Assessing reading

ASSESSING
READING
• Ms. Rona R. dela Rosa

•Language Assessment:
Principles and
Classroom Practices
•H. Douglas Brown

Reading, the most essential skill
for success in all educational
contexts, remains a skill of
paramount importance as we create
assessments of general language
ability.

Two primary obstacles
must be cleared in order
to become efficient
readers:

a. be able to master fundamental
bottom up strategies for
processing separate letters,
words and phrases, as well as
top-down, conceptually driven
strategies for comprehension.

b. second language readers must
develop appropriate content and
format schemata—background
information and cultural
experience—to carry out those
interpretations effectively.

The assessment of reading
ability does not end with the
measurement of
comprehension.

1. Academic Reading
general interest articles (in
magazines, newspapers)
technical reports (e.g., lab reports),
professional journal articles
reference material

textbooks. theses
essays, papers
test directions
editorials and opinion writing

2. Job-related Reading
messages (e.g., phone messages)
letters/emails
memos (e.g., interoffice)
reports (e.g., job evaluations, project
reports)

schedules, labels, signs,
announcements
forms, applications, questionnaires
financial documents (bills, invoices)
directories (telephone, office)
manuals, directions

3. Personal Reading
newspapers and magazines
letters, emails, greeting cards, invitations
messages, notes, lists
schedules (train, bus, plane)
recipes, menus, maps, calendars
advertisements

novels, short stories, jokes, drama,
poetry
financial documents (e.g., checks, tax
forms, loan applications)
forms, questionnaires, medical
reports, immigration documents
comic strips, cartoons

Importance of Genres of
Reading
It enables the readers to apply
certain schemata that will assist
them in extracting appropriate
meaning.

Efficient readers have to know what
their purpose is in reading a text, the
strategies for accomplishing that
purpose and how to retain the
information.

1. Discriminate among the distinctive
graphemes and orthographic
patterns of English.
2. Retain chunks of language of
different lengths in short term
memory.

3. Process writing at an efficient rate
of speed to suit the purpose.
4. Recognize a core of words, and
interpret word order patterns and
their significance.

5. Recognize grammatical word classes
(nouns, verbs), systems (tense,
agreement, pluralization), patterns, rules
and elliptical forms.
6. Recognize that a particular meaning
may be expressed in different
grammatical forms.

7. Recognize cohesive devices in
written discourse and their role in
signaling the relationship between
and among clauses.

1. Recognize the rhetorical forms of written
discourse and their significance for
interpretation.
2. Recognize the communicative functions of
written texts, according to form and purpose.
3. Infer context that is not explicit by using
background knowledge.

4. From described events, ideas, etc., infer
links and connections between events,
deduce causes and effects and detect such
relations as main idea, supporting idea, new
information, given information,
generalization and exemplification.
5. Distinguish between literal and implied
meaning.

6. Detect culturally specific references
and interpret them in a context of the
appropriate cultural schemata.
7. Develop and use a battery of reading
strategies such as scanning and
skimming, detecting discourse markers.

ome Principal Strategies fo
Reading Comprehension

1. Identify your purpose in reading a
text.
2. Apply spelling rules and conventions
for bottom-up decoding.
3. Use lexical analysis (prefixes, roots,
suffixes, etc.) to determine meaning.

4. Guess at meaning (of words, idioms,
etc.) when you aren’t certain.
5. Skim the text for the gist and for main
ideas.
6. Scan the text for specific information
(names, dates, key words).

7. Use silent reading techniques for
rapid processing.
8. Use marginal notes, outlines,
charts, or semantic maps for
understanding and retaining
information.

9. Distinguish between literal and
implied meanings.
10. Capitalize on discourse markers
to process relationships.

- involves attending to the
components of larger stretches
discourse: letters, words,
punctuation and other graphemic
symbols.
- bottom-up processing is implied.
PERCEPTIVE

- this is largely an artifact of assessment
formats.
-certain typical tasks are used such as
picture-cued tasks, matching, true/false,
multiple choice.
SELECTIVE

- stimuli include sentences, brief
paragraphs and simple charts and
graphs.
- brief responses are intended and a
combination of bottom-up and top-
down processing may be used.

