Ilustracja jako narzędzie w materiałach testujących znajomość języka angielskiego u dzieci

Abstract

Testing the knowledge of foreign languages and establishing levels of proficiency had been a subject of debate in Europe since the 1970s., and the final resolution was enacted in the 1990s. The following article presents preliminary research on illustrations as tools for testing the knowledge of foreign languages at the elementary level. The aim of the research is to arrive at a comprehensive characteristic of the illustrations used in testing the knowledge of English in children. The project has been founded upon three research questions: 1) What is the character of the illustrations used in testing the knowledge of English in children?; 2) What is the subject matter of those illustrations?; 3) What functions do those illustrations perform in testing language abilities in children? The article, which constitutes just a small part of a much broader research project, constitutes an analysis of selected tests used to assess the knowledge of English in children. Data used for the analysis was collected in the course of evaluation, on the basis of universal criteria, visual methodology criteria, and content criteria. The project expects that the results of the research will aid not only the testing process, but also the process of preparing testing materials for that age group.