testing_vocabulary1.pdf

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MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Department of English Language and Literature

TESTING VOCABULARY

Diploma Thesis

Brno 2009

Author: Supervisor:Bc. Ivana Pavl Mgr. Nadda Vojtkov


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Declaration:

I declare that I have written my diploma thesis myself and used only the sources listedin the enclosed bibliography.

I agree with this diploma thesis being deposited in the Library of the Faculty of

Education at the Masaryk University and with its being made available for academic purposes.

...................................Ivana Pavl

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Acknowledgements

I would like to express my thanks to Mgr. Nadda Vojtkov for her guidance, kind helpand her comments on my work.

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ContentTHEORETICAL PART

Introduction...................................................................................................................6TESTING......................................................................................................................7

1. Basic division of tests...........................................................................................72. Reasons for testing...............................................................................................73. Principles of tests................................................................................................11

3.1 Reliability....................................................................................................113.2 Validity.........................................................................................................12

4. How to write tests...............................................................................................155. Types of tests......................................................................................................17

5.1 Multiple choice............................................................................................185.2 Cloze test.....................................................................................................19

5.3 Dictation......................................................................................................205.4 True/false.....................................................................................................215.5 Questions and answers (open questions).....................................................225.6 Gap-filling...................................................................................................225.7 Transformation............................................................................................225.8 Rewriting.....................................................................................................235.9 Matching......................................................................................................235.10 Error correction.........................................................................................245.11 Essay..........................................................................................................245.12 Translation.................................................................................................255.13 Rearranging...............................................................................................25

5.14 Information transfer...................................................................................25VOCABULARY.........................................................................................................266. Basic aspects of vocabulary...............................................................................267. Selection and size of vocabulary........................................................................278. Why test vocabulary?.........................................................................................299. Vocabulary testing techniques............................................................................30

9.1 Multiple choice............................................................................................319.2 Cloze test ....................................................................................................329.3 Word formation............................................................................................329.4 Matching......................................................................................................329.5 Odd one out.................................................................................................339.6 Writing sentences.........................................................................................349.7 Dictation .....................................................................................................349.8 Sentence completion....................................................................................349.9 Definitions...................................................................................................349.10 Translation.................................................................................................359.11 Writing.......................................................................................................359.12 Reading......................................................................................................369.13 Oral testing................................................................................................369.14 Associations...............................................................................................379.15 Placing.......................................................................................................379.16 Synonyms and antonyms...........................................................................37

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9.17 Transformation..........................................................................................379.18 Substitution................................................................................................38

PRACTICAL PARTIntroduction.................................................................................................................39

10. Description of the tested groups.......................................................................41

11. Criteria of measuring the effectiveness............................................................4312. Informal assessment.........................................................................................4312.1 Cards - method of translation...................................................................4312.2 Monolingual dictionary.............................................................................4812.3 Cards - method of definition......................................................................4812.4 Self-testing through textbooks...................................................................5012.5 Testing on the Internet...............................................................................53

13. Formal testing...................................................................................................5413.1 Definitions.................................................................................................5513.2 Sentence completion and writing sentences.............................................5715.3 True/false, matching, odd one out.............................................................5913.4 Dictation....................................................................................................6313.5 Multiple choice..........................................................................................6513.6 Oral testing................................................................................................6613.7 Cloze test...................................................................................................67

14. Summary of the practical part..........................................................................68Conclusion..................................................................................................................70Resume........................................................................................................................71Bibliography...............................................................................................................73Appendix.....................................................................................................................75

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THEORETICAL PART

Introduction

The main subject of my thesis is testing vocabulary. The thesis is divided intotheoretical and practical part. In the theoretical part I will try to summarize variouskinds of tests, then I will focus on those methods of testing which would be suitable for testing vocabulary. Besides I will also deal with the basic principles of tests such asvalidity and reliability and the question of size of vocabulary and if it is important to test

it. In the practical part I will use various methods of testing vocabulary in real classes.As I teach at a secondary school, I have a great opportunity to use the methods in practice.

There was a significant reason why I have chosen this topic. I have beenteaching for about eight years and since the beginning of my teaching career I have beenaware of my weakness in teaching and testing vocabulary. It was partly caused by thefact that in my teaching practice I was influenced by my own English teacher at my

grammar school. She was a great teacher but concerning teaching vocabulary, she didnot pay much attention to it and she paid even less attention to testing vocabulary. Theonly way she tested us was translation of a list of Czech words into English. We alwayslearned an amount of words and wrote the test but we did not know many of the wordsafter several days. Consequently, I was always better at grammar than at vocabulary because the teacher devoted much more time to it in her lessons. I proceeded exactly inthe same way in my teaching practice but I was never satisfied with it and this thesis is a

good chance how to change it.In the thesis I want to explore some other ways of testing and my secret wish is

to do the testing more interesting or even amusing. I want to stop the routine of Czech-English translations and started to be more creative. Moreover, the other goal is to usethe vocabulary more in practice or in context and to work with the words moreintensively so that the students would remember them better.

Many of the techniques described in the theoretical part will be used in mylessons in more or less modified versions. My goal is to find those methods which

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would be easy to prepare and to correct but also inventive and raising students interestsin learning vocabulary.

In the thesis I will sometimes use the wordteacher which is replaced by the pronoun she as there are more women than men teachers.

TESTING

1. Basic division of tests

Standardised and non-standardised tests

Standardised tests are those tests which were prepared by a team of professionalswhich means that they are highly reliable.

Non-standardised tests are those prepared by an individual teacher according towhat she wants to cover in class. This means that the tests are not as reliable asstandardised tests but still they play an important role in lessons (Berka, Vov10).

2. Reasons for testing

There are many reasons for testing which authors of different methodological books present and they divide them according to various criteria.

The most common reason is that tests show a kind of ability. We need tests tofind out the level of some knowledge of something. According to Hughes it is difficultto imagine British and American universities accepting students from overseas withoutsome knowledge of their proficiency in English. The same is true for organisations

hiring interpreters or translators. They certainly need dependable measures of languageability (4).

We cannot avoid testing almost anywhere, Mcnamara says that language tests play a powerful role in many peoples lives, acting as gateways at important transitionalmoments in education, in employment, and in moving from one country to another (4).

For teachers the reason for testing is clear as they need to find out about their students progress (Hughes 4). Although tests are not very popular among students they

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need to be taken regularly because teachers must learn if their students understand alanguage matter or not and in that case, it should be a signal for some revision of those pieces of language which were not understood well . Moreover, at most Czech schoolstests have to be done so that students could be marked according to them. To be morespecific, students have to be examined several times a semester. The way of examination depends on every school management or even on the teacher of a particular subject. However, the usual way of assessment is done through written tests or oralexaminations which are the main criteria for the final marks.Heaton divides teachers reasons for testing into several categories:

Finding out about progress Encouraging students Finding out about learning difficulties Finding out about achievement Placing students Selecting students Finding out about proficiency(9-17).

In the following part the categories of reasons will be described in more detail.

Finding out about progress

This is done through so called progress tests which look back at what studentshave achieved ... and are the most important kinds of tests for teachers (Heaton 9). Theauthor also claims that in progress tests students results should be very good, most of them should have about 80% or even 90% of correct answers, otherwise the subject of

the test was not mastered and the teachers should find the mistake which may be in thecontent of the test or in the bad method of teaching . The author adds that the best progress test is one which students do not recognise as a test but see as simply anenjoyable and meaningful activity (Heaton 9).

Encouraging students

Tests can also be useful in terms of showing students how they improve.

