Approaches to Language Testing

1. Essay-Translation Approach
    A. Characteristics and Types of Tests
          i.   Referred to as the pre-scientific stage
          ii.  No special skill or expertise in testing is required
          iii. Usually consist of essay writing, translation and grammatical analysis.
          iv. Heavy on literary and cultural bias.
          v.  Public examinations resulting from the tests sometimes have an oral component at the upper intermediate and advance level.
    B. Strength
          i.   Easy to follow using subjective judgment
          ii.  Maybe use for any level of examinees.
          iii. Model can be easily modified based on the essentials of the tests.
    C. Weakness
          i. Subjective judgment tends to be biased
          ii. Heavy literary and cultural bias.

2. Structuralist Approach
    A. Characteristics and Types of Tests
          i.   Primarily concerned with systematic acquisition of a set of habits.
          ii.  Involves structural linguistics which stresses the importance of constructive analysis and the need to identify and measure the learner mastery of the separate elements of the target language ?phonology, vocabulary and grammar.
          iii. Listening, speaking, reading and writing are done in separate testing.
          iv. Uses psychometric approach to measurement with its emphasis on reliability and objectivity.
    B. Strengths
          i. Objective
          ii. Other forms of tests can be covered in the test in a short time
          iii. Can help students find their strengths and weaknesses in every skill they study.
    C. Weaknesses
          i. Complicated for teachers in questionnaire preparation
          ii.  Measures non-integrated skills more than integrated skills.

3. Integrative Approach
   A. Characteristics and Types
         i. Known as language in context test and primarily concerned with total communicative effect of discourse.
         ii. Concerned with global view of proficiency.
         iii. Involves functional language but does not uses functional language
         iv. Uses cloze test, dictation, oral interview, translation and essay writing.
  B. Strength
         i. Approach to meaning and the total communicative effect of discourse are very helpful to students
         ii. Can view students?proficiency with a global perspective.
         iii. Cloze test used in this approach measures the reader ability to decode interrupted messages by using available contextual clues.
         iv. Uses dictation test to measure students?listening comprehension skills.
  C. Weaknesses
         This type of approach does not acknowledge the importance of measuring the individual skills based on students?need such as writing only, speaking only, etc.

4. Communicative Approach
    A. Characteristics and Types
        i. Concerned primarily with how language is used in communication
        ii. Emphasizes on the exclusion of language usage.
        iii. Measures language skills in communicative tests based on divisibility hypothesis.
        iv. Content  should be relevant for a particular group of examinees and the tasks set should relate to real-life situation        v. Introduces qualitative modes of assessment

   B. Strengths
        i.   Measures integrated skills of students
        ii.  Prepares students in real life communication problems
        iii. Measures all language skills (speaking, reading, listening, writing)
        iv. Detailed statements of each performance level serve to increase the reliability of the scoring by enabling the examiner to make decisions according to carefully drawn-up and well-established criteria.
   C. Weaknesses
        i. Does not emphasize learning structural grammar and expects examinees mastery of the grammar of a language
        ii. Cultural bias affects the reliability of the tests being administered.

Applied Linguistics: Phonetics Exercise 1

Using the phonetic symbols posted previously, answer the following questions:

1. Write the phonetic symbol for the first sound in each word, according to your pronunciation.

a. chasm
b. psalm
c. eager
d. knife
e. philosophy
f. carol
g. thinker
h. central
i. use
j. justice

2. Write the phonetic symbol for the last sound in each word, according to your pronunciation.

a. wires ________		g. moth ________
b. following ________		h. mash ________
c. baked ________		i. she ________
d. language ________		j. idea ________
e. catch ________		k. pass ________
f. Mac ________		l. filth ________

3. Write the following words in phonetic transcription, according to your pronunciation.

a. eats
b. shoes
c. mast
d. cut
e. lick
f. look
g. opened
h. songs
i. wreathe
j. helped
k. fastened
l. oceans
m. joyful
n. mine
o. clown
p. around
q. laundry
r. itchy
s. dry
t. beauty
u. stayed
v. ground

Applied Linguistics: Phonetics

Phonetics

Generally, Phonetics refers to the study of sound production of human speech – its articulatory and acoustic property of the human production of sound that intends to use in the process of communication. In relation to the object of study, the closest branch of Linguistics is Phonology which deals with the sound patterns, articulatory gestures and perceptual representation.

In Applied Linguistics, Phonetics is considered to be one of the major focuses of the study since aberration in language occurs in studying the Second Language (SL).

As previously discussed, mother tongue is learned without any effort and the mind is conditioned to learn the First Language (FL) even at the time of the infant’s conception. Learning another language will then be a challenge for both adults and young ones alike. Accent, syllabification, stresses, emphasis and other elocution factors of the mother tongue influences the study of SL and therefore needs to be corrected at first instance in learning and re-learning the SL.

Reviewing Phonetics in Applied Linguistics aims to correct the FL influences and strengthen the communication skills of the language learner.

In the Philippine setting, vowel sounds are produced in five ways (i.e. [a, e, i, o, u]) and there are consonants that are interchanged in production - some of these are [s] vs. [z], [p] vs. [f], [b] vs. [v], etc.

learngoodenglish.com

ADVISORY

To all of my students,

I'm currently out of the country and will not be able to meet you from the 7th till the 10th of February.

