the fact that the test’s examples were too complicated or too ambiguous.
The next advantage concerns the format of the test that clearly implies
the idea of what the learner should do. The instructions are clear,
unambiguous. The students know what they are expected to do and do not
waste their precious time on trying to figure out what they are supposed to
do.
The last advantage displayed by Weir is that the MCQs in a certain
context are better than open-ended or short-answer questions, for the
learners are not required to produce their writing skills. This eliminates
the students’ fear of mistakes they can make while writing; moreover, the
task does not demand any creative activity, but only checks the exact
knowledge of the material.
Having considered the advantages of MCQs, it is worth speaking about its
disadvantages. We will not present all of them only what we find of the
utmost interest and value for us.
The first disadvantage concerns the students’ guessing the answers;
therefore, we cannot objectively judge his/her true knowledge of the topic.
We are not able to see whether the student knows the material or have just
luckily ticked or circled the right variant. Therefore, it could be
connected with another shortcoming of the following test format that while
scoring the teacher will not get the right and true picture of what the
students really know.
Another interesting point that could be mentioned it that multiple-
choice differ from the real-life situation by the choice of alternatives.
Usually, in our everyday life we have to choose between two alternatives,
whereas the multiple-choice testing might confuse the learner by the
examples s/he even has not thought about. That will definitely lead to
frustration, and, consequently, to the student’s failure to accomplish the
task successfully.
Besides, regarding Weir (ibid.) who quotes Heaton (1975) we can
stipulate that in some cases multiple-choice tests are not adequate and it
is better to use open-ended questions to avoid the pro-long lists of
multiple-choice items. This probably will concern the subject, which will
require a more precise description and explanation from the students’ side.
To finish up with the drawbacks of MCQs we can declare that they are
relatively costly and time-consuming to prepare. The test designer should
carefully select and analyse each item to be included in the test to avoid
ambiguity and imprecision. Furthermore, s/he should check all possible
grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes, evaluate the quality of
information offered for the learners’ tasks and choose the correct and
relevant distractors for the students not to confuse them during the test.
To conclude we can cite Heaton (1990:17) who stipulates that designing a
multiple-choice items test is not so fearful and hard as many teachers
think. The only thing you need is practice accompanied by a bit of theory.
He suggests for an inexperienced teacher to use not more than three options
if the teacher encounters certain difficulties in supplying more examples
for the distractors. The options should be grammatically correct and of
equal length. Moreover, the context should be appropriate to illustrate an
example and make the student guess right.
5.2 Short answer tests
A further format that is worth mentioning is short answer test
format. According to Alderson (1996:223) short answer tests could be
substitutes to multiple-choice tests. The only difference is that apart
from the optional answers the students will have to provide short answers.
The author of the paper had not used this test format, thus, she cannot
draw on her experience. Therefore, she will just list the ideas produced by
other linguists, to be more exact Alderson’s suggestions.
Alderson (ibid.) believes that short answer tests will contribute to
the students’ results, for they will be able to support their answers and,
if necessary, clarify why they responded in that way but not the other. It
could be explained that the students will have an opportunity to prove
their answers and support them if necessary.
Nevertheless, the short answer tests are relatively complicated for
the teacher to be designed. The teacher has to consider a variety of ideas
and thoughts to create a fairy relevant test with fairly relevant items.
May be that could explain the fact why this test format is not such a
common occasion as MCQs are.
At this point we have come to advantages and drawbacks of short
answer tests. Weir (1990:44) says that this type of testing differs from
MCQs by the absence of the answers. The students have to provide the answer
themselves. That will give the marker the clear idea whether the students
know what they write about or not. Certainly, the teacher will be definite
about the students’ knowledge, whereas in MCQs s/he can doubt whether the
students know or have just guessed the correct answer. Moreover, short
answer test could make the students apply their various language skills
techniques they use while dealing with any reading, listening or speaking
activity.
Finally, Weir (ibid.) stipulates that if the questions are well
formulated, there is a high chance the student will supply short, well-
formulated answer. Therefore, a variety of questions could be included in
the test to cover a broader field of the student’s knowledge, and certainly
it will require a great work from the teacher.
Nevertheless, there are certain drawbacks displayed by the following
test format. One of the major disadvantages could be the students’
involvement in writing. For if we are determined to check the students
reading abilities, it is not appropriate to give the students writing tasks
due to the high possibility of the spelling and grammar mistakes that may
occur during the process. Therefore, we have to decide upon our priorities
– what do we want to test. Furthermore, the students while writing can
produce far different answers than expected. It will be rather complicated
to decide whether to consider them as mistakes or not.
5.3 The cloze test and gap-filling tests
Before coming to the theory on cloze tests we assume that it is
necessary for us to speak about a term “cloze”. Weir (1990:46) informs that
it was coined by W.L. Taylor (1953) from the word ‘closure’ and meant the
individual’s ability to complete a model.
However, to follow the model one has to posses certain skills to do
so. Hence, we can speak about introduction of such skill that Weir calls
deduction. Deduction is an important aspect for dealing with anything that
is unknown and unfamiliar. Thus, before giving a cloze test the teacher has
to be certain whether his/her students are familiar with the deduction
technique.
Alderson (1996:224) assumes that there are two cloze test techniques:
pseudo-random and rational cloze technique. In the pseudo-random test the
test designer deletes words at a definite rate, or as Heaton (1990:19)
places it, systematically, for example every 7th word should be deleted
occasionally with the initiate letter of the omitting word left as a
prompt:
Although you may think of Britain as England ,i...is really four
countries in one. There a.. …..four very distinct nations within the
British I………: England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, each with their
o…..unique culture, history, cuisine, literature a…..even languages.
(Discovering Britain, Pavlockij B.
M., 2000)
However, the task could be more demanding if the teacher will not
assist the learners’ guesses and will not provide any hints:
Scotland is in the north and Wales in the west were………separate
countries. They have different customs,……………….., language and, in Scotland’
s case, different legal and educational……………….
(ibid.)
The examples shown above do not yield to be ideal examples at all.
Without doubt, the material used in the task should more or less provide
the students with the appropriate clues to form correct guessing.
Notwithstanding, the author of the paper has used such tests in her
practice and according to her observations; she can conclude that the tasks
with the first letter left are highly motivating for the students and
supply a lot of help for them. Moreover, having discussed the following
test format the teacher has revealed that the students like it and receive
a real pleasure if they are able to confirm their guess and find the right
variant.
However, according to Alderson (ibid.), the teacher commonly does not
intend to check a certain material by the cloze test. The main point here
is the independence of the student and his/her ability to apply all the
necessary techniques to fill in the blank spaces. Concerning the mentioned-
above scholars, we have to agree that the following type of test is
actually relatively challenging, for it demands vast language knowledge
from the student. Heaton (ibid.) believes that each third or fourth deleted
word can turn into the handicap for the learner due to the lack of
prompting devices, such as collocations, prepositions, etc. Whereas, the
removal of each ninth word may even lead to the exhausting reading process.
On the contrary, the rational cloze technique, or as it is usually
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