THIẾT kế một bài THI ĐÁNH GIÁ kết QUẢ học tập môn TIẾNG ANH CHO SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN NGỮ năm THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG sư PHẠM sơn LA

- Test content is sometimes found to be unrelated to the objectives of the course and veryoften many test items in some tests have not been dealt with classes.. Basing on the theory and

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1.1 RATIONALE

The importance of language testing is recognized by virtually all professionals in the field

of language education It is of special importance in educational system that is highlycompetitive as testing is not only an indirect stimulus to learning, but also plays a crucialrole in determining the success or failure of an individual's career with direct implicationsfor his future earning power "Thus, testing is an important tool in educational research andfor programme evaluation, and may even throw light on both the nature of languageproficiency and language learning"(Lauwerys and Seanlon, 1969)

Likewise, in the teaching and learning foreign language process, testing takes a veryimportant role Language testing is one of the most important ways to evaluate howstudents acquire when they learn a foreign language Through tests teachers know not onlythe success or failure of learners but also how well the learners use what they have beentaught Moreover, the learners know what they gain, what they can apply, and what theycannot Moore (1992, p.138) states: “Evaluation is an essential tool for teachers because it givesthem feedback concerning what the students have learned and indicates what should be done next in the learning process Evaluation helps you to better understand students, their abilities, interests, attitudes and needs in order to better teach and motivate them.” Nga (1997, p.1) reaches the same conclusion:

“Tests are assumed to be powerful determiners-of what happens in classroom and it is commonly claimed that they affect teaching and learning activities both directly and indirectly.”

Therefore, testing is an important part of the teaching and learning process; but has it beengiven adequate attention and careful study yet? Test researchers (Hughes, 1989; Brown,1995; Read, 1982; Hai, 1999; Tuyet, 1999) in general claim that unfortunately tests havegot a bad rap in recent years and not without reason More often than not, tests are seen bylearners “as dark clouds hanging over their heads, upsetting them with thunderous anxiety

as they anticipate the lightning bolts of questions they do not know and worst of all a flood

of disappointment if they do not make the grade” (Brown, 1994a: p.373) Hughes (1989,p.1) makes another comment on recent language testing: “It cannot be denied that a greatdeal of language testing is of very poor quality Too often language tests have a harmfuleffect on teaching and learning and too often they fail to measure accurately whatevaer it isthey are intended to measure.” This coupled with the fact that teachers frequently lack

formal training in educational measurement techniques and they tend to be alienated fromthe testing process They regard it as a necessary evil, an intrusion on their regularinstructional activities.

At present, English tests at Son La Teachers’ Training College (STTC) have the followingcharacteristics:

- It has not been given appropriate attention and careful study

- Its role in teaching and learning has not been fully recognized

- Almost language teachers think that teachers should be responsible for making testsbecause testing is one part of teaching and learning activities that students have to pass

- There has been a tendency using commercial (ready-made) tests rather than teacher

self-made tests since commercial tests are very convenient and do not take much time toconstruct Thus these selected tests may not be relevant to the objectives of the course

- Test content is sometimes found to be unrelated to the objectives of the course and veryoften many test items in some tests have not been dealt with classes

- Students have complained that there is still a big gap between what is taught and what istested An instance for this would be the case when some tests designed for pre-intermediate level are given to students of elementary level They are so difficult that onlyfew students can accomplish Therefore, such tests are not valid and reliable

- Using tests exclusively for grading, there is no feedback about the tests

- There has been no discarding of bad tests or bad items Some items are found to be sodifficult that few testees could do whereas there are test items, which are so easy that alltestees can obtain the correct answers Such items should be discarded or replaced

- Moreover, due to the fact that the writing and reading comprehension tests at theuniversity are totally designed with multiple choice techniques so students can easily cheat

by asking and copying answers from their classmates

- Apart from those carefully designed tests, some others are still of low and poor qualityand these do not accurately measure the students' real ability Perhaps the test writer onlypays attention to the fulfillment of his/her duty, which is to give tests, rather than to theeffectiveness of the tests Those tests often fail to measure accurately whatever they areintended to measure

- Finally, the last testing problem at STTC is that some of the tests may lack reliabilitybecause they are not pre-tested anywhere else for the sake of confidentiality Truly, for the

sake of "confidentiality" test designers are often informed to write tests at short notice, justsome time before it is administered In such circumstances who can say for sure that therequired standards, criteria will be met by the test writers?

