LTC Technical Report 2 - Alpen-Adria

Testing Reading
Specifications for the E8-Standards
Reading Tests
LTC Technical Report 2
Otmar Gassner
Claudia Mewald
Guenther Sigott
© Language Testing Centre: http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/ltc 2007
Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt
Universitätsstraße 64
AUSTRIA
CONTENTS
Establishing common ground: How reading is
trained and tested
4
Expeditious reading and careful reading
6
Awareness and good readers
6
Lower ability readers
7
Reading lessons
8
Skills or strategies?
8
Expeditious reading
1
Skimming
2
Scanning
9
9
10
Careful Reading
3.
Understanding the text
4.
Understanding lexis
11
11
13
Feedback to test takers
13
E8 Reading Test Specifications Version 03
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Purpose of the test
Description of test takers
Test level
Test construct
Reading strategies
Text types
Structure of the test
Time allocation
Item formats
Rubrics
Item exemplars
Item Exemplars
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
18
18
18
18
19
20
1.
Skimming / reading for gist
Strategy 1.1.
Strategy 1.2.
Strategy 1.3.
20
20
22
22
2.
Scanning / reading for detail
Strategy 2.1.
23
23
3.
Understanding the text
Strategy 3.1.
Strategy 3.2.
Strategy 3.3.
Strategy 3.4.
Strategy 3.5.
24
24
24
25
26
26
4.
Understanding lexis
Strategy 4.1.
28
28
Long Tasks
Long Task 1
Long Task 2
29
28
34
Sample Answer Sheet
37
Literature
38
Testing Reading: Specifications for the
E8-Standards Reading Tests
Establishing common ground: How reading is trained and
tested
The declared aim of E8 standards testing is system monitoring; the focus is on a
diagnosis of the educational system concerning the efficiency of foreign language
instruction in Austrian schools. The general aims of establishing and testing
standards in English for fourteen-year-old learners at Austrian schools have been
discussed at some length elsewhere (Gassner et al. 2005, Sigott et al. 2007). These
introductory remarks are about what learners and teachers should know about the
way reading is trained and tested.
Consequently, this paper is about empowering learners and about making the most
of reading in foreign language classrooms. Good readers are not born, they are
made. If we call a good reader a person who is able to adopt the most suitable and
efficient strategy to perform a given reading task, then we have to shift the focus in
class from simple reading comprehension exercises to the teaching of reading
strategies unless we believe in natural and subconscious acquisition and in intuition
on the part of the learners. This does not mean that we should teach our ten- to
fourteen-year-olds meta-language and reading theory, but they need to be familiar
with different ways of approaching and decoding texts in order to become effective
readers.
It is a valuable learning aim to be able to vary the speed and the degree of attention
to detail according to some given text or task features. This might well mean making
an effort to break existing reading habits as an important first step. Urquhart & Weir
describe a style of reading that some L2 readers insist on as “a relentless, slow plod
through the text, beginning at the top left-hand corner, and continuing to the end, the
process only broken up in some cases by frequent recourse to a dictionary or to the
teacher as a dictionary equivalent.” (Urquhart & Weir 1998, 251) It is obvious that this
style of reading is very time consuming and not suited for a number of task types and
texts. It has been argued “that some of the time devoted in class to working out the
meaning of words in context might be better spent on activities promoting
automaticity. An excessive focus on the former might actually impede developing
fluency.” (Urquhart & Weir 1998, 188)
Not all learners are taught to become independent; on the contrary, they are spoonfed for too long. The habit of some teachers to pre-teach most if not all unknown
vocabulary creates a totally unnatural reading environment, which learners will not
find anywhere outside the protected school rooms. In a real-world context most texts
will contain a number of unknown words, and our aim must be to provide our learners
with strategies to handle these linguistic challenges instead of removing them and
creating artificial, inauthentic but “safe” situations.
If empowering learners is high on our agenda, then consciousness-raising activities
should be used more frequently and more systematically. Making learners aware of
what they are doing when tackling reading tasks or reading test items can be trained
4
from a very simple level on. Pupils who are told to quickly go over a text and find out
what the main idea is should be made aware of the strategy they are training
(skimming) and of the various uses they can make of it as a real-world skill that is
essential in out-of-the-classroom contexts.
In addition to that, learners need to be made test-wise if they are to succeed in the
E8 standards tests or in international test settings. Since the multiple-choice format is
used in a number of high-stakes tests (e.g. TOEFL for university entrance in the US)
and in the Austrian E8 standards tests, learners in Austria need to be trained for it.
They must be familiarized with the test format long before they actually do the test.
Test takers also need to have some meta-knowledge as regards text types and
genres. How can they identify a text as an article if they do not know what an article
looks like? The range of text types the test takers should know is defined in the
national curriculum1 and also in the test specifications (p. 17). Thus learners should
have been exposed to the following text types and made aware of their characteristic
features and of strategies these might call for:
•
Personal writing:
o
•
Simple literary texts:
o
•
Letters, postcards, emails, diary entries
stories, jokes, short stories, urban legends, mini-sagas, fairy tales,
simplified readers, songs and poems
Simple fact-based texts:
o
newspaper articles, news, letters-to-the-editor, agony aunt, texts from
youth magazines/school magazines, book/film reviews, factual reports,
headlines
o
historical accounts, (travel) accounts (travel brochures, travel guides), city
guides, biographical notes, reference books, educational materials
o
recipes, menus, signs, timetable, plane and train schedules, travel and
registration forms, (online) order forms, store guides, TV/radio programme
guides, tables of content
o
simple instructions for everyday technical equipment (e.g. mobile phone,
mp3 player)
o
directions, rules, (safety) regulations, (public) notices, messages,
invitations, labels, product packaging, advertisements, weather forecasts
Table 1: Text types
In addition to table 1, the following text types or subtypes are directly mentioned in
the reading items now ready for use in the LTC item bank: guidebook, holiday letter,
travel agent’s catalogue, geography school textbook, brochure, ad(vertisement)s,
adventure story, fairy tale, crime story, short story, joke, scientific texts, cookbook,
history book, TV programme, book of poems, game guide, sports journal, letter, email, postcard, newspaper article, magazine article, letter of apology, book review,
instruction, historical account.
1
Available at: http://www.bmukk.gv.at/schulen/unterricht/lp/Lehrplaene_der_Allgemein2102.xml
5
Expeditious reading and careful reading
Reading skills and strategies are crucial in any attempt to process print information at
any level. There are good reasons for PISA to have focused on reading as it is one of
the dimensions that define literacy. But it is obvious that the skill you need to read a
novel is different from the one you need to find out where a person was born in a
biographical entry of an encyclopaedia.
