Assessing of reading

Assessing reading

By Abdureim Abdurashytov

&

Shain Aliiev

10/30/16

Models of Reading

• Bottom-up processing
• Top-down processing

10/30/16

Bottom-up Processing

Reader builds meaning from the smallest units to achieve comprehension.

Example: letter letter clusters words phrases sentences longer text meaning = comprehension

10/30/16

Top-down Processing

Reader generates meaning by employing background knowledge, expectations, assumptions, and questions, and reads to confirm these expectations.

Example: Pre-reading activities + background knowledge (cultural, linguistic, syntactic, and historical) = comprehension

10/30/16

• The assessment of reading ability does not end with the measurement of comprehension. Strategic pathways to full understanding are often important factors to include in assessing learners, especially in the case of most classroom assessments that are formative in nature.

• All assessment of reading must be carried out by inference.

10/30/16

Genres of reading

• Academic Reading (i.e. articles, thesis, textbooks, essays ect.)

• Job-related Reading (i.e. letter/emails, manuals, applications, project repots ect.)

• Personal Reading (i.e. newspapers/magazines, novels, messages, poetry, recipes, menus, maps ect.

10/30/16

Microskills

• Discriminate among the distinctive graphemes and orthographic patterns of English.
• Retain chunks of language of different lengths in short term memory.
• Recognize a core of words, and interpret word order patterns and their significance.
• Recognize grammatical word classes (nouns, verbs), systems (tense, agreement, pluralization), patterns, rules and elliptical forms.
• Recognize that a particular meaning may be expressed in different grammatical forms.
• Recognize cohesive devices in written discourse and their role in signaling the relationship between and among clauses.

10/30/16

Macroskills

• Recognize the rhetorical forms of written discourse and their significance for interpretation.
• Recognize the communication functions of written texts, according to form and purpose.
• Infer context that is not explicit by using background knowledge.
• Distinguish between literal and implied meanings.
• Detect culturally specific references and interpret them in a context of the appropriate cultural schemata.
• Develop and use reading strategies, such as scanning and skimming, detecting discourse markers, guessing the meaning of words from context, and activating for the interpretation of texts.

10/30/16

DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS

• Perceptive reading
• Selective
• Interactive
• Extensive

10/30/16

Perceptive Reading

• - involve attending to the components of larger stretches discourse: letters, words, punctuation and other graphemic symbols.
• - bottom-up processing is implied.

1) Reading aloud

2) Written response

3) Multiple-Choice

4) Picture-Cued Items

10/30/16

Perceptive Reading

Multiple Choice

Minimal pair distinction

Test takers read: Circle “S” for same or “D” for different.

1. led let S D

2. bit bit S D

3. seat set S D

4. too to S D

10/30/16

Perceptive Reading

A . B . Picture-cued matching word

identification

C. D .

Test Takers read:

1. washing the dishes ____

2. chatting with a friend ____

3. studying the lesson ____

4. washing the clothes ____

10/30/16

Selective Reading

- brief responses are intended and a combination of bottom-up and top-down processing may be used.

• stimuli include sentences, brief paragraphs and simple charts and graphs.

• Multiple-Choice

2 ) Matching Tasks

3 ) Editing Tasks

4 ) Gap-Filling Tasks

10/30/16

Selective Reading

Multiple-choice vocabulary/grammar tasks

1. He’s not married. He’s __________.

A. young

B. single

C. first

D. a husband

2. If there’s no doorbell, please __________ on the door.

A. kneel

B. type

C. knock

D. shout

10/30/16

Selective Reading

3. The mouse is __________ the bed.

A. under

B. around

C. between

4. The bank robbery occurred __________ I was in the

restroom.

A. that

B. during

C. while

D. which

10/30/16

Selective Reading

Contextualized multiple-choice vocabulary/grammar tasks

1. Oscar: Do you like champagne?

Lucy: No. I can’t __________.

A. stand

B. prefer

C. hate

2. Manager: Do you like to work by yourself?

Employee: Yes, I like to work __________.

A. independently

B. definitely

C. impatiently

10/30/16

Selective Reading

Multiple-choice cloze vocabulary/grammar tasks

I’ve lived in the United States (21) _____ three years. I (22) _____

live in Costa Rica. I (23) _____ speak any English. I used to (24)_____

homesick, but now I enjoy (25) _____ here. I never (26) _____ back

home (27) _____ I came to the United States, but I might (28) _____

to visit my family soon.

21. A. since 23. A. couldn’t 25. A. Live 27. A. when

B. for B. could B. to live B. while

C. during C. can C. living C. since

22. A. used to 24. A. been 26. A. be 28. A. go

B. use to B. be B. been B. will go

C. was C. being C. was C. going

10/30/16

Selective Reading

Matching Tasks

Vocabulary matching task

Write in the letter of the definition on the right that matches

the word on the left.

____1. exhausted a. unhappy

____2. disappointed b. understanding of others

____3. enthusiastic c. tired

____4. empathetic d. excited

10/30/16

Selective Reading

Editing Tasks

- Editing for grammatical or rhetorical errors is a widely used test method for assessing linguistic competence in reading.

10/30/16

Selective Reading

Multiple-choice grammar editing task

Choose the letter of the underlined word that is not correct.

1. The abrasively action of the wind wears away softer layers of rock.

A B C D

2. There are two way of making a gas condense : cooling it or putting it

A B C D

under pressure.

3. Researchers have discovered that the application of bright light can

A B

sometimes be uses to overcome jet lag.

