Testing for young learners: summary of the 15th chapter from Arthur Hughes' book Testing for Language teaching.

1. Test for Young
Learners
Paula Garrido García
Rafael Hernando González

2. Structure
General
approach
Particular
demands
Recommended
techniques

3. General approach
Young learners: from 5 to 12
Not everyone does it.
Why?
 Benefices of the program.
 Common yardstick (For comparing results).
 Positive attitudes towards language
learning.

4. General approach
Recommendations:
1. Integrate testing in assessing and
assessing in the teaching programme.
2. Immediate and positive feedback.
3. Student self assessment (monitoring their
own progress)
4. Conditions to perform at their best.

5. Particular demands for tests
 Relaxed setting.
 Valid and reliable.
 Special features:
 Brief and varied tasks.
 Tasks with stories and games.
 Pictures attractive typography
and color.
 Tasks they can handle
in their L1.
 Involve interaction tasks.
 Integrated-skills task.

6. Recommended techniques
Listening Reading Writing
Oral
ability
Oral
interaction

7. Recommended techniques:
Testing Listening
 Placing objects or identifying people.
 Multiple choice pictures.

8. Recommended techniques:
Testing Listening
 Color and draw on existing line drawing.
 Information transfer.

9. Recommended techniques:
Testing Reading
 Multiple choice.
 (Reference to Chapter 11: short answer technique).

10. Recommended techniques:
Testing Writing
 Anagram with pictures.
 Gap filling with pictures.

11. Recommended techniques:
Testing Writing
 Cartoon story.

12. Recommended techniques:
Testing Oral Ability
Questions about him and family.
Pointing on and describing images on a
card.
Placing small cards on bigger ones.
Differences between two pictures.
Completing the story.
Identifying the odd picture.

13. Recommended techniques:
Testing Oral Interaction
Guessing who I am describing.
Discovering common pictures.
Finding common objects in two
pictures.
Completing information.