TE STIN G G R A M MA R

ZGE BULUT
WHY DO WE TEST GRAMMAR?
Separate testing of grammar?
But times have changed!!!
Proficiency tests retain a grammar section
(Hughes, 1989)
SHOULD WE TEST GRAMMAR?
It has to be accepted that grammatical ability or rather the lack of it
sets limits to what can be achieved in the way of skills performance.

Knowledge of a students grammatical ability is very useful

information.

Diagnostic test of grammar what gaps exist in their

grammatical repertoire.

(Hughes,1989)
TYPES OF TESTS

Grammar underpins the ability to use language in order to express meaning.

Multiple-choice items
Error-recognition items
Rearrangement items
Completion items
Transformation items
Items involving the changing of words
Broken sentence items
Pairing and matching items
Combination items
Addition items (Heaton, 1988; Kitao & Kitao,
1996)
REARRANGEMENT ITEMS
TRANSFORMATION ITEMS
BROKEN SENTENCE ITEMS
COMBINATION ITEMS
ADDITION ITEMS
 Direct tests and indirect tests
Direct tests: Communicative performance: interviews, role plays,
writing an email

Indirect tests: MC items, cloze items, paraphrasing etc.

Alvarez (2013) claims that direct tests generally have higher
face validity than indirect tests. BUT !
However, to assess proficiency at the tertiary level, indirect tests
are highly UNPOPULAR in terms of face validity.
 A few decades ago, language instruction based on grammar
teaching.. However, during the communicative era, grammar is
a key point to think about a new approach to the teaching and
learning languages.

In this paper,
she had an interventionist position in terms of
grammar instruction in the L2 classroom.

Because
Explicit grammar instruction contributes to linguistic
development of students.
Instruction of L2 grammar is effective
 The university established a B2 proficiency level test to place the students
above or below the B2 level.

MC questions
No listening comprehension section or speaking section
The test was divided into two parts

65 items with four options 3 texts

2 assessing grammar and
vocab
1 reading comprehension
skills
INVESTIGATING THE PERFORMANCE OF
ALTERNATIVE TYPES OF GRAMMAR ITEMS
GERGELY DAVID
 The importance of explicit grammar testing is
diminished. This declining fortune affected MC
technique.

MC technique is unsuitable because the concept of

grammar has changed and expanded over the years.

Writing MC items is difficult?

THREE TYPES OF MC
1. Four-choice sentence-based items, which are arguably
the most often used variety and will be referred to as the
standard type of mc.
2. Four-choice text-based (mc cloze) items.
3. Four-choice sentence-based items, dubbed double-
blank since the stem contained two blanks instead of
the usual one.
Teenagers ____________ better ____________ children.

(a) are // to be regarded as (c) are // regarded to be

(b) are // regarded as (d) had // to regard
themselves as

(ITEM 21, TEST 1995, VERSION 1)

MULTITRAK ITEMS
Another four-choice sentence-based item type was added.
The important thing is choosing the UNACCEPTABLE choice

LOOK! OVER THERE! THAT ______________ BE THE MAN WERE LOOKING FOR.
(A) COULD (C) MAY
(B) CAN * (D) MIGHT
(ITEM 56, TEST 1993, VERSION 1)
WHY?

Multitrak items represent the

communicative alternatives!
ARGUMENTS
They focus students attention on errors
Standard mc items are better because they do not
focus on what it is wrong
They are only suitable for testing in teacher training
programs- teachers need to learn about errors.
RESEARCH
63 text based (mc cloze) items
79 double-blank items
89 multitrak items
Multitrak item format is more difficult than the other
formats.
Because?
L1 AND L2 TRANSLATION IN CLASSROOM
GRAMMAR TESTS
ILANA SALEM
 Classroom grammar tests allow teachers to learn about
students progress in forming and using grammatical
structures.
This information is obtained through elicitation of particular
language forms.
Trigger-structure association: yet in
She ______ (not come) yet signals the target
response: she hasnt come yet.
160 translation grammar test cues
Collected randomly, grammar quizzes etc.
11 participants

1 ech tagiyu lachatuna

how will you get to the wedding?
2 ein lanu shiurei bait hayom
we have no homework today.
RESULTS
Free variation: we have no, we dont have any, we dont
have, we havent got any, there is no, no
Tenses are generally generated by trigger words
Past perfect is not the preferred one : instead of had sold:
sold (40%)/ after selling .(50%)
Lehafriya bashiurwfw disturb in-the-lesson/during the
lesson, non-existent in English.
CONCLUSION
The inclusion of translation tasks in tests should be preceded by
classroom practice of L1-L2 translation.

Translation tasks serve as an awareness-raising eye opener to

L1-L2 differences

To what extent does contrasting L1 with L2 and learning

grammar rules based on the trigger form association assist
second language acquisition?
SCORING PRODUCTION GRAMMAR TESTS
Gap filling and MC items
Just one element-nothing should be deducted for non-
grammatical errors
Two elements? getting one element wrong means that
the student does not have full control of the structure.
Careful preparation of the scoring key is necessary.
(Hughes,1989)
REFERENCES
Alvarez, I.A. (2013). Large-scale assessment of language proficiency: Theoretical
and pedagogical reflections on the use of multiple-choice tests. International
Journal of English Studies, 13(2).

David, G. (2007). Investigating the performance of alternative types of grammar

items. Language Testing 24,(1).

Heaton, J.B. (1988). Writing English Language Tests. New York, NY: Longman Inc.
Hughes, A. (1989). Testing for Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

Kitao, S.K. & Kitao, K. (1996). Testing grammar, ERIC # ED398256.

Salem, I. (2011). L1-L2 sentence translation in classroom grammar tests. ELT
Journal Advance Access, June 23,2011.