Subheadings:
- Introduction to Reading Assessment
- Genera of Reading
- Principles of Reading
- Types of Reading
- Designing Assessment Tasks for Reading Skills
Introduction to Reading Assessment
Before discussing reading skills or types, it’s essential to understand the terms bottom-up, top-down approach, and schemata. The bottom-up strategy involves separating letters, words, or phrases, while the top-down strategy focuses on the main idea or comprehension. Schemata refer to background knowledge that facilitates the reading process, allowing the reader to write answers easily due to prior knowledge of some words, sentences, or ideas.
Genera of Reading
a) Academic Reading: Involves reading texts, books, novels, newspapers, or articles/research journals.
b) Job-Related Reading: Includes reading letters/emails, messages, applications, brochures, CVs, newsletters, etc.
c) Personal Reading: Pertains to reading based on personal interests, such as newspapers, magazines, books, articles, signboards, Facebook statuses, and company newsletters.
d) Micro Reading: Focuses on short terms, such as picking up words, letters, numbers, or phrases.
e) Macro Reading: Concentrates on the main idea, event, or incident.
Principles of Reading
- Identifying the purpose of reading
- Applying spelling rules and conventions for bottom-up decoding
- Using lexical analysis (prefixes, roots, suffixes) to determine meaning
- Guessing the meaning of words, items, etc.
- Skimming the text for the gist and main ideas
- Scanning the text for specific information, e.g., names, dates, key words
- Using silent reading techniques for rapid processing
- Using marginal notes, outlines, charts, or semantic maps for understanding and retaining information
- Distinguishing between literal and implied meanings
- Capitalizing on discourse markers to process relationships
Types of Reading
a) Perspective: Reading tasks involve strategies to pick up components such as letters, words, punctuation, and grammatical errors.
b) Selective: Tasks include matching columns, true/false, multiple-choice questions, finding sentences, elaborating paragraphs, and interpreting simple charts or graphs.
c) Interactive: The reader picks up ideas regarding sociolinguistic perspectives.
d) Extensive: Involves long pages, research articles, etc.
Designing Assessment Tasks for Reading Skills
Perspective Reading Skills:
- Reading Aloud: The test taker reads the text aloud, and the assessor evaluates their reading skills.
- Written Response: After reading a text, the test taker corrects mistakes, focusing on grammar errors or synonyms.
- Picture Describing: Tasks involve reading a picture and describing the story.
Selective Reading Skills:
- Multiple Choice Tasks: For example, “Who is John? a) Son b) Father”
- Matching Tasks: Consist of column matching containing synonyms, antonyms, ideas, etc.
- Editing Tasks: Involves editing articles focusing on grammar errors, syntax, and deleting extra words.
- Picture Describing Tasks: Given as a game to assess the test taker’s understanding, they read the picture according to their psychology and write what they understand.
- Gap Filling Tasks: A paragraph with certain spaces is provided, and the reader fills in the suitable words.
Interactive Reading Skills:
- Cloze Test: A paragraph is given to test takers after deleting some words, and they are asked to complete the paragraph.
Task: Short Answer Task
Students are given direct questions to answer. For example:
- “What is the main idea of the text?”
Editing Longer Texts
Students edit longer texts such as newspaper articles, focusing on:
- Verb forms
- Syntax structure
- Deletion of unnecessary words
Scanning
Students are asked to pick specific information from various sources, such as:
- Newspaper articles
- Chapters of books
- Research journals
Ordering Task
Students are given a randomly ordered paragraph and asked to rearrange it correctly. This task helps improve their understanding of text structure and coherence.
Transferring Information
Students are given charts or graphs and asked to provide information about major keywords, numbers, or figures. This task assesses their ability to interpret and convey data accurately.
Designing Assessment Tasks for Extensive Reading Skills
Skimming Tasks
These tasks contain questions like:
- “What is the purpose of the writer in the text?”
- “What is the main idea of the text?”
- “What kind of writing is this? (e.g., Novel, Magazine, Letter, Dialogue)”
- “What do you think you will learn from this text?”
Summarizing and Responding Tasks
Students are given paragraphs, books, or long articles and asked to:
- Provide the summary
- Identify the theme or main idea
Note-taking and Outlining Tasks
Students’ skills are measured by observing how efficiently they can take notes. Tasks may include:
- Highlighting key words, letters, sentences, or grammar errors
- Creating outlines from the given texts
By incorporating these varied tasks, educators can effectively assess and enhance students’ reading skills, ensuring they comprehend and analyze texts with greater proficiency.