2. Assessment: Assessment of the proficiency of
the language user
3 key concepts:
• Validity: the information gained is an accurate
representation of the proficiency of the candidates
• Reliability: A student being tested twice will get the
same result (technical concept: the rank order of the
candidates is replicated in two separate—real or
simulated—administrations of the same assessment )
• Feasibility: The procedure needs to be practical,
adapted to the available elements and features
3. If we want assessment to be valid, reliable,
and feasible, we need to specify:
• What is assessed: according to the CEFR,
communicative activities (contexts, texts, and tasks).
See examples.
• How performance is interpreted: assessment criteria.
See examples
• How to make comparisons between different tests
and ways of assessment (for example, between public
examinations and teacher assesment). Two main
procedures:
Social moderation: discussion between experts
Benchmarking: comparison of samples in relation to
standardized definitions and examples, which become
reference points (benchmarks)
• Guidelines for good practice: EALTA
5. Types of tests:
• Proficiency tests
• Achievement tests. 2 approaches:
To base achievement tests on the textbook/syllabus
To base them on course objectives. More beneficial
washback.
• Diagnostic tests
• Placement tests
6. Validity Types:
• Construct validity (very general, the information
gained is accurate representation of the
proficiency of the candidate. It checks the validity
of the construct, the thing we want to measure)
• Content validity. This checks it the test’s content is
a representative simple of the skills or structures
that it wants to measure. In order to check this we
need a complete specification of all the skills or
structures we want to cover. If it covers 5% only, it
has less content validity than if it covers 25 %.
7. Validity Types:
• Criterion-related validity: Results on the test agree with
other dependable results (criterion test)
Concurrent validity. We compare the test results with the
criterion test.
Predictive validity. A placement test is validated by the
teachers who teach the selected students.
• Validity in scoring. Not only the items need to be valid,
but also the way in which responses are scored
(taking into account grammar mistakes in a reading
comprehension exam is not valid)
• Face validity: the test has to look as if it measures
what it is supposed to measure. A written test to check
pronunciation has little face validity.
8. How to make tests more valid (Hughes)
Write specifications for the test.
Include a representative sample ot the
content of the specifications in the text
Whenever feasible, use direct testing
Make sure that the scoring relates directly
to what is being tested
Try to make the test reliable
9. Reliability: A student being tested twice will get the same
result (technical concept: the rank order of the candidates
is replicated in two separate—real or simulated—
administrations of the same assessment )
- We compare two tests. Methods:
- Test-Retest: the student takes the same test again
- Alternate Forms: the students take two alternate forms
of the same test
- Split.Half: you split the test into two equivalent halves
and compare them as if they were two different tests.
10. - Reliability coefficient / Standard Error of Measurement
A High Stakes Test needs a high reliability coefficient
(highest is 1), and therefore a very low standard error of
measurement (a number obtained by statistical analysis). A
Lower Stakes exam does not need those coefficients.
- True Score: the real score that a student would get in a
perfectly reliable test. In a very reliable test, the true
score is clearly defined (the student will always get a
similar result, for example 65-67). In a less reliable test,
the range is wider (55-75).
- Scorer reliability (coefficient). You compare the scores
given by different scorers (examiners). The more
agreement, the more reliable their reliability coefficient.
11. Item analysis:
Facility value
Discrimination indices: drop some, improve
others
Analyse distractors
Item banking
12. 1.Take enough samples of behaviour.
2.Exclude items which do not descriminate well
3.Do not allow candidates too much freedom.
4.Write unambiguous items
5.Provide clear and explicit instructions
6.Ensure that tests are well laid out and perfectly
legible
7.Make candidates familiar with format and testing
techniques
8.Provide uniform and non-distracting conditions of
administration
13. 9. Use items which permit scoring which is as
objective as possible
10. Make comparisons between candidates as direct
as possible
11. Provide a detailed scoring key
12. Train scorers
13. Agree acceptable responses and appropriate
scores at the beginning of the scoring process.
