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Testing and evaluation
Hello friends,
This blog is part of my academic blog activity. In which I am going to Write about the Testing and evaluation.
👉 Write on practicality of the test :-
It refers to the economy of time, effort and money in testing. In other words, a test should be easy
✍️ to design, easy
✍️ to administer,
✍️ easy to mark, and easy to interpret the results.
Brown (2004) said that the test that is practical needs to be within the means of financial limitations, appropriate time constraints, easy to administrator, score, and interpret.
👉 Write on Validity and reliability of the test :--
Validity is the most important issue in selecting a test. Validity refers to what characteristic the test measures and how well the test measures that characteristic. Validity tells you if the characteristic being measured by a test is related to job qualifications and requirements.
Validity gives meaning to the test scores. Validity evidence indicates that there is linkage between test performance and job performance. It can tell you what you may conclude or predict about someone from his or her score on the test. If a test has been demonstrated to be a valid predictor of performance on a specific job, you can conclude that persons scoring high on the test are more likely to perform well on the job than persons who score low on the test, all else being equal.
Validity also describes the degree to which you can make specific conclusions or predictions about people based on their test scores. In other words, it indicates the usefulness of the test.
What makes a good test?
By using the test, more effective employment decisions can be made about individuals. The test is job-relevant. In other words, the test measures one or more characteristics that are important to the job.
Reliability refers to how dependably or consistently a test measures a characteristic.
If a person takes the test again, will he or she get a similar test score, or a much different score? A test that yields similar scores for a person who repeats the test is said to measure a characteristic reliably.
How do we account for an individual who does not get exactly the same test score every time he or she takes the test?
Test taker's temporary psychological or physical state:- Test performance can be influenced by a person's psychological or physical state at the time of testing. For example, differing levels of anxiety, fatigue, or motivation may affect the applicant's test results.
Environmental factors:- Differences in the testing environment, such as room temperature, lighting, noise, or even the test administrator, can influence an individual's test performance.
Test form:- Many tests have more than one version or form. Items differ on each form, but each form is supposed to measure the same thing. Different forms of a test are known as parallel forms or alternate forms. These forms are designed to have similar measurement characteristics, but they contain different items. Because the forms are not exactly the same, a test taker might do better on one form than on another.
Multiple raters :- In certain tests, scoring is determined by a rater's judgments of the test taker's performance or responses. Differences in training, experience, and frame of reference among raters can produce different test scores for the test taker.
👉 What do we understand by backwash ?
So let's see what is the backwash in the test. The washback effect is the outcome of a test or an examination which results either in positive or in a negative way. There are two basic terms of the Washback effect, which are the
Positive and the Negative washback effect.
Positive washback occurs when there is harmony between the teaching and the students' examination or a class test performance. The backwash effect also known as the washback effect. The backwash is the influence that a test has on the way students are taught.
👉 What is the difference between assessment and evaluation :-
The English language is full of words whose meanings are so close to each other that people get confused with their usage. Similarly, there is a pair of words assessment and evaluation, whose meaning is quite close yet different from each other.
The word “assess” is derived from the Medieval Latin word “assessee” whose meaning is “fix a tax upon.” Therefore, assessment can be defined as the process of collecting information about something or somebody from different sources to get the idea of the knowledge or skills or quality possessed by it.
There are three types of assessment :
1 Summative assessment:
2 Formative assessment:
3 Alternative Assessment:
Now let's talk about what is an evaluation.
The meaning of the word “evaluate” is to make a judgment about something or someone to learn about their abilities or skills or qualities.
The evaluation process is conducted to compare the skills and qualities of two or more individuals. The person being evaluated must fulfill the criteria set by the evaluator. Unlike assessment, the result does not provide constructive feedback, but it passes the judgment.
However, evaluation and assessment are both used to review the performance of an individual. But these two terms are used in a completely different context.
The assessment is done to provide constructive feedback and the motive behind assessment to improve, whereas, evaluation is done to judge
the ability of an individual or system to pass judgment.
Thank you….
Teaching Language Through Literature
Hello friends,
Here I would like to start my writing with a question. The Question is Can short stories be helpful to learning language ? If yes then How ? And also what sort of activities and tasks can be designed to teach language through short stories?