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Consequently, students, encouraged by their improvements, have new motivation for future studying. The author highlights that people are always motivated by good resultsin everything they do not just exams while bad results mostly discourage them (Heaton10). This claim is very true and valid also for learning English, therefore students withexcellent test results like learning English while the weaker students do not. Moreover,test can enable students to experience success. According to BBC:

...in the 1970s students in an intensive EFL program were taught in an unstructuredconversation course. They complained that though they had a lot of time to practisecommunicating, they felt as if they had not learned anything. Not long afterwords atesting system was introduced and helped to give them a sense of satisfaction that theywere accomplishing things(Frost, Testing and Assessment).

Finding out about learning difficulties

Teachers can learn about students problems with the language through tests.Such tests are calleddiagnostic tests and are used mainly for finding out studentsdifficulties. The test must be well-prepared so that it could really find out what studentsdo not know. The best time for such a test is at the beginning of a course or a schoolyear (Heaton 11-12).

Finding out about achievement

For this we use so calledachievement tests which are tests covering a largeamount of curriculum, for example, they may test whole year or even several years of study. For teachers at elementary or secondary schools these kinds of tests are verydifficult to prepare, because of the big amount of curriculum covered through wholeyear or several years and teachers do not know what to put into the test and what not toas everything seems important to them. Heaton advises to work with other colleagues on

that to be more objective (Heaton 13-14).

Placing students

So called placement tests are used to divide students into groups according totheir level of knowledge. The tests must not focus only on one part of English such as present simple but on the knowledge in broad term because we want to have anobjective picture of students present level of English . These tests should include

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various types such as blank-filling , dictation or multiple choice (Heaton 15).

Selecting students

Tests for selecting students - we can come across such tests when we look for a job. The main aim of these tests is to find the best candidate for a position which meansthat we do not measure their performance according to some criteria but we compare thecandidates with one another and try to choose best one. Heaton talks aboutnorm-referenced testing. That is, we compare the performance of an individual with the other individuals in the group (i.e. the norm) (Heaton 16).

In the Czech Republic children sometimes have to to pass an entranceexamination when they want to attend a secondary school. The examination is mostly awritten test containing the main subject of the discipline which the child wants to study.For example, a child who wants to study a technical school will probably take theentrance exam from mathematics,however, the requirements may vary from school toschools.

In connection with these selection tests Heaton talks about so calledwashback effect , which is quite a familiar term in methodology expressing how testing influenceslearners, what impact it has on learning and teaching. This means that the test can have

either positive or negative effect on our teaching. If the examination is well-preparedthen both students and their teacher will profit from it but if the test is bad, it will have anegative effect on them (16-17).

Hughes explains that a test can influence people either positively or negatively. Negative washback happens when all the work in the class starts to comfort to thedemands of the test. For example, the test we are going to write with our studentscontains only gap-filling activities, so the teachers practise only similar exercises so that

her students were successful but generally it is harmful because students will be goodonly at one area. So to reach a positive washback, the test should provoke improvementof all students skills and preferably arise students taste for learning (1).

Finding out about proficiency

Mcnamara says that whereasachievement tests relate to the past in that theymeasure what language that students have learned as a result of teaching, proficiency

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tests look to the future situation of language use without necessarily any reference to the previous process of teaching (Mcnamara 7). To be specific, proficiency tests arefocused on English used in a concrete area, mostly in an occupation. It implies thatthese tests must contain tasks which the candidate will use in her/his future job. Heatongives an example of a clerk taking such a test. The test should concentrate on assessingthe ability to write letters, to translate documents and possibly to read and writetechnical reports in English rather than an ability to write imaginative essays or holdconversations in English (Heaton 17-18).

Besides the reasons for testing described above, Ur suggests another three. Thefirst one is similar to theachievement test but the amount of curriculum is smaller, for instance, when the teacher has finished a unit from a textbook then there is time toverify how well her students mastered a particular piece of language. The second reasonis to make students study harder and the last reason and very true is to use tests toquieten a noisy class and make them concentrate (Ur 34). This is rather a double swordas this reason may be easily misused by the teacher and she can flood her students by aheap of tests just because the students are too noisy and she does not know how to copewith them. This may produce an impression that tests are only for punishment and may

be perceived only negatively.

3. Principles of tests

If you think that taking tests is difficult then you should try writing them )(Frost, TestWriting).

Every test should fulfil some criteria to be useful and full-value, the basic ones

are validity and reliability . In this chapter I am going to describe these two principles inmore detail.

3.1 Reliability

This means that a test is reliable when the results do not differ at different timesof doing. To be more specific, the result of the test should be more or less the same nomatter if students are taking it on Monday morning or Friday afternoon. Moreover, the

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reliability is also guaranteed by the fair marking of the examiner. This could be a problem when writing, for example, an essay. Such tests are very subjective and it isalmost impossible that two or even more people would have exactly the same view on a particular composition. Heaton adds that examiners can be also influenced bycomparing essays with one another. For instance, he has just marked an excellent essayand now he is correcting rather an average one,as a result, he can give it worse mark than it really deserves (6). This disunity can be seen also at the school where I teachwhen students are passing their school-leaving exams. Sometimes teachers cannot agreeon a mark because each of them has its own scale of assessment. While one consider studentss performance very good, the other one sees it as an average performance. This problem may be partly solved by the new school-leaving exam because we will haverubrics with descriptors of what should a student know when he or she wants to achievemark one, mark two etc. However, there can be several opinions on that again. Frost points out that in an oral interview the examiner must not give preferential treatment toany student, he should treat all the same, he must stay objective (Frost, Test Writing).

Hughes suggests another causes of unreliability such as unclear instructions,ambiguous questions, items that enable the candidate to guess easily (4). These mistakesdo not happen to the international organisations or universities which have long-time

tradition of giving examinations all over the world, because they have enoughspecialists to make the exams reliable. However, when a teacher at a school decides towrite a complete test herself, she can create unclear instructions etc. although she wantsto do her best. To avoid this I suggest to create several versions of the test and try onein the class unofficially or discuss it with colleagues.

3.2 Validity

A test should measure whatever it is supposed to measure and nothing else(Heaton 7).Every test should really test the things which are expected to be tested, for instance, atest on listening about English literature should test only students listening skills basedon what they hear and not to test their real knowledge of English literature (Frost, TestWriting).

Validity is quite a complicated principle of the test, there are several aspects how

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to measure it.

Content validity

Hughes explains that this guarantees that the test will be relevant for a particular

group of people containing particular structures:

Just what are the relevant structures will depend, of course upon the purpose of the test.We would not expect an achievement test for intermediate learners to contain just thesame set of structures as one for advanced learners. In order to judge whether or not atest hascontent validity , we need a specification of the skills or structures etc. that it ismeant to cover. Such a specification should be made at a very early stage in testconstruction. ... A comparison of test specification and test content is the basis for judgements as to content validity(Hughes 22).

All the things we set in the specification should be incorporated into the test. Inthe specification teachers must put the things which are important to test. Hughes pointsout that teachers sometimes try to avoid testing things which are hard to test in order tosimplify their job but writing the specification should prevent it (Hughes 22-23).

Criterion-related validity

We compare our test with another test which must be independent. There are two

kinds of such a criterion-related validity. The first type isconcurrent validity. Hughesset an example of a test where one part is an oral interview lasting for ten minutes. Inthe interview the examiner should examine all the important things which learners havestudied. However, we are not sure if it is possible to cover all curriculum in ten minutesand there is a tendency to think that the exam should last about 45 minutes to beobjective and to assess the learners knowledge fairly. To find it out, we choose somestudents and try to examine them in both ways - forty-five minutes and ten minutes

exams and then compare our results. If both students performances have similar result,then our ten-minute exam is valid, if the results are very different, then the shorter examis not valid or objective (Hughes 23).

