Testing as a form of control in teaching English in secondary school

Problematic moments of testing English as a form of control

In order to control the level of formation of skills and abilities of students in secondary school is commonly used testing. Middle school teacher cannot always find in a methodical literature complexes tests on a particular topic, so sometimes he is developing test items on the textbook material and to meet the requirements of the program. In this case, the teacher should reasonably choose a certain kind of test to detect the level of formation of knowledge and skills of students in one of the activities (speaking, listening, reading and writing).

As is well known, the principle of selection of material for the study of secondary school theme that involves the study of English by topic. Case study of language includes the implementation boundary control at the end of the study of a specific theme, besides during lessons regularly carried out in-line control, therefore, learning activities students in the learning process is evaluated frequently. Handout gradually complicated, the amount of information compared to that previously proposed increases.
Performance of different types of tests in a specific sequence is not only a form of control, but also enhances students' interest in learning.
Based on the theory, we conducted a study to identify problematic moments of testing (by finding the advantages and disadvantages) to learn English in secondary school.
The basis of our study based on the following objectives:
1. Determine the preference of students testing as a form of control;
2. Test the effectiveness of the use of tests;
3. Identify difficulties in the testing process.
In our study involved the 7^th grade students, secondary school №6 of Zyryanovsk. There are 24 people in class. Age of students is 12–13 years old.
Final student knowledge for the 1^st quarter showed that the level of English proficiency in the whole class – intermediate.
It took 3 academic hours to conduct this study.
Theme of our lesson is «Sport». The first lesson we have set the following educational objectives:
1. To acquaint students with the most common sports in England.
2. Use this knowledge in reading and speaking.
3. Increase students' interest in learning English, to instill a culture of healthy lifestyle.
Equipment: interactive whiteboard, handout (text, new words), English – Russian and Russian – English dictionaries.
Advance Preparation: interactive whiteboard displays the new words and pictures (photos) sports in England.
The first phase of the lesson – organizational (greeting students, mark present, the definition of the theme and objectives of the lesson).
On the main stage of the lesson, we introduce students to the topic of the story through the teachers of the sport in England, using visual aids and new words.
Vocabulary:
Grass hockey – hockey
Equipment – equipment
Get out – issue
Put away – clean
Team – team
Captain – Captain
Soccer – football
Rugby – rugby
Rules – rules
Green space – green area
Take place – pass
Lesson students continue a brief story about the sport that they love.
Next, students hear the text for self – reading.
Sport in Great Britain.
The most popular sports in Great Britain are football and cricket.
Football, or soccer, is an example of a professional game. The game of football was first played in Britain, and later people began to play football in other countries.
British schoolchildren have two types of physical training lessons: gym (= gymnastics) lessons and games, especially team games. At the lessons they run and jump, they do exercises on the horse, they play volleyball or basketball.
Team games are very important in British schools. Boys play football and rugby in the winter, and cricket and tennis in the summer.
Almost every school has its football team and every boy in Britain knows a lot about the game. He can tell you the names of the players in the most important teams; he has pictures of them and knows the results of many matches.
Cricket has the same rules as the professional game. A typical cricket match takes place on a green and open space. It is played between two teams – the «home» team and the «visitors» who come from another school.
Girls play grass hockey in the coldest months of the year and tennis, volleyball and basketball in the summer.
Every team has a game's captain, that is, a pupil whom the pupils themselves have chosen to help the teacher to get out and put away the games equipment, and to organize the teams of her form.
Using this information the teacher, the new words on the interactive whiteboard and dictionaries, we asked all students to translate the text.
At the final stage, students of «chain» read one sentence from the text and offer their translation.
Students are assessed and receive homework: learn new words on the topic of the lesson creative task – in pairs to prepare a presentation about favorite sport.
In our second lesson consolidate their knowledge on the subject at the request of the students suggested: testing (group A) or written work (group B).
For test -14 students, 10 students – for the written work.
Test for the group A consists of 15 questions (Appendix 2) and the for group B of questions on the understanding of the text:
1. What is the most popular game in Britain?
2. Where was the game of football first played?
3. What types of physical training lesson British schoolchildren have?
4. What kind of sport boys prefer in summer?
5. What kind of sport boys prefer in winter?
6. Where does a typical cricket match take place?
7. What kind of sport girls prefer in the coldest months of the year?
8. What kind of sport girls prefer in summer?
Next, students complement the sports theme creative work in pairs – a presentation that is evaluated separately.
In the final third lesson, students are familiar with the results of the intermediate testing and unrestricted work.
Test knowledge of the subject we check the whole class through final testing, which includes 20 questions (Appendix 3).
This study showed that today the school's students, as well as society, divided into two parts in the perception of such thing as test system. It is the ability to bypass the psychological tension for the first group and for the other group – creativity is important because testing is not able to adequately and accurately assess their capabilities.
Based on the knowledge assessment system («5» – 13–15 correct answers, «4» -10–12 correct answers, «3» – 7–11 correct answers, «2» – 0–6 correct answers), the test’s results of the group A showed the following results:
«5» – 4 students;
«4» – 6 students;
«3» – 3 students;
«2» – 1 student.
Written work, which was attended by the students in the group B, in turn, gave the following results:
3 students have 8 correct answers and grade «5», 4 students have 5–7 correct answers and grade «4», 2 students have 4 correct answers and grade «3» and 1 student has less than 4 correct answers and grade «2».
Thus, assessing the quality of students' knowledge of the formula (grades «4» and «5» divide by the number of students and multiply by 100%), we obtain the following results:
Group A – 71%;
Group B – 70%.
We conclude that the lesson’s material students understood in the same way, despite the different form of control.
The final testing’s results on the evaluation system of knowledge («5» – 17–20 correct answers, «4» -14–16 replies, «3» – 10–13 replies, «2» – 9–0 answers) found in the final lesson following:
The quality of knowledge of the group A was – 78%.
«5» – 6 students;
«4» – 5 students;
«3» – 3 students;
Group B – 60%.
«5» – 2 students;
«4» – 4 students;
«3» – 3 students;
«2» – 1 student.
It can be concluded that the students of the group A improved the quality of knowledge through participation in the intermediate testing, i.e. formed skills tests play quite important role in obtaining the final result. At the same time students are embarrassed to talk, were in the same situation with the «speakers.»
One more testing’s positive thing is the objective assessment and, consequently, the equality of all students in passing tests, since they all get the same job (at the same time and in the same place) and have a certain amount of time to perform the same task. The next advantage of testing is more appropriate range of knowledge evaluation. For example, if the test consists of fifteen questions, the maximum number of points that a student can get in the correct answers – 15. If they are admitted mistakes, we will see how many mistakes he made and immediately understand how wide knowledge student has in the discipline. In the classic method a student can get the maximum grade – «5» and grade is not always corresponds to the actual level of knowledge.
Students in the group B encountered the problem of participation in various forms of control, which resulted in reduction in the quality of knowledge on the topic.
Despite the advantage of the test results, anyway, it is not clear to draw conclusions about the final choice of the form of control knowledge to the students as members of the group A (4 students of 14) poorly understood the materials. That is, in the tests as a form of control we can also identify some problems:
1. Students get used to ready answers and lose (not gain) the ability to freely express thoughts and competently.
(E.g. what are the most popular games in Britain?

