Testing Reading

I.            INTRODUCTION

It is necessary to evaluate the English language skills of students whose first language is not English. Related to some skills of English, here is the summary of English test in reading skill. There will be more discussion about how and what should we do in conducting the English reading test.

II.            SUMMARY OF CONTENT

Traditional reading tests tend to make use of short prose passages and ask general comprehension questions. These often do not deal with the variety of skills involved in reading of the variety of texts that testees may encounter.

Two different kinds of complementary reading activities to which students are usually exposed are generally classified as intensive and extensive reading. Sort reading extracts of a moderate degree of difficulty and containing features which merit detailed study form a basis for intensive reading practice.

A.    INITIAL STAGES OF READING: MATCHING TESTS

Word matching

The testees are required to draw a line under the word which is the same as the word on the left.

Sheep =           shop/shape/sleep/heap/sheep

Sentence matching

This item is similar to the word-matching item. The testees are required to recognize as quickly as possible sentences which consist of the same words in the same order. They read a sentence, followed by four similar sentences, only one of which is exactly the same as the previous one.

1.  Tom is not going to your school.

     A.  Tom is not going to your pool.

     B.  Tom is going to your school.

     C.  Tom is not coming to your school.

     D.  Tom is not going to your school.

B.     INTERMEDIATE AND ADVANCED STAGES OF READING: MATCHING TESTS

Settlements

Enclosed hut groups are characteristic settlements in the area and remains of more than a hundred still exist. The open settlements, the villages of predominantly unenclosed huts, are not numerous but only a dozen groups have sufficient numbers of co-ordinated huts to be described as villages. Though there may be some walls in these villages, they are only fragmentary.

MULTIPLE – CHOICE ITEMS (A): SHORT TEXTS

Type 1: It can be argued that the type of item in this section is in many ways a test of vocabulary rather than of reading comprehension. These particular items, however, have been included here because it is felt that a comprehension of the text is generally of at least as much importance as an understanding of the meaning of the words for selection. The eyes are wonderful teachers – even musicians, who deal with sounds, learn as much by (doing, playing, watching, and practicing) as by listening.

Type 2: Just as the previous item type is closely related to the testing of vocabulary, so this type is perhaps more accurately described as a test of comprehension of grammatical structure.

Type 3: This item type consists of a very short reading extract of only a few sentences (or sometimes of only one sentence). The testees are required to answer only one comprehension test item on each reading passage.

MULTIPLE – CHOICE ITEMS (B): LONGER TEXTS

As was clearly indicated earlier, the extent to which a test is successful in measuring what it sets out to measure depends largely on the effectiveness of each of the items used. Indeed, certain general aspects of many reading tests may be suspect. The length of the extract should also be related to its level of difficulty: a particularly difficult or complex passage would probably be considerably shorter than a more straightforward one. On the whole, the difficulty level of the text, however, should coincide with the level of the students’ proficiency in English

A.      Completion Items

Types of completion items for testing reading comprehension are divided into two groups for ease of treatment: Type 1 consisting of blanks for completion in the items following the text; and type 2 consisting of blanks in the text itself.

B.       Rearrangement Items

These two item types are particularly useful for testing the ability to understand a sequence of steps in a process or events in a narrative. While in an exercise for classroom practice the students will often be required to rewrite the jumbled sentences in their correct sequence. It is preferable for testing purposes to instruct them to write simply the numbers or letters of the jumbled sentences.

III.            CONCLUSION

Testing reading may seem easy at first glance, but the possible difficulties should not be overlooked. The choice or the writing of the text should be carefully considered so that they reflect the tasks for which the students will use English so that background knowledge will not give some students advantages over others. In addition, the writing of the questions should be carefully consideration and presented.

REFERENCES

Hughes, Arthur. (1983). Testing for Language Teachers. UK: Cambridge University Press.