English Language Testing and Evaluation EFL413

Why test? Diagnose students strengths and needs Provide feedback on student learning Provide a basis for instructional placement Inform and guide instruction Communicate learning expectations Motivate and focus students’ attention and effort Provide practice applying knowledge and skills Diagnose students strengths and needs Provide feedback on student learning Provide a basis for instructional placement Inform and guide instruction Communicate learning expectations Motivate and focus students’ attention and effort Provide practice applying knowledge and skills

This type of testing/evalutation spans two columns: Observations Pre-assessment (diagnostic) Formative (ongoing) Summative (final) PretestsQuizzesTeacher-made test Assignments Questionnaires Interviews

This type of testing/evalutation spans two columns: Journals/logs Pre-assessment (diagnostic) Formative (ongoing) Summative (final) PretestsQuizzesTeacher-made test Observations Assignments QuestionnairesObservations Interviews

This type of testing/evalutation spans two columns: Projects Pre-assessment (diagnostic) Formative (ongoing) Summative (final) PretestsQuizzesTeacher-made test Observations Journals/logsAssignments QuestionnairesObservations Interviews Journals/logs

This type of testing/evalutation spans two columns: Portfolios Pre-assessment (diagnostic) Formative (ongoing) Summative (final) PretestsQuizzesTeacher-made test Observations Journals/logsAssignmentsProjects QuestionnairesObservations Interviews Journals/logs

This type of testing/evalutation spans two columns: Discussions Pre-assessment (diagnostic) Formative (ongoing) Summative (final) PretestsQuizzesTeacher-made test ObservationsPortfolios Journals/logsAssignmentsProjects QuestionnairesObservations InterviewsPortfolios Journals/logs

This type of testing/evalutation spans two columns: Standardized tests Pre-assessment (diagnostic) Formative (ongoing) Summative (final) PretestsQuizzesTeacher-made test ObservationsDiscussionsPortfolios Journals/logsAssignmentsProjects DiscussionsProjects QuestionnairesObservations InterviewsPortfolios Journals/logs

This type of testing/evalutation spans two columns: Standardized tests Pre-assessment (diagnostic) Formative (ongoing) Summative (final) PretestsQuizzesTeacher-made test ObservationsDiscussionsPortfolios Journals/logsAssignmentsProjects DiscussionsProjectsStandardized tests QuestionnairesObservations InterviewsPortfolios Journals/logs Standardized tests

EFL teachers Should EFL teachers know about linguistics? Why? Why not? If you were to take a multiple choice test with ten questions about basic linguistic terminology, how many do you think you’d get right? Write your prediction down.

Basic Linguistic Terminology You will see ten multiple choice questions. You will have 30 seconds to choose an answer. Write your answers on a piece of paper. From:

How did you feel?

You and tests Tests that left you feeling Positive Self-confident Motivated Why? Tests that made you feel Degraded Anxious De-motivated Why?

How did you do? 1.Apocope 2.Alphabetism 3.Exonym 4.Prothesis 5.Dissimilation 6.Jakob Grimm 7.Clinical linguistics 8.L1 or First Language 9.Folk etymology 10.Glossolalia

Three key concepts T e _ _ _ _ _ A s _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ T e _ _ _ _ _ _ Testing Assessment Teaching

What is a test? What makes a test “a test”? 4 – 5 keywords? A method of … (Brown, 2004)

What is a test? What makes a test “a test”? 4 – 5 keywords? A method of measuring a person’s ability, knowledge or performance in a given domain (Brown, 2004) What makes a test “a test”? 4 – 5 keywords? A method of measuring a person’s ability, knowledge or performance in a given domain (Brown, 2004)

What is a test? Measure – what? How? – General ability / specific knowledge – Individual ability and performance – % | AA | Pass/Fail – must have result The person – Appropriate? – Interpretation? – Relevance? Performance – Competence (actual use of language) – Metalanguage (e.g. grammar); Skills (e.g. infer) Domain – General competence (e.g. proficiency) – Specific criteria (e.g. vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar)

What makes a good test? A well-constructed test is….

“A well-constructed test is an instrument that provides an accurate measure of a test taker's ability within a particular domain.” Brown, 2003

Assessment Is assessment synonymous with testing?

Which is which? Assessment ongoing process Generally encompasses a wide domain subconscious impression Incidental judgment implicit evaluation Testing administrative procedure specific times curriculum referenced peak performance measured and evaluated

Where is the line… …between assessment and testing? …between assessment and teaching?

Which best describes the relationship? Tests Assessment Teaching Tests Assessment Teaching Tests Assessment Teaching

The four winds of assessment Formative InformalSummative Formal Tests

What characteristics do these have? InformalFormalFormativeSummative Nice job! WW – Gr - Sp Watch out! /id/ not /it/ Progress test Proficiency test Student journal

Testing terminology Norm referenced Criterion referenced

Norm-referenced terminology standardized tests Scholastic Achievement Test rank order standard deviatıon percentile rank mean (average score) median (middle score) large-scale testing pre-determined responses

Criterion referenced terminology feedback learning objectives classroom-based curriculum instructional value

Testing Philosophy (Order according to history) Communicative Language teaching Humanism Learner centered Behaviourism Instruments (Match to philosophy) a.Integrative testing/whole language (cloze/dictation) b.Performance based (portfolio, collaborative, interactive) c.Discrete-point testing (decontextualized – language broken in parts) d.Language competence (authentic tasks)

Testing Philosophy (Order according to history) 1.Behaviourism 2.Humanism 3.Communicative Language teaching 4.Learner centered Instruments (Match to philosophy) 1.Discrete-point testing (decontextualized – language broken in parts) 2.Integrative testing/whole language (cloze/dictation) 3.Language competence (authentic tasks) 4.Performance based (portfolio, collaborative, interactive)

MOODLE – key=###xxx – Reading and discussion, Brown, 2004, Chapter 1, pp Facebook group – METU EFL413 – Links to download course materials TWITTER –