1. 
   Football and basketball
   
2. 
   Rugby and tennis
   
3. 
   Cricket and Football
   
4. 
   Basketball and volleyball).
   

2. Unable to control the creative knowledge of students.
(E.g. put the missing word in the sentence:
Every team has a game’s……

1. 
   Ball
   
2. 
   Captain
   
3. 
   Rule
   
4. 
   Time)
   

3. In a written response can well turn around and get a deeper response, while in the tests, the student answers templates without expressing his thoughts.
(E.g. put the missing word in the sentence:
Team games are very………in British schools.

1. 
   Important
   
2. 
   Boring
   
3. 
   Funny
   
4. 
   Unpopular)
   

4. Another disadvantage of the test is the fact that a particular question in the test has a list of possible answers from which to choose one or two correct.
(E.g. choose the antonym for word cold:

1. 
   Easy
   
2. 
   Fast
   
3. 
   Hot
   
4. 
   Frozen)
   

Sometimes students are able to «random» to put the right answer. Thus, some students may get undeserved evaluation… And in other, if the student guesses the answers, it certainly will not be able to guess all the remaining answers to the test questions.
The study showed that the test system should be used to verify the training of students in conjunction with the classical methods of knowledge assessment such as oral questioning and written work. This integrated approach allows to achieve the best results and to establish the level of training an apprentice.
control testing knowledge education