A person who is not a teacher can think that the results must be different, because one cannot judge someones ability in ten minutes but I suppose that the resultswill be roughly the same. If the examiners or teachers have enough experience they willdetect the students abilities quite easily. In common lessons the teacher needs only a

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few moments to find out, for example, whether her students has prepared for the lessonor not at all.

The second type of criterion-related validity is called predictive validity which predicts how a students will perform in future (Hughes 25). A typical example would besome entrance tests to universities. Their task is to discover students who have a potential to manage a particular kind of a study programme.

Construct and face validity

The second sub-class isconstruct validity which means that the test examinesonly the ability which it should examine such as reading ability (Hughes 26). The lastsub-type of validity is so called face validity . A test is said to have face validity if itlooks as if it measures what it is supposed to measure (Hughes 27). For instance, whena teacher creates a test which is supposed to test past simple tense but half of thequestions test present simple tense, then the test is not face valid. Here comes a threatthat such a test would not be accepted by the learners, so face validity also means thatlearners accept the test.

3.3 Practicality, variability, interest

Thornbury considers practicality another principle which is important for a goodtest. He suggests that every test should be easy to mark and evaluate for the teacher (142). In my view, correcting and assessing a test should be as simple as possible, inaddition, there should not be much space for several variants of a task because it takesso much time when a teacher has to think about every item individually.

Frost suggests two useful things that a good test should have. Firstly, the testmust bevariable . The more types of exercises it has the longer and better the students

will concentrate on it because this prevents from decreasing their attention. Secondly,the teacher should also bear in mind that an interesting test is always better than a boring one, so students definitely appreciate if the test has some interesting articles or sentences. It can also be a bit funny, if the teacher does not lack the sense of humour (Frost, Test Writing).

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4. How to write tests

Should we create our own test?

I depends mainly on the teacher which alternative she prefers. In shops you can buy many books with tests but according to my experience, you often cannot use themstraight away, you have to adapt them somehow for your students. They can, for example, contain vocabulary that your students do not know and students woulddefinitely protest. However, these tests are a big source of inspiration and therefore veryuseful to have in your school.

The other possibility is to use tests which are added to nearly every textbook. Iteach my student according to Headway textbooks and after every unit I give them a testfrom the textbook tests all the important thins from the covered unit. However, thesetests have to be sometimes slightly modified or even erased as some types of exerciseswould cause big problems to my students. But on the whole, these tests help me to beobjective and they ease my job a lot.

The next alternative is to create your own test, Heaton claims that ...the besttests for the classroom are those tests which you write yourself (Heaton 23). In myview, creating our own tests where every sentence and word would be our original job

are not realistic because it would take so much time. But if we do not take it literally,then it is true. The teacher can combine several sources and create a prefect test or shecan use just some parts and create the rest herself. Writing our own test enables theteacher, for example, to focus on those things with which her students had problems andcheck if they have understood it.

Techniques to create a test

Ur suggests to focus on these things when creating a test:

Validity . Check that your items really do test what they are meant to.Clarity . Make sure that instructions for each item are clear.Do-ability . The test should be quote do-able: not too difficult, with no trick questions.Marking . Decide exactly how you will assess each section of the test and howweighting (percentage of the total grade) you will give it.Interest . Try to go for interesting content and tasks, in order to make the test moremotivating for the learners.Heterogeneity . The test should be such that lower-level students can feel that they are

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able to do a substantial part of the test, while the higher-level ones have a chance toshow what they know(Ur 42).

These are rather theoretical things which the teacher should think about when

creating a test. They all seem logical, but in my view, it is not so easy to find out beforeyou try the test in a real class. No matter how much we try to make our test perfect, wesometimes do not avoid some imperfections. For example, although the teacher canthink that her instructions are very clear, students may not understand them very well.Or we may think that the test we have created is very easy, however, most of our students fail it. These things and many others are improving by getting experience inteaching.

Heaton presents different attitude to test writing. He points out that it is verydifficult to to write a language test because there are not facts like in history or geography. He suggests a practical thing - to prepare a test framework, a kind of asyllabus, where teachers note all the important key elements, moreover, it helpsteachers to prevent omitting something important. Heaton explains in several steps howto write a test. According to his strategy I have tried to prepare a test framework covering one unit from Headway Elementary:

Grammar: there is/are prepositions of placessome/any + countable nouns

Vocabulary: things in the house places, food and drink

The other step is to give percentages to each item. I decided to devote 60% togrammar and 40% to vocabulary, then I divided them this way.

Grammar: there is/are 25% prepositions of places 20%some/any + countable nouns 15%

Vocabulary: things in the house 20% places, food and drink 20%

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Then he recommends to put numbers of items to each point likethere is/are - 5items etc. Last step is to specify the functions we want to examine, for example, giving directions (here I usethere is /are and prepositions of places ) or describing rooms in thehouse (concerningthings in the house ) etc. (Heaton 25-28, Soars 3-4).

Here is another way of writing a test.1) Choose the type of the test you want to make such as progress test or placement test.2) Write down what you want to put into the test, for example present simple tense etc.3) Decide about the length, format.4) Prepare some suitable exercises or texts.5) Give appropriate weight to the individual parts of the test.6) Create the test.7) Focus on the instructions and sample answers.8) Think about the marking scale.9) Write a key to the exercises.10) Write a more detailed key for those tasks where more options are possible.11) Write the test with your students.

12) Interpret the test results and decide what was good and bad about the test (Frost, testwriting).

5. Types of tests

Frost distinguishes betweentypes of tests and types of tasks . He presents four types of tests which area proficiency test, an achievement test, a diagnostic test and

prognostic test. The first two types have already been discussed in the chapter Reasonsfor testing.

Diagnostic tests analyse what the learners are good at and bad at. In compliance withthis information, the teacher adapts her teaching strategy (Hughes 13).

Prognostic tests discover how a learner will be successful in a course or if he or she isable to attend such a course.(Frost, Test Question Types).

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There is a review of types of tasks which will be specified later on: multiple choice

cloze test

dictation

true/false

questions and answers

gap-filling

transformation

rewriting

matching

error correction

essay

translation

rearranging words

Information transfer

I am going to describe these techniques in more detail and try to analyse their positiveand negative aspects.

5.1 Multiple choice

This is a question which consists of a so calledstem and four options from whichonly one is correct. The examinee has to choose the right answer (Ur 38). The form of the multiple choice can also vary, here are three possible forms:

He accused me of ...... lies.a. speaking b. sayingc. tellingd. talking

Everything we wanted wasto hand.a. under control b. within reachc. well cared for d. being prepared

According to the writer, what did Tom immediately do?a. He ran home.

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b. He met Bob.c. He began to shout.d. He phoned the police (Multiplechoice).

The biggest advantage of this kind of testing is that we do not have to worryabout subjectivity because only one answer should be correct. Secondly, it is very easyand quick for the examiner to correct this test because he or she just puts ticks or crosses. On the other hand, Hughes proves that it does not show the real level of someones abilities because the examiner or the teacher cannot discover the knowledgeof grammar, for instance, because we do not know if the examinee can use it in writingor speaking. He explains that inmultiple choice the chance for guess the right answer isabout 33 percent which means that from 100 questions someone is able to guess about33. The result is that the teacher cannot be really sure if the student has mastered thecurriculum (Hughes 60).

The other difficulty with multiple choice is that we have to find threedistractorswhich are items that would distract or confuse the examinee. Therefore, it is hard tocreate a good multiple choice test. This causes problems with more correct answers or even no correct answer. This all means that it is very difficult and time-demanding towrite such a test (Hughes 61).

