A Summary of Approaches to Language Testing: From Classical to Performance-Based by: I.G.A Lokita Purnamika Utami & Rina Sari

A Summary of

Approaches to Language Testing: From Classical to Performance-Based

by:

I.G.A Lokita Purnamika Utami & Rina Sari

Historically, language-testing trends and practices have followed the shifting sands of teaching methodology. For example, in the 1950s, an era of behaviorism and special attention to contrastive analysis, testing focused on specific language elements such as the phonological, grammatical, and lexical contrasts between two languages. In the 1970s and 1980s, communicative theories of language brought with them a more integrative view of testing in whlch specialists claimed that ~ the whole of the communicative event was considerably greater than the sum of its linguistic elements (Clark, 1983, p. 432). Today, test designers are still challenged in their quest for more authentic, valid instruments that simulate real world interaction.

Agus Eko Cahyono and Jumariati Approaches to Language Testing: From Classical to Performance-Based

Summary#2

Agus Eko Cahyono and Jumariati

Approaches to Language Testing: From Classical to Performance-Based

Assessment practices in the context of teaching and learning are affected by some approaches. Heaton (1990) explains four approaches to language testing. First, the Essay translation approach provides teacher’s subjectivity on judging the test-takers’ answers which can make the assessment highly subjective and unreliable. As a consequence, some practitioners believe that this approach is lack of reliability and validity. The test types in this approach include essay writing, translation, and grammatical analysis in forms of descriptive comments. Second, the Structuralist approach views that language elements like phonology, vocabulary and grammar and are tested separately to measure the test-taker’s ability in each language element. The language skills are also measured separately because this approach emphasizes the importance of testing each skill at a time. This approach is still valid today under certain circumstances as for instance the need to examine one’s ability in writing composition separately from reading ability. Third, the Integrative approach is applied in testing the test-taker’s ability in using the language based on the context. At least, two language skills are assessed simultaneously. The common test types used are the cloze test and dictation. Cloze test (completing every deleted nth word) requires students’ general abilities in linguistic based on the context. It measures the students’ linguistic knowledge, textual knowledge, and knowledge of the world. Meanwhile, the dictation type measures students’ listening skill, short-term memory span, and the grammatical and lexical familiarity. In the dictation, it is advisable that teachers read the whole passage in normal speed before then repeating each line once or twice using a slightly slower speed to scaffold them in listening, comprehending and writing. Finally, the Communicative approach focuses primarily on testing students to perform language to communicate in real context. Thus, the main focus is on the language effectiveness rather than language accuracy.