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CHAPTER 3. METHODS OF ORGANIZING ORAL CONTROL IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE LESSON
3.1 Methodology of test control
The methodology of test control refers to a set of methods used to design and improve specific measuring instruments - tests, with the help of which it is possible to obtain characteristics of the measured quality or property.
In this definition, the term methodology is used in a narrow sense (private methodology), in contrast to the broader - general methodology (a set of more general methods) - and even broader - philosophical methodology, i.e. a system of dialectical methods and principles that are universal, covering all areas of scientific knowledge and concretized through general scientific and private methodology.
However, to what extent is it legitimate to talk about the methodology of test control, which is a kind of one of the components of the learning process - checking and evaluating students' knowledge, skills and abilities? From our point of view, it is not only possible to raise the question in this way, but it should be, otherwise the scientific and theoretical foundation for this important, but revealing a tendency to subjectivism component of the educational process will not be brought.
It is known that there is a special field in the system of human sciences - testology, which studies the regularities of measuring various parameters of a person's personality. The testology data are in many ways successfully used by psychology, sociology, pedagogy, and private methods.
However, for a number of reasons, the word testology itself has acquired a negative character in our literature. This is explained by the fact that the negative attitude of the pedagogical community of our country to many foreign psychological tests (with their weak methodological base, trying to justify the possibility of measuring "innate" intelligence) and especially to the foreign practice of using such tests (legitimizing intellectual segregation and depriving the children of workers of a full-blooded education) was transferred to the testology itself.
But the fact that many of these techniques are unsatisfactory, ineffective, undoubtedly testifies to the complexity and difficulty of the problems that researchers face in this field. It also speaks of the inconsistency of methodological concepts that guide testologists in the West. Finally, this circumstance can serve as an argument in favor of limiting the scope of practical application of these techniques, using them for narrower purposes, reducing their role and specific weight in solving certain tasks. However, there are no grounds for rejecting the method as such.
The method of psychological tests is ultimately only a certain tool and, like other technical means, it can be applied - at any degree of perfection of a particular technique - clumsily, inaccurately, with distortion of the truth and misinterpretation of the results. Moreover, it can be consciously applied - and indeed is used in the West - for inhumane, racist purposes. However, the presence of such facts cannot serve as an argument for refusing to use this method for truly scientific, humane purposes."
Thus, the effectiveness of psychological tests is determined, firstly, by the purposes for which they are used, and, secondly, by the methodological basis for their construction. The issues of test methodology are currently becoming important. It should be borne in mind, however, that psychological tests act as the main object of testology.
The patterns of design, improvement and use established for psychological tests were extrapolated by foreign testologists to pedagogical tests that are genetically more recent and serve to measure school or university training in a specific academic subject studied at a given educational institution. Meanwhile, this group of tests differs significantly from psychological tests and has its own specifics, which must be taken into account when selecting psychodiagnostic procedures for pedagogical tests and developing their main characteristics.
The main methodological issues of pedagogical tests, in particular language tests, are:
methods of selecting material for inclusion in the test; methods of experimental verification of tests and determination of differentiating force, "weight" and difficulty of tasks;
validity and methods of its determination; reliability and methods of its determination;
principles of interpretation of the obtained characteristics isomorphic to the measured parameters.
For language tests, in addition, the most important methodological issue is the methods of indirect measurements of speech activity and the choice of the appropriate scale (nominal, rank, interval) and adequate units of measurement. Of course, it is impossible to consider all these issues that require a multidimensional analysis of a number of mathematical, psychological, psycholinguistic, linguistic, pedagogical and methodological factors in one article. Therefore, we will limit ourselves to a few brief remarks on the validity and reliability of pedagogical language tests.
For pedagogical tests, meaningful, conjugate and constructive validity are most important. The substantive validity of this group of tests is determined by the use of appropriate language material in them - lexical units included in the vocabulary minimum, and grammatical material provided for by the current foreign language program.
It should be noted, however, that for language tests, substantive validity is somewhat less important than for tests in other academic subjects, in which the main object of control is the level of acquired knowledge. In these cases, the compliance of the material selected for knowledge control with everything previously studied is a necessary condition for the effectiveness of the monitoring program, its feasibility and accessibility.
In language tests, even the inclusion of a certain number of words that are not included in the lexical minimum, but relate to the potential vocabulary of students or whose meaning can be determined by context, does not significantly reduce the content validity. If we are talking about the substantive validity of the text bases of reading comprehension tests, then, as studies have shown, the text can be understood by students even with 30% of unfamiliar words [20].
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