This document contains a student's responses to an assessment on language testing principles. 1) The student defines qualities of test usefulness according to Bachman & Palmer and Brown, noting they both cite reliability, validity, and authenticity. However, they diverge on validity, with Bachman focusing on scores and Brown citing multiple types of validity. 2) The student analyzes a test item asking about a train timetable, finding it unreliable because the instructions are unclear and the aspect being tested is unknown. They also find it lacks validity from the student and content perspective. 3) In analyzing a cartoon test, the student says validity is absent as the test is meaningless and useless for the subjects. However,

1. Principles of language assessment test
Assessment 2012
Name: Paulina Escobar Aguayo. Date: April 04th, 2012.
1. Name and define (in not more than three lines) 3 Bachman and Palmer`s
qualities of test usefulness and 3 Brown`s. (2 points each) Compare 1 quality in
both models (3 points)
2. Analyze the test item below. a) What aspect(s) of language knowledge/ability is
it testing or claiming to be testing? (2 points) b) is it valid and reliable test
item? Back up your answers. (4 each quality)
3.
Test of spoken English
Look at the timetable below and tell your teacher about it
British Rail Timetable
Leeds London
07:00 09:05
07:20 09:35
07:38 10:05
08:05 10:35
09:05 11:37
10:05 12:30
3. Analyze the cartoon in terms of test qualities. Identify and explain 1 weak and
1 strong test quality of this testing situation. (4 each)
Total score: 33 points
RC/GS
2012

2. 1) According to Bachman & Palmer’s a test is useful if it has Reliability, validity and
authenticity: moreover, Brown points out that a test is useful if it has reliability, validity
and authenticity too.
However, both authors have different point of view. In the case of validity Bachman
has a narrow definition. He suggests that validity is closely related with the score of a test.
He also says that teachers have to justify why they give more scores too one section and
less to another section of a test. Unlike Brown proposes more than one type of validity. E.g.
Construct validity, face validity, predictive validity and content validity. For him validity is
more than the explanation or the interpretation of the score and also it’s not only related
with the teacher, but also with the students and with the content. A test is valid if it has
coherence between what the teacher is going to evaluate and what the teacher taught before.
2) The test is unreliable because the instruction is not very clear; in addition, it’s very
difficult to know what aspect the teacher wants to evaluate in the test. Maybe the teacher
wants to test the time; nonetheless, it’s not very precise. Is difficult to know what the test is
measure.
Also the test is not valid. Firstly, for students because if they look at the test they
could feel confused about what they have to do (face validity). In terms of content validity,
it’s not so clear because we don’t know what the teacher is going to evaluate. Maybe if the
teacher taught the time the test could be valid, but we don’t know.
3) In the cartoon “validity” is absent because according to D. Brown validity is “the
extent to which inferences made from assessment results are appropriate, meaningful, and
useful in terms of the purpose of the assessment” In this case the test is invalid because
the test is neither meaningful nor useful for all of these students. For example how a fish
can climb a tree? It is impossible, the same happen with the penguin and the seal. In
addition content validity is absent too, because what the teacher want to measure is not
clear. Want the teacher measure the ability to climb a tree or the procedure that students use
to climb a tree? Those aspects are not clear enough.

3. In contrast, practicality is a strong quality of this test, according to Brown this test is
not excessively expensive, it not time consuming, also it is relatively easy to administer. In
terms of practicality this test is practical because it is easy to take. The teacher does not
need to spend a lot of time or money in order to take this test.