Therefore, a well-design test is necessary for every language level especially for collegelevel since it is the elementary level, which aims at acquiring survival English anddiagnosing students’ aptitudes in the course and what they have to study to improve boththeir knowledge and skills In this minor thesis, the author bases herself on the knowledge

of testing and testing situation to propose a sample achievement test for the first yearstudents who have been taught the student’s book New Headway English Course(elementary level) from unit 1 to unit 8

1.2 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of the study focuses on the existing situations at Son La Teacher’s TrainingCollege I design a sample test only on writing and reading skills focusing on grammar,vocabulary, reading and writing skills The study provides investigated and analyzed data

of the achievement test for the first-year non-English major students Moreover, theteachers’ and students’ comments on the test and their suggestion for its improvement will

be presented in this thesis

1.3 AIMS OF THE STUDY

The aim of the study is to report a research examining the current testing situations andlanguage tests for non-English majors at STTC with great emphasis on analyzing the result

of the sample test, the teachers’ and students’ comments on the test and their suggestion forits improvement The specific aims of the study are:

1 To investigate the STTC teachers’ evaluation and students’ evaluation of thesample test concerning its content, time allowance and its format

2 To investigate the teachers’ suggestions and students’ suggestions for improvingtesting situations and language tests at STTC

3 To propose an achievement test construction for the first-year students at STTCand a sample test will be designed based on the proposed test construction

4 To offer some practical recommendations for improving of testing situation at STTC

1.4 METHODS OF THE STUDY

In order to achieve the above aims, a study has been carried out with the followingapproach Basing on the theory and principle of language testing, major characteristics of agood test, especially achievement tests, the author analyzes the results of the sample test,and the survey questionnaire done on 10 English teachers of the English major students atSTTC Many other methods, such as interviews, informal discussion with students,teachers, and classroom testing observation are also employed to get more neededinformation

1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The research questions of the study are as follows:

1 What should be done to improve the English testing situation for the first-yearstudents at STTC?

2 Which test components are considered appropriate for the English Achievementtest construction at STTC?

1.6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY

The minor thesis is organized into four chapters

Chapter one is the introduction consisting of the rationale, the aims, the method, theresearch questions and the design of the study

Chapter two presents the literature review on the basic concepts of testing, types of testsand characteristics of good tests, the test items, test item types of language components andlanguage skills

Chapter three, which is the main part of the study, shows the analysis of the finding of testdesigning and some brief comments from teachers and testees

Chapter four deals with some suggestions to improve the test and the summary of theresearch

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW2.1 BASIC CONCEPTS OF TESTING

According to Brown (1994: p.252), “A test, in plain or ordinary words, is a method ofmeasuring a person’s ability or knowledge in a given area.” Moore (1992: p.138) proposesthat evaluation is an essential tool for teachers because it gives them feedback concerningwhat the students have learned and indicates what should be done next in the learningprocess Evaluation helps us to understand students better, their abilities, interests,attitudes, and needs in order to better teach and motivate them However, in the book ofBrown (1994, p.373) he stresses that tests are seen by learners as dark clouds hanging overtheir heads, upsetting them with thunderous anxiety as they anticipate the lightning bolts ofquestions they do not know and worst of all a flood of disappointed if they do not make thegrade Read (1983, p.3) shares the idea saying a language test is a sample of linguisticperformance or a demonstration of language proficiency In other words, a test is notsimply a set of items that can be objectively marked; it can also involve a ‘subject’educational of spoken and written performance with the assistance of a checklist, a ratingscale, or a set of performance criteria.” Nga (1992, p.2) also confirms that tests commonlyrefer to a set of items or questions designed to be presented to one or more students underspecified conditions Harrions (1986, p.1) notices that a natural extension of classroomwork, providing teachers and students with useful information that can serve as a basis forimprovement and a test is necessary but unpleasant imposition from outside the classroom.That means test is a useful tool to measure learners’ ability in a certain situation especially