Next disadvantage is that these tests also enable cheating because if a potentialcheater looks at someones paper which is near, he or she can easily recognize what the person has answered as there can be seen circles A, B, C, or D (Hughes 62). In my view,it can be prevented by giving several versions of tests and I always do it because withone version the test would not be valid.

5.2 Cloze test

Cloze test is test based on a text with gaps which are put there regularly after every seventh, eighth or ninth word. The examinee has to complete the gaps withappropriate words. Mostly more than one option is possible. The first three or morelines of the text are without gaps (Scrivener 261).Example of a cloze test:

Seventy years ago no one ______ ever heard the word robot. It ______ first used by aCzechoslovakian writer, Karel Capek ______ the 1920s. He wrote a play about ascientist ______ invents machines which he ______ robots, from the Czech word

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robota, meaning slave-like work(OConnell 193).

The advantage of cloze tests is that it is quite easy to create them. The teacher just needs to find a suitable text and delete words from it. Nevertheless, Hughes does

not consider cloze tests much reliable because we do not know what ability (speaking,writing, reading etc.) of the examinee it shows. Moreover, the regular interval of everyninth word does not work very well because some deleted words a are very difficult todetermine (Hughes 62-67).

This is a kind of cloze test but with initial letters of words that are omitted.Example of a C-Test:

There are usually five men in the crew of a fire engine. One o_____them dri_____ theeng_____. The lea_____ sits bes_____ the dri_____. The ot_____ firemen s_____ inside t_____ cab o_____ the f_____ engine.T_____ leader h_____ usually be_____ in

t_____ Fire Ser_____ for ma_____ years...(Hughes 71).

This test is more advantageous for the examinee as the texts are shorter and lessdifficult. On the other hand, the gaps are so close to one another that the learner can get

lost in the text (Hughes 71).

5.3 Dictation

The examiner dictates a text and students write it down. Here we examinemainly spelling or pronunciation and also listening. Dictation is an easy way of testingfor the teacher because the preparation is minimal (Ur 40). However, it is demanding toassess such tests, Hughes recommends that we should consider the dictation correct aslong as there is the right order of words and that misspelled words should be accepted

because phonologically it is correct (Hughes 71-72).Another disadvantage is the difficulty of assessment. Generally, teachers

themselves determine which errors are considered serious and which are just mild ones.It is advisable to set the scale of assessment before we start to correct. There is also thequestion of objectivity because every teacher will look the dictations from her own perspective. To prevent this we can use an alternative to dictation which is called paused dictation which is a text with missing words, students fill in the missing words

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while the teacher dictates (Berka, Vov 36-37).Example:

The police are __________ for a three-day-old baby-girl _________ yesterday fromthe __________ ward of a London hospital. The baby was removed form her

__________ early yesterday morning. Police are anxious to find a __________ seen __________ round the hospital __________ that night ...(Berka, Vov 39).

5.4 True/false

According to a text or listening the teacher prepares a set of statements andstudents have to circle true or false. This type of testing is typically used for testingreading or listening abilities, however, it can have much wider usage. We can test alsosynonyms, antonyms, grammatical forms etc. Berka, Vov offer several variations of true/false method. In the following example, the student has to find all true answers not just one, the number of correct answers is not given:

Anglick synonyma eskho slovesa dostat jsou:to give S Nto receive S Nto get S Nto become S N (Berka, Vov 19).

Another variation is so calledcorrection form where students has to first decideif the sentence given is correct or not. If not, he or she has to correct it:

Urete, obsahuje-li vta I was ill since last Sunday mluvnickouchybu. Pokud je vta sprvn, oznate ji psmenem S, pokud nenvyznate psmeno N a napit sprvn tvar na k tomu uren dek.

een: S N

....... have been .......(Berka, Vov 19).In the following example the sentence contains mistakes, testee has to decide

which word is not correct:

A friend of me used saying: Better late then never .A B C D E F G H I

een: C:mine, E: to say, H: than (Berka, Vov 19).

True/false technique is quite easy and economical to do as well as to correct (Ur

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38-39). On the other hand if the exercise is based on simple true/false principle, there isa danger that the student will guess the right answer as the percentage of successfulnessis 50%. Berka, Vov suggest to give three possible answers to prevent this: true, falseandnot mentioned in the given text (20).

5.5 Questions and answers (open questions)

This type of exercise can be based on a text or a listening but it does not have to be based on anything as well. Ur advises not to enable too many options of the answersso as not to make it difficult to correct (Ur 38-39).Example of questions and answers:

Answer the following questions.

What was the relationship between Jane Eyre and Mrs. Reed?What was Mr. Rochester like?

5.6 Gap-filling

This method is often mixed up with cloze test but it is a completely differenttype. This type can be used for various purposes, it can test, for example, irregular verbsor prepositions (Scrivener 183). The teacher creates some sentences with gaps and the

testee has to complete them but we have to avoid more that one possible answers (Ur 38).

Example of gap-filling withthere is/there are:

______ a little dog in the park; ______ also a big cat. In this house ______ eight littlerooms and a big kitchen. ______ two lamps on the wall but ______ only one lamp onthat wall(Rosset 8).

5.7 Transformation

In this type students are given sentences which they have to put into another form, for example, to put sentences in past simple tense into past perfect tense (Ur 38).They are not difficult either to create or to correct.Example of transformation:

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Put the following sentences into past simple tense:

She likes her job.Jane wears jeans.They clean the windows.

5.8 Rewriting

This is similar to transformation but here students have to transform a sentencein the way that it means the same as the first one (Frost). In my view, these sentencesare quite troublesome to form, therefore I would use these borrow these exercises fromreal specialists.Example of rewriting:

The last time I played tennis was ten years ago.I Would you like me to give you a lift?Ill (OConnell 194).

5.9 Matching

There are two groups of words mostly in two columns, the student has to make

pairs from these words which make sense somehow. They are especially good for practising vocabulary such as adjectives of opposite meaning. Berka and Vov addthat matching is especially good for testing definitions, events and relations (28). Ur claims that the items are demanding to create, but often they emerge from the context(Ur 38-40).This is an example of matching exercise focused on idioms:

G Vude dobe, doma nejlpe.I Sejde z o, sejde z mysli.C Kdo se smje naposled, ten se smje nejlpe.H Vrna k vrn sed.E Kuj elezo, dokud je hav.D Lep vrabec v hrsti, ne holub na stee.A Dvakrt m, jednou e.

A Look before you leap.B As you make your bed, so you must lie in it.C He laughs best who laughs last.D A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.E Make hay while the sun shines.

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F An apple a day keeps the doctor away.G East, west, home best.H Birds of a feather flock together.I Out of sight, out of mind.J My house, my castle(Berka, Vov 28).

5.10 Error correction

Students are given sentences with errors which concern mainly grammar (verbforms, missing verbs or letters etc.). Their task is to find the mistakes and correct them.The only problem with this method is that sometimes there can be more than one way of correction (Frost, Test Question Types).Example of error correction:

Where was you yesterday?My aunt dont drive a car.

5.11 Essay

The examinee has to write a text on a given topic and mostly in a particular length and form. It tests writing abilities and it is not difficult to prepare, however, it isvery demanding and time-consuming to correct such essays because the examiner has towatch many aspects of the language such as spelling, grammar, vocabulary, punctuation

etc. (Ur 41). Moreover, there is a danger of subjectivity in correction which I canconfirm from my personal experience; last year at all secondary schools students of thefourth grade were to take a sample test from writing which is one of the new school-leaving exam. Every essay had to be corrected by two teachers and their final resultshad to be the same, in other words, they had to agree on the result and on the mark.Berka, Vov mention similar event: ... at a conference of language schools in Brno32 experienced examiners marked one particular essay with marks ranging from 1 to 4...