- includes stretches of language of
several paragraphs to one page or
more in which the reader must
interact with the text.
INTERACTIVE

genres: anecdotes, short
narratives and descriptions,
excerpts from longer texts,
questionnaires, memos,
announcements, directions,
recipes and the like.

focus: to identify relevant
features (lexical, symbolic,
grammatical and discourse)
within texts of moderately short
length with the objective of
retaining the information that is
processed.

- it applies to texts of more than a
page, up to and including
professional articles, essays, technical
reports, short stories and books.
EXTENSIVE

purpose: to tap into a learner’s
global understanding of a text, as
opposed to asking test-takers to
“zoom in” on small details.
- Top-down processing is assumed for
most extensive tasks.

Designing
Assessment Tasks:
Perceptive Reading

At the beginning level of reading a
second language lies a set of tasks that
are fundamental and basic: recognition
of alphabetic symbols, capitalized and
lowercase letters, punctuation, words
and grapheme-phoneme
correspondences.

LITERACY tasks: implying that
learner is in the early stages of
becoming “literate”.

READING ALOUD
- the test taker sees separate letters,
words and/or short sentences and
reads them aloud, one by one, in the
presence of an administrator.

- any recognizable oral
approximation of the target response
is considered correct.

WRITTEN RESPONSE
- the same stimuli is presented, and the
test taker’s task is to reproduce the
probe in writing.
- evaluation of the test taker’s response must
be carefully treated.

MULTIPLE CHOICE
Test takers read: Circle the “odd” item, the one that doesn’t
“belong”.
1. piece peace piece
2. book book boot
Grapheme recognition
task

Minimal pair
distinctionTest takers read: Circle “S” for same or “D” for different.
1. led let S D
2. bit bit S D
3. seat set S D
4. too to S D

PICTURE-CUED
ITEMS- test takers are shown a picture
along with a written text and are
given possible tasks to perform.

A. B.
C. D.
Test Takers read:
1. washing the dishes ____
2. chatting with a friend ____
3. studying the lesson ____
4. washing the clothes ____
Picture-cued matching word
identification

Designing Assessment
Tasks:
Selective Reading

focus on formal aspects of language
(lexical, grammatical and a few discourse
features).
it includes what many incorrectly think
of as testing “vocabulary and grammar”.

MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. He’s not married. He’s __________.
A. young
B. single
C. first
D. a husband
2. If there’s no doorbell, please __________ on the door.
A. kneel
B. type
C. knock
D. shout
Multiple-choice vocabulary/grammar
tasks

Contextualized multiple-choice
vocabulary/grammar tasks
1. Oscar: Do you like champagne?
Lucy: No. I can’t __________.
A. stand
B. prefer
C. hate
2. Manager: Do you like to work by yourself?
Employee: Yes, I like to work __________.
A. independently
B. definitely
C. impatiently

Multiple-choice cloze
vocabulary/grammar tasks
I’ve lived in the United States (21) _____ three years. I (22) _____
live in Costa Rica. I (23) _____ speak any English. I used to (24)_____
homesick, but now I enjoy (25) _____ here. I never (26) _____ back
home (27) _____ I came to the United States, but I might (28) _____
to visit my family soon.
21. A. since 23. A. couldn’t25. A. live 27. A. when
B. for B. could B. to live B. while
C. during C. can C. living C. since
22. A. used to 24. A. been 26. A. be 28. A. go
B. use to B. be B. been B. will go
C. was C. being C. was C. going

MATCHING TASKS
Vocabulary matching
task
Write in the letter of the definition on the right that matches
the word on the left.
____1. exhausted a. unhappy
____2. disappointed b. understanding of others
____3. enthusiastic c. tired
____4. empathetic d. excited

