Classroom Testing

The "Longman Keys to Language Teaching" series is intended especially for ordinary teachers. The books in the "Keys" series offer realistic, practical, down-to-earth advice on useful techniques and approaches in the modern ELT classroom. Most of the activities suggested in these books can be adapted and used for almost any class, by any teacher. One of the subjects of most concern to all teachers is classroom testing. For what reasons should we do it? How should we do it? How often should we do it? How should we organise it? Can it be harmful? What is the relationship between teaching and testing? These are just some of the questions that Brian Heaton addresses in this book. With a minimum of jargon, a number of fundamental concepts are treated in an accessible manner. As well as a discussion of these important issues, the author includes a great many examples of tests that teachers can adapt and use in their own classrooms. In addition, he gives advice on the role of continuous assessment, in which there has been an increasing amount of interest in recent years. The book also contains some suggestions on oral testing - including how to cope with this in large classes. This book is organised slightly differently from the other titles in the "Keys" series. At the end of each chapter there is an activities section, in which the reader is invited to evaluate different kinds of tests, and/or to formulate similar tests for their own students. This is the followed by a discussion section, which relates the activities to the issues raised in the chapter. As a result, teachers will find that this book have have immediate applications in their own classrooms.