Disigning an English achievement test for the 12th form of non-English major at Le Quy Don High School - Dong Da, Hanoi = Thiết kế một bài kiểm tra tiếng Anh cu

Because this is an achievement test given to students after a study period of about four months, the 1st term of the school year, and students are required to use what has recently been

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

VŨ HOÀNG DUNG

DESIGNING AN ENGLISH ACHIEVEMENT TEST FOR

LE QUY DON HIGH SCHOOL – DONG DA, HANOI

(Thiết kế một bài kiểm tra Tiếng Anh cuối kì cho học sinh lớp 12 không chuyên ngữ tại trường Trung học phổ thông Lê Quý Đôn –

Đống Đa, Hà Nội)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Hanoi, August 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

VŨ HOÀNG DUNG

DESIGNING AN ENGLISH ACHIEVEMENT TEST FOR

LE QUY DON HIGH SCHOOL – DONG DA, HANOI

(Thiết kế một bài kiểm tra Tiếng Anh cuối kì cho học sinh lớp 12 không chuyên ngữ tại trường Trung học phổ thông Lê Quý Đôn –

Đống Đa, Hà Nội)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor: Pham Thi Hanh, M.A

Hanoi, August 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

ACKOWLEDGEMENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF TABLES AND APPENDICES ………

Part A: INTRODUCTION………

1 Rationale for the study……… …

2 Aims and scope of the study……… ……

3 Methods of the study……… ……

4 Research questions……… …

5 Design of the study……… …

Part B: LITERATURE REVIEW……….…

1 Basic Concepts of Testing…… ………

2 Roles of testing……… ………

3 Types of Test……… ………

3.1 Achievement tests……… ………

3.2 Placement tests……… ………

3.3 Diagnostic tests……… ………

3.4 Proficiency tests……… ………

3.5 Direct versus indirect testing……… ………

3.6 Discrete point versus integrative testing……… ………

3.7 Norm-referenced versus criterion-referenced testing………… ………

3.8 Objective versus subjective testing……… ………

3.9 Communicative language testing……… ………

4 Characteristics of a Good Test……… ………

4.1 Validity……… ………

4.1.1 Face validity……… ………

4.1.2 Content validity……… ………

4.1.3 Construct validity……… ………

4.2 Reliability……… ………

4.3 Practicality……… ………

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4.4 Discrimination……… ………

5 Test Items……… ………

5.1 Direct test items……… ………

5.2 Indirect test items………… ………

Part C: THE STUDY……….………

1 The issues influencing current testing situation at LQD-DD High School…… …

1.1 The students and their backgrounds……… ……

1.2 The English teaching staff……… …

1.3 English teaching and learning……… ……

1.4 The objectives of the K-12 course……… …

1.5 Teaching material used for the K-12……… …

1.6 The content and construction required for the achievement test for the K-12 2 The current testing situation……… ……

3 The process of testing……… …………

3.1 Determining the purpose of the test……… ………

3.2 Planning the test……… ……

3.3 Selecting items and tasks……… ………

3.4 Administering the test……… ………

3.5 Scoring and rating……… ………

3.6 Descriptive data from test score……… ………

3.6.1 Frequency distribution

3.6.2 Measures of central tendency

3.6.3 Measures of dispersion

3.6.4 Item analysis

4 Survey

4.1 Data collection procedure

4.2 Findings

5 Archiving ……… ………

6 Some discussions from test result analysis

Part D: CONCLUSION ……….………

1 Conclusion ………

2 Recommendation ………

REFERENCES………

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LIST OF TABLES AND APPENDICES

Table 1: Objectives and contents of the test

Table 2: The frequency of marking scores

Table 3: The measures of central tendency

Table 4: The measures of dispersion

Table 5: Facility value and Discrimination index

APPENDIX 1: The contents of the eight units taught in the 1 st term of K-12

APPENDIX 2: The structure of English tests for the GCSE national examination APPENDIX 3: Revision outline for the 1 st term test

APPENDIX 4: The 1 st -term English examination for K-12

APPENDIX 5: Keys for the 1 st -term English examination for K-12

APPENDIX 6: Students’ performance on test arranged from the highest score to

the lowest score

APPENDIX 7: The survey questionnaire for students

APPENDIX 8: The survey questionnaire for teachers

Part A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

Assessment plays a significant part in the field of linguistics It allows teachers as well as administrators to make important decisions regarding the proficiency, placement, and achievement of second language learners Among some kinds of assessment, testing is the one that is typically used at the end of a stage of instruction to measure students‟ achievement Henning (1987, p 1) says that the most common purpose of language tests is

“to pinpoint strengths and weaknesses in the learned abilities of the student” Heaton (1990, p 9) also shares the idea that it is “to find out how well the students have mastered the language areas and skills which have just been taught”

Besides, teachers can use language tests to encourage students Students can show their ability and progress through tests Heaton (1990, p 10) agrees that tests are also “used for the purpose of increasing motivation” Having good results, students will be eager for their coming study With not very good test results, they will know which level of language they are at so as to set a more realistic goal for themselves

Being aware of the above things, the author of this study, who has been a teacher of English for about 10 years and has written many tests to evaluate the language abilities of students, has noticed that not all the tests have satisfying results Some tests have bad results, which means that too many students get bad marks or too many students get very good marks Teachers cannot use the results of these tests to categorize the students Therefore, such tests are not reliable

Taking the problem into consideration, the author has found out that it is the technique of designing tests that leads to the situation When writing tests, the test writer may only feel that this or that test item is suitable for their students She or he may have never analyze the test designing and the test result carefully in order to find out the causes for the problem On the other hand, a well-designed test is always necessary for all students of every language level, especially those of high school level - the elementary level which aims at acquiring survival English

Therefore, getting more knowledge and experience in designing tests is the author‟s desire In this minor thesis, the author would like to base herself on the knowledge of

testing and testing situation to design an achievement test for the 12th form of non-English

majors at Le Quy Don-Dong Da High School, Ha Noi

2 Aims and scope of the study

This study seeks to use the academic knowledge in test design to write a reliable