Selected response fill-in vocabulary
task1. At the end of the long race, the runners were totally _____.
2. My parents were _____ with my bad performance on the
final exam.
3. Everyone in the office was _____ about the new salary
raises.
4. The _____ listening of the counselor made Christina feel
well understood.
Choose from among the following:
disappointed
empathetic
exhausted
enthusiastic

ADVANTAGE
- it offers an alternative to traditional
multiple-choice or fill in the blank
formats and are easier to construct than
multiple choice item.
MATCHING TASK

Matching
task
DISADVANTAGE
- it becomes more of a puzzle-solving
process than a genuine test of
comprehension as test-takers struggle
with the search for a match.

EDITING TASKS
-editing for grammatical or
rhetorical errors is a widely used
test method for assessing
linguistic competence in reading.

- it does not only focus on
grammar but also introduces a
simulation of the authentic task
of editing or discerning errors in
written passages.

Multiple-choice grammar editing
task
(Phillips,2001, p. 219)Choose the letter of the underlined word that is not correct.
1. The abrasively action of the wind wears away softer layers of rock.
A B C D
2. There are two way of making a gas condense: cooling it or putting it
A B C D
under pressure.
3. Researchers have discovered that the application of bright light can
A B
sometimes be uses to overcome jet lag.
C D

PICTURE-CUED TASKS
Carlo has a bar of chocolate. He gives half a bar of chocolate to
his brother. See the following four pictures. Choose the picture that
shows the relative amount of chocolate left to Carlo.
A. B. C. D.
Carlo has a bar of chocolate. He gives half a bar of chocolate to
his brother. See the following four pictures. Choose the picture that
shows the relative amount of chocolate left to Carlo.
A. B. C. D.
Multiple-choice picture-cued response
(Phillips, 2001, p. 276)

Diagram-labeling task
bathtub
mirror
shower
sink
soap
toilet
toothbrush
toothpaste
towel

GAP-FILLING TASKS
-the response is to write a word or
phrase.
- to create sentence completion items
where test-takers read part of a sentence
and then complete it by writing a
phrase.

Sentence Completion
task
Oscar: Doctor, what should I do if I get sick?
Doctor: It is best to stay home and ________________.
If you have a fever, ______________________.
You should drink as much _________________.
The worst thing you can do is _______________.
You should also __________________________.

Gap Filling Task
DISADVANTAGES
It has a questionable assessment of
reading ability. The task requires both
reading and writing performance, thus,
rendering it of low validity in isolating
reading as the sole criterion.

DISADVANTAGES
Scoring the variety of creative
responses that are likely to appear is
another drawback. A number of
judgment is needed on what
comprises a correct response.

Designing
Assessment Tasks:
Interactive Reading

Interactive Reading
tasks at this level have a combination of
form-focused and meaning-focused
objectives but with more emphasis on
meaning.
it implies a little more focus on top-down
processing than on bottom-up.

texts are a little longer from a
paragraph to as much as a page or so
in the case of ordinary prose. Charts,
graphs and other graphics are
somewhat complex in their format.

CLOZE TASKS
-the ability to fill in gaps in an incomplete
image (visual, auditory or cognitive) and
supply (from background schemata) omitted
details.
-cloze tests are usually a minimum of two
paragraphs in length in order to account for
discourse expectancies.

CLOZE TASKS
-typically, every seventh word (plus or
minus two) is deleted (known as fixed-
ratio deletion) but many cloze test
designers instead use a rational
deletion procedure of choosing
deletions according to the grammatical
or discourse functions of the words.

Two approaches to the scoring
of cloze test
Exact word method- gives
credit to test-takers only if they insert
the exact word that was originally
deleted.

Appropriate word
method- gives credit to the test-
taker for supplying any word that
is grammatically correct and that
makes good sense in the context.

Cloze procedure, fixed ratio
deletion
(every seventh word)
The recognition that one’s feelings of (1) ____ and unhappiness
can coexist much like (2) ____ and hate in a close relationship
(3) ____ offer valuable clues on how to (4) ____ a happier life. It
suggests, for (5) ____ that changing or avoiding things that (6)
____ you miserable may well make you (7) ____ miserable but
probably no happier.

Cloze procedure, rational
deletion
(prepositions and
conjunctions)
The recognition that one’s feelings (1) ____ happiness (2) ____
unhappiness can coexist much like love and hate (3) ____ a
close relationship may offer valuable clues (4) ____ how to lead
a happier life. It suggests, (5) ____ example, that changing (6)
____ avoiding things that make you miserable may well make
you less miserable (7) ____ probably no happier.

Variations on Standard
Cloze Testing
C-test- the second half (according
to the number of letters) of every
other word is obliterated and the
test-taker must restore each word.

Cloze-elide procedure- it
inserts words into a text that do
not belong. The test-taker’s task
is to detect and cross out the
“intrusive” words.

DISADVANTAGES
Neither the words to insert nor
the frequency of insertion
appears to have any rationale.
* Cloze-elide procedure is actually a test
of reading speed and not of proofreading
skill.

DISADVANTAGES
1. Fast and efficient readers are not
adept at detecting the intrusive
words.
2. Good readers naturally weed out
such potential interruptions.

IMPROMPTU READING PLUS
COMPREHENSION
QUESTIONS
-the traditional “Read a passage
and answer some questions”
technique which is the oldest
and the most common.

SHORT-ANSWER
TASKS-a reading passage is presented and
the test-taker reads questions that
must be answered in a sentence or
two.

Open-ended reading
comprehension questions
1. What do you think is the main idea of this passage?
2. What would you infer from the passage about the future of air
travel?
3. In line 6, the word sensation is used. From the context, what
do you think this word means?
4. Why do you think the airlines have recently experienced a
decline?

EDITING (LONGER
TEXTS)
ADVANTAGES
authenticity is increased.
the task simulates proofreading
one’s own essay, where it is
imperative to find and correct
errors.

EDITING (LONGER TEXTS)
ADVANTAGES
if the test is connected to a
specific curriculum, the test
designer can draw up specifications
for a number of grammatical and
rhetorical categories that match the
content of the courses.

SCANNING
-it is a strategy used by all readers
to find relevant information in a
test.

SCANNING
-test-takers are presented with a text
(prose or something in a chart or
graph format) and requiring rapid
identification of relevant bits of
information.

-possible stimuli include:
a one to two page news article
an essay
a chapter in a textbook
a technical report
a table or chart depicting some research
findings
an application form

-the test-taker must locate:
a date, name or place in an article;
The setting for a narrative story;
the principal divisions of a
chapter;

the principal research finding in a
technical report;
a result reported in a specified cell in a
table;
the cost of an item on a menu; and
specified data needed to fill out an
application.

ORDERING
TASKS
- sometimes called the “strip
story” technique.

- variations on this can serve as an
assessment of overall global
understanding of a story and of the
cohesive devices that signal the order of
events or ideas.

It was almost midnight. John was still awake because he did not
have to get up early in the morning. His favorite actor’s movie
on TV had just finished. The bell rang. He opened the door. It
was his flat-mate, Tom. He had forgotten his keys at home in
the morning. He seemed too tired to chat with John so he went
to bed as soon as possible. John felt lonely and decided to go to
bed. He went to the bathroom and brushed his teeth. When he
came into his bedroom, he noticed some candies on the table.
He ate a few of them. The candies reminded him of his
childhood. Since he did not want to sleep, he decided to look at
some old photos. He felt sad when he saw his ex-girlfriend
Laura in a photo. He remembered the days they had spent
together. He checked his watch and went to bed.
Sentence-ordering
task

Put the scrambled sentences into the correct
order that they happened.
(…..) A. John ate some candies.
(…..) B. John felt sad.
(…..) C. Tom went to bed and John felt
lonely.
(…..) D. John watched a film on TV.
(…..) E. John remembered his childhood.
(…..) F. The bell rang and Tom came
home.

