An evaluation on the validity of end term english tests used for year 11 students at a vietnamese public high school in the north east area of vietnam

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACUTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES *************** NGUYỄN THỊ TRANG AN EVALUATION ON THE VALIDITY OF

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACUTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

***************

NGUYỄN THỊ TRANG

AN EVALUATION ON THE VALIDITY OF END-TERM ENGLISH TESTS USED FOR YEAR 11 STUDENTS

AT A VIETNAMESE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL IN THE NORTH

EAST AREA OF VIETNAM

(Đánh giá tính giá trị trong các bài kiểm tra hết học kỳ môn tiếng Anh của học sinh lớp 11 ở một trường công lập tại phía Đông Bắc Việt Nam)

Field: English Teaching Methodology (Applied program)

Code: 8140231.01

HANOI- 2019

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACUTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

***************

NGUYỄN THỊ TRANG

AN EVALUATION ON THE VALIDITY OF END-TERM ENGLISH TESTS USED FOR YEAR 11 STUDENTS AT A VIETNAMESE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL IN THE NORTH EAST

DECLARATION

The thesis entitled “An evaluation on the validity of end-term English

tests used for year 11 students at a Vietnamese public high school in the North East area of Vietnam” has been submitted for the Master of English

teaching methodology

I, the undersigned, hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis I have fully acknowledged and referenced the ideas and work of others, whether published or unpublished, in my thesis

My thesis does not contain work extracted from a thesis, dissertation or research paper previously presented for another degree or diploma at this or any other universities

Signed

Date / /

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

On the completion of this paper, I would like to express my gratitude to all my teachers, my supervisor, the administrators, staffs, teachers, and students at a Vietnamese public high school in the North-East area of Vietnam, friends and family

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratefulness to

my supervisor She gives me all the best consultancy, valuable comments and motivation as well

Secondly, I highly express my gratitude to the teachers at Faculty of Post-graduate Studies of University of Languages and International Studies for their previous lessons in school year 2016-2018 They directly provided

me with the understandings, the knowledge and skills relating to my field- English language teaching

Moreover, I sincerely appreciate the cooperation of the administrators, staffs, teachers and students at a Vietnamese public high school in the North-East area of Vietnam Especially, I am so thankful to Ms A for providing me the data of two school years

Finally, I would like to thank my loved family, who have supported me throughout entire process, both by keeping me harmonious and helping me putting pieces together I will be grateful forever for your love

ABSTRACT

English is one of the main subjects in Vietnam education nowadays All fields are using English from business, commercial, transport, technology

to tourism, education, and logistics With the deep concerns about the

importance of English, the researcher carried out study titled: “An evaluation

on the validity of end-term English tests used for year 11 students at a Vietnamese public high school in the North East area of Vietnam” The main

purpose of this research was to find out the validity on the end-term English tests used for year 11 students The participants were 2,481 test papers taken

in two school years of a public high school The method was quantitative approach All scores were analyzed to compare the progress of learning in two school years to find out the validity on the tests The results showed that

it appears no valid in the tests although the teachers and students always evaluate the progress of teaching and learning through only scores of end-term English tests for English subject Basing on the findings, a number of suggestions for better end-term English tests were indicated and it helps both teachers and students have best look about measurement and evaluation their teaching and learning Therefore, the paper would be a good reference for researchers, teachers and students to have a closer look on the issue as well as

to improve the end-term English tests

Key words: validity, evaluation end-term tests, high school students

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

LIST OF TABLES vi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale for choosing this topic 1

1.2 Scope of the study 2

1.3 Aims of the study 2

1.4 Methods of the study 3

1.5 Research questions 3

1.6 Design of the thesis 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Basic concepts of testing 5

2.2 The relationship between teaching, learning and assessment 6

2.2.1 Testing and teaching 6

2.2.2 Testing and Learning 7

2.2.3 Language Testing 9

2.3 Major characteristics of a good language test 10

2.4 Achievement test and its types 16

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 17

3.1 English learning and teaching at a Vietnamese public high school in the North East area of Vietnam 17

3.1.1 Students and their backgrounds 17

3.1.2 The English staffs 17

3.3.3 Syllabus and its objectives 18

3.1.4 The textbook: “Tiếng Anh 11” 21

3.2 English testing at a Vietnamese public high school in the North East area of Vietnam 21

3.2.1 Testing situation 21

3.2.2 The current final year-11 achievement tests 22

3.3 Research method 24

3.3.1 Data collection instruments 25

3.3.2 Participants 25

3.4 Data analysis 25

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 32

4.1 Content validity 32

4.2 Construct validity 33

4.3 Face validity 34

4.4 Final evaluations 35

4.5 Conclusion for Section 3.5 35

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 36

5.1 Summary of findings 36

5.2 Limitations 39

5.3 Suggestions for further research 39

REFERENCES 41 APPPENDICES I

Appendix I: Final 1st Semester achievement test in year 2015-2016 I Appendix II: Final 1st Semester achievement test in year 2016-2017 IV Appendix III: Final 2nd Semester achievement test in year 2015-2016 VII Appendix IV: Final 2nd Semester achievement test in year 2016-2017 X

