English Testing: Review of Chapter 3

PURPOSES OF LANGUAGE TESTS

The purposes of language testing ask the right sort of question and get the right sort of answer, then if you ask a silly question, so you will get a silly answer. In order to develop a test, we have to know what kind of information we want. However, it is not easy to decide the purpose of a test.

1.      Diagnosis  and Feedback

Some people give argument that the most common use of language test to talk about strengths and weaknesses in the learned abilities of the student, so we recommended suitable approaches for four skills and element of English to extend. The use of test is to diagnostic testing, in order to provide critical information for the student, teacher, and administrator that should make the learning process more efficient.

Diagnostic testing is frequently carried out for group of students rather than for individuals. If only one or two students make a particular error, the teacher will not pay too much attention. However, if several students in the group make a certain error, the teacher will note the error and plan appropriate remedial teaching (Heaton, 1988)

2.      Screening and Selection

In the area of language testing, a common screening instrument is termed an aptitude test. It is used to predict the success or failure of students prospective in a language-learning program.

3.      Placement

The notion of diagnosis and selection is the concept of placement. So, placement test is used to identify a particular performance level of the students and to place him or her at an appropriate level of instruction, in the otherwise a placement test identifies the right class for a particular learner.

4.      Program Evaluation

Program evaluation tests or quizzes are administered at intervals throughout the course of instruction to measure. Program evaluation refers the words that are posttest, and pretest. The differences between posttest and pretest referred to gain score. In addition, program evaluation consists of two; formative evaluation and summative evaluation.   

5.      Providing Research Criteria

Providing research criteria is essential in language tests to provide a standard of a variety of other research context.

6.      Assessment of Socio-psychological Differences

Socio-psychological is apart from attitudes, other variable such as cognitive style of the learner, socioeconomic status and locus of control of the learner, linguistic situational context and ego permeability if the learners have been found to relate to level of language achievement and/or strategies or language use. Those must be measured reliably and validly in order to permit rigorous scientific inquiry, description, explanation, and/or manipulation.

Types of Language Tests

1.      Objectives vs. Subjective Tests

An objective test is said to be one of that may be scored by comparing examinee responses with an established set of acceptable responses or scoring key. Example, multiple choices

 A subjective test is said to require scoring by opinion judgment, hopefully based on insight and expertise, on the part of the scorer.

2.      Direct vs. Indirect Tests

·         Direct tests are task oriented rather than test oriented, they require the ability to use language in real situations, and they therefore should have a good formative effect on your future teaching methods and help you with curricula writing, however, they do call for skill and judgment on the part of the teacher. Direct methods included tests: (-) Role-playing, (-) Information gap tasks, (-) Reading and listening authentic texts, (-) Writing letters, reports, form filling and note taking, (-) summarizing.

·         Indirect testing makes no attempt to measure the way language is used in real life, but proceeds by means of analogy. Some example that you may have used are: (-) Cloze tests, (-) Dictation

3.      Discrete-Point vs. Integrative Tests

·         Discrete Point tests are based on an analytical view of language. This is where language is divided up so that components of it may be tested. Discrete point tests aim to achieve a high reliability factor by testing a large number of discrete items. From these separated parts, you can form an opinion is which is then applied to language as an entity.  You may recognise some of the following Discrete Point tests: (-) Phoneme recognition, (-) Yes/No, True/False answers, (-) Spelling, (-) Word completion, (-) Most multiple choice tests.

·         Integrative tests, on the other hand, are said to tap a greater variety of language abilities concurrently and therefore may have less diagnostic and remedial-guidance value and greater value in measuring overall language proficiency. Example of integrative tests is random cloze, dictation, oral interviews, and oral imitation tasks.

4.      Aptitude, Achievement, and Proficiency Tests

·         Aptitude test are most often used to measure the suitability of a candidate for a specific program of instruction or a particular kind of employment

·         Achievement tests are used to measure the extent of learning in a prescribed content domain, often in accordance with explicitly stated objectives of a learning program.

·         Proficiency tests are most often global measures of ability in a language or other content area. 

5.      Criterion-Referenced vs. Norm Referenced Tests

The difference between CRT and NRT

Dimension	CRT	NRT
Purpose Content Item characteristic Score Interpretation	·         To determine whether each student has achieved specific skills or concepts. ·         To find out how much students know before instruction begins and after it has finished. ·           Measures specific skills which make up a designated curriculum. ·           Each skill is expressed as an instructional objective. ·           Each skill is tested by at least four items in order to obtain an adequate sample of student performance and to minimize the effect of guessing. ·           The items which test any given skill are parallel in difficulty ·           Each individual is compared with a preset standard for acceptable achievement. ·           A student’s score is usually expressed as a percentage. ·           Student achievement is reported for individual skills.	·        To rank each student with respect to the achievement of others in broad areas of knowledge. ·        To discriminate between high and low achievers. ·        Measures broad skill areas sampled from a variety of textbooks, syllabi, and the judgments of curriculum experts. ·        Each skill is usually tested by less than four items. ·        Items vary in difficulty ·        Items are selected that discriminate between high and low achievers. ·        Each student is compared with other examinees and assigned a score. ·        Student achievement is reported for broad skill areas, although some NRT do report student achievement for individual skills.

6.      Speed Tests vs. Power Tests

·         Speed test is one in which the items are so easy that every person taking the test might be expected to get every item correct, given enough time.

·         Power test by definition are tests that allow sufficient time for every person to finish, but that contain such difficult items that few if any examinees are expected to get every item correct.

7.      Other Test Categories

·         Silent tests

·         Examinations vs. quizzes, questionnaires

·         Single tests

·         Language skill tests and language features tests

·         Production and recognition tests.

The following lower level of discrimination. Such as cloze tests, dictation tests, multiple-choice tests, true or false tests, essay/composition/précis test, memory span tests, sentence completion tests of reading comprehension tests, and etc.