(51).There are three main techniques how to assess essays. The first one is called

mechanic method and it arises from mechanical counting of mistakes and setting amark. The second method is calledanalytical method in which examiners evaluatewider range of things such as the form and style, vocabulary, grammar, ability totransmit information. The last method is calledimpressive method, here every essay isread and assessed by two or three examiners. The final result is then made from the

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average of all three (Berka, Vov 51-53). This could be the solution for assessment of the written part of the new school-leaving exam; to make the average of the two marks.

Essays have various forms but the most used forms are formal and informalessays. Students are said to write a formal letter such as an application for a job. Ininformal writing they write about more personal things such as holiday, friends, hobbiesetc.

Except subjectivity there are other two aspects which are typical for essays. Atfirst, there is not a prototype of an essay, every essay is original. Secondly, the examineecan freely express his or her feelings, share opinions and ideas. The main priority of anessay is that the student can show his or her ability to write and ability to tell particular pieces of information.

5.12 Translation

This is a damned as well as praised method. Students receive sentences or a textin their mother tongue and their task is to translate them into English. Although, themethod is easy for the teacher, students hate it because it is very difficult for them. Italso prevents students thinking directly in English and they tend to translate things intheir minds which is not good.

Ur claims that it is a quick way how to find out about studentss knowledge butmarking may be quite difficult as there may be tens of variations (40).

5.13 Rearranging

Students have to rearrange given words so that the sentence makes sense and isgrammatically correct (Scrivener 183).Example: me/tall/as/she/as/is

5.14 Information transferThis is based on a reading of a text. Doff explains that students do not answer

any questions, but they write some information about the text and this way they show if they have understood it.

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Example of information transfer:

Complete this table.

Part of tree Use

a) flesh of fruit food, drink, flour b) skin of fruitc)d)(Doff 261-262).

VOCABULARY

6. Basic aspects of vocabulary

If language structures make up the skeleton of language, then it is vocabularythat provides the vital organs and the flesh (Harmer 153).

In other words, no matter how brilliantly one masters his/her English grammar,without the knowledge of vocabulary it is useless because words are the basis that createthe speech. Scrivener adds that ...A student who saysYesterday. Go Disco. And friends.

Dancing . will almost certainly get much of his message over despite completelyavoiding grammar - the meaning is conveyed by the vocabulary alone (Scrivener 73).

In the past vocabulary was underestimated and it was perceived only as amedium needed for teaching grammar but nowadays vocabulary has become moreacknowledged by methodologists (Harmer 153-154). However, I still feel thatvocabulary is seen as something less important than grammar and we do not focus on it

as much as we should especially at state schools. According to my personal experience,it can be caused by the fact that vocabulary is something that most students can learnmore easily than grammar and get good marks, they do not have to understand anything but they have to only learn vocabulary by heart. It raises impression that vocabulary issomething less important because it is in fact easy.

However, to know a word is a broader term because we need to know severalaspects of it. Ur describes the individual aspects in this order: form, grammar,

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collocation, meaning, word formation.To know theform of a word means to know the pronunciation and spelling of a

word (Ur 60). The other aspect is gramma r if it is necessary, for example, whenteaching irregular verbs we should present the other two forms, as well. Similarly, whenteaching a noun with irregular plural form such aswoman , we should teach the pluralform immediately. Another important thing is teachingcollocations , so that studentsknow in what context they can use the word, for instance, verbs do and make can beused with different situations, we can saydo the shopping but notmake the shopping (Ur 60).

The next aspect ismeaning which can be divided into several categories. Themost used are synonyms(pretty - beautiful) , antonyms(young - old) and hyponyms(lion, cat, zebra - animals) .

More advanced learners will probably deal withword formation in which wecreate new words by modification of the old ones, there are several ways how to form anew word such as compounding(second-hand) , adding a prefix(in/decisive) or a suffix(comfort/able) etc.

The last basic thing is to know theword class , we usually distinguish eight wordclasses:

1. nouns (sun, computer) 5. verbs (take, decide)2. adjectives (long, happy) 6. adverbs (always, never)3. pronouns (I, him) 7. prepositions (on, by)4. numerals (first, two) 8. conjunctions (or, and) (Ur 60-62).

7. Selection and size of vocabulary

There is a problem with teaching vocabulary because there are hardly any rules

on which vocabulary to teach. In grammar this is quite obvious as you cannot teachstudents present perfect before present simple. In vocabulary there is only one rule or tool which says to teach concrete words before abstract ones (Harmer 154). Students - beginners are first taught words that they can use immediately as they are let to practisethese words in lessons through easy speaking activities, for example, asking about their names, ages, hobbies etc. However, the more words they learn the more difficult it is toremember them or the words are so specific that they are not easy usable (Scrivener 74).

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In my view, vocabulary of English as a foreign language reminds me of vocabulary of a baby learning its mother tongue, it first learns words which it can comeacross, such as members of family, things at home, some food and drink etc. Mosttextbooks proceed this way, at least in the first few units the vocabulary is roughly thesame in every textbook. However, later on vocabulary differs according to the subject of each unit.

So what vocabulary is important for our students? Harmer presents two criteriawhich are frequency and coverage . The first term means that we teach words accordingto their frequency of usage. For example, wordlove is more frequent than a word likeinnocence . The latter term means that we should prefer teaching words that stand for more things than just one, for example, the wordbook has broader meaning thannotebook (Harmer 154).

However, Harmer adds that we cannot follow the principle of frequency sostrictly because words that are the most frequent in English are not the most usefulautomatically. In other words, the rule the more frequent the more helpful, is notvalid (154).

A native speaker has a vocabulary about 20,000 words whereas a good learner who has studied English for several years knows only around 5,000 words. Thornbury

mentions that a student of English would need about 18 years of studying to be able toreceive the same amount of vocabulary which a native speaker absorbs only in one year.The author claims that the number of words which every student needs to makethemselves understood is 2,000 words, this is calledcore vocabulary . This amount isused by native speakers in conversation as well as in so calleddefining vocabularywhich occurs in monolingual dictionary (20-21).

Another aspect has to be taken into account; passive versusactive vocabulary.

Active vocabulary are words that students are able to use in speech and which theyremember whilst passive vocabulary means vocabulary which students recognize in atext, they understand it but they cannot use it actively. Although this division seemseasy, it is not as clear as it looks like because every student perceives in a different wayand this results that though we wanted to teach him or her some active vocabulary, he or she may know it only passively and if we just needed to extend their vocabulary withsome passive words, they may remember them perfectly. Of course at schools we try to

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influence what vocabulary our students learn but it is not easy at all. The golden rule isthat the more students work with words the better they remember them (Harmer 159-160). Thornbury adds that the teacher should somehow transmit the enthusiasm fromvocabulary learning into her students and also show them a lot of ways how studentscan acquire new vocabulary through self-study (Thornbury 22).

8. Why test vocabulary?

Why test anything? Thornbury explains that similarly we could ask aboutanything. The main reason for testing is that it gives us information about how well our students proceed in their learning of English. It gives a useful feedback to both teachersand students. In addition, when the teacher announces her students that a vocabulary testis coming in a period of time, they will probably start to study the vocabulary harder than before, so it will have a positive effect (129). In general, testing helps to recyclevocabulary as well as to consolidate it.

However, vocabulary testing does not have to be always marked, we can preparea test on vocabulary which will only revise words. The ideal model is to revisevocabulary from the previous lesson at the beginning of another lesson. Thornbury callsit informal testing (130).

Tests of vocabulary are often connected with reading skills, here we can testeverything together such as passive and active vocabulary, collocations etc. (Heaton 79).

