1. 9/7/2019
Kinds of Test
Indawan Syahri

2. Kinds of test
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Ways of the teacher provides instruction: Informal and formal assessment
The function: Formative and summative assessment
Norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests
Discrete-point and integrative testing
Communicative language testing
Performance –based assessment

3. Ways of the teacher provides instruction: Informal and formal assessment (1)
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Informal assessment can take a number of forms – incidental, unplanned comments and responses, along with coaching and other impromptu feedback to the student.
A good deal of a teacher’s informal assessment is embedded in classroom tasks designed to elicit performance without recording results and fixed judgments about a student’s competence.
E.g.: informal assessment in forms of marginal comments on papers, responding to a draft of an essay.

4. Informal and formal assessment (2)
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Formal assessments are exercises or procedures specially designed to tap into a storehouse of skills and knowledge.
They are systematically planned sampling techniques constructed to give teacher and student appraisal of student achievement.
Is formal assessment the same as a test? We can say all tests are formal assessment, but not all formal assessment is testing.
They can be in the forms of student’s journal or portfolio.
A systematic set of observations of a student’s frequency of oral participation in class is certainly a formal assessment.
Tests are usually relatively time-constrained and draw on a limited sample of behavior.

5. The function: Formative and summative assessment
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Formative assessment is evaluating students in the process of “forming” their competencies and skills with the goal of helping them to continue that growth process.
Keys: formation is the delivery (by the teacher) and internalization (by the student) of appropriate feedback on performance, with an eye toward the future continuation (of formation) of learning.
Summative assessment aims to measure, or “summarize” what a student has grasped, and typically occurs at the end of a course or unit of instruction.
A summation of what a student has learned implies looking back and taking stock of how well that student has accomplished objectives, but does not necessarily point the way to future progress.
Final exams in a course and general proficiency exams are examples of summative assessment.

6. Norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests (1)
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In norm-references tests, each test-taker’s score is interpreted in relation to a mean (average score), median (middle score), and standard deviation (extent of variance in scores), and/or percentile rank.
The purpose in such tests is to place test-takers along a mathematical continuum in rank order.
Scores are usually reported back to the test-takers in the form of a numerical scores (e.g., 230 out of 300).
Typical of norm-referenced test are standardized tests like TOEFL.
The tests must have fixed, predetermined responses in a format that can be scored quickly at minimum expense.

7. Norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests (2)
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Criterion-referenced tests are designed to give test-takers feedback, usually in the form of grades, on specific course or lesson objective.
Classroom tests involving the students in only one class, and connected to a curriculum, are typical of criterion-referenced testing.
In a criterion-referenced tests, the distribution of students’ scores across a continuum may be of little concern as long as the instrument assesses appropriate objective.

8. Discrete-point and integrative testing
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Discrete-point tests are constructed on the assumption that language can be broken down into its component parts and that those parts can be tested successfully.
The components are like the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and other various units of language.
Integrative tests are constructed on the assumption that communicative competence is so global and requires such integration.
There are two kinds of tests commonly used applied integrative assumption: cloze test and dictation test.

9. Communicative language testing
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In order for a particular language test to be useful for its intended purposes, test performance must correspond in demonstrable ways to language use in non-test situations.
So a quest for authenticity was launched, as test designers centered on communicative performance.
Strategic competence and pragmatic competence are needed to be included in language tests.
Communicative testing presented challenges to test designers:
testers need to identify real-world task that language learners were called upon to perform.
The contexts for those tasks were extraordinarily widely varied.
The sampling tasks for any one assessment procedure needed to be validated.
The assessment field became more and more concerned with the authenticity of tasks and the genuineness of texts.

10. Subjective and Objective Tests
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Subjective and objective tests refers to how the scores are made.
Subjective tests are the tests constructed and scored subjectively by the testers.
E.g.: essay tests, the candidates must think of what to say and then express their ideas as well as possible
Objective tests are the tests constructed and scored objectively by the testers.
E.g.: multiple-choice, the candidates select only one correct answers among the options
Objective tests can be scored mechanically.

11. Objective Tests (1)
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Objective tests are criticized on the ground that they are simpler to answer than subjective tests.
Objective tests may generally look easier however, is no indication at all that they are easier.
The constructor of a standardized achievement or proficiency tests not only selects and constructs the items carefully but also
analyzes student performance on each item
rewrite the items where necessary so the final version of the test discriminates widely
set the pass-mark, or cut off point
etc.
Objective tests are usually pre-tested before being administered on a wide basis.
Standards may then be compared not only between the students from different areas or schools but also between the students the test in different years.

12. Objective Tests (2)
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Another criticism is that objective tests of the multiple- choice type encourage guessing.
However, four or five alternatives for each item are sufficient to reduce the possibility of guessing.
Candidates rarely make wildly guesses, most base their guesses on partial knowledge.
A much wider sample of grammar, vocabulary and phonology can generally be included in an objective test than in a subjective test.
However, the purposive use of language is often sacrified.

13. Objective Tests (3) An objective test will be a very poor test if:
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An objective test will be a very poor test if:
the test items are poorly written
irrelevant areas and skills are emphasized in the test simply because they are ‘testable’
it is confined to language-based usage and neglects the communicative skills involved

14. Multiple-choice items: general (1)
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Multiple-choice items can provide a useful means of teaching and testing in various learning situations.
Multiple-choice items can prove useful in measuring students’ ability to recognize correct grammatical forms etc. and to make important discriminations in the target language.
Multiple-choice items can help both student and teacher to identify areas of difficulty.

15. Multiple-choice items: general (2)
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The optimum number of alternatives, or options, for each multiple-choice items is five in most public tests.
Since it is often very difficult to construct items with even five options, four options are recommended for most classroom tests.
Many writers recommend using four options for grammar items, but five for vocabulary and reading.

16. Multiple-choice items: general (3)
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Before constructing test items, the test writer must first determine the actual areas to be covered by multiple-choice items and the number of items to be included in the test.
The test must be long enough to allow for a reliable assessment of a test taker’s performance and short enough to be practicable.
The number of items included in a test will vary according to the level of difficulty, the nature of the area being tested, and the purpose of the test.

17. Multiple-choice items: the stem/correct option/the distractors (1)
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The primary purpose of the stem is to present the problem clearly.
The initial part of each multiple-choice item is known as the stem.
The choices from which the students select their answers are referred to options/responses/alternatives.
One option is the answer, correct option or key
Other options are distractors.

18. Example Stay here until he … you to come. = stem told will tell
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Stay here until he … you to come. = stem
told
will tell
is telling
tells
distractors
options
responses
alternatives
answer/correct option/key

19. the stem (1)
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Although the stem should be short, it should convey enough information to indicate the basis on which the correct option should be selected.
The stem may take the following forms:
an incomplete statement
He accused me of … lies
speaking
saying
telling
talking
a complete statement
Everything we wanted was to hand
under control
within reach
well cared for
being prepared

20. the stem (2)
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a question
According to the writer, what did Tom immediately do?
He ran home.
He met Bob.
He began to shout.
He phoned the police.

21. the stem (3)
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The stem should usually contain those words or phrases which would otherwise have to be repeated in each option.
The word ‘astronauts’ is used in the passage to refer to
travelers in an ocean liner
travelers in a space-ship
travelers in a submarine
travelers in a balloon
The stem here should be rewritten so that it reads:
The word ‘astronauts’ is used in the passage to refer to travelers in
an ocean liner
a space-ship
a submarine
a balloon

22. the stem (4)
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The same principle applies to grammar item. The following item:
I enjoy … the children playing in the park
looking to
looking about
looking at
looking on
should be rewritten in this way:
I enjoy looking … the children playing in the park
to b. about c. at d. on

23. the stem (5)
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The stem should allow for the number of choices which have been decided upon. This is particularly relevant, e.g., when reading comprehension. There is no possible fourth option which can be added in the following item:
Tom was … the other two boys.
taller
smaller
as tall as

24. The correct
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For normal purpose of testing, this should be clearly the correct or best option: thus, it is most important that each item should be checked by another person
There must be one correct option among the options
The correct option should be approximately the same length as the distractors

25. The distractors (1)
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Each distractor, or incorrect option, should be reasonably attractive and plausible.
Item should be constructed in such a way that students obtain the correct option by direct selection rather that by the elimination of obviously incorrect options.
Unless a distractor is attractive to the student who is not sure of the correct answer, its inclusion in a test item is superfluous

26. The distractors (2) Plausible distractors are best based on
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Plausible distractors are best based on
mistakes in the students’ own written work
their answers in previous test
the teacher’s experience
a contrastive analysis

27. 9/7/2019
Thank you