So let's start thinking about interesting activities and tasks which lead students to learning a particular language.
Teaching language through literature is an interesting one because as we know that as a second language teacher we can provide a natural flow of English language in the classroom. But other then their not such an atomosphere. So learning language skills from literature that is more helpful to students.
Short Stories and Language Skills Development :-
The idea that short stories are the most suitable literary genre to use in English teaching due to its shortness is The idea that short stories are the most suitable literary genre to use in English teaching due to its shortness. Short stories are helpful for teaching language. Short stories allow teachers to teach the four skills to all levels of language proficiency.
Murdoch (2002) indicates that “short stories can, if selected and exploited appropriately, provide quality text content which will greatly enhance ELT courses for learners at intermediate levels of proficiency” (p. 9).
According to him, short stories could be very beneficial materials in ELT reinforcement by using them in learning activities such as discussion, writing and acting out dialogue.
The use of storytelling in the L2 classroom creates a good learning environment and provides meaningful and comprehensible input. Through stories, the language acquisition device is activated And it is easy for children to induce the language elements from the data provided by the stories (Krashen, 1981).
So let's see which type of task or activities can be done in teaching language through Short stories.
Writing activities :
a. Write new words which you find interesting for your vocabulary.
Short stories can be used to improve students' vocabulary and reading. Lao and Krashen (2000) present the results of a comparison between a group of students that read literary texts and a second group that read non-literary texts at a university in Hong Kong. The group who read literary texts showed improvement in vocabulary and reading.
b. What you learn from the story.
c. Summarize the story in a few sentences, including the main character, setting, conflict, climax, and resolution.
d. Write three and four sentences on the theme of the story.
e. Write a paragraph on what should not happen in the story.
d. Choose the word/phrase that best fits each sentence, drawing upon the list under column A in the previous activity. You may need to add -s to a plural word or to a third person singular of a verb in the present tense, -ed to the past tense of regular verbs, etc. In activity c, students practice using the words that they already understand the meanings of.
Speaking and listening activities :
followings are some activities teachers can assign to develop students speaking skills by using short stories.
1. The students read the story aloud as a chain activity. The first student reads the first sentence. The second student takes the second sentence, the third student, third sentence, and so forth. Such activity will enhance students‟ pronunciation and fluency in an interesting way. It is suitable for elementary class.
2. In an upper intermediate class, the students retell the story as a chain activity in small groups. Each student will have a lot of opportunities to practice the relevant connectors or other discourse markers in a meaningful context. (They certainly should have been given a list of the connectors and discourse markers beforehand.)
Using Short Stories to Teach Language Skills
3. In an advanced class, the students are grouped into two groups. Using A Long Walk Home, the first group is assigned to prepare arguments that the father‟s decision to punish himself is appropriate. Another group should prepare arguments that the decision is not appropriate.
4. An extending activity useful to develop students‟ speaking skill and to make students more involved in the story is role-play. This can be carried out by asking students to play the role of several characters, i.e. by instructing them the followings:
a. Imagine you are Jackson. Tell your partner (acting as his father) why you were late coming from the garage. Make sure you are convincing.
b. Suppose you are the receptionist of the garage in which Jackson took the car. Tell Jackson‟ father about the car. To develop listening skill using a short story, teachers can do the followings:
1. Read the story out loud so students have the opportunity to listen to a native speaker of English (if at all possible); or
2. Play the story if a recording is available. The activity can be carried out for
The activity can be carried out for fun or for students to find answers to questions given and explained to them before the listening activity starts. For students to understand the story when they listen to it for the first time, the questions can be based on literary structures, such as:
1. Who is the main character of the Short Stories ?
2. Where/when does the story take place?
3. What is the problem (conflict) in the story?
4. How is the conflict resolved
Short Stories and Language Skills Development :-
Can you believe that films are helpful to learning language ? In our traditional classroom don't allow watching of films in the classroom. But this is the modern era. So let's see what we can do. Film can bring variety and flexibility to the language classroom by extending the range of teaching techniques and resources, helping students to develop all four communicative skills. For example, a whole film or sequence can be used to practise listening and reading, and as a model for speaking and writing.