in classroom

2.2 TYPES OF TESTS

2.2.1 Proficiency Tests

According to Hughes (1990:9), “Proficiency tests are designed to measure people’s ability

in a language regardless of any training they may have had in that language.” That is to saythe content of a proficiency test is not based on the content or objectives of any languagecourse test takers may have followed It is rather based on a specification of what theyhave to be able to do in the language to meet the requirement of their future aims

Other test specialists, such as Carroll and Hall (1985), Harrison (1986) and Henning (1987)share the same view that proficiency test helps both teachers and learners know whetherthe learners can be able to follow a particular course or they have to take some pre-departure training to some other popular tests such as TOEFL, IELTS, which are used totest students’ proficiency for their study in some English speaking countries In Vietnamproficiency tests are of different levels namely A, B, C for workers, engineers, teachers,architects, etc.

2.2.2 Achievement Tests

As it has been mentioned above, not many teachers are interested in proficiency tests since

it does not base on any particular course book (Hughes, 1990:10) states: “In contrast toproficiency tests, achievement tests are directly related to language courses, their purposebeing to establish how successful individual students, groups of students, or the coursesthemselves have been in achieving objectives” Achievement tests are usually carried outafter a course on a group of learners who take the course Sharing the idea aboutachievement tests with Hughes, Brown (1994:259) suggests: “An achievement test isrelated directly to classroom lessons, units or even total curriculum” Achievement tests, inhis opinion, “are limited to a particular material covered in a curriculum within a particulartime frame.” Another useful comment on achievement tests offered by Finocchiaro andSako (1983:15) is that achievement types or attainment tests are widely employed in anylanguage teaching institutions They are used to measure the amount of degree of control

of discrete language and cultural items and of integrated language skills acquired by thestudents within a specific period of instruction in a specific course” In his book, Harrison(1983:7) shows: “an achievement test looks back over a longer period of learning than thediagnostic test, for example, a year’s work, or even a variety of different courses.” He alsopoints out that achievement tests are intended to show the standard, which the studentshave reached in relation to other students at the same level

There are two kinds of achievement tests: final achievement tests and progressachievement tests

Final achievement tests are those administered at the end of a course of study They may

be written and administered by ministries of education, official examining boards, or by

members of teaching institutions Clearly, the content of these tests must be related to thecourses with which they are concerned, but the nature of this relationship is still a matter ofdisagreement amongst language testers.

According to some testing experts, the content of a final achievement test should be baseddirectly on a detailed course syllabus or on the books and other material used This hasbeen referred to as the syllabus–content approach It has an obvious appearance, since thetest only contains what it is thought that the students have actually encountered, and thuscan be considered, in this respect at least, a fair test The disadvantage of this type is that ifthe syllabus is badly designed, or the books and other materials are badly chosen, then theresults of a test can be very misleading Successful performance on the test may not trulyindicate successful achievement of course objectives

The alternative approach is to design the test content directly on the objectives of thecourse, which has a number of advantages Firstly, it forces designers to elicit courseobjectives Secondly, test takers show how far they have achieved those objectives This inturn puts pressure on those who are responsible for the syllabus and for the selection ofbooks and materials to ensure that these are consistent with the course objectives Testsbased on course objectives work against the perpetuation of poor teaching practice, a kind

of course–content–based test, almost as if part of a conspiracy fails to do It is the author’sbelief that test content based on course objectives is much preferable, which provides moreaccurate information about individual and group achievement, and is likely to promote amore beneficial backwash effect on teaching