It is useful to distinguish between “expeditious reading” and “careful reading”. The
most obvious features of “expeditious reading” are the concentration on the
macrostructure of a text and goal-orientation. The reader knows beforehand what to
look for. Another feature of this mode of reading is what has been called “the factor of
selectivity” (Urquhart & Weir 1998, 104). There is no need to read every single word,
but the reader selects the parts of text that seem to contain the desired information or
clue. This is also connected with speed.
“Careful reading” is the type of reading that has been dominant in most text books
for a long time. Reading meant close reading with the aim of (detailed)
comprehension. This classical approach is typically represented in the formula “text
plus comprehension questions”. Of course, this approach to reading is more than
justified, but it should not be practised exclusively, and certainly not at the expense of
“expeditious reading”. The various strategies of “careful reading” share common
characteristics:
a) the reader attempts to handle the majority of information in the text, that is, the
process is not selective;
b) the reader adopts a submissive role …, and accepts the writer’s organization,
including what the writer considers to be the important parts
c) the reader attempts to build up a macrostructure on the basis of the majority of the
information in the text. (Urquhart & Weir 1998, 103)
Awareness and good readers
A good reader knows that the way to approach a text is determined by several
factors: the general reading purpose (for information, for entertainment), the setting
(a school task, a real-world need), text length (a novel, a poem, an ad), language
difficulty (style, register, vocabulary range) and task. A good reader also knows that
the key to the text is the task: how we approach a particular text is determined by
what we are requested to do with it. Depending on the task and on the required
outcome, different strategies will have to be chosen.
Additionally, good reading also implies “comprehension monitoring”.
The ability to use self-regulatory mechanisms to ensure the successful completion of
the task, such as checking the outcome of any attempt to solve the problem, planning
one’s next move, evaluating the effectiveness of any attempted action, testing, and
revising one’s strategies for learning, and remediating any difficulties encountered by
using compensatory strategies. (Baker & Brown 1984, 22)
Our learners need to be made aware of different reading strategies and of their
appropriateness in relation to certain text and task features. Another teaching point,
however, is the monitoring function. Readers need to be able to judge the suitability
of the strategy chosen, and if a strategy proves unsuitable, they need to have access
to a number of other strategies to select from. Keeping in mind that L2 learners tend
to be “careful readers”, it is worth training expeditious reading strategies to increase
6
speed and quick information retrieval. This is especially important as it implies a
change of focus from the microstructure of a text to its macrostructure or from the
generation of a macrostructure on the basis of a procedure that takes in the majority
of the information to one that relies on selected passages only.
Generally, this kind of mediation and strategy training by the teacher has to do with
empowering learners,
with helping learners to acquire the knowledge, skills and strategies they will need in
order to progress, to learn more, to tackle problems, … to meet new and
unpredictable demands. It is also concerned with helping learners to become
autonomous, to take control of their own learning, with the fundamental aim of
enabling them to become independent thinkers and problem-solvers. (William &
Burden 1997, 68)
Lower ability readers
However, not all our learners are good problem-solvers or good readers. Urquhart &
Weir review interesting and relevant findings.
Hoffman (1991: 915) refers to a frequently cited frustration for teachers as dealing
with and meeting the needs of students experiencing difficulty in the reading
classroom. He presents data to suggest that the slow pacing in low ability groups
‘does not appear to hold any promise or pay off in terms of successful reading
development’ (p.936).
The high incidence of teacher correction often at the point of error in reading aloud in
low-ability groups is also seen as debilitating and helps create an even wider gap
between high- and low-ability groups. (pp. 937-8)
Johnston and Allington (1991: 985-6) feel that the very use of the term ‘remediation’,
with its connotation of sickness of the child, creates an unfortunate role structure for
the children tagged in this way. They suggest that we would look at the situation
differently if we used the terms ‘children with different schedules for reading
acquisition’ or ‘children we have failed to teach’. They question taking students out of
mainstream programmes and show how those in many remedial programmes often
receive less reading instruction than those in the classes they have been taken from;
read less text and spend less time reading any text. In such programmes teachers’
expectations of students are lowered with consequent effects on the way teachers
interact with the students and the results obtained. Those who get off schedule in
remediation hardly ever get back on (p.998) and it may be the nature of the
instruction they receive, e.g. a focus on decoding, rather than meaning which keeps
them that way (p. 999). (Urquhart & Weir 1998, 228-229)
These findings seem of high relevance to the teaching in third-ability groups in
Austrian lower secondary schools. We feel that all the points made above are well
worth reflecting in the context of the Austrian way of dealing with low achievers. The
way forward seems to involve awareness-raising, as Alderson points out by referring
to a study by Duffy et al. (1987),
who show low-group 3rd grade readers can be made aware of the mental processing
involved in using reading skills as strategies (metacognitive awareness), and how
such students then become more aware of the content of reading lessons, and of the
need to be strategic when reading. They also score better on measures of reading
achievement. (Alderson 2000, 41-42)
7
Reading lessons
International studies have shown that reading classes have typical features that are
very traditional:
•
•
•
•
•
predominance of textbooks
emphasis on factual textual information
teachers in control of students’ encounters with print; student initiated comments
or questions are rare
very little work in groups
little planned reading instruction in terms of teaching skills and strategies
(Urquhart & Weir 1998, 224)
For too long, reading tasks in course books have been considered “easy tasks” for
teachers that do not demand a lot of preparation, expertise, or energy. Too often
have the learners been left alone with the text with the only feedback on whether
their answers were correct or not. This puts slow learners at a blatant disadvantage,
“it is the learners who have the most difficulties who often receive the least attention.
Those who help promote the successful achievement of the teacher-decided
activities receive the most reward.” (Urquhart & Weir 1998, 226)
An important step towards a change of teacher behaviour in reading classes is the
move away from correct answers (only) to explanations as to how these right
answers were found and why some other student answers might not be (equally)
acceptable.
Skills or strategies?
Although a number of researchers claim that strategies are purposefully and
consciously employed, we can assume that a great number of our test takers
approach a text in a less reflective manner and with only a mild cognitive orientation.
At this point, it is helpful to attempt an important clarification as there is some
confusion about skills and strategies. Teachers can be expected to be more familiar
with the term skills and much less so with strategies. In the given context, it is useful
to follow Urquhart & Weir, who quote Williams & Moran:
“A skill is an ability which has been automatised and operates largely subconsciously,
whereas a strategy is a conscious procedure carried out in order to solve a problem.”
(Urquhart & Weir 1998, 98)
Based on this distinction, it might be proposed that in the future the E8 test takers
should not only have some command of the main reading skills, but also know
something about reading strategies. A research-based investigation into the
knowledge about and use of reading strategies in the process of dealing with reading
tasks could prepare the ground for better understanding the needs of young learners
and help develop the path towards better performance.
