The value of English Testing.doc

the value of english testingabstract testing, an approach, is usually presented as a meansof checking mass, of peoples english level in useout of campus, of both teachers teaching and studentslearning. in the 21st century, around the world,testing is also a means of getting employed, promoted,and better lived as well. with the development ofeconomics, culture, politics, social science etc. inenglish speaking countries, english becomes auniversal and practical tool of getting various fieldsof information. therefore, there is no other means to checkthe level of people learning of their english, buttesting. this paper discusses the value ofenglish testing, in teaching and learning fields inthe campus of college, under the analysis of theteachers teaching purpose and students learningresult with the theory of educational psychologyresearch. i. introduction teaching and learning are closely related to testing.testing is a means of enabling quality of teachersteaching and acquisition of students languagelearning. testing covers the aspects of measurementand evaluation although these three concepts are set with respectivemeaning. in the following, i shall mainly discuss therelations between teaching and learning, betweentesting, teaching and learning, the functions ofevaluation and measurement, how to test, in order toprove the value of english testing.ii. testing: testing is the running of a system or a programagainst a predetermined series of data to arrive at apredictable result for the purpose of establishing theacceptability of the system or program. english testing is one ofkey processes in english language teaching. itspurpose is to prove the success of english teachingand learning, also helps students to review theirlearning and learn more. testing includes testingtarget, testing contents and testing approach. so doesenglish teaching testing. the target of cett is to, periodically,check how students learn the language, such as theirabilities of using the language. the contents arefirmly limited in what they have learnt, we shouldnever test over or under their learning, or thetesting would be anamorphic. the testing approachincludes written tests, oral tests and practice.iii. teaching and learning in terms of testing, teaching and learning arephilosophically influenced with each other. teachersteaching can both promote and prevent studentslearning. the research of teaching approach,teachers teaching attitudes and responsibilities,teachers knowledge and teaching materials fordifferent objectsare the key ways to make teaching and testingsuccessful and active. the cooperation of teachers and students,being included in teaching and learning, can also makesense in language teaching and learning.iv. testing, teaching and learning before talking about testing, teaching and learningtheir relations, for both teachers and students, wehave to be clear that testing is not a way todifficult the students, is not a way to give some highor low scores to students either, it is a way toreview what they have learnt, to train their abilitiesof putting what they have learnt into effect, to helpthem learn more. between testing and teaching, thelatter is superior. teaching for teachers, is a meansto transmit knowledge, information, or whateverrelated, to learners. testing is, in fact, one of thestandards, to weigh teaching, whether successfully orunsuccessfully, but it is not the last words.teaching, also, is not for testing.in terms of testing and learning, at present, we,because we, till now, havent found a decent approachto judge whether our students are learnt or not,thats why we have been misleading them to capturethe high score as their aim. learning, in education,is to learn to use in real way, to use what we allhave learnt in bettering our society, in whateverfields because of the divisions of the work. testingis useful to judge learning, but it is not the onlyway. we are able to take other ways intoconsideration, such as experimenting etc. a correctarrangement of these three aspects do help ourdevelopment of education, otherwise both teaches andstudents are doomed to blind themselves to go in thewrong way. it is far from our new policy of educationof quality, even of the opposite.v. functions of evaluation and measurement in terms oftesting measurement in english testing is a means of tellinglearners what are their scores in the test and whatlevel they have comparatively in a group or a unity.evaluation in testing refers to the explanation of thescores. it solves the problem of “how”-how are thescores? high, low, medium or else, in other words, inwhat degree they have learnt? etc.the function of measurement and evaluation is toprompt learners to learn. after an objective analysisof the scores the learners have, we can find outwhether they have learnt something or not, what theyare not well learnt, and so on. this activity alsogoes with the principle of sar (stimulus andresponse). because it can help teachers know theefficiency of teaching and students learning aswell. afterwards, students as learners, they are ableto summarize the weak points in their learning inorder to learn more. in details, the functions are:for students:1. teachers are encouraged to expatiate more clearlyof their teaching object, and students are naturallyand correspondently encouraged and improved.2. before the schedule of testing, students arerequired to review, consolidate, and comprehend whatthey have learnt. on the other hand, it also helpslearners to revise their knowledge.3. self-evaluation after having known the scores bytesting, is also very useful for students to knowthemselves to learn and improve gradually.for teachers: testing is a feedback of their effectand efficiency in teaching, especially their teachingskills and methodology, etc.vi. how to testenglish language testing should cover 5 skills in the paper in the paper, someaspects, i.e. knowledge, comprehension, application,analysis and evaluation, should be covered. accordingto the use of the testing, there are progress tests,achievement tests, proficiency tests,