Progress achievement tests, as the name suggests, are intended to measure the progress thatlearners are making Since ‘progress’ in achieving course objectives, these tests should berelated to objectives These should make a clear progression towards the final achievementtest based on course objectives Then if the syllabus and teaching methods are appropriate

to these objectives, progress tests based on short – term objectives will fit well with what hasbeen taught If not, there will be pressure to create a better fit If it is the syllabus that is at fault, it

is the tester’s responsibility to make clear that it is there, that change is needed, not in the tests

In addition, more formal achievement tests require careful preparation; teacher could feelfree to set their own ways to make a rough check on students’ progress to keep learners on

their toes Since such tests will not form part of formal assessment procedures, theirconstruction and scoring need not be purely towards the intermediate objectives on which amore formal progress achievement tests are based However, they can reflect a particular

‘route’ that an individual teacher is taking towards the achievement of objectives

2.2.3 Diagnostic Tests

According to Hughes (1990:13), “Diagnostic tests are used to identify students’ strengthsand weaknesses They are intended primarily to ascertain what further teaching isnecessary” Brown (1994:259) proposes, “A diagnostic test is designed to diagnose aparticular aspect of a particular language.” Harrison (1983) remarks that this kind of tests

is used at the ends of a unit in the course book or after a lesson designed to teach oneparticular point This kind of test is reasonably straight-forward to find out what skills areapplied well or badly by the learners Otherwise, this leads to disadvantage, as it is not soeasy to obtain a detailed analysis of a learner’s command of grammatical structures Inorder to be sure of this, we would need a number of examples of the choice the studentmade between the two structures in every different context on which we thought wassignificantly different and important enough to warrant obtaining information Tests of thiskind still need a tremendous amount of work to produce Whether or not they becomegenerally available will depend on the willingness of individuals to write them and ofpublishers to distribute them

2.2.4 Placement tests

According to Hughes (1990:14), “Placement tests are intended to provide informationwhich will help to place students at the stage of the teaching progamme most appropriate

to their abilities Typically, they are used to assign students to classes at different levels.”

In other words, we use placement tests to place pupils into classes according to their ability

so that they can start a course approximately at the same level as the other students in the group

2.2.5 Progress Tests

A progress test is designed to measure the extent to which the students have mastered thematerial taught in the classroom It is based on the language programme which the studentshave been following and is just as important as an assessment of the teacher's own work asthe students' own learning Results obtained from the progress tests enable the teacher to

become more familiar with the work of each of the students and with the progress of theclass in general It also aims at stimulating learning and reinforcing what has been taught.Good performances may act as a mean of encouraging the students, and even poorperformances may act as an incentive-to more work.

According to Baker (1989, p.103), the frequent use of the progress test, as a goad toencourage application on the part of the learners, can also in theory serve as a basis fordecisions on course content, learner placement and future course design He also concludesthat the results of a progress test can be used as an indication to parts of the course content,which have not been mastered by numbers of students and thus need remedial action.Moreover, a properly written progress test sampling correctly from the course content can

be a pointer to learners which part of the course need more attention, and to coursedesigners which parts of the course have not been effective Whereas, Khoa's research(1999, p 13) establishes: “A progress test is an ‘on-the-way’ achievement test, which islinked to the specific content of a particular set "of teaching materials" or particular course

of instruction

Progress tests are prepared by a teacher and given at the end of a chapter, a course, or aterm They may also be regarded as similar in nature to achievement tests but narrower andmuch more specific in scope These tests help the teacher to judge the degree of success ofhis or hers in teaching and to identify the weaknesses of the learners The application ofprogress tests is gaining force in many universities and colleges in Vietnam nowadays.They are parts of what is generally known as ''continuous assessment", a process ofassessment which takes into consideration the results scored by students when they didtheir progress tests