14. Identifty candidates by number not by name
15. Employ multiple, independent scorers..
14. To be valid a test must be reliable (provide
accurate measurement)
A reliable test may not be valid at all
(technically perfect, but globally wrong: it
does not test what it is supposed to test)
15. Washback/Backwash
Test the abilities/skills you want to encourage.
Sample widely and unpredictably
Use direct testing
Make testing criterion-referenced (CEFR)
Base achievement tests on objectives
Ensure that the test is known and understood by
students and teachers
Counting the cost
16. 1. Make a full and clear statement of the testing
‘problem’.
2. Write complete specifications for the test.
3. Write and moderate items.
4. Trial the items informally on native speakers
and reject or modify problematic ones as
necessary.
5. Trial the test on a group of non-native
speakers similar to those for whom the test is
intended.
6. Analyse the results of the trial and make any
necessary changes.
7. Calibrate scales.
8. Validate.
9. Write handbooks for test takers, test users
and staff.
10. Train any necessary staff (interviewers,
raters, etc.).
18. Chapters from Hughes’ Testing for Language Teachers
9. Testing Writing
10. Testing Oral Abilities
11. Testing Reading
12. Testing Listening
13. Testing Grammar and Vocabulary
14. Testing Overall Ability
15. Tests for Young Learners
19. 1. Set representative tasks
1. Specify all possible content
2. Include a representative sample of the specified content
2. Elicit valid samples of writing ability
1. Set as many separate tasks as feasible
2. Test only writing ability and nothing else
3. Restrict candidates
3. Ensure valid and reliable scoring:
1. Set as many tasks as possible
2. Restrict candidates
3. Give no choice of tasks
4. Ensure long enough samples
5. Create appropriate scales for scoring: HOLISTIC/ANALYTIC
6. Calibrate the scale to be used
7. Select and train scorers
8. Follow acceptable scoring procedures
20. • “The most highly prized language skill”, Lado’s
Language Testing (1961).
• Challenges: ephemeral, intangible.
• Contrast US/UK: Certificate of Proficiency in English
(1913) already included it, TOEFL only in 2005 iBT
• Key notion: not accent, but intelligibility
• Very different approaches.
Indirect
Direct (Cambridge, EOIs) or Semi-direct (TOEFL ibt, OTE,
Aptis). Conflict with the American tradition.
The future?: Fully automated L2 speaking tests: Versant
test, Speechrater.
• Not only speaking, also interaction
21. 1. Set representative tasks
1. Specify all possible content
2. Include a representative sample of the specified content
2. Elicit valid samples of oral ability.
1. Techniques:
1. Interview :Questions, pictures, role play, interpreting (L1 to L2),
prepared monologue, reading aloud
2. Interaction: discussion, roleplay
3. Responses to audio- or video-recordings (semi-direct)
2. Plan and structure the test carefully
1. Make the oral test as long as it is feasible
2. Plan the test carefully
3. As many tasks (“fresh starts”) as possible
4. Use a second tester
5. Set only tasks that candidates could do easily in L1
22. Plan and structure the test carefully
1. Set only tasks that candidates could do easily in L1
2. Quiet room with good acoustics
3. Put candidates at ease (at first, easy questions, not assessed,
problem with note-taking?)
4. Collect enough relevant information
5. Do not talk too much
6. (select interviewers carefully and train them)
1. Ensure valid and reliable scoring:
1. Create appropriate scales for scoring: HOLISTIC/ANALYTIC. Calibrate
the scale to be used
2. Select and train scorers (different from interviewers if possible)
3. Follow acceptable scoring procedures
23. PROBLEMS:
Indirect assessment:
We read in very different ways: scanning, skimming,
inferring, intensive, extensive reading…
SOME TIPS
As many texts and operations as possible (Dialang).
