Assessing Writing Skills in a Communicative Paradigm Essay

communicatory Language Testing is intended to assess learners cleverness to using the target expression in satisfying life situations. Its right away ten old age since Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has been introduced in alternate incline program of Bangladesh. T here(predicate)fore, the sort of side of meat at the SSC level is instanter facing the challenges of assessing learners communicatory skills. This study looks at the living model of the SSC side quiz and explores the possibilities of incorporating a more communicatoryly found mental assay data variantatting. The study is carried out(p) on the terra firma of an evaluation of the test commits on indite skills ready in the SSC test paper.It as well explores the views of East Pakistani in range side of meat teachers and inter subjectly renowned Language Testing Experts. In this paper, it is argued that, though auxiliary side of meat education in Bangladesh has stepped into a communicatory time ten years back, the current SSC test is not in accordance with the curriculum designs. It is comprise that the test items on committal to penning lack both harshness and reli energy. Suggestions do for improving the current SSC test include defining the purpose of colloquy in position for SSC level learners, drafting test specifications, setting test items which ar more relevant to a communicative purpose, and developing a marking scheme to mark the subjective items.IntroductionThe construct of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has had much influence in the fields of English language teaching, curriculum and test design. Since the 1970s, there have been considerable developments in the argona of language exam. Various theories and practical examen models have evolved pursuit the concept of communicative competence. Bangladesh has introduced a communicative English curriculum at its secondary education sector.However, the aims and objectives of the communica tive curriculum back tooth never be achieved without a examination arranging that assesses the communicative ability of learners. This paper looks at the alert supplementary School Certificate (SSC) English examination to get word the elements of communicative examen in it and examines the suitability of this interrogation system to the curriculum goals. The study involves a critical analysis of the current SSC test. It also explores the views of Bangladeshi secondary English teachers and deuce inter subject arealy renowned language examination experts on the SSC test and investigates the slipway of making it more communicatively trading floord.Background of English Language Teaching (ELT) in BangladeshThe teaching of English in Bangladesh has a long history that traces back to the colonial era. However, the British models of teaching English continued to influence the ELT scenario of post-colonial Bengal even after the colonial rule was oer in 1947. Since then the grammar translation method continued to influence the ELT scenario as the most dominant teaching method in the Indian subcontinent. subsequently the independence of Bangladesh (1971), several attempts were made to re-design ELT sector with little or no success.In 1990, a iv year ELT project called Orientation of Secondary School Teachers for Teaching English in Bangladesh (OSSTTEB) was jointly launched by the political sympathies of Bangladesh and DFID, UK to improve English Language Teaching and Learning at secondary level. This project revise, adapted and revamped the secondary English curriculum (Hoque, 1999). In 1997, a major step was initiated with the introduction of English Language Teaching procession Project (ELTIP). The project started deforming with a view to improving the communicative competence of the secondary level learners. Under this project, a communicative curriculum, revised text books and newly written Teachers Guides (TGs) were developed and some 30 curtilage En glish teachers, test administrators, and markers were trained.The SSC examinationThe SSC is the first populace examination in Bangladesh that learners sit for after 10 years of coaching. Students take English as a compulsory subject at this level. The examination is administered countrywide by dint of the seven Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE). The query papers are set by the respective BISE independently interest the national curriculum and platform of National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB). The syllabus document of NCTB explicitly recommends a exam system that is in retentivity with the spirits of CLT. The new syllabus document for classes 9-10 (NCTB 1999 135) mentions, Until and unless a suitable public examination is devised that tests English language skills rather than students ability to memorise and replica without understanding, the aims and objectives of the syllabus shag never be realised. Moreover samples of question papers were prov ided in the TGs and Teachers were encouraged to follow the test models. look QuestionsThis study is relate with the following inquiry questions 1. How are students constitution skills tested by the existing SSC English examinations? 2. To what extent are these test items communicatively based? 3. What do Bangladeshi teachers and the international examen experts think of the current SSC English examination? 