PRINCIPLES OF LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
There are five principles of language assessment;
they are practicality, reliability, validity, authenticity, and wasback.
1.
PRACTICALITY
An effective test is practical.
This means that it:
·
is
not excessively expensive.
A test that is prohibitively expensive is impractical.
·
stays
within appropriate time constraint.
A test of language proficiency that takes a student 10 hours to
complete is impractical.
·
is
relatively easy to administer
A test that takes a few
minutes for a student to take and several hours for an examiner to evaluate for
most classroom situation is impractical.
·
has
a scoring/evaluation procedure that is specific and time efficient.
A test that can be
scored only by computer if the test takes place a thousand miles away from the
nearest computer is impractical.
Furthermore, for a test
to be practical:
·
administrative details should clearly be established before the
test,
·
students should be able to complete the test reasonably within the
set time frame,
·
all materials and equipment should be ready,
·
the cost of the test should be within budgeted limits,
·
the scoring/evaluation system should be feasible in the teacher’s
time frame.
2.
RELIABILITY
A reliability
test is consistent and dependable. A number of sources of unreliability may be
identified:
·
Students-related
Reliability
A test yields unreliable results
because of factors beyond the control of the test taker, such as illness,
fatigue, a “bad day”, or no sleep the night before.
·
Rater
(scorer) Reliability
Rater reliability sometime refers
to the consistency of scoring by two or more scorers. Human error,
subjectivity, and bias may enter into the scoring process. Inter-rater unreliability occurs when two or more scorers yield
inconsistent score of the same test, possibly for lack of attention to scoring
criteria, inexperience, or inattention. Intra-rater
unreliability is because of unclear scoring criteria, fatigue, and bias toward
particular “good” and “bad” students.
·
Test
Administration Reliability
Unreliability may result from the
condition in which the test is administered. For example is the test of aural
comprehension with a tape recorder. When a tape recorder played items, the
students sitting next to windows could not hear the tape accurately because of
the street noise outside the building.
·
Test
Reliability
If a test is too long, test-takers may
become fatigued by the time they reach the later items and hastily respond
incorrectly.
Test and test administration reliability can be
achieved by making sure that all students received the same quality of input.
Part of achieving test reliability depends on the physical context-making sure,
for example, that every students has a cleanly photocopied test sheet, sound
amplification is clearly audible to everyone in the room, video input is
equally visible to all, lightning, temperature, and other classroom conditions
are equal (and optimal) for all students.
3.
VALIDITY
Validity is the
extent to which inferences made from assessment result are appropriate, meaningful,
and useful for the purpose of the assessment. It is the most complicated yet
the most important principle. Validity can be measured using statistical
correlation with other related measures.
A. Content-related
Validity
A test is said to have content validity when
it actually samples the subject matter about which conclusion are to be drawn,
and require the test–taker to perform the behavior being measured. For example,
speaking ability is tested using speaking performance, not pencil and paper
test. It can be identified when we can define the achievement being measured.
It can be achieved by making a direct
test performance. For example to test pronunciation teacher should require the
students to pronounce the target words orally.
There
are two questions are used to applying content validity in classroom test:
1. Are classroom objectives identified and
appropriately framed? The objective should include a performance verb and
specific linguistic target.
2. Are lesson objectives represented in the
form of test specification? A test should have a structure that follows
logically from the lesson or unit being tested. It can be designed by dividing
the objectives into sections, offering students a variety of item types, and gives
appropriate weight to each section.
B. Criterion-related Validity
The extent to which the “criterion” of the
test has actually been reached. It can
be best demonstrated through a comparison of result of an assessment with
result of some other measure of the same criterion.
Criterion-related
validity usually falls into two categories:
1. Concurrent
Validity: if the test result supported
by other concurrent performance beyond assessment. (e.g.: high score in English
final exam supported by actual proficiency in English)
2. Predictive Validity: to asses or predict
the test-taker’s likelihood of future success. (e.g.: placement test, admission
assessment)
C. Construct-related Validity
Construct validity ask “Does the test
actually touch into the theoretical construct as it has been defined?”. An
informal construct validation of the use of virtually every classroom test is
both essential and feasible. For example, the
scoring analysis of interview includes pronunciation, fluency, grammatical
accuracy, vocabulary used and sociolinguistics appropriateness. This is the
theoretical construct of oral proficiency. Construct validity is a major issue
in validating large-scale standardized test of proficiency.
D. Consequential Validity
It includes all the consequences of a test,
such as its accuracy in measuring the intended criteria, its impact on the
test-takers preparation, its effect on the learner, and the social consequences
of the test interpretation and use. One aspect of consequential validity which
draws special attention is the effect of test preparation courses and manual on
performance.
