classroom language test-s

8/2/2019 Classroom Language Test-s

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1) Test Types

a) Language Aptitude Tests b) Proficiency Tests

c) Placement Tests d) Diagnostic Tests

e) Achievement Tests

2) Some Practical Steps to Test Construction

a) Assessing Clear, Unambiguous Objectives

b) Drawing Up Test Specifications

c) Devising Test Tasks

d) Designing Multiple-Choice Test Items

I.Design each item to measure a specific objective

II.State both stem and options as simply and directly as possible

III.Make certain that the intended answer is clearly the only correct one

IV. Use item indices to accept, discard, or revise items

3) Scoring, Grading, and Giving Feedback

a) Scoring b) Grading c) Giving Feedback



Before start:

a) What is the purpose of the test?

b) What are the objectives of the test?

c) How will the test specifications reflect thepurpose and the objectives?

d) How will the test tasks be selected and theseperate items arranged?

e) What kind of scoring, grading and/or feedback is expected?



TEST TYPES

1) Language aptitude test

2) Proficiency test

3) Placement test

4) Diagnostic test

5) Achievement test



1)Language aptitude test:

•Predicts capacity & general ability to learn

• It has limitation and flaw- prediction is not easy

• Two standardized tests in the US: MLAT & PLAB



Task in the modern language aptitude test (MLAT)

1. Number learning : Examinees must learn a set of numbers

through aural input and then discriminate different

combination of those numbers.

2. Phonetic script : Examinees must team a set of

correspondences between speech sounds and phonetic

symbols.

3. Spelling dues : Examinees must need words that are spelledsome what phonetically

4. Word in sentence : Examinees are given a key word in a

sentence and are then asked to select a word in second

sentence that performs the same grammatical action as thekey word.

5. Paired associates : Examinees must quickly team a set of

vocabulary words from another language and memorize their

English meaning.



2) Proficiency test:

• Not limited to any one course, curriculum, or

single skill ( grammar- vocabulary- reading etc)

• Recently writing and oral production

• Measures overall ability

• Traditionally composed of multiple choice items

• Summative and norm-referenced

• Provides sufficient results

• No diagnostic feedback



3) Placement Test

• aims to place a student into a particular level

or section of language curriculum or school

• has various types: comprehension and

production questions, responding through

written and oral performance, selection

(multiple - choice) and gap-filling formats



4) Diagnostic Test

• Provides information on what to focus later

• Shows lacks, difficulties, misunderstandings etc



5) Achievement Tests

• Should be limited to particular

material (content-time)

• needs to be related to classroom

lessons, units, or a total curriculum

• supposed to be in accordance

with the objectives



ASSESSING CLEAR, AMBIGIOUS OBJECTIVES

• First step while designing a test

• Set clear and specific objectives

Do they “know” or are they able to do?

(based on the material)



DRAWING UP TEST SPECIFICATIONS

Test specifications for classroom use can be

a simple and practical outline of your test.

(a) a broad outline of the test(b) what skills you will test

(c) what the items will look like.



ADVANTAGES OF DRAWING UP TEST SPECIFICATIONS



DEVISING TEST TASKS

• Draft the questions

• Revise the draft

• Request aid from colleague

* imagine yourself as astudent who write this

test



While revising the draft:

1)Are the directions to each section clear?

2) Is there an example item for each section?3) Does each item measure a specified objective?

4) Is each item stated in clear, simple language?

5) Are the multiple choice items, distracters appropriate?6) Is the difficulty of each item appropriate?

7) Is the language authentic?

8) Does the test reflect the learning objectives?



DESIGNING MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST ITEMS

• receptive and selective, not productive

• a stem and several options or alternatives to

choose from

• One of those options, the key, is the correct

response, while the others serve as

distractions.



“ Written properly, multiple choice exams

correlate strongly with assessments by

descriptive tests ” Brown, Robert, “Multiple Choice Versus Descriptive Tests”

Frontiers in Education Conference, Reno NC 2001.



Possible problems (Hughes, 2003)

•Only recognition knowledge

•Guessing ???

•Restricted

•Difficult to write

•Harmful washback

•Cheating ???



Number ofQuestions

Percent Pass (≥50%) by Chance2 choices 3 choices 4 choices 5 choices

1 50 33 25 20

2 75 56 44 36

4 69 41 26 18

6 66 32 17 10

10 62 21 8 3

20 59 9.2 1.4 .3

50 56 1 .01 .0004



Multiple Choice vs. Descriptive

Examinations

Descriptive

Questions

MultipleChoice

Setting the exam Easy Difficult

Grading Task Difficult Easy

Grading Time Long Short

Grade Consistency Varies High



1. Design each item to measure a specific objective

Where did George go after party last night ?

a. Yes, he did

b. Because he was tired

c. To Elaine’s place for another partyd. Around eleven o’clock.

Example:

The specific objective being tested here is comprehension of

wh-questions. Distractor (a) is designed to ascertain that the

student knows the difference between an answer to a why-question and a yes/no question. Distractors (b) and (d), as well

as the key item (c) test comprehension of the meaning of where

as opposed to why and when. The objective has been directly

addressed.



2. State both stem and options as simply and directly

as possible

Example:

We went to the temples ___________ fascinating.

a) which were beautifulb) which were especially

c) which were holy

“which were” is repeated in all three options. It should beplaced into the stem.



3. Make certain that the intended answer is clearly the

only correct one

Example:

Where did George go after party last night ?

a. Yes, he did

b. Because he was tired

c. To Elaine’s place for another party

d. He went home around eleven o’clock.

Distractor D seems to be acceptable as well, so it should

be omitted.



4. Use item indices to accept, discard or revise items

a) Item facility (easy or difficult?)

b) Item discrimination (differentiating low-ability and highability

students)

c) Distractor efficiency (appropriate or not?)



Scoring, Grading, and Giving Feed Back

SCORING

•reflects the relative weight that you place on each

section and items in each season.



Grading

The country, and context of this English

classroom, Institutional expectations (most of them

unwritten), implicit definitions of grades that you have set

forth

Explicit and relationship you have established with this class

The expectations that have been engendered in previous

tests and quizzes in this class

Student expectations



FEEDBACK

Classroom test – insider the multitude of options. You might choose to return the

test to the student with one of or a combination of, any of the possibilities below.

1. A latter grade

2. A Total Score

3. Four Sub scores (speaking, listening, reading, writing)

4. For the listening and reading sections

a. An individuate of correct/incorrect responses

b. Marginal comments

5. For the oral interview

a. Scores for each element being rated

b. A checklist of areas needing work

c. Oral feedback after the interview

d. A post-interview conference to go over the results



6. On the essay

a. Scores for each element being rated

b. A checklist of areas needing work

c. Marginal and end-of-essay comments, suggestions

d. A post-test conference to go over work

e. A self-assessment

7. On all or selected parts of the test, peer checking of results

8. a whole-class discussion of result of the test

9. Individual conferences with each student to review the whole

test



Interpreting test scores Teachers

High scores = good instruction

Low scores = poor studentsStudents

High scores = smart, well-prepared

Low scores = poor teaching, bad test



Interpreting test scores

High scorestoo easy, only measured simple educationalobjectives, biased scoring, cheating,unintentional clues to right answers

Low scores

too hard, tricky questions, content notcovered in class, grader bias, insufficient time

to complete test

classroom language test-s

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