2.2.6 Direct versus Indirect Tests

It is pointed out by Hughes (1990:15) that direct testing requires the candidate to performprecisely the skills that we wish to measure If we want to know how well the candidatecan write compositions, we ask them to write compositions If we want to know how wellthey pronounce words, we ask them to speak The tasks, and the texts which are used,should be as authentic as possible There is a fact that the tasks cannot be really authentic.Nevertheless, the effort is to make them as realistic as possible Direct testing is easier todesign when it is intended to measure the productive skills of speaking and writing since

the very acts of speaking and writing provide us with information about the candidate’sability With listening and reading it is necessary to get candidates not only to listen or readbut also to demonstrate that they have done this successfully He also indicates severalattractions of direct testing Firstly, if teachers want to assess pupils’ ability, it is relativelystraightforward to create the conditions, which will elicit the behavior based on judgments.Secondly, in his opinion at least in the case of the productive skills, the assessment andinterpretation of students’ performance is quite straight - forward Thirdly, there is likely to

be a helpful backwash effect since practice for the test involves the practice of the skillsthat we want to encourage

By contrast, indirect testing tries to measure the abilities that “underlie” the skills in which

we are interested (Hughes, 1990:15) One section of the TOEFL is considered an indirectmeasure of writing ability where the candidate has to identify which of the underlinedelements is erroneous or inappropriate in formal Standard English Another example ofindirect testing id Lado’s (1961) proposes methods of testing pronunciation ability by apaper and pencil test in which the candidate has to identify pairs of words, which rhymewith each other The main problem with indirect tests is that the relationship betweenlanguage performance and skill performance in which we are usually interested tends to berather weak in strength and uncertain in nature We do not know enough about thecomponent parts of composition writing to predict accurate composition writing abilityfrom scores on tests that measure the abilities, which we believe underlies it We mayconstruct tests of grammar, vocabulary, discourse markers, handwriting, and punctuation.Still we will not be able to predict accurately scores on compositions even if we make sure

of the representation of the composition scores by taking many samples

2.2.7 Discrete point verse integrative testing

According to Hughes (1990:16), “Discrete point testing refers to the testing of one element

at a time, item”, which means the test involves a series of items and each item tests aparticular grammatical structure On the contrary, integrative testing requires the candidate

to combine many language elements in the completion of a task involving writing acomposition, taking notes while listening to a lecture, taking a dictation, or completing acloze passage Henning (1987) shares with Hughes the idea that discrete point tests willusually be indirect, while integrative tests will tent to be direct However, some integrative

testing methods, such as the cloze procedure, are indirect Similarly, he stresses that thedistinction between discrete point and integrative was tests originated by John and Carroll(1961) Discrete point tests are designed to measure knowledge or performance in veryrestricted area of the target language On the other hand, integrative tests are said to tap agreater variety of language abilities Moreover, Henning (1987) offers examples ofintegrative tests such as random cloze dictation, oral interview, and oral imitation tasks.

2.2.8 Norm – Referenced versus Criterion – Referenced Testing

Imagine that a reading test is administered to an individual student When teachers usequestions to see how the students perform the test, they may be given two kinds ofanswers The first kind would be that the student obtained a score that placed her or him inthe top ten per cent of candidates who have taken that test, or in the bottom five percent; orthat she or he did better than sixty percent of those who took it Hughes (1990:17) defined,

“A test which is designed to give this kind of information is said to be norm – referenced.”According to Henning (1987), a norm – referenced test must have been administered to alarge sample of people For the purpose of language testing and testing in general, norm –reference tests also have strengths and weaknesses Positively, the comparison can easily

be made with the performance or achievement of a large population of students.Negatively, norm – referenced tests are usually valid only with the population on whichthey have been normed

Criterion–referenced tests are not without their share of weakness The objectives ofcriterion – referenced tests are often too limited and restrictive (Henning, 1987: 7) Thepurpose of criterion – referenced tests is to classify people according to the fact thatwhether or not they are able to perform some task or set of tasks satisfactorily Moreover,the test must match teaching objectives perfectly, so that any tendency of the field oflanguage measurement, criterion tests possesses two positive virtues: they are helpful in clarifyingobjectives and they motivate students to a setting standard in terms of what they can do