E. Face Validity
Face validity is the extent to which students
view the assessment as fair, relevant, and useful for improving learning. It
means that students perceive the test to be valid. It will be perceived valid if
it samples the actual content of what the learners has achieved or expect to
achieve. Nevertheless the psychological state of the test-taker (confidence,
anxiety) is an important aspect in their peak performance.
Test
with high face validity has the following characteristics:
•
Well
constructed, expected format with familiar task.
•
Clearly doable
within the allotted time.
•
Clear and uncomplicated
test item.
•
Crystal clear
direction.
•
Task that relate
to students course work.
•
A difficulty
level that present a reasonable challenge.
Another phrase associated with face validity is”
biased for best”. Teachers can make a test which is” biased for best” by offering
students appropriate review and preparation for the test, suggesting strategies
that will be beneficial, or structuring the test so that the best students will
be modestly challenged and the weaker
students will not be overwhelmed.
3.
AUTHENTICITY
Authenticity is the degree of correspondence of the
characteristics of a given language test task to the features of a target
language task. It also means a task that is likely to be encountered in the “real world”.
Authenticity can be presented by:
•
Using a natural language
•
Contextualizing the test item
•
Giving meaningful (relevant, interesting) topics for the learners.
•
Providing thematic organization to the item (e.g. through story line or
episode)
•
Giving test which represent or closely approximate real world task.
4.
WASHBACK
In general terms, washback means the effect of
testing on teaching and learning. In large-scale assessment, it refers to the
effects that test have on instruction in the terms of how the students prepare
for the test. While in classroom assessment, washback means the beneficial
information that washesback to the students in the form of useful diagnoses of
strengths and weaknesses.
In enhancing washback, the teachers should
comment generously and specifically on test
performance, respond to as many details as possible, praise strengths, criticize weaknesses constructively, and give
strategic hints to improve performance.
The teachers should serve classroom
tests as learning device through which washback is achieved. Students’
incorrect responses can become windows of insight into further work. Their
correct responses need to be praised, especially when they represent
accomplishments in a student’s inter-language.
Washback enhances a number of basic
principles of language acquisition: Intrinsic motivation, autonomy, self confidence,
language ego, inter-language, and strategic investment, among others.
One way to enhance washback is to comment generously and specifically on
test performance. Washback implies that students have ready access to the
teacher to discuss the feedback and evaluation he/she has given.
REFERENCE:
Brown, H.D. 2004. Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices. White
Plains, NY: Pearson Education.
Great post. My coworkers and I were just discussing language assessment testing the other day. This is a great read, very informational. Thanks so much for sharing, I will have to send this around the office.
ReplyDeletenice post.
ReplyDeletethank you very much.
The strategy you have posted on this technology helped me to get into the next level and had lot of information in it....Software Testing Training in Bangalore
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteInformative post, thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteAngularjs Training in Chennai
Angularjs Training near me
Angularjs course in Chennai
Angularjs Training
Angularjs Training institute in Chennai
Angular 2 Training in Chennai
So informative to read and so exciting to come across new contents.
ReplyDeletemoto service center in chennai
motorola service center in chennai
moto service centre chennai
moto service center
Hello, I read your blog occasionally, and I own a similar one, and I was just wondering if you get a lot of spam remarks? If so how do you stop it, any plugin or anything you can advise? I get so much lately it’s driving me insane, so any assistance is very much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteData science Course Training in Chennai |Best Data Science Training Institute in Chennai
RPA Course Training in Chennai |Best RPA Training Institute in Chennai
AWS Course Training in Chennai |Best AWS Training Institute in Chennai
This post is really nice and informative. The explanation given is really comprehensive and informative. software testing training
ReplyDeleteNice blog
ReplyDeletehttps://www.pearltrees.com/t/technical-experts/id31418472#item307148817
https://www.pearltrees.com/t/technical-experts/id31418472#item307148963
https://twitter.com/globalemployees/status/1263795529076502534
You are providing an valuable information. It is useful to so many people all around the world.
ReplyDeleteAngularJS training in chennai | AngularJS training in anna nagar | AngularJS training in omr | AngularJS training in porur | AngularJS training in tambaram | AngularJS training in velachery
Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I'll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon. Big thanks for the useful info. GRC
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing about Principles of Language Assessment Special Needs Tutor Scottsdale
ReplyDeleteGood information about Principles of Language Assessment Special Needs Tutor Gilbert
ReplyDeleteNice article regarding Language Assessment Private Tutor Bouldin Creek
ReplyDeleteGood article about language Assessment Special Needs Tutor Preston Hollow
ReplyDeleteThese principles are beneficial Private tutor Tampa
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete