Tai lieu tap huan thiet ke de tieng anh assessment

Purpose of Oral Assessment Tests2 Types: • Diagnostic Tests • Placement Tests... Designing Assessment ToolsMust have: • Purpose: Oral assessment must be tailor-made for a particular pur

Barbara Thompson

Teaching Oral English Communicatively

Barbara Thompson

A Holistic Approach to Assessing Levels

of Spoken English

Barbara Thompson

Purpose of Oral Assessment Tests

2 Types:

• Diagnostic Tests

• Placement Tests

Placement Tests

Purpose:

• For program entry/exit or placement within a course of study

• Proficiency threshold or cutoff - students can pass or fail

• Tests can be quantifiable or holistic

Administrative Challenges

• Time consuming to design and administer

• Scheduling constraints

• Expensive

• Can be subjective

• Rater training and turnover

Designing Assessment Tools

Must have:

• Purpose: Oral assessment must be tailor-made

for a particular purpose and population

• Reliability: Accuracy and consistency of

measurement

• Validity: Justification or interpretation of test

results

Designing Assessment Tools (cont.)

Must have:

Instructional authenticity: Engagement of test

taker’s communicative language ability

Practicality: Constraints imposed by time, money,

personnel, equipment, institutional or

governmental policies

Face validity: Assessment tests what was taught

Rating of Performance Tests

Rating scales generally have 2 features:

1 Each aspect of language to be rated is listed

(oral grammar, phrasal stress, etc.)

2 Definition of each level in terms of mastery

of language features

Designing an Assessment

What tasks will the test takers perform?

• Sentence repetition or completion: lower

levels

• Oral interview: face to face, telephone, skype

• Role play: situations relevant to test takers

Designing an Assessment (cont.)

What tasks will the test takers perform?

• Small group discussions

• Answer questions or give opinions

• Describe a picture, graph, or tell a story

• Oral presentation – more formal

Developing Test Questions

• List your objectives or content area

• Develop items that meet these objectives

• Pilot with groups of students to see if they elicit the expected language, and are

scoreable

Developing Test Questions (cont.)

• Decide on the number of test items

• Avoid yes/no questions

• To raise difficulty level, create questions that test multiple things

Standardize Test Administration

• Will the test be live, taped, or on computer? (test should be administered the same way each time)

• Is repetition or rephrasing by the tester

allowed?

Standardize Rater Training

Testers must administer tests in a standard way, and be able to score reliably

• Training must always cover the same points

• Trainers and trainees must have a thorough

understanding of the rubric

Standardize Test Administration (cont.)

• What should the tester do if the student asks

a question or doesn’t respond?

• Is there a time limit for each item?

• Can students read the questions during the

test?

Test Security

• Test items are never practiced in class

• Do not discuss items with students before,

during, or after the test

• If possible have several versions of tests (pilot

to standardize versions)

• Video or audio tape each test

Standardize Rater Training (cont.)

• Trainees should do many practice exercises

• Trainees should do certification exercises

• Inter-rater reliability

• Periodic re-norming