Re: TASK 14 -- Communicative approach

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Date Posted: 05:36:45 08/08/03 Fri
Author: Marcos Manso
Subject: Re: TASK 14
In reply to: Vera 's message, "Re: TASK 14" on 08:07:44 08/07/03 Thu

"very good. Can you give us any example of tests items?
Vera"

Thank you very much. Well, let me try to give you an example of what I think a test (just part of it) might look like following Hymes's concept and Kitao's reflections on testing communicative competence.

I was selecting a reading activity for my students and came across to the first piece of news:

Thieves Take $144,000 in New 32� Stamps
PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 24 (AP) � Unreleased commemorative postage stamps valued at $144,000 were stolen here while being transported from Washington, and postal inspectors are given the thieves who stole them a week to return them, no questions asked.
The 32-cent Statue of Liberty stamps are being sold at deep discounts on street corners in Philadelphia, said Judith Starliper, a Postal Inspection Service spokeswoman.
The stamps are not scheduled to be released until next month, and mail bearing them will not be processed.
Inspectors want the stamps returned by next Friday.
Some 4,500 booklets of the stamps were being transported to Philadelphia from Washington when they were stolen in South Philadelphia on Jan. 9 Ms. Starliper did not release details of the theft, but said two suspects were being sought.

I thought we might ask questions such as the ones below to test students� comprehension and ability to communicate their ideas and reactions to their peers.

1. What was stolen and when was it stolen?
(This is a more objective question and can test students� understanding of the text).
2. Why do think the postal inspectors gave the thieves a week to return the objects stolen without any explanations?
(This is a subjective questions and any answer may be accepted as long as it coherent to the subject and text)
3. If you are one of the thieves or someone who gets or buys some of those stolen objects can you normally use them?
(This is a more objective question and answers can be corroborated by the text)
4. The report says two suspects were being sought. Imagine that you were one of the thieves and think about the previous question. What would you do in this situation? Would you return the stolen objects or what? Why?
(This is a more subjective question and will test students� ability in reacting to the news being presented)

This is just a reading activity. However it might as well be a way of testing students� communicative competence. The teacher can evaluate students� ability to receive information and then express and elicit their opinions. He or she can also assess learners� pronunciation and grammatical correctness.

This reading activity could be used as a test in the same way you would for a class activity. Students can be tested individually, in pairs, or even in small groups. As we can see, a mere excerpt from a regular newspaper can be useful to evaluate not only students� reading skills, but it can also be used as a communicative type activity in which students engage in conversation about the report and express their own opinions about it. If desired by the teacher, the students can be also checked for their writing skills either as a sole reading and answering test or along with the communicative tasks.

What do you think about it?

Marcos Manso

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