Chapter 10
Testing Grammar
In traditional testing, grammar was the central part of a test paper. Since the structural approach to language teaching focused primarily on development of grammatical competence of the learner, the test papers consisted of more grammar items. However, in communicative approach to language teaching emphasized on skills and these skills were integrated. As a result, grammar component was incorporated into various skills. Grammar is considered to be an underlying ability which enables speaking, reading, writing etc. Testers began to ignore this component in test papers.
This chapter deals with the issues of testing grammar.
Why Test Grammar?
There are several valid reasons as to why grammar should be tested separately:
Grammar is an essential component in language teaching. It is an underlying ability in developing the other skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. For example, the main element of good writing is grammatical accuracy.
In almost every syllabus, grammar is given separate treatment. If it is ignored in tests, it will produce a harmful backwash effect. The teachers will ignore grammar in classroom teaching.
In diagnostic tests, students’ weaknesses are identified. The students must know where gaps exist. For this purpose, mainly, grammar areas are focused in these tests. For example, if a test item is given to describe an accident, the candidate is free to use language according to his preference. The tester cannot be sure if the candidate knows the rules of past tense. For this purpose, a grammar test item must be included.
Grammar testing is an economical way of language testing. Since a large number of questions can be included in a test paper, content validity can be assured.
Test Specification
It is not difficult to prepare a test specification for grammar test items. The content of the grammar syllabus is directly relevant to the test specification. The tester should prepare a list of grammar topics and their relative proportion as follows:
Lesson
|
Past tense
|
Modals
|
Future tense
|
Conditionals
|
Prepositions
|
No. of teaching hours
|
4
|
6
|
4
|
2
|
2
|
Relative proportion
|
2
|
3
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
If a total of three grammar questions can be included in the test paper, the questions can be distributed as follows:
Question 1: Modals (05 marks)
Question 2: Past tense & conditionals (in the proportion of 2:1 – 05 marks)
Question 3: Future tense & Prepositions (in the proportion of 2:1 – 05 marks)
As can be seen, the test items must be selected on the basis of the order of importance in the syllabus, and not on what is easy to test.
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