Testing vocabulary also occurs in placement tests or diagnostic tests to find outstudents level of knowledge or in achievement tests at the end of the school year (Thornbury 130).

What to test?

We can test the basic aspects of words which are written and spoken forms aswell as collocations, derivations, meaning, part of speech, relative frequency and certainregister style. Testing the written and spoken forms of words is the most frequent typeat state schools in the Czech Republic, students are given a set of words which theyhave to translate, this method is very easy and economical for the teacher. However, itdoes not really show students knowledge of vocabulary because they just learn many

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and many words by heart without connection to the real world. To avoid this, we have todecide about the purpose of such a test before giving a test to our students. These

purposes have already been mentioned at the beginning of this chapter.According to the purpose we design the test, which is either contextualised or

de-contextualised . Contextualised test means that the vocabulary is examined through atext whereas inde-contextualised test there are only words without any text. If theteacher needs to test students knowledge of spelling, he can dictate words without anycontext. On the other hand, when we test meanings of words, we have to put them intoa context. Thesecontextualised tests can be further divided into tests that test activevocabulary or passive vocabulary. These are examples presented by Thornbury.

Example of a test for passive vocabulary, where students do not have to inventany words, they just circle the right letter:

C hoose the best word to complete each sentence:

1) The flight attendant asked the passengers to _____ attentionto the safety demonstration.a give b devote c pay d lend2) A severe hurricane in the South Pacific has _____ many lives.

a claimed b taken c killed destroyed(Thornbury 131).

Example of a test for active vocabulary, where students have to invent the rightword which fits into each sentence.:

Choose the best word to complete each sentence:

1) The flight attendant asked the passengers to _____ attention tothe safety demonstration.

2) A severe hurricane in the South Pacific has _____ many lives(Thornbury 131).

9. Vocabulary testing techniques

We can use a lot of types of techniques when testing vocabulary. In this chapter Iam going to show the most used ones.

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9.1 Multiple choice

As I wrote in the chapter Types of tests, this technique is easy to mark but quitedifficult to design. We can use it either for testing single words, words in sentences or intexts.

Single words can be tested through definitions, for example:

tangle means a) type of dance

b) a tropical forestc) a confused mass

d) a kind of fruit (Thornbury 132).

Words can be tested in sentences, for example:

There is a good _________ at the Odeon tonight.

A) screen B) film C) showing D) acting (Heaton 79).

Here we must be aware of more than one possible answers as in the following

example where B and also D are possible:

We went to Jimmys Restaurant last night and had an excellent

________ there.

A) plate B) meal C) cook D) dish (Heaton 80).

We have to take into account the fact that students may choose the right answer

without knowing the word just by the process of elimination. There is 25% chance thatthe student guesses the right answer if there are four options, if there are only threeoptions the chance is much bigger, of course (Ur 72). Moreover, in multiple choicestudents do not use the vocabulary actively, they do not have to produce any items(Thornbury 132).

Thornbury presents another way of using multiple choice, which is quiteunusual and it iscontextualized choice test. Here the options are put directly into a text,for example:

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C ANCER 22 June-22 July

Someone else is (a plying; b calling; c singing;) the tune and for the moment yourequite happy to go (a along; b around; c away) with what seems like a reasonable idea.Hobbies (a make; b use; c take) up far too much time and children could need support

with a new activity. ... (132)

9.2 Cloze test

Another way how vocabulary can be tested iscloze test. This type examinesactive vocabulary because students are not given any options, they just have a text with

gaps (Thornbury 133). It is not exactly clear if it belongs totesting vocabulary or rather to testing reading and again there is a problem with more possible answers. To preventthis, we can useC-test where the beginnings of words are already given.

9.3 Word formation

Students have to change the form of word so that it fits to a particular sentence.They have to show that they understand the context and that they know various forms of a word (Thornbury 134). This type of exercise regularly occurs in FCE tests. This

example is taken from one of such tests:

The next time you go to the supermarket dont forget to buy the

(0) BIGGEST bottle of kitchen cleaner you can to (1) ... your BIGwork surface. Recent (2) ... research in America has shown that the INFECTkitchen is often the most (3) ... of all the rooms in the home. SCIENCEThe (4) ... of food, heat and dampness means the kitchen is

HYGIENE(5) a breeding ground for bacteria that can cause stomach upsets COMBINE

and vomiting. ...(Word Formation).

9.4 Matching

Through matching we normally test the meaning of words, usually words of theopposite meaning. Students do not produce any vocabulary, they only match given

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words. This type of exercise is easier to design than multiple choice but Ur stresses thatthe last pair of words, if the student has matched the pairs correctly, can be matchedwithout any knowledge because they are left. This can be prevented by giving moreoptions in one column than in the other one (72).

There are also other possibilities than just matching words of opposite meaning.We can design a test where words and pictures are being matched, for example fruit or means of transport etc. Another modification can be putting words into appropriatecategory, for instance, fruit and vegetables:

Put these words into the correct column:

apple, grape, carrot, banana, cauliflower, spinach,strawberry, potato, cherry, melonFruit Vegetables

Or students can match the right beginnings and endings of sentences accordingto their meaning:

Which beginning goes with which ending?

1 He planted a the stones and weeds2 She picked b some beautiful red apples

3 She dug up c the seeds in three separate rows (Scrivener 184).

9.5 Odd one out

Students have to determine which item does not belong among the others. Theamount of items can be various. This kind of exercise is easy to prepare, however, the

teacher must know which words her students know so that they could find the odd one.It also test only the meaning of words, but it can be both useful and interesting for thestudents (Ur 72).Example:Find the odd word: parrot hen eagle cow penguin goose sparrow

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9.6 Writing sentences

Students have to make sentences from given words. For example: healthy,violence, elephant etc. This is a very interesting exercise which is worth trying butteachers must bear in mind that it will not be easy to mark such exercise easily (Ur 72).Moreover, the students must be at least pre-intermediate to be able to create suchspecific sentences. On the other hand, students will show if they can use a particular word in context.Example:You need to eat more vegetables and less fat to be healthy.

9.7 Dictation

Here the teacher dictates words or sentences to students. In my view, it mainlytests spelling but Ur claims that if someone knows how to spell a word he or she probably knows what this word means (Ur 72).

9.8 Sentence completion

Students are given incomplete sentences containing words that we need to test.Their task is to complete these sentences so that they make sense. For example:

Finish the following sentences:

1. I feel depressed when...2. I never have an appetite when...

3. It was a great relief when...(Ur 72-74).

9.9 Definitions

The teacher gives her students a list of definitions of words she needs to test(Hughes 150). However, not every word can be easily defined and sometimes there can be more than one possible answer. Moreover, the definitions should be clear so thatstudents understand the definition and can come to the right answer. I wouldrecommend to give the pilot definitions to a teachers colleague to try them first. I think that definitions are good to use because students have to be active and not just translatewords.Simple example of a definition:

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It is an animal which likes bananas. (monkey)

9.10 Translation

Learners can be tested through translation quite well and it can test both meaningand form, however, we may have troubles with finding the right equivalent between thetwo languages (Ur 72).

In compliance with my experience, it is not such a radical problem when we test just words, because I always test vocabulary from only one or two lessons, so learnersknow which words are required. On the other hand, translation of whole sentencessometimes enables several options.

As I have indicated above, through translation we can test either single words or whole sentences. In my view, sentence translation is the most difficult type of testing, soI do not use it in my lessons any more, because it always led to discouragement amongstudents as they got bad marks for that. Another possibility is to test collocations or phrases which could be a well-balanced compromise between testing single words andsentences. Here students must show if they can use the words in context which I misswhen I test just single words.

