Workshop “Writing discrete item exercises for business English teaching”

Multiple choice questions, gap-fill exercises and matching exercises are very common in business English teaching – they use a discrete item approach which enables us to focus on specific elements of language, typically items of grammar or lexis.  We find them in course books, in tests, in worksheets, in e-learning packages, in fact almost everywhere. In this workshop we will revisit these types of exercises, and discuss some basic design principles. What makes a good multiple-choice question? Why are they so notoriously difficult to get right? What about gap-fill exercises? How do we decide what to leave out and where to put the gaps? What can we do to improve the matching exercises we give our learners? What should we avoid doing? This workshop will explore these questions, provide you with some guidelines, and help you reflect on your own practice.