Avoid texts which deal with general knowledge
Avoid disturbing topics, or texts students might have
read
Use authentic texts
Techniques: better short answer and gap filling than
multiple choice
Task difficulty can be lower than text difficulty
Items should follow the order of the text
Make items independent of each other
Do not take into account errors of grammar or spelling
24. PROBLEMS
As in listening: Indirect assessment and different ways
of listening
As in speaking: Transient nature of speech
http://www.usingenglish.com/articles/why-your-students-have-problems-with-listening-comprehension.html
TIPS:
Same as in reading
If recording is used, make it as natural as possible
Items should be far apart in the text
Give students time to become familiar with the tasks
Techniques: apart from multiple choice, shot answers
and gap filling, information transfer, note taking, partial
dictation, transcription
Moderation is essential
How many times?
25. GRAMMAR
Why? Easy to test, Content validity
Why not? Harmful washback effect
It depends on the type of test.
Specifications: from the Council of Europe books
Techniques: Gap filling, rephrasings, completion
Don’t penalize for mistakes that were not tested (-s if
the item is testing relatives, for example)
VOCABULARY
Why (not)?
Specifications: use frequency considerations
Techniques:
Recognition: Recognise synonims, recognise definitions,
recognise appropriate word for context
Production: pictures, definitions, gap filling,
26. Useful in particular tests where washback is
not important
Cloze test (from closure). Based on the
idea of “reduced redundancy”. Subtypes:
Selected deletion cloze
Conversational cloze
C-Tests
Dictation
Main problem : horrible washback effect.
27. TIPS
- Testing-assessment-teaching
- Feedback
- Self assessment
- Washback
- Short tasks
- Use stories and games
- Use pictures and color
- Don’t forget that children are still developing L1 and cognitive
abilities
- Include interaction
- Use colour and drawing
- Use cartoon stories
- Long warm-ups in speaking
- Use cards eotj pictures
Editor's Notes
If we want assessment to be valid, reliable, and feasible, we need to specify:
What is assessed: according to the CEFR, communicative activities (contexts, texts, and tasks). See examples.
How performance is interpreted: assessment criteria. See examples
How to make comparisons between different tests and ways of assessment (for example, between public examinations and teacher assesment). Two main procedures:
Social moderation: discussion between experts
Benchmarking: comparison of samples in relation to standardized definitions and examples
Guidelines for good practice: EALTA
Types of tests:
Proficiency tests: designed to measure people’s ability in a language, regardless of any training. “Proficient”: command of the language, for a particular purpose or for general purposes.
Achievement tests: most teachers are not responsible for proficiency tests, but for achievement tests. They are normally related to language courses. Two approaches:
to base achievement tests on the textbook (or the syllabus), so that only what is covered in the classes is tested,
or, much better, to base test content on course objectives. More beneficial washback. The long-term interests of the students are best served by this approach.
Two types: final achievement tests, and progress achievement tests (formative assessment)
Diagnostic tests: Used to identify learners’ strengths and weaknesses (example: Dialang)
Placement tests: to place students at the stage most appropriate to their abilities
A test is valid if it measures accurately what it is intended to measure. Or, the information gained is an accurate representation of the proficiency of the candidate. This general type of validity is called “construct validity”, the validity of the construct, the thing we want to measure
Content validity: A test has it if its content constitutes a representative sample of the language skills or structures, etc. that it wants to measure. So, first, we need a specification of the skills of structures that we want to cover, and compare them with the test itself. For example, B2 writing skills, writing formal letters is one of the subskills shown in the specification, there are more, the more we cover, the more valid the test will be. The more content validity, the more construct validity and the more backwash effect.
Criterion-related validity: Results on the test agree with other (independent and highly dependable) results. This independent assessment is the criterion measure.
Two types:
Concurrent validity: we compare the criterion test and the test that we want to check. They both take place at about the same time.
Example 1: we administer a 45 m. oral test where all the subskills, tasks, operations, are tested. But only to a sample of the students. This is the criterion test. Then we do 10 m. interviews to the whole level of students. We compare the results, and they tell us whether 10 m. is enough or not. This is expressed in a “correlation coefficient” bw the criterion and the test being validated.
Example 2: we compare the results of a general test (Pruebas Estandarizadas) with teachers’ assessment.
Predictive validity: the test predicts future performance of the students. A placement test can easily be validated by the teachers teaching the students by checking if the students are well placed or not.
Validity in scoring: not only the items need to be valid, but also the way in which the responses are scored. For example, a reading test may call for short written responses. If the scoring of these responses takes into account spelling and grammar, then it is not valid (it is not measuring what it is intended to measure). Same for the scoring of writing or speaking.
Face validity: the test has to look as if it measures what it is supposed to measure. It is not a scientific notion, but it is important (for candidates, teachers, employers). For example, a written test to check pronunciation.
A test is valid if it measures accurately what it is intended to measure. Or, the information gained is an accurate representation of the proficiency of the candidate. This general type of validity is called “construct validity”, the validity of the construct, the thing we want to measure
Content validity: A test has it if its content constitutes a representative sample of the language skills or structures, etc. that it wants to measure. So, first, we need a specification of the skills of structures that we want to cover, and compare them with the test itself. For example, B2 writing skills, writing formal letters is one of the subskills shown in the specification, there are more, the more we cover, the more valid the test will be. The more content validity, the more construct validity and the more backwash effect.
Criterion-related validity: Results on the test agree with other (independent and highly dependable) results. This independent assessment is the criterion measure.
Two types:
Concurrent validity: we compare the criterion test and the test that we want to check. They both take place at about the same time.
Example 1: we administer a 45 m. oral test where all the subskills, tasks, operations, are tested. But only to a sample of the students. This is the criterion test. Then we do 10 m. interviews to the whole level of students. We compare the results, and they tell us whether 10 m. is enough or not. This is expressed in a “correlation coefficient” bw the criterion and the test being validated.
Example 2: we compare the results of a general test (Pruebas Estandarizadas) with teachers’ assessment.
Predictive validity: the test predicts future performance of the students. A placement test can easily be validated by the teachers teaching the students by checking if the students are well placed or not.
Validity in scoring: not only the items need to be valid, but also the way in which the responses are scored. For example, a reading test may call for short written responses. If the scoring of these responses takes into account spelling and grammar, then it is not valid (it is not measuring what it is intended to measure). Same for the scoring of writing or speaking.
Face validity: the test has to look as if it measures what it is supposed to measure. It is not a scientific notion, but it is important (for candidates, teachers, employers). For example, a written test to check pronunciation.
Reliability: A student being tested twice will get the same result (technical concept: the rank order of the candidates is replicated in two separate—real or simulated—administrations of the same assessment )
We compare two tests taken by the same group of students, and get a reliability coefficient: if all the students get exactly the same result, the coefficient is 1 (It never happens). High Stakes Tests need a higher coefficient than Lower Stakes exams. They shouldn’t depend on chance, or particular circumstances.
In order to get two comparable tests, there are two procedures:
Test-retest method: the students take the same test again
Alternate forms method: the students take two alternate forms of the same test
Split half method: you split the test into two (equivalent) halves and compare them as if they were two different tests. You get a “coefficient of internal consistency”.
We also need to know the standard error of measurement of a test. This is actually the opposite of the reliability coefficient and you can get it through statistical analysis. With this number, we can find out what the true score of a student is. For example, if we have a very reliable test, it will have a low standard error of measurement, and therefore, the student will always get a very similar result no matter how many times he takes the test. In a less reliable test, his true score would be less defined. The true score lies in a range that varies depending on the standard error of measurement of the test.
These numbers are important to compare tests and to take decisions (by companies, governments, etc.) based on those results.
Another statistical procedure commonly used now is Item Response Theory. Very technical.
Scorer reliability. There is also a scorer reliability coefficient, the level of agreement given by the same or different scorers on different occasions. If the scoring is not reliable, the rest results cannot be reliable.
Reliability: A student being tested twice will get the same result (technical concept: the rank order of the candidates is replicated in two separate—real or simulated—administrations of the same assessment )
We compare two tests taken by the same group of students, and get a reliability coefficient: if all the students get exactly the same result, the coefficient is 1 (It never happens). High Stakes Tests need a higher coefficient than Lower Stakes exams. They shouldn’t depend on chance, or particular circumstances.
In order to get two comparable tests, there are two procedures:
Test-retest method: the students take the same test again
Alternate forms method: the students take two alternate forms of the same test
Split half method: you split the test into two (equivalent) halves and compare them as if they were two different tests. You get a “coefficient of internal consistency”.
We also need to know the standard error of measurement of a test. This is actually the opposite of the reliability coefficient and you can get it through statistical analysis. With this number, we can find out what the true score of a student is. For example, if we have a very reliable test, it will have a low standard error of measurement, and therefore, the student will always get a very similar result no matter how many times he takes the test. In a less reliable test, his true score would be less defined. The true score lies in a range that varies depending on the standard error of measurement of the test.
These numbers are important to compare tests and to take decisions (by companies, governments, etc.) based on those results.
Another statistical procedure commonly used now is Item Response Theory. Very technical.
Scorer reliability. There is also a scorer reliability coefficient, the level of agreement given by the same or different scorers on different occasions. If the scoring is not reliable, the rest results cannot be reliable.
Item analysis:
Facility value
Discrimination indices: drop some, improve others
Analyse distractors
Item banking
SEE EXAMPLE FROM FUENSANTA
How to make tests more reliable (Hughes)
Take enough samples of behaviour. The more items, the more reliable. The higher stakes, the longer it should be. Example from the Bible. P. 45
Exclude items which do not descriminate well between weaker and stronger students
Do not allow candidates too much freedom. Example p. 46
Write unambiguous items: Critical scrutiny of colleagues, pre-testing (trialling, piloting)
Provide clear and explicit instructions: write them down, read them aloud. No problem with writing them in L1.
Ensure that tests are well laid out and perfectly legible
Make candidates familiar with format and testing techniques
Provide uniform and non-distracting conditions of administration (specified timing, good acoustic conditions)
Use items which permit scoring which is as objective as possible (better one-word response than multiple choice)
Make comparisons between candidates as direct as possible (no choice of items)
Provide a detailed scoring key
Train scorers
Agree acceptable responses and appropriate scores at the beginning of the scoring process. Score a sample. Choose representative examples. Agree. Then scorers can begin to score.
Identifty candidates by number not by name
Emply multiple, independent scorers. At least two, independently. Then, a third, senior scorer gets the results, and investigates discrepancies.
Washback/Backwash: (One of the) main reasons for a language teacher/school/department to use appropriate forms of assessment.
Test the abilities/skills you want to encourage. Give them sufficient weight in relation to other skills.
Sample widely and unpredictably: Test across the full range of the specifications
Use direct testing
Make testing criterion-referenced (CEFR)
Base achievement tests on objectives
Ensure that the test is known and understood by students and teachers (the more transparent, the better)
(Where necessary, provide assistance to teachers)
Counting the cost: Individual direct testing is expensive, but what is the cost of not achieving beneficial washback
Calibrate scales: collect samples of performance, and use them as models, reference points (European Study)
Common Test Techniques
We need techniques which:
- will elicit behaviour which is a reliable and valid indicator of the ability in which we are interested;
- will elicit behaviour which can be reliably scored;
- are as economical of time and effort as possible;
will have a beneficial backwash effect, where this is relevant.
MULTIPLE CHOICE
Advantages:
Reliable
Economical
Good for receptive skills
(It used to be as the perfect, almost only way to test)
Disadvantages:
Only for recognition
Guessing may have a considerable bu unknowable effect
The technique severely restricts what can be tested
It is very difficult to write successful items
Washback may be harmful
Cheating may be facilitated
YES/NO TRUE/FALSE ITEMS
Essentially multiple choice, but with a 50 % chance4 of getting it right. Ok in class activities. Not appropriate in real testing.
SHORT-ANSWER ITEMS
Advantages.
Less guessing
No need for distractors
Less cheating
Items are easier to write
Disadvantages
Responses may take longer
The test taker has to produce language (mixture of skills in a receptive test) (TRY TO MAKE RESPONSES REALLY SHORT)
Judging may be required (less validity or reliability)
Scoring may take longer (SOLUTIONS: MAKE THE REQUIRED RESPONSE UNIQUE)
GAP FILLING ITEMS very similar to short-answer items
Set representative tasks
Specify all possible content (in the specifications)
Include a representative sample of the specified content (in the test)
Elicit valid samples of writing ability
Set as many separate tasks as feasible
Test only writing ability and nothing else (creativity, imagination, etc. No extra long instructions with complicated reading)
Restrict candidates
Ensure valid and reliable scoring:
Set as many tasks as possible
Restrict candidates
Give no choice of tasks
Ensure long enough samples
Create appropriate scales for scoring: HOLISTIC/ANALYTIC See examples. HOLISTIC. Good if many scorers. ANALYTIC: equal or unequal weight to the different parts, main disadvantage: time-consuming, if too much attention is payed to the parts, one may forget the general impression. IMPORTANT POTENTIAL FOR WASHBACK.
Calibrate the scale to be used (collect samples. Choose representative ones. Use them as reference points. This is called “benchmarking”)
Select and train scorers
Follow acceptable scoring procedures: benchmarking, two scorers (and a third, senior one for discrepancies), carry out statistical analysis
“The most highly prized language skill”, a source of cultural capital, Lado’s Language Testing (1961). However, it hasn’t always been properly assessed.
Challenges: ephemeral, intangible. Solutions: recording it, and also sound waves, spectrographs
Some tests (TOEFL in particular) have a long history of ignoring it: Only in 2005 TOEFL iBT/Contrast with Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English (1913) which already included it. However, Grammar-Translation approaches ignored it almost completely. Kaulfers 1944 created the first scales used to assess oral proficiency, designed for the military abroad
Key notion: not accent, but intelligibility (the ease or difficulty with which a listener understands L2 speech. You can be highly intelligible with a non-native accent. It is only when the accent interferes with a learner’s ability that it should be considered in speaking scales.
Very different approaches.
Indirect (multiple choice as an indicator, not really valid or reliable)
Direct or Semi-direct (responding to stimulus from a computer, TOEFL ibt, OTE, Aptis). Problems: raters and rating scales (which oversimplify the complexity of oral speech). Despite the practical challenges, they are the only valid formats for assessing L2 speech today. Conflict with the American tradition of “psychometrically influenced assessment tradition” focusing on the technical (statistical) reliability of test items (multiple choice) and the most administratively feasible test formats and item types in the context of large-scale, high-stakes tests (GRE?)
The future?: Fully automated L2 speaking tests: Versant test, Speechrater. Automatic scoring systems (measuring grammatical accuracy, lexical frequency, acoustic variables, temporal variables)
Not only speaking, also interaction (listening and speaking): Cambridge included interaction in 1996. Washback effect (usual practice in class, pairwork, groupwork). Problems: peer interlocutor variables (L2 proficiency, L1 background, gender, personality, etc). Solutions: more tasks.
Set representative tasks
Specify all possible content
Include a representative sample of the specified content
Elicit valid samples of oral ability.
Techniques:
Interview (the candidate may feel intimidated): Questions, pictures, role play, interpreting (L1 to L2), prepared monologue, reading aloud
Interaction with fellow candidates: discussion, roleplay
Responses to audio- or video-recordings (semi-direct)
Plan and structure the test carefully
Make the oral test as long as it is feasible
Plan the test carefully
As many tasks (“fresh starts”) as possible
Use a second tester
Set only tasks that candidates could do easily in L1
Quiet room with good acoustics
Put candidates at ease (at first, easy questions, not assessed, problem with note-taking?)
Collect enough relevant information
Do not talk too much
(select interviewers carefully and train them)
Ensure valid and reliable scoring:
Create appropriate scales for scoring: HOLISTIC/ANALYTIC. Used as a check on each other
Calibrate the scale to be used
Select and train scorers (different from interviewers if possible)
Follow acceptable scoring procedures
PROBLEMS:
Indirect assessment: the exercise of receptive skills does not manifest itself directly. We need an instrument.
