2.9 Testing Vocabulary Knowledge
After presenting the types of vocabulary, the problems, and some strategies for teaching and learning of vocabulary, now it is better to present some strategy for testing of the vocabulary. Frost (2009) distinguishes between types of tests and types of tasks. He presents four types of tests, which are a proficiency test, an achievement test, a diagnostic test and prognostic test.
“Diagnostic tests analyze what the learners are good or bad at. In compliance with this information, the teacher adapts her teaching strategy” (Hughes, 1989, p. 13). “Prognostic tests discover how a learner will be successful in a course or if he or she is able to attend such a course” (Frost. as cited in Pavlů, 2009, p.17).
According…show more content… They can be applied for testing single vocabularies, vocabularies in sentences or vocabularies in texts. We have to take into account the fact that learners may select the right answer without having knowledge about the word just by elimination of items. There is 25% chance that the learner guess the right answer if there are four alternatives, if there are only three alternatives the chance is much bigger, of course” (p. 72). Moreover, “in multiple choice learners do not utilize the vocabulary actively, they do not have to produce any items” (Thornbury, 2002, p.…show more content… The amount of items can be different. These types of exercises are easy to design, so the instructor should know which vocabulary her pupils know in order that they could notice the odd one. It also examines only the meaning of vocabularies, but it can be both beneficial and interesting for the learners” (Ur, 1991, p.72).
2.9.6 Writing Sentences
“Learners have to write sentences with given words. For example, science, children labor, tiger etc. This is a very interesting test, which is worth trying but instructors must notice that it will not be so easy to mark such test simply” (Ur, 1991, p.72). Additionally, Pavlů (2009) claimed, “The learners must not be less than pre-intermediate to be able to make such particular sentences. Hence, learners will demonstrate if they can utilize a specificvocabulary in context or not” (p. 34).
2.9.7 Dictation
“Here the instructor dictates vocabularies or sentences to learners. Learners should learn the spelling of the words before the exam and then write them correctly on the paper. If someone knows how to spell a vocabulary, he or she possibly knows the meaning of this vocabulary” (Ur, 1991, p.