ASSESSING GRAMMAR

& VOCABULARY

Musfera Nara Vadia

English Department
 ASSESSING GRAMMAR
◦ In term of assessment, grammar is central to language description and test taker performance.
Today, the knowledge of grammar is evaluated by its correct use in communication through
listening, speaking, reading, and writing in second language.
◦ Communicative competence has four components: grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse, and
strategic competence. Grammatical knowledge consist of three elements;
a) Grammatical forms or the structures of a language.
Form is both morphology or how words are formed, and syntax, how words are strung together,
both of them are concerned with the linguistic accuracy of language.
b) The grammatical meaning of those forms.
Grammatical meaning consists of both the literal and intended message that is conveyed by the
form. It concerned with the meaningfulness of the language used.
c) Their pragmatic meaning or use in a given context.
The pragmatic or implied meaning results from the appropriate language choices a learner makes in
a given communicative event.
DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS:
SELECTED RESPONSE
Multiple-choice tasks
◦ The most common selected response task presents a blank or underlined words n a sentence and
the test taker must choose the correct response from the options that are given. (Grammatical form,
Grammatical meaning, Grammatical for and meaning)
Discrimination tasks
◦ The tasks that asks the test-takers to attend to input that can be either language or non-language
and to respond in the form of a choice between or among contrasts or opposites, such as true/false.
(grammatical form and meaning)
Noticing tasks or consciousness-raising tasks
◦ Test-takers are asked to indicate (underline or circle) that they have identified a specific feature in
the language sample. (grammatical meaning)
 DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS:
LIMITED PRODUCTION
Gap-filling tasks
◦ The language is presented in the form of sentence, dialogue, or passage in which a number of words
are deleted. The test-taker must choose the appropriate response for the deletion or gap based on
the context in which language is presented. (grammatical form, grammatical form and meaning).
Short-answer tasks
◦ The input is presented in the form of a question following reading passage or oral/visual stimulus.
The expected test-taker response can vary from single word to a sentence or two. (grammatical form
and meaning, testing grammatical form and meaning)
Dialogue-completion tasks
◦ The input is presented in the form of a short conversation or dialogue in which a part of the exchange
or the entire exchange is left blank and the expected response meant to be grammatically correct.
 DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS:
EXTENDED PRODUCTION
◦ Five-point scale for assessing syntactic knowledge (Bachman & Palmer, 1996)
◦ 0 none, 1 limited, 2 moderate, 3 extensive, 4 complete.

Information Gap Tasks

◦ Presents the input in terms of incomplete information. That is, one test-taker is given half-or some-
of the information and another test takers is given complementary information. Both test-takers then
have question each other to get all the information. (grammatical form, meaning, and pragmatic use)
Role-play or Simulation Tasks
◦ The input presents test-takers with a language or non-language prompt that asks them to take on a
role or stimulate a situation to solve a problem, make decision, or perform some transaction
collaboratively. (grammatical form, meaning, and pragmatic use)
 ASSESSING VOCABULARY
The Nature of Vocabulary
◦ We can identify words as tokens and types. Tokens are all the words in the
paragraph. Types, on the other hand, do not count words that are repeated, only
words that are different forms.
◦ The difference between function words and content words. Function words –
prepositions, articles, conjunctions, and other “little” words- are seen as
belonging more to the grammar of the language than vocabulary. Content words
are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
◦ Some vocabulary tests have might focus larger on lexical items such as phrasal
verbs (“put up with”, “run into”), compound words (”personal computer”), or
idioms (“ a pretty penny”), which have meaning only as a whole unit.
Four types of lexical phrases:
◦ Poly words are short fixed phrases that are perform a variety of functions such as
qualifying, marking fluency, disagreement, etc. for example: for the most part, so
to speak, and wait a minute.
◦ Institutionalized expression are longer utterance that are fixed in form such as
proverb and formulas for social interaction. For example: nice to meet you, how’s
it going, etc.
◦ Phrasal constraints are medium-length phrases that have basic structure with
one or two slots that can be filled by various words or phrases. For example;
yours truly/ sincerely, as far as I know/ can tell, etc.
◦ Sentence builders are phrases that provide the framework for a complete
sentence with one or two slots where whole ideas can be expressed. For
example: on the other hand X, not only X but also X, etc.
Defining lexical knowledge
Three components make up Chapelle’s definition of vocabulary:
◦ The context of vocabulary use
◦ Vocabulary knowledge and fundamental processes
◦ Metacognitive strategies for vocabulary use
 SOME CONSIDERATION IN DESIGNING
ASSESSMENT TASKS
Some steps to design a vocabulary test:
◦ Clarify your purpose
◦ Define your construct
◦ Select your target words: high-frequency words, low-frequency words,
specialized vocabulary, sub-technical words
◦ Determine mode of performance: receptive and productive vocabulary
DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS:
RECEPTIVE VOCABULARY
◦ First of all it is important to consider what role the context plays in the
item. One function of the context is to indicate a specific meaning of a
high-frequency word. Second, the learner must be able to recognize the
word based on given context. Read (2000, p.163) illustrate in the
following items:

Vocabulary in a one-sentence context : high-frequency word

Vocabulary in a one-sentence context : low-frequency word
Vocabulary matching exercise
Words association
DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS:
PRODUCTIVE VOCABULARY

◦ A common vocabulary test type is sentence completion, where the

target vocabulary item is deleted from a sentence and the test-takers
must understand the context in which the word occurs in order to
produce the missing word.

Fill in the blank

Selective deletion cloze
Brown, Douglas., Priyanvada Abeywickrama. 2010. Language Assesment: Principles and
Classroom Practices. 2nd ed. New York: Pearson Education