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT Communicative Language Teaching

1 st The first

2 nd The second

LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 A checklist for test evaluation

Table 3.1 Detail subjects for each grade

Table 3.2 Number of English periods in two semesters

Table 3.3 Syllabus goal and objectives

Table 3.4 Topics of English 11

Table 3.5 Specification of the first end-term test for year 11

Table 3.6 Specification of the second end-term test for year 11

Table 3.7 Average score of four achievement tests

Table 3.8 Frequency distribution of 1

Figure 3.1 Histogram of Score distribution

Figure 3.2 Histogram of Score distribution

Figure 3.3 Histogram of Score distribution

Figure 3.4 Histogram of Score distribution

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for choosing this topic

English is currently being used in at least sixty countries as the main language and nearly one hundred countries as the second language all over the world In affiliation and globalization period, all fields are using English from business, commercial, transport, technology to tourism, education, logistic English is a useful tool for people in the world to understand together Leading to the needs for learning and teaching English language in any part of the world is growing With national education in many countries, English has become a compulsory subject Their target is help learners access the best things and have good jobs in the world To meet these needs, the government and the education department need to find the best ways to help teachers and learners using proficiently English language

Fully recognizing the importance of English language, the government and the Ministry of education and training in Vietnam have required all students from grade 3 to grade 12 to learn English as a compulsory subject Therefore, English has been taught at any primary, secondary and high schools in Vietnam aiming at equipping the students with

a best tool to work in any field in their life Strongly knowing the importance

of English language, a Vietnamese public high school in the North East area

of Vietnam has taught English subject in all classes from grade 10 to grade

12 With oriented classes, there are at least four periods per week and others have three periods per week Besides that, each year always has two semesters with overall for 111 English periods However, after finishing a semester and

a year, a test has not evaluated what students acquire English, how well they use English with taught lessons and at which level of English they are

standing In a public high school in the North East area of Vietnam, with English subject, teachers and students have followed the textbook named

“Tiếng Anh 11” which has five main parts including these orders: reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus Nevertheless, in the end-term tests, only grammar knowledge is displayed on the test papers So, do the tests meet the validity? Can students use English well to communicate outside? Seeing these points, I decide to undertake this study entitled “An evaluation on the validity of end-term English tests used for year 11 students

at a Vietnamese public high school in the North East area of Vietnam” with the intention to find out how validity the tests are More importantly, I strongly hope that the results of the study can then be applied to improve the current and to create a new really validity item bank It is also intended to encourage both teachers and learners in their teaching and learning

1.2 Scope of the study

The scope of this thesis is limited to a research on examining the existing achievement test in terms of its validity for year-11 students at a Vietnamese public high school in the North East area of Vietnam The study gives analyzed statistic data of the currently used tests and proposes practical suggestions to improve the tests Due to the limitations of time and research conditions, it is impossible for the author to cover all used achievement tests for all high school students at a Vietnamese public high school Instead, only four tests are studied

1.3 Aims of the study

The major aim of the study is to evaluate the currently used achievement tests for year 11 students at a Vietnamese public high school in the North East area of Vietnam with a special focus on the test validity The specific aims of the research are:

 To evaluate the test validity through initial score statistics obtained from the four achievement tests result of year 11 students at a Vietnamese public high school in the North East area of Vietnam

 To pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of the test, and

 To provide practical suggestions for the test improvement

1.4 Methods of the study

In order to achieve the above-mentioned aims, the study has been carried out with the following methodologies

First, the author based herself both on the theory and on the principle

of Language Testing, major characteristics of a good test, especially test validity, achievement test and statistical methods used in interpreting test results From critical reading, the writer has gathered, analyzed and synthesized many reference materials to draw out a theoretical basis to evaluate the used achievement test for the 11th year students in terms of its validity

2 To what extent do the tests for year 11 students in a Vietnamese public school in the North East area of Vietnam meet the construct validity?

3 To what extent do the tests for year 11 students in a Vietnamese public school in the North East area of Vietnam meet the face validity?

1.6 Design of the thesis

The thesis is clearly organized into four main chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction of the thesis presents such basic information as the

rationales, the scopes, the aims, the methods, the research questions and the design of the study

Chapter 2: Literature review reviews theoretical backgrounds on evaluating a

test which includes these main points: the importance of testing in education, language testing, major characteristics of a good test and achievement test

Chapter 3: Methodology is the main part of the thesis showing the context of

the study and the detail results obtained from collected tests and findings in response to the research questions

Chapter 4: Conclusion offers conclusions of the thesis and practical

implications for the test improvement In this part, the author also proposes some suggestions for further research on the topic

