Reading skill controlThe testing of reading deals with comprehension and speed. The former is more important than the latter and is rather a qualitative aspect of testing reading, than a quantitative one. Though testing techniques to measure the degree of comprehension (general, complete and detailed) have been designed to avoid subjective assessment, they are still pretty far from being perfect. Testing reading may be administered aloud or silently. In case of reading aloud, the test may be administered in the language laboratory with each student reading on tape. Subsequent evaluation is carried out in the manner described above for measuring speaking skills. This type of testing cannot give the idea of students’ comprehension of what they are reading, checking only their pronunciation and intonation habits and acquisition of reading rules. If students read silently, each student reads a passage accompanied by a set of questions on cards, which can be true-and-false type, multiple choice or a type that requires a statement for an answer. Afterwards the teacher collects cards and evaluates every student’s comprehension according to his answers on the card. A few general points about testing students’ reading skill as a receptive activity should be made: - Students should not be asked to write or speak too much on the passage read; otherwise the test will be unfair to students whose comprehension is better than their productive skills. - Students should not be able to guess the correct answer without understanding the text. - The content, the volume of the test and the time allowed for it are to correspond to the specific reading skills being tested. If we are testing skimming reading skill, the test should concentrate on the main message of the text of a substantial volume read rather fast. With general reading, the test is aimed at comprehending the general gist of the text, general line of argumentation, the author’s reasoning. The volume of the text is less, while the time allowance is greater. Finally, if we are testing close reading skill, we will want to check students’ ability of complete and exact comprehension of the information contained in the text and its critical interpretation. As the tempo of close reading seldom exceeds 50-60 w/min, we should allow our students sufficient time to read a text, which is to be structurally complete, meaningful and not too lengthy. Let’s consider the following text as testing material: The dagona tree, which is common in the dry regions of Africa, has an unusual appearance. The fully-grown dagona is about twenty feet tall and has a thin trunk, about nine inches across. The trunk is bare for most of its height and the spiky branches, which have many small leaves, stand out from the top of the trunk, giving the tree the appearance of a large brush stuck in the ground. The dagona tree has many uses. In October it produces large, round fruit with yellow flesh inside which can be eaten raw or made into a refreshing drink. The flesh can also be dried and made into flour. The outer skin of the fruit can be used for making glue; first it is dried, then the skin is pounded and mixed with water to make the glue. The bark of the tree is made up of fibres of great strength, which are used to make ropes. And the spiky branches can be hollowed out and used as musical pipes. The text contains a lot of detailed information, while its subject is defined in the very first sentence. This makes it hardly appropriate for testing skimming reading. We might use it, however, to check the students’ ability to extract specific information from the text without reading too closely. For this, it would be reasonable to hand out cards with the table to complete, which students can use while reading. The technique is referred to as information transfer:
If we want to check general reading, we may use True or False test with positions covering the main points of the text. The questions only test comprehension (no writing involved), and are easy to mark. The main problem with true/false questions in tests is that students can guess the answer. If the choice is between ‘true’ and ‘false’ only, they have a 50% chance of being right each time. The chances of guessing are reduced by giving three choices: ‘true’, ‘false’ and ‘don’t know’, e.g.: Look at the following statements. Write T for true, F for false, and DK (don’t know) if you can’t tell from the text: 1. The dagona tree grows in Africa. 2. The dagona is common in rain forests. 3. The dagona produces fruit twice a year. 4. The flesh of the fruit can be used as a medicine. Etc. To test close reading, multiple choice tests, covering major meaningful details of the text, are used, e.g.:
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