The dos and don'ts of grammar testing

Romuald Gozdawa-Gołębiowski

Summary

Given the current 'triple C' focus in foreign language teaching—content, culture, communication—is grammar still a worthwhile pursuit in teaching and testing? If so, what kind of grammar should be prioritized, and how should it be tested? Is 'communicative grammar testing' even possible? Perhaps most perplexing of all, why is the correctness of a test item assessed by native-speaker standards? In this presentation, we will carefully open this Pandora's box and move on to explore examples of common errors in grammar test construction, along with some questionable assumptions made by even the most reputable testing centers.

Biodata

Romuald Gozdawa-Gołębiowski is a professor of linguistics at the Institute of English Studies, University of Warsaw. His research includes foreign language teaching, pedagogical grammar, language-and-culture interface, testing, formulaic language, contrastive syntax, corpus linguistics, CLIL, EMI/EMEMUS. He has published over fifty academic papers and three grammar manuals and exercise-books for Polish secondary schools. He co-developed the model of foreign language certification at the University of Warsaw and a model of teaching language through content, implemented at the Institute of English Studies at the University of Warsaw. He has coordinated three European educational projects. He is an advisor to Centralna Komisja Egzaminacyjna (Central Examination Board) in Poland in the area of foreign language assessment (English).

Presentation Details

Type of presentation: Talk
The presentation is for: General audience
The presentation focuses on: Various
The session is: A balanced mixture of theory and practice
Category: Language Assessment, including Evaluation and Testing
Presentation is commercial: No
Speaking on behalf of a publisher, examination board, or commercial organisation? No

Scheduled for

Date: Friday, 2024-09-20, 13:10 - 13:50
Place: NE 207