2.5 Main objects of control The main objects of control in language classes are: a) speech skills (level of language competence); b) speech skills (level of communicative competence); c) knowledge about the country of the language being studied and the way of life of its speakers (socio-cultural competence).
Let's consider the objects of control in the named sequence with a focus on the mandatory minimum content of the education of high school graduates in a foreign language.
Language competence. The lexical minimum for a high school graduate in a foreign language is 2,300 units, of which 800 units are intended for productive assimilation. During the testing process, we check:
1) the ability to use grammatical forms correctly, taking into account the context and situation;
2) the ability to use the structure of a simple and complex sentence in a given context.
The minimum content of the education of a high school graduate includes a check of the pronunciation, graphic, lexical and grammatical aspects of speech.
Communication competence. During the testing process, the ability to use the language as a means of communication in the situations specified by the program is checked.
Listening skills. The object of the test is the level of formation of skills and abilities in the perception of a foreign language text by ear. During the testing process, the following parameters are checked:
1) the ability to understand monologue speech by ear (the topic of the statement, its main idea, the main information contained in each semantic part of the statement). For this purpose, texts with a volume of up to 800 words from the social and social and cultural spheres of communication are offered, with the number of unfamiliar words up to 3%. Test tasks are given in sound form with a choice of one of the three possible answers;
2) the ability to understand dialogic speech by ear (the main content of the dialogue, the communicative intention of its participants). Test participants are given three dialog texts and test tasks for them with three options for choosing an answer in a sounding form. The volume of each text is 10-12 replicas.
3) knowledge of language and speech material that provides an adequate perception of the spoken text.
To determine the level of listening skills in foreign language classes at a language university, it is recommended to use the following control techniques when working with audio text:
Speaking. The object of testing is the level of formation of speech skills and abilities necessary for oral dialogic and monological speech. During the testing process, the following parameters are checked::
1) the skills necessary for communication in the form of dialogic speech to understand the interlocutor and determine the nature of his communicative intention; to respond adequately to the interlocutor's remark (to give an answer, to express agreement/disagreement); to use the norms of language and speech etiquette characteristic of dialogic speech;
2) the ability necessary for communication in the form of monologue speech to build a coherent text of different communicative orientation (narrative, description, message). For control, the text is given in written form, the content of which should be conveyed in your own words orally, and then participate in the conversation on the text;
3) knowledge of the language and speech material necessary for communication (lexical and grammatical correctness of speech and its phonetic and intonation design).
According to the approximate standards for assessing the success of mastering a foreign language in secondary school, the level of students ' communicative competence (in points) is recommended to be evaluated as follows:
Monologue statement (score "5"):
1) the topic of the speech is disclosed;
2) the statement is coherent and logical;
3) the language means are diverse, and their use is correct (there are no errors that disrupt communication);
4) the volume of the statement corresponds to the requirement of the program;
5) the speech is emotionally colored, there is not only the transfer of facts, but also their assessment.
Dialogic utterance (score " 5»):
1) coped with the task;
2) understands the dialogue partner and responds correctly to his remarks;
3) is able to maintain a conversation;
4) the pace of speech corresponds to the norm;
5) there are no errors in speech that violate communication.
Reading. The object of testing is the level of formation of speech skills and abilities when reading texts with a general coverage of the content (introductory reading) and a detailed coverage of the content (learning reading). During the testing process, the following are tested:
1) the ability to understand the general content and the main facts of the text (reading with a general coverage of the content);
2) the ability to find the necessary information in the text (viewing / searching reading);
3) the ability to accurately understand the information reported in the text.
A grade of "5" in determining the level of introductory reading is given in cases where the student:
1) understands the main content of the authentic text, i.e., compiled by a native speaker;
2) can identify the main idea of the text;
3) can guess the meaning of unfamiliar words from the context.
Letter. The object of testing is the level of formation of speech skills and abilities necessary for fixing the received information, for transmitting one's own information. During the testing process, the following parameters are checked::
1) in the field of reproduction - the ability to convey the content of the read / listened text;
2) in the field of production - the ability to build a written monologue text on the proposed topic.
