BASIC PRINCIPLES OF ASSESSMENT TSL 3112 LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF ASSESSMENT TSL 3112 LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT PISMP TESL SEMESTER 6 IPGKDRI

CHARACTERISTICS OF A TEST • Should be applied to assessments of all kinds in general. • Questions to ponder: – Can it be given within appropriate administrative constraints? – Is it dependable? – Does it accurately measure what you want it to measure? – Is the language in the test representative of real-world language use? – Does the test provide information that is useful for the learner?

PRACTICALITY • Refers to the logistical, down-to-earth, administrative issues involved in making, giving, and scoring an assessment instrument. • These include “costs, the amount of time it takes to construct and to administer, ease of scoring, and ease of interpreting/reporting the results” (Mousavi, 2009).

PRACTICALITY • A PRACTICAL TEST… – stays within budgetary limits. – can be completed by the test-taker within appropriate time constraints. – has clear directions for administration. – appropriately utilises available human resources. – does not exceed available material resources. – considers the time and effort involved for both design and scoring.

OBJECTIVITY • Refers to the degree to which equally competent scorers obtain the same results. • Most standardised tests of aptitude and achievement are high in objectivity. • The test items are objective type (e. g. MCQ), and the resulting scores are not influenced by the scorers’ judgement / opinion.

OBJECTIVITY • In fact, such tests are usually constructed so that they can be accurately scored by trained clerks and scoring machines. • Highly objective procedure are used – the reliability of the test results is not affected by the scoring procedures. • For classroom assessments constructed by teachers or performance-based assessments, objectivity plays an important role in obtaining reliable measures of achievement.

OBJECTIVITY • Teachers may not only use objective tests, but also other methods of assessment that require judgemental scoring. • Therefore, to ensure high objectivity: – Select assessment procedures most appropriate for the learning goals being assessed. – Make the assessment procedure as objective as possible – e. g. carefully phrasing the questions and providing a standard set of rules for scoring.

WASHBACK EFFECT • The effect of testing on teaching and learning – e. g. the extent to which assessment affects a student’s future language development. • Messick (1996) reminded us that the washback effect may refer to both the promotion and the inhibition of learning (beneficial versus harmful/negative) washback.

WASHBACK EFFECT • Alderson & Wall (1993) – a Washback Hypothesis – how tests influence both teaching and learning. • A TEST THAT PROVIDES BENEFICIAL WASHBACK… – positively influences what and how teachers teach. – positively influences what and how learners learn. – offers learners a chance to adequately prepare.

WASHBACK EFFECT – gives learners feedback that enhances their language development. – is more formative in nature than summative. – provides conditions for peak performance by the learner.

WASHBACK EFFECT • In large-scale assessment, washback refers to the effects that tests have on instruction in terms of how students prepare for the test – e. g. , cram courses and teaching to the test. • The current worldwide use of standardised tests for gate-keeping purposes can lead students to focus on gaining an acceptable score rather than on language development. • Positively, many enrollees in test-preparation courses report increased competence in certain languagerelated tasks (Chapelle, Enright, & Jamieson, 2008).

WASHBACK EFFECT • In classroom-based assessment, washback can have a number of positive manifestations, ranging from the benefit of preparing and reviewing for a test to the learning that accrues from feedback on one’s performance. • Teachers can provide information to students on useful diagnoses of strengths and weaknesses.

WASHBACK EFFECT • Washback also includes the effects of an assessment on teaching and learning prior to the assessment itself, i. e. , on preparation for the assessment. • The challenge to teachers is to create classroom tests that serve as learning devices through which washback is achieved. • Washback enhances a number of basic principles of language acquisition: intrinsic motivation, autonomy, self-confidence, language ego, interlanguage, and strategic investment.

WASHBACK EFFECT • Ways to enhance washback: – To comment generously and specifically on test performance. – Through a specification of the numerical scores on the various subsections of the test. – Formative versus summative tests: • Formative tests provide washback in the form of information to the learner on progress towards goals. • Summative tests provide washback for learners to initiate further pursuits, more learning, more goals, and more challenges to face.

WASHBACK EFFECT – To imply that students have ready access to you to discuss the feedback and evaluation you have given.

AUTHENTICITY • The degree of correspondence of the characteristics of a given language test task to the features of a target language task (Bachman & Palmer, 1996). • Lewkowicz (2000) discussed the difficulties of operationalising authenticity in language assessment: – Who can certify whether a task or language sample is “real-world” or not?

AUTHENTICITY • Such judgements are subjective, and yet authenticity is a concept that language-testing experts have paid a great deal of attention to (Bachman & palmer, 1996; Fulcher & Davidson, 2007). • Chun (2006) asserts that many test types fail to simulate real-world tasks.

AUTHENTICITY • AN AUTHENTIC TEST… – contains language that is as natural as possible. – has items that are contextualised rather than isolated. – includes meaningful, relevant, interesting topics. – provides some thematic organisation to items, such as through a story line or episode. – offers tasks that replicate real-world tasks.

AUTHENTICITY • The authenticity of test tasks in recent years has increased noticeably. • Many large-scale tests nowadays offer simulation of real-world tasks in speaking and writing components, of which the performance of these productive skills were not included previously. • Reading passages are selected from real-world sources that test-takers are likely to have encountered or will encounter.

AUTHENTICITY • Listening comprehension sections feature natural language with hesitations, white noise, and interruptions. • More tests offer items that are episodic in that they are sequenced to form meaningful units, paragraphs, or stories.