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s is an important issue and the question is normally decided at the test design stage. The large number of different item types used in language testing can be categorized in various ways:. 
 • Some are seen as objective, in that no human judgement is required in marking them, while others demand a constructed response and subjective marking methods 
• Some are based on receptive skills while others test production 
• Some are text based while others are free-standing or discrete. 
What is the most important criterion for measuring the value of an item type? 
Although some item types are more frequently used than others, it would be inappropriate to believe that these are the best ones to use. The most important criterion for measuring the value of an item type is its appropriacy for use in testing language in a particular situation and for a specified purpose. 
The item type which provides the most direct means of measuring the desired learning outcome tends to be the best item type to choose. 
A few general rules 
There are a few general rules to follow when constructing any kind of item: 
• items should always attempt to test salient information 
• normal grammatical conventions should be followed 
• when a new item type is used, an example should be provided (unless the procedure is so simple that this is unnecessary) 
• with text-based items it must be necessary to read and understand the text in order to arrive at the correct answer - it should not be possible to answer correctly by using background or general knowledge only 
• text-based items may be placed before or after the text, but those placed before should test an overview of the text, while those placed after the text may require more detailed reading or ask for conclusions to be drawn. 
One way of dividing item types into two broad groupings is the following: 
# Selection items 
Item types which involve the candidate in making a choice of response between various options offered, e.g. three or four option multiple choice item, true/false and various kinds of matching items. Scoring selection items is usually quicker and objective. Sometimes teachers decide to use selection items when they are interested in measuring basic, lower levels of understanding (at the knowledge or comprehension level in a Bloom's taxonomy sense, Bloom et al.,1956)
# Candidate-supplied items 
Item types which demand that the candidate supplies the response, e.g. short answer items, open cloze items. 
Generally, tests composed of multiple choice items are regarded as more objective from the point of view of marking than those where the candidate has to supply the response. 
It is important to reiterate that one item type is not in itself more or less useful than another item type. The selection of an appropriate item type depends on the specific aims of the test provider, and what the priorities are. In the descriptions of item types and the comments on them which follow, some indication is given of the skills usually associated with the use of a particular item type. Scoring supply items tends to take more time and is usually more subjective. Teachers tends to use supply items if they are interested in higher levels of understanding, but a well-written selection item can still get at higher levels of understanding. 
Testing Speaking and Writing 
The testing of speaking and writing can be divided into testing of elements of skill which may be labelled 'grammar', 'vocabulary', 'spelling', pronunciation, etc.. Items which test writing skills may appear in tests or components of tests, called either 'writing' or ‘grammar and usage' or 'structural competence'. Speaking skills or writing skills looked at on this level of discrete elements are sometimes assessed by means of item-based tests. 
Those speaking or writing skills which involve organization of ideas and arguments, interaction, sequencing and the construction of coherent narrative have to be tested by means of tasks which are not generally item-based. 
A consideration of a range of items and task types is presented in the following sections. It is not exhaustive, but aims to cover most commonly used item and task types, especially those used in ALTE members' examinations for foreign language learners. 
III.2.2.1. MULTIPLE CHOICE AND OTHER SELECTION ITEM TYPES 
When selection item types are used in a test, it is likely that the test provider considers some of the following features of these item types to be advantageous. Selection items tend to be: 
• familiar to nearly all candidates in all places 
• independent of writing ability 
• easy and quick to mark, lending themselves easily to the use of a template or Optical Mark Reader 
• capable of being objectively scored 
• economical of the candidate's time, so that many can be attempted in a short period and a range of objectives covered, adding to the reliability of the test. 
 On the other hand, it should be pointed out that selection items are sometimes criticized because they tend to be: 
• tests of recognition rather than production 
• limited in the range of what they can test 
• incapable of letting a candidate express a wide range of abilities 
• dependent, in many cases, on reading ability 
• affected by guesswork - even with three distractors there is a 1 in 4 chance of getting the answer right by guessing, while with fewer distractors the effect increases accordingly 
• very difficult and time consuming to write successfully 
• capable of leading to poor classroom practice, if teaching focuses too intensively on preparation for tackling this sort of test item. 
The decision as to whether this category of item types is used depends on what is to be tested and why. No task or item type is right or wrong in absolute terms. A wide variety of techniques may be grouped together under the heading of multiple choice and other selection item types. What they all have in common is that candidates are required to make a choice among options supplied in the test. They do not have to supply a single word of their own. 
The following list gives examples of the most familiar selection techniques
. 
a) Multiple choice items
# Discrete point and text based multiple choice items 
A discrete point multiple choice item is presented in the example below: 
The singer ended the concert.............................her most popular song. 
 A by B with C in D as 
The gapped sentence is the stem, which is followed, in the above example, by four options . B is the correct choice, or key, while A, C and D act as distractors which may be chosen by weaker candidates. Three, four or five options may be given. 
A text-based multiple choice item is presented in the example below. 
Then he saw a violin in a shop. It was of such high quality that even top professional 
players are rarely able to afford one like it. ‘I’d never felt money was important until 
then,’ Colin explained. ‘Even with the money I’d won, I wasn’t sure I could afford to 
buy the violin, so I started to leave the shop. Then I thought I’d just try it, and I fell in love with the beautiful sound it made. I knew it was perfect both for live concerts and for recordings.’ 
 When Colin first found the violin, what did he think? 
A He might not have enough money to buy it. 
B He should not spend all of his money on it. 
C He was not a good enough player to own it. 
D He could not leave the shop without it. 
Text-based multiple choice items are often presented as a question followed by three, four or five options which include the key, or correct answer. 
Multiple choice items are very frequently used in tests of reading and listening. 
Below is an example from a listening test. It is an interview with a young American woman who runs a coffee company in London. 
Interviewe: Now, Ally, you run this company with your husband, Scott, so tell me how did it all start? 
Ally: Well, I’ve known Scott since I was fifteen and after we’d both finished college in the States, he came to England because he had got a job in a bank. We weren’t married then but I decided to follow him over here. I had a degree in Media Studies, so I got a job in magazine publishing very quickly. 
Question: Ally first decided to go to England because she 
A would have the chance to study there 
B was offered a job in London 
C wanted to be with her boyfriend 
In the above example the multiple choice item is presented as a stem with options for completion. 
Ally: The coffee thing started when on my first morning here I told Scott I’d walk him to work and we’d stop for a latte, that’s a milky coffee, by the way. Scott looked at me blankly, and I just assumed he’d been working away too hard and hadn’t discovered where you could get great latte coffees in London. I couldn’t believe they weren’t available! Years passed. I brought the subject up everywhere we went and people’s eyes would light up. 
Question: What surprised Ally about London? 
A a certain type of coffee was not on sale 
B people were not interested in the quality of coffee 
C the coffee bars were not conveniently located 
In the above example the multiple choice item is presented as a question. 
One of the decisions to make when writing a text based multiple choice item is whether to present it as a question or as a completion item . In some tests a text is followed by multiple choice items of one of these kinds only, while other test constructors prefer to use a mixture of question and completion types. 
What are the rules for writing discrete or text based multiple choice items? 
The item should measure one important point. 
Items should not be interdependent i.e. the answer to one item should not influence the answer to another. 
There should be only one correct option, and its status as key must be clear and unambiguous. 
The distractors, while being incorrect, should be plausible enough to distract weak candidates. 
Op