NUR CHOLIS

LANGUAGE TESTING IV A
2070730002

TEACHING VERSUS TESTING

The discussion of teaching versus testing is just the same idea of two side of a
coin, the existing of one side supports the other. The deliverance of a good-planned
classroom instruction will not be finished successfully withouth a series of good
testing. This statement possible because testing supports and monitor each stages of
learning process.
Under certain circumstances, especially in a condition which teacher has little
or no knowledge of the students previous ability toward the planned instruction. The
placement test should be applied to determine whether a student is ready to begin with
and cope with the instructional process or not. If the test shows students in ability to
start the instructional process, then an early remedy should be given.
During the process of instructional program, teacher should monitor each
students receptance of the lesson given. There are two types of test will benefit in this
stage, those are formative test and diagnostic test.
A formative tests are given after teacher finished each chapter, the form of test
can be in formal written test or oral quizzes. The main purpose of formative test is to
measure students’ ability to grasp the lesson, but not to assign grades.
If teacher see further failure in students ability to grasp the lesson, the
diagnostic test should be offered. This test will probe deeper on the core of the
problem, whether it is in the teaching methode, insequence instruction, or other
problems, this test will give early warning so that teacher can make additional plan
dealing with the problem based on the diagnostic test result.
Last but not the least, is summative testing. Commonly we assume that
summative test is merely to provide grading. However, summative test result can
answer teacher’s questions such as :
- Why the students did not achieved the intended result of the
instructions?
 To tackle this problem teacher should probe deeper to the teaching methode,
students acceptance of the lesson, teaching tools or other causes of the failures. In
other word, the result of the summative test mirrored the teacher-students
achievement during the instruction process.
However, if most of the students have achieved the intended results, teacher
would simply assign grades or certify mastery of certain subjects. Nevertheless,
teacher would improve the instruction for next term. The grade or mastery
certification can be use as standard for the instruction process afterward.
So, we may conclude that testing has a great role in supporting and developing
students progress since in the beginning of the instruction process, during the
instruction process and even at the end of the instruction.