Strategies have the following characteristics:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
They are essentially problem solving on whatever level, macro or micro
They are goal oriented
They are purposeful
They involve efficiency and selection
In the case of expeditious strategies, they also involve speed
They are consciously adopted (in contrast to subconscious use of skills)
They are, by implication, directly teachable. (Urquhart & Weir 1998, 188-189)
8
After an analysis of the Austrian curriculum and the relevant passages of the
Common European Framework, ten reading strategies have been identified by the
Austrian standards testing team as suitable for testing reading competence at E8
level. In the following section these strategies are discussed with reference to the
reading specifications in the second part of this text and to some didactic
requirements which are to be met in our foreign language classrooms. Including
these aspects in our teaching on a regular basis will ensure increased reading
competence and better test performance.
The next section is intended to discuss the individual strategies. It should become
clear in what way the strategies relate to the test and how the focus on a particular
strategy has been implemented in test items written especially for the E8 testing by a
group of Austrian item writers, who are all practising teachers at secondary level.
Expeditious reading
The strategies tested in the E8 standards are discussed in the order they are listed in
the test specifications on p. 16.
1
Skimming
Skimming means getting a global impression of a text without much attention to
detail. However, even with this global approach the focus is determined by the
strategy employed. Depending on the focus, different clues will have to be picked up
from the text. Although there is some overlap, any given item will always attempt to
test a particular strategy. On the way to identifying the purpose of a text, for instance,
a first step might be to discover what type of text it is, but in most cases learners will
have to pick up further clues to finally decide on text purpose.
Recognising text type (strategy 1.1) or genre is significant as it allows judging the
reliability of the content and helps to understand the purpose of a text. When readers
recognise a text as a holiday brochure, they know that its main purpose is to attract
attention, to rouse interest rather than to inform truthfully and supply correct facts.
Eventually, it even involves a pragmatic dimension as it wants to make the readers
book a holiday at a particular place and, in most cases, with a particular company.
It is a highly relevant skill to be able to recognise certain text features that reveal a
given text as belonging to a particular genre. As learners need to be able to
distinguish between a variety of text types, prominent features of text types need to
be focused on in teaching and recognising them must be practised. Pupils are
expected to know the names of the text types that are listed in the reading
specifications on p. 17 and those on p. 5. For the classroom this means that pupils
must be repeatedly exposed to different text types and that they must be made
aware of their particular features.
The classical way of testing reading for gist is to ask readers to say what a text is
about (strategy 1.2: identifying text topic). Whereas this can be difficult in an open
task, the multiple-choice format reduces the job to one of selection. In many cases
this means choosing the best title (“What is the best title for the text?” – See pp. 22,
30 and 36). Pupils need to be made aware that in the context of the E8 tests the
phrase “the best title” means “the only correct title” as the distractors, by definition,
must be wrong.
9
The third strategy, identifying text purpose (1.3), is probably the one that is least
frequently practised in classroom work. It may be speculated that this strategy is
generally considered more advanced and not to be targeted with A2-B1 learners. On
the other hand, it makes good sense to teach explicitly that texts have different
purposes at a rather early stage of language learning. Learners should, for instance,
be able to see whether a text was written to inform or entertain or whether it was
written to make the reader do something. Again the four multiple-choice options
make this task much easier than it looks, but it needs practising regularly in class.
2
Scanning
The second main strategy of expeditious reading is scanning. It is similar to skimming
as this reading strategy is also a “fast” reading technique, but it is strikingly different
in other respects; so much so that it has been argued that scanning has very little to
do with proper reading.
Scanning means reading selectively with a very specific goal in mind. It is more like
performing a search operation on a computer than reading to access and create
meaning. The target is very often a text detail like a name or a date that is visible at
surface level. Urquhart & Weir give a lucid step-by step description of the processes
involved.
Suppose at the lowest level, the goal has been set at scanning a text to find a name.
We don’t know what goes on when the goalsetter is set to ‘scan’. Presumably,
however, little or no syntactic processing needs to be involved, no checking of
coherence, and no attempt to build up a macrostructure. In fact, it is arguable that
only a limited amount of lexical access is required: the reader might scan by decoding
alone, without accessing the meaning and the phonological representations of the
words. Whatever is the case, the monitor can be envisaged as set at a simple Yes/No
level, checking only to see if the word or words being scanned fitted the search
description or not. If it did, then the search would be over; if not, the word would be
rejected, and the search continued. There is no need to complete the reading of the
sentence, or to integrate the word into the structure of preceding text. Checking the
coherence of micropropositions would seem to be redundant, and there seems little
use for any sort of macrostructure to be built up. (Urquhart & Weir 1998, 107)
The text chosen to illustrate how a number of different reading strategies are tested
on pp. 29-30 is rather difficult and contains vocabulary that is beyond the test takers’
range. However, it is important for readers to be able to handle reading tasks
focusing on certain elements or passages of text without fully understanding the
whole text in all its details. Being able to translate a given text would require higher
order thinking and involve more complex skills than just doing a reading task based
on one particular reading strategy.
Finding specific details (e.g. names, figures, dates, any other surface-level
information) in a text (strategy 2.1) does not involve complete understanding of
everything, but highlights the ability to spot specific information in a text or to state
that the text does not contain the information asked for. In example 2.1.1 on p. 31,
you might expect to find a sentence in the text that runs like this: “Cocoa trees do not
grow in China.” As it happens, scanning this text leads test takers to the sentence
“This tree grows in regions close to the equator, especially in places such as South
America, Africa and Indonesia.” So the question “Where do cocoa trees NOT grow?”
demands a thinking operation, although a simple one, because the targeted
information needs to be inverted. In a first step the reader identifies the places where
10
the cocoa tree grows. In a second step, a look at the four options will make it fairly
easy to discard the three distractors and go for the correct solution “United States”.
There is one basic problem with testing expeditious reading which has not been
addressed in the E8 standards testing context and which is notoriously difficult to
include in any test setting: reading speed. Although we aim at testing a strategy of
expeditious reading, we have no way of controlling the test takers’ reading speed, nor
their choice of strategy. Plodding through a text might eventually yield the same
result as a quick scan of the text.
It is worth thinking seriously about substantially increasing the amount of text
intended for skimming and scanning as only a long text can scare test takers away
from strategies based on slow decoding and make more efficient and time saving
strategies look more attractive or, in future, deliver tests by computer and time the
display.
Careful Reading
Learners must be able to switch between the two basic modes of reading, one that
emphasizes “the big picture” or “a specific surface detail” and another one that
requires slower and closer reading. Learners must be trained to adapt their reading
time as well as their reading speed to the particular texts. Getting it across that not
every text has to be read and understood word for word, is an important teaching
point. As a matter of fact, more often than not the main achievement is the right
choice of approach to a text. Efficient reading pays enough attention to those text
parts or text features that are relevant to the task and simply fade out the rest.