INFORMATION TRANSFER:
READING CHARTS, MAPS,
GRAPHS, DIAGRAMS
- it requires not only an understanding of the
graphic and verbal conventions of the
medium but also a linguistic ability to
interpret the information to someone else.

- it is often accompanied by oral or
written discourse in order to convey,
clarify, question, argue and debate,
among other linguistic functions.

-to comprehend information in this
medium, learners must be able to:
comprehend specific conventions of the
various types of graphics;
comprehend labels, headings, numbers
and symbols;

comprehend the possible
relationships among elements of the
graphic; and
 make inferences that are not
presented overtly.

The act of comprehending graphics
includes the linguistic performance of
oral or written interpretations,
comments, questions, etc. This implies a
process of information transfer
from one skill to another, in this case,
from reading verbal/nonverbal
information to speaking/writing.

Designing
Assessment Tasks:
Extensive
Reading

Extensive Reading
it involves somewhat longer texts.
Journal articles, technical reports,
longer essays, short stories and
books fall into this category.

reading of this type of discourse
almost always involves a focus on
meaning using mostly top-down
processing, with only occasional use
of targeted bottom-up strategy.

Tasks that can be applied in
extensive reading:
impromptu reading plus comprehension questions
short answer tasks
editing
scanning
ordering
information transfer and
interpretation

SKIMMING TASKS
- it is the process of rapid coverage of
reading matter to determine its gist
or main idea.

- it is a prediction strategy used to give a
reader a sense of topic and purpose of
text, the organization of the text, the
perspective or point of view of the
writer, its case or difficulty and its
usefulness to the reader.

What is the main idea of this text?
What is the author’s purpose in writing the text?
What kind of writing is this (newspaper, article, manual,
novel, etc.)?
What type of writing is this (expository, technical,
narrative, etc.)?
How easy or difficult do you think this text will be?
What do you think you will learn from the text?
How useful will the text be for your (profession,
academic needs, interests)?
The test-taker skims the text and answer the
following questions.

SUMMARIZING AND
RESPONDING
SUMMARIZING
- it requires a synopsis or overview of the
text.
Write a summary of the text. Your summary should be about one
paragraph in length (100-150 words) and should include your
understanding of the main idea and supporting ideas.
Directions for Summarizing

1. Expresses accurately the main idea and
supporting ideas.
2. Is written in the student’s own words;
occasional vocabulary from the original text
is acceptable.
3. Is logically organized.
4. Displays facility in the use of language to
Criteria for assessing a summary (Imao, 2001,
p. 184)
Evaluating summaries is difficult.

RESPONDING
- it asks the reader to provide his/her
own opinion on the text as a whole
or on some statement or issue within
it.

Directions for Responding
In the article “Poisoning the Air We Breathe”, the author suggests
that a global dependence on fossil fuels will eventually make air
in large cities toxic. Write an essay in which you agree or disagree
with the author’s thesis. Support your opinion with information from
the article and from your own experience.

Scoring is also difficult in
responding because of the
subjectivity.

Holistic Scoring scale for
summarizing and responding
3 Demonstrate clear, unambiguous comprehension
of the main and supporting ideas.
2 Demonstrates comprehension of the main idea
but lacks comprehension of some supporting ideas.
1 Demonstrates only a partial comprehension of the
main and supporting ideas.
0 Demonstrates no comprehension of the main and
supporting ideas.

NOTE-TAKING and
OUTLINING
- they fall on the category of informal
assessment

- their utility is in the strategic training
that learners gain in retaining
information through marginal notes that
highlight key information or
organizational outlines that put
supporting ideas into a visually
manageable framework.

Assessing reading

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