4. How can the SSC examination be improved to reflect the goals stated in the national curriculum and syllabus document?Research methodologyThe draw near to this resaerch belongs to the instructive epistemology which argues that cognition, in social research, is implicated not with generalization, prediction and control still with interpretation, meaning and illumination (Usher, 1996 12). The approach here is guided by the tone that reality is a complex phenomenon which does not admit orderly events or innocent ca wont-effect alliance. The data utilise is not only ref er with facts solely also with values.In looking at a testing system which is comparatively new in the context of Bangladesh, it is admitted that reality is a compassionate construct. The aim here is to explore perspectives and shared meanings (Wellington, 2000 16) and the data lend oneselfd here is qualitative.The research procedure accustoms three different sources for accumulate data and involves three steps. They are a) a critical evaluation of the SSC English test format, b) collecting the views of Bangladeshi English teachers by dint of questionnaires and, c) interviewing the deuce Australian testing experts based at Melbourne Univeristy. The evaluation of SSC examination includes a close analysis of the existing SSC test papers, syllabus document and marking criteria. The questionnaire attempts to explore the values and attitudes of secondary English teachers in relation to the SSC English testing system. The interviews with the language testing experts are intended to generate valuable moods that could be applicable in improving the testing system of SSC.The development of modern language testingThe development of modern language testing occurred in three diachronic phases prior to and during the 1970s. These three periods are- the scientific era, the psychometric-structuralist era and the endogenic sociolinguistic era Spolsky (19785). According to Spolsky, the pre-scientific era was characterised by a lack of concern for statistical matters or for much(prenominal) notions as objectivity and reliability in language testing whereas the psychometric-structuralist period was concerned with tests that focus on decided item tests. In fact, the psychometric-structuralist approach provided the basis for the flourishing of the standardised language test with its emphasis on discrete structure point items. However, discrete point tests were also criticised for being insufficient indicators of language proficiency (Oller 1979 212). Language testing wa s directed to global tests in the 1970s, which opened up the psycholinguistic-sociolinguistic era (Weir, 1988 3). This format of global and integrative tests (such as cloze) gained theoretical ho utilize from many researchers.Davies distinguishes quaternity historic types of language tests on the basis of their occasion or use- feat tests, proficiency tests, aptitude tests and diagnostic tests (Davies and Allan 1977 46-7). While attainment tests are concerned with assessing what has been learned of a known syllabus, proficiency tests are based on assessing the learning of either a known or unknown syllabus.The concept of communicative competenceThe idea of communicative language teaching emerged in the 1970s following Hymes theory of communicative competence, which greatly emphasised learners ability to use language in context, particularly, in foothold of social demands of public presentation (McNamara, 2000 116). Hymes believes that knowing a language is more than knowing its rules. Once Hymes castd the idea of communicative competence, it was expanded in various ways during the following two decades. The term competence was interpreted in many different ways by researchers. To some it simply essence the ability to communicate to others it means the social rules of language use and to yet other, it refers to a set of abilities including acquaintance of linguistics, socio-linguistics and discourse rules (Bachman & Palmar, 1984 34). However, the basic idea of communicative competence be the ability to use language appropriately, both receptively and productively, in real situations (Kiato, et al. 1996 1)The development of communicative language testingThe idea of communicative testing was developed on the basis of Hymes two dimensional model of communicative competence that comprises a linguistic and a sociolinguistic element. Davies et al. gives the following commentary of communicative language testsCommunicative tests are tests of communicat ive skills, typicly used in contradistinction to tests of grammatic companionship. Such tests often claim to operationalise theories of communicative competence, although the form they take will depend on which dimension they choose to emphasise, be it specificity to context, authoritativeity of materials or the simulation of real life performance.  (Davies et al. 1999 26)Harrison mentions three ingredients which distinguishes a communicative language test from other tests. He argues1. A communicative test should assess language used for a purpose beyond itself. 2. A communicative test should depend on the bridging of an information spread head. It has to propose a language using purpose which can be complete by the communicative skill so far acquired by the learners. 3. A communicative test should represent an encounter. The situation at the end of it should be different from what it was at the beginning, and this means that there has to be some range within the test.