Testing as a method of motivation of pupils in teaching English language

2.2 Testing as a method of motivation of pupils in teaching English language 

    Maybe majority of us disagree with this statement and don’t understand, how testing can motivate pupils to study English language.

    Everything has its advantages and disadvantages, and test is not exception. Speaking about the students at school, we can declare that there is hardly a student who will truly enjoy tests and their procedure. Usually, what we will see just sore faces when a test is being mentioned. Moreover, too much of testing could be disastrous. It can entirely change the students’ attitude towards learning the language, especially if the results are usually dissatisfying and decrease their motivation towards learning and the subject in general.

    Furthermore, as Alderson assumes, we should not forget that the tests when administered receive less support from the teacher as it is usually during the exercises in a usual language classroom. The students have to cope themselves; they cannot rely on the help of the teacher if they are in doubt /6,212/.  During a usual procedure when doing various activities the students know they can encounter the teacher’s help if they require it. They know the teacher is always near and ready to assist, therefore, no one is afraid to make a mistake and try to take a chance to do the exercises. However, when writing a test and being left alone to deal with the test activities, the students panic and forget everything they knew before. In this situation the first what the teacher should do is to teach the students to overcome their fear of tests and secondly, help them acquire the ability to work independently believing in their own knowledge. The students should be given confidence. Another question that may emerge here is how to reach the goal described above, how to encourage the students. Thus, at this point we can speak about positive results. In fact, our success motivates us to study further, encourages us to proceed even if it is rather difficult and we are about to lose confidence in ourselves. Therefore, we can speak about the tests as a tool to increase motivation. However, having failed for considerable number of times, the student would definitely oppose the previous statement. Hence, we can speak about assessment and evaluation as means for increasing the students’ motivation.

    Concerning Hicks, we often perceive these two terms – evaluating and assessment – as two similar notions, though they are entirely different. She states that when we assess our students we commonly are interested in “how and how much our students have learnt”, but when we evaluate them we are concerned with “how the learning process is developing” /2,162/. These both aspects are of great importance for the teacher and the students and should be correlated in order to make evaluation and assessment “go hand in hand”. However, very frequently, the teachers assess the students without taking the aspect of evaluation into account. According to Hicks, this assessment is typically applied when dealing with examinations that take place either at the end of the course or school year. Such assessment is known as achievement test. With the help of these tests the teacher receives a clear picture of what his/her students have learnt and which level they are comparing with the rest of the class. The achievement tests are very essential for comparing how the students’ knowledge has changed during the course. Thus, evaluation of the learning process is not of the major importance here. We can speak about evaluation when we deal with “small” tests the teachers use during the course or studying year. It is a well-known fact that these tests are employed in order to check how the learning process is going on, where the students are, what difficulties they encounter and what they are good at. These tests are also called “diagnostic” tests; they could be of a great help for the teacher: judging from the results of the test, analysing them the teacher will be able to improve or alter the course and even introduce various innovations/13, 274/.

    It will give them an opportunity to visage how they are going to be tested, to be aware of and wait for, and the most important, it will reduce fear the students might face. Moreover, at the end of each test the students could be asked their reflections: if there was a multiple choice, what helped them guess correctly, what they used for that – their schemata or just pure guessing; if there was a close test - did they use guessing from the context or some other skills, etc. Furthermore, Hicks emphasises that such analysis will display the students the way they are tested and establish an appropriate test for each student. Likewise, evaluation will benefit the teacher as well. She/he not only will be able to discover the students’ preferences, but also find out why the students have failed a particular type of activity or even the whole test. The evaluation will determine what is really wrong with the structure or design of the test itself. Finally, the students should be taught to evaluate the results of the test. They should be asked to spot the places they have failed and together with the teacher attempt to find out what has particularly caused the difficulties. This will lead to consolidation of the material and may be even to comprehension of it/14, 76/.

     Also, such kinds of tests, as Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or First Certificate (FCE) or IELTS make pupils and students study English language and motivate them to do it. Mostly this concerns the students or pupils who have their own special needs, such as going abroad to study or work. This again supports the idea that motivation factor plays a significant role in the learning process/15, 12/. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

III. Use of testing in English language classroom

    The lesson “At Home”

The aim: to improve pupils’ knowledge and creative skills with

the help of testing.

Tasks:      to consolidate lexical and grammatical materials;

                 to make pupils objective evaluate their achievements;

                 to support their interest in English language;

                 to improve creative skills.

