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Eliciting Techniques
Within the test formats discussed in the previous section (c), the examiner can elicit the intended language functions and test various sub-skills, using different techniques.
Picture description
The tester elicits language by asking the candidates to describe a picture. This can be done in interview format or interaction with peers. The technique can be modified according to the needs of the test contents. For example, a series of pictures can be give and the candidates are asked to narrate a story or an incident. The pictures can be interesting but they should not be excessively emotional.
Role play
Within the interview format, the examiner assumes one role while the candidate is given another (example: customer persuades a salesman to lower the price of a handbag at a shop). The problem in this technique is that the candidate will consider the examiner superior and as a result a genuine communication is unlikely. It is possible to distribute the roles among few students and the examiner acts as an observer. To make it effectives, pairing or grouping of students should be done carefully; otherwise one or two students will dominate the others in the process of interaction.
One problem with this technique is that the technique is less controlled and the examiner cannot elicit the intended language functions. The examiner cannot the candidates to use the language that he wants! For example, the examiner can direct the two candidates to act out as friends and ask one of them to invite the other to a party. Consider the following way of using language by the two students:
St1: My party, birthday party
St2: Yes, Yes, I remember, I am coming on Monday
Student 1 has used only ‘My party, birthday party’ but this utterance effectively communicates invitation.
The examiner could have given more guidelines to candidates but too much of control of the situation will also affect the performances of the candidates.
Group discussion
The candidates are given an issue, a problem, a plan and asked to discuss or solve it by means of group interaction. A picture may be used to stimulate the discussion. The number of candidates in a group should not exceed 6. As pointed out continuously, whenever possible, the matching of students for group formation must be done carefully to avoid the dominance of few students. This is also a less controlled technique and the examiner cannot elicit the intended language functions.
Questioning
Within the interview format, the examiner questions the candidates to elicit language. For example, an examiner may show a diagram to a candidate and ask various questions: Can you explain how this operates? Can you tell me why this part is necessary? The examiner must see that he does not test the general knowledge of the student.
Response elicitation
The examiner describes a situation and asks the student how he responds: You meet a foreigner in the town. How do you offer him help? This can be done within interview format.
It is also possible to have blank dialogues on the tape recorder: for example, a dialogue between the customer and a bank manager, where the bank manager’s utterances are deleted. The candidate is asked to respond, acting as the bank manager. One problem with this technique is that it ignores the unpredictable nature of natural language use: the candidate’s each response depends not only on what was said before, but also on what is to be said in the next utterance.
Imitation
The candidate is asked to repeat the series of utterances given by the examiner. Usually, the first utterance is shorter and then the examiner gradually adds phrases to the previous one, making it gradually longer:
I went to Colombo
I went to Colombo with my mother last week
I went to Colombo with my mother last week to see my grandfather
I went to Colombo with my mother last week to see my grandfather who has been in hospital since …..
This is highly controlled and is an economical way of testing oral skills. The disadvantage of the technique, if used excessively, is that it will produce a harmful backwash effect on classroom teaching: the teachers will practice these types of activities excessively in the classroom and the true sense of oral skills development will be immediately lost.
Reading aloud
This can be done within interview format. The candidate is given a text and asked to read it aloud. Two or three minutes will be given to read the passage silently and prepare for reading aloud. The task can be made authentic if texts such as news bulletin are chosen. This is suitable for testing pronunciation skills of the candidates.
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