(Har rison, 1983 77-8)Competence Vs performanceThere have been debates among the researchers regarding the nature and function of communicative tests. One issue of controversy was how to specify the components of communicative competence and to relate them in measuring performances. Another complication arose as the equipment casualty competence and performance were used differently by various researchers suggesting important distinctions among them. Chomsky (1965) claimed that competence refers to the linguistic system which an i supervise native speaker unit has internalized whereas performance is mainly concerned with the psychological factors that are involved in the perception and production of speech.Later Hymes (1972) explicitly, and Campbell and Wales (1970) implicitly proposed a broader notion of communicative competence in which they included grammatical competence as closely as contextual or sociolinguistic competence. They, however, adopted the distinction between communi cative competence and performance. According to Canale and Swain (1980 3) competence refers to knowledge of grammar and other aspects of language while performance refers to actual use.For the language testing researchers it was sticky to determine an ideal test model, which could be valid and original enough to test communicativecompetence. They were concerned with what performances for line based activities imply to be devised in order to assess learners communicative competence. The most discussed closure to this query is the one provided by Canale and Swain (1980) who, in their influential work Approaches to Second Language Testing undertake four aspects of knowledge or competence- grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, strategic competence and discourse competence.What makes good communicative tests?Though a communicative language test intents to measure how students use language in real life, it is difficult to set a depute that can measure communicative co mpetence in real contexts. Ellison (2001 44) argues that testing by its very nature is artificial and unless we are to follow an testee around all the time noting how he/she deals with the target language in all situations, we necessarily have a less than real situation. However, it should be the aim of the test setter to try and complement real situations as much as possible. Referring to the difficulty of identifying the elements of communicative testing Morrow (1991) statesThe essential question which a communicative test must answer is whether or not (or how well) a nominee can use language to communicate meanings. yet communicate meanings is very elusive criterion indeed on which to base judgment.(Morrow, 1991 112)There have been attempts to develop a model for communicative competence and valid tests of its components. Bachman and Palmer (1984 35) describe three approaches the skill-component approach, communicative approach and measurement approach to specify what language tests measure. Offering a detailed interpretation of the Canale-Swain communicative approach, Bachman and Palmer specify some factors (trait factors, modal factors, method factors) that should be considered while conniving a performance test. Having examined the structure of a model which encompasses these three factors, Skehan (1991 9) regarded it as being of pivotal importance in influencing the language testing theories and practices end-to-end the 1990s. Later Bachman went further as he offered important distinctions between labor-based and construct-based approaches to test design. He explainedThe procedures for design, development, and use of language tests must incorporate both a specification of the assessment task to be included and definition of the abilities to be assessed.(Bachman, 2000 456)Task based language assessment gave rise to two questions a) How real-life task types are identified, selected and characterized and how pedagogic or assessment tasks are related to these (Bachman, 2000 459) .The treatment of different approaches to language testing are concerned with their strengths and limitations in terms of the criteria of validity and reliability. Validity in language testing is about whether a test can measure what it is intended to measure. Other arguments regarding the test validity include the question of content relevance and representativeness, task difficulty etcetera Reliability refers to the extent to which test scores are consistent.Assessing second language penningAssessment of second language paper has been discussed on the basis of two different approaches objective test of theme and direct test of constitution. Objective tests claim to test musical composition through verbal reasoning, misplay recognition and other measures that have been shown fairly highly with measured writing ability (Lyons, 1991 5). In direct tests of writing, actual samples of students writings are assessed. In fact, direct tests of writing ha ve won the support of many researchers as they engage students with more communicative and creative task types. However, this approach has also been criticised for lacking reliability. Despite their lines with reliability, direct tests are still very frequent in many academic settings throughout the world.Kiato et al. (1996 2) refer to some typical problems of testing writing. They point out that testing writing objectively whitethorn not necessarily reflect the way it is used by the students in the real world. On the other hand, testing of writing in a way that reflects how the students use writing in real world is difficult to evaluate objectively and the test setters has less control over the writing tasks. However, they argue that the ability to write should involve six component skills- grammatical ability, lexical ability, mechanical ability, stylistic skills, organisational skills and judgment of appropriacy. Among the writing tasks they find usable are gap filling, form c ompletion, making corrections, letter and essay writing.Weir (1988 63-4) offers an boom discussion on both indirect (objective) and direct tests and distinguishes the two types. He argues that writing can be divided into discrete elements such as grammar, vocabulary and punctuation etc. and these elements are tested separately by the use of objective tests. He suggested that both productive and receptive skills can be broken down in to levels of grammar and lexis according to a discrete point framework and objective tasks such as cloze, selective deletion, gap filling etc. can be designed for testing exercise with writing. Weir describes the direct test of writing as a more integrative test which tests a candidates ability to perform authoritative of the functional tasks required in the performance of duties in the target situation.Research on writing involving both native speakers and second language are also concerned with basic studies of the nature of writing process in order to relate them to the validity of writing test tasks. Some of the questions concerned are1. To what extent is performance influenced by the amount of prior knowledge that writers have about the topic that they are asked to write about in a test? 2. Does it make a difference how the writing task is specified on the test paper? 