placed before the difficult ones so that the students can make progress gradually.)

2) Pacing. 1) activities are neither too long nor too short so that just as the students are getting experience for one activity, they get bounced to the next. 2) techniques and activities should 'flow' together smoothly and naturally. 3.Timing This is very important to both experienced teachers and new teachers.

IV. Types of Listening.

British methodologists differentiate b/w list. for percep.and list. for compr. The former have the main objective of training the learner to perceive correctly diff. sounds , sound comb-ns, intonation and stress. Comprehension tasks vary from ones demanding minimal response to very active ones, where list. is the basis for more sophisticated activities involving other lang. skills and imaginative or logical thought. List. for percep. is further subdiv. into word-level and sentence-level tasks where the problem of distortion of sounds in common collocation, unclear word-division and so on are put together.

4.1Word level: identifying the right phoneme, where it is last to give rare words

and make students aware of the fact they have hot learnt them yet:

~ repetition ( having to imitate sounds help to learn them correctly);

~ identifying Eng. words ( they don’t have to understand them);

~ referring to category - e – 1; i – 2;

~ same or different;

4..3 Senten. level

~ identifying stress and unstress ( which is even more difficult) stresses may be marked with underlining or accents, unstresses with brackets.

~ identif.intonation with arrows;

~ dictation ( first-short separate sentences)

4.3. List. for comprehen.:

~ following a writ. text;

~ list. aided by visuals- a series of different pics;

~ girds: it is simply a rectangle marked off into squares; its possibilities are far wider:

~ family trees:

~ For longer responses : ~ filling gaps ( one-sided conversations);

~ note-taking as a summarizing activity.

V. List. as a basis for study and discussion:

Here list. serves as a starting point for a) problem-solving b) complementary texts ( supplied with a grid);