Preliminary Study on Language Testing

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Abstract:The article mainly covers the primary purpose of the test, the relationship between language testing and teaching and what should be tested and to what standard.

Keywords:language testing purpose relationship standard

I. Introduction

For language teachers and students, language testing is familiar to them. However, a language teacher may have designed innumerous test papers but he still does not know how to design a beneficial test and he may even does not understand what is a beneficial test at all: a student may have taken myriad tests but he is still not aware of what he takes the tests for. Many teachers and students are just doing an effortless work for their ignorance of the language tests. In order to lift the veil of the test for teachers and test takers to better understand their roles in testing, in the essay the primary purpose of the test, the relationship between language testing and teaching and what should be tested and to what standard will be referred to.

Ⅱ. What is the primary purpose of testing?

We should define the testing before we come to the primary purpose of testing. The concept of testing does not only mean a language test or any formal test papers. It may include any means of checking what the students can do and can not do with the language. Proper testing should give due weight to the positive side of the testing. The primary purpose of testing is certainly the positive effect of the testing. Heaton said,“Tests may be constructed primarily as devices to reinforce learning and to motivate the student or primarily as a means of assessing the student's performance in the language.” It is to say that the primary purpose is assessing the student's language ability to direct the future efforts in both testing and teaching.

The purpose of testing is positive, however, it can not be denied that a great deal language tests is of poor quality. Too often language tests have a harmful effect on teaching and learning; and too often they fail to measure accurately whatever it is they are intended to measure.So we should try to avoid the testing's negative effect on teaching and learning while guide it to be positively beneficial.

Ⅲ. What kind of relationship should we establish between language testing and teaching?

As to the relationship between language testing and teaching we often encounter two situations. First, teaching and testing was regarded as two separate parts without any connection, that is to say, teaching is for finishing tasks on time while testing did not take the existing teaching into consideration. The current testing speaks itself loudly. No matter what textbooks are used, which grade of students are taught and what is the purpose of the tests, the tests are all for National Entrance Examination. Second, the testing areas are just the content of teaching. Teaching is completely geared to the test just like examination-oriented education. Virtually, testing and teaching are so closely interrelated that it is imposable to work in either field without being constantly concerned with the other (Heaton, 2000).

The relationship between testing and teaching can be illustrated in the following chart:

Teaching objectives are essential in teaching. They decide teaching content and teaching method. We should use tests to assess whether the teaching objectives are realized or not.. Only if the tests are geared to the teaching objective they can be used to assess the teaching objectives. In the teaching test, the teaching content decides what to test and the teaching methods decide how to test, so theoretically, the test is only an indispensable ingredient of teaching.

The test should be constructed under the guidance of teaching objectives, but it does not mean that it can be ignored. Arthur Hughes said that the effect of testing on teaching and learning is known as backwash. Backwash can be harmful or beneficial.(Hughes, 2000).Tests may exert a considerable influence on teaching. Sometimes it can dominate the whole process of teaching. The typical example of this kind is the examination-oriented education which deviates from teaching objectives and the primary purpose of tests. So we should regard the relationship between teaching and testing as partnership and demand that it can be supportive of good teaching and, where necessary, exert a corrective influence on bad teaching

Ⅳ. What should be tested and to what standard?

We should know well the nature of language being tested before constructing a test. According to different linguistical and psychological theories, the current widely-used foreign language testing can be divided into discrete point tests, integrative tests and communicative tests. The content and standard of the test vary with the type of the test. The three types of tests are not mutually exclusive. A good test should have the features of several of these types.

According to the discrete point testing, language is divided into many small language units and four language skills- listening, speaking, reading and writing. It tests each language unit of the four language skills to assess the test taker's overall language ability.

In an attempt to isolate the language areas learnt, a considerable number of tests include sections on grammar and usage, vocabulary concerned with word meanings, word formation and collocation and phonology concerned with phonemes, stress and intonation (Heaton, 2000).

Integrative testing also called pragmatic test, by contrast, requires the test takers to combine many language elements to complete a task. The test constructor may design tests of a composition, a dictation or a cloze passage to test the candidates' different kinds of ability simultaneously.

Communicative testing does not only lay stress on the correct use of grammar but also the role of use in reality. It is used to test the candidate's communicative ability in genuine communicative situation. There are four major skills in communicating through language which are defined as listening, listening and speaking, reading and writing. The four skills should be integrated to achieve the goal of communication.

Ways of assessing performance in the four major skills may take the form of tests of:listening comprehension, in which short utterances, dialogues, talks and. lectures are given to the testees;speaking ability, usually in the form of an interview, a picture, description, role play, and a problem-solving task involving pair work or group work;reading comprehension, in which questions are set to test the student's ability to understand the gist of a text and to extract key information on specific points in the text; and writing ability, usually in the form of letters, reports, memos, messages, instructions and accounts of past events, etc. References:

[1]Heaton, J B.Writing English Language Tests[M].Beijing：Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press，2000.

[2]Hughes,A.Testing for Language Teachers[M].Cambridge: Cambridge University Press，2000.

[3]刘润清,韩宝成.语言测试和它的方法[M].外语教学与研究出版社,1999.

[4]舒运祥.外语测试的理论与方法[M].上海世界图书出版公司,1999.