Successful learners process the task requirements on a meta-level and then make
intelligent decisions. It is important in knowledge-of-the-world terms that they can
distinguish between reading jobs that demand expeditious reading and others that
call for careful reading. Didactically the approach seems simple enough: when
learners know that tasks going for text type, topic (title), purpose or specific surface
details call for expeditious reading, they also know that in all other cases careful
reading is necessary. (This of course is, at least partly, a line of argument to make
the pupils test-wise.) It follows that only little world knowledge is needed for guiding
learners in their choice of the best approach to reading a text in the context of a given
task. With good learners teachers should offer guidance to help them arrive at
autonomous decisions regarding the choice of the most appropriate strategy to do a
task. It goes without saying that the focus in a reading class should be real-world
needs rather than being primarily test-driven. Nevertheless, some test-specific
training of formats and procedures cannot but support learner confidence and
performance in both educational and real world contexts.
3.
Understanding the text
Strategy 3.1 (understanding explicitly stated main idea(s) and / or distinguishing that
from supporting details) bears some resemblance to strategy 1.2 (identifying text
topic). Generally, however, skimming is more likely to be effectively used with longer
texts, whereas strategy 3.1 focuses on smaller units, usually at paragraph level. But
there is not only a difference in quantity. Skimming the text for the main topic in
example 3.1.1 on p. 24, one could say it is about “possible health risks of mobile
phones”. With 3.1, however, the focus is on main idea(s) as opposed to supporting
11
detail, and not on gist. But what looks like a fairly difficult task, is ultimately simplified
by the four multiple choice options given.
Strategy 3.2 (locating, identifying, understanding and comparing facts, opinions,
definitions (this includes search reading strategies)) is quite complex as it requires a
number of operations to be performed. In the case of the example on p. 32 the test
taker has to locate, identify, understand and compare the facts about the size of the
fruit of the cocoa tree. Again, the options offered make this particular task an easy
one. After the reference to the pineapple has been located, it is only the coffee bean /
cocoa bean that finally has to be eliminated. As options C and D are neither directly
nor indirectly mentioned in the text, they can be quickly excluded. Other items on this
strategy will emphasize different aspects like understanding and comparing opinions
or definitions.
Text organisation
We have chosen to discuss the process (one individual thinking process, in fact) of
going through this task in some detail because it seems important to illustrate
strategies 3.3 (understanding the logical organisation of the text, e.g. understanding
relationships among ideas in a text (problem - solution, cause - effect, temporal
sequence, etc.)) and 3.4 (understanding cohesive relationships (reference, ellipsis,
substitution, conjunction, lexical cohesion)) as they are closely related, but need to
be considered separately. (cf. pp. 34-35)
Step1: After reading paragraph A, it seems a suitable opening paragraph as no
further information is needed to understand everything mentioned.
Step 2: Placing paragraph B after A does not work as the “However” indicates a
connection to a previous passage and signals some restriction. Moreover, the
statement “James Naismith himself never took any money” suggests that others (that
have not been mentioned yet) have done so. The last sentence of this paragraph
sounds conclusive, bringing the argument to a close after moving from the
beginnings of basketball to “today”.
Step 3: Paragraph C starts with a cohesive device as well. “So” introduces a causerelated component. And the “safe game” of this first sentence is clearly linked back to
“aggressions were becoming a problem” at the end of paragraph A.
Step 4: Partial conclusion: Having read through paragraphs A to C, it seems clear
that the text starts with A, is followed by C and concludes with B. The rest of the text
will be needed to confirm or refute this argumentation. Only one of the two
paragraphs left will have to be selected for inclusion.
Step 5: Paragraph D forces us to make some readjustments to our argument. The
initial phrase “Today basketball is played” picks up an earlier phrase “Today
basketball has become” (B). Whereas the first phrase of paragraph D makes it a
candidate for a concluding paragraph, the following questions immediately mark it as
a lead-in paragraph with the “today”-phrase neatly marking beginning and ending of
the text.
Step 6: A look at paragraph E shows that there is no room for any information on Wilt
Chamberlain, so this paragraph can be discarded. – This done, we come up with our
final arrangement of the paragraphs in this order: D – A – C – B
The thinking processes required to place paragraphs D and B have to do with the
logical organisation of the text. To place A and C it is necessary to decode the
cohesive devices and to pick up referential clues. What makes the distinction
12
between these two strategies unclear is the fact that cohesive devices generally help
towards the logical organisation of a text. Whereas 3.4 (understanding cohesive
relationships) is always close to 3.3 (understanding the logical organisation of the
text), the reverse is not the case. A text can be logically organised without
conspicuous markers like cohesive devices.
It goes without saying that fourteen-year-old learners will not be aware of these
strategies on a meta-level; nor will they be able to describe their own thinking
process. If they are to understand texts, however, they need information on the
building blocks of texts and on how – in a very general way – texts work. To do this in
a receptive skill like reading is essential. If learners have not mastered this level, they
can hardly be expected to write logical texts themselves or to show that they can
structure their own writing.
Inferencing
Strategy 3.5 (making propositional inferences (deducing information that is not
explicitly stated from information that is explicitly stated)) is extremely valuable in real
life. By paying attention to detail in a text (passage), you are able to pick up implicit
meaning and understand something that has not been said literally. Example 1 on p.
26 seems very easy to do, but you soon find that you have to go back to the text and
check the details again so that you can rule out some of the options. It is somehow
like negotiating the meaning with the text, and only close attention to detail in the text
will give you all the necessary information and allow you to “make propositional
inferences”.
4. Understanding lexis
“Predicting the meaning of (unknown) words from context” (strategy 4.1) is a survival
strategy in a foreign language and therefore of high real-world value. However, our
personal experience as regular observers of English lessons in Austrian lower
secondary schools fails to show that this perspective is shared by many teachers.
Too often do learners first identify all unknown vocabulary and then get filled in by the
teacher before work on a text even starts. It is important to take all opportunities or
even create new ones to practise this strategy regularly so that pupils learn to deal
with unknown words as a natural part of a more complex text and to pick up content
clues that help to make intelligent guesses.
Feedback to test takers
Test takers and several levels of educational staff (class teachers, school heads, the
regional inspectorate, and the ministry of education) receive tailored and
differentiated feedback after the E8 tests have been marked. This service is provided
online and is accessible through codes that are given to the stakeholders concerned
at http://www.bildung-standards.at/
It is important to note that it is not a pass-fail result as E8 testing is not a high-stakes
test and that kind of feedback would not be in line with the testing purpose. Three
categories of feedback are provided: General Reading Comprehension, Expeditious
Reading, and Careful Reading. This results from targeting different reading strategies
in different items used in the tests. We are aware of the difficulty of linking positive or
negative performance in a particular item with the targeted reading strategy (cf.