For a productive statement, the following are evaluated: a) the adequacy of the text to the task; b) the correspondence of the number of semantic units of the text to the specified volume of content; c) the completeness of the topic disclosure; d) the logic and coherence of the presentation; e) the knowledge of language and speech material. A satisfactory score for completing the test is given if the subject scores at least 75% of the maximum possible points.
Sociocultural competence. It provides for testing the acquired knowledge about the country of the language being studied and the behavior of its native speakers in various communication situations. The socio-cultural competence includes regional and linguistic information.
In high school, foreign language classes are supposed to introduce you to the following information about the country of the language being studied:
) geographical location and natural conditions;
) state structure;
) culture of the country and its contribution to world culture;
) organization of everyday life and leisure;
) information about educational institutions;
) holidays and significant dates;
) features of speech behavior and etiquette.
Linguistic and cultural knowledge includes information about non-equivalent and background vocabulary and methods of its transmission in the native language, the cultural component of authentic texts, and the speech etiquette of native speakers.
Socio-cultural knowledge, skills and abilities are tested on the material of texts and in the course of communication with students using the topics of oral-speech and written communication. In terms of content, communication includes the following topics: the country of the language being studied, family, school, leisure, sports, the city and its attractions, travel, choice of profession, nature and ecology, cultural achievements, famous people, national holidays and traditions. Dictation is one of the guided- writing controls. Most teachers about this technique, but few handle it properly. Actually, this is one of the easiest controls to use, and it gives very good information on the student’s language ability. But this is true only if you prepare it right, present it right, and score it right. You can get good results from a dictation if you follow the steps listed below.
Preparing a Dictation
First, choose a story or article that is not too difficult for your students. You can pick a selection from the reader that you use in class. Even better would be a selection from a reader on a slightly lower level. The length of the dictation depends on whether it is used alone or with other language measures. If it is a part of a larger test, you can use dictation 75 to 100 words long. If it is used by itself, you will want a passage about 125 to 200 words long. (These are, of course, rather general guidelines).
Be careful to choose something that is unified able to stand alone. In order for your students to do their best, they must understand the meaning of the whole thing. You may even want to read your selection ahead of time to a native speaker or to another English teacher to see if he understands it. One way of helping to provide needed unity for a dictation from a longer passage is to write an introductory sentence or two. Here you can summarize what preceded the part that you are using. If necessary, you can also add a summary sentence or two at the end. Unless you are evaluating punctuation, it would be best to avoid a passage with much quoted material in it. Also avoid a passage containing a lot of names and dates and numbers, unless you need to test the ability of students to write out dates and numbers. Of course you can edit or take out a few troublesome words if the passage is suitable otherwise. After you prepare the modified version, the next step is to decide where the pauses should come. It’s here where we will stop for students to write down what they have just heard. Aim for about seven or eight words between pauses, but allow for as few as five and as many as nine or ten words per group. You would very seldom go below five words. Let the structure of the ten sentence serve as a guide. Longer sentences can be divided between clauses and phrase groups. Place a slash (/) at each point that you plan to pause. Be sure to mark the passage in advance- not at the time you are administering the dictation. If more than one teacher is using the same dictation (and you want to compare the classes), marking the pauses will help make the test more uniform. You should also write out a common set of instructions for the teachers to read aloud to the classes. These directions should be worded simply. For beginning classes in which all students speak the same native language, you can even give the instructions in that language. You can also help to provide uniformity by taping the dictation and by having two teachers score each paper. This not essential, however.
Administering the Dictation control
To help students do their best, be sure they know how to take a dictation. You can help assure that they do by giving a practice dictation during the regular class period. When administering dictation as test, make sure everyone has lined paper and something to write with. Write out on the blackboard any unusual name or expression from the dictation passage that you think could be possibly confuse your students. It is also helpful to explain the scoring procedure, if you have not done this earlier. Then tell them that the dictation will be read aloud three times. When you read it orally the first time, do not pause during the passage. Students must not write anything at this time. They should simply listen carefully so they can understand what the entire thing is about. The second time, pause after every five to ten words, as previously marked. During each pause, the students are to write down what they have just heard. If they have not studied much about punctuation yet, you can provide punctuation for them. Do not repeat any words and phrases. Be sure to make your pause long enough so that everyone has time to write down what he has heard. Nothing is gained by having pauses that are very short. In fact, you should watch students to make sure that everyone has had an opportunity to finish writing, before you continue with the next phrase. The third reading, without pauses and at normal speed, provides an opportunity for quick proof-reading. But again, no repetition of words or phrases is permitted.
Scoring the Dictation control
The best way to score a dictation control is to deduct one point for each error. We recommend this even if you are counting off for spelling and punctuation errors. It might seem fairer to take several points off for less serious errors. But much practical experience with class dictations has shown this to be time consuming, frustrating, and unreliable. For accurate, fast, reliable scoring, simply take off one point for each error. This includes omitted or added words, inverted word order, grammatical errors- everything. (One exception is to take off one point for the first time a word is misspelled but not for repeated misspelling of the same word. Also, unless there is a need to check student mastery of mechanics, it is all right to ignore errors in punctuation or spelling for beginning to intermediate students.)
An easy way to provide a numerical score for a dictation is simply to give a fixed number of points for it. You can do this regardless of the number of words in the passage. If the dictation is not part of larger test, you can use 100 points. Next, add up the number of errors on each dictation. If no one makes as many as 100 errors, you can just subtract the number of errors from 100 for each person’s score. I f several students make more than 100 errors, you can divide the number of errors on every paper by 2. You would then subtract this from 100 for their score. (Keep in mind that if many students make numerous errors, you have probably chosen a passage that is too difficult for them. In such a situation, you will probably want to test them over again using an easier selection). If you use dictation and one other measure such as a grammar test or reading comprehension exam, you can allow 50 points for the dictation. Suppose you found papers with the following numbers of errors: 108,73,28,19, and 12. You could divide each by 2 and subtract from 5. The first person would lose 54 points. But since minus scores are not used, he would simply receive 0 on the dictation. (If you wanted to avoid a zero score for the first paper, you could divide the number of errors on all controls by 3 and subtract each of these from 50).
Dictation:
Here is the number of errors made by five students on a dictation: 17, 81,50,28,40. Since the dictation was used with a reading comprehension test and a short essay, allow only 30 points for the dictation. Convert the error totals to point scores. (A zero score is permissible, but nearly all should be above zero).
Using the Norway dictation as a model, select a passage from your students’ ESL text for a dictation test. Shorten it and adapt it by composing a suitable introductory sentence or two. Since it is part of a larger test, this dictation should be 85 to 100 words long. Place slashes (/) at the places where you intend to pause.
Identify any problems that you see in the following dictation:
There are both advantages /and disadvantages/ in visiting Boston /during your Christmas vacation. / It is pretty cold /and uncomfortable then,/ and there is some danger/ of catching cold./But there is/ the famous Boston Symphony Orchestra/ to hear, and there are famous/ historical places everywhere./ There is the Old North Church / and there are / famous schools and museums./ Also there is Bunker Hill./ It is a famous / battleground of the American Revolution. Count the number of errors that you find in the student paper below. Use the Norway dictation as a correction key.
Have you ever been the West coat of Norway? Here are mountins with her green … rise out of the sea, nar arms of the sea reach to back the mountins. We call those nar arms of the sea reach to back the mountins. We call those nar arms fjords. If you see these fjords from the sky, they look like arms with long fingers. Some are many miles long. Water … into a fjords from water falls. There is a… land along the fjords. Here we see small fish and beaches and sometimes a farm with beach.
Advantages of Dictation Tests
They can measure general proficiency in English, including many of the integrative skills used in writing.
They are easy to prepare.
They can be scored with good consistency.
They are much harder to cheat on than multiple-choice, completion, or cloze tests.
Limitations of Dictation Tests
They are difficult to use for diagnostic purposes. They combine listening and writing.
They are not usually helpful in measuring short-term progress.
They are not as easy to correct as multiple-choice, completion, or cloze tests.