The document discusses several key principles of language assessment: 1) Practicality refers to the logistical issues of administering an assessment, such as time, costs, and ease of scoring. A practical test stays within budget, can be completed in the allotted time, and has clear administration directions. 2) Objectivity means different scorers will obtain the same results. Objective tests like multiple choice aim for this. 3) Washback effect refers to how a test influences teaching and learning. A test with beneficial washback positively impacts both and provides useful feedback. 4) Authenticity is the correspondence between a test task and real-world language use. An authentic test uses natural language and simulates realistic

1. BASIC PRINCIPLES OF
ASSESSMENT
TSL3112 LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
PISMP TESL SEMESTER 6
IPGKDRI

2. CHARACTERISTICS OF A TEST
• 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. PRACTICALITY
• 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. PRACTICALITY
• 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. OBJECTIVITY
• 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. OBJECTIVITY
• 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. OBJECTIVITY
• 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. WASHBACK EFFECT
• 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. WASHBACK EFFECT
• 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. WASHBACK EFFECT
– gives learners feedback that enhances their
language development.
– is more formative in nature than summative.
– provides conditions for peak performance by the
learner.

11. WASHBACK EFFECT
• 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. WASHBACK EFFECT
• 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 EFFECT
• 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. WASHBACK EFFECT
• 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. WASHBACK EFFECT
– To imply that students have ready access to you to
discuss the feedback and evaluation you have
given.

16. AUTHENTICITY
• 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. AUTHENTICITY
• 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. AUTHENTICITY
• 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. AUTHENTICITY
• 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. AUTHENTICITY
• 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.