2.2.9 Objective Testing versus Subjective Testing

The difference between objective testing and subjective testing is that of scoring If nojudgment is required on the part of the scorer, then the scoring is objective A multiple–choice item test, with the correct responses unambiguously identified, would be a case to

point If judgment is called for, the scoring is said to be subjective There are differentdegrees of subjectivity in testing The impressionistic scoring of a composition may beconsidered more subjective than the scoring of short answers in response to questions on areading tsak In Oller’s point of view (1979), many tests, such as cloze tests, “liesomewhere between subjectivity and objectivity” As a result, many testers are seekingafter objectivity in scoring not only for the sake of objectivity itself, but also for the great

reliability it brings.

2.2.10 Communicative Language Testing

In recent years, in parallel with the development of communicative language teaching(CLT), communicative language testing has been the focus of a great number of researches

on language testing Discussions have been centered on the desirability of measuring theability to take part in acts of communication In sum, it is assumed that the main function

of language is to enable people to communicate with each other in society As a result,testing language ability is but testing communicative ability (including reading andlistening, the two receptive skills necessary for the process of communication, a two-wayprocess (Khoa, 1999) Communicative language testing may embrace a number of testingapproaches such as direct versus indirect testing, objective versus objective testing and etc.Based upon the theory language ability is a complex and multifaceted construct Bachman(1991, p.678) proposes the following characteristics or communicative tests: “First, suchtests create an “information gap," requiring test takers to process complementaryinformation through the use of multiple sources of input Test takers, for example, might

be required to perform a writing task that is based on input from both a short recordedlecture and a reading passage on the same topic A second characteristic is that of taskdependency, with tasks in one section of the test building upon the content of earliersections, including the test taker's answers to those sections Third, communicative testscan be characterized by their integration of test tasks and content within a given domain ofdiscourse Finally, communicative tests attempt to measure a much broader range oflanguage abilities including knowledge of cohesion, functions, and sociolinguistic

appropriateness than did earlier tests, which tended to focus on the formal aspects of the

language grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation.”

2.3 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD TEST

In order to make a well – designed test, teachers have to take into consideration the variousfactors such as the purpose of a test, the content of the syllabus, the students’ backgroundand so on In addition to these factors, test characteristics play a very important role inconstructing a good test According to a number of leading scholars in testing as Valette(1977), Harrison (1983), Weir (1990), Carroll and Hall (1985), and Brown (1994) all goodtests have four main characteristics as: Validity, reliability, practicality, discrimination

2.3.1 Validity

2.3.1.1 Construct validity

Construct validity is defined by Anastasi (1982: 144) as “the extent to which the test maysaid to measure a theoretical construct or trait Each construct is developed to explain andorganize observed response consistencies It derives from establishing inter-relationshipsamong behavioral measures focusing on a broader; more enduring and more abstract kind

of behavioral description construct validation requires the gradual accumulation ofinformation from a variety of source Any data throwing light on the nature of the traitunder consideration for the conditions affecting its development and manifestations aregrist for this validity mill.”

Construct validity is viewed from a purely statistical perspective in much of the recentAmerican Bachman and Palmer (198l) literature It is seen principle as a matter of theposterior statistical validation of whether a test has measured a construct that has a realitydependence of other constructs

2.3.1.2 Content validity

The more a test simulates the dimensions of observable performance and accords withwhat is known about that performance, the more likely it is to have content and constructvalidity According to Kelly (1978:8), content validity seems “an almost and completelyoverlapping concept “with construct validity and for Moller (1982: 68), “the distinctionbetween construct and content validity language proficiency.” Anastasi (1982: 131) definescontent validity as “essentially the systematic examination of the test content to determinewhether it covers a representative sample of the behavior domain to be measured.” Sheshows a fact of useful guideline for establishing content validity:

