Using tests as a summative assessment method in the light of Communicative Language Teaching at Kien Quoc Secondary School

ABSTRACT This minor thesis aims at finding out whether the English achievement tests used at Kien Quoc Secondary School, Haiphong are consistent with English language teaching and learni

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

PHẠM THU HIỀN

USING TESTS AS A SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT METHOD IN THE LIGHT OF COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

AT KIEN QUOC SECONDARY SCHOOL

(Vấn đề sử dụng các bài kiểm tra đánh giá cuối kì đối với học sinh tại Trường Trung học cơ sở Kiến Quốc theo định hướng giảng dạy

tiếng Anh giao tiếp)

M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60.14.01.11

HA NOI - 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

PHẠM THU HIỀN

USING TESTS AS A SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT METHOD IN THE LIGHT OF COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

AT KIEN QUOC SECONDARY SCHOOL

(Vấn đề sử dụng các bài kiểm tra đánh giá cuối kì đối với học sinh tại Trường Trung học cơ sở Kiến Quốc theo định hướng giảng dạy

tiếng Anh giao tiếp)

M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60.14.01.11

SUPERVISOR: TRẦN THI ̣ THU HIỀN, PhD

HA NOI - 2014

CANDIDATE’S DECLARATION

I declare that I independently compiled this minor thesis entitled “Using tests as a summative assessment methos at Kien Quoc Secondary School in the light of CLT” which is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Art in TESOL, using only resources listed in references The thesis or any part of the same has not been submitted for higher education degree to any other university or institution

Hanoi, 2014

Phạm Thu Hiền

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To fulfill the thesis I have owed the great debts of gratefulness to many people First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Trần Thị Thu Hiền, University of Languages and International Studies – Vietnam National University, Hanoi for her invaluable guidance, advice and effort when revising the manuscript with endless patience and insightful suggestions

I would like to take this opportunity to extend my sincere thanks to Dr Lê Văn Canh for his useful lectures on Methodology which inspired me in choosing the subject matter of my study

Besides that, I thank all other lecturers and Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies for their tolerant teaching and support during the past two years I could finally graduate and get my Master degree

My sincere thanks are also given to my colleagues who have been encouraging and supporting me up to now so that I could finish my course

I wish to show my gratitude to all teachers at Kien Quoc Secondary School where the data of the study has been collected Their help in collecting tests and giving additional information with enthusiasm is always highly appreciated

Last but not least, special thanks belong to my family, especially my husband and three children who are always of my source of power in my life

Thank you all

ABSTRACT

This minor thesis aims at finding out whether the English achievement tests used at Kien Quoc Secondary School, Haiphong are consistent with English language teaching and learning in the light of CLT to achieve the objective of the course The study is hoped

to provide a specific look at how the tests are used as a summative assessment method at KQSS in the light of CLT In order to achieve this aim, the main method employed in the study is to analyze tests All the end-of-semester tests administered to students in the academic year 2013 – 2014 from grade 6 to 9 were collected and analyzed with the hope

to give conceptions about the tests The findings show that the tests lack of speaking skill and are helpful to measure grammar aspect while three other dimensions of communicative competence were not measured effectively These tests are claimed not to encourage the adoption of CLT at KQSS Therefore, recommendations for better changes

in testing are given to make tests fit well with the communicative objective of the language curriculum for secondary school

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CANDIDATE’S DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF TABLES vii

PART A: INTRODUCTION ……… 1

1 Rationale……… ………… ……… 1

2 Aims of the study.………… ………

3 Scope of the study.………… ………

4 Research questions.………… ………

5 Methods ………… ………… ………

6 Significance of the study … ………… ………

7 Design of the study … ………… ………

1 2 2 3 3 3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT ……… 5

CHAPTER 1LITERATURE REVIEW ………

1.1 Testing ………

1.1.1 Definition ………… ………

1.1.2 The importance of testing in teaching and learning ………

1.1.3 Approaches to language testing ………

1.1.4 Types of tests ………

1.1.4.1 Placement tests ………

1.1.4.2 Diagnostic tests ………

1.1.4.3 Proficiency tests ………

1.1.4.4 Achievement tests ………

1.1.5 Criteria of a good test ………

1.1.5.1 Validity ………

1.1.5.2 Reliability ………

1.1.5.3 Practicality ………

5

5

5

6

7

9

9

9

10

10

12

12

14

14

1.1.5.4 Discrimination ………

1.1.5.5 Backwash ………

1.1.6 Stages of test construction ………

1.1.7 Test items ………

1.1.8 Test specification ………

1.1.9 Test language components ………

1.2 Language assessment ………

1.2.1 Definition ………

1.2.2 The role of language assessment………

1.2.3 Types of language assessment ….………

1.3 Communicative language teaching …….………

1.3.1 Basic concepts … ……….………

1.3.2 CLT approach in Vietnam ………

1.4 Communicative competence …… ………

1.4.1 Basic concepts ………

1.4.2 Communicative competence and CLT ………

15 15 17 18 20 20 21 21 22 22 23 23 24 25 25 27 CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ………

2.1 Context of the study……… ………

2.1.1 The English syllabus ………….………

2.1.2 The common English course objectives of secondary school 2.1.3 Kien Quoc Secondary School ………

2.1.4 English language learning assessment ………

2.2 The tests …………

2.4 Recommended test specifications of the end-of-semester tests …

2.5 Procedures of data analysis ………

28 28 28 28 29 29 30 30 32 CHAPTER 3 RESULT AND DISCUSSION …………

3.1 Test type ………

3.2 Test format ……… ………

3.3 Test items ………

3.4 Aspects of communicative competence in the tests ………

33

33

33

35

38

3.5 Discussion ……… 42 CHAPTER 4 IMPLICATIONS ………

4.1 Raising awareness about communicative competence - goal of language teaching and learning ………

4.2 Improving tests content and techniques ………

4.3 Making language skills and language knowledge equal …………

4.4 Providing clear and sufficient information about the course before the beginning of semesters ………

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

1 MOET: Ministry of Education and Training

2 KQSS: Kien Quoc Secondary School

3 CLT: Communicative language teaching

4 MCQ: Multi-choice question

5 L2: Second language

6 Test 6.1: The end-of-1st semester test for grade 6

7 Test 6.2: The end-of-2nd semester test for grade 6

8 Test 7.1: The end-of-1st semester test for grade 7

9 Test 7.2: The end-of-2nd semester test for grade 7

10 Test 8.1: The end-of-1st semester test for grade 8

11 Test 8.2: The end-of-2nd semester test for grade 8

12 Test 9.1: The end-of-1st semester test for grade 9

13 Test 9.2: The end-of-2nd semester test for grade 9

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: The recommended test specification ……… 31 Table 2: Tests‟ content and format ……….……….………… 33 Table 3: Construct validity of test items ……… ……… 36 Table 4: Aspects of communicative competence to be measured by the tests ………… 38

PART A: INTRODUCTION

8 Rationale

Since the economic reform widely known as “Renovation” opened door to the whole world, English in Vietnam has become of great importance as a means of global communication and a bridge to mankind‟s knowledge Consequently, the English teaching and learning have been quickly pushed up with the adoption of CLT approach

which, as noted by Richards and Rodgers (2001), is “the acquisition of communicative

competence via student engagement in meaningful use of language at discourse level”

In other words, communicative competence is the main goal of English teaching and learning which was set forth by the Vietnamese MOET in 2006 This realistic goal certainly provides both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to English teaching and learning and, at the same time, it helps make decision about classroom activities which are then normally realized in testing

However, contrary to that aim, the author has realized that almost students in general and students at KQSS in particular could hardly achieve that communicative competence, that is, they could not be able to communicate in English although they could get very good test results In the attempt to find out the challenges to the problem, the author accidentally has found that the tests administered to students in the academic year 2013 – 2014 do not reflect students‟ communicative competence, that

is, students‟ communicative competence is not measured Evidently, there is a mismatch between testing and the course objectives to get the communicative goal in the light of CLT The author, then, would like to take a close look at testing

Therefore, in the minor thesis the author has a desire to investigate what the tests used at KQSS in the academic year 2013 – 2014 are, what aspects of communicative competence the tests measure and whether they encourage the application of communicative language teaching into classroom activities at KQSS

9 Aims of the study

The major aim of the study is to investigate whether the end-of-semester achievement tests used at KQSS in the academic year 2013 – 2014 have promoted the

adoption of CLT to obtain students‟ ability to communicate in English For a clear understanding of the related issue, the study focused on the following research objectives:

 To consider the aspects of the communicative competence that the tests measure; and

 To evaluate whether or not the tests motivate the application of CLT to English teaching and learning at KQSS

10 Scope of the study

Due to the limitation of time, research conditions and knowledge, the author had no ambition to cover all aspects relating to the employed tests The study was mainly the focal point for analyzing the end-of-semester achievement tests used at KQSS for all grades and classes in the academic year 2013 – 2014 to consider what aspects of communicative competence they help measure and whether they motivate

or demotivate the communicative language teaching Based on the findings, suggestions to improve those tests for better communicative competence achievement and for the adoption of CLT would be raised

11 Research questions

Various kinds of researches have been conducted on language testing such as language test design, test validity, etc The study is not directed in the same way It aims at exploring how the end-of semester tests are used at KQSS in the academic year

2013 – 2014 with two main objectives namely the aspects or dimensions of the communicative competence that the tests measure and whether the tests encourage the application of CLT in English teaching and learning at KQSS In light of this goal of the study, the research questions are posed as follows:

1, What aspects or dimensions of the communicative competence do the tests used at KQSS in the academic year 2013 – 2014 measure?

2, Do these tests encourage the application of CLT to English language teaching and learning?

12 Methods

This study is a combination of both quantitative and qualitative approaches At first, a quantitative method was employed on the data and analysis from 8 end-of-semester tests on English from grades 6 to 9 in both two semesters of the academic year 2013 – 2014 The number of each language component and knowledge of the tests would be counted and changed into percent to obtain description about them Qualitative method was then employed to interpret data from the quantitative analysis with the hope to provide detailed description and proofs to give answers to the research questions

13 Significance of the study

This study is implemented with a view to finding out the actual aspects of communicative competence being measured by the end-of-semester summative achievement tests and whether these tests encourage the CLT application to language teaching and learning This, as for the author, is a good thing to do because the results

of the research would help (1) prove that communicative competence – a desirable long-term goal of language learning is not actually measured and that the tests do not encourage the application of CLT; (2) educators, test makers and administrators evaluate whether tests are suitable and helpful to achieve the language learning goal, then, know how to improve tests to encourage the application of CLT to language teaching and learning activities

14 Design of the study

This thesis is divided into Part A, Part B and Part C accompanied with a list of reference and appendices:

Part A, “Introduction” deals with the rationale for the study, the aims, the scope, the research questions, the methods, the significance and the organization of the study

Part B, “Development” is distributed into four chapters Chapter I is devoted to the literature review which provides background information about the basic concepts

of Testing, language assessment made distinction between formative and summative,

communicative language teaching, and communicative competence Chapter II mentions the methodology of the study with a close look at the context of the thesis and procedures of how to analyze data In chapter III, the discussions on data analysis are mainly focused Based on results of data analysis, implications are given out in the chapter IV

Part C, “Conclusion” gives some brief conclusions on the study Limitations of

the thesis and some recommendations for further study are also mentioned

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is devoted to an overview of the theoretical background of the research First, testing is checked with reference to definition, the important of testing, approaches to testing, types of tests, criteria of good tests, stages of test construction, test items, test specification, and test component Next, language assessment is discussed in detail with definition, role of assessment, and types The author‟s basic understanding about CLT is mentioned and finally, communicative competence – the final course objective within secondary level is explored since it is also the author‟s main concern in the thesis

1.1 Testing

1.4.3 Definition

In our social system, testing plays a crucial role as a progressive evaluative instrument in any environment It has become a critical policy and has been applied in many aspects of life Schools and universities administer tests to students, companies provide tests to select applicants, and organizations test their members at some certain stages to give assessment and so on Among various uses of testing, language testing which is regarded a sub-field within linguistics has evolved and expanded in a numbers of ways

Definitions of testing are numerous and varied as many scholars and linguists have approached it with different points of view up to now Hedge (2000:378) defined

testing as “the specific procedures that teachers and examiners employ to try to

measure ability in the language, using what learners show they know as an indicator

of their ability” In considering language testing as a part of language assessment,

Madsen (1983) offered additional definition in which he claimed it a field of study under the umbrella of applied linguistic and its main focus is the assessment of the first, second, and other languages in the school, college or university context Later,

Bachman (1990:20) provided a different point of view He said “a test is a measurement

instrument designed to elicit a specific sample of an individual‟s behavior” Although

a consensus has not been reached up to now about the notion of language testing,

many scholars and linguists share some same ideas about it In general, language testing is the practice of evaluating the proficiency of a learner in using a particular language It can happen at any stage of language teaching and learning process, and at the same time affect those activities

There also exists another term called “assessment” which is often wrongly

confused with testing In fact, testing and assessment have different denotation Bachman (1990:18) noted they have their own distinctions and testing, according to Hedge (2000), is one kind of assessment to measure students‟ achievement Clapham

(2000:150) also said that the term “assessment” is used as a general umbrella term to

cover all methods of testing and assessment In the introduction to a handbook for language teachers, Carr (2011) made distinctions between assessment and testing He

wrote: “Assessment is a more superordinate term that includes tests, as well as any

other tools used to make decisions about students‟ levels of language ability Tests, on the other hand, are assessment that tend to be somewhat formal, and are often used for making high-stake decisions in terms of the grades assigned at the end of courses, if nothing else” It can be generally understood that testing is one kind of assessment

which can be made distinction from assessment to the extent that tests formally and typically done at the end of a unit, a semester or a year basically measure students‟ knowledge and proficiency in grades after the same information is introduced On the other hand, assessment includes testing and different other types It can be done formally and informally by teachers at any time to keep track of what students understand Assessment can be realized in different formats including tests and thus, it

shows different results, not only grades In other words, the two terms “assessment” and “testing” do not refer to the same denotation and can not be used interchangeably

1.4.4 The importance of testing in teaching and learning

Teaching, learning and testing have a mutually influential relationship with each other in which it is undeniable that testing plays important role in teaching and learning

In teaching, testing is often seen as a means to ensure effective teaching and to introduce desirable changes in teaching methods as teaching quality are often assessed

by results of tests Moreover, as noted by many researchers such as Harrison (1983:1) and Heaton (1990:9-11), it helps teachers to find out about students‟ progress in learning and their difficulties In learning, tests are mainly employed with the aim at measuring students‟ language ability and their progress In other words, they provide

students with “an opportunity to show their ability through certain tasks in the

language” (Davies, 2000:169) However, one of the most important roles of testing is

to motivate students in learning on the basis of strengths and weaknesses diagnosed by itself (Heaton 1990:9-11) Obviously, testing is an integral part of teaching and learning process and consequently, it is an inseparable part from classroom activities

1.4.5 Approaches to language testing

Many scholars, linguistics, and researchers have involved approaches to language testing with various points of view According to Brown (1996), there are three movements of language testing approaches namely the psychometric-structural movement, the integrative socio-linguistic movement, and the communicative movement At the same time, Djiwandono (1996) stated five approaches of language testing: the traditional, discrete, integrative, pragmatic, and communicative approaches Although the division of language testing approaches may differ, and the names of each approach may vary, basically these two scholars shared in common the content of approaches to language testing In general, language test can be roughly classified into four main approaches to testing: the traditional or essay-translation approach, the structuralist approach, the integrative approach and the communicative approach with their distinctions

 The traditional or essay-translation approach is commonly referred to as the pre-scientific stage of language testing (Heaton, 1988) since it does not require any special skills, expertise or theoretical bases when constructing tests Brown (1996) stated that this approach is often related to grammar translation teaching method as tests usually consist of essay writing, translation, and grammatical analysis often in the

forms of comments about the language being learnt These tests often help measure learners‟ mastery of the separate elements of the target language such as phonology,

vocabulary, grammar, and etc

 The structuralist approach, referred by Djiwandono by the discrete

approach, is influenced by structural linguistics view in which language consists

components such as phonology, morphology, vocabulary, and etc that make up a system or language Thus, the use of this approach sees that knowledge of language should cover the mastery of the language components as a system (McNamara, 2000) However, in such tests, language component and skills are often separated from one another For instance, if one test item is desired to concentrate on testing ability to write, then there is an attempt to separate it from reading by making it wholly

independent of the ability to read a long passage

 The integrative approach involves the testing of language which seeks to integrate knowledge of systematic components of language (pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary) with an understanding of context (McNamara, 2000) In an integrative test, language is not viewed being isolated from its contexts, and it is also not viewed

in a discrete component, that is, language skills are not separated from one another Normally, students are required to use two or more skills simultaneously Djiwandono

(1996) further divided the integrative approach into the integrative approach and the

pragmatic approach With the pragmatic approach, the meaning of language is best

understood not only through the use of language components such as words, phrases, and sentences but also the context where non-language factors emerge such as

gestures, hesitation and etc

 The communicative approach is sometimes linked to the integrative approach as they both emphasize the importance of meaning of utterances rather than their form and structure However, they are fundamentally different from each other The communicative approach, as defined by Heaton (1990), focuses primarily on how language is used in real communication In other words, most aim to incorporate task approximate as closely as possible to those facing students in real life With these tests,

students are measured regarding mainly the ability to use language appropriately for different purposes in daily life Furthermore, according to McNamara (2000), this

approach implies knowing “culturally specific rules of use which related the language

used to features of the communicative context”

There exist many approaches to language testing that test designers can employ when constructing tests However, a useful test generally incorporates features of

several of these approaches instead of limiting to one approach or another

1.4.6 Types of tests

Based on the purposes for which language testing is carried out, language testing can be divided into four main types according to Hughes (1989): placement tests, diagnosis tests, achievement tests and proficiency tests There also exist some other kinds such as direct versus indirect testing, discrete point versus integrative testing, norm-referenced versus criterion-referenced testing, objective versus subjective testing and communicative language testing In the subparts below, the author would only emphasize the first four main types in detail

1.4.6.1 Placement tests

Placement tests are employed with the purpose to provide information to place students at the stage of the program, then to assign students to groups based on their knowledge and abilities they performed In placement tests, the content is concerned with the specific language skills requirement on their course and teaching program

1.4.6.2 Diagnostic tests

Diagnostic tests are the type of tests to identify learners‟ strength and weaknesses They are used with some purposes such as to assess the knowledge and skills of learners in particular aspects of language, then, at the same time, to identify learners‟ difficulties, gaps in their knowledge, and skill deficiencies during a course so

as to ascertain what further teaching is necessary (Harmer, 1991:321, Heaton, 1990:11) For instance, a diagnostic test is employed to assess whether learners mastered English verb tenses It would need a large number of examples in every different context that was significantly different enough to obtain all kinds of tenses In

case learners get bad results, teachers should adjust their teaching based on learners‟ deficiencies until learners have thorough grasp in tenses Designing a comprehensive diagnostic test is based on aspects of language needed being checked, so it could not

be practically used in general language testing and it would be vast and various

Diagnostic tests can be used at the start of the course (Davies, 2000:171) and consequently may be used as a placement test However, according to Harrison (1983:6), they can be utilized at the end of a unit in the course book or after a lesson designed to teach one particular point In this sense, they are like a progress achievement test

Concerning the approach to the content of a diagnostic test, Harrison (1983:6) stated that it must be relate to specific short-term objectives and should include further

examples of the same kind of material as that used in teaching

1.4.6.3 Proficiency tests

Many researchers (Alderson et al., 1995:12; Davies, 2000:172; Harmer, 1991:321; Harrison, 1983:7; Heaton, 1990:17; Hughes, 1989:9) have agreed on the consensus that proficiency tests are used to measure the knowledge and ability of learners regardless of any training backgrounds they may have had in that language in relation to generally accepted standards This leads to the fact that the content of this kind of tests is not based on the content or objectives of language courses that learners have taken It is, nevertheless, based on a specification of what learners have to be able to do in language Those linguistic researchers also stated that this kind is divided into two types The first one is to assess whether learners have sufficient command of language for a particular purpose such as getting a job and studying abroad The other

type does not relate to any occupation or course study It functions as “to show

whether candidates have reached a certain standard with respect to certain specified abilities” (Hughes, 1989:10) These purposes should be paid adequate attention in

designing proficiency tests

1.4.6.4 Achievement tests

Achievement tests are of great concern with teachers They attempt to assess how successfully individual students, groups of students, or the course achieve

objectives As noted by Krashen (1987:179), Hughes (1989:10) or Harmer (1991:321), the purpose of these tests is to measure learners‟ language and skill progress in relation

to the syllabus that learners have been following Therefore, it can be said that achievement tests relate to the past According to Harrison (1983:7), an achievement test looks back over a long period of learning, for example, a year‟s work or a whole course

The content of achievement tests has long become a subject of debate Up to now, there have existed two approaches to the base of the content The first one is

called “syllabus-content approach” which Hughes (1989:11) argued that “achievement

tests are directly related to language courses”, that is, the content is based on detailed

course syllabus or on the books and other materials used Inevitably, achievement tests contain only test items which students are introduced and familiar with (Harmer, 1991:321), and thus, learners‟ ability can be tested rightly However, as also pointed

by Hughes (1989:11), if the syllabus is badly designed, or the books and other materials are badly chosen, then the result of a test can not be truly indicated In other words, instead of basing on the syllabus, it is better to base the content directly on the course objectives which is proved of being advantageous

According to Hughes (1989:10) and Davies (2000:171-172), achievement tests are divided up into two subtypes with slight difference: final achievement tests and progress achievement tests The former is regarded long-term one administered to students at the end of a course to check how well students have done over a whole course The later is, on the other hand, short-term They are often given to students at the end of a unit, a fortnight and so on with the hope to check how well students are doing after each lesson and unit, or measure the progress that students are making and provide consolidation or remedial work if necessary (Davies, 2000:171) Additionally, they also help decide on changes to future teaching programs (Harmer, 1991:321)

In short, achievement tests have been discussed in detail regarding general concepts, approaches to tests‟ content basis and subtypes of achievement tests This kind of tests can be said to be of frequent use in many schools and by many testers and teachers in reality

1.4.7 Criteria of a good test

A common idea have been agreed that there is a list of qualities that make a test useful among which validity, reliability, practicality, discrimination, and backwash are regarded the most important The author would discuss these qualities in detail

1.4.7.1 Validity

Validity‟ in testing and assessment has traditionally been understood to mean

discovering whether a test “measures accurately what it is intended to measure" (Hughes, 1989: 22), or uncovering the “appropriateness of a given test or any of its

component parts as a measure of what it is purposed to measure‟ (Henning, 1987:

170) Later, the concept of validity was reinforced by Davies et al., (1999:221) that “a

measure is valid if it does what it is intended to do, which is typically to act as an indicator of an abstract concept which it claims to measure” All these definitions

have one idea in common that a test may be valid for some purposes but not for others

If a test is designed to check listening skill, it is valid in case it contains test items that require listening activities In other cases such as it has questions of grammar or structure, it is not considered to be valid This matter presupposes that when designing tests we have an intention in mind to measure something, that the „something‟ is „real‟

The concept of validity reveals some typical aspects which are regarded as its subtypes Although there are over 35 terms used to connote kinds of validity, only some types are in common usage today – face validity, content validity, construct validity, and criterion-oriented validity

 Face validity is concerned with what other testers, teachers and students think of the test (Harrison, 1983:11; Heaton, 1988:159) Students might not be convinced of the test‟s face validity if it contained only three-multiple choice items, even though it is thought to be reliable and practical (Harmer, 1991:322) Thus, if the test has good face validity, it will be acceptable to students and they certainly try harder The test‟s face validity is often found out by asking students whether the test was appropriate to their expectations or by asking teachers‟ opinions What is more, it

is worth noticing that a test which has face validity should look as if it measures what

it is supposed to measure (Hughes, 1989) For instance, if students‟ pronunciation is supposed to be measured, students should be asked to pronounce or speak If not, in case of multiple-choice test items, the test might be thought to lack face validity However, Hughes (1989) also confirmed that indirect tests will have face validity if

novel techniques are introduced slowly with care and convincing explanation

 Content validity has been of great consideration by many scholars and linguistics It relates to the content of the test Harrison (1983:11) confirmed that

“content validity is concerned with what goes into the test” Shohamy (1985:74)

shared an idea that when a test can show the test-takers‟ already-learnt knowledge, it has content validity Haynes, Richard and Kubany (1995:238) provided a definition

that “Content validity is the degree to which elements of an assessment instrument are

relevant to and representative of the targeted construct for a particular assessment purpose” Although worded differently, the content validity of a test refers to selective

content which depends on the course syllabus and the purpose of the test For instance,

a test measures students‟ understanding about the present perfect tense; then this tense should be included in the test after it has been introduced to and practiced by learners

It is worth noticing here that we should determine “the content of the test by what is

important to test rather than what is easy to test” (Hughes, 1989:23)

 Construct validity is regarded the most difficult concept to explain Davies et

al (1999:33) asserted that construct validity is “an indication of how representative it

is of an underlying theory of language learning” and it involves “an investigation of the qualities that a test measures” Evidently, there are two aspects in the notion of

construct validity – theoretical and empirical which was mentioned and discussed before by Henning (1987:98) He argued that construct validity is empirical in nature

as it involves the gathering of data and the testing of hypotheses At the same time, he also confirmed the purpose of validating construct is to make sure that the underlying theoretical constructs being measured are themselves valid With another approach to

the understanding of the construct validity, Bachman (1990:255) stated “it refers to

the extent to which a given test score can be interpreted as an indicator of the

abilities” In short, the construct validity demonstrates an association between test

scores and the prediction of a theoretical trait or ability

 Criterion-oriented validity relates to degree to which “results on the test

agree with those provided with some independent and highly dependable assessment

of the candidate‟s ability” (Hughes, 2003:27) The concept of criterion validity,

according to Brown (2004) involves “demonstrating validity by showing that the

scores on the test being validated correlate highly with some other, well-respected measure of the same construct” Later, Bowling (2009) assumed that criterion-oriented

validity covers correlations of the measure with another criterion measure which is accepted to be valid In short, a criterion is a standard of judgment against which other measure is compared For instance, if the result of a student in the entrance exam into a university highly correlates with the result at his graduation level, then the entrance exam demonstrates criterion validity It can be said that criterion-oriented validity is predictive, that is, it helps to predict results of following learning and testing

1.4.7.2 Reliability

Reliability of a test is an essential quality without it a test can not be considered

to have validity (Harrison, 1983) Reliability refers to the consistency of a measure Normally, a test is considered to be reliable if same test- takers get the approximately same results at different times it is administered to them There is a list of aspects that should be taken into account to ensure the reliability of a test as agreed by many scholars and linguists (Harrison, 1983; Heaton, 1988; Hughes, 1989; Harmer, 1991…) These aspects may include the consistency of a test or the same results that test-takers get at different occasions, the length and difficulty of the test, the clear and unambiguous instruction, the way the test is delivered, personal factors and so on As the reliability depends on many factors, it is advisable that test-makers should carefully take them into consideration when designing tests

1.4.7.3 Practicality

It is commonly agreed that a good test must be practical Bachman & Palmer (1996:36) defined the practicality of a test with a Math operation:

Practicality = Available resources

Required resources

If practicality > 1, the test development and use is practical

If practicality < 1, the test development and use is not practical

Whether a test is practical or not is the matter of examining available resources

If a test is valid and reliable but it requires more resources than what is available, it has

no practicality Thus, when designing a test, test makers must ensure that required resources do not exceed what is available in administering a test Test practicality was also noted by Brown (2001) as involvement of the “nitty-gritty” of man power, materials and time In other words, practicality refers to facilities available to develop and administer a test regarding both administration – the possibilities of giving a test under reasonably acceptable conditions and scoring procedures – the problem of ease

of scoring and of interpretation of scores (Nourizade, 2013) Therefore, there are some aspects that test makers should take into careful consideration such as time for administering a test, special needed arrangements, equipment needed for a test, the presentation of a test, the reproduction of test in mass quantity and the cost, and so on

1.4.7.4 Discrimination

Discrimination is an important feature of a good test which “discriminates

among the different students and reflects the differences in the performances of the individuals in the group” (Heaton, 1988) It is necessary that a test separates students

from each other and from good students to not good students To make discrimination among students by tests, the test items should spread over a wide difficulty level as follows: extremely easy items, very easy items, easy items, fairly easy items, items below average difficulty level, items of average difficulty level, items above average difficulty level, fairly difficult items, difficult items, very difficult items, and extremely difficult items

1.4.7.5 Backwash

A great number of definitions have been proposed for the term throughout researches on language testing all of which indicated slight differences in shades of meaning

“Backwash” or “washback” was simply defined as “the effect of testing on

teaching and learning” (Hughes, 1989:1) At the same time, Buck (1988:17) wrote

that: “There is a natural tendency for both teachers and students to tailor their

classroom activities to the demand of the test This influence of the test on the classroom is, of course, very important, which is termed as washback” Among many

definitions were raised, Pearson‟s one (1988:7) seemed to provide a satisfied

explanation to the term when he wrote, “Public examinations influence the attitudes,

behaviors and motivation of teachers, learners and parents, and because examinations often come at the end of a course, this influence is seen working in a backward direction, hence the term “washback” All the notions indicated that there are two

main perspectives in defining the term: one at macro level and one at micro level At macro level, “washback” indicates influences of a test within a whole society such as policy making, school administration, and parents‟ expectation of their children At

micro level, however, “washback” is considered in narrower situation, that is, it refers

to test influences within classroom on such as teaching methodologies, learning activities and strategies

Washback can be either beneficial or harmful as Bailey (1996:269) stated that,

“Washback can either be positive or negative to the extent that it either promotes or impedes the accomplishment of educational goals held by learners and/or program personnel” Consequently, it can be analyzed in two major types, positive washback

and negative washback Positive washback is synonymous with benefits that tests can bring to teachers and students In this sense, testing encourages and motivates students pay more attention to learning It also encourages teaching practice to the extent that meaningful and innovative learning activities in teaching educational methodology would be created with the hope to help students face up to tests Negative washback refers to constrains of tests on teaching and learning which occur when a test content

or format is based on a narrow definition of language ability When teachers‟ job performance is mainly assessed by their students‟ test result, teachers, naturally, would focus on activities that are directly related to passing examinations and students only

pay attention to learning what would be tested Evidently, the two types are very different from each other However, the intensity and direction of wachback effect is not easy to determine since, according to Watanabe (2004), numerous personal and contextual factors interact in determining the impact of testing on the classroom practices For instance, if a test is used to make students pay more attention to learning, it has positive washback In case, teachers narrow curriculum to make students sharper on the same test, it is certainly a negative influence of that test Thus, the fact that a test has positive or negative washback depends much on our behaviors

to deal with it and they are teachers and students who will decide whether it is positive

or negative in certain contexts

1.4.8 Stages of test construction

Test construction involves a series of steps in sequence as suggested by Alderson, Clapham & Wall (1995) They include some stages below:

 Statement of the testing problem: This is the essential first step in testing

to make oneself perfectly clear about what one wants to know and for what purpose In

other words, this stage explains why to test and the need of testing

 Writing test specifications: Test specifications are very useful for test

writers, teachers, students, parents, schools, and etc since they include information on

content, format and timing, criterial levels of performance, and scoring procedures

 Writing and moderating items: The writing of successful items is

extremely difficult and no test designers can be sure to produce perfect test items It is suggested that the best way to identify good or bad test items is through teamwork

with good personal relations

 Trialing test items informally on native speakers: In addition to

moderating items step, an attempt should be made on administering the test to native speakers of a similar educational background to future test candidates They give

suggestion on what items need revision or replacement

 Trialing the test on non-native speakers similar to those for whom the test is intended: It is also necessary to administer the test to non-native speakers who is

similar to future candidates

 Analysing results of the trial and making necessary changes: After trialing

tests to native and non-native speakers, the results must be checked with the aim at making

changes if necessary This stage helps make test items more accurate and successful

 Validating: It is necessary that every test has its validity The more

different types of validity are established, the better the test is Besides inevitable content and construct validities, there are some more types that need to be ensured such as face, predictive and ect

 Training any necessary staff: As mentioned earlier, the practicality is

established if the available resource is over the required resource for tests In case the available staff (examiners, markers…) is not good for administering tests, they must be

trained on how to deliver tests

1.4.9 Test items

In the simple way of understanding, test items refer to question types in tests with requirement for students to follow In his study, Harmer (1991, 322-326) distinguished direct from indirect test items Direct test items ask learners to perform the communicative skills, thus they should be as much like real-life language use as

possible To ensure validity and reliability of tests, test designers must “create a level

playing field”, that is, test items need to avoid making excessive demands on the

student‟s general or specialist knowledge Indirect test items “try to measure a

student‟s knowledge and ability by getting at what lies beneath their receptive and productive skills” It means that test items find out students‟ language knowledge

through controlled items Indirect test item are divided into some types of which the followings are widely used:

 Multiple choice questions (MCQ) ask students to give their choice for a correct answer among given options The whole part of a multiple choice is called

“stem” Students‟ choice is given names “option/response/alternative” There is only

one option which is correct called “correct option” or “key”, whereas other options are known “distractors” which help to distract students‟ attention from the correct

option MCQs are advantageous in the sense that they provide an useful means of teaching and testing; they are particularly helpful in measuring students‟ ability to recognize correct grammatical forms; they help teachers and student identify areas of difficulty (Heaton, 1988:27) Moreover, the scoring correct options done by computers makes MCQs be applied to testing a large number of students at the same time However, we also have to deal with some problems when applying theses items to testing It is difficult and time-consuming to construct them Heaton (1988:27) added another disadvantage of MCQs as “not lending itself to the testing of language as communication” Consequently, MCQs are not helpful in assessing students‟ progress

in communicative competence

 Cloze procedure as defined by Harmer (1991:323) is “the deletion of every

nth word in a text” Because of the randomness of the deleted words, any linguistic functions and skills may be tested within a single cloze text such as grammar, collocation, fixed phrases, reading comprehension and so on Thus, a cloze procedure becomes more integrative However, there also exist some problems relating to reliability of a test First, the score obtained by the student depends on the particular words deleted, rather than on their general knowledge of the language Second, in some cases, there may be several possible answers which certainly make students confused

 Transformation and paraphrase requires students to rewrite a sentence in different form without changing the exact meaning of the original (Harmer, 1991:324)

To do such items well, students must understand the original, and then know how to construct an equivalent which is grammatically accepted Anything else about the students' knowledge of the language system would be performed consequently

 Sentence re-ordering gets students to put words in the right order to make

appropriate sentences, which “tells us quite a lot about their underlying knowledge of

syntax and lexico-grammartical elements” (Harmer, 1991:324) Re-ordering items are

fairly easy to write although there may be more than one correct order

There are also some other indirect techniques including sentence fill-ins, choosing the correct tense of verbs in sentences and passages, finding errors in sentences, and choosing the correct form of a word all of which offer items that are quick and efficient to score with the aim to tell us something about a student's underlying knowledge

1.4.10 Test specifications

It is undeniable that test specifications play a crucial and essential role in test designing Alderson, Clapham and Wall (1995:9) argued that test specifications provide the official statement about what the test tests and how the test tests it and they are essential in the establishment of the construct validity of the test Then, test specifications may be understood to include a detailed description of the test, the length and structure of each part, item types, tasks, skills to be used, the response format, and how responses are to be scored and reported

These scholars also confirmed that test specifications are needed by a range of people namely test constructors to make the test, those in charge of editing and moderating the test, those in charge of establishing the test‟s validity and administration officers to make decision on the basis of test scores However, test specifications may be employed differently depending on types and purposes of the test

1.4.11 Testing language components

Normally, when we design a language test, we hypothesize that the test taker‟s language ability will be engaged by the test tasks (Bachman, 1991) It means that test makers should take all language components into consideration when designing a language test Heaton (1988) distributed language components into three sections on grammar and usage, vocabulary (word meanings, word formation, and collocations) and phonology (phonemes, stress, and intonation), then each component was discussed in detail

 Test of grammar and usage:

Heaton (1988) claimed that tests measure students‟ ability to recognize appropriate grammatical forms and to manipulate structures In an attempt to find out the role of grammar testing, Hughes (2003) explained a shift from a focus of

grammatical structures which was ever seen the core of language ability to a focus on language skills that should be tested directly It means that grammatical structures must be engaged in checking language skills and language in use Instead of simply remembering grammar and structures, students can use them flexibly in interaction In a grammar test, there are some common testing items such as multiple-choice items, error-recognition items, completion items, transformation items, rearrangement items and so on

 Test of vocabulary

It is undeniable that vocabulary plays an important part in every language

Heaton (1988) confirmed that “a test of vocabulary measures students‟ knowledge of

the meaning of certain words as well as the patterns and collocations in which they occur” He also added that such a test should test both students‟ active vocabulary (words

of frequent use) and their passive vocabulary (words that they can understand but do not normally use) There are some items in this test of vocabulary namely multiple-choice items, gap-fill items, pairing and matching items, word formation, rearrangement items, completion items, error-recognition items, and guessing meaning from contexts

 Test of phonology

According to Heaton (1988) test items designed to test phonology might attempt to assess some sub-skills namely ability to recognize and pronounce the significant sound contrasts of a language, ability to recognize and use the stress pattern

of a language, and the ability to hear and produce the patterns of the tunes of a language There also exist some items in a test of phonology such as multiple choice items; stress of syllable, word, sentence; note – taking and so on

1.5 Language assessment

1.5.1 Definition

Language assessment is a field of study within the umbrella of applied linguistics that essentially focuses on evaluating a learner‟s fluency in a language

Black & William (1998b) defined assessment “broadly to include all activities that

teachers and students undertake to get information that can be used to alter teaching and learning” Hanna & Dettmer (2004) also confirmed that “assessment is the

process of gathering data” about teaching and learning, then it makes judgments about

the achievement of learners in units of study and over a course of language study Therefore, language assessment can be regarded as a collecting information step to make judgments about language teaching and learning

1.5.2 The role of language assessment

There is a common agreement that assessment in general and language assessment in particular should be seen as an integral part of teaching and learning cycle with some key purposes such as guiding students‟ development of meaningful learning, informing students and teachers of students‟ progress and effectiveness of teaching, and providing helpful data Bachman & Palmer (2010) reinforced the

argument when they claimed that “the primary use of language assessment is to

gather information and to help make decision that will lead to beneficial consequences for stake holders” Taylor & Nolen (2007) provided a broader understanding about

this role They claimed that the definition of language assessment could include support students when the events occur with enough frequency that the teacher knows events, tools, processes, and decisions Thus, language assessment plays an important role in teaching and learning process since it helps define what students have achieved

and what should be changed or adapted for better learning achievements

1.5.3 Types of language assessment

There are some kinds of language assessment such as formative, summative, diagnostic, benchmarked, norm-referenced assessment and etc among which the author would like to emphasize the two former ones in detail

Scriven (1967) used the terms “summative” and “formative” to differentiate

the two main different categories of assessment with fundamental distinctions Formative assessment – an essential component of classroom work (Black & William, 1998a) often happens during teaching or learning process without being graded, and with the aim at providing constructive ongoing feedback that can be used to improve and adjust teaching and learning (Ramaprasad, 1983; Sadler, 1989; Black & William, 1998a,b; Surgenor, 2010; etc) Naturally, without being graded or being low-stake,

student would comfortably perform all what they have learned, so, any gaps existing between their desired goals and their current knowledge and skills would be shown that help to decide any improvements or adjustments needed in the process of teaching and learning Summative assessment, on the other hand, was revised by Sadler (1989) concerning with judgments about the quality of student responses in comparison with

formative assessment He stated “summative assessment contrasts with formative

assessment in that it is concerned with summing up or summarizing the achievement status of a student, and is geared towards reporting at the end of a course of study especially for purposes of certification” Summative assessment evaluates student at

the end of a teaching or learning process to provide information about students‟ achievement of knowledge As it often results in grades against some standard or benchmark, summative assessment is said to be high-stake or to have high point value

Although formative assessment is different from summative assessment, the classification between them is a bit tricky as an assessment item is formative or summative depending on the way that it is employed One summative assessment, for instance, can be used formatively if students and teachers use it to guide their activities

According to Richards & Rodgers (2001), CLT is “the acquisition of

communicative competence via student engagement in meaningful use of language at discourse level” Later, in his monograph, Richards (2006: 2-5) considered CLT as a

set of principles which included the goals of language teaching, how learners learn the language, the kinds of classrooms activities that best facilitate learning, and the roles

of teachers and learners in the classroom, all of which were analyzed in detail

There are also many other understandings about CLT In the attempt to make a general distinction between grammatical and communicative approaches to L2 teaching, Canale & Swain (1980) claimed that CLT was organized on the basis of

communicative functions that a learner or a group of learners emphasizes “the way in

which particular grammatical forms may be used to express these functions appropriately” They then took communicative competence in L2 teaching, which was

also proposed by Hymes (1972), into consideration by comparing it with communicative performance in depth Sharing the same idea, Nunan (1987) proved that a „weak‟ interpretation of CLT was synonymous with the value of grammatical explanation, error correction, and drill all of which were regarded as non-communicative approaches However, grammar could not be ignored and it would play an important role to learners‟ engagement in communicative activities as

Savignon (1991: 261 – 277) claimed “Communication cannot take place in the

absence of structure, or grammar, a set of shared assumptions about how language works, along with a willingness of participants to cooperate in the negotiation of meaning”

The general consensus has been reached that CLT is a meaning-based, centre approach to L2 teaching where fluency is given priority over accuracy and the emphasis is made on the comprehension and production of massage communicatively, not the teaching or correction of language form In other words, communicative competence is the realistic goal of the language teaching and learning

learner-1.3.2 CLT approach in Vietnam

According to Le & Barnard (2009), CLT was introduced into the school system

in Vietnam rather later than other countries The implementation of CLT has dealt with

so many obstacles deeply rooted from our concepts and the average teaching and

learning facility Bock (2000: 25 - 26) reported that “students were not interested in

achieving communicative competence or working in groups” As informed by Le

(2002:33), “teachers are generally incapable of teaching English communicatively in

their real-world classrooms” He also pointed that this matter was due to the lack of

appropriate in-service professional development and that teachers remained

“explaining abstract grammar rules and guiding their students in choral readings”

More interestingly, a survey carried out by Tomlinson & Bao (2004: 217) revealed that many teachers did not wish to change their teaching methods Additionally, the teaching facility operates against the implementation of CLT Large class sizes of mixed-level students; the lack of electronic equipment, language lab and authentic materials; poor ventilation, poor libraries and poorly paid staff; the difficulties of testing communicative competence and so on (Hoang, 2007; Le & Barnard, 2009) keep Vietnam far from implementing CLT successfully

1.7 Communicative competence

1.7.1 Basic concepts

In 1965, Chomsky proposed in his work “Aspects of the Theory of Syntax” a theory called “Transformational Generative Grammar” in which he made distinction between linguistic competence and performance Competence is the monolingual speaker-listener‟s knowledge of language and performance is the actual use of

language in real situations His classic distinction served as basis for work of many other researchers within the same scope among whom the author would like to focus

on the reaction of Hymes (1972) Hymes (1972) first coined the term “communicative

competence” to refer to “the underlying knowledge a speaker has of the rules of grammar including phonology, orthography, syntax, lexicon, and semantics, and the rules for their use in socially appropriate circumstances” Therefore, the

communicative competence can be understood as the knowledge of rules of grammar or linguistic competence and performance or one‟s actual production and comprehension of language in specific instances of language use The verbal part of communicative competence comprises all the so-called four skills: listening, reading, writing, and speaking skill which is often mistakenly regarded as communicative competence

Since then, various attempts have been made to discuss the theory of communicative competence The first comprehensive model of communicative competence, which was intended to serve both instructional and assessment purposes,

is that of Canale & Swain (1980), further elaborated by Canale (1983) They

formulated a theoretical framework that consists of four major components as discussed below:

 The grammatical competence deals with the mastery of the linguistic

code or the knowledge of the language code “which includes vocabulary knowledge as

well as knowledge of morphological, syntactic, semantic, phonetic and orthographic rules” This competence enables the speaker to use knowledge and skills needed for

understanding and expressing the literal meaning of utterances

 The sociolinguistic competence in their model includes knowledge of

rules and conventions which underlie the appropriate comprehension and language use

in different sociolinguistic and sociocultural contexts In other words, it refers to the competence to use language logically and reasonably with regard to semantic aspects (e.g attitudes, speech act etc.) and language format (e.g words, intonation, non-verbal language etc.) to make suitable utterances in different contexts

 The discourse competence was described as mastery of rules that

determine ways in which forms and meanings are combined to achieve a meaningful unity of spoken or written texts The unity of a text is enabled by cohesion in form and coherence in meaning Cohesion, which helps to link individual sentences and utterances to a structural whole, is achieved by the use of cohesion devices (e.g pronouns, conjunctions, synonyms, parallel structures etc.) Coherence is attained by repetition, progression, consistency, relevance of ideas etc., and establishes a logical relationship between groups of utterances

 The strategic competence is knowledge of verbal and non-verbal

communication strategies that are employed to compensate for breakdowns in communication due to insufficient competence in one or more components of communicative competence The strategies may include paraphrase, circumlocution, repetition, reluctance, avoidance of words, structures or themes, guessing, changes of register and style, modifications of messages etc Canale (1983) pointed out that this competence can be used to enhance the effectiveness of communication and is different from the other three components with the aspect that it is not a type of stored

knowledge and it includes non-cognitive aspects such as self-confidence, readiness to take risk etc

Although there have been some other models of communicative competence proposed by Van Ek (1986, 1987) with six components; Celce-Murcia, Dornyei & Thurrell (1995) and so on, the model of Canale and Swain has dominated the fields of second and foreign language acquisition and language testing up to now despite its simplicity This model is also what the author would like to base on to solve the problem of the thesis

