Derailed test items: an analysis of test items in the textbooks

This Paper entitled ‘Derailed Test Items: An Analysis of Test Items’ deals about the test items provided in Tamil textbooks (Standards III to X) followed in Tami Nadu schools at Secondary level. Test items related to coalescence (In Tamil it is termed as Punarssi) of words are only addressed. It tries to answer three questions related to teaching of Tamil. They are 1) Whether the test items are developing language skill? 2) What are the learning objectives of the test items related to coalescence? and 3) Whether the items are properly designed? Citing reference from traditional Tamil grammar work Nanool the unsuitability of terminologies used in the test items of the textbooks is pointed out.  Further this Paper examines the aptness of the above said test items in developing the language skill of the learner suggesting suitable test items in MCQ format. Finally, it recommends to adopt literature as corpus for generating test items to develop fluent reading of poetical works.