testing and assessment

WORLD ENGLISHES TESTING AND ASSESSMENT REFERENCES Arthur Hughes Testing for Language Teachers 2013 Cambridge University Press Jeremy Harmer The Practice of English Language Teaching 2004 Longman Jeremy Harmer Essential Teacher Knowledge 2012 Pearson Penny Ur A course in Language Teaching 1996 Cambridge University Press Penny Ur A Course in Language Teaching – Trainee Book 2005 Cambridge University Press Why to test? What to be discussed? How to test? What to test? TESTING AND ASSESSMENT Have sha.

TESTING AND ASSESSMENT

1. Arthur Hughes Testing for Language Teachers 2013 Cambridge University Press

2. Jeremy Harmer The Practice of English Language Teaching 2004 Longman

3. Jeremy Harmer Essential Teacher Knowledge 2012 Pearson

4. Penny Ur A course in Language Teaching 1996 Cambridge University Press

5. Penny Ur A Course in Language Teaching – Trainee Book 2005 Cambridge University Press

 Why to test?

What to be discussed?

TESTING AND ASSESSMENT

 Testing – one form of assessment

 Testing not only the way to get information about language ability

Types of assessment: Formative & Summative

 To see how far they have mastered compared with what they

should have learnt

 To see how well they are doing

 To help students to do better

 Carried out throughout a course

 To check on the progress of students

 To see how well they have done

 To measure what has been achieved

 Carried out at the end of a course/term/semester

Robert Stake explains the difference between formative and summative

assessment:

When the cook tastes the soup, that’s formative When the guests taste the soup, that is summative.

 Backwash; harmful/beneficial

 The effect of testing on teaching and learning: backwash

If the stakes are high (final tests for school learners/university entrance…), the preparation for test can dominate all teaching and learning

Harmful: Test content/techniques not consistent with the objectives of the course

-> there is likely to be harmful backwash

Beneficial: The syllabus, textbooks, methods… to be redesigned/reconsidered ->

students get more standards/high level/better methods -> beneficial

Characteristics of a good test

 A test is valid if it tests what it is supposed to test/ if it measures accurately what it is intended to measure

language/ structures to be concerned

 If it looks as if it measures what is supposed to measure

 Same group of students took the same test in different time (length of time), the result almost the same.

 Test gives consistent result

 Two groups of students (the same level) took the test, the results would be the same

Human being do not behave exactly the same way on every

occasion even in the same condition -> results can not be

exactly the same

 Diagnose students’ strength and weakness, to identify what they know and what they don’t know

 Assist the placement of students by identifying the stage or part of a teaching program most

appropriate to their ability

 Give teachers information about where students are at the moment, to help decide what to teach next

Test may be used as means to:

 Give students information about what they know so that they also have an awareness of what they need to learn or review

 Assess for some purpose external to current teaching (a final grade for the course, selection)

 Motivate students to learn or review specific material

 Providing a clear indication that the class has reached a “station” in learning, such as the end of a unit

 Get students to make an effort which is likely to lead to better results and a feeling of satisfaction

 Give students tasks which themselves may actually provide useful review or practice, as well as testing

 Provide students with a sense of achievements and progress in their learning

Why assessment / testing?

 How well they are doing

 How well they have done

 How well they have performed in exams

Reasons for testing?

 Help the teacher to decide if his teaching has been effective

 Give the teacher valuable information about where the students are

 Give the students a sense of accomplishment/information about what they know/what they need to review

 Can encourage the students to learn

 A learning opportunity

 Give students what they know -> what to learn

 Give teacher information -> decide what to teach next

 Motivate students to learn

 Tests are learning opportunities

What to test?

 Listening

Testing language skills:

 Speaking (oral ability)

 Reading

 Writing

 Testing grammar and vocabulary

 Testing overall ability: One way of measuring overall ability is to build a test with a number of components: reading, writing, grammar and vocabulary

How to test?

1 Diagnostic

- To identify students’ strengths and weaknesses

- To explore students’ difficulties, gaps in knowledge

- How much they know/what needs to take place

- At any stage during the course

Types of test

2 Placement

 To provide information to place students in right class

 To know what level to study

 Which group / class to be in

3 Progress

- To see how to be getting on

- At the end of week/month/a unit

4 Final achievement test

 To be administered at the end of the course

 To be written/administered by Ministry of Education/ Examining Boards/Teaching institutions

 The content of these tests related to certain used courses

5 Proficiency

- To measure students’ language ability

- To measure the overall language proficiency without

reference to a particular course

6 Aptitude test

 To measure a person’s capacity/general ability to learn a foreign language

- Different tests serve different purposes

- In order to select tests adequately/ to interpret the results accurately, teachers need to be

aware of the ultimate purpose of the testing context

Test writing techniques

1 Questions and answer

- What’s the relationship between A and B?

- What is the use of the simple present tense?

 To test almost everything

 Easier to compose and grade closed-ended questions

 More difficult with open questions

2 True/False

 Hanoi is the biggest city in Vietnam (true/false)

 English is the language with the biggest population of speakers (true/false)

 With only two options

 Fairy easy to design/administrate/mark

 Weakness: 50% chance of choosing the correct response by chance

3 Multiple choice:

One question – numbers of options

A person who writes book is called

 Rather difficult to design

 Ambiguous/no clear right answer

4 Gap-filling and completion

(To write a word/words in the blank)

The word may/may not be given/hinted

They ….to Australia in 1980 (go)

She had a quick shower, but she didn’t….anytime to make up

A ……is someone who writes books

 Usually test grammar/vocabulary

 Be aware that there is more than one possible right answer

Usually tests vocabulary

Time consuming/difficult to compose

Easy to mark

6 Dictation

Teacher reads.

Students write down

 This mainly test spelling, punctuation…

 Easy to prepare and administer

 Difficult to determine weight to different mistakes

7 Cloze ( words are omitted )

The family are all fine, though Leo had a bad flu last week, he spent most of the week lying on the sofa

watching…………when he wasn’t sleeping.

His exams………… in two weeks, so he is ……….about missing school, but has managed to ………….quite a lot in spite…………feeling ill.

 (usually first / second lines with no gap)

Or every fifth, sixth, seventh word is a bank

At school none of her (1)………seemed to have remembered that (2)…………was her birthday either and (3)…………made her miserable, but at (4)…………

the children in her second (5) ……….class were in a happy (6)………… It cheered her up and (7)

………….time one of them………

 Test reading, spelling, vocabulary, grammar

 Easy to prepare/administer

 Marking can be tricky/difficult to decide the item “acceptable” or not

8 Transformation

a) Put into the past tense

-> I go to school by bus.

-> I went to school by bus.

b) Rewriting - sentence transformation

( write sentence with word given)

-> He came to the meeting in spite of his illness ( Although)

-> When she got home, Susan was still tired, so she lay down to rest (Because)

 Easy to design/administer/mark

 Marking maybe more subjective

9 Translation

Translate expressions, sentences, passage into the target language

 For various reasons

 Rather easy to compose

 Marking: difficult/subjective

 An essay of specific length

10 Essay

A topic is given to write about

Family / Climate / Transportation etc…

 Test general writing abilities

 Easy to provide a topic

 Extremely difficult to mark/time-consuming

11 Monologue

a topic given to speak about

Talk about your likes and dislikes

 Test oral fluency/pronunciation/grammar/vocabulary

 Difficult to mark

12 Jumbled sentences tasks

The sentences of the article/essay/paragraph to be mixed

Your task: to put them in correct order

 Test vocabulary, reading abilities

 Easy to design/administer/mark

13 Sentence – re ordering

(put words in order)

Call/ finished/ for / left/ no/ she/ sleeping /the/ there/ time/ was/ When

 Test grammar/vocabulary

 Easy to design/administer/mark

14 Proof reading exercises

(Students to identify mistakes) underline the mistakes: Luckily, she doesn’t wearing much make – up

 Test grammar/vocabulary

 Easy to design, to mark

Guidelines for Test preparation

(Penny Pur, page 42)

 Make sure the instructions for each item are clear

Clarity:

 Check that the items really do test what they are meant to

DESIGNING THE TEST

 Decide exactly how you will assess each section of the test, how

much weight (percentage) you will give it

Marking:

 The test should be quite do-able, not too difficult, with no trick question

 Try to go for interesting content and tasks, to make the test more motivating for students

Lower level students are able to do some parts Higher level students have the chance to show what they know

Include both easy and difficult items

Writing Test

(Jeremy Harmer, P327-328)

 To list what to be included in the test

Decide what to test:

 Decide to include or exclude skills or language items in the test

 Remind ourselves of the context: how much time, when, where,

how much time for marking…

 How many marks are given to each section or sections of the test.

