Language

Assessment
Chapter 13 - Harmer

Testing types
Formative - assessment that takes place
during instruction
Summative - assessment that occurs at the
end point and provides a basis for a letter
grade

Formative assessment
Progress tests used to see how well
students are understanding the lessons of the
last few weeks or month
EX: quizzes, ungraded writings, portfolios,
language passports, language biographies

Summative assessment
Achievement (Exit) test used to see how
well students have learned the content that was
taught
EX: end of chapter finals, end of quarter finals,
end of semester finals

Summative assessment (cont.)

Proficiency test used to show what level one
student has achieved at one time, employers
and universities use these to gauge what a
students language abilities are
EX: TOEFL, TOEIC, WIDA

Proficiency tests
Reasons for proficiency tests:
identification
placement
instruction
progress tracking
redesignation/ reclassification

Determining strength of a test

Validity - test validity is concerned with
whether a test is doing what it claims to do
Face Validity - the appearance of the test as
authentic and useful for assessment

Determining strength of a test

Reliability - If the test produces predictably
similar scores when it is taken multiple times by
the same student, it is said to be reliable.
This is to account for variables in students' lives
or in the testing environment that may result in
a wide range of scores.

Determining strength of a test

Practicality must be considered for the
amount of time and effort that it will take for the
grader
A test becomes worthless if no one has enough
time to check it.

Washback/backwash effect
Teaching to the test
This can have negative effects if the test is flawed as a
measure for language development or content retention
and quality teachers have sacrificed quality instruction to
favor the passing of the test.

Washback/backwash effect

Motivation
Student motivation can be a delicate
matter especially when considering test
design.
Students, even the ones that are typically
indifferent in regular instructional time,
often put extra effort into completing
tests.
Teachers should be mindful of ways to
make testing encouraging for those that
receive high scores as well as those that
receive low scores.

What would you do? - Activity

1. Look at the following images.
2. How would you react as a teacher?
3. How could you avoid this with your
students?

Testing types - items

Discrete items - testing one thing at a time
Integrative - testing using a variety of language and skills
Direct test items - testing by asking students to do something
with the language
Indirect test items - testing student knowledge of language
more than use

Discrete Items
Testing one thing at a time
EX: testing simple past tense, noun
modification using the adj. + noun formula, or a
learned vocabulary word

Integrative // Indirect
Part of a test that asks students to focus on
prior studying of the learned language
EX: particle choice, conjugating a verb, word
collocations

Integrative // Indirect // Multiple Choice

Pros:
easy to grade
multiple people can
grade them quickly
reliable in determining a
score

Cons:
difficult to write subtle distractors
danger of distracting or
misinforming too many students
with incorrect forms
can result in students learning
how to be better test takers than
learners
limit to how much can be tested
through an indirect item

Integrative // Indirect // Multiple Choice

Integrative // Indirect // Fill-in and Cloze

Pros:
easy to write
gaps can be placed at
regular intervals to make
a variety of language
required for the student
being tested

Cons:
can be difficult to determine
where only one item is possible
need to be aware of the various
answers that will be acceptable
marking becomes more
complex random selection of
gaps is not possible for every
test item (modified cloze)

Integrative // Indirect // Transformation

Pros:
students are tested on
underlying grammar and
vocabulary knowledge
designed to focus on word
grammar
students are required to
know meaning as well as
grammatical constructions

Cons:

items can be difficult to

construct
more needs to be taught
in order to expect
students to be able to
complete

Integrative // Direct
Part of a test that asks a student directly to do something
with the learned language by activating through reading/
listening comprehension activities, writing prompts, and
speaking situations
The tests should be similar in structure to the forms they
have been using to practice and prepare for the test.

Integrative // Direct
The performance required from the students is
more in-depth and more complex than indirect
test items. This makes correcting them more
complex as well.
EX: writing an email to a friend, accepting an
invitation from someone

Integrative // Direct // Reading & Listening

used to determine whether a student has
comprehended an entire text read or heard
may use both direct and indirect items
indirect can appear as true/false questions
or through the ordering of a timeline of the
story

Integrative // Direct // Writing

Students can be:
required to write a short pamphlet using the
information that have learning about
students can write more in-depth essays
depending on their language level

Integrative // Direct // Speaking

Students can be:
interviewed
paired and instructed to role play
conversing about a particular subject
All of these can be used for speaking tasks that
utilizes the language focus of the lesson.

Marking test
Marking (correcting) tests could be simple if
using tick boxes as markings (human error can
still creep in).
However, evaluating a more integrative piece of
work e.g. essays, could be a lot more complex.

Marking tests (cont.)

Ways of marking tests:
use an overall score (A-F or percentage e.g.
80%).
Based it upon your experience and gut feeling.
Be careful not to judge unfairly, and be
consistent.

Countering marker subjectivity

1. involve other people = when two or more
people look at the same piece of work and
come up with the same scores it provides
assurance.
2. use marking scales = e.g. grade Grammar,
Vocabulary, Pronunciation, Coherence, and
fluency from a scale of 0-5.

Using a scale 0-5

We can look at the students ability in more
detail. A student may score low on
pronunciation, but do better on fluency.
It can also help the teacher to expose a
student's weak area and enforce improvement.

Consider individual performance

Careful descriptions
This could be used to
make your corrections
more accurate and
consistent (keep yourself
on check).

Designing tests
Characteristics of a good test:
Think of how practical needs to be in terms of time, to both teacher and
students.
Think about the level of difficulty (it should be fair to everyone)
Test to find how well students have learnt what you have been teaching.
Make a list of things you want to test for:
o grammar rules, how to write an essay etc. (decide the importance to
each item). e.g. more points for a writing task.

Check your test before handing it to students

1. Have your colleagues check it (support each
other).
2. Try the test with students of same level or so
as this can reveal any issues.
3. After receiving tests back, check if you need
to make any changes.

Discussion Questions
Students questions
I know that placements tests are necessary for students that need to be put in a class at
an appropriate level if they have previous knowledge of the language. If I'm taking a
101 level Japanese class, of course it would be nice to have a friend who knows
the language fluently, but if I'm actually there to try and learn, that's not what I
want. It's more fair to have everyone at the same level. However, at the more upper
levels there they are, the fluent speakers that placed there. I'm currently at the 301
level of Korean, but have only studied in the classroom and I have only spent
about a month in Korea. In my class there were at least 5 people already fluent
in Korean and I felt like they really took over the class. It didn't give much of an
opportunity for other students to test their skills. A few of them placed higher than they
wanted to and just decided to take a lower level class. How would you deal

with students whose proficiency level is much higher than

that of your class?