Film can also act as a springboard for follow-up tasks such as discussions, debates on social issues, role plays, reconstructing a dialogue or summarising. It is also possible to bring further variety to the language learning classroom by screening different types of film: feature-length films, short sequences of films, short films, and adverts.
Motivation is one of the most important factors in determining successful second-language acquisition. Films and TV shows are an integral part of students’ lives so it makes perfect sense to bring them into the language classroom.
Basic ‘Tell Me’ question examples:
Was there anything you liked?
• What caught your attention?
• Was there anything you disliked? • Was there anything that puzzled you?
That you’d never seen in a film before?
That surprised you?
• Were there any patterns?
Guess the dialogue :
Play a short clip with the sound off. Choose a clip which includes a range of facial expressions. Ask students to imagine what the characters are saying and create a script. Students can then act out their dialogue in sync with the visuals. Finally, play the video again for students to compare their ideas to the real thing.
2. Translate and order (for a monolingual class)
Choose an interesting dialogue or conversation with some useful colloquial expressions in it. Translate a few of the sentences into L1 and put them in the wrong order. Ask students to work in groups to translate the sentences and guess the correct order. Students then watch the clip and check their translations and the order of their sentences.
3. Say what you see
Choose a scene in which there is a clear succession of events. Write the events onto pieces of card and ask students to read them and ask you about any difficult vocabulary. Put students into pairs. One person from each pair should face the screen. The other should have their back to the screen. This student should hold the cards.
Play a short clip from a video with no sound. The students facing the screen should explain what’s happening to their partner who then puts the event cards in order. Finally, let all students watch the clip, with sound, to check the order of their cards.
4. Soundtracks
Choose five songs from different films. They should all be different genres of music and should not be well-known songs.
Tell the students you’re going to play them some songs from films and while listening to each one they should imagine the type of film it’s from and write down exactly what they imagine to be happening in the scene. Stop after each extract and give them two minutes to explain their ideas to their partner. Allow them to watch the original scenes afterwards.
5. Shadow-reading
Once your students are familiar with the content of a particular clip – perhaps any of the above activities – you might like to do some pronunciation work. Shadow reading is where students attempt to speak in time with the characters on screen. They’ll need the script to be able to do this. Put students into small groups (you’ll need the same number of students in a group as characters in the scene) and have them choose roles, or do this as a whole-class activity with all of the boys playing the male role and all of the girls playing the female role. You’ll need to repeat this several times – students will get better each time. By trying to speak in sync with the characters on screen, they’ll be replicating key features of connected speech. ( Cambridge.org )
Resources :
Lao, C. Y. and S. Krashen. (2000). The impact of popular literature study on literacy development in EFL: More evidence for the power of reading. System, 28, 261-270.
Krashen, S. D. (1981). Second language acquisition and second language learning. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
One Night @ The Call Center
Hello friends,
Here in this blog I would like to talk about Chetan Bhagat's book " One Night @ The Call Center ". This novel is known as Popular literature. The book was first published in 2005. It takes place during one night, during which all of the leading characters confront some aspect of themselves or their lives they would like to change. So it's following the rule of an ideal plot. The story uses a literal deus ex machina, when the characters receive a phone call from God. So in Literature using the term Deus ex machina is the weakness of the author.
Here are some of the topics which I would like to discuss. These points are :--
Globalization has changed the blood and soul of all these things, the lifestyle of the people , behaviour of the people, each and every aspect of life. The Twenty First century is the age of globalization and India cannot go away from the impacts of such changes. Globalization has considerably benefited the urban part of developing India. As for India Globalization has become a buzzword after 1991 and day by day this buzzing is getting louder. It has touched all the domains of Indian life and experience.
"Globalization is no longer a theoretical concept; it is a glaring reality, impinging upon almost every aspect of human existence" (P. Sam, and G. Sam. 1044-1045).
Even in the name of the character also we can see globalization like Syam Mehara called Sam Macy.
