assessment principles

1. TSL3112 LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT

2. • Should be applied to assessments of all kinds
in general.
• Questions to ponder:
– Can it be given within appropriate administrative
constraints?
– Is it dependable?
– Does it accurately measure what you want it to
measure?
– Is the language in the test representative of real-
world language use?
– Does the test provide information that is useful for
the learner?

3.  Refers to the logistical, down-to-earth,
administrative issues involved in making,
giving, and scoring an assessment
instrument.
 These include “costs, the amount of time it
takes to construct and to administer, ease of
scoring, and ease of interpreting/reporting
the results” (Mousavi, 2009).

4.  A PRACTICAL TEST…
◦ stays within budgetary limits.
◦ can be completed by the test-taker within
appropriate time constraints.
◦ has clear directions for administration.
◦ appropriately utilises available human resources.
◦ does not exceed available material resources.
◦ considers the time and effort involved for both
design and scoring.

5.  Refers to the degree to which equally
competent scorers obtain the same results.
 Most standardised tests of aptitude and
achievement are high in objectivity.
 The test items are objective type (e.g. MCQ),
and the resulting scores are not influenced by
the scorers’ judgement / opinion.

6. • In fact, such tests are usually constructed so
that they can be accurately scored by trained
clerks and scoring machines.
• Highly objective procedure are used – the
reliability of the test results is not affected by
the scoring procedures.
• For classroom assessments constructed by
teachers or performance-based assessments,
objectivity plays an important role in
obtaining reliable measures of achievement.

7.  Teachers may not only use objective tests,
but also other methods of assessment that
require judgemental scoring.
 Therefore, to ensure high objectivity:
◦ Select assessment procedures most appropriate for
the learning goals being assessed.
◦ Make the assessment procedure as objective as
possible – e.g. carefully phrasing the questions and
providing a standard set of rules for scoring.

8.  The effect of testing on teaching and learning
– e.g. the extent to which assessment affects
a student’s future language development.
 Messick (1996) reminded us that the
washback effect may refer to both the
promotion and the inhibition of learning
(beneficial versus harmful/negative)
washback.

9. • Alderson & Wall (1993) – a Washback
Hypothesis – how tests influence both
teaching and learning.
• A TEST THAT PROVIDES BENEFICIAL
WASHBACK…
– positively influences what and how teachers teach.
– positively influences what and how learners learn.
– offers learners a chance to adequately prepare.

10. ◦ gives learners feedback that enhances their
language development.
◦ is more formative in nature than summative.
◦ provides conditions for peak performance by the
learner.

11. • In large-scale assessment, washback refers to
the effects that tests have on instruction in terms
of how students prepare for the test – e.g., cram
courses and teaching to the test.
• The current worldwide use of standardised tests
for gate-keeping purposes can lead students to
focus on gaining an acceptable score rather than
on language development.
• Positively, many enrollees in test-preparation
courses report increased competence in certain
language-related tasks (Chapelle, Enright, &
Jamieson, 2008).

12.  In classroom-based assessment, washback
can have a number of positive manifestations,
ranging from the benefit of preparing and
reviewing for a test to the learning that
accrues from feedback on one’s performance.
 Teachers can provide information to students
on useful diagnoses of strengths and
weaknesses.

13. • Washback also includes the effects of an
assessment on teaching and learning prior to the
assessment itself, i.e., on preparation for the
assessment.
• The challenge to teachers is to create classroom
tests that serve as learning devices through
which washback is achieved.
• Washback enhances a number of basic principles
of language acquisition: intrinsic motivation,
autonomy, self-confidence, language ego,
interlanguage, and strategic investment.

14.  Ways to enhance washback:
◦ To comment generously and specifically on test
performance.
◦ Through a specification of the numerical scores on
the various subsections of the test.
◦ Formative versus summative tests:
 Formative tests provide washback in the form of
information to the learner on progress towards goals.
 Summative tests provide washback for learners to
initiate further pursuits, more learning, more goals,
and more challenges to face.

15. ◦ To imply that students have ready access to you to
discuss the feedback and evaluation you have
given.

16.  The degree of correspondence of the
characteristics of a given language test task
to the features of a target language task
(Bachman & Palmer, 1996).
 Lewkowicz (2000) discussed the difficulties of
operationalising authenticity in language
assessment:
◦ Who can certify whether a task or language sample
is “real-world” or not?

17.  Such judgements are subjective, and yet
authenticity is a concept that language-
testing experts have paid a great deal of
attention to (Bachman & palmer, 1996;
Fulcher & Davidson, 2007).
 Chun (2006) asserts that many test types fail
to simulate real-world tasks.

18.  AN AUTHENTIC TEST…
◦ contains language that is as natural as possible.
◦ has items that are contextualised rather than
isolated.
◦ includes meaningful, relevant, interesting topics.
◦ provides some thematic organisation to items, such
as through a story line or episode.
◦ offers tasks that replicate real-world tasks.

19. • The authenticity of test tasks in recent years
has increased noticeably.
• Many large-scale tests nowadays offer
simulation of real-world tasks in speaking
and writing components, of which the
performance of these productive skills were
not included previously.
• Reading passages are selected from real-
world sources that test-takers are likely to
have encountered or will encounter.

20.  Listening comprehension sections feature
natural language with hesitations, white
noise, and interruptions.
 More tests offer items that are episodic in
that they are sequenced to form meaningful
units, paragraphs, or stories.