Communicative Language Testing

As a result of testing accountability, teachers have changed the shift in their classrooms and focus on teaching to the test. Many criticize that the tests that are administered do not allow for thoughtful or deliberate thinking. Multiple choice questions, condensed reading passages, add to the inauthenticity of the test and can impede the ability of students. Studies have also show that test taking has a negative impact on student achievement in reading, writing, and mathematics. ELL students are still developing their English language skills while learning new content. It is unfair to have the expectations that these ELL students are being held accountable with the same standards as their native-English-speaking peers. ELL students need to have the necessary background knowledge, English language and academic language knowledge to successfully understand test

The vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, logical sentences, and sentence combining subtests are contrived tests where testing begins at question one regardless of age/grade, and continues until the student incorrect

Sonia is very confident when using both present simple (using the auxiliary verb DO in interrogative sentences and DON’T in negative sentences, placing adverbs and conjugating the verbs with He, she and It correctly) and past simple tenses (using the auxiliary verb DID in interrogative sentences and DIDN’t in negative sentences –and the verbs in the base form - and being aware of regular and irregular verbs).

The assessment evaluated above was used in a 5th grade language arts class where students were assessed on their understanding and application of the eight parts of speech. The students had to know the eight parts of speech to answer every question correctly. The assessment was taken by 17 regular 5th grader students, 2 ESOL and one ESE. Proper accommodation was given for ESOL students and ESE student, such as extended time to complete the test. From the 20 students taking the assessment, 9 students were girls and 11 students were boys. The assessment has a high validity, for the questions are intended for students to identify the proper part of speech in each sentence.

In “I Won’t Hire People with Poor Grammar. Here’s Why” Kyle Wiens explains that Kyle wants to hire a people who have great grammar and he gives a reason why he said that. He regards grammar as an important part. His company which is iFixit is one the biggest online repair manual, that’s why employees need a good grammar to make the best manual. Kyle thinks good grammar makes a sense of successful business. In addition, his company thinks reliability is made through good grammar especially on the internet. Of course, writing and reading are less important than those who create manuals in their office. However, the company practice grammar test for all employees such as sales managers, staffs. This is because distinguishing the even small part

Pachler, N., Barnes, A., and Field, K., 2009, Learning to teach Modern Foreign Languages in th

This model supports the use of both the native language and the new language within the daily teaching curriculum (Ray, 2008). The No Child Left Behind Act threatens the Dual Language method and negatively impacts bilingual education because of the high degree of emphasis that is placed on standardized testing. The weight of standardized testing that is felt from the state all the way down to the classroom level has forced curriculum to focus on the passing of these tests. Because bilingual students must take the standardized test in English, this has caused a shift in the landscape of bilingual education. Teachers of bilingual students are abandoning the DL method in favor of a more English only environment as a means to help students pass standardized tests (Ray, 2008). This negates the purpose of bilingual education and decreases the benefits that these students receive while learning in a dual language

Our bilingual students and teachers are facing the same and more complication than a regular classroom. “English language learners, like all the students throughout the United States, are expected to excel on a single-measure high-stakes test” (D. Palmer, A.W. Lynch, June 2008). Not all the students master or gain their second language as the same way like everyone else, some student show difficulties in different areas but the most common one is the writing and reading because they have language gaps that they will being filling over time. “English Language Learners face a particular challenge: to perform in a language that they by definition do not master. Students who are limited in English are unlikely to be able to demonstrate their content knowledge on a test written in English” (Abedi 2004). I am a ELL student, when I was in 11th grade I felt the same pressure that most of the student felt to pass the TASK test to be available to continue with my education and graduated. It was difficult for me to pass the test because the gaps of the language and the vocabulary, I remember seen words that I didn’t recognize. When I took test, I did know that there where accommodation that could be set up for me because I was ELL student, instead I took the test without any accommodations. During that time, I had a lot of pressure from my teachers to

“Testing: Frequently Asked Questions.” U.S. Department of Education. USA.gov, 17 November 2004. Web. 1 May 2017.

Testing is based around language, “every assessment is an assessment of language” (105). This is unfair for emergent bilinguals, unless language is “disentangled” from the actual content knowledge on the assessment. A key aspect to tests is that they must be valid and reliable for bilingual

This chapter identifies language assessments for English Language Learners and Bilingual students. Over the next several years, the United States educational system will see a dramatic increase in culturally and linguistically diverse students from various racial and ethnic minority groups.

It is not uncommon to say that grammar instruction plays an important role in language teaching. Regarding the status and importance of grammar teaching, a variety of opinions have been made. Batstone (1994) states that “language without grammar would be chaotic: countless words without the indispensable guidelines for how they can be ordered and modified” (p. 4). More vividly, Wang (2010) makes two similes. She compares grammar to the frame of a house, which is a decisive factor to ensure the solidness of it. Additionally, she regards grammar as a walking stick, whose function is to help and support students to learn English. Thus, the nature of grammar instruction manifests its own significance as it helps students

Larsen-Freeman (2001) as cited in Mart (2013), describes grammar as a system of meaningful structures and patterns that are governed by particular pragmatic constraints. This clearly indicates that grammar plays a crucial role in learning the target language. Grammar instruction is one of the most difficult issues that people have encountered in language learning and teaching. Therefore, the best way to overcome this issue is by

In the long history of language learning, especially in the case of learning English as L2, educationalists have been tirelessly trying to explore more and more practical approaches that ranged from conventional methods like Grammar translation method, Direct method, Situational Language Teaching etc., to the latest mode of communicative approach. The conventional teaching methods - the unsuccessful result of the earlier language theories, were proved to be ineffective, because it was felt in all the methods, that the learners were passive and the teaching-learning process was mechanical. Hence during the 1960s, a new trend of language teaching called Communicative Language Teaching paved its way into classrooms in the early 1960’s and has

In the classroom relating to descriptive grammar learners can be encouraged to move away from a prescriptive approach to grammar by using a guided discovery in which they look for examples of variations in use in authentic texts. These examples can be compared to prescriptive rules in order to decide if they are useful or