VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES wed DUONG THI HOA “DESIGNING AN ENGLISH ORAL ACHIEVEMENT TEST FOR SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT BAC NINH PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SPORTS UNIVERSITY” (THIET KE BAI THI VAN DAP TIENG ANH CHO SINH VIEN NAM THU HAI TRUONG DAI HOC THE DUC THE THAO BAC NINH) MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: English Teaching Methodology CODE: 601410 HA NOI - 2011 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES wea DUONG THI HOA “DESIGNING AN ENGLISH ORAL ACHIEVEMENT TEST FOR SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT BAC NINH PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SPORTS UNIVERSITY” (THIET KE BAI THI VAN DAP TIENG ANH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM. THU HAI TRUONG DAI HOC THE DUC THE THAO BAC NINH) MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: English Teaching Methodology CODE: 601410 SUPERVISOR: Dé Ba Quy, MEd. HA NOI - 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. ABSTRAC ili LIST OF TABLES.-- TABLE OF CONTENTS v PART A.
Rationale of the study 1 2. Aims of the sludy 2 „r. Scope of the study 3 5. Design of the study.
DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1, LITERATURE REVIEW 1. The role of testing.1 Testing and teaching. Purpose of language testing. Kinds of achievement tests.
8 ofa goad lost 9 1. Testing speaking skills. Whatis a spoken test. What should be tested 1.
Ease of speech and fluency. Conversational skill vii PART C. Limitationsand suggestions for further study. APPENDIX B ‘TILE CURRENT TES APPENDIX C THE SAMPLE TEST.
APPENDIX D THE ANSWER KEY FOR SAMPLE TEST. APPENDIX E TILE EXTRA SPEAKING MATERIAL! Because of limitation of the time, the author of the study does not cover testing issues [or all the four skills, but only places emphasis on the third seme English oral achievement test for second year at Bac Ninh UPES It deals with the general ideas of language testing, of the current test and the design of the final oral achivernent (est for the second year students al Bac Ninh UPTS 5. Methodology ‘The above-given questions are to he answered by means of: (Q) Gathering reference maicrials; analyzing and synthetisiving the findings into principles, qualities and formats as the basis to evaluate the current testing situation at Bac Ninh UPES toward designing an English oral achievement test for second year students (2) tmplaying questionnaires, inlerviews, opinion exchanges aud experimental tests lo collect data for the study 6. Design of the study The study consists of three parts and each one presents a set of related issues: - The first part provides basic information such as rationale, aims, design, scope and methodology of the study.
= The second part, which is the main parl, is sub divided inlo three chaplers + The first chapter “ Literature review”, which is the most theoretical one, looks at the background knowledge on language testing. | The second chapler which discusses on methodology, presents the deep analysis af the solting including the quostionnaires, dircet interviews, anil analysis of students’ needs for a new test, It also describes data collection instruments, data collection procedure and data analysis + The third chapicr is tho most important one whieh touches upon the designing an English oral achievement test for second year students at Bae Ninh UPES based on the above — mentioned theoretical and practical study. ~ And the final part, the author shed the mantle of reviewing the study and suggcsting further research. LITERATURE REVIEW Some literature review about language testing, the role of testing, achievement test and some criteria of a good test are presented in this chapter.1 Language testing It can be said that language tests arc valuable tools for providing infonnation conceming language teaching.
On the one hand, they provide evidence of the results of learning and instructing and the effectiveness of teaching. On the other hand, they also provide information for both teachers and students to make decisions. Teachers should determine what specific kinds learning materials or activities are suitable for their students basing on their strength and weakness or diagnosis of the amount of knowledge they have Jeamt and make sure that they are ready to move to another unit. For these reasons, all language teaching should involve testing and it becomes one of the main aspects of methodology.
Many researchers have given out definitions of testing with different points of view. Allen(1974: 313) provides the following definition of tests: A test is a measuring device which we use when we want to compare an individual with other individuals who belong to the seme group. The author emphasizes testing as an instrument to ensure that students have a sense of compelition rather than lo know how good their performance is and in which condition a test can take place According to Carroll (1968: 46}, a psychological or educational test can be considered as a procedwe designed to elicit behavior from which one can make inference about characteristics of an individual From this definition, it follows that a test is a measurement designed to clicit a particular behavior of each individual. And what a test from other types of measurement, according to Bachman, (1990: 20) is thal il is designed to oblain specific sample of behavior.
