The fact of the matter is, in Russia international high stakes tests are not very popular. They are not compulsory to take at school or university and have little practical importance for home use, i.e. further education in Russia, employment, promotion, etc. Moreover, until recently there wasn’t any high stakes test (national exam in English) in our country.
The general education system in Russia has always been rigidly centralized. For many years the entire country has had not only the same curriculum, but also the same text-books. It is not until the past few years that this situation started to change; at present different text-books are used in parallel, as well as different curricula, and part of decisions are taken at the regional level and even at the school level. In most cases, assessment of the results of teaching is still made by a school and a teacher.
What does a traditional examination consist of? First, it is a monologue on a certain topic, which is possible to learn by heart. The second part of the examination – a simplified text retelling, which one hardly does in a real life. The third part of the exam - a conversation with the teacher on the topic suggested, in most cases the discussed questions are known in advance. Such exam tasks seem to have very little with real communication in a foreign language and do not allow to find out about the candidate’s communicative competence. The validity of each part of the examination seems to be very compromised.
If we compare the requirements of universities, we shall see that they are different for every particular university and rare clearly described. The criterion for assessment is usually the number of grammar and vocabulary mistakes made by the candidate.
However, there exist all-nation unified exams after grade 9 and after grade 11. The texts of the written exams are prepared by the Ministry of Education (or are approved by that Ministry in case of experiments). The mechanism of the unified public examination for secondary school-leavers was first introduced in 2001, it also started to replace the traditional entrance examination.
The Russian National Exam tests listening-comprehension, reading, use of English and speaking.
Candidates are expected to be able to handle the main structures of the language with some confidence, demonstrate knowledge of wide range of vocabulary and use appropriate communicative strategies in a variety of social situations.
It consists of five parts and includes 43 questions of four types (multiple-choice questions, multiple matching, short answers and detailed answers) and has three levels corresponding the Council of Europe levels A2, B1 and B2.
Part 1 (listening-comprehension) contains 3 short extracts and 14 comprehension questions (6 – short answers, 1 – multiple matching tasks, 7 – multiple-choice questions). The recommended time for Part 1- 25 minutes.
Part 2 (reading) contains 3 semi-authentic texts and 9 comprehension questions (2 – multiple matching tasks, 7 – multiple-choice questions). The required time for Part 2 - 30 minutes.
Part 3 (use of English) contains 15 questions (8 – key-word transformations, 7– multiple-choice cloze type). The required time for Part 3 - 30 minutes.
Part 4 (writing) consists of two writing tasks (writing a card or a brief message and an informal letter). The recommended time for this part - 45 minutes.
Part 5 (interview).The standard test format includes two candidates and a group of examiners. Candidates must be able to give a monologue, respond to questions and interact in conversational English. The required time – 12 minutes per one examinee (the answers are taped for further scoring).
The exam total time per one candidate –142 minutes.
The Russian National Exam differs from the old one. Firstly, there is not one teacher personally interested in the results of the exam he administers, but a group of independent examiners. It provides the results’ objectivity. This certainly helps eliminate the bias of a teacher rating his or her own students.
Secondly, it is clear for both the examiner and the examinee what is being tested as well as the criterion of assessment. The exam tests the students’ communicative skills (listening-comprehension, reading, speaking and writing) and their ability to express their ideas orally and in writing in a foreign language, understand oral or written messages or texts. At the same time real-life situations are modeled. Also, the exam format to some extent imitates the one of FCE and is internationally-oriented.
Despite the exam’s recent introduction it has had a considerable impact on the instruction. For a great number of teachers, especially those whose students were never involved in the exam sessions, I think, the situation is quite stressful because they are not used to teaching for the exam format and have a vague idea about how it can be done. There are also not enough reliable teacher’s manuals and preparatory materials, so many teachers lack clear instruction, so do their students. For many teachers the introduction of the exam has meant the necessity to seek for an alternative or new appropriate method of teaching to make the learners meet the exam requirements.
Any examination system should be practiced to become rather convenient and reliable. But even now the new examination seems to be more valid and reliable than the old one.
GLOSSARY/ГЛОССАРИЙ
High Stakes Testing/Тестирование с высокими ставками - любая программа тестирования, результаты которой имеют важные последствия для учащихся, учителей, школ и/или школьных округов. Такими ставками могут быть перевод в следующий класс, сертификация, выпуск из школы или отказ/предоставление услуг и возможностей.
Validity/Валидность - мерило того, в какой степени экзамен измеряет то, что он призван измерить.
Толкование определений заимствовано из “Глоссария терминов по проведению оценки, экзаменов и тестов в системе образования”.
Required Readings on high stakes testing:
- Malone, M. (2000). Simulated oral proficiency interviews: Recent developments. ERIC digest. (FL026 531).
- Salaberry, R. (2000) Revising the revised format of the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview. Language Testing, 17, (3), 289-310.
- Wilhelm, K. (1997). Matches or mismatch? TOEFL ranges, reading level equivalencies and ESL/EFL text selection. Journal of English Intensive Studies, 11, pp.65-81.
- Coltrane, B. (2002). English language learners and high-stakes tests: An overview of the issues. Center of Applied Linguistics.
Retrieved May 19, 2004 from http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/0207coltrane.html
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