The six characters in the story, in order to relieve themselves of troublesome and painful night experience, visit a nightclub. Those are Shayam, Vroom, Esha, Priyanka, Radhika, and Military Uncle pass through a very troublesome night.On the return journey as Vroom feels like vomiting, gets down along with Shaym, where they see several advertising hoardings along the road:
".... showing all kinds of people: a couple all smiles because they had just bought a toothbrush; a
group of friends giggling over their mobile phones; a family happily feeding their kid junk food; a
young graduate jumping with joy, clutching a credit card; a girl holding seven shopping bags and
beaming. All the ads had one thing in common. Everyone looked incredibly happy."
Upon it Vroom says,
"What the hell are they so happy about? .... Look at that toothbrush couple. My mom and dad, they are never that happy." ( Page, 211)
It is a reality, as Vroom says further, that nobody cares for anything. Along with being competitive, ambitious, and techno-savvy, the generation in Bhagat's fiction is trendy as well. The global trend has not left society untouched. Due to free incoming of values, costumes, dresses, and the living habits of western world, the basis of Indian culture has been greatly influenced.(P. Sam, and G. Sam. 1051)
👉 Self - help book and One Night @ The Call Center :--
A self-help book is one that is written with the intention to instruct its readers on solving personal problems. Micki McGee writes: "Some social observers have suggested that the Bible is perhaps the first and most significant of self-help books".
So let’s see the characteristics of self -help books. The following are the characteristic of the Self - help books :
Identifies a common problem
Shares personal experiences
Treats readers like equals
Backs up claims with research
Admits privileges or advantages
Points out what has worked for specific individuals, but doesn’t promise that the advice will work for everyone.
After reading the self help book we should feel empowered. Something about the world or our perception of it should make a little more sense.we should feel capable of doing anything.
So let's see how the novel One Night @ the Call Center is the self help book.
In Chetan Bhagat all books we see that he gives one activity on the first page of the novel begins, this page shows the self-help book's most important Characteristics.
In One Night @ the Call Center he gives activity like this:
Before you begin this book, I have a small request. Right here, not down three things. Write down something that
1) You fear,
2) Makes you angry and
3) You don’t like yourself.
Be honest, and write something that is meaningful to you.
Do not think too much about why I am asking you to do this just do it.
One thing I Fear:
One thing about that makes me angry.
One thing I do not like about myself.
Okay, now forget about this exercise and enjoy the story."
So this is how he begins his book. Here we see that Chetan Bhagat gives one small exercise, in this exercise he asks some questions, and those three questions about our personal thing. All three questions about our own self. He asks like our fear, when we are angry and do not like ourselves. So these all things present that Chetan Bhagat saw that our self.
Also in Chetan Bhagat all books we see the Prologue and Epilogue. In One Night @ the Call Center in epilogue we see one line like:
“It is true thought; we all have a dark side – something we don’t like about ourselves, Something that makes us angry and something we want to change about ourselves. The difference is how we choose to face it. Here Chetan Bhagat connects to us with all characters, and says that how we handle this type of situation in our life, that depends on ourselves.
One more thing in One Night @ the Call center that is God episode means when all characters in one problem that time God call them. God calls them is also the turning point of the story. God calls them and that time they ask God how our life changes and what we do. That time god gives them answer like this:
‘The inner call,’ God said.
‘The inner call’? Everyone said in unison.
Yes, the little voice inside that wants to talk to you."
Here we see that Chetan Bhagat tries to say that how we solve our problem with only ourselves. In the book ahead we read the conversation of god and all characters and we find that everyone knows how they solve their problem. But no one knew that, because they all never listened to their inner voice.
Episode of god that saw that we need only know about ourselves. Not ignore our inner voice. Whenever we all have some problem that time we try to listen to ourselves, what we want? And how we choose the right way. In the end we see that all characters find their solution because now they all know how to face the problem and choose the right way of life.
We also need to listen to our inner voice and face the problem and then get a solution to the problem.
👉 Popular literature and One Night@ The Call Center :--
If we think about popular literature then people always say that popular literature is not valuable. But in a way that is half truth. Because there are some points which are always notable. If anything is ' Popular' then that is not meaningless. In a way popular literature is not considered great literature.
