Tests Techniques

I think the most effective test technique on my opinion is essay, because students can practice writting, comprehension and vocabulary and make clear ideas of what they want to say about a subject or something in general.

On my opinion the least effective test technique is matching because students could match knowing the answer or guessing even if they don’t know wich alternative is correct.

- True/false

This does not directly test writing or speaking abilities: only listening or

reading.I t may be usedt o test aspectso f languages ucha s vocabular5 grammar'

content of a reading or listeningp assageI.t is fairly easyt o design;i t is also easy

to administer, whether orally or in writing, and to mark.

Example.

Personality factors are the most important factor to improve our learning skills

_ True _ False

- Multiple-choice

This may be used for the same testing purposes as true/false items; it does test

rather more thoroughly since it offers more optional answers and is obviously

very easy to mark. It is administered more conveniently through writing; but

note that sincet he reading of the question-and-optionsis fairly time-consuming,

the processo J comprehensiono f the actual questioni tems may take more time

andeffort than the point ostensibly tested, which raises problems of validity.

Another important problem is that good multiple-choice questions are

surprisingly difficult to design: they often come out ambiguous, or with no clear

right answer, or with their solutions over-obvious. They are to be approached

with caution!

1. Which of the following is one of the major approaches to psychology?

a. psychoanalysis
b. structuralism
c. psychiatry
d. New Age Movement

- Gap-filling and completion

This usually tests grammar or vocabularS as in the examples. It is tedious to

compose, though not so difficult as multiple-choice; it is more easily

administeredi n writing than in speech;t he marking is usually simple.Y ou may

need to be aware that there is more than one possible right answer.

Example:

Everything ..... she did was just right

_That

_ What

"The odd man out"

a) horse, cow, mouse, knife, fish

b) David, Michael, Andrew, Alison, Adrian

c) plate, bean soup, sandwich, apple

d) bicycle, bus, car, motorcyrcle, lorry

e) green, big, orange, brown , red

f) brother, father, sister, uncle, grandfather.

g) June, January, March, spring, May

h) Austin, Volvo, Morris, Jaguar.

i) Shakespiare, Milton, J.B Prietsley, Laurence Oliver

j) Paris, Ottawa, New York, London

Students, today we’re going to play a little game. It’s called “ The odd man out”

You have ten minutes to write down the word that doesn’t belong to this group of words proyected on the board.

You are going to work in groups of three and have to designate a sopkesman to give the answers. After that all of you are going to discuss why do you think that’s “the odd man out” word.

Remember, to give opinions you have to rise your hand and the rest of you keep quiet until your turn to talk comes.

-Danny Ulloa

-Patricio Onetto

-ED

Motivation: Some background thinking

(1) How important do you think motivation is for success in language learning compared to, for example, language aptitude?

I think motivation is probably the most important factor to reach our goals. Without motivation we won't take risks, for this reason , on my opinion, I think that is a fundamental part to improve our learning skills.

On the other hand if we are motivated but the teacher or class aren't , probably over the time we will loose interest thus motivation.

(3) What characteristics and behaviors do you associate with the image of a motivated learner?

Probably most notorious characteristics are the need for achievement, goal orientation, tolerance of ambiguity and the most important characteristic to achieve all of our goals in life is Perseverance.

Box 20.2 Survey of student opinions

1.- Number of People : Five people

2.- Most popular choices : There were two

(5) A good teacher is warm and friendly towards students

(7) A good teacher is interested in each student as a person.

3.- Least popular options : there were a few but the least option was :

(16) A good teacher uses corporal punishment occasionally

4.- A possible explanation for the most popular choices, I think maybe that’s the vision that we want or have of a good teacher, in my case I would like to be a comprehensible and dedicated teacher to my students, of course in a respectful way, because in that way we can help to students to get motivation and make the subjects of significance for them.

A possible explanation to the least popular, well clearly violence it’s the wrong way to teach and to the understanding of the students.

