assessing reading
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Assessing ReadingTRANSCRIPT
Cathy C. Suarez
BBL 5053
University of Texas as San Antonio
Alderson (2000) describes reading as , “The most extensively researched and the most enigmatic of the so-called language skills.”
Goodman (1970) refers to reading as,” A psycholinguistic guessing-game.”
Reading is _______________. complicated
1. Overlap among the four skills
2. Similarities in the types of performance among the four skills
3. Assessment tasks: the most popular, most researched, most common and the oldest
Key Points
Yes
Yes Yes
Can the teacher directly observe………?
Observable Performance of the fours skills
Process Product
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
(Brown and Abeywickrama , p.159)
No No
Yes No*
No No
Yes Yes
Bottom up, top down, and schemata strategies
Micro and Macro skills for comprehension
Comprehension strategies
1. Reading Skills
● Perceptive: Letters, words, punctuation (Bottom-up processing)
● Selective: assessment formats: picture cued-tasks, multiple-choice, matching, true/false
● Interactive: reader interacts with the text, “the process of negotiating meaning” (Top-down processing)
● Extensive: big picture understanding of longer texts
2. Types of Reading Performance
Reading Aloud (S,R)
Written Response (R,W)
Picture cued-items(R, L)
Multiple-Choice (R)
Editing for grammatical
errors (R)
3. Assessment Tasks
Gap-Filling (S,R)
Matching (R)
Short-Answer Tasks (R,W)
Scanning (R)
Ordering Tasks (R)
Information Transfer (R,S,W)
Interpretation of graphic
information ( R,S,W)
Skimming (R, S/W)
Summarizing and Responding
(R,W)
Notetaking and Outlining (R,W)
Almost 20 types of tasks, corresponding to different types of reading performance
Over 30 examples, most with overlap of skills being assessed
Multiple-Choice (R)
Cloze Procedure (L,S,R, W)
Impromptu Reading with comprehension questions
Most popular, researched, oldest
I wonder if the person next to me is really ____________.
I’m glad the presenter hasn’t put me to _______________.
Will they ever get the ____________ right in this classroom?
Is it 9:00 _________?
Let’s Practice!
It is difficult to isolate reading from listening, speaking, and writing. Most assessment tasks overlap with at least one of the other skills.
Types of reading performance are similarly classified:
Selective and extensive reading, similar to listening
Similar to speaking there is interactive and extensive
There are numerous types of assessment tasks and variations to choose from.
Summary
Dr. Caroline Clapham
Brown, H., & Abeywickrama, P. (2010). Language assessment: Principles and classroom practices (2nd ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.
Fulcher, G. and Thrasher, R. Language Testing Videos. In association with ILTA, available: http://languagetesting.info. Retrieved from http://languagetesting.info/video/main.html
Goodman, K. S. (1970). Reading: A Psycholinguistic Guessing Game. In D. V. Gunderson (Ed.), Language and Reading: An Interdisciplinary Approach. (pp. 107-119): CAL. Retrieved from https://login.libweb.lib.utsa.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.libweb.lib.utsa.edu/docview/54337249?accountid=7122
References