3. Do different types of tasks puddle significant difference in the performance of learners in a writing test? (Read, 1991 77) Johns (1991 171) suggests three criteria for academic testing of writing- (1) use of yarn for writing assessment testing for audience awareness, (2) exploitation of common writing genres agate line and problem solution, and (3) testing of subject matter, conceptual control and planning. He insists that reading and writing be combined to give a more authentic context for testing writing for academic purpose. He saysBecause reading and writing are interconnected at all academic levels, it seems unprofessional and certainly unacademic to test writing without the genuine interactivity that reading provides.(Johns, 19991 176)Literature on testing has suggested different strategies to cope with the problem of making direct writing tasks. The problem with these tasks is they are very difficult to mark as the marking of such tasks is somewhat subjective. One solution suggested by many testing experts is to use an analytical marking scheme to help make the marking consistent. spud (1979 19) outlined the nature of a marking scheme demanded by the Associated Examining Boards, A marking scheme is a comprehensive document indicating the explicit criteria against which candidates answers will be judged it enables the examiners to relate particular marks to answers of specified quality.There have been discussions on two types of marking for free writing tasks- impressionistic and analytic. However there are arguments over what valid and trustworthy measures of writing can be used and what might be the relationship of these measures to overall impressionistic quality rating. The TOFEL examination included a direct writing measure (Connor, 1991 216) in 1986 for the test of written English that was tag holistically (TOFEL test of written English guide 1989).A great deal of research was conducted by the Educational Testing Service into the development and test copy of a measure to assess communicative competence in writing (Bridgman Carlson, 1983 Carlson et al. 1985). A holistic scoring guide was developed to mark two general topics-comparison/contrast and describing a graph that had six levels and included syntactic and rhetorical criteria. The Test of Written English Scoring Guidelines (1989) identified the following criteria of a written task.An essay in the highest category is- well organise and well developed, effectively addressed the writing task, uses appropriate details to support or illustrate ideas, shows unity, coherence and progression, displays consistent facility in the use of language , and demonstrates syntactic variety and appropriate word choice.(The Test of Written English Scoring Guidelines, 989)The marking scheme suggested by ELTIP to help teachers assess writing compositions is made on the basis of five criteria- grammar, vocabulary, mechanical accuracy, communication and content. A Marking scheme like this shows how developments in language testing research are providing models to cope with the challenges of marking writing tasks.The SSC Curriculum, syllabus and the testThe SSC is the school leaving public examination for grad 10 students. English is a compulsory subject at this level and the test of English is an achievement test in kind. The test is designed to test reading and writing skills only as there is no provision of testing listening and speaking skills.The NCTB syllabus of English focuses on the development of the four skills through learner-centred activities within meaningful contexts. It gives importance to choosing contexts which reflect actual social situations outdoor(a) the classroom and make the learning of English relevant, interesting and enjoyable. It is evaluate as per the syllabus that students should achieve an elementary to intermediate command of the four language skills by the end of secondary level. The curriculum document specifies the objective and purposes of learning English as it statesEnglish involve to be recognise as an essential work-oriented skill that is needed if the employment, development and educational needs of the country are to be met successfully. Increased communicative competence in English, therefore, constitutes a vital skill for learners at this stage.(SSC Syllabus Document, 1999, NCTB 136)Terminal competencies in four skills are specified in the NCTB syllabus. The competencies for writing skills for grade 10 are defined as followsStudents should be able to-a) write simple dialogues, formal and informal letters including letters of application and reports. b) demonstrate co nception and creativity in appropriate writing forms. c) fill in the forms (i.e. subcontract applications etc.) and write a curriculum vitae d) plan and organise the above tasks expeditiously so as to communicate ideas and facts clearly, accurately and with relevance to the topic. e) take notes and dictationsf) use different punctuation and geographical devices appropriately.