This distinction is believed to be of great importance because it reflects the primary justi ication replaced for the use of language tests and implicates how we design, develop Because of limitation of the time, the author of the study does not cover testing issues [or all the four skills, but only places emphasis on the third seme English oral achievement test for second year at Bac Ninh UPES It deals with the general ideas of language testing, of the current test and the design of the final oral achivernent (est for the second year students al Bac Ninh UPTS 5. Methodology ‘The above-given questions are to he answered by means of: (Q) Gathering reference maicrials; analyzing and synthetisiving the findings into principles, qualities and formats as the basis to evaluate the current testing situation at Bac Ninh UPES toward designing an English oral achievement test for second year students (2) tmplaying questionnaires, inlerviews, opinion exchanges aud experimental tests lo collect data for the study 6. Design of the study The study consists of three parts and each one presents a set of related issues: - The first part provides basic information such as rationale, aims, design, scope and methodology of the study. = The second part, which is the main parl, is sub divided inlo three chaplers + The first chapter “ Literature review”, which is the most theoretical one, looks at the background knowledge on language testing.
| The second chapler which discusses on methodology, presents the deep analysis af the solting including the quostionnaires, dircet interviews, anil analysis of students’ needs for a new test, It also describes data collection instruments, data collection procedure and data analysis + The third chapicr is tho most important one whieh touches upon the designing an English oral achievement test for second year students at Bae Ninh UPES based on the above — mentioned theoretical and practical study. ~ And the final part, the author shed the mantle of reviewing the study and suggcsting further research. Because of limitation of the time, the author of the study does not cover testing issues [or all the four skills, but only places emphasis on the third seme English oral achievement test for second year at Bac Ninh UPES It deals with the general ideas of language testing, of the current test and the design of the final oral achivernent (est for the second year students al Bac Ninh UPTS 5. Methodology ‘The above-given questions are to he answered by means of: (Q) Gathering reference maicrials; analyzing and synthetisiving the findings into principles, qualities and formats as the basis to evaluate the current testing situation at Bac Ninh UPES toward designing an English oral achievement test for second year students (2) tmplaying questionnaires, inlerviews, opinion exchanges aud experimental tests lo collect data for the study 6.
Design of the study The study consists of three parts and each one presents a set of related issues: - The first part provides basic information such as rationale, aims, design, scope and methodology of the study. = The second part, which is the main parl, is sub divided inlo three chaplers + The first chapter “ Literature review”, which is the most theoretical one, looks at the background knowledge on language testing. | The second chapler which discusses on methodology, presents the deep analysis af the solting including the quostionnaires, dircet interviews, anil analysis of students’ needs for a new test, It also describes data collection instruments, data collection procedure and data analysis + The third chapicr is tho most important one whieh touches upon the designing an English oral achievement test for second year students at Bae Ninh UPES based on the above — mentioned theoretical and practical study. ~ And the final part, the author shed the mantle of reviewing the study and suggcsting further research.
and use them to their best use. ‘Thus, language tests can provide ths means for more focus om the specific assure of imicre Another interesting detinition of testing is provided by Ibe (1981: 1) as follow: A sample of behavior under controlled of specified conditions and aimed towards providing a hasis for performing judgement The term a sumple of behavior used here is rather broad and it means something alse rather than the traditional types of papers and pencils. Read (1983) shares the same idea with The in the that a sample of behaviors suggesis langusge tosling ccirlairly ineludes listemng and speaking skills as well as reading and writing ones However, Heaton (1988:5) looks at testing in a different way. In his opinion, tests ate as a means of assessing the students” porforrumos and to motivate the students.
He looks at lests with positive eyes as many students are eager to take at the end of the semester to know how much knowledge they have. One important thing 1s that he points out the relationship between testing and teaching. In short, from the above descriptions, testing is an cffeotive means of measuring and assessing students’ language knowledge and skill. It is of great use to both language isaching and learning 1.2 The rale af testing, Unlike tests of other abilities or areas of knowledge where we frequently use lamguage in the process of measuring something else, in language lesis, we use language as a Ticasure nl.
of language ability irr sccond language acquisition, Simuilarly, language can be valuable sources of information about the effectiveness of learning and teaching 12.4 Vesting and teaching A large number of examization and tests in the pas! tended 1o separate lasting from teaching, Heaton (1988: 5 ) emphasizes that teaching and testing in some ways are so interwoven and independent that is very difficult to tease apart.” Both testing and teaching are so eloscly interrclated that it is virtually impossible to work in cither ficld without being constantly concemed with the others”. However, thanks to the steady change in the approaches to language teaching with a remarkable shift of emphasis fom dicrete - point lems Lo intergrative and communicative tests, testing, teaching and Icarting becarnz more and more interrelated. LITERATURE REVIEW Some literature review about language testing, the role of testing, achievement test and some criteria of a good test are presented in this chapter.1 Language testing It can be said that language tests arc valuable tools for providing infonnation conceming language teaching. On the one hand, they provide evidence of the results of learning and instructing and the effectiveness of teaching.
On the other hand, they also provide information for both teachers and students to make decisions.