Weight the scores:

 To make the decision about how many of each type of items to be included in the test

 To try individual item or whole test on colleagues or students alike before administering them to the real candidates (spot problems, discover how long the test takes…)

Making the test work:

 How many marks are given to each section or sections of the test.

Weight the scores:

 To make the decision about how many of each type of items to be included in the test

 To try individual item or whole test on colleagues or students alike before administering them to the real candidates (spot problems, discover how long the test takes…)

Making the test work:

 Validity: Really test what they are meant to.

 Assessment criteria / what to be tested?

 Clarity: Instructions are clear

 Do – ability: quite do able / not too difficult /

no trick question

Marked by different people, the result will be the same.

In other words, marking process should not be affected by the marking person’s personality.

Different areas ( composition, grammar, vocabulary, dictation,…)

Written in a clear correct and simple language.

Avoid ambiguous questions and ambiguous instructions.

Each item in the test has its own mark related to the distribution of marks given by…

It does not have features that give one group an advantage or disadvantage over other groups.

Heterogeneity (of different kinds/of varieties)

 Higher level students have the chance to do what they know

 Include easy/difficult items

 Lower level students can do substantial parts

Balance of items:

- Discrete point item: separate item/ testing one thing

- another word for “ sea ” is …………

- the opposite of “ proud ” is ………

- apples, pears and bananas are…………

(test vocabulary only)

Integrative item

- Read, write or use variety of language item.

- Balance between grammar and vocabulary, between four skills.

It’s a good idea to try out first (help to identify items that don’t work -> make changes)

Reliable

 Make the marking system as simple as you can

 Assessment criteria

 Writing and giving test is the first part

 Marking and grading follow

When grading:

 Easy to be subjective as in life

 Two people see a film/ Read a book/ react differently

 Two or more teachers grade the same work / different results

To be objective

- Whoever mark – The same result.

- This kind of test: Reliable / give clear

picture of student’s abilities

To be objective:

 The multiple – choice question with only one correct answer.

 Whoever / computer/ machine give same result

For speaking / writing

(to be more objective with assessment scale)

Example: a basic five – level assessment for writing

1. Very difficult to understand, with poor spelling and many vocabulary and grammar mistakes

2. Quite a lot of grammar and vocabulary mistakes, but the meaning is mostly clear

3. The meaning is clear although there are some grammar and vocabulary mistakes

4. The meaning is clear and there are few mistakes of grammar and vocabulary

5. The meaning is clear and the writing is almost mistake- free

Accuracy Fluency

Little or no language produced 1 Little or no communication 1

Poor vocabulary, mistakes in basic grammar, may have

very strong foreign accent

2 Very hesitant and brief utterances, sometimes difficult

to understand

2

Adequate but not rich vocabulary, makes obvious

grammar mistakes, slight foreign accent

3 Gets ideas across, but hesitantly and briefly 3

Good range of vocabulary, occasional grammar slips,

slight foreign accent

4 Effective communication in short turns 4

Wide vocabulary appropriately used, virtually no

grammar mistakes, native-like or slight foreign accent

5 Easy and effective communication, uses long turns 5

Scale of oral testing criteria

An assessment scale for giving oral presentations

Content Interesting informative,

clear

Enough interesting information to engage listeners

Quite interesting at times Occasionally interesting,

but unlikely to engage listeners

Listeners will find it difficult to find anything interesting here

Organisation Excellent structure with

good introduction and conclusion

Mostly clear and easy to follow

Easy to follow, though a little chaotic

Rather poorly organised and incoherent

Extremely difficult to follow because of extremely poor organisation

Pronunciation Almost faultless with no

problems for the listener

Very good pronunciation with only occasional difficult for the listeners

Clearly intelligible but some problems make listening a little difficult

Quite a few pronunciation problems make this speaker difficult to understand

Vey poor pronunciation and very difficult to understand

Grammar Used of varied grammar

A wide use of appropriate vocabulary with occasional problems

Good vocabulary use with some problems

A lot of vocabulary problems make it difficult

to understand

So many vocabulary mistakes that it is very difficult to understand

- Printing of test booklets and answer sheet

- Keys for scorers

- Equipment (tape-recorders, loud speakers, computers…)

- Detailed instruction to be prepared for examiners

- Be familiarized with equipment (how to use the

equipment)

- Oral examiner: to be familiar with test procedures and rating system