Communicatieve Opgaven In De Examens Tekstbegrip Moderne Vreemde Talen

Since 1987 the tests of reading comprehension at the lower vocational and secondary school level include a dozen communicative assignments. The languages concerned are French, German, English and Spanish. These assignments have the following characteristics: - the texts differ in length: they are shorter than the traditional texts; - the texts are printed in their original lay-out; - their is a large variety in types of text; - the texts are 'consumer-texts': foreigners will probably come into contact with such texts during their stay in the country where the object language is spoken; - there is usually only one question per text; - the questions are meant to call up language performance that goes with a given type of text in reality; i.e. they tie in with the reading objective that is most functional; Cito (the Dutch national institute for educational measurement) has done research into the possibilities of including communicative assignments in the exams at the higher levels of secondary education. Basic principles have been laid down and a comparison with the assignments at lower levels has been made. Experimental tests have been constructed; they have been taken by pupils at the levels concerned. The psychometric data have not been such that a decision on implementation could be made. Further research and decisions will be necessary.