Language assessment for academic

1. M. ZUL HAZIZ &
BAIQ. ARNI NURUL KHOLILI
PRINCIPLES OF LANGUAGE
ASSESSMENT

2. ● This chapter explores how principles of langauge asssessment can and shhould be
applied to formal tests.but with the ultimate recognition that these principles also apply to
assesssments for all kinds.
● There are five cardinal criteria for testing a test
○ Practicallity
○ Reliability
○ Validity
○ Authenticity
○ Washback
ABOUT PRINCIPLES OF LANGUAGE
ASSESMENT

3. PRACTICALITY
An effective test is practical.
•It is not excessively
•It stays within appropriate time constraint
•It is relatively easy to administer
•It has a scoring/ evaluation procedure.

4. RELIABILITY
A reliable test is consistent
and dependable. 01
If the test is given to the
same student or matched
students on two different
occasions, the test should
yield the similar result.
02

5. FACTORS CONTRIBUTE TO THE
UNRELIABILITY OF A TES
Student –related
reliability
Temporary illness, fatigues,a “bad boy”,
anxiety, and others.
Rater reliability
Human error, subjectivity, bias on
scoring process.
Unreliability
May also result the conditions in which
the test is administered, e.g.,tape
recorder, and noises when in listening
test.
1
2
3

6. TEST ADMNISTRATION
RELABILITY
Street noise
Variations in
temperature
Photocopying
variations
Condition pf desks
and chair
Lighting
Monitors

7. FACE VALIDITY
• Face validty referred to degree to which a test looks right,and appears to
measure the knowledge or abilities it claims to measure.
• It is based on the subjective judgement of the examinees who take it, the
administrative personnel who decide on its use, and other psychometrical
unsophisticated observers.
• Face validity asks the question. “Does the test, on the face pf it, appear from
the learners perspective to test what it is designed to test?’

8. AUTHENTICITY
● The language is as natural as possible
● Items are contextualized rathen than isolated
● Topics are meaningful (relevant, interesting)
● Thematic organization to items is provided
● Tasks represent, or close to, real-world tasks.

9. WASHBACK
The effect of testing on teaching and learning (hughes, 2003,p.1)
 In large – scale assessment, washback generally refers to the effect the tests have
on intruction in terms of how students prepare for the test. E .g. “cram” courses and “
teaching to the test.
...in the classroom assessment is the information that “ wash back “ to students in the
form of useful diagnoses of strengths and weakness.
 infomal performance assessment is by nature more likely to have built built - in
washback effects because the teacger is usually providing interactive feedback.
Formal teats can also have positive washback, but they provide no washback if the
students receive a simpe letter grade or a single overall numerical score.