How to Test Speaking Skills in Japan

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Chapter 2: Embrace testing

On a dark, clear night, you peer through the telescope and zoom in on the Language Testing Galaxy Within this vast spiral of stars you search for two solar systems, one called Norm-Referenced Testing and the other Criterion-Referenced Testing Astronomers refer to them as NRT and CRT, respectively Zooming in on each one, you notice a number of planets orbiting each respective star Let’s say each planet represents a different kind of language test What can you tell about the kinds of testing that go on within each solar system based on the configurations of its planets?

Mid-term

IELTS Eiken SAT

Unit 3 test

CRT

Entrance exams

NRT

TOEFL

Final exam

TOEIC

Part 1 review quiz

Testing planets in the NRT & CRT solar systems

It’s clear from this analogy that NRTs are basically standardized tests that have been created as tools to sort students into groups, while CRTs are the kinds of exams that teachers normally admin ister in their classrooms Brown (2005) identified several key dif ferences between NRTs and CRTs, including how scores are inter preted, measured, and distributed There are also differences in test structure and whether or not students know what sort of content to expect The thing to keep in mind, however, is the purpose and sorts of decisions each type was designed for Brown (1995:18) offers the