Chapter 8

Assessing Reading
Condensed by Husain Abdulhay
 To become efficient readers

Bottom-up or Data driven

Top-down or Conceptually driven
 Assessment of reading ability

Formative
Summative
 TYPES (GENRES) OF READING

Academic reading
Job-related reading
Personal reading
Each type or genre of written text has its
own set of governing rules and
conventions. A reader must be able to
anticipate those conventions in order
to process meaning efficiently.
 Academic reading
general interest articles (in magazines,
newspapers, etc.)
technical reaports (e.g., lab reports),
professional journal articles
reference material (dictionaries, etc.)
textbooks, theses
essays, papers
test directions
editorials and opinion writing
Job-related reading
messages (e.g., phone messages)
letters/emails
memos (e.g., interoffice)
reports (e.g., job evaluations, project reports)
schedules, labels, signs, announcements
forms, applications, questionnaires
financial documents (bills, invoices, etc.)
directories (telephone, office, etc.)
manuals, directions
Personal reading
letters, emails, greeting cards, invitations
messages, notes, lists
schedules (train, bus, plane, etc.)
recipes, menus, maps, calendars
advertisements (commercials, want ads)
novels, short stories, jokes, drama, poetry
financial documents (e.g., checks, tax forms, loan
applications)
forms, questionnaires, medical reports, immigration
documents
comic strips, cartoons
 Genre of text

The genre of a text enables readers to apply

certain schemata that will assist them in
extracting appropriate meaning
 Efficient readers

need to know:
1.genre of text to apply certain schemata
that will assist them in extracting
appropriate meaning ,
2.what their purpose is in reading a text ,
3.the strategies for accomplishing that
purpose, and
4.how to retain the information.
Micro Skills
Macroskills
strategies for reading
 Microskills
1.Discriminate among the distinctive graphemes and orthographic
patterns of English.
2.Retain chunks of language of different lengths in short-term
memory.
3.Process writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose.
4.Recognize a core of words, and interpret word order
patterns and their significance.
5.Recognize grammatical word classes (nouns, verbs, etc.),
systems (e.g., tense, agreement, pluralization), patterns, rules,
and elliptical forms.
6.Recognize that a particular meaning may be expressed in
different grammatical forms.
7.Recognize cohesive devices in written discourse and their role in
signaling the relationship between and among clauses.
 Macroskills
8.Recognize the rhetorical forms of written discourse and their significance
for interpretation.
9.Recognize the communicative functions of written texts, according to
form and purpose.
10.Infer context that is not explicit by using background knowledge
11.From described events, ideas, etc., infer links and connections between
events, deduce causes and effects, and detect such relations as main
idea, supporting idea, new information, given information,
generalization, and exemplification.
12.Distinguish between literal and implied meanings.
13.Detect culturally specific references and interpret them in a context of
the appropriate cultural schemata.
14.Develop and use a battery of reading strategies, such as scanning and
skimming, detecting discourse markers, guessing the meaning of
words from context, and activating schemata for the interpretation of
texts.
Some principal strategies for reading
comprehension
1.Identify your purpose in reading a text.
2.Apply spelling rules and conventions for bottom-up decoding.
3.Use lexical analysis (prefixes, roots, suffixes, etc.) to determine
meaning.
4.Guess at meaning (of words, idioms, etc.) when you aren't certain
5.Skim the text for the gist and for main ideas.
6.Scan the text for specific information (names, dates, key words).
7.Use silent reading techniques for rapid processing.
8.Use marginal notes, outlines, charts, or semantic maps
for understanding and retaining information.
9.Distinguish between literal and implied meanings.
10. Capitalize on discourse markers to process
relationships.
 Types of reading

1.Perceptive
2.Selective.
3.Interactive
4.Extensive.
 Perceptive reading

Perceptive reading tasks involve ending to

the components of larger stretches of
discourse: letters, words, punctuation, and
other graphemic symbols. Bottom-up
processing is implied.
 Selective reading