Because it lacks something, that is the high seriousness or we can't find various interpretations. There is no possibility of various interpretations and aspects.
What the popular writer thinks how to tell and the legendary writer thinks about What is to be told ? Many people also say that the Popular literature is like fast food.
So in a way the novel One Night @ The Call Center is not a great work of art where characters do extraordinary works. But it's a popular book. The novel not answered are abstract questions. But the novel is in simple language, without high thinking and seriousness. There is no philosophy of life. The ending of the movie is also questionable because it is a happy ending in life we never have a happy ending. It is rather like a Bollywood film. From this way we can put this novel in the realm of Popular literature. But because it is a popular novel and that is why we degrade the text that is not well done. Each and every book has its own meaningfulness.
👉 Comparative study of Narrative structure on One Night @ The Call Center :--
Life of Pi is a Canadian philosophical novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist is Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian Tamil boy from Pondicherry who explores issues of spirituality and metaphysics from an early age.
Author’s Note :-
The novel begins with a preface in which the “author” details the events that led to the creation of Pi’s story. This “author” is as much a character in the story as anyone else, often asserting himself into it to provide a description of Pi’s current life in Canada. This “author” is not Yann Martel specifically, but a fictionalized autobiographical inspiration. For example, the author states that in 1996, his second novel was published in Canada and flopped badly. This is the same year of publication for Martel’s flop Self. Ultimately, the semi-fictional author is spending time in India to glean inspiration for his next novel, which is set in Portugal. He finds the manuscript to be uninspired and mails it to a fictional address in Siberia. He then travels to Pondicherry where he meets Francis Adribasamy, who tells him, “I have a story that will make you believe in God.” The author then returns to Canada and finds Pi in Toronto.
The book begins with a note from the author, which is an integral part of the novel. The first part of Pi’s story tells precisely the beginning and end of it, the end being Pi’s life in the present. The story is told entirely in first person, with Pi serving as the narrator and the author recounting aspects of Pi’s current life in italics. Pi tells the story of his childhood preceding the shipwreck, his life at the zoo and his adoption of three separate religions. Here, we learn of Pi’s father’s many lessons, the origins of his nickname, and his family structure.
The novel One Night @ The begins with the epilogy and one interesting exercise.
In the novel One Night@The Call Center is an unreliable narrative structure in the novel because from the very beginning the story is narrated by a strange woman to Chetan Bhagat in the train. Then she forced him to write it as his second book without mentioning her name. Chetan Bhagat then wrote the story and used one character Shyam for narration. In this way it becomes unreliable.
Here we can find the similarity of narrative structure between Life of Pi and One Night @call centre. In the life of Pi, the protagonist told the story to the writer, just like the woman in the train telling the story to Chetan Bhagat. There are two stories being told and it was upon the writer that which they select to write, the one is with God or the one without God. In both the cases the writer chose to write a story with God. So this is the structure of both the novels.
👉 Problems of Youth : How do you relate yourself with the problems of Youth discussed in the novel ?
First of all we have to find out which type of problem is discussed in the novel. Then and we can relate ourselves with that.
So Let's see the issues and problem which is discovered in the novel :-
Problems of Marriage
Office politics
Cybercrime
Issues in the glamour world
Generation Gap ( military uncle and his son )
Lack of self confident (shyam and vroon)
Jobs and salary
This type of issues I am finding through the novel. In which I relate myself with the problems of jobs and salary. Because there are a lot of people who don't get jobs. In private jobs they don't get enough salaries.
Work cited :--
Bhagat,Chetan. One Night @ the Call Center. New Delhi: Rupa & Co. 2005. 52nd impression 2008.
McGee,Michi. Self-help, Inc.: Makeover Culture in American Life (Oxford 2005).
P. Sam, Daniel, and G. Sam, Aroma. "Globalisation - New challenges to Education in India". World Trade Organization and Indian Economic Reforms. Ed. Jugale, V.B. Vol.2. New Delhi: Serials Publications. (2005): 1042 - 1068.
Thank you for your reading, visiting and giving you valuable comments in the comment section.
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