Much more than the decoding of black marks upon a page; it is a quest for meaning

Reading is much more than the decoding of black marks upon a page; it is a quest for meaning and one which requires the reader to be an active participant’ (Cox 1991)
In contemporary society, testing reading is deceptively easy to measure. However, there are some characteristics that should be considered. Reading is an art which refers to an authenticity and reliability to what is being read to comprehend the writer’s aim to be connected to readers’ conceptualization (Fernandes Arung, 2013). Testing reading is not easy to do but in the same way it is important so as to measure the aspects of reading. So it makes question: What items should we pay attention in order to be effective in testing: fluency, reading comprehension, speed, difficulty etc. Testing receptive skills does not manifest itself in comparison with productive skills because when people say or write we can see or listen. So it seems that there is nothing to observe in receptive skills (Hauges, 2003). However, there are some considerations to be included when testing reading. Doing a good reading test depends on what we are going to test, what kind of test it is going to be, how we are going to test and when. There are a lot of aspects which are included in reading. It will be useful if we include most of them in diagnostic and achievement tests. Nevertheless, it is not advisable to add in other types of tests like placement and proficiency tests. Firstly, we should identify types of test and continue clarifying the level and age of testers. This is because at each level, students could have some abilities or not which can be added to test. According to Hauges, there are two operation in reading which are expeditious reading and careful reading operations. Expeditious reading includes skimming, scanning and search reading. Whereas the latter refers some options like identifying pronominal references, complex sentences, topic sentences, logical organization, main ideas, intention, inferring the meaning of unknown word etc. in addition to this good reading task depends on the text, speed, criterial level of performance, setting the task and techniques.

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  Texts- students are expected to do should be able to deal with
  
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  Setting the tasks – it is important to know readers’ level of comprehension
  
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  Speed- it should match the level of learners
  
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  Criterial level of performance- the tasks should be manageable for students to pass.
  

Technique - Hughes (2003) recommeded that the techniques used should interfere as little as possible with the reading itself, and that they should not add a significantly difficult task on top of reading.
All the things above should be taken into consideration in testing reading in order to achieve effective results.

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Share two types of tasks we can use to test listening skills. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each task.
There are a number of tasks that can be used for testing listening. However, testing listening is not so easy. It is disguised form of testing because learners are expected to demonstrate their comprehension without receiving any real support (Sheerin, 1987). One of the most used techniques in testing listening is multiple choice questions. When I was bachelor student, I frequently did multiple choice listening tasks.
Advantages:
- writing alternative responses can improve testers’ listening comprehension
- develop test takers’ identifying close words or meaning
- easy way of assessing due to having the answers in advance

Disadvantages:

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  This type of test is easier than other types. Especially true/false questions with only one distractor.
  
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  Having too many alternatives also disturbs the learners. They can not focus on the other question keeping in mind other variants.
  

Secondly, I want to pay attention to practical dictation. There are a number of advantages and disadvantages in this type of listening task.
Advantages:

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  It improves learners’ adaptation to the speed of speakers
  
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  Appropriate way of testing students’ overall ability diagnostically
  
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  Learners may enhance vocabulary, spelling and phonology because there usually are distracted and unknown words in dictations
  
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Disadvantages:

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  As most part of the text is written, students may focus on the separate words that should be in the gaps which can cause not understanding meaning of the text
  
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  It can make boring atmosphere in the classroom.
  

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  Reading is an art to comprehend the writers’ aim to be connected to the readers’
  

However, it is still possible to get effective results from every kind of listening or reading tests on condition that the tests are connected with appropriate people and time in modern world
Reference:
Arung, Fernandes (2015) Testing Reading
Cox, B. (1991) Cox on Cox: An English Curriculum for the 1990s. Hodder & Stoughton, London.
Hughes, Arthur. (2003). Testing for language teachers. Second edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Sheerin, S. 1987. 'Listening comprehension: teaching or testing?' ELT Journal.