Equipments: pupils’ pictures “The House of my dream”;

two pictures of little houses, which are cut into pieces;

materials for tasks.

    Course of the lesson (game)

        This lesson is conducted after the theme “House. Flat”.

Class is divided into two groups, which are equal by strength

and number of pupils.

         In the capacity of home task children were given to draw

the picture of house of their dream. These pictures are hung

on a blackboard of the classroom. The pictures are used as a

design and also pupils will describe them at the end of the lesson.

        Organization of the lesson

    Two groups are taking part in the game. There will be different group and individual tasks. Groups will take a piece of picture “Little house”, if they rightly answer the questions and do the tasks. (numbers of pieces of pictures equal to numbers of tasks).

    Competitive tasks

    Phonetic competition

 

“Which word is sounded?”

    Each group takes a list of words. Presenter reads the words in Russian language in definite order. Pupils must find the right equivalents and put ordinal numbers next to words. Then they exchange the lists and with the presenter check

each other.

        

“Who is more…?”

Groups say the words, which connected with the theme “House” by turns. There must be [d] and [t] sounds in these words. Who says the last word, will take one extra point. 

       Lexical competition

“What is odd?”

Groups must find “odd” words in every line and underline it.

1. bedroom, flat, living room, bathroom, guest room
2. table, bed, bookshelf, wall, chair
3. a poster, a picture, an armchair, a carpet, a table
4. window, shelves, car, door, carpet

This task also is checked with the presenter. Such kind of test defines level of vocabulary, which was taught before and assists its consolidation.    

        Grammatical competition

“Broken sentences”

         The teacher made up the sentences, which are written on the cards, one word-one card. Then they are mixed and pupil should arrange these cards in right order.

For example:

 

1. vase         is         table        there       this      on      beautiful       the 

2. near       chairs       there         piano        the            are             four

This task examines pupils’ knowledge in English grammar.

This method with the cards is very interesting for children. It helps them to consolidate their grammatical skills.

      

        Task for the memory

“Is it true or false”

    The teacher shows pupils a picture of inside of house. Then they must memorize where are the furniture situated, what colors are they and etc. After that they must prove is the sentence true or false.

1. This is a kitchen.                                     T/F
2. There are two little beds in the room.     T/F
3. Window is opened.                                 T/F
4. There is a TV-set on the table.               T/F
5. There is a red blanket on the bed.           T/F
6. The bookshelf is hung above the bed.     T/F

 

      

    The advantage of such test is found in its applicability and suitability. One can write more true/false statements for a test and use them to check the students’ progress or achievement. Furthermore, the current sort of testing could be more motivating for the students than a multiple-choice test. It will not make the students confused offering just one possibility than a multiple-choice test, which typically proposes more than one option to choose from. Moreover, it is easy to answer for the students and check for the teachers.

    Creative competition

    Competition of pictures

    The pictures, which they drew in advance, are hung on the blackboard. The owner of the best picture will be the winner.

    Summarizing

    In the end the pupils finish gathering the pieces of the picture in the whole picture of the house. The group which gathers all the pieces will be the winner of the whole game. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Conclusion 

    So, according to this research we can say, that testing is essential method in teaching English language. It helps to evaluate pupils’ knowledge, to consolidate old and new materials and motivate them to study English language.

    There are many different types of tests, which should be used in teaching process at school. It does not mean, that we must use testing all the time, but do not forget about its help in teaching process.

    The research has achieved the initially set goal and objectives. It dealt with the basic data about testing, where we had displayed the ideas what was the essence of tests, why the students should be tested, what consequences could tests produce and whom they would mostly influence. Afterwards, the reasons for testing were discussed, where we had gradually showed why tests were significant in the process of learning and the role of testing in the teaching process. After the basic data had been discussed, we came directly to types of testing. There were presented the definitions of the types of tests offered in Longman dictionary of LTAL and then had compared them with the definitions given by various authors. Here we had broadly and explicitly discussed and analyzed the types of tests, such as multiple-choice tests, false/true items, close tests, gap-filling tests, etc. We had focused on their application and skills for which they are used.

    Also, we said about motivation in language teaching and influences of testing on our desire to learn English language.

    There was also described the working out of the lesson in the practical part of the paper. There are different tests, which not only evaluate children’s knowledge, but also assist to consolidation of this knowledge and motivate them to study English language.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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