- The behavior domain to be tested must be systematically analyzed to make certain thatmajor aspects are covered by the test items with correct proportions:

- The domain under consideration should be fully described in advance, rather than beingdefined after the test has been prepared

- The content validity depends on the relevance of the individual test relevance of item content

2.3.1.3 Face validity

Anastasi (1982:136) points out that face validity is not validity in the technical sense; itrefers, not to what the test actually measures, but to what it appears who take it, theadministrative personnel who decide on its use and other technically untrained observers.Fundamentally, the question of face validity concerns report and public relations Lado(1961), Davies (1968), Ingram (1977), Palmer (1981), and Bachman and Palmer (1981)have all discounted the value of face validity If a test does not have face validity though, itmay not be acceptable to the students taking it, or the teachers using it If the students donot accept it as valid, their adverse reaction to it may mean that they do not perform in away that truly reflects their ability Anastasi (1982:136) takes a similar line “Certainly iftest content appears irrelevant, inappropriate, silly or childish, the result will be poor co-operation, regardless of the actual validity of the test Especially in adult testing, it is notsufficient for a test to be objectively valid It also needs face validity to function effectively

in practical situations.”

2.3.1.4 Backwash validity

Language teachers operating in a communicative frame work normally attempt to equipstudents with skills that are judged relevant to present or future needs, and to the extentthat tests are designed to reflect these, the closer the relationship between the test and theteaching that precedes it, the more the test is likely to enhance construct validity Asuitable criterion for judging communicative tests in the future might well be the degree towhich they satisfy students, teachers, and future users of test results, as judged by somesystematic attempt to gather data on the perceived validity of the test If the first stage, withits emphasis on construct, content, face, backwash validities, the bypassed procedures donot suit the purpose for which it was intended

2.3.1.5 Criterion-related validity

The concept is concerned with the extent to which test scores correlate with a suitableexternal criterion of performance Criterion-related validity consists of two types, (Davies,1977), concurrent validly, where the test scores are correlated with another measure ofperformance, usually an older established test, taken at the same time (Kelly, 1978: Davies1983) and predicative validity, where test scores are correlated with some future criterion

of performance (Bachman and Palmer, 1981)

2.3.2 Reliability.

Reliability is a necessary characteristic of any good test It is of primary importance in theuse of proficiency tests for both public achievement and classroom tests Anappropriateness of the various factors affecting reliability is important for the teacher at thevery outset, since many teachers tend to regard tests as infallible measuring instrumentsand fail to realize that even the best test is indeed a somewhat imprecise instrument withwhich to measure skills

A fundamental criterion against any language test, which has to be judged, is its reliability.The concern here is with how far we can depend on the results that a test produces Threeaspects of reliability are usually taken into account The first concerns the consistency ofscoring among different markers The second is the concern of the tester how to enhancethe agreement between markers by establishing, and maintaining adherence to, explicitguidelines for the conduct of this marking The third aspect of reliability is that of parallel-forms of a test to be devised The concept of reliability is particularly important whenlanguage tests within the communicative paradigm one considered Moreover, Davies(1968) stresses that reliability is the first essential for any test, but for certain kinds oflanguage test, they may be very difficult to achieve the appropriate result

2.3.3 Discrimination

Another important feature of a test is its capacity to discriminate among the differentcandidates and to reflect the differences in the performances of the individuals in thegroup The extent of the need to discriminate will vary depending on the purpose of thetest In many classroom tests, for example, the teacher will be much more concerned withfinding out how well the pupils have mastered the syllabus and will hope for a cluster ofmarks around the 80 per cent and 90 per cent brackets Nevertheless, there may be

occurrences in which the teacher may require a test to discriminate to some degree in order

to assess relative abilities and locate areas of difficulty Here below are the items in the testshould be spread over a wide difficulty level as follows:

- Extremely easy items

- Very easy items

- Easy items

- Fairly easy items below average difficult level

- Items of average difficult level

- Items above average difficult level

- Fairly difficult items

- Difficult items

- Very difficult items

- Extremely difficult items

2.3.4 Practicability.

A test must be practicable, in other words, it must be fairly straight forward to administer.The most obvious practical consideration concerning the test is overlooked Firstly, thelength of time available for the administration of the test is frequently misjudged even byexperienced test writers; especially the whole test consists of a number of sub-tests.Another practical consideration concerns the answer sheets and the stationary used Theuse of answer sheets, however, greatly facilitates marking and is strongly recommendedwhen large population of test takers are being tested The question of practicability, is notconfined solely to oral tests, such written tests as situational composition and controlledwriting tests depend not only on the availability of qualified markers who can make validjudgment concerning the use of language, etc; but also on the length of time available forthe scoring of the test A final point concerns the presentation of the test paper itself, wherepossible, it should be printed or typewritten and appear neat, tidy, and authentically pleasing

2.4 TEST ITEMS FOR READING SKILL, WRITING SKILL, GRAMMAR, AND VOCABULARY

2.4.1 Test items

Tests usually consist of a series of items Cohen (1992: 488) defines, “an item is a specifictask to perform, can test one or more points or objectives For example, an item may testone point such as the meaning of a given word, or several points, such as an item that teststhe ability to obtain fact from a passage and then makes inferences based on the facts Healso suggests that ‘sometimes an integrative item is really more a procedure than an item,

as in the case of a free composition which could have a number of objectives’.Furthermore, he stresses that the objectivity of an item is determined by the way it isscored A multiple- choice item, for example, is objective in that there is only one rightanswer He also points out that a free composition may be more subjective in nature if thescorer does not look for any one right answer but rather for a series of factors namelycreative, cohesion and coherence, grammar and mechanics

Item types for testing comprehension are ordering tasks, open-ended comprehensionquestions and answers, dichotomous items, summary writing, note-taking, guessingmeaning of unfamiliar words from the context, making references, information transfer,multiple-choice items, jumbled sentences, jumbled paragraphs, completion exercises,matching words (sentences), cursory reading, gap-filling cloze test Item types for testingwriting skills are multiple- choice items, matching items, editing, dictation, short-answeritems, summary writing, sentence transformation, free writing, compositions and essays,error-recognition items, ‘broken-sentence’- items Item types for testing grammar are multiple-choice items, completion items, matching items, completion items, word transformation

2.4.2 Language components and language skills.

Linguistics is the study of phonology, syntax, and semantics The first, phonology, isconcerned with the sound of a language and the way in which these are structured intosegments such as syllables and words The second, syntax, with the way we string wordstogether in phrases, clauses, and sentences to build well-formed sentences Moreover, thethird, semantics, with the way we assign meaning to a certain unit of a language in order tocommunicate Each of these has additional levels, phonology is supplemented byphonetics, the study of the physical characteristics of sound; syntax by morphology is thestudy of the structure of words and semantics by pragmatics is the study of the situational

constrains on meaning The language components we focus on in this minor thesis aregrammar, vocabulary, and phonology Grammar belongs to syntax Vocabulary belongs tosemantics And phonology belongs to phonetics In addition, the language skills, which wewant to test are reading and writing skills.

2.4.3 The test item types used to evaluate language components and language skills.

Test item types for Reading and Writing skills and Grammar, Vocabulary

Table 1: Test item types for Reading and Writing skills and Grammar, Vocabulary

- Sentence completion

- Letter writing ofapplication

- Eliciting a narrativefrom a series ofpictures

- Controlled writing tasks: a graph, plan or drawing

- Free writing: letters, postcards, diaries, forms, directions, instructions

- Reordering

-Multiple-choice items

- Rearrangement items

- Completionitems

- Transformationitems

- RecognitionMultiple-choice items

Error ‘Brokensentence’ items

- Pairing and matching items

- Multiple-choiceitems

- Matching

- Word formation

- Items involvingsynonyms

- Reordering

- Definitions (explaining the meaning of each word.)

- SentenceCompletion

- Gap filling