. Matching

Fourth Year English Dept/ Testing. 2012- 2013.

c. Matching

Tests of this type are not popular nowadays as they test words in isolation. In constructing these tests, the teacher has to prepare two lists of words. The number of words in the second list should be more than that of the first. Matching words can be based on synonyms, antonyms or collocations. Below are three examples illustrating the major types of matching items.

Example1
Write the number of the word in list "A" and the letter of the word or phrase in list "B" that gives its meaning.

List A
1. difficult
2. support
3. emerge

List B
a. contribute
b. help
c. play part
d. hard
e. effective
f. appear

Example 2
Write the number of the word in list "A" and the letter of the word or phrase in list "B" that gives its opposite meaning.

List A
1. ugly
2. back
3. respect

List B
a. look down upon
b. bad
c. encourage
d. hate
e. beautiful
f. front
Example 3
Write the number of the word in list "A" and the letter of the word in list "B" that best collocates with it.
List A
1. weak
2. heavy
3. sharp
4. easy
5. brave


List B
a. pencil
b. chair
c. soldier
d. drinker
e. tea
f. mouth

The examiner may provide a contextualized vocabulary test in which he provides the testees with.
a. a vocabulary list
b. pictures
c. stems

The testees are required to fill in the gaps in the stems with words chosen from the list. The pictures function as situations that give clues, consider this vocabulary test.