Prepared by: Sophia Abouelwafa

Amal Laajraoui Fatima Zahra Nassry

INTRODUCTION
o What is a test:

A test, in simple terms, is a method of measuring a person's ability; knowledge, or Performance in a given domain.
The main reason for testing is that it gives us information about how well students proceed in their learning; it gives us useful feedback to both teachers and students, and motivation for students.

What is vocabulary:

Vocabulary is the collection of words that you use on a daily basis. A large vocabulary is valuable in understanding oral and written communication. If language structures make up the skeleton of language, then it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the flesh. Harmer

The purpose of vocabulary test is to measure the comprehension and production of words used in speaking or writing. Deciding how to test vocabulary is related to how we teach it.

I. LIMITED RESPONSE

It is used for beginners; it requires either simple physical action or simple verbal answer.
one student at a time
Individual interaction can be very productive when testing language skills of beginning students
A number of vocabulary items can be learned through the use of basic commands or providing very short answers using visuals.

1. Individual Testing:

1. Group Testing nonverbal physical responses are used to test the whole class at the same time
Advantages of limited response

It causes less stress than any other types of tests. It avoids skills such as reading and writing that have not yet been developed

It can be scored easily and objectively.

 Limitations of limited response It requires individual testing, which takes longer than group testing.

Sketches are sometimes ambiguous ( e.g., an orange may look like a ball; running may look like dancing or jumping) It is usually difficult to test abstract with this technique.

II. MULTIPLE- CHOICE COMPLETION

It

is for students who can read in the foreign language. It makes the students depend on context clues and sentence meaning. This kind of item is constructed by deleting a word from a sentence.

o The following steps should be taken in writing multiplechoice completion items: Select the words to be tested Get the right kind of sentence to put each word in ( this sentence context is called the stem )

Choose several wrong words to put the right word with (these wrong words are called distractors) three distractors plus the right word are enough for a written item.
Prepare a clear and simple instructions

1. Vocabulary choice Teachers usually use textbooks, but there are other sources such as magazines, newspapers, and from other classes if they have used these in their English classes. Students have not only to recognize active but also passive vocabulary which may seem difficult. Vocabulary should be useful to students. Only content words are included in vocabulary tests. When using words not found in your ESL class text, be careful of bias.

2. Context preparation The context should be clear and understandable since students depend on sentence meaning in order to choose the right answer. 3. Distractor preparation There are two ways to choose distractors: experienced teachers always create their own

A second and equally good way is to use students errors

Teachers who create their own distractors should follow certain guidelines:
Make sure the distractors are the same form of word as the correct answer

 Also be sure you dont give away the right answer trough grammatical cues.

Multiple-choice items for any one question should be about the same level of difficulty, and ideally, the sentence context should not be difficult for students to read.
Also be sure not to include more than one correct answer.

4. Instruction preparation

The instruction for your test should be brief; students shouldnt have to spend a lot of time reading them. And they should be clear; anxiety can come from poorly worded questions, and resentment from misunderstood directions. Naturally the kinds of directions given depend on your students reading ability and how you want them to mark the test paper. Instructions can be made clearer by one or two examples. They are not given primarily for practice. They are given to show how to answer the questions. Therefore, they should be simple enough that everyone can do them without any difficulty.

5. Other forms of multiple-choice completion

a. Definition

b. Phrase completion
Idioms Appropriateness to context

c. Phrasal context ( not sentence completion) d. Multiple-choice cloze: cloze tests are made from stories

or essays by deleting words at regular intervals.

 Advantages of multiple-choice completion

It helps students to see the full meaning of words by providing natural contexts. Also, it is a good influence on instruction: it discourages word-list memorization. Scoring is easy and consistent. It is a sensitive measure of achievement
Limitations of multiple-choice completion

It is rather difficult to prepare good sentence contexts that clearly show the meaning of the word being tested. It easy for students to cheat by copying what others have circled.

III. MULTIPLE-CHOICE PARAPHRASE

o Is similar to multiple-choice completion. Instead of finding the right word to fill in a gap, the student needs to choose the best synonym or paraphrase of the vocabulary item.

1. Vocabulary choice and context preparation

Writing paraphrase items follows the same rules of multiple-choice completion, but you will not need to spend as much time on constructing context. Simply, take a sentence from a text that matches the students level of ability.

2. Distractor preparation

Here you need to follow a few extra rules on top of those for multiple-choice completion.

a. Try to get distractors that are related to the subject covered in

the sentence.

b. Try to avoid pairing a word of opposite meaning with the right

answer.

c. Try to avoid using distractors with the same meaning. d. Try to avoid trick items that use close spelling or sound
contrasts, since a vocabulary test is not a spelling exam.

e. When using phrase distractors, be careful that the correct

answer is not generally the longest.

3. Instruction preparation

Instruction items can be prepared the same way as multiple-choice completion.

4. Alternate forms of multiple-choice paraphrase

There are two types of paraphrase questions:

Ask students to find the best synonyms/related words. Ask students to choose the phrase that is the best short definition or paraphrase of the key word.

There are other ways to write paraphrase items:

a. Idioms and other phrases b. Phrasal context c. Reading passage context d. Related-word identification e. Unrelated-word identification

 Advantages of multiple-choice paraphrase Context preparation is rather easy Scoring is easy and consistent It is a sensitive measure of achievement Limitations of multiple-choice paraphrase

it is difficult to find good synonyms

it is easy for students to cheat

IV. SIMPLE COMPLETION

Students are required to fill in missing parts of words that appear in sentences using prefixes, suffixes and syllables. Steps followed in this type of test are similar to those of the second and third types with one difference: the absence of distracters. Steps to be followed:
a. List the affixes that you have taught to your students. Then match these with content words that they have studied b. Prepare sentences that clarify the meaning of these words c. Write your instructions and examples

1. Vocabulary choice

Affixes that are included in the test are already taught in the classroom

2. Context preparation

Student success on the exam will depend in part on your sentence contexts.

3. Instruction preparation

If simple-completion exercises have been used in class, we might give the following directions: Complete the words in

these sentences. When nothing is needed, put an X in the

blank. If the simple-completion test is new, we might have something like this:

Read these sentences carefully. Most have a word that needs to be completed. Write in the part that is missing. Some words do not need anything added. When you find such a word, put an X in the blank. Blanks left empty will be marked wrong.

4. Alternate forms of simple-completion items

Stem-first procedure: an advantage is that many words need spelling changes when suffixes are added. Phrasal context: note that grammatical clues are sometimes given to less advanced students Compounds Inflectional cloze

 Advantages of simple-completion It reflects teaching approaches It is generally faster and easier to construct than are items with distractors Limitations of simple-completion Fewer words can be tested this way than with multiplechoice.

There is some difficulty in avoiding ambiguous contexts

CONCLUSION

If you think that taking tests is difficult then you should try writing them Frost
Every test should fulfill some criteria to be useful and full-value; the basic ones are validity and reliability.