This category is largely an artifact of assessment

formats. In order ascertain one's reading
recognition of lexical, grammatical, or discourse
features language within a very short stretch of
language, certain typical tasks are used: :ture-
cued tasks, matching, true/false, multiple-choice,
etc. Stimuli include sen-ices, brief paragraphs,
and simple charts and graphs. Brief responses
are intended well. A combination of bottom-up
and top-down processing may be used.
 Interactive reading
Included among interactive reading types are stretches of lan-age of
several paragraphs to one page or more in which the reader
must, in a psy-olinguistic sense, interact with the text. That is,
reading is a process of negotiating waning; the reader brings to
the text a set of schemata for understanding it, and in-:e is the
product of that interaction. Typical genres that lend themselves
to inter-:ive reading are anecdotes, short narratives and
descriptions, excerpts from longer cts, questionnaires, memos,
announcements, directions, recipes, and the like.The :us of an
interactive task is to identify relevant features (lexical, symbolic,
gram-itical, and discourse) within texts of moderately short
length with the objective retaining the information that is
processed.Top-down processing is typical of :h tasks, although
some instances of bottom-up performance may be necessary.
Extensive reading
As discussed in this book, applies to texts of ire than a
page, up to and including professional articles,
essays, technical reports,short stories and books.(It
should be noted that reading research commonly ers
to "extensive reading" as longer stretches of
discourse, such as long articles A books that are
usually read outside a classroom hour. Here that
definition is massaged a little m order to encompass
any text longer than a page.) The purposes of
assessment usually are to tap into a learner's global
understanding of^ opposed to asking test-takers to
"zoom in" on small details. Top-down processing
assumed for most extensive tasks.
 Length Focus Process
Short Medium Long Form Meaning Bottom-Up Top-Down

Perceptive •• •• ••
Selective • • •• • • •
Interactive •• • •• • ••
Extensive •• •• ••
•• strong emphasis
• moderate emphasis
DESIGNING ASSESSMENT
TASKS: PERCEPTIVE READING

Tasks of perception are often referred to

as literacy tasks, implying that the
learner is in the early stages of
becoming "literate." recognition of
alphabetic symbols, capitalized and
lowercase letters, punctuation, words,
and grapheme-phoneme
correspondences.
Reading Aloud
written Response
Multiple-Choice
Picture-Cued Items
 Reading Aloud
The test-taker sees separate letters, words,
and/or short sentences and reads them
aloud one by one, in the presence of an
administrator. Since the assessment is of
reading comprehension, any recognizable
oral approximation of the target response is
considered correct.
written Response

The same stimuli are presented, and the test-

taker's task is to reproduce the probe i
writing. Because of the transfer across
different skills here, evaluation of the test-
iker's response must be carefully treated. If
an error occurs, make sure you deter-dne its
source; what might be assumed to be a
writing error, for example, may :tually be a
reading error, and vice versa.
Multiple-Choice

multiple-choice responses are not only a

matter of choosing one of four or five
posibble answers. Other formats,
some of which are especially useful at
the low levels f reading, include
same/different, circle the answer,
true/false, choose the letter, and
matching. Here are some possibilities.
 minimal pair distinction
Test-takers read:* Circle "S" for same or "D"
for different.
1.led let S D
2.bit bit S D
3.seat set S D
4.too to S D
*ln the case of very low level learners, the
teacher/administrator reads directions.)
Language & power& their
different manifestations

Manifestations for language and power

( Sue Wright 2001)
1. state-formation, nation-building and problem
of linguistic minorities
2. Formulation of human of linguistic minorities
3. Protection of linguistic minorities under the
council of Europe
4. Linguistic diversity and European
integration
5. Linguistic diversity in the post-national
constellation
Grapheme recognition task

Test-takers read:* Circle the "odd"

item, the one that doesn't "belong."
piece piece peace
boot book book
*ln the case of very low level learners,
the teacher/administrator reads
directions.
 Picture-Cued Items

Test.-takers hear: Point to the word that you read

Cat clock chair
 Gap-Filling Tasks

Many of the multiple-choice tasks described

above can be converted into gap-filling, or
"fill-in-the-blank," items in which the test-
taker's response is to write a word or
phrase. An extension of simple gap-filling
tasks is to create sentence completion
items where test-takers read part of a
sentence and then complete it by writing a
phrase.
 DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS:
INTERACTIVE READING

Cloze tasks
C–test
Cloze-elide procedure
 Cloze Tasks

The word cloze was coined by

educational psychologists to capture
the Gestalt psychological concept of
"closure," that is, the ability to fill in
gaps in an incomplete image (visual,
auditory, or cognitive) and supply (from
background schemata) omitted
details.
Types of deletions in cloze
test

Typically every seventh word (plus or

minus two) is deleted (known as fixed-
ratio deletion), but many cloze test
designers instead use a rational
deletion procedure of choosing
deletions according to the grammatical
or discourse functions of the words.
 approaches to the scoring of
cloze tests

exact word method

appropriate word method
 exact word method

method gives credit to test-takers only if

they insert the exact word that was
originally deleted.
 Appropriate word method

appropriate word scoring credits the

test-taker for supplying any word that
is grammatically correct and that
makes good sense in the context. For
the phrase "gorgeous sunset," the test-
takers would get credit for supplying
beautiful, amazing, and spectacular
instead of gorgeous
 Cloze procedure, fixed-ratio deletion (every
seventh word)

The recognition that one's feelings of (1)

and unhappiness can coexist much like (2) and hate in a close
relationship (3) offer
valuable clues on how to (4) a happier life. It suggests, for (5)
,that changing or avoiding things that (6) miserable
may well make you (7)
miserable but probably no happier.
 Cloze procedure, rational deletion
(prepositions and conjunctions

The recognition that one's feelings (1) happiness (2)

unhappiness can coexist much like love and hate
(3) close relationship may offer valuable clues (4)
how to lead a happier life. It suggests, (5)
example, that changing (6)
avoiding things that make you miserable may well
make you less miserable (7) probably no happier.
 C -test

the second half according to the number

of letters of every other word is
obliterated and the test-aker must
restore each word .
 C -test
The recognition th_ _ one's feel----
of happ------ and unhap------ can Coe---- much li --
love a-- hate i_
a cl--- relati
may of--- valuable cl---on h-- to l----
ahp-- -- life.
I_ suggests, f-- example, th-- a hap-----
changing o_ avoiding thi--- that ma--
you mise----- may we– make y-- less mise- - - - -

but prob- - - - no hap ---- .

 Cloze-elide procedure

The recognition that one's now feelings of

happiness and unhappiness can under
coexist much like love and hate in a close
then relationship may offer valuable clues
on how to lead a happier with life. It
suggests, for example, that changing or
avoiding my things that make you
miserable may well make you less
miserable ever but probably no happier.
Impromptu Reading Plus
Comprehension Questions

"Read a passage and answer some

questions" technique
Short-Answer Tasks

A reading passage is presented, and the

test-taker reads questions that must :
answered in a sentence or two.
 Editing (Longer Texts)

Contextualized grammar editing tasks

Ordering Tasks

Students always enjoy the activity of

receiving little strips of paper, each
with a sentence on it, and assembling
them into a story, sometimes called
the "strip story" technique.
Sentence-ordering Tasks

A.it was called "The Last Waltz"

B.the street was in total darkness
C.because it was one he and Richard had
learnt at school
D.Peter looked outside
E.he recognised the tune
F.and it seemed deserted
G.he thought he heard someone whistling
Information Transfer: Reading Charts, Maps,
Graphs, Diagrams

The act of comprehending graphics includes

the linguistic performance of oral or written
interpretations, comments, questions, etc.
This implies a process of information
transfer from one skill to another: in this
case, from reading verbal and/or nonverbal
information to speaking/writing. Assessment
of these abilities covers a broad spectrum of
tasks. Here is a start of the many
possibilities.
DESIGNING ASSESSMENT
TASKS: EXTENSIVE READING

Skimming Tasks
Summarizing and Responding
Note-taking and Outlining
Skimming Tasks

What is the main idea of this text?

What is the author's purpose in writing the text?
What kind of writing is this [newspaper article,
manual, novel, etc.]?
What type of writing is this [expository, technical,
narrative, etc.]?
How easy or difficult do you think this text will be?
What do you think you will learn from the text?
How useful will the text be for your [profession,
academic needs, interests]?
Criteria for assessing a
summary

1.Expresses accurately the main idea and

supporting ideas.
2.Is written in the student's own words;
occasional vocabulary from the original
text is acceptable.
3. Is logically organized.
4. Displays facility in the use of language to
clearly express ideas in the text.