1.4.2 Communicative competence and CLT

It is reasonable to assume that CLT should be based implicitly or explicitly on the model of communicative competence CLT concentrates on language as social behavior, seeing the primary goal of language teaching as the development of the learner‟s communicative competence Then, it is understood that the language teaching and learning is aimed at achieving the linguistic knowledge, the sociolinguistic and sociocultural competence, the unity of texts, and the strategies to compensate for any breakdowns in communication if they happen Achievement the linguistic knowledge

is regarded as a base for three other competences which relates mainly the intercultural understandings and the competence to negotiate meaning with different interlocutors

In the new trend of globalization where English is no longer a homogeneous language characterized by only one norm or another, the intercultural understandings and negotiating competence are of great importance in achieving communicative competence

In conclusion, in this chapter the author mentioned literature review about testing, language assessment, CLT and communicative competence These understandings are of great importance as they provide basis for the thesis

CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter deals with the methodology of the study The author gives the detailed context of the thesis Description of data and procedure of data analysis are also clarified

2.1 Context of the study

2.1.1 The English syllabus

Currently, the school has been using a set of English textbooks authorized by the MOET in 2006 for lower secondary schools with the aim set forth at using English

as a means of communication within each level of proficiency, mastering basic English phonetics and grammar and attaining a certain level of understanding of English and American cultures The books are claimed to adopt a theme-based syllabus including 16 units for grades 6, 7, 8 and 10 units for grade 9 The methodologies claimed to follow are the learner-centred approach and the communicative approach with task-based teaching being the central teaching method The teaching contents for each unit in the books are summarized in book maps provided on the first page One remarkable thing is that all the textbooks do not mention any methods of assessment and testing

This English syllabus is prescribed for all grades and schools nation-wide with

a weekly class time of 135 minutes for grades 6, 7, 8 and 90 minutes for grade 9 split into lessons of 45 minutes each As allocated, English is studied 3 periods a week in grades 6, 7 and 8 and 2 periods per week in grade 9 making the total of 385 periods per academic year

2.1.2 The common English course objectives of secondary schools

At the end of each grade, students are able to practice the four skills:

 Listening: students are able to listen and understand monologues or dialogues in the learnt domain contents of the textbooks;

 Speaking: students are able to ask, answer and speak to topic-related

contents in the textbooks

 Reading: students are able to read comprehensively short text or passages in the learnt domain contents of the textbooks, then distinguish main content and ideas from detail or supplement ones

 Writing: students are able to write sentences, simple and short paragraphs on the topic of each unit in the textbooks

These concrete achievements are, in fact, to serve to get communicative competence achievement which was claimed by Vietnamese MOET (2006) According to MOET (2006:5-6), the documented English language curriculum in Vietnam aims to enable school pupils to (1) communicate in English at the basic level

in all modes of communication i.e listening, speaking, reading and writing; (2) master the basic formal knowledge of the English language, and (3) have general understanding of, and a positive attitude towards, the cultures of English-speaking countries Generally, it is understood that communicative competence is the final objective of the teaching of English at secondary school while language knowledge and cultural knowledge serve as the means to the end

2.1.3 Kien Quoc Secondary School

The study involved Kien Quoc Secondary School located in the suburb of Haiphong City – an economically developing sea port of North Vietnam It is a relatively small school with four teachers of English and 392 pupils in four grades (Grades 6 to 9), mostly children of farmers, workers and seafood traders The average class size in this school is around 30 and the classroom are cramped with very basic furniture and the only available aids such as blackboards, cassette players and the teachers‟ frequent voice based on what they make of the day‟s textbook lesson Library is in poor condition with a small amount of books relating English teaching and learning There are also material constraints Tape recorder, electronic equipment and

language lab do not exist in the school

2.1.4 English language learning assessment

Regarding assessment for secondary school students, KQSS applies two types: continuous and regular mostly in the forms of oral tests, 15-minute tests, 45-minute

tests and end-of-semester tests Oral tests can be given to students randomly at any time during the lesson by the teachers and each student has at least one mark for this test which accounts for 10% of the total mark 15-munite tests are often utilized to evaluate how well students master a new teaching point right after it being introduced whereas 45-minute tests are given after every two units There are usually two 15-minute tests, which make up 20%, and two 45-minute tests, which make up 40% of the total mark, administered to students in a semester End-of-semester tests presented to the students cover all the content of the knowledge in that semester Normally, these tests account for 30% of the final mark of each student It is worth noticing that these tests are issued by the local Division of Education and Training Thus, when working with them, the author would not mention when and how they were designed

2.2 The tests

The fact that the thesis tries to investigate how the end-of-semester tests are used as a summative assessment method at KQSS in the light if CLT resulted in a decision that the end-of-semester tests in the academic year 2013 – 2014 administered

to students were collected and analyzed All these tests were designed and issued by the local Division of Education and Training After being collected, these end-of-1stand 2nd - semester tests for grades 6, 7, 8, and 9 were renamed respectively into Test 6.1, Test 7.1, Test 8.1, Test 9.1, Test 6.2, Test 7.2, Test 8.2 and Test 9.2 This source of information is of main importance and value for the study based on which the author analyzed tests‟ characteristics in detail, gave findings to answer the research questions

2.3 Recommended test specifications of the end-of-semester tests

There is no official regulation of designing the final achievement tests from educational authorities while all the final achievement tests were authorized by the local Division of Education and Training However, teachers and students at KQSS were provided a list of language knowledge and test specification for revision Basically, the test specification of the end-of-semester tests and the 45-minute tests provided by teachers are the same However, due to the fact that the end-of-semester tests aim at evaluating the general knowledge of different themes, the contents of the

end-of-semester tests are more complex and their requirements are more synthetic than the 45-minute tests The recommended specification of the tests was designed as below:

Table 1: The recommended test specification

Question 1: Phonetics

Pronunciation

Stressed

syllable

- Recognition of word stress

- Pronunciation and recognition of vowel and consonant sound contrasts

- Words relating to themes in each grade

- Fixed sentence structures

- Word formation

- Selecting words or fixed phrases, etc

- Communicative function: words or phrases expressing popular communicative function

MCQs

Question 3: Reading

Reading for gist

and details

After reading a short text:

- Filling in the gaps;

- Answering relating questions;

- Deciding True/False sentences

Fill-ins, Paraphrase

Question 3: Writing

Controlled

writing

- Sentence transformation, combination

- Sentence building using given words

Transfor-mation and paraphrase; Sentence re-ordering

Question 5: Listening

Listening a

short passage

- Filling in the blanks missing words;

- Answering questions Fill-ins