ABSTRACT
The structuralist approach in the period of psychometric-structuralist testing is based on American structuralist linguistics (Baker, 1989). The structuralist tradition aims for an objective and scientifi c description of the formal system of language through a hierarchical analysis process of breaking down sentences into elements at different levels. Following this approach, language is divided into elements on three levels: phonemes, stresses, intonation patterns at a phonological level, vocabulary items at a lexical level and grammatical structures at a syntactic level. As these elements of language could be mobilized into four modes of language use, four skills are identifi ed: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