Alderson 2000, 122-123), but we are convinced that it is legitimate and clearly helpful
13
for the test takers and stakeholders to report back on bundles of strategies as evident
in “expeditious reading” and “careful reading”.
The box below illustrates how test takers are helped to interpret their reading scores
pointing the way to remedial work if weaknesses have been identified. More detailed
information on feedback procedures is given in Sigott et al. 2007, pp. 13-17.
Leseverstehen
Gesamt
Hier siehst du eine Gesamteinschätzung deiner Fähigkeit, Englisch
zu lesen. Deine Stärken und Schwächen können dabei in
Expeditious Reading oder in Careful Reading, oder in beiden
Bereichen liegen.
Expeditious
Reading
Wenn du fit in Expeditious Reading bist, dann kannst du schnell
erkennen, was für eine Art von Text du vor dir hast, worum es
darin hauptsächlich geht, und wozu der Text überhaupt
geschrieben wurde. Dazu brauchst du den Text nicht sorgfältig
Wort für Wort zu lesen, sondern ihn nur rasch durchzulesen.
Wenn du fit in Careful Reading bist, dann kannst du Texte in ihren
Einzelheiten gut verstehen. Du findest und verstehst genaue
Anweisungen, wie etwas zu tun ist, du kannst Wichtiges von
weniger Wichtigem unterscheiden, erkennen, ob der Text eine
Careful Reading
Meinung oder Tatsachen beschreibt, verstehen, wie der Text
aufgebaut ist, du verstehst auch Dinge, die im Text nicht wörtlich
ausgedrückt sind und du kannst Wörter, die du noch nicht kennst,
aus dem Textzusammenhang verstehen.
Table 2: Feedback for test takers. http://www.bildung-standards.at/2006/E8/
14
E8 Reading Test Specifications Version 03
1.
Purpose of the test
The purpose of the reading test is to diagnose strengths and weaknesses in test
takers’ reading comprehension. This feedback is of interest to the test takers
themselves, their parents, teachers and school principals.
2.
Description of test takers
The test takers are Austrian pupils in General Secondary School (Allgemeinbildende
Pflichtschule, APS) and Academic Secondary School (Allgemeinbildende Höhere
Schule, AHS) towards the end of grade eight (8. Schulstufe). Pupils from all three
ability groups in APS will be tested. The majority of test takers will be aged fourteen.
3.
Test level
The difficulty level of the test is supposed to encompass levels A2 to B1 in the
Common European Framework of Reference. However, in order to meet the needs
of test takers from 3rd ability groups and those of test takers from higher ability groups
(1st and 2nd ability groups, academic secondary school), two forms of the test will be
developed. These will contain a set of anchor items, which will enable direct
comparisons to be made between learner performances based on the two different
test forms.
4.
Test construct
Since the purpose of the test is diagnosis, detailed information on what individual
items measure is required. The abilities to be measured are described in terms of the
strategies listed in Table 1. The text material which is to be used to construct items is
specified in Table 2.
15
Reading Strategies
Expeditious Reading
1. skimming / reading for gist
1.1. identifying text type
1.2. identifying text topic
1.3. identifying text purpose
2. scanning / reading for detail
2.1. finding specific details (e.g. names, figures, dates, any other surface-level
information)
Careful Reading
3. understanding the text
3.1. understanding explicitly stated main idea(s) and / or distinguishing that from
supporting details
3.2. locating, identifying, understanding and comparing facts, opinions,
definitions (this includes search reading strategies)
3.3. understanding the logical organisation of the text, e.g. understanding
relationships among ideas in a text (problem – solution, cause – effect,
temporal sequence, etc.)
3.4. understanding cohesive relationships (reference, ellipsis, substitution,
conjunction, lexical cohesion)
3.5. making propositional inferences (deducing information that is not explicitly
stated from information that is explicitly stated)
4. understanding lexis
4.1. predicting the meaning of (unknown) words from the context
Table 3 : Reading Strategies. Adapted from Urquhart & Weir 1998.
16
Text Types
Text forms
Descriptive
Text types
Beispiele aus
Bildungsstandards FS
Englisch Sept. Version 05
•
impressionistic
descriptions
travel accounts
•
technical
descriptions
reference books
•
short narrative
texts
stories, jokes
Kurze, einfache persönliche
Briefe, Karten, E-Mails
einfache literarische Texte,
Tagebuch
•
fact-based
narratives
reports, biographical notes,
news, historical
accounts
Einfache Sachtexte,
Biografische Angaben, Texte in
(Schüler-) Zeitungen
•
explications
•
•
outlines
summaries
broader accounts of
(especially) abstract
phenomena, e.g.
newspaper articles,
educational materials
initial abstract, introductory
paragraph
… of phenomena, e.g. in a
thesaurus
Einfache Sachtexte (zu
vertrauten Themen), Vertraute
Alltagstexte (z.B. Prospekte,
Broschüren – auch aus dem
Internet)
•
text
interpretations
book review
•
pragmatic texts
Argumentative
•
comments
newspaper leader, letter-tothe-editor, column,
book/film review
einfache Texte zu vertrauten
Themen in Zeitungen und
Zeitschriften
Instructive
•
personal
instructions
signs, instructive
advertisements
Schilder, Broschüren
•
practical
instructions
recipes, technical
instructions
einfache Anleitungen für
Apparate und Vorgänge, mit
denen man im Alltag zu tun hat
•
statutory
instructions
•
fiction
•
poetry
Narrative
Expository
Literary
Kurze, einfache persönliche
Briefe,
Tagebucheintragungen
Einfache Sachtexte
Klappentexte, Rezension eines
Jugendbuchs
Speisekarten, Fahrpläne
Bestellformulare und ähnliche
Vordrucke (z.B.
Onlineformulare)
directions, rules,
regulations
short stories, urban
legends, mini-sagas,
simplified readers
Wegbeschreibungen, Regeln,
Vorschriften (z.B.
Sicherheitsvorschriften)
einfache literarische Texte (z.B.
fiktionale Texte,)
Lieder und Gedichte
songs and poems
Table 4: Reading text material. Based on: The Dialang Partnership, DIALANG Assessment
Specifications for Reading, 1999, p. 8.
17
5.
Structure of the test
The test will consist of 2 sections. Section 1 consists of 10 independent items each of
which is based on short text input no longer than 100 words.
Section 2 consists of two tasks based on text input between 200 to 300 words long.
The total length of text input in Section 2 should not exceed 500 words. The total
number of items in Section 2 is 10.
All items will be weighted equally.
6.
Time allocation
Total testing time available: 45 minutes.
Time for administration at the beginning (handing out test booklets): 5 minutes
Time for administration at the end (collecting test booklets): 5 minutes
Working time: 35 minutes.
7.
