Djuldikarayeva F.T.
Senior teacher of Kazakh Automobile Road Institute named after L.B. Goncharov
Testing
«
All of us
must clearly realize that
development
of culture and art, science
and
education, preservation of traditions,
spiritual
revival of people depend on
how
effective
the reforms will be »
The long-term researches
of the problem
of testing in different countries
and in our
Republic
enabled us to develop general
and private methodology of scientific approach to testing knowledge
gained and covstructed on its basis.
The important item
to solve this problem is
the scientific definition of the
concept «test».
Various researchers put various interpretation
on the concept
«test». However distinctive features of «test» may
be considered established and this suggests a general definition of the concept
which can be specified by
researching different objeckts (social, psychological, pedagogical etc.) for which
a concrete test is intended for.
Test is a set of questions
and tasks given to the
person who is examined to
reveal his social, psychological or psychophysiological features, and to
clarify the depth of his
scientific or instructional knowledge.
Essential attributes of the
test are as follows.
1. to
be a means of psychodiagnostics and psychoprognostication (including pedagogical linguodidactic knowledge, skills of the
pupils) and it can be
used many times.
2. To
be in the
form of questions
and tasks providing one answer.
3. Ti
be worked outthoroughly in accordance with certain rules.
4. To
be experimentally and preliminarily checked (sometimes many times), this
will enable us to select
rally effective tasks having rather
high level of frose differentiation
and difficulty in the test.
5. To
have standard answer, simplicity of comparison with
it.
6. Not
to depend on estimation of
results i.e., to have objective
results of testing.
7. To
have the opportunity of making quantitive account and mathematical
and statistical processing of testing
results, rendering from simple fixing
of speech reactions to the
generalized derivative estimation.
When
making up tests of humanitarian
directions (for example language or lingudidactic) the following objects
of control should be picked
up.
a)
linguistic
competence
b)
communicative
competence
c)
formation
of general educational and special (liguodidactic)
skills
d)
training
and to be trained to a foreign language
e)
developing
effect of training
The following classification of linguodidactic
tests is offered
1 According to the purpose, function and contents
2 According to the formal features (constructive,
external and etc.)
In the first group test can be singled out into
subgroups
1.
According
to the purpose of application
a) Ascertaining
tests
b) diagnosting tests
c) prognosticating
tests
2. According
to the type of control
a) current control tests
b) boundary (at
the end of the term)
c) total
control tests (at the end of academic year)
d) final
control tests (at the end of the year)
3. According
to the status of supervising program
a) standardized
tests b) non-standardized tests
4. According
to the object of the control
a) tests determining mastering of a language material (skills)
b) tests
determining the formation of speech skills
5. According to
the character of control
a) tests of the
linguistic competence
b) tests of the
communicative competence
6. According to
an orientation of the test tasks
a) discrete
tests
b) global tests
7. According to
the correlation with norms or criteria
a) tests
oriented to the norms
b) tests oriented
to the criteria
The second group of tests is composed of the following
subgroups
1.
According to the structure and the way of
registration of answer
a)
the
selective tests
b)
tests
with answers made up freely
2.
According to the character of selective
answers
a)
alternative
tests
b)
tests
of numerous choice
c)
tests
of cross choice
3.
According to homogeneous tasks
a)
tests
on speed consisting of equally difficult tasks
b)
tests
on complexity consisting of complicated tasks
4.
According to the way of presentation of
speech stimulus
a)
by
using technical means of training
b)
without
using technical means of training
5.
According to the usage of the means of
operative feedback
a)
machine
b)
machineless
It is
important to distinguish a number of aspects in the problem of teaching a
foreign language as one of the objects of pedagogical testing.
Various
aspects of mental activity are understood as training and training reflects the
degree of development of a person during its formation. Relating to foreign
languages training can be determined as a set of personal features including
mental activity, that creates reasons for effective knowledge, for educational
and speech operations connected with mastering a foreign language as a means of
communication.
Training
structure includes the following elements
a)
linguistic
thinking
b)
person’s
features to be formed, ingenuity, inquisitiveness, responsibility, will,
purposefulness, diligence
c)
linguistic,
abilities – mastering vocabulary and grammatical structure of the language,
verbal memory, acoustical and visual differentiation
d)
the
orientation of a person
e)
the
interest to a foreign language
f)
the reasons to master it
To be trained is the result of a
person’s activity, determined by training and making all components which compose the training
structure partially and fully actual. That is why to be trained should be
defined with the account of training. It is impossible to evaluate the effect
of training without it.
With the above training and
controlling knowledge with the help of tests are objective, mobile and
perspective and are of great importance among various forms of training and
bringing up.
The republic of Kazakhstan has
more than high level of development of testing in the secondary and higher
education. Testing method has given a great impulse to speeding reforms, has
created mechanisms for perfection of training process and increasing the
quality of specialists’ training.
For more than 20 years the
testing system in Kazakhstan has been perfected. It has not only absorbed in
itself advanced experience and technology of leading countries of the world but
it also has made its worthy contribution by having developed and having
introduced multialternative system of testing.
Tests are intended to reveal
school leavers knowledge, skills and habits in all subjects according to the
requirements of general educational state standard. And they embrace basic
subjects working with the tests in English an applicant must:
1.
read
the text embracing the whole content
2.
comprehend
alternatives be aware of
3. correlate each of them with the content of the text
4. choose the
necessary answer
The solution of
tests can’t be based on mechanical learning but on deep mastering program
material.
Reading and
understanding the text speak about a level of preparedness of an applicant.
Before solving
tests it is necessary to study grammatical and lexical material information
from the abstract.
Literature:
Rapport I.A. Experience in testing of reading // Foreign
languages at school. – 1973 ¹ 1 pp 34-42
Rapport I.A., Yohlerner M.M., Selg R., Sotter I. About
diagnostic functions of a testing technique of addition // Foreign languages at
school. – 1976 ¹ 2
pp 31-37
Rapport I.A. The primary tests: essence, specificity,
prospects // Foreign languages at school. – 1985 ¹ 2 pp 70-74
Problems of training foreign languages. –
Tallin, 1976 p. 132
Questions of
theory and practice of language tests. – Tallin, 1980
p. 229
Rapport A.A., Selg R., Sotter I. Tests in
teaching foreign languages in secondary school: (a book for teachers) – Tallin, Valgus, 1987 p. 351.