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The
Baccalaureate Exam Test Specifications Time allocation and Test papers Coefficient
Students have
to demonstrate their ability to understand a variety of
reading genres relevant to academic education, taken from
textbooks and journal papers. These could
include articles, letters, biographies, ads, encyclopedia
entries, film/book reviews, reference books, newspapers
editorial, report and advertisement. Non-linear texts may
form part of the total text. These can be narrative,
informative, descriptive, argumentative or interactive. A reading text
could include one or two reading passages (of different
genres) totaling together:
Students are
expected to show that they can use the following reading
operations: * Read for
specific information * Understand
implicitly stated information: prepositional inferences,
pragmatic inferences where necessary extra information can
be assumed on the part of all students. * Deduce the
use of unfamiliar words from context (lexical inference) * Identify
functions of coherence and cohesion (referents of pronouns
and pronominal phrases) * Transcode
information to a diagram or a chart * Identify the
main idea/writer’s attitude/purpose or message of a
paragraph or the reading passage * Recognize the
tone of the passage * Distinguish
fact from opinion/ statement from example/ cause from
effect. Test methods
and techniques used should vary so that no particular test
method would become predictable. It is important to ensure
that suitable test methods are used for testing students’
abilities accurately and eliciting reliable scoring. * Wh/questions * T/F + appropriasse justification * Sentence
completion * Summary cloze * Information
transfer (Chart filling) * Matching
elements in the questions with elements in the text(s) * Identifying
order of events, or argument Distribution of
bits per stream The reading
test should contain between 7 and 15 bits (reading
question), the bits should sample the reading operations listed
above. Over testing one or two reading operations at the
expense of others should be avoided.
ANSWER THESE
QUESTIONS COMPLETE THESE
SENTENCES FILL IN EACH
BLANK WITH ONE WORD FROM THE TEXT (summary cloze) FIND IN THE
TEXT WORDS OR EXPRESSIONS THAT MEAN THE SAME AS: WHAT DO THE
UNDERLINED WORDS IN THE TEXT REFER TO? PICK OUT FROM
THE TEXT EXPRESSIONS OR PHRASES WHICH SHOW THAT: MATCH THE MAIN
IDEA WITH THE CORRESPONDING PARAGRAPH IN WHAT ORDER
DOES THE WRITER DO THE FOLLOWING? CHOOSE THE
RIGHT ANSWER FROM THE LIST GIVEN Three to six of
the techniques above should appear in the reading section Vocabulary Lexical items
should focus on the following: * making
collocations * word
definitions * synonyms * word
formation/association * the lexical
items in the textbook index. Grammar The grammatical
structures which have been defined in the content of the
course; they include: * Tenses:
passive, future/future perfect, reported speech,
conditionals 1, 2, 3 * Expressing
wishes in the present and about the past * Comparatives
and superlatives, the more . . . . . the more * Relative
clauses * Phrasal verbs * Regular and
irregular plurals / countable and uncountable nouns *
Prepositions/Modals Methods and
techniques * Correct form * Sentence
transformation * Gap filling * Matching * Information
transfer * Cloze
procedure with list or with first letter given Distribution of
items per stream LM prefo, LM,
Sc, SM, all Technical streams = 10 items (4 items testing
grammar, 6 items testing vocabulary) L. Originelles
= 7 items (3 items testing grammar, 4 items testing
vocabulary) Scoring: responses get
1 point PUT THE VERBS
BETWEEN BRACKETS IN THE CORRECT TENSE FILL IN THE
BLANK WITH AN APPROPRIATE WORD FROM THE LIST (receptive) FILL IN THE
BLANK WITH AN APPROPRIATE WORD (productive) REWRITE THE
SENTENCES BEGINNING WITH THE WORDS GIVEN MATCH THE WORDS
WITH THE CORRESPONDING DEFINITIONS/SYNONYMS GIVE THE
CORRECT FORM OF THE WORDS BETWEEN BRACKETS MATCH THE WORDS
THAT GO TOGETHER TO MAKE APPROPRIATE COLLOCATIONS
Three
to six of
the rubrics above should appear in the language section. Operations * Describing * Arguing * Explaining * Contrasting,
comparing * Expressing
attitude, opinion, complaint Narrative,
argumentative, descriptive, eliciting information, service .
. . The tasks could
take the form of letter, note, article, essay . . . Writing tasks
should be well defined: students should know exactly what
they are supposed to do. It could be useful to provide notes
or clues with the text of the writing task, especially for
LO streams. Topics selected
should be familiar to students: Social
interaction Dealing with
family, school matters, Environmental
problems Modern
technology Medical, health
or any other global issue. . . The length The task should
specify the number of words. Too short compositions will
lose marks as well as overlong ones. Criteria for
scoring should be specified in the marking scale. The mark should
be based on the overall use and usage of the language,
including the range and the appropriateness of the
vocabulary, the sentence and paragraph structure and
correctness of grammar, spelling and punctuation. In
addition, the piece of writing should demonstrate a logical
organisational structure, relevance to the task, and both
main ideas and supporting material should be clearly stated. - Questions should
appear in textual order within the rubrics. - The tasks should
aim at testing comprehension and not recognition. - The summary
cloze may summarize the whole text or part of it. It
shouldn’t be possible to fill in the gaps without reading
the text, the words needed to fill in the gaps should be in
the text, the words deleted should carry genuine information
in the text, the summary should be simple, not carrying
additional reading comprehension problems. There should be
only one word per gap. - For lexical
inference, there should be an indication of the relevant
paragraph. - The key
should include all possible answers. *Language: - Texts of the
items should be mainly dialogues, but some texts are
acceptable. Whenever possible, a communicative context
should be provided. - Items testing
tenses should include affirmative, negative and
interrogative forms. - Gap-filling items
tested receptively should have the following number of
alternatives:
-1 gap: 4 alternatives
-2 gaps: 5 alternatives
-3 gaps: 6 alternatives *Writing: It is
recommended to devise scoring criteria suitable for the
writing task requirements, and the stream specifications.
The scoring method should be analytical and could include
the following elements: -
Relevance of content -
Compositional organisation and cohesion -
Adequacy of vocabulary for the purpose and accuracy of
grammar -
Mechanical accuracy. For the sake of
standardisation, the rubrics stated above should appear in
the test paper as formulated. The test paper
should include easy as well as challenging items to ensure
discrimination between students. |
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