Item formats
All items must be machine-scoreable and for answering them ticking the correct
option must be sufficient. Responding to items must not require test takers to write
individual letters, words or longer stretches of language by hand.
The format for all items is four-option multiple choice with only one option correct.
8.
Rubrics
All rubrics are in English. However, they must be formulated in language that is easily
understandable for all test takers. Test takers must not be put at a disadvantage
because they have difficulty understanding the rubrics.
Rubric used for part 1 (short one-item tasks)
Part 1
Read Texts 01 – 10 and answer the questions below each text. You must give your
answers on the ANSWER SHEET. Put a tick in the correct place on the ANSWER
SHEET.
18
Rubric used for part 2 (long multiple-item tasks)
Part 2
Read the text and answer the questions below. You must give your answers on the
ANSWER SHEET. Put a tick in the correct place on the ANSWER SHEET.
9.
Item exemplars
The item prototypes listed below were written in the first phase of the project by
different item writers in 2005 and 2006 and comply with the reading test
specifications designed for the Austrian E8 Standards Project. Additional examples
from international sources have been added to illustrate the range of item types.
They have been taken from the Dialang project as described in the Council of Europe
CD Relating Language Examinations to the Common European Framework of
Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. Reading and Listening
Items and Tasks: Pilot Samples (2005). The page numbers for the items taken from
Dialang refer to the Dialang English Reading Comprehension Items on that CD.
As long multiple-item tasks must test at least three different strategies, a linear
discussion of strategies is difficult. Therefore, we have chosen to discuss the
strategies as they are listed in the test specifications on the basis of short items with
a reference to the long tasks where appropriate. Two such texts will be given at the
end of the examples (pp. 29-36). The first text is about as long as the two long texts
in the test will be, but it is well suited to illustrate five different strategies. The second
long text will be used to illustrate strategies 3.3 and 3.4, which deal with the logical
organisation of texts and with cohesive relationships.
**************************************
19
Item Exemplars
Item Exemplars for Expeditious Reading
1.
Skimming / reading for gist
Strategy 1.1.
Identifying text type
1.1.1. Example 1
SRI LANKA - WELCOME IN PARADISE
ANTAHARI BEACH RESORT
Opened in 2005, a five star luxury beachfront
resort, private swimming pools, palm gardens
Full body therapies, Ayurvedic healing available
65 twin-bed suites all with terrace or balcony
Only 1 hour from Colombo Airport
Six nights in double from € 750.00
Tick the correct answer. This text is from
A
a guidebook on Sri Lanka.
B
a holiday letter from Sri Lanka.
C
a travel agent’s catalogue.
D
a geography school textbook.
LTC Item Bank
Solution
C
a travel agent’s catalogue.
20
1.1.2. Example 2
The shepherd Jorindel noticed with fear that he and his girlfriend had sat down close
under the walls of the old castle in the dark wood. The girl was singing while she was
watching the sun setting fast. Suddenly there was no more singing. When Jorindel
turned round, he saw his pretty fiancée had been turned into a nightingale. Jorindel
himself could not move from the spot. He stood fixed as a rock.
Where is the passage taken from?
A
An adventure story
B
A fairy tale
C
A newspaper article
D
A crime story
LTC Item Bank
Solution
B
A fairy tale
1.1.3. Example 3
I am 70 and consider myself active around the house and garden. I’m up and down
the stairs all day long, walk to and from the shops and visit friends. Do I really need
to do exercise on top of all that? My daughter says I do. What’s your professional
opinion?
Where is the text taken from?
A
An advertisement for a sports centre.
B
An article about keeping fit.
C
A letter to an advice column.
D
A report about exercise for old people.
Dialang, p. 7, Where is the text taken from?
21
Solution
C
A letter to an advice column.
Strategy 1.2.
Identifying text topic
1.2.1. Example 1. See long task 1, p. 30
1.2.2. Example 2, See long task 2, p. 36
1.2.3. Example 3
In South Africa, spring begins in late August and early September. This is a country
whose wild flowers are too beautiful to describe. Travelling from near the border with
Namibia down towards Cape Town, we make frequent overnight stops, thus keeping
journey times short and maximising the time available for wildflower searches and
walks. When combined with brilliant sunshine, magnificent scenery and flowers in
great numbers and variety, this is a dream tour in a world of flowers.
What is the best title for this text?
A
South Africa’s attractive climate
B
Botanical holiday in South Africa
C
South Africa safari
D
Trekking in South Africa
Dialang, p. 1, Best Title, South Africa
Solution
B
Botanical holiday in South Africa
Strategy 1.3.
Identifying text purpose
1.3.1. Example 1. See long task 1, p. 31
22
2.
Scanning / reading for detail
Strategy 2.1.
Finding specific details (e.g. names, figures, dates, any
other surface-level information)
2.1.1. Example 1. See long task 1, p. 31
2.1.2. Example 2. See long task 1, p. 32
2.1.3. Example 3
Bike Doc
A Worker’s Co-op
Mountain bikes, bikes, tourers, city bikes, racers, hybrids, folders, tandems, and
more.
Spares, accessories, clothing, friendly helpful service, everything you should get from
the best all round bike shop in Manchester.
Access, Visa, Switch, 0% Finance, Xmas Club.
Hotline: 0161 224 1303
What can you NOT buy at Bike Doc?
A
Bicycles
B
Medicines
C
Clothes
D
Spare parts
Dialang p. 11, Bike Doc, mc
Solution
B
23
Medicines
Item Exemplars for Careful Reading
3.
Understanding the text
Strategy 3.1.
Understanding explicitly stated main idea(s) and / or
distinguishing that from supporting details
3.1.1. Example 1
DOES YOUR MOBILE GIVE YOU A HEADACHE?
Experts say that radiation from your mobile phone can heat up your brain, causing
headaches, sleeping problems and maybe brain damage. Children and teenagers
are at more risk than adults because their skulls are still growing and are thinner.
Should you stop using your mobile phone? Of course not. On the other hand, you
should not use it too much. If you have just said goodbye to your friends you don’t
have to call them two minutes later!
Experts say it is a good idea to turn off your mobile at night and to keep it away from
you when it is charging.
The writer of the text thinks you should
A
use your mobile phone less often.
B
use your mobile phone more often.
C
stop using your mobile phone.
D
only use your mobile phone at night.
LTC Item Bank
Solution
A
use your mobile phone less often.
Strategy 3.2.
Locating, identifying, understanding and comparing
facts, opinions, definitions (this includes search reading strategies)
3.2.1. Example 1. See long task 1, p. 32
24
Strategy 3.3.
Understanding the logical organisation of the text, e.g.
understanding relationships among ideas in a text (problem – solution,
cause – effect, temporal sequence, etc.)
3.3.1. Example 1
Read this short passage from an article and find the correct first sentence.
…………………………..
