APPROACH TO LANGUAGE TASTING

APPROACH TO LANGUAGE TASTING


Approximately language tests can be categorized according to four main approaches to testing. They are the essay-translation approach, the structuralist approach, the integrative approach and the communicative approach. The model of every approach using in testing will be discussed as follows.

1. The Essay-Translation Approach
a. The Characteristic and Types of Tests of Essay-Translation Approach:
- This approach is commonly referred to as the pre-scientific stage of language tasting.
- No special skill or expertise in testing is required.
- Tests usually consist of essay writing, translation, and grammatical analysis.
- Tests have a heavy literary and cultural bias.
- Public examinations resulting from the tests using this approach sometimes have an oral component at the upper intermediate and advance levels.

b. The Strengths of Essay-Translation Approach:
- This approach is easy to do due to the reason that teachers will simply use their subjective judgment.
- The essay-translation approach may be use for testing any levels of testees.
- The model of tester can easily be modified based on the essential of the tests.

c. The Weaknesses of Essay-Translation Approach:
- Subjective judgment of teachers tends to make bias.
- As mentioned, the tests have a heavy literary and cultural bias.

2. The Structuralist Approach
a. The Characteristic and Types of Tests of Structuralist Approach:
- This approach views that language learning is chiefly concerned with a systematic acquisition of a set of habit.
- The structuralist approach involves structural linguistics in which the importance of constructive analysis and the need to identify and measure the learners’ mastery of the separate elements of the target language such as phonology, vocabulary and grammar.
- In testing the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing are separated from another as much as possible.
- The psychometric approach to measurement with its emphasis on reliability and objectivity forms an integral part of structuralist testing.

b. The Strengths of Structuralist Approach:
- In testing pupils’capability this approach may objectively and surely be used by testers.
- Many forms of tests can be covered in the test in short time.
- This approach using in testing will help pupils to find their strengths and weaknesses in every skill they studied.

c. The Weaknesses of Structuralist Approach:
- It tends to be a complicated job for teachers to prepare questionnaires using this approach.
- By using this approach we will never consider that it is better to measure integrated skills that to measure non-integrated skills.

3. The Integrative Approach
a. The Characteristic and Types of Tests of Integrative Approach:
- This approach involves the testing of language in context and is thus concerned primarily with meaning and the total communicative effect of discourse.
- Integrative tests are concerned with a global view of proficiency.
- Integrative testing involves functional language but not the use of functional language.
- The use of cloze testing, dictation, oral interview, translation and essay writing are included in many integrative tests.

b. The Strengths of Integrative Approach:
- The approach to meaning and the total communicative effect of discourse will be very useful for pupils in testing.
- This approach can view pupils’ proficiency with a global view.
- A model of cloze test using in this approach is to measure the reader’s ability to decode ‘interrupted’ or ‘mutilated’ messages by making the most acceptable substitutions from all the contextual clues available.
- Dictation, another type using this approach, was regarded solely as a means of measuring pupils’ skills of listening comprehension.


c. The Weaknesses of Integrative Approach:
- Even if we think that measuring integrated skills are better but sometimes we consider the importance of measuring skills based on our need, such as writing only, speaking only, etc.

4. The Communicative Approach
a. The Characteristic and Types of Tests of Communicative Approach:
- Communicative tests are concerned primarily with how language is used in communication.
- Language use is often emphasized to the exclusion of language usage.
- The attempt to measure different language skills in communicative tests is based on a view of language referred to as the divisibility hypothesis.
- The test content should totally be relevant for a particular group of testees and the tasks set should relate to real-life situation.
- Communicative testing introduces the concept of qualitative modes of assessment in preference to quantitative modes of assessment.

b. The Strengths of Communicative Approach:
- Communicative tests are able to measure all integrated skill of pupils.
- The tests using this approach face pupils in real life so it will be very useful for them.
- Due to the fact that Communicative test can measure all language skills; it can help pupils in getting the score. Consider pupils have a poor ability in using spoken language but may score quite highly on tests of reading.
- Detailed statements of each performance level serve to increase the reliability of the scoring by enabling the examiner to make decisions according to carefully drawn-up and well-established criteria.

c. The Weaknesses of Communicative Approach
- Different from structuralist approach this approach will not be able to grasp structurally because communicative competence can ever be achieved without a considerable mastery of the grammar of a language.
- It is unavoidable that cultural bias affects the reliability of the tests being administered.