School Because this is an achievement test given to students after a study period of about four months, the 1st term of the school year, and students are required to use what has recently been taught and practiced to do the test, we, the teachers of English at LQD – DD High School, expect our students to score fairly high marks, at least 70% of which should

be from mark 6 upwards Therefore, this study specifically seeks to answer such questions

as whether the items of the test meet the requirements of the course, whether these test items are suitable for at least 70% of students to get marks from 6 upwards and what recommendations should be given to improve the testing situation so that we can build a bank of reliable tests for the school in the coming years

As students of grade 12 are going to take part in the national examination for General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), they should be given to a chance to get used

to the structure of this kind of examination Therefore, the study will focus on the existing situation at LQD – DD High School, which means that the author will design a multiple choice written achievement test only on such fields as phonetics, grammar, vocabulary,

communicative function, reading and writing skills as directed in the book called “Cấu trúc

đề thi môn Ngữ văn , Lịch sử, Đi ̣a lí, Ngoại ngữ” (i.e “The Test Structures of Literature, History, Geography, Foreign Languages”) by Nguyen (2009, p 104) The study will also

provide analyzed data of the test, the teachers‟ and students‟ comments on the test as well

as their suggestions for its improvement

3 Methods of the study

The main methods employed in this study included test design, test result analysis and teacher and student survey

For the purpose of designing tests, the author based on the theory and principle of language testing, major characteristics of a good test, especially a good achievement test and testing situation at LQD-DD High School

The test result was analyzed by the software SPSS to present the frequency distribution, central tendency and dispersion of the test score The analysis of test items is carried out manually

Finally, the survey enabled the author to collect teachers‟ and students‟ opinions on the reliability and suitability of the test A questionnaire in both English and Vietnamese

was given to 50 students and another in English was given to 9 teachers of English at LQD – DD High School The questionnaires include most closed-ended questions because the quantitative data was the major interest and it was easy to carry out the survey There was only one open-ended question in each questionnaire so that more suggestions could be given to improve the quality of test design

4 Research questions

This study was intended to answer such research questions as:

1 What test items are appropriate to meet both the requirements of the course and the test writer‟s expectation in the testing situation at LQD-DD High School? What items are the easiest and most difficult of all?

2 What should be done to improve the test?

5 Design of the study

This thesis consists of four parts, with a list of references, and appendices

Part A, “Introduction”, provides the rationale for the study, the aims, the scope, the methods, the research questions and the design of the study

Part B, “Literature Review”, discusses the basic concepts of testing, the roles of testing, the types of test, the characteristics of a good test and the test items

Part C, “The Study”, presents five sections The first is issues influencing current testing situation at LQD-DD High School The second is the current testing situation The third is the process of testing, which is ended with the descriptive data from test score Then the study goes on with the teacher and student survey including data collection procedure and some findings The next is about the archive of good test items The last is some discussions from test result analysis

Part D, “Conclusion”, gives some brief conclusions on the study and some recommendations for further study

Part B: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Basic Concepts of Testing

For the concepts of testing, many linguists have expressed their opinions It is said to refer to “the specific procedures that teachers and examiners employ to try to measure ability in the language, using what learners show they know as an indicator of their ability” (Hedge, 2000, p 378) According to Bachman (1990, p 20), a test is a measurement instrument designed to elicit a specific sample of an individual‟s ehaviour Besides the term “testing”, it is necessary that we should consider some more terms such as

“evaluation”, “assessment” and “measurement” as all of them have a close relationship Bachman (1990, p 18) proposes that these terms are often used as synonyms that refer to the same activity However, he also points out that each of them has its own distinctive characteristics Therefore, tests are only one of many different types of measurement Hedge (2000) also agrees that:

Assessment is the more inclusive term: it refers to the general process of monitoring

or keeping track of the learners‟ progress Testing is one kind of assessment, one which is typically used at the end of a stage of instruction to measure student achievement (Hedge, 2000, p 376)

Bachman (1990, p 22) says that “tests in and of themselves are not evaluative” Davies (2000, pp 170-171) shares the ideas that evaluation is a more general concept than testing but tests remain to be the main instruments for evaluation of learning in most teaching situations

In summary, “not all measures are tests, not all tests are evaluative, and not all evaluation involves either measurement or tests” (Bachman, 1990, p 24)

2 Roles of testing in teaching and learning

The roles of testing have been recognized by many researchers McNamara (2000, p 4) and Heaton (1988, p 7) say that language tests play a powerful part as a tool for teachers to find out which parts of the language program have caused difficulty to the class They act as gateways at important transitional moments in education, in employment, and in moving from one country to another Teaching and testing have an intimate relationship, which is considered as that of partnership (Hughes 1989, p 2), and testing is also essential in learning It provides students with an opportunity to show their ability to perform certain tasks in the language (Davies, 2000, pp 169-170) It helps

teachers to find out about students‟ progress in learning and their learning difficulties It also encourages students to learn (Heaton, 1990, pp 9-11; Harrison, 1983, p 1)

It is obvious that testing is an integral part of teaching and learning and is not significantly separated from classroom activities However, many students see tests as dark clouds over their heads since they are afraid of getting bad results which mean bad marks for them Hughes (1989, p 1), who considers the effect of testing on teaching and learning

as backwash, argued that “backwash can be harmful or beneficial” Backwash is harmful if

the test content and testing techniques are different from the objectives of the course

To sum up, not only the teachers but also the students may gain benefits from testing provided that the test content and testing techniques meet the objectives of the course and the test is suitable for students‟ language competence

3 Types of Test

In this section, types of tests which are categorized according to their purposes are taken into consideration Therefore, such types of tests as achievement tests, placement tests, diagnostic tests and proficiency tests are mentioned The section, then, goes on to distinguish between direct and indirect testing, between discrete point and integrative testing, between norm-referenced and criterion-referenced testing and between objective and subjective testing Finally, communicative language testing is presented

3.1 Achievement tests

This kind of tests interests teachers of English most as these tests are the commonest basis for the marks teachers give students during and at the end of each course Achievement tests in foreign language classes are directly related to language courses They attempt to assess whether a student has met the requirements of a given course, and sometimes whether he has satisfied a language requirement at an institution In other words, their purpose is to measure learners‟ language and skill progress in relation to the syllabus learners have been following (Krashen, 1987, p 179; Hughes, 1989, p 10; Harmer, 1991, p 321; Henning, 1987, p 6) Achievement tests also relate to the past because they measure what language the students have learned as a result of teaching (McNamara, 2000, p 7) Harrison (1983, p 7) states that “an achievement test (also called

an attainment or summative test) looks back over a longer period of learning than the

diagnostic test, for example a year‟s work, or a whole course, or even a variety of different

courses” He also proposes that an achievement test is intended to show the standard which the learners have now reached in relation to other learners at the same level

Achievement tests are divided into two types: final achievement tests and progress achievement tests (Hughes, 1989, p 10; Davies, 2000, pp 171-172)

Final achievement tests are longer-term achievement tests than progress ones They are administered at the end of a course of study to check how well learners have done over

a whole course, so they are also called course tests These tests may be written and administered by members of teaching institutions, by official examining boards, or by ministries of education The content of these tests “must be related to the courses with which they are concerned, but the nature of this relationship is a matter of disagreement amongst language testers” (Hughes, 1989, p 11) There are two approaches to the base of the content of a final achievement test The first is the “syllabus-content approach”, which has an obvious appeal because the test only contains what it is thought that the learners have actually encountered and its content is based directly on a detail course syllabus or on the books and other materials used (Hughes, 1989, p 11) Alderson, Clapham & Wall (1995, p 12) propose that the content of both progress and achievement test is generally based on the course syllabus or the course textbook This means that an achievement test should contain item types which the learners are familiar with (Harmer, 1991, p 321) In a reading test, for example, learners should be provided with similar texts and familiar task types with the texts they have seen before If students are faced with completely new material, the test will not measure the learning that has been taking place, even though it can still measure general language proficiency Hughes (1989, p 11), however, also points out the disadvantage of this approach He argues that “if the syllabus is badly designed, or the books and other materials are badly chosen, then the results of a test can be very misleading” and “successful performance on the test may not truly indicate successful achievement of course objectives” This argument leads to an alternative approach, the second one, which bases the test content directly on the objective of the course The following are a number of advantages of this approach:

1 It compels course designers to be explicit about objectives

2 It makes it possible for performance on the test to show just how far students have achieved those objectives

3 This in turn puts pressure on those responsible for the syllabus and for the selection of books and materials to ensure that these are consistent with the course objectives

4 Tests based on objectives work against the perpetuation of poor teaching practice, something which course-content-based tests, almost as if part of a conspiracy, fail to do

(Hughes, 1989, p 11) Therefore, Hughes (1989) believes that to base the content of final achievement tests on course objectives is much to be preferred However, it is Hughes (1989, p 13) who says that if the second approach is already being followed, “not only is there likely to be natural resistance to change, but such a change may represent a threat to many people” as

“a great deal of skill, tact and, possibly, political manoeuvring may be called for”

Progress achievement tests, or short-term achievement tests, which include achievement tests at the end of the term and progress tests at the end of a unit, a fortnight, etc., are used to check how well learners are doing after each lesson or unit, and provide consolidation or remedial work if necessary (Davies, 2000, p 171) They are intended to measure the progress that learners are making They can also help us to decide on changes

to future teaching programs where students do significantly worse in (parts of) the test than

we might have expected (Harmer, 1991, p 321) Hughes (1989, p 12) claims that as

„progress‟ is towards the achievement of course objectives, these tests should relate to objectives Then he suggests that to make a clear progression towards the final achievement test based on course objectives, a series of well-defined short-term objectives should be established In other words, the content of progress achievement tests should also be based on course objectives, especially the short-term objectives of the course

In this subsection, the general concepts of achievement tests as well as the approaches to the base of their content have been discussed Each approach has its own advantages and disadvantages Therefore, whichever approach applied to achievement test design depends on the testing situation and on the agreement of members of each teaching institution

3.2 Placement tests

A placement test is designed to provide information which will help to categorise new students according to their knowledge background at the beginning of the course, so that they can start a course at approximately the same level as the other students in the right class in a school (Harrison, 1983, p 4; Harmer, 1991, p 321; Hughes, 1989, p 14; Heaton, 1990, p 15) Placement tests obviously have their own characteristics For example, the test should consist of questions directly concerned with the specific language

skills which students will require on their course A placement test also looks forward to the language demands which will be made on students during their course What is more,

“a placement test should try to spread out the students‟ score as much as possible” in order

to be possible to divide students into groups based on their various ability levels (Heaton,

1990, p 15)

From the above characteristics, it is possible to conclude that, unlike achievement tests, placement tests are usually based on syllabuses and materials the learners will follow and use when their level has been decided on This kind of tests is essential in institutions that frequently receive new learners

3.3 Diagnostic tests

It is pointed out by Hughes (1989, p 13) that diagnostic tests are used to identify students‟ strengths and weaknesses They are intended to check our students‟ progress and identify their difficulties, gaps in their knowledge, and skill deficiencies during a course so

as to ascertain what further teaching is necessary (Harmer, 1991, p 321; Heaton, 1990, p 11) In other words, diagnostic tests help to show learners what their difficulties are, where gaps exist in their command of the language and what skills they should pay attention to This type of tests helps teachers to be aware of problems in order to teach effectively Test researchers also say that diagnostic tests can be used at the start of the course (Davies,

2000, p 171), at the end of a unit in the course book or after a lesson designed to teach one particular point (Harrison, 1983, p 6)

When designing a diagnostic test, we must select areas which we think students are likely to have problems with However, according to Heaton (1990, p 11), tests of grammar and pronunciation are more suitable for diagnosing students‟ difficulties than tests of skills as it is more difficult to use a skills test such as a reading test or test of free writing to determine problem areas in a systematic way

Concerning the approach to the base of the content of a diagnostic test, Harrison (1983, p 6) argues that it must relate to specific short-term objectives and should include further examples of the same kind of material as that used in teaching

As a result of the definition, the purpose and approach to this kind of tests, it can be said that diagnostic tests, to some extent, are the same as progress achievement tests

3.4 Proficiency tests

It is agreed that proficiency tests are used to measure the knowledge and ability of learners with different language training backgrounds in relation to generally accepted standards (Harrison, 1983, p.7; Hughes, 1989, p 9; Heaton, 1990, p.17; Harmer, 1991, p 321; Alderson et al., 1995, p 12; Davies, 2000, p 172) The content of a proficiency test, therefore, is not based on the objectives of any language course that learners may have followed These linguists also state that there are two types of proficiency tests One type is tests used for assessing learners‟ ability to use a language for a particular purpose This type of tests are suitable for people who need to measure their foreign language proficiency

so as to determine whether they are good enough for their job or for their future study abroad When designing this type of tests, test designer should pay careful attention to language areas and skills that the candidate will need The other type of proficiency tests,

by contrast, does not relate to any occupation or course of study “The function of these tests is to show whether candidates have reached a certain standard with respect to certain specified abilities” (Hughes, 1989, p 10)

To sum up, as Davies (2000, p 172) writes, proficiency tests “are useful for the objective evaluation of learning, and also for the indirect evaluation of course design and teaching” The popular systems of international proficiency tests are TOEFL, GMAT and IELTS In Vietnam, proficiency tests are of different levels namely A, B, C

3.5 Direct versus indirect testing

Direct and indirect testing are two approaches to test construction Each of them naturally has its own advantages and disadvantages to test design

Testing is said to be direct when it requires the candidate to perform precisely the

skill which we wish to measure in real and uncontrived communication situations (Hughes,

1989, p 15; Henning, 1987, p 5) In other words, if we want to measure candidates‟ ability

of writing, we should ask them to write a composition If we want to know how well they pronounce a language, we should ask them to speak This approach to test construction has following advantages:

- Provide that we are clear about just what abilities we want to assess, it is relatively straightforward to create the conditions which will elicit the behavior

on which to base our judgements

- At least in the case of the productive skills, the assessment and interpretation of students‟ performance is also quite straightforward

- Since practice for the test involves practice of the skills that we wish to foster, there is likely to be a helpful backwash effect

- Direct testing is inevitably limited to a rather small sample of tasks, which may call on a restricted and possibly unrepresentative range of grammatical structures

(Hughes, 1989, pp 15-16) This test specialist also agues that when a direct test is used, its tasks and texts should be as authentic as possible In fact, however, as candidates are aware that they are

in a test situation, the tasks cannot be really authentic What is more, when candidates‟ productive skills are tested, the result is not really reliable since the test is marked subjectively

Indirect testing, by contrast, “attempts to measure the abilities which underlie the

skills in which we are interested” (Hughes, 1989, p 15) Multiple choice recognition tests are typical of this approach to language testing The main appeal of indirect testing is that

it seems to offer the possibility of testing a representative sample of a finite number of abilities which underlie a potentially indefinitely large number of manifestations of them For example, if a representative sample of grammatical structures is taken in a test, it can

be relevant for all the situations in which control of grammar is necessary As a result of this argument, indirect testing is preferable to direct testing because its results are more generalisable (Hughes, 1989, p 16)

3.6 Discrete point versus integrative testing

According to Hughes (1989, p 16) and McNamara (2000, p 14), discrete point testing refers to the testing of separate, individual points of knowledge at a time, item by item Henning (1987, p 5) says that the distinction between discrete point and integrative testing was originated by John B Carroll (1961) Discrete point tests, as a variety of diagnostic tests, are designed to measure knowledge or performance in very restricted areas of the target language In this kind of tests, the points of grammar chosen for assessment would be tested one at a time; tests of grammar would be separate from tests of vocabulary; and material to be tested would be presented with minimal context or in an isolated sentence In order to test individual points, item formats of the multiple choice question type are most suitable (McNamara, 2000, p 14) Discrete point tests are almost always indirect tests (Hughes, 1989, p 17)

Integrative testing, as Hughes (1989, p 16) points out, requires the candidate to combine many language elements in the completion of a task Henning (1987, p 5) claims that integrative tests “tap a greater variety of language abilities concurrently” These tests, which include tasks of writing a composition, making notes while listening to a lecture, taking a dictation, or completing a cloze passage, tend to be direct (Hughes, 1989, pp 16-17)

However, Henning (1987, p 5) cites Farhady‟s (1979) evidence that “there are no statistically revealing differences” between discrete point and integrative tests The cloze procedure, for example, in which the integrative testing method is employed is indirect (Hughes, 1989, p 17)

3.7 Norm-referenced versus criterion-referenced testing

A test is said to be norm-referenced when it is designed to give the information of

one candidate‟s performance in relation to that of other candidates With the result of this kind of tests, we are not told directly how well the candidate has performed in the test (Hughes, 1989, p 17; Bachman, 1990, p 72) By contrast, we can easily compare the candidate‟s performance or achievement with that of his/her peers in a larger population of candidates Acceptable standards of candidates‟ performance can only be determined after the test has been conducted These standards are considered the mean or average score of other candidates from the same population (Henning, 1987, pp 7-8) As a result, this kind

of tests is suitable for placement purposes

Criterion-referenced tests are the ones providing us the information of how well a candidate perform in a language The purpose of these tests is to classify candidates according to whether or not they are able to do some task or set of tasks satisfactorily (Hughes, 1989, p 18; Bachman, 1990, p 74) The standard of candidates‟ performance is devised before the test is designed Tests of this kind have two virtues: “they set standard meaningful in terms of what people can do, which do not change with different groups of candidates; and they motivate students to attain those standards” However, for bright students, this kind of tests may not encourage them to reach higher standards after they have easily attained the criterion level of language (Henning, 1987, p 7)

It can be said that criterion-referenced tests are more suitable for classroom activities than norm-referenced ones As teachers can set certain objectives for students to achieve in tests, they can find out students‟ strengths and weaknesses, and thus can help them improve students‟ language competence

3.8 Objective versus subjective testing

These two types of testing are distinguished according to the manner in which tests are scored It is agreed that objective tests are the ones that need no knowledge or training

in the examined content area from scorers Subjective tests, by contrast, are the ones calling for judgement of scorers (Henning, 1987, p 4; Heaton, 1988, p 25; Hughes, 1989,

of forms of language and how language works than for testing their ability of using the language (Heaton, 1988, p 26) As a result, if students are given such kind of tests frequently, they will not learn how to use the language (Heaton, 1990, p 33) What is more, it is said that objective tests of multiple-choice type do not encourage students to use their language competence to do the task but encourage them to guess the answers However, if each multiple-choice item has four or five alternatives, it is possible to reduce the possibility of guessing (Heaton, 1988, p 26)

Examples of subjective tests are the ones that require candidates to write compositions, reports, letters, answers to comprehension questions, etc as well as require them to talk or to make conversations using their own words Henning (1987, p 4) cites Oller‟s (1979) opinion that “many tests, such as cloze tests permitting all grammatically acceptable responses to systematic deletions from a context, lie somewhere between the extremes of objectivity and subjectivity” Obviously, subjective tests are preferable to objective ones in that they can test language skills and certain areas of language However, since the answer to the question of these tests allows much freedom and requires flexibility, scoring needs to be carried out by a competent marker or teacher (Heaton, 1990,

p 32) Moreover, as scoring involves the marker‟s subjective judgement, the result from

the test usually denotes unreliable or undependable

In summary, designing objective tests requires much more time and more careful preparation than designing subjective ones, but the first ones reward us with the ease of marking Whichever test is used in classroom activities and in what occasion depends greatly on the teachers who should consider the most suitable type of tests for their students

3.9 Communicative language testing

Communicative language testing is another approach to testing which emphasizes the importance of the meaning of utterances rather than their form and structure (Heaton,

1988, p 19) McNamara points out two features of these tests:

1 They were performance tests, requiring assessment to be carried out when the learner or candidate was engaged in an extended act of communication, either receptive or productive, or both

2 They paid attention to the social roles candidates were likely to assume in real world settings, and offered a means of specifying the demands of such roles in detail

4 Characteristics of a Good Test

When designing tests, designers have to take various factors into consideration Such things are the purpose of the test, the content of the syllabus, the course objectives, pupils‟ backgrounds and so on To design a good test, of course, besides the above factors, characteristics of a good test should be included in the test designer‟s consideration It is agreed that validity, reliability, practicality and discrimination are the most important qualities of a good test (Harrison, 1983; Henning, 1987; Heaton, 1988; Hughes, 1989;

Weir, 1990; Alderson et al., 1995; Bachman & Palmer, 1996) In the following subsections these characteristics will be discussed in turn

4.1 Validity

Validity of a test is known as the extent to which it measures accurately what it is intended to measure However, when it is carefully examined, the concept of validity reveals several typical aspects as follows:

or informally by discussion in class or staff room (Henning, 1987, p 94; Harrison, 1983, p 11)

What is more, a test which has face validity should look as if it measures what it is supposed to (Hughes, 1989, p 27) For example, if students‟ pronunciations ability is intended to be measured, students should be asked to speak If not, for example in the case

of testing students‟ pronunciation ability in an indirect test, or in a multiple-choice test, the test might be thought to lack face validity However, Hughes (1989, p 27) also argues that indirect tests will have face validity if novel techniques are introduced slowly with care and with convincing explanation

attention must be paid to content validity to ensure that the knowledge area included in the test is as representative of the target domain as possible Hughes (1989, p 22) asserts that a test whose content constitutes a representative sample of the language skills, structures, etc with which it is meant to be concerned is said to have content validity Content validity, according to Harrison (1983, p 11), is concerned with “what goes into the test” Henning (1987, p 94) and Davies (2000, p 172) even give a more specific statement They

claim that content validity should be “sufficiently representative and comprehensive for

the test to be a valid measure of what it is supposed to measure” In other words, a test must be selective in content which depends on the course syllabus and the purpose of the test For example, the Passive Voice should only be given in a test if it has been practiced

by the learners Hughes (1989, p 23) also points out that it is necessary to determine the content of the test by what is important to test rather than what is easy to test

As a result of the necessity of content validity, a table of specifications - a list of what candidates are asked to do (McNamara, 2000, p 50) or a statement of what the content of the test ought to be (Alderson et al., 1995, p 173) - upon which a test is based should be included in the procedures of test design The content specification is important because it ensures as far as possible that the test reflects the particular language skills and areas in a suitable percentage weighting That is, the test writer should quantify and balance the test components so as to indicate the importance of each component in relation

to the others in the test (Heaton, 1988, p 161) The table of specifications, according to Harrison (1983, pp 16-23) and Alderson et al (1995, pp 11-14), should include:

- the objectives of the test,

- the skills and language elements which should be tested,

- the sort of candidates,

- the sort of tasks that are required,

- the number of sections,

- the number of items,

- the test method that is used,

- the type of texts that are chosen,

- the rubrics or instructions for candidates,

- the length of time allowed for the test, etc

In summary, content validity is an integral characteristic of a good test However, its limitation is that it focuses only on test, not on test scores (Bachman, 1990, p 247)

4.1.3 Construct validity

According to Alderson et al (1995, p 183), construct validity is the most difficult concept to explain While content validity focuses on test, construct validity directly relates

to the meaningfulness and appropriateness of the interpretations on test scores The term

construct validity is therefore used to refer to the extent to which a given test score can be

interpreted as an indicator of the abilities, or constructs, that are intended to measure (Bachman, 1990, p 255; Bachman & Palmer, 1996, p 21) Constructs, according to Bachman (1990, p 255), “can be viewed as definitions of abilities that permit us to state specific hypotheses about how these abilities are or are not related to other abilities, and about the relationship between these abilities and observed behaviour” However, Alderson

et al (1995, p 183) cites Ebel‟s and Frisbie‟s (1991, p 108) opinion, saying that:

The term construct refers to a psychological construct, a theoretical

conceptualisation about an aspect of human behaviour that cannot be measured or observed directly Examples of constructs are intelligence, achievement motivation, anxiety, achievement, attitude, dominance, and reading comprehension

A test is said to have construct validity if it measures just the ability which it is supposed to measure (Hughes, 1989, p 26) It means that the test should include exercises and tasks similar to those used in the course and correspond to the general approach of the course For example, students should not be required to translate a passage in a test if they are not familiar with this activity in the course (Davies, 2000, p 172) If a test is against this principle, it will be seen unfair by the teachers and the learners In Heaton‟s (1988, p 161) opinion, if a course has adopted communicative approach as its centre teaching method, a test which consists of chiefly multiple-choice items will lack construct validity

4.2 Reliability

Reliability is another essential quality of a good test A test cannot be considered to have validity without having reliability (Harrison, 1983, p 12) Moreover, reliability is primarily important to the use of both public achievement and proficiency tests and classroom tests (Heaton, 1988, p 162) It is commonly agreed that for a test to be reliable, the test designer should take the following aspects into account (Harrison, 1983; Henning, 1987; Heaton, 1988; Hughes, 1989; Weir, 1990; Harmer, 1991; Davies, 2000):

1 How far we can believe or trust the results of the test: for example, if the same test is

given to the same group of students twice within two days; they should get the same

results on each occasion In other words, the results should be consistent

2 How far the test can be marked objectively: multiple choice tests are said to be

objective by nature as they do not need any personal judgement from the scorer On the contrary, direct tests, where more than one answer is possible, are purely subjective as

they require scorers to use their personal judgement

3 The length and difficulty of the test: it is fair to students if the length and difficulty of

the test given are appropriate to the time allowance and students‟ language

competence

4 The discriminability of the test: if items in the test have high discriminability, the test

as a whole will have greater power to discriminate among students who are low and

high in the ability of interest That is the test will have greater reliability

5 The test instruction: the instructions should be clear and unambiguous for all the

students and there should be no errors in the test, for example, if the students have to

„select the best answer – a, b, c, or d‟, there should not actually be two or more

acceptable answers

6 How the test is administered: differences in the time of test administration, the extent

of test administrator interaction with examinees, the prevention of cheating behaviour and the reporting of the time remaining or interruptions and distractions for one group

of examinees and not for another may reduce reliability

7 Personal factors: temporary changes in examinees such as fatigue, sickness and

emotional disturbance may also cause the reduction of reliability

8 Response characteristics: this aspect concerns students‟ guessing As mentioned in

subsection 2.3.8., objective tests of multiple-choice type is said not to encourage students to use their language competence to do the task but to encourage them to

guess the answers

4.3 Practicality

A test must be practical That is, it must be well organized in advance to be straightforward to administer There are many matters concerning practicality of a test which a test designer should take into consideration, however, the following are typical ones pointed out by Harrison (1983, pp 12-13) and Heaton (1988, pp 167-168):

- the length of time available for the administration of the test as it is frequently misjudged even by an experienced test designer

- whether or not special arrangements have to be made, for example, what happens to the rest of the class while individual speaking tests take place

- the preparation of equipment needed for the test such as tape recorder, overhead projector, etc

- the length of time for marking and the number of teachers involved

- the reproduction of test materials in quantity and its cost

- how the test will be stored before the administration and between sittings of the test

- the presentation of the test paper itself, that is, it should be printed and appear neat and tidy

Discrimination

Discrimination is also another important feature of a good test which discriminates among the different students and reflects the differences in the performances of the individuals in the group (Heaton, 1988, p 165) In other words, it is “the extent to which a test separates the students from each other” (Harrison, 1983, p 14) The extent to discriminate will depend on the purpose of the test For example, in classroom tests, to find out how well the students have mastered the syllabus, the teacher may hope for a cluster of marks around 80 per cent and 90 per cent brackets (Heaton, 1988, 165) Briefly, to make finer discrimination among students by tests, the items should be spread over a wide difficulty level as follows:

- extremely easy items

- very easy items

- easy items

- fairly easy items

- items below average difficulty level

- items of average difficulty level

- items above average difficulty level

- fairly difficult items

- difficult items

- very difficult items

- extremely difficult items

(Heaton, 1988, p 167)

5 Test Items

5.1 Direct test items

Direct test items are the ones that ask students to perform the communicative skills which are being tested They should be as much like real-life language use as possible (Harmer, 1991, p 322) For direct tests items to be „validity‟ and „reliable‟, test designers need to:

 Create a ’level playing field’: that is, test items need to avoid making excessive

demands on the student‟s general or specialist knowledge

 Replicate real-life interaction: it means that test items should be as much like real life

as possible

(Harmer, 1991, pp 325-326)

5.2 Indirect test items

According to Harmer (1991, 322) indirect test items “try to measure a student‟s knowledge and ability by getting at what lies beneath their receptive and productive skills”

In other words, they try to find out about a student‟s language knowledge through such more controlled items as multiple choice questions or grammar transformation items

Indirect test items are divided into a wide range of types, however, the following are in common use:

 Multiple choice questions (MCQs): this type of test items is set out to require students

to select a correct answer from a number of given options (Weir, 1990, p 43;

Shohamy, 2002, p 38) The initial part of a multiple choice item is the stem The

choices from which the students select their answers are known as

options/responses/alternatives One option is the answer/correct option or key, while

the others are distractors Distractors are used to distract the students who do not know

the answer from the correct option (Heaton, 1988, p 28) MCQs can provide a useful means of teaching and testing in various learning situations They are particularly useful in measuring students‟ ability to recognize correct grammatical forms They can also help both students and teachers to identify areas of difficulty (Heaton, 1988, p 27) What is more, a test with MCQs has almost complete marker reliability as only one of the options given in each item is correct This also enables the scoring to be done by a computer, so this kind of tests can be applied to testing a large number of students The MCQ, however, is one of the most difficult and time-consuming types of items to construct This kind of items “frequently does not lend itself to the testing of language as communication” (Heaton, 1988, p 27) When MCQs are used to test

language skills, they are indeed to test students‟ knowledge of the language Therefore,

it may not actually improve students‟ English competence

 Cloze procedures: cloze procedures offer us indirect but integrative testing items This

type of items “is the deletion of every nth word in a text” (Harmer, 1991, p 323) As in

a test with this type of test, many linguistic functions and skills may be tested, it become more integrative in its reach However, in some cases, there are several possible answers, so it leads to the problems of reliability

 Transformation and paraphrase: this is a test item that requires students to rewrite a

sentence in a slightly different form, retaining the exact meaning of the original (Harmer, 1991, p 324) As a result, it provides us with something about the students‟ knowledge of the language system

 Sentence re-ordering: this type of test items asks students to put words in the right

order to make appropriate sentences, which tells us quite a lot about their knowledge of syntax and lexico-grammatical elements (Harmer, 1991, p 324)

So far in this part, such great concerns in test design as concepts of testing, roles of testing, some types of test, characteristics of a good test and test items have been discussed These are the theoretical base for the test design and test analysis mentioned in the next part

Part C: THE STUDY

1 The issues influencing current testing situation at LQD-DD High school

1.1 The students and their backgrounds

The students who have been studying at LQD-DD High school are all living in the inner city of Hanoi Most of them finished the secondary school program there, and all of them have been studying English for nearly seven years or more That is, they studied English from grade 6 to grade 9 at the lower secondary school and then from grade 10 to the present grade – grade 12 at the high school Some of them have even been studying English since grade 3 at the primary school Therefore, many of them have rather good background knowledge of English The students of LQD-DD High school when entering

the school are divided into two categories: the ones pursuing Ban cơ bản (i.e the specialization program) and the ones pursuing Ban tự nhiên (i.e specialization in

non-sciences) This means that all the students of the school have been studying English

provided in a common set of textbooks which is unofficially called “Sách chuẩn” (i.e

„standard textbooks‟) However, the students pursuing Ban cơ bản are also divided into

two groups – the ones whose major subjects are Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry

(called the non-specialization program 1) and the ones whose major subjects are Mathematics, Literature and English (called the non-specialization program 2) The

difference between them is that the latter wish to get as good marks as possible at the GCSE national examination and especially at the university entrance examination while the rest need only a pass mark for the GCSE national examination Different objectives, different motivation, etc lead to different ways of learning and teaching The question here for English test writers at LQD-DD High school is how to design an achievement test that meets the requirements of the course objectives and is appropriate to all grade 12 students

of the school

1.2 The English teaching staff

Our English teaching group consists of twelve teachers, none of whom have ever been trained abroad One of the teachers has got his MA in English teaching and three other ones are studying for this degree Some of the teachers have ever won „excellent teacher‟ Award of the district and the city When teaching in class, they prefer speaking English to their students This, however, seems to take effects only on those who study in

the non-specialization program 2 In contrast, teachers, when teaching in classes where

main subjects are Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, usually have to use Vietnamese as students in these classes do not care about speaking English in particular and about communicative skills in English in general

1.3 English teaching and learning

High school is the same as the one used in other high schools nationwide This syllabus belongs to the new English curriculum for secondary school students issued by Ministry of Education and Training in 2006 which aims at “training students in communicative competence so that they can perform basic language functions receptively and productively, using correct language forms and structures” (Nguyen, 2007, p 19) That is, when leaving school, students can use English in real-life situations However, the materials and equipment to teach communicative English are not available at the school For example, when teaching listening lessons, teachers must bring cassette players to the class, but they have to share as there are not enough for all of them As a result, it is sometimes inconvenient for both teachers and students There is a language laboratory for students to study listening and speaking at the school, but there are not enough earphones for all students of a class However, the idea of dividing students of a class into two to fit the language laboratory is impractical as there are not enough teachers to manage a half of

a class while the other half is studying in the language laboratory It is this reason that teaching and learning in this functional room is not in the teachers‟ and students‟ preference except for the time when there are other teachers visiting the class As a result, this language laboratory does not have much effect on teaching and learning English at LQD-DD High school

The total number of class hours for the 12th-grade is 105 periods, of which 54 periods are included in the 1st term and each period is 45 minutes in length Therefore, there are 3 periods of English per week However, students pursuing non-specialization

they are taught English in another book for more advanced students issued by MOET in

2007 That is, the chance for students to practice skills and improve English competence at school is not equal Moreover, the class size from more than 40 to nearly 60 is too much for a class of language study In class, students usually practice language skills in pairs or

in groups, so it is difficult for teachers to control too many students In addition, as mentioned in section 3.1.1., the target of many students is the GCSE national examination

and the university entrance examination which all consist of MCQs, so the fact of “learn and teach – to – test” is unavoidable

1.4 The objectives of the K-12 course

After the course, students of grade 12 are supposed to have the following abilities:

Listening: understand the main ideas and details of monologues/dialogues of 180-200

words on six themes including “You and me”, “Education”, “Community”,

“Health”, “Recreation” and “The world around us”, understand texts that are delivered at a near-natural speed

Speaking: ask and answer about the topics covered, perform some basic language functions

such as expressing opinions & viewpoints, talking about needs and likes, explaining

Reading: understand the main ideas and details of texts of 280-320 words on the topics

covered, distinguish main ideas and supporting ideas, use main ideas to summarize texts

Writing: write texts of 130-150 words on familiar topics based on models or prompts for

personal or basic communicative purposes

(MOET, 2006, p 25)

1.5 Teaching material used for the K-12

The textbook used for the 12th-form is called “Tiếng Anh 12” (the standard textbook) The book is claimed to adopt a theme-based syllabus including 16 teaching units and 6 review units The methodologies the book is claimed to follow are the “learner-centered approach and the communicative approach with task-based teaching being the central teaching method” (English 10, Teacher‟s Manual, p 12) The teaching contents for each unit are summarized in a book map which is provided on the first page of the book The contents of eight units taught in the 1st term belong to such themes as “You and me” (Unit 1, 2, 3), “Education” (Unit 4, 5, 6) and “Community” (Unit 7, 8) Each unit consists

of five lessons, of which there are four lessons of skills: reading, speaking, listening and

writing; the last lesson is language focus A specific topic is involved in all the lessons of

each unit (For the aims in different skills/parts of each unit, see Appendix 1.)

In the Reading lesson, students are given texts of about 300 words This lesson is

given first in a unit in order to introduce students to the topic and elicit new vocabulary

The aim of the Reading lesson is to develop reading skills and strategies such as scanning,

skimming and guessing meaning in context through such forms of tasks as: deciding on True or False statements, vocabulary comprehension matching, answering questions, arranging the sequence of an event, summarising main idea and note taking

The Speaking lesson requires students to perform some activities The first and

second activities provide language input and develop specific language functions Students are required to express different points of view, give and ask for information, practise giving and responding to compliments, talk about changes, describe details in pictures and make predictions The remaining activities involve short talks on a specific topic possibly with or without prompts

In the Listening lesson, dialogues or monologues are usually given after some

activities which aim to motivate students to listen, activate their background knowledge and provide vocabulary While listening, students are expected to develop such micro-skills as listening for general understanding, listening for specific or detailed information and take the form of matching exercises, True-False questions, gap-filling, multiple choice questions, or open-ended questions The last activity of the lesson often involves text summary or reproduction in oral or written forms, and/or further discussion of the topic

The main activity of the Writing lesson often requires students to write personal

and formal letters or to give description and table description Students are also asked to build sentences based on given words and re-order given sentences to make a complete paragraph

The Language Focus lesson comprises two parts, Pronunciation and Grammar (and

Vocabulary) The Pronunciation component focuses on the pronunciation of the endings

“s” and “ed”, the stress in words including two syllables upwards and the weak and strong forms of conjunctions, prepositions and auxiliaries The Grammar (and Vocabulary) component aims to consolidate some points of grammar (and vocabulary) presented in the unit such as tenses, reported speech, passive voice, conditional sentences, relative clauses,

the use of (al)though/even though and prepositions and articles The practice of these

points of grammar and vocabulary is usually presented in the forms of MCQs, gap-filling, sentence completion, sentence rewriting and sentence combination

1.6 The content and construction required for the achievement test for the K-12

As mentioned in section 1.2., the achievement test designed in this study is required, by the school authority, to follow the form of English tests for the GCSE national examination provided by Nguyen (2009) (See Appendix 2)

Students are tested on phonetics, grammar and vocabulary, communicative functions, reading skill and writing skill The test is designed in the form of MQCs, of which all the parts are presented in separate items except for the part of reading skill which

is based on texts In phonetics part, there are 5 items of stress and/or vowel and consonant pronunciation (10%) The grammar and vocabulary part (40%) includes 9 items which test students‟ ability of using nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, conjunctions, etc., 5 items of sentence structures and 6 items of word formation and word, phrase, or fixed phrase selection, etc In the part of testing communicative functions, words and phrases used in everyday communication are presented Cultural features are also encouraged to be included in this part, which accounts for 5 items (10%) To test students‟ reading skill, the test gives them two texts, one of which requires students to fill in blanks, using words or phrases with grammatical meaning or lexical meaning This text is of about 150 words in length The other text, which consists of about 200 words, aims at testing reading comprehension The questions from this text may include vocabulary with closest or opposite meaning based on context The part of reading skill (20%) accounts for 5 items for each text The last part is the writing skill which is divided into two forms The first form is identifying mistakes relating to writing skill The other form is sentence transformation, sentence combination, sentence building, sentence selection, or sentences with closest meaning at the level of phrase and clause This part, which accounts for 20%, consists of 5 items for each form The total number of items of the test is 50 which is expected to be completed in 60 minutes

2 The current testing situation

There are two forms of assessment for secondary school students: continuous and regular These include oral tests, 15-minute tests, 45-minute tests, end-of-semester tests and end-of-year tests The marks of oral tests can be given to students during the lesson by the teachers, so each student has at least one mark for this kind of tests 15-minute tests are usually given when the teachers would like to evaluate how well their students are doing after a teaching point 45-minute tests are administered after two or three units There are three 15-minute tests and three 45-minute-tests for students pursuing non-specialization program 2 while there are only two tests for each of these types for the rest of students at the school 15-minute tests and 45-minute tests are usually direct, indirect, or both direct and indirect However, when indirect tests are designed, MCQs are usually in the test designer‟s favour End-of-semester tests, which are of concern to the author of this thesis,

and end-of-year tests are required to be designed in the form of MCQs and to follow the construction of tests mentioned in the previous subsection

It is observed that for some teachers testing is not taken serious enough, so they do not pay much attention to it Due to the pressure of time and carelessness they sometimes

do not design but download tests from the Internet or use tests designed by other teachers

of other schools This often leads to unexpected results as the tests are not suitable for their students and teachers must ask their students to redo the tests That is, after a semester, students will have many marks from these tests and higher marks will be chosen by the teachers

Up to now, there has not been a bank of standard test items for students at the school, so English tests are usually designed with items taken from exercise books written for students of the same grade These are usually the books published by Vietnam National University Publishing House and Vietnam Education Publishing House In this study, the items of the test designed by the author are also selected from such exercise books written

by Dang & Nguyen (2008), Luu (2008), Mai & Nguyen (2008), Nguyen & Hoang (2008a), Nguyen & Hoang (2008b) and Vu (2008), but are adapted for students of LQD-DD High school It is hoped that after being analysed from the test result, good objective items of the test will be used again and by doing the same test after test, a bank of good test items for students of the school will be set up in coming years

3 The process of testing

To design the test, the author based on characteristics of a good test mentioned in chapter 2 and adopted the process of testing given by Shohamy (2002, p 15) as it is easy to carry out and suitable for designing and administering an achievement test in high schools

3.1 Determining the purpose of the test

To check how well students of K-12 are doing after the first term, a progress achievement test should be given to them The result of the test - the mark students gain -

is used as the most important mark since it is three times as much as the others in the number of marks students get during the term It is the final mark in the process of assessing students‟ performance at school after a term of study The test is also a chance for students to get used to the form of an English test for the GCSE national examination

3.2 Planning the test

Students of K-12 are tested on phonetics, grammar and vocabulary, communicative functions, reading skill and writing skill which base on such themes as “You and me”

“Education” and “Community” and grammatical points of Unit 1 to 7 in the textbook

Education (Unit 4,5,6)

Community (Unit 7) Total Phonetics:

 Distinguish vowels or consonants

 Identify stress patterns

2

5 Grammar and vocabulary:

 determine correct nouns, pronouns, verb tenses, adjectives,

conjunctions, etc

 specify correct sentence structures

 identify form of words, suitable fixed words or phrases

belonging to the themes

 specify words or phrases having grammatical meaning or

lexical meaning in an academic text of about 150 words

 skim to find main ideas and scan for specific information in an

Writing skill:

 identify mistakes relating to writing skill

 build sentences from the cues

 Time for test completion: 60 minutes

 Criterial levels of performance: it is expected that at least 70% of students can complete 60 percent of the total items upwards

 Materials: three other versions of the test created by shuffling the order of the tasks,

the items and the options are prepared, the answer sheet for all students is included in the test paper and the key sheets are also prepared for other teachers to score

3.3 Selecting items and tasks

The items of the test are selected from exercise books written by Dang & Nguyen (2008), Luu (2008), Mai & Nguyen (2008), Nguyen & Hoang (2008a), Nguyen & Hoang (2008b) and Vu (2008) and some are adapted for students of the school

Based on the objectives, the test designed consists of 7 types: