Теория и методика обучения иностранному языку (стр. 10 )

Task 10. Working with a partner make a list of traditional methods of testing reading. Look at the survey of test formats and pick out the best test formats for school. Explain your choice, please.

Survey of test formats

Abbreviations:

IQ - intelligence quotient: a commonly used measurement of intelligence

ss - students info - information dk - don't know

Reading and listening

TEST FORMAT	PROS	CONS
Short answer questions eg 'How tall are elephants?' 'Three metres.'	Easy to write and mark. Very good for checking gist or intensive understanding of texts.	Some writing. Important not to mark for accuracy and to decide what answers are correct. Need to ensure q's do not test ss' knowledge of the world.
Table completion eg 'Complete the table with information.' (age / family etc).	Easy to construct and mark. Good for checking specific info or data form a text.	Some writing. Need to decide on what answers accepted as correct.
Diagrams/maps/pictures eg 'Label the places on the map'	Quite realistic, motivating tasks. Good for checking specific info.	Can be difficult to draw pictures. Could involve non-linguistic skills (eg map reading).
Listing eg 'List the kinds of food mentioned in the text'.	Realistic. Easy to write and mark. Better for listening than reading.	Tests recognition of words. Does not test understanding or meaning.
True, false, don't know eg 'Mark the sentences t/f or dk: Lions are cats.'	Easy to write. Quite realistic. Tests gist or intensive understanding well.	High guessing element: 50% for t/f, 33% for tlfldk.
Multiple choice eg 'Choose the correct answer: John goes out - a sometimes b rarely с never.'	Very easy to mark thus good for very large classes. Good for checking gist or intensive understanding.	Very difficult to construct. Wrong options (distracters/ can distract better students. Guessing element.
Sequencing (texts/ pictures) eg 'Listen and put the paragraphs in order.'	Easy to construct. Good for stories (listening) and for linking of discourse.	Very difficult to mark. If one answer is wrong, others are too. Impractical unless marking scheme is adapted.
Text Completion eg 'Listen and complete the information about the film.'	Quite realistic. Good for listening for specific info.	For reading it tests knowledge of language, (see close and gap-fill)
Problem solving eg 'From the following info work out the people's names'	Realistic and good fun. Tests global understanding.	Can test general IQ not ability to read or listen.
Word attack eg 'Work out the meaning of these words from the text.'	Tests ability to infer meaning from context (for reading).	NOT suitable for listening (when it can work as a vocabulary test).
Identify topic (text/paragraph) eg 'Match the title with the text.'	Good for gist reading. Easy to construct and mark.	Need to think of suitable answers when questions are open (eg giving titles to texts).
Linking eg 'What does the underlined word refer to? Ц arrived late.'	Good for testing intensive understanding 1 linking within text, (cohesion)	Need to underline words and give line numbers to make task easier to do and mark.
Identify linking words in a text eg after/next etc	Good for working out how a text holds together (cohesion)	Can be more a test of word recognition than of understanding.
Discrepancies eg 'Read the text then listen and list the differences."	Realistic, integrative test of both reading and listening.	Difficult to see if problems are due to listening or reading.

This session is aimed at developing students' skills in selecting texts for reading in the classroom and designing activities for various texts.

Task 1. Match different reading techniques with reading activities on p.

Task 2

•  Select a text appropriate to your students' level.

•  Define the aim of the task.

•  Choose appropriate types of activities (techniques) for pre - while - post reading stages.

•  Think about integration with other skills.

•  Present your design to your colleagues and explain your choice of materials and techniques.

Task

In this task you match different reading techniques with reading activities on p. 17 - p. 19. Read the description of reading techniques (1-12) in the table below.

Reading techniques and their purposes

Reading technique	Description and purpose Activity
1. Skimming	Reading a passage quickly to grasp the main idea (or gist)
2 Scanning	Reading a passage quickly to find specific information
3. Contextual guessing	Making guesses about the meaning of words by looking at the surrounding words or situation
4. Close exercise	Fill-in-the-blank exercise, in which some words are omitted, designed to measure how well the reader understands how a text is linked together
5.0utlining	Note-taking. technique designed to help the reader see the overall organization of a text
6 Paraphrasing	The ability to say or write ideas in other words: measures the reader's understanding of the main ideas of a text
7. Scrambled stories	Also known as 'jigsaw reading': the reader re-orders the mixed up pieces of a text to he understands how a text fits together
8. Information transfer	Exercise which requires readers to transfer information from the text into another form of related text or drawing (e. g. filling in a chart, tracing a route on a map), designed to measure comprehension
9.Making inferences	'Reading between the lines': the reader understands what is meant but not stated in a passage
10 Intensive reading	Reading carefully for complete, detailed comprehension, (e. g. main ideas, details, vocabulary)
11. Extensive reading	Reading widely in order to improve reading comprehension, reading speed and vocabulary
12. Passage completion	Finishing a reading passage (orally or in writing), involves Predicting a logical or suitable conclusion based on a thorough understanding of the text

Adapted from Tanner &Green, 199 8, pp.62-65.

Reading activity A Read another story of your choice. Write a journal entry summarizing the main points of the plot Adapted from Reading 2.	Reading activity В How do you think the story ends Think about these questions to help you guess l. Was Mr. Jones really blind and crippled? 2.Did people pay him just for giving them advice? 3. Why do you think he disappeared? 4.Where did he go? Adapted from Reading 2.
Reading activity С Read the first passage and choose the best meaning for these words and phrases from the passage. Obsessed: a)worried b)interested c)shocked weird: a)strange b)unhappy c) dead teased: a)made fun of b)dangerous c)scared everyday conventions: a)school lessons b)common phrases c)thoughts and behaviour. Adapted from 'Reading 2.'	Reading activity D Another feature of the article is the images and similes the writer uses. What do you think he means by the following 1... drifting slowly westward toward Central Time. 2...his electrical system suddenly switched offhe was the first man to land on the moon... Can you find any other images and similes? Can you work out what they mean? Taken from 'Reading 3'

Reading activity E

Here are some more statements in which there are masculine-or feminine-gender words. Which of these refer only to men or women, and which refer to people in general?

Man who hesitates is lost.

The average working man earns almost twice as much as the average working woman.

Man can do several things which animal cannot do...Eventually, his vital interests arc not only life, food, access to female, etc., but also values, symbols, institutions...

Englishmen are said to prefer tea or coffee.

Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach him to fish and he'll eat forever.

Rewrite as many as you can, avoiding the words man and men.

• Adapted from Reading2

Reading activity F

Now work in groups of two, each group

having only one of the passages that follow.

In your group follow these .steps:

•  Read the passage carefully;

•  Sum up what it is about for the other
groups;

•  Try to guess how it is situated in the
whole

text (e. g. does it come before or after the passage just summed up by one of the other groups? Why? What words,

expressions or ideas can help you to justify

your opinion?);

• Discuss with the other groups
until you can reconstitute the whole
story, from the beginning to the end.

Taken from Developing Reading Skills.

Reading activity G

You are thinking of buying a collage in the Cotswolds (or North Cotswolds). This is what you want

•  Three bedrooms or more

•  An old house you could modernize
yourself

•  In a small village

•  Price under 540,000

Look at the following раge and circle the advertisements corresponding [ to what you are looking for (if any). Try to do this as quickly as you can.

Taken from Developing Reading Skills.

Reading activity H

You are skimming through an article in which most of the words are unknown to you. Here are the ones you can understand, however:

professor

institute of biochemistry

hard-working man

results of experiments

published

confession

invention

different results

fraud

Can you guess, from these few words, if the article is about

□ a well-known professor who has just published his confessions

a scientist who has admitted inventing the results of his experiments

□ a scientist who has killed himself because he couldn't get the same results as everybody
else

a scientist who regrets the publication of the results of his experiments Taken from 'Developing reading skills

Reading activity I	Reading activity J
Who or what did he see? What happened next	Read the next passage and decide which is
Read and guess what the missing words are.	the most extraordinary piece of information
	Complete the chart with the information from
And there came an old (1)........... with two	the passages.
Cans of (2)................. He stood before the
(3).........
The (4).............. said, 'Please I beg of you!'.		Carole	Philip
		Bohanon	Coatcs-
			Wright
Taken from 'Reading 2'.	When did
	their obsessions
	start?
	What sort of
	families do
	they come from?
	How do their
	families react
	to them?
	How do older
	people react
	to them?
	Taken from 'Reading 2'.
Reading activity К	Reading activity L
Read passage В and put these notes in	One of the strongest features of the
the right order.	article is the writer's love for and pride
a) technician came	.in his son. For example:
b) found other photos	When my son called, I sat down at the
c) noticed a bulge on photo	kitchen
d) further studies	table and leaned forward and hung on
e) looked carefully at photo	every word
f) measuring Pluto's orbit
g) stayed to help	Can you find other examples?
h) looked through archives
i) machine stopped working	Taken from Reading 3
j) using Star Scan
k) became interested
1) thought it was an error
Taken from 'Reading 3'