5.- A suggestion, i found some of the questions a little bit outdated, considering the methods of education that we have been studying for the past two years.

- ED

Personality factors + Test.

An important part of learn languages are personality factors.

Factors as self-esteem, anxiety, emotional and cognitive state, etc. could be the reason of our learning skills. If we don’t take risks at the moment of facing a situation that requires to talk in English or even in a conversation with friends using the language, our learning and feedback will be slower or null.

It doesn’t matter if you are shy in this case, because if you got an accurate opinion and use correct forms on conversation you will be learning and using your skills too. On the other hand if you are an outgoing person who doesn’t know how to speak well but you try to do it even making mistakes, it will be a great chance to get feedback and improve your English with your partners, teachers or native speakers in some cases.

Myer - Briggs test Results

· moderately expressed extravert 33%

· moderately expressed intuitive personality 50%

· moderately expressed feeling personality 50%

· slightly expressed judging personality 11%

On my opinion, I think the test is a great chance to know a part of yourself or maybe get answers about our personality, but (there’s always a but) we have to consider in tests, that they could or not be effectives or exacts, because people in general are always changing.

In my case, the results above describes pretty much exactly that who i am or better said who I am in this moment of my life.

The construction of a test.

Test.

1.- Do you get bored easily?

_ Yes _ No _ Usually.

2.- Do you consider yourself as an extrovert person?

_ Yes _ No _ Usually

3.- Do you prefer open spaces ?

_ Yes _ No _ Usually

4.- Do you get excited easily?

_ Yes _ No _ Usually

5.- Do you consider yourself as a loyal person?

_ Yes _ No _ Usually

6.- Do you like to go out on your free time?

_ Yes _ No _ Usually

7.- Do you watch tv often ?

_ Yes _ No _ Usually

8.- Do you like to learn useful things?

_ Yes _ No _ Usually

9.- Are you afraid of the dark?

_ Yes _ No _ Usually

10.- Is it hard to you express your feelings?

_ Yes _ No _ Usually

It was a little bit difficult make a test because it's hard sometimes choose the right question to identify what is the type of character do you want to test.

Communicate it!

Oral english has become a very important part of our lives as people and teachers as well.

Back in the 60's, 70's and even 80's grammar was a fundamental part of teaching and learning english at Chilean college, this was because during this time there weren't any tools or ways to communicate with other countries or even there weren't to many people to practice english with in Chile. Softwares like Messenger or websites like Facebook or even cable tv didn't exist back then. For this reason one of the ways (or maybe the only one) to improve oral english was probably to travel abroad to other countries.

Nowadays technology or better said technological advances makes us easier the understanding and learning of languages, specially english, because we can get more acces to talk to a friend on England with a videoconference software for example, or watch a tv program about other cultures or even with music we can learn searching lyrics about a song on a website and sing it or playing an online videogame with people from other countries. And we can do all of this things without knowing all grammar rules.

On present day i think is not the way how we learn english that matters, the really important thing is the way how we are going to use it (of course an important part to learn and reinforce english is in elementary and in High school ). Because on present day we have easier acces to travel abroad and get a chance to live with people from another countries, learn their culture and communicate with them speaking even if we got a slightly use of grammar.

To finish i would like to say, that our job as teachers is to teach students the best ways to know how to communicate their ideas when the situation requires to talk in english and find the way how to make themselves clear at the moment to express ideas.

- ED

Methodology

1.- What did i understand today?

The methodology is the way in which teaching and learning processes are applied taking into account different aspects. In language teaching, we must take into consideration issues such as: communications, habit formation, social semiotic. as well as also materials, socio-cultural setting, learning process, all these processes are directly connected with the methodology at the time of carrying out activities for teaching.


2.-How is this connected to my future teaching experience?

This is an important part of our future, because as future teachers we have to know how to use the diferent methods to carry out activites to students.

3.- What are the three concepts that i would highlight from this lesson?

Learning Process
Socio Cultural setting
Methods

-ED