9.11 Writing

This type of testing is productive, students have to show their word knowledge,so the test is valid but two teachers would not probably come to exactly the same resultin scoring which means that such testing is not very reliable. Thornbury suggests to setas accurate demands as possible to increase reliability and to give criteria according towhich the teacher will correct the test. Such criteria arelexical density , lexical varietyand lexical sophistication .

Lexical density is content words which are the opposite of function words, thesewords carry the meaning, they are nouns, adjectives and verbs.

Lexical variety measures how various the text is, usage of different words,structures etc. Lexical sophistication means usage of infrequent vocabulary in writingwhich are those words that do not belong to the group of 2,000 most used words inEnglish (Thornbury 131-136).

I see writing as a specific type of verifying students ability to apply both word

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knowledge and grammatical structures in context. Here students can use all knowledgethey have acquired so far, not just translate words or fill in gaps.

9.12 Reading

Through reading we can test passive vocabulary mostly which is also useful for students as they learn to guess meaning of words from context, they will need thisability a lot in their future studies of English. As an example here is a part of a readingtest:

An eight-month old hippopotamus named Susan began a

journey by lorry and plane yesterday from the National Zoo inWashington to Singapore. Zoo-keeper hope that she will be a

companion for a lonely male hippopotamus, reports say. SingaporeZoo has spent a long time looking for a new mate for their hippo,named Congo. Ever since the death of Lucy, his mate, Congo has been sad and lonely, a spokesman said. etc.

Now decide if these statements are true or false: _____ 1 Susan was a gift from Washington National Zoo to Singapore Zoo. _____ 2 Congo, a male hippopotamus in Washington Zoo, was sad and

_____ lonely because Susan had left for Singapore.3 Susan was just over one year old when she left the National Zoo

_____ in Washington(Heaton 85).

9.13 Oral testing

To know a word also means to be able to pronounce it well. Doff suggests shortoral tests on various topics such as talking about family, describing my village etc. He

explains how to organize this in a larger class: The teachers gives her students severaltopics which students have to prepare at home. In about a week, the teacher asksdifferent students about one of the topic, the examination lasts not more than oneminute. The rest of the class has another job to do such as reading or writing.

Teacher should evaluate bothcontent and fluency . Doff has designed this simpletable:

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CONTENT 1 2 3 4 5FLUENCY 1 2 3 4 5(Doff 267).

Number 5 represents the best performance while 1 is the worst. This means that10 is the highest number. For instance, when the student is able to speak fluentlywithout any difficulty and he/she can express themselves easily, we can give them 5 + 5.When the student mispronounces words and says only a few sentences we should givehim/her 3 + 4 (Doff 266-267).

This short oral examination could be a compromise for those teachers who wantto test their students somehow but at the same time they do not want to lose too muchtime with it.

9.14 Associations

Students have to underline those words which belong to the key word:FURNITURE: house, table, floor, window, curtain, bed, kitchen, chair (Berka,Vov 46).

9.15 Placing

Students underline those words which relate to e.g. movement:

think, run, keep, walk, jump, answer (Berka, Vov 47).

9.16 Synonyms and antonyms

Students have to write down words of the same meaning:clever _______ (bright)important _______ (significant)

Students have to write down words of the opposite meaning:beautiful _______ (ugly)happy _______ (sad) (Berka, Vov 46).

9.17 Transformation

Students have to rewrite a sentence but with the same meaning:Bob is very good at football.He plays football ________________ (Berka, Vov 48).

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9.18 Substitution

Students have to rewrite the original sentence in the form which is indicated bythe given words:He is a clever boy. You ________________ (Berka, Vov 48).

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PRACTICAL PART

Introduction

In the practical part I concentrated on the use of the testing techniques in practice. The aim of the research was to find out how effective each method was in practice. The research is divided into two main parts which are informal assessment andformal testing. I use the term informal assessment for practising vocabulary for whichstudents do not get marks, it should help students to prepare for formal testing. On the

other hand, the term formal assessment is used for those techniques for which studentsget marks.

In the informal assessment I have focused oncard technique, which I willdescribe in the following chapter, the usage of the Internet and I will present severaltextbooks which are good for practising vocabulary.

Formal testing comprises tests for which students receive marks which act thesignificant role in the final assessment. I have tried to test vocabulary through several

alternative ways in contrast with translation which I have used so far in my lessons. Ihave presented these methods in the theoretical part in more detail.

I have done my practical research at the secondary school where I am teachingnowadays. I have chosen four classes where two of them are of pre-intermediate leveland the other two are of intermediate level, this enables to compare results and the process itself in two similar classes.

However, the level is probably the only feature which the two classes have in

common. In other aspects such as discipline, motivation, marks, atmosphere in lessonsthey differ a lot. The main thing which influences teaching and learning process isdifferent sex. To be more specific, in girls classes there are no problems with discipline,motivation and the learning atmosphere is mostly very good. On the contrary, in boysclasses teachers often have to deal with discipline problems, disturbing behaviour andlack of motivation. Therefore, I have chosen both my best classes and the classes whichare a bit problematic to compare if the testing vocabulary would have the same effect onthem.

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For simplification I have given the classes letters A, B, C and D where A and Bare girls and C and D are boys. I have not applied all the methods in all four groups because not all of them were suitable in every class, it depended on several factorsaccording to which I have decided. The significant factor was the earlier mentioned sex,another features were the age of the students, their motivation etc. The reason is thatwhat works perfectly in one class, can be a total catastrophe in another one. I havedescribed these choices in the research again

The effectiveness of the methods has been examined through a kind of feedback from my students as well as my own assessment. After every new activity students wereeither asked to express their direct feelings or they were given a simple questionnaire.

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10. Description of the tested groups

Group A

Number of students

14

Level IntermediateAge 17-18 (3rd grade)Sex GirlsDetaileddescription

Students of this group are highly motivated for learning English asthey are going to take the new school-leaving exam which will containwriting, listening, reading and speaking part and they have realizedthat without studying they do not have much chance to pass.Especially this year they have been improving a lot. There are no problems with the discipline and the atmosphere is mostly veryfriendly.In this group we are just finishing Headway pre-intermediate andstarting Horizons 3.

Group B

Number of students

9

Level Pre-intermediateAge 17-18 (3rd grade)Sex GirlsDetaileddescription

This group has English as their second foreign language as their firstforeign language is German. They have been studying English for three years, however, they enjoy learning English and make quite a big progress in it. The atmosphere is always positive and very relaxed.We are using Headway elementary.

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Group C

Number of students

10

Level IntermediateAge 17-18 (3rd grade)Sex BoysDetaileddescription

In this group I had a lot of problems in the past, especially withdiscipline and impudent behaviour,moreover, this is quite a weak classwhen I compare it with the others. However, this year it has got better and we get on quite well with one another but one problem hasremained as these students are not able to pay attention for a long timeor when they have English at the end of the day. The atmospherediffers from lesson to lesson but generally the teaching conditions aremuch worse than in groups A and B. The situation with textbooks isthe same as in group A.

Group D

Number of students

10

Level Pre-intermediateAge 15-16 (1st grade)Sex BoysDetaileddescription

These students have come to our school this school year. There areagain problems with discipline and disruptive behaviour. Moreover,there is another problem which I do not come across in my other classes; most of them are not used to be working in pairs or groups.They just pretend to be working when I approach to them but when Ileave them they stop working. I have to put a lot of energy into thelessons to make them cooperate and the atmosphere is not muchoptimal there. We have started Horizons 2 in this class.

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11. Criteria of measuring the effectiveness

In the test students should show more of their knowledge than just in wordtranslation, for example, knowledge of passive vocabulary, knowledge of synonyms, antonyms, ability to create a sentence of a particular meaning etc.

