Knowledge about Language and Testing
DATA ANALYSIS
The Use of KAL in End of Term/Year Testing
Sixty percent of the thirty respondents to the questionnaire did not admit to using KAL in testing. The other forty percent who said they did was not referring to end-of-year testing. However, there was evidence of the second language communicative approach in certain areas of all the sample tests.
The test items were examined for the application of the aspects of KAL identified by the teachers. A careful examination of the types of activities and the conditions under which these activities should be performed was done. The aim was to see how much of the KAL the teachers claimed to possess was portrayed in the construction of these activities and conditions. The areas of knowledge most often referred to by the teachers was the need to motivate the students to learn the language as well as the need to use meaningful contexts for speaking and writing exercises.
The teachers’ knowledge about motivation in the learning of the L2 seems to have guided the selection of the reading material used. The teachers seemed to be aware of the fact that getting meaning from the printed material is a physical and mental process. The reader has to be willing to associate the new experiences with what he/she already knows. If the reader finds the material interesting, he/she will be more likely to want to understand it. The materials selected for the testing of comprehension skills were related either to the students’ culture or their age group. The students should have been able to identify with the Jamaican/Caribbean or teenage issues presented in the material.
The essay writing exercise also showed evidence of the use of the knowledge that communication needs to be meaningful. In some of the tests the students were given a personalized context for the required language output. This was evident in the essay writing exercises given to the students. For example, instead of being asked to compose an essay on a fire they have witnessed, in one exam the following scenario was given:
You are asleep at your grandmother’s house. Suddenly you awake with the feeling that something is wrong. On going towards the door, you smell smoke and rush outside to discover that there is a fire in the kitchen. Describe your thoughts, feelings, actions and the scene during and after the fire.
