1. Language tests Testing and assessment. Language tests: specificities. Analysis of test results.

2. Testing and assessment Assessment: Process of documenting knowledge and / or skills. It usually involves collection of data over a period of time. Different types of assessment: summative, formative, continuous. Testing: Formal exercise to measure students’ command of language. Different types of test: proficiency, achievement, diagnostic, prognostic.

3. Assessment Summative: It usually occurs at the end of the year to determine where the student is placed the following year. It usually takes the form of a test. Summative assessment is characterised as assessment of learning and is contrasted with formative assessment, which is assessment for learning. Formative assessment: It is a self-reflective process that intends to promote student attainment. It helps teachers see if the lesson aims have been met. It can also help teachers assess student strengths and weaknesses and it also gives us a strong indication as to which type of activities students like and dislike. Continuous assessment: The students’ progress is measured as it is happening, and the measure of a student’s achievement is the work done all through the learning period and not just at the end. This usually requires designing grids or any other kind of document to keep track of the students’ progress, along with selecting tasks that will help us assess this progress.grids

4. Assessment What advantages and disadvantages do you see in each type of assessment? What type of assessment would you use in the following situations: -10-year-old students in primary school. 25 students - A group of 7 students who want to pass the FCE exam. - A group of 30 18-year-olds preparing for university entrance exams. What would the assessment consist of ?(method to gather data?)

5. Testing A proficiency test measures a candidate’s overall ability in a language, and it isn’t related to a specific course. An achievement test tests the students’ knowledge of the material that has been taught on a course. A diagnostic test highlights the strong and weak points that a learner may have in a particular area. A placement test is used to assign a particular level to a student

6. Testing Testing is direct when it requires the candidate to perform precisely the skill that we wish to measure. Indirect testing attempts to measure the abilities that underlie the skills in which we are interested. Perhaps the main appeal of indirect testing is that it seems to offer the possibility of testing a representative sample of a finite number of abilities which underlie a potentially indefinite number of manifestations of them. Example: Linking devices to test writing.

7. Testing Consider a number of language tests with which you are familiar. For each of them, answer the following questions: 1)What is the purpose of the test? 2) Does it represent direct, indirect testing or a mixture of both?

8. Testing - cons Some students become too nervous and they don’t give a true account of their knowledge or ability. Other students can do well just with last-minute cramming. Once the test has finished, students can just forget all that they have learned. Students become focused on passing tests rather than learning to improve their language skills.

9. Testing - Pros Tests help teachers decide if their teaching has been effective and highlight what needs to be reviewed. Tests can give students a sense of accomplishment as well as information about what they know and what they need to review. Tests encourage students to review material covered on the course. The feedback after a test can be invaluable in helping students to understand something they couldn’t do during the test. Thus the test is a review in itself.

10. Tests and context We should explain to students the positive effects the test will have. We should give students notice about the test. Revision classes may also be good. Students should be familiar with task types and exam format. We should be sensitive when we hand out the results.

11. Good tests Good tests are those that do the job they are designed to do and which convince the people taking them and marking them that they work. This means they should be valid and reliable. A valid test must test what it is meant to test. A listening test that has very complicated questions afterwards can be much of a test of reading as listening. A reliable test should produce consistent results at different times. If the test conditions stay the same, different groups of students at a particular level of ability should get the same result each time.

12. Good tests How can you make sure that a test is valid? How can you make sure that a test is reliable? How can you make sure that scoring is reliable?

13. Test items An item is “a unit of measurement with a prompt and a prescriptive form for responding, which is intended to yield a response from an examinee from which performance in some language construct may be inferred to make some decision”. Brown and Hudson. 2002. Criterion-referenced Language Testing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

14. An item is a unit of measurement because results are quantifiable through objective score or subjective evaluation. It can be scored dichotomously or on a scale of some sort. If there is ambiguity as to what the examinee is to do, the very definition of item is violated. If a test writer has written an item with no focus in mind, the item is purposeless and violates the definition of a test item. Test items – basic considerations

15. Language Items should be written at the examinees’ level of proficiency. Items should not contain negatives or double negatives. Items should be unambiguous. Format Items should only contain relevant information. Items should be independent. Items should be clearly organized and formatted. Test items – language and format

16. True or false It’s easy to mark but guessing can result in many correct answers. It’s mostly used to test reading and listening comprehension. A possible alternative is the multiple true-false, where the stem is followed by a series of choices and the examinee responds to each option as true or false Example: Sam was in bed before midnight.  True  False Task types – True or false

17. Multiple choice There’s a stem and various options to choose from. It’s easy to mark and minimises guessing (distracters). It can be time-consuming to create (and to answer). Example: There were two suspects and the police questioned... of them separately. a) each b) every c) all d) almost Task types – Multiple choice Both true or false and multiple choice exercises are considered selected-response items, because examinees choose the correct response from a set of supplied options. The correct answer is called the key and the incorrect alternatives are called distracters.

18. Matching Whilst it is easy to mark, candidates can get the right answers without knowing the words. To avoid this, we should have more words than is necessary. Example: Task types – Matching fatold youngtall dangerousthin shortsafe sure

19. Task types – Constructed response Constructed response items are those in which a student is required to actually produce language by writing, speaking or acting in some way, rather than simply selecting answers. These items eliminate most of the guessing, but introduce problems associated with the subjectivity on the part of the teacher. Some common types of constructed response items: Transformation Gap fill Cloze Open questions Error correction

20. Task types – Transformation A candidate has to rewrite a sentence based on an instruction or a key word given. This is easy to mark, but it doesn’t test understanding. The fact that a candidate has to paraphrase the whole meaning of a sentence minimises this drawback. Transformations are particularly effective for testing grammar and understanding of form. This wouldn’t be an appropriate question type to test skills such as reading or listening. Example: Do you know what the time is, John? asked Dave. Dave asked John ________ (what) ________ it was.

21. Task types – Gap fill A candidate fills the gap to complete the sentence. A hint may sometimes be included such as a root verb that needs to be changed. This type of task is easy to mark and relatively easy to write. The teacher must bear in mind that in some cases there may be many possible answers. Gap fills are very effective at testing listening for specific words. Example: Check the exchange ________ to see how much your money is worth.

22. Task types – Cloze Candidates have to process the components of the language simultaneously. It is a good indicator of overall language proficiency. The teacher must be careful about multiple correct answers and students may need some practice of this type of task. Cloze tests can be very effective for testing grammar, vocabulary and intensive reading. Example: This is the kind____test where a word ____ omitted from a passage every so often. The candidate must ____ the gaps, usually the first two lines are without gaps.

23. Task types – Open questions With open-ended answers, it is more difficult and time- consuming to mark, and there may also be an element of subjectivity in judging how “complete” the answer is, but it may also be a more accurate test. Example: Why did he steal the money?

24. Task types – Error correction Errors must be found and corrected in a sentence or passage. It could be an extra word, mistakes with verb forms, words missed, etc. One problem with this question type is that errors can be corrected in more than one way. Example: Manchester City was the more better team on the night.

25. Direct and indirect test items So far we have seen indirect test items, that is, items that test how language works but do not ask students to use language to do something. Direct test items include summaries, compositions and interviews.

26. How to write good tests Decide what kind of test it is going to be (achievement, proficiency). Write a list of what the test is going to cover. Think about the length, layout and the format. Find appropriate texts. Weigh the sections according to importance / time spent, etc. Write the questions, instructions and examples. Decide on the marks, make a key and write a marking scheme. Pilot, review and revise the test and the key. After the test has been taken, analyse the results and decide what can be kept, rejected.