The test should provoke studentss thinking. The test should show their ability of using words in context. The test should be interesting, challenging but not stressful or too demanding. The test should contribute to keeping the vocabulary in students long-term

memory. The test should be achievable for the majority of students. The test should not be much demanding to prepare and to correct for the teacher.

12. Informal assessment

cards

self - testing on the internet

self - testing through textbooks

For informal testing I chose group A, B and D. I excluded group C because of the bad working atmosphere in the class.

12.1 Cards - method of translationFor home testing Thornbury presents a method withcards - small papers with

words students need to learn. It functions as a tool for learning vocabulary (Thornbury146).Thornbury gives detailed instructions how to use these cards in practice. He suggeststhat every student should have between 20-50 cards. On one side there should be anEnglish word and on the other side there is the same word but in the learner s firstlanguage (App. 1). He also advices to mix words from different lexical groups not justone such as weather, vegetables etc.

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The first thing students do with the cards is that they test themselves; they readeach word in English and try to remember or predict what it means in their mother tongue, then they check the meaning by looking at the other side of the card. After thatthey look at the words translation and try to say the words in English. If they comeacross a word they do not remember that put it on the top of the pile of cards. From timeto time they should shuffle the cards because they could remember the sequences of words as they go one by one. Words should be learned not only one day but for a longer period of time to be remembered well. As the learner has already known some wordswell he/she gives these words away and make some new ones instead.

Teacher should prepare a sample set of cards in advance to show her studentswhat she wants them to do. Students must realize that it is useless to make cards withwords that they remember, the cards should be devoted to the words they cannotremember and want to learn. As a feedback we can ask our students how successful theywere in learning new words and if they find the method effective.

Next alternative, which can be done with theses cards, is to use them for various pair works. For example, students make pairs and look at each others sets of cards,then they teach each other cards they do not know and consequently they test each other (Thornbury 146-147).

This is a visual example of the cards described by Thornbury.

front back

(147).I decided to apply this technique in three groups A, B and D. As we had just

finished a unit from their textbooks it was the perfect time for trying it. To make the process of the activity as smooth as possible I prepared the cards for each students beforehand. Moreover, it also saved a lot of time. I wrote all the words from the unit onmy computer with enough space among one another so that they could be easily cut up

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into individual papers. The result was a heap of small cards with single words written inEnglish on them. The procedure in the lesson was the same in all the three groups.Description of the procedure/lesson:1. Students were given sheets of papers with new vocabulary. They were asked to cutthem up.2. They wrote the Czech meanings of the words on the other side of the papers, theyused their small dictionaries attached to their workbooks.3. Students repeated the new words after me so that they knew how they were pronounced.4. Finally they were instructed how to use the cards at home. They were asked to followthese steps which are similar to Thornburys instructions:

To go through the cards from the side where they are written in English severaltimes and try to guess and then to remember their Czech translation and saythem out loud both in Czech and in English.

To go through the cards from the side where they are written in Czech and repeatthe same process. Then they try to write them down several times.

They put the words they cannot remember or they cannot write correctly on aspecial pile so that they could train just the problematic words.

Group A

We followed the instructions 1-4 written above and students really enjoyeddoing something new and special with the vocabulary and not just repeat new wordsafter me from their dictionaries. They were given instructions for home study.

Next lesson they were divided into pairs and they had to take their problematicvocabulary and examine their schoolmate from it. Next they swap their piles with the

problematic vocabulary and again test each other. They really enjoyed testing eachother, there was a very positive atmosphere in class.

After this procedure they were given a sheet of paper and asked to write answersto several questions. The questionnaire was simple so as not to take much time and itwas in Czech so that students could express their opinions well. I was particularlyinterested in the following things:

How long did you study the vocabulary at home?

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Did you follow my instructions or did you do it differently (if so, how?). Did it go well? What do you think about it?

Students answers:Students wrote that they learned thirty minutes on average. Most students

learned according to my instructions. Two of the students described that they took agroup of cards, lets say five, and went through them again and again till theyremembered them. Then they added other cards and the process was repeated. Other two students wrote that they were tested by their parents who showed them the cardsone by one. Most of these students enjoyed this activity, they wrote that ...it was a pleasant change... or ...it was not boring and 90% of them thought that this kind of learning and testing vocabulary is better than the old one which comprised justtranslation of Czech words into English.

Group B

In group B the process was done in the same way as in group A and it could beseen that they liked it. They were also asked questions at the end.

Students answers:The time they devoted to this home study differed a lot, it ranged from five

minutes to half an hour. Concerning the learning process itself, most of the studentsfollowed my instructions but there was one who learned with her parent who tested her and two students did not repeat the words out loud they just wrote them down.However, all but one wrote that it went quite well and that it was better than learningvocabulary from the list of words they have in their dictionary.

Group D

Here it did not go as well as in the other two groups because of their baddiscipline in the lesson which started with cutting up the papers by which they did a lotof noise and some of them were refusing doing it because they found it useless.However, I tried to repeat the process and told them that next lesson I would ask them

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how it worked. Next lesson half of them forgot to bring their cards and none but one learned at

home. Their explanation was that they did not have time or that they forgot about it.However, I applied the process of pair testing as in groups A and B. Those boys who didnot have their cards made pairs with those who had them and tested each other from allthe vocabulary written on their cards. This was more successful and they cooperatedquite well.To sum up, for me it indicates that they are not prepared to undertake responsibility for their self-study yet because they are too young. All boys but one refused making cards because they preferred learning vocabulary from their textbooks, so I did not want tomake them use cards any more.

Two weeks later I gave my students another set of cards including words fromanother unit In group A and B the reactions were mostly very positive. Most of themaccepted the cards with pleasure.

In group D I decided to apply this method once again but this time I wanted to practise irregular and regular verbs with it because it seemed to me a perfect idea tolearn the verbs this way. At first, students were cooperating when they were to cut up

the cards but when they were asked to use their dictionaries to write the Czechmeanings on the other side, some of them were not doing it because they thought theyknew the Czech translation. They did not know all of the verbs, of course which provedlater when I tested them by asking the Czech meanings of the verbs in random order.

Finally, they were asked to bring the cards next lesson because I wanted them totest each other but half of them did not bring the cards at all and most of the boys saidthat they would not use the cards anyway because it was a silly thing. This was my last

attempt to try to show group D that the cards are helpful, then I gave it up.

Translation of words is not the only way how students may learn newvocabulary. Another option is to focus on the meaning of the words by makingdefinitions and the method of cards seemed to be a perfect opportunity to try it out. For this activity it is suitable to use monolingual dictionaries where words are described just by definitions. As the students had not used monolingual dictionaries before I devoted

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one lesson to it.

12.2 Monolingual dictionary

Group A, B

Each pair of students was given one monolingual dictionary, they were asked tolook in and tell me what is the difference between bilingual and monolingual one. Thenthey were taught the word classes and their abbreviations, I also presented other basicabbreviations such assb., sth., etc., BrE, AmE, count and n-count nouns, phr-verb etc.Then students were told to look up a word of their choice and write down its definition.During this activity they found out that every definition is accompanied with an

example sentence. After that students read the definition out loud one by one and theothers guessed what word it was.

After that students were given a list of sentences which were not correct, their task was to look up the word in bold in their dictionary and find what was wrong with it.This exercise was take from one of the dictionaries:

1) He hasnt made hishomework.2) The prime minister did aspeech to the journalist.3) Sallygraduated Edinburgh University in the summer.4) Heasked to me my name.

5) He gave us some usefuladvices (Students Dictionary).

With my help students solved all of them. The aim was to show them how muchinformation these dictionaries comprise, not only definitions but also grammaticalthings, collocations, prepositi

testing_vocabulary1.pdf

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