This document discusses key considerations for language assessment, including practicality, reliability, validity, washback effect, and authenticity. It defines each concept and provides examples of how to apply them to create effective language assessments. For practicality, it emphasizes staying within budgetary limits and time constraints. For reliability, it discusses obtaining consistent scoring. For validity, it focuses on measuring intended skills. For washback, it explores positively influencing teaching and learning. And for authenticity, it recommends using realistic language and tasks.

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.