C D

10/30/16

Selective Reading

Gap-Filling Tasks

-the response is to write a word or phrase.

Oscar: Doctor, what should I do if I get sick?

Doctor: It is best to stay home and ________________.

If you have a fever, ______________________.

You should drink as much _________________.

The worst thing you can do is _______________.

You should also __________________________.

10/30/16

Interactive Reading - tasks at this level have a combination of form-focused and meaning-focused objectives but with more emphasis on meaning.

- it implies a little more focus on top-down processing than on bottom-up.

Cloze Tasks - the ability to fill in gaps in an incomplete image (visual, auditory or cognitive) and supply (from background schemata) omitted details.

• cloze tests are usually a minimum of two paragraphs in length in order to account for discourse expectancies.

• -typically, every seventh word (plus or minus two) is deleted (known as fixed-ratio deletion ) but many cloze test designers instead use a rational deletion procedure of choosing deletions according to the grammatical or discourse functions of the words.

10/30/16

Interactive Reading Two approaches to the scoring of cloze test

• Exact word method- gives credit to test-takers only if they insert the exact word that was originally deleted.
• Appropriate word method- gives credit to the test-taker for supplying any word that is grammatically correct and that makes good sense in the context.

10/30/16

Interactive Reading Cloze procedure, fixed ratio deletion (every seventh word)

• The recognition that one’s feelings of (1) ____ and unhappiness
• can coexist much like (2) ____ and hate in a close relationship
• (3) ____ offer valuable clues on how to (4) ____ a happier life. It
• suggests, for (5) ____ that changing or avoiding things that (6)
• ____ you miserable may well make you (7) ____ miserable but
• probably no happier.

10/30/16

Interactive Reading Cloze procedure, rational deletion (prepositions and conjunctions)

• The recognition that one’s feelings (1) ____ happiness (2) ____
• unhappiness can coexist much like love and hate (3) ____ a
• close relationship may offer valuable clues (4) ____ how to lead
• a happier life. It suggests, (5) ____ example, that changing (6)
• ____ avoiding things that make you miserable may well make
• you less miserable (7) ____ probably no happier.

10/30/16

Interactive Reading Variations on Standard Cloze Testing

• C-test- the second half (according to the number of letters) of every other word is obliterated and the test-taker must restore each word.
• Cloze-elide procedure- it inserts words into a text that do not belong. The test-taker’s task is to detect and cross out the “intrusive” words.

10/30/16

Interactive Reading IMPROMPTU READING PLUS COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

-the traditional “Read a passage and answer some questions” technique which is the oldest and the most common.

SHORT-ANSWER TASKS

-a reading passage is presented and the test-taker reads questions that must be answered in a sentence or two.

Open-ended reading comprehension questions

1. What do you think is the main idea of this passage?

2. What would you infer from the passage about the future of air

travel?

3. In line 6, the word sensation is used. From the context, what

do you think this word means?

4. Why do you think the airlines have recently experienced a

decline?

10/30/16

Interactive Reading

• EDITING (LONGER TEXTS)

- authenticity is increased.

the task simulates proofreading one’s own essay, where it is imperative to find and correct errors.

if the test is connected to a specific curriculum, the test designer can draw up specifications for a number of grammatical and rhetorical categories that match the content of the courses.

10/30/16

Interactive reading

Scanning

- it is a strategy used by all readers to find relevant information in a text.

10/30/16

Sсanning

• a one to two page news article
• an essay
• a chapter in a textbook
• a technical report
• a table or chart depicting some research findings

10/30/16

Interactive reading

Ordering Tasks

• sometimes called the “ strip story ” technique.

Sentence ordering tasks

Put the scrambled sentences into the correct order that they happened.

(…..) A. It was called “The Last Waltz”.

(…..) B. The street was in total darkness.

(…..) C. Because it was one he and Richard had learnt at school.

(…..) D. Peter looked outside.

(…..) E. he recognised the tune.

(…..) F. And it seemed deserted

(…..) G. he thought he heard someone whistling

10/30/16

Extensive Reading

- it involves somewhat longer texts. Journal articles, technical reports, longer essays, short stories and books fall into this category.

- reading of this type of discourse almost always involves a focus on meaning using mostly top-down processing, with only occasional use of targeted bottom-up strategy.

10/30/16

Tasks that can be applied in extensive reading:

-impromptu reading plus comprehension questions

-short answer tasks

-editing

-scanning

-ordering

-information transfer and

-interpretation (discussed under graphics)

10/30/16

Extensive Reading

Skimming Tasks

- it is the process of rapid coverage of reading matter to determine its gist or main idea.

10/30/16

Skimming Task

The test-taker skims the text and answer the following questions.

What is the main idea of this text?

What is the author’s purpose in writing the text?

What kind of writing is this (newspaper, article, manual, novel, etc.)?

What type of writing is this (expository, technical, narrative, etc.)?

How easy or difficult do you think this text will be?

What do you think you will learn from the text?

How useful will the text be for your (profession, academic needs, interests)?

10/30/16

Extensive Reading

Summarizing and Responding

Summarizing- requires a synopsis or overview of the text.

Criteria for assessing a summary

1. Expresses accurately the main idea and supporting ideas.

2. Is written in the student’s own words; occasional vocabulary from the original text is acceptable.

3. Is logically organized.

10/30/16

• Responding

- it asks the reader to provide his/her own opinion on the text as a whole or on some statement or issue within it.

10/30/16

Thank you

10/30/16