The passage looks to be a part of literary piece and it is written in past tense

English Language Testing Methodology
Palitha Dissanayake


English Language Testing Methodology
Palitha Dissanayake


Dedication

To
Paru Madam
and
My ever loving mother,
wife Nilanthie
daughter Pahanmie & Son Pulmeth

Acknowledgements
I am most grateful to Ms. Parvathie Nagasundaram, (Former Head/ Department of English, University of Sri Jayawardanepura) for her continuous guidance and tremendous encouragement in the field of linguistics. It is entirely because of ‘Paru Madam’ that I stand in my present position in the professional career.

I express my utmost gratitude to Prof. Asoka Premarathne, Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya for his profound support and guidance at crucial points of my studies.

Contents

Dedication ……………………………………………………….

Acknowledgements ………………………………………………
Contents ………………………………………………………….
Introduction ……………………………………………………..
Chapter 1: Basic Concepts of Language Testing ……………….
Chapter 2: Types of Language Tests ……………………………
Chapter 3: Validity ……………………………………………….
Chapter 4: Test Scores ……………………………………………
Chapter 5: Reliability …………………………………………….
Chapter 6: Testing Reading Skills ………………………………
Chapter 7: Testing Listening Skills ………………………………
Chapter 8: Testing Oral Skills ……………………………………
Chapter 9: Testing Writing Skills …………………………………
Chapter 10: Testing Grammar ……………………………………


Chapter 1
Basic Concepts of Language Testing

The aim of this chapter is to present an introduction to the fundamental concepts of language tests. It discusses validity, reliability of a test paper and some notions of test item construction.

1. 
   Test
   

A ‘Test’ is simply referred to as a ‘method of measuring one’s knowledge or ability or both in a given area. ‘Knowledge’ is the competence of the learner. In language testing this includes one’s knowledge of language structures and vocabulary. ‘Ability’ means the performance of the candidate. This includes skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. Knowledge can be directly measured but performance is assessed by measuring the underlying skills required in performing various skills. For example, reading involves a number of underlying abilities such as the ability to extract specific information from a text or the ability to identify the main idea of a text. In language testing, performance assessment is given more prominence, though ‘knowledge’ is not totally ignored.

2.