Keep on checking this website for your activity sheets, have it accomplished and I'll be collecting it the next time we meet (probably a week after.)

See yah! <----what is the register of this phrase? Identify this using the tenor, field and mode analysis! *kiddin*)

Literal Translation

Literal translation – transference of one language format to another following the form of the source language and using the ‘verbum pro verbo’ principle. This is also known as metaphrase process and commonly used in technical translation and legal annotation conversions to preserve the original format of the text undermining the context of the original text. 

In the light of contextual aspect, literal translation can be considered as erroneous since it does not carry the register of the source language.

As for usage, literal translation can be a very useful tool for translation preparation as it serves as a foundation in translating unfamiliar language format.

In communication, literal translation is currently being used in the form of machine translation. One the most common example of these would be internet translators (i.e. babelfish, google translate, microsofttranslator, freetranslation, worldlingo, etc.)

Without the tweaking process of human translators, machine translation could be misleading and sometimes totally erroneous. The common result of this would be pidgins or translation with reference to the target language’s native format and mistranslations that contextually unacceptable.

Grammatical Categories

Grammatical Categories refers to classes of word that traditionally known as parts of speech

Noun - word that can be used to refer to a person, place, thing, quality, or action; can be subject or object of the sentence

Ex. dog, group, happiness, UNESCO

Verb-  a content word that denotes an action, occurrence, or state of existence; the word class that serves as the predicate of a sentence

Ex. Do, be walk, shall

Adjectives – a word that expresses an attribute of something; the word class that qualifies nouns

Ex. Sad, green, asleep, burn

Adverb- the word class that qualifies verbs or clauses; a word that modifies something other than a noun

Ex. Well, later, near, however

Pronoun - a function word that is used in place of a noun or noun phrase

Ex. You, yourself, one, anything

Article - a determiner that may indicate the specificity of reference of a noun phrase

Ex. A, the

Preposition - a function word that combines with a noun or pronoun or noun phrase to form a prepositional phrase that can have an adverbial or adjectival relation to some other word

Ex. On, of, across, like

Conjunction - an uninflected function word that serves to conjoin words or phrases or clauses or sentences

Ex. And, or, since , if

Interjection- an abrupt emphatic exclamation expressing emotion

Ex. Oh!, Alas!, No!

Essay Biography: General Elements

There are three main areas you need to consider when writing an essay. You need to evaluate your (1) focus, (2) content and (3) organization. While each of the three has its own vitality, the “trinity” is inseparable.


First, your essay must have a purpose, which has clearly defined and effectively communicated. This is the focus of your essay. Your essay must fulfill the requirements for the purpose it is trying to accomplish. In addition, your work must be well balanced; you should neither do too much in the essay, nor mark your goals too limited and inconsequential. Also, the needs, interests and expectations of your readers should be considered and met.


Besides focus, content is an essential part if your essay. Considering your controlling purpose, you ought to discover whether there is adequate support and whether your essay development fulfills the commitment started or implied by the controlling purpose. What supporting details or evidence you have provided and how adequate they are is equally important. All your details, evidence, or counter arguments should not only relate clearly to your controlling purpose, but should have the purpose of strengthening the essay.


Both the focus and content are strengthened and enhanced by the organization of the essay, which must follow an overall organization strategy. You may want to test the effectiveness of such strategy by outlining or summarizing your essay. The organization of your essay must follow logically the commitment established by your controlling purpose. You must insure that your readers will be able to follow the organization and easily make sense of it. Furthermore, you should ask yourself whether or not your introduction and your conclusion could more effectively open and close your essay.


After all of the above has been observed; now you ought to consider such things as grammar, spelling, word choice, sentence structure and mechanics. Despite its importance, grammar is often ignored in the writing classes. It is the student's responsibility to acquire the grammatical skills necessary to succeed in a writing class.


 Evaluating focus, content & organization:


Focus:  
1- What do I hope to accomplish in this essay? How clearly have I defined my controlling purpose? How have I communicated this controlling purpose?


2- is my essay appropriate? If it is an academic essay, how does it fulfill the requirements of the assignment?


3- Have I tried to do too much in the essay? Or are my goals too limited and inconsequent?


4- does my essay considers the needs, interests, and expectations of my readers? How does the essay respond to them? 


Content:  
1- how does my essay develop or support my controlling purpose? How does it fulfill the commitment stated or implied by the controlling purpose?


2- what supporting details or evidence have I provided for my most important generalizations? Are these supporting details and evidence adequate? Do they relate clearly to my controlling purpose each other?


3- what details, evidence, or counter arguments might strengthen my essay?


4- have I included any materials that are irrelevant to my controlling purpose?


Organization:
1- what overall organization strategy my essay follows?


2- Have I tested the effectiveness of this strategy by outlining or summarizing my essay?


3- to what extent does the organization of my essay flow logically from the commitment established by my controlling purpose?


4- will my organization make sense to my readers and be easy for them to follow?


5- to what extent does my essay follow the general conventions appropriate for this kind of writing?


6- could my introduction and conclusion be more effectively open and close my essay?


After all the above, now consider such things as grammar, spelling, word choice, sentence structure, etc.…