Page 190 - Teaching English at Primary Level: From Theory into the Classroom

Assessing Language Skills

Short-Answer Questions
This type of task, in which learners provide a short answer to the question, is
especially suitable for YLs who still struggle with reading and writing in En-
glish. There are often several ways of saying the same thing and therefore
several answers are allowed. However, it is essential to pay attention to the
number of words or the required shortness of the answer. In short-answer
questions, the aim is to assess the formulation of effective responses. It is
also important to assess the relevance of the answer in terms of the specific
information provided rather than focusing on grammatical and spelling mis-
takes.
As in all other task types, students should be advised to read the instruc-
tions very thoroughly and get prepared for the topic they are going to hear.
Next, it is very important that students make good use of the preparation
time by reading the questions carefully and/or underlining the key/question
words. Questions may be written in the students’ L1 at the beginning and
later, when the teacher is sure that the students understand enough, pro-
vided in L2. In short-answer task types, it is recommended to teach and check
YLs’ understanding of question words (what, who, when, where, why, how
long, etc.).

Multiple-Choice Tasks
A multiple-choice test item is composed of two parts: a stem that identifies
the question or problem and a set of alternatives or possible answers that
contain a key that is the best answer to the question. This includes several
distractors that may sound plausible but are incorrect answers to the ques-
tion. The advised number of choices appropriate for YLs is three as more than
three may be too great a cognitive load for them to handle. Alternatives may
consist of pictures, words, or very short sentences (in L2 or L1) but only when
YLs are already skilled readers.
In designing multiple-choice tasks, it is necessary to consider YLs’ cogni-
tive, communicative and social competences, and ensure that questions are
wordedclearlyandcomprehensibly,avoidingcomplicatedphrasingornega-
tive wording. YLs often fail to observe negative wording and are confused. In
fact, learners who are familiar with the material often make mistakes on neg-
atively worded questions. While it is advisable to avoid negatives in the stem
and the options, in the rare cases where they are unavoidable, they should
be marked, e.g., put in upper case, made bold or underlined (for example:
‘Which object is NOT in the room?’).
Distractorsareintendedto distinguish between studentswho havenot yet

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