Englishmen started settling on the east coast at the end of the 16th century. They
experienced many hardships and many of them were not ready for what was
awaiting them. In the beginning the Native Americans even helped them, but this
friendship did not last for long.
Select the sentence which would be the best beginning for this text.
A
Native Americans, who we call Indians, lived on the American continent for
thousands of years, but at the beginning of the 16th century more and more
Europeans landed on the shores of the new world.
B
Later the settlers learned how to build forts to defend themselves from Indian
attacks.
C
Most of the first Englishmen were gentlemen and had no idea of what it would
be like to live in the wilderness.
D
Many of the settlers were looking for gold and were not interested in becoming
friends with the primitive people they saw there.
LTC Item Bank
Solution
A
Native Americans, who we call Indians, lived on the American continent for
thousands of years, but at the beginning of the 16th century more and more
Europeans landed on the shores of the new world.
3.3.2. Example 2. See long task 2, pp. 34-35
3.3.3. Example 3. See long task 2, pp. 34-35
25
Strategy 3.4.
Understanding cohesive relationships (reference,
ellipsis, substitution, conjunction, lexical cohesion)
3.4.1. Example 1. See long task 2, pp. 34-35
3.4.2. Example 2. See long task 2, pp. 34-35
Strategy 3.5.
Making propositional inferences (deducing information
that is not explicitly stated from information that is explicitly stated)
3.5.1. Example 1
Read the joke and answer the question.
A woman is talking to her neighbour about her dog.
Woman:
My dog is so clever. Did you know, every morning I tell him what I want
from the shop and he gets it for me. In the shop, he barks once for milk,
twice for eggs, and three times for bread.
Neighbour: Oh I know.
Woman:
How?
Neighbour: My dog told me.
The neighbour’s dog can
A
read
B
go shopping
C
talk
D
understand instructions
LTC Item Bank
Solution
C
talk
26
3.5.2. Example 2
Read the following newspaper article and tick the statement which is right.
Longer school hours by 2010
British children could soon be spending longer at school. The government has plans
to keep schools open from 8 am to 6 pm by 2010. Schools would offer activities for
pupils whose parents want them to stay before and after lessons. Parents would also
be able to send their children to school to take part in activities during the holidays.
The service would not be free, but would not cost too much.
A
All pupils would have to stay at school until 6 pm.
B
Schools would be open during the holidays.
C
The longer hours would be expensive for parents.
D
Schools would offer new activities for pupils and their parents.
LTC Item Bank
Solution
B
Schools would be open during the holidays.
3.5.3. Example 3
We are delighted to announce our Autumn Season, in which we will present seven
shows prior to the West End, two of which are not only Yvonne Arnaud productions
but also world premieres of new plays.
What kind of organisation would make this announcement?
A
Sports
B
Theatre
C
School
D
University
Dialang p. 3, Ad for which organisation?
Solution
B
27
Theatre
3.5.4. Example 4
Label
Not to be used for babies under six months.
What does this label mean?
A
Only give to children over six months old.
B
Throw away after six months’ use.
C
No more than six children at any time.
D
New born babies travel free.
Dialang p.13, Label
Solution
A
4.
Only give to children over six months old.
Understanding lexis
Strategy 4.1.
context
Predicting the meaning of (unknown) words from the
4.1.1. Example 1. See long task 1, p. 33
**************************************
28
Long Tasks
This section contains two long input texts with five four-option multiple choice items
each. In the test they are called Part 2 and Part 3.
Long Task 1
Read the text and answer the questions below. You must give your answers on
the ANSWER SHEET. Put a tick in the correct place on the ANSWER SHEET.
Chocolate is a favourite for both kids and grown-ups. Chocolate bars, chocolate
fudge, chocolate cake, chocolate muffins, chocolate ice cream, chocolate milk,
chocolate cereal, hot chocolate, chocolate sauce, ...
There is something special about this substance – so special that the average person
in the United States eats 10 pounds (4.5 kg) of chocolate every year!
Have you ever asked yourself where chocolate comes from? In this article, we’ll enter
the amazing world of chocolate so you can understand exactly what you’re eating!
Chocolate starts with a tree called the cocoa tree. This tree grows in regions close to
the equator, especially in places such as South America, Africa and Indonesia. The
cocoa tree produces a fruit which is about as big as a small pineapple. Inside the fruit
are the tree’s seeds, also known as cocoa beans. The beans are dried in the sun and
then shipped to the chocolate maker. The chocolate maker starts by roasting the
beans to bring out their taste. Different beans from different places have different
qualities and taste different. Next, the shell of the cocoa bean is taken off.
After this, a honey-like substance called chocolate liquor (the word liquor has nothing
to do with alcohol) is produced by grinding the cocoa beans in a mill. All seeds
contain some fat, and cocoa beans are no different. Chocolate liquor is pure,
unsweetened chocolate. It doesn’t taste good in this state – it is bitter.
You can do different things with chocolate liquor. You can give it all sorts of shapes
by pouring it out, letting it cool off and become hard. This is unsweetened chocolate.
Or you can put it into a press to squeeze out the fat. Then you get cocoa butter and a
solid dry substance from which you can make cocoa powder. You can buy both
unsweetened chocolate (baking chocolate) and pure cocoa powder at the
29
supermarket. What you are buying is cocoa bean powder, either with or without the
cocoa butter.
So far, we have taken the seeds of a tree, roasted them and made powder out of
them. Now the process of making the chocolate can begin.
There are three basic things that must be done by the chocolate maker to make a
chocolate bar:
Adding sugar, other tastes (like vanilla) and often milk (in milk chocolate). The
chocolate maker adds these according to his or her secret recipe.
Conching – A special machine is used to massage the chocolate in order to mix
everything in it and to make it smooth. This can take two to six days.
Tempering – This is a process in which the chocolate is slowly heated, then slowly
cooled. Without tempering, the chocolate does not harden properly or the cocoa
butter separates out (as cream does from milk).
These three steps, along with the type of cocoa beans and the way they are roasted,
are the art of chocolate making. These steps are often secrets, and the quality and
taste of the chocolate depend on them.
Strategy 1.2.
Identifying text topic
1.2.1. Example 1
What is the best title for the text?
A
Cocoa
B
The chocolate makers
C
What are cocoa beans?
D
Making chocolate
Solution
D
Making chocolate
30
Strategy 1.3.
Identifying text purpose
1.3.1. Example 1
What does the text do?
A
It tells you about the different kinds of chocolate.
B
It tries to sell more chocolate.
C
It gives information on how chocolate is produced.
D
It helps you to make chocolate.
Solution
C
It gives information on how chocolate is produced.
Strategy 2.1.
Finding specific details (e.g. names, figures, dates, any
other surface-level information)
2.1.1. Example 1
Where do cocoa trees NOT grow?
A
Indonesia
B
United States
C
South America
D
Africa
Solution
B
31
United States
2.1.2. Example 2
How long does ´conching´ normally take?
A
2 – 6 minutes
B
one day
C
twenty minutes
D
2 – 6 days
Solution
D
2 – 6 days
Strategy 3.2.
Locating, identifying, understanding and comparing
facts, opinions, definitions (this includes search reading strategies)
3.2.1. Example 1
Which size are the fruits of the cacao tree?
A
like coffee beans
B
like small pineapples
C
like strawberries
D
like nuts
Solution
B
like small pineapples
32
Strategy 4.1.
context
Predicting the meaning of (unknown) words from the
4.1.1. Example 1
What does “grinding” mean?
A
cutting into slices
B
melting
C
breaking into very small pieces
D
freezing
Solution
C
33
breaking into very small pieces
Long Task 2
Read the text and answer the questions below. You must give your answers on
the ANSWER SHEET. Put a tick in the correct place on the ANSWER SHEET.
A
Dr. James Naismith, who worked at the “School for Christian Workers” in
Springfield, was asked to create a new sport to keep young men active
indoors. The extremely cold winters made it impossible for them to practise
their usual sports like soccer or hockey outside. Just doing gymnastics was
boring for the young men, and their aggressions were becoming a problem.
B
However, James Naismith himself never took any money from the sport he
had helped to develop. He might be shocked to know that today top players in
the NBA earn more than 20 million dollars a year with their sport. Even high
schools and universities pay a lot of money for the services of talented
students. Today basketball has become a multi-million dollar entertainment
industry, not just in the USA but all over the world!
C
So Naismith wanted a safe game, a game without much physical contact
between players. He also wanted a ball game where players needed skill and
where they had to cooperate as a team. Remembering a ball game he had
played as a boy he designed a game he called “basket ball” and for which he
wrote down thirteen rules. His students enjoyed the new game, and its
popularity spread quickly.
D
Today basketball is played by more than 300 million people worldwide. In fact,
basketball has become one of the most popular ball sports of today. But how
did this sport start off? Who invented its rules? Few people know that it all
started in a gym in Springfield, Massachusetts, on December 12th, 1891.
E
Wilt Chamberlain is often said to be the greatest basketball player ever. He
was named “most valuable player” for four seasons and scored an all-time
high of 100 points in a historic match against the New York Knicks. After
winning two NBA championships he entered a successful career as film star.
34
Strategy 3.3.
Understanding the logical organisation of the text, e.g.
understanding relationships among ideas in a text (problem – solution,
cause – effect, temporal sequence, etc.)
3.3.2. Example 2
3.3.3. Example 3
Strategy 3.4.
Understanding cohesive relationships (reference,
ellipsis, substitution, conjunction, lexical cohesion)
3.4.1. Example 1
3.4.2. Example 2
1.
Study the five paragraphs. What is their correct order? Tick the correct
number in the table. Careful – one paragraph does NOT belong to the text!
Paragraph
A
1
2
3
4
B
1
2
3
4
C
1
2
3
4
D
1
2
3
4
E
1
2
3
4
A
1
2
3
4
B
1
2
3
4
C
1
2
3
4
D
1
2
3
4
E
1
2
3
4
Solution
Paragraph
35
Strategy 1.2.
Identifying text topic
1.2.2. Example 2
What is the best title for the text?
A
The Life of Dr. James Naismith
B
The History of Basketball
C
The Rules of Basketball
D
Basketball as Big Business
Solution
A
The History of Basketball
36
Sample Answer Sheet
PART 1
Put a tick in order to say which answer is correct.
A B C D
Text 01
Text 02
Text 03
Text 04
Text 05
Text 06
Text 07
Text 08
Text 09
Text 10
PART 2
I.
Study the five paragraphs. What is their correct order? Tick the correct number
in the table. Careful – one paragraph does NOT belong to the text!
Paragraph
A
B
C
D
E
11
11
11
11
11
12
12
12
12
12
13
13
13
13
13
II.
What is the best title for this story? Tick the correct answer.
A B C D
15
PART 3
Tick the correct answers.
A B C D
16
17
18
19
20
37
14
14
14
14
14
Literature
Alderson, J. 2000. Assessing Reading. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Alderson, J. & Cseresznyés, M. Into Europe. Prepare for Modern English Exams.
Reading and Use of English. Budapest: Teleki László Foundation.
Barr, R., Kamil, M., Mosenthal, P. & Pearson, P. (eds.) 1991. Handbook of Reading
Research, Vol. 2. New York: Longman.
Baker, L. & Brown, A. 1984. Cognitive Monitoring in Reading. In: Flood, J. (ed.), 2144.
Council of Europe (Ed.). 2001. Common European Framework of Reference for
Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. Cambridge: University Press.
DIALANG. Council of Europe CD (2005). Relating Language Examinations to the
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching,
Assessment. Reading and Listening Items and Tasks: Pilot Samples.
DIALANG Partnership. 1999. DIALANG Assessment Specifications for Reading. In:
DIALANG. Council of Europe CD (2005).
Duffy, G., Roehler, L., Sivan, E., Rackcliffe, G., Book, C., Meloth, M., Vavrus, L.,
Wesselman, R., Putnam, J. & Bassiri, D. 1987. Effects of Explaining the Reasoning
Associating with Using Reading Strategies. In: Reading Research Quarterly XXII (3),
347-368.
Flood, J. (ed.) 1984. Understanding Reading Comprehension: Cognition, Language
and the Structure of Prose. Newark: Del. International Reading Association..
Gassner, O. Horak, A., Mewald, C., Moser, W., Schober, M., Stefan, F. & Valsky, C.
2005. Bildungsstandards in Österreich. Fremdsprachen. Englisch 8. Schulstufe.
Version September ’05. Ed. by bm:bwk. Wien: Bundesministerium für Bildung,
Wissenschaft und Kultur.
Hoffman, J.V 1991. Teacher and School Effects in Learning to Read. In: Barr, R. et
al. (eds.), 911-50.
Johnston, P. & Allington, R. 1991. Remediation. In: Barr, R. et al. (eds.), 984-1012.
Sigott, G., Gassner, O., Mewald, C. & Siller, K. 2007. E8-Standardstests.
Entwicklung der Tests für die rezeptiven Fertigkeiten: Überblick. LTC Technical
Report 1. Language Testing Centre, Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt.
Urquhart, A. & Weir, C. 1998. Reading in a Second Language: Process, Product and
Practice. London: Longman.
Williams, M. & Burden, R. 1997. Psychology for Language Teachers: a Social
Constructivist Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Williams, E. & Moran, C. 1989. Reading in a Foreign Language at Intermediate and
Advanced Levels with Particular Reference to English. In: Language Teaching, 22,
217-28.
38