We read in very different ways: scanning, skimming, inferring, intensive, extensive reading… All of them should be specified and tested
SOME TIPS
As many texts and operations as possible (Dialang). (Time limits for scanning or skimming?)
Avoid texts which deal with general knowledge (answers will be guessed)
Avoid disturbing topics, or texts students might have read
Use, as much as possible, authentic texts
Techniques: better short answer and gap filling than multiple choice. Also information transfer.
Task difficulty can be lower than text difficulty
Items should follow the order of the text
Make items independent of each other
Do not take into account errors of grammar or spelling.
Similar PROBLEMS to listening:
Indirect assessment: the exercise of receptive skills does not manifest itself directly. We need an instrument.
We listen in very different ways: scanning, skimming, inferring, intensive, extensive listening… All of them should be specified and tested
And to Speaking:
Transient nature of speech
http://www.usingenglish.com/articles/why-your-students-have-problems-with-listening-comprehension.html
Similar tips from Reading (go back to the list)
If recording is used, make it as natural as possible (with typical spoken redundancy). Don’t read aloud written texts.
Items should be far apart in the text (to have time to write them down)
Give students time to become familiar with the tasks
Techniques: apart from multiple choice, shot answers and gap filling, information transfer (draw a map of the accident), note taking, partial dictation (problem: do you consider spelling?), transcription (spelling names, numbers: real life task)
Moderation (more teachers, trialing) is essential
How many times? Why two? Never three
GRAMMAR:
Why? Easy to test, Content validity: more than in any of the skills (Skills: we just cover a few of the topics, or operations from the specifications. Grammar: we can cover many more items)
Why not? Harmful washback effect
Maybe not in proficiency tests, but, if grammar is taught (and it almost always is), it should be included in achievement tests, placement and diagnostic tests. However, because of the potential harmful washback effect, it should not be given too much (porcentual) prominence.
Specifications: from the Council of Europe books (Threshold, etc.)
Techniques: Gap filling, rephrasings, completion
Don’t penalize for mistakes that were not tested (-s if the item is testing relatives, for example)
VOCABULARY
Why (not)? Similar arguments as for grammar.
Specifications: use frequency considerations (cobuild dictionaries)
Techniques:
Recognition: Recognise synonims, recognise definitions, recognise appropriate word for context
Production: pictures, definitions, gap filling,
Special techniques which are more useful in tests where washback is not important: placement tests, for example
Types:
Cloze test (from closure). Based on the idea of “reduced redundancy”. Texts are always redundant. If we reduce the redundancy (by deleting a few words), native speakers are easily able to cope and guess the missing words. Originally, every seventh word. In the 80s ot ised to be considered as a language testing panacea (panasía). Easy to construct, administer and score. Unfortunately, poor validity. Native speakers cannot always guess the words. SUBTYPES:
Selected deletion cloze
Conversational cloze
The C-Test: a variety of cloze, with the second half of every second word deleted. Puzzle-like
Dictation: traditionally used (particularly in places like France, but not only). However, in the 60s, dictation testing was considered misguided. Later, nevertheless, research showed correlation between scores on dictation tests and scores on more complex tests, or on cloze tests. They are easy to create, and easy to adminster, but very difficult to score properly.
Main problem with all of these tests: horrible washback effect.
Primary School: Other types of assessment are more appropriate. However, a common yardstick at the end is necessary: Pruebas Estandarizadas.
Good opportunity to develop good attitudes towards assessment. Recommendations:
Make testing an integral part of assessment, and assessment an integral part of the teaching program
Feedback from tests should be immediate and positive
Self assessment should be part of the teaching program
Washback is more important than ever
TIPS
Short tasks: Short attention span
Use stories and games
Use pictures and color
Don’t forget that children are still developing L1 and cognitive abilities
Include interaction
SOME TECHNIQUES:
Placing objects or identifying people
Multiple choice pictures
Colour and draw
Use pictures in reading and in writing
Cartoon stories for writing
Long warm-ups in speaking
Use cards and pictures