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides the theories and literature relevant to the topic It

includes five main parts Section 2.1 starts with different basic concepts of

testing and its importance, then the relationship between teaching, learning

and assessment are reviewed in Section 2.2 It is then followed by language testing in Section 2.3 Next, in Section 2.4 Major characteristics of a good

language test is presented with a major focus on test validity, especially construct, content and face validity Finally, the achievement test and its types

are explored in Section 2.5

2.1 Basic concepts of testing

An important part of each teaching and learning experience is testing which is a tool to measure learners‟ ability As Oller (1974) emphasized testing as an instrument to ensure that students have a sense of competition rather than to know how good their performance is and in which condition a test can take place It may create positive or negative attitudes toward teaching and learning process However, Heaton (1975) looks in different way Tests are considered as a mean of assessing the students‟ performance and to motivate the students Harrison (1983) notices that a test is a useful tool to measure learners‟ ability in a certain situation especially in classroom Through testing, the teachers can make important decisions on the courses, the syllabus, the course book, teachers and learners Bachman (1990) asserts that language tests can provide the means for more focus on the specific assure of interest With Brown (1994) insists that “a test, is a method of measuring a person‟s ability or knowledge in a given area” Therefore, in short, testing is an effective mean of measuring and assessing students‟ language knowledge and skills This is to evaluate learners‟ ability, suitable

teaching methods, teaching and learning materials Through testing, the administrators can make important decisions on the course, the syllabus, the course book, teachers, learners and administration Testing contributes a very important part in teaching/learning process It is the last stage in education technology Therefore, to take advantages of testing to measure the quality of education, the administrators must build an essential and eligible testing technology This is to evaluate learners‟ ability, suitability of teaching methods, teaching/learning materials and teaching/learning conditions and suitability of set-up training objectives

2.2 The relationship between teaching, learning and assessment

In every teaching and learning experience, testing is a significant part

To measure learners‟ ability, the best way we use is testing It may create positive or negative attitudes toward teaching and learning process Testing reflects teaching process and overall training objectives and aims Through testing, the administrator can make important decisions on the course, the syllabus, the course book, teachers and learners

Testing contributes a very significant part in teaching and learning process It can be the first, middle or the last stage in education technology Therefore, to take advantages of testing to measure the quality of education, the administrators must build an essential and eligible testing technology This is to evaluate learners‟ ability, suitability of set-up training objectives and aims

2.2.1 Testing and teaching

Testing and learning are closely related because it is impossible to work

in either field without being constantly concerned with the others (Heaton, 1998:5) In other words, Heaton implied that teaching and learning provide a great source of language materials for testing to make use of In turn, testing

reinforces, encourages and perfect the teaching/learning process Hughes (1989: 2) summarizes the relationship as: “The proper relationship between teaching and testing is surely that of partnership” To explain this, Hughes mentioned the effect of the vice versa relationship as backwash If the testing leaves good effect on teaching, the backwash is said beneficial However, there may be occasions when the teaching is good and appropriate and the testing is not, we are then likely to suffer from harmful backwash Testing result will give information for both teachers and learners for their future action, such as improving knowledge and skills, revising knowledge, or applying a new teaching method As Brown (2000) shared the idea that testing is “what teacher measures or judge learners‟ competence all the time and, ideally, learners measure and judge themselves”

Shortly speaking, it is undeniable that testing is an integrative part of teaching and it can be separate from the program or from the course goal Testing has both positive and negative impact on teaching Testing provides the teacher with information on how effective his teaching has been, or the teacher can use tests to diagnose his own efforts as well as those of his students

2.2.2 Testing and Learning

Testing is a tool to “pinpoint strengths and weaknesses in the learned abilities of the student” (Henning, 1987:1) That is, through testing, learners can find out at which level they are standing and what difficulties they have faced up with As a result, they can adjust their learning; explore more effective ways of learning At the same time, the teacher can rely on the results of tests to understand better learners‟ ability and then can improve his methods of teaching or revise knowledge Thus, Read (1982:2) said that “a test can help both teachers and learners to clarify what the learners really need

to know” It is clear that not only the teacher but also learners may achieve the benefits through testing

To sum up, tests can benefits students, teachers and even administrators

by confirming progress that has been made and showing how they can best redirect their future efforts In addition, good tests can sustain or enhance

class morale and aid learning

Assessment as “a systematic approach to collecting information and making references about the ability of a student or the quality or success of a teaching course on the basis of a various sources of evidence” (Richard, 2009) Assessment is also a critical link for teaching and learning, which plays an important role in the process of curriculum design and teaching implementation Hughes (1989) summarizes the relationship as “the proper relationship between teaching and testing is surely that of partnership” If the testing leaves good effects on teaching, the effect of the vice versa relationship is said beneficial Richards, J.C and Nunan,D., (1990) refer to what should be focus on assessment:

o Insure reliability and validity

o Provide for pre-test, while-test and post-test

o Be criterion or standards references

o Inform instruction

o Serve as an accountability measure

o Be adaptable to a variety of instructional environments

o Accommodate learners with special needs

Shortly speaking, the relationship between teaching, learning and assessment is always essential and it needs having the link between them It is undeniable that testing is an integrative part of teaching and it can be separated from the program or from the course goals Testing has both

positive and negative impact on teaching Testing provides teachers how effective their teaching has been

2.2.3 Language Testing

Language testing is one of the forms of testing and it is also one form

of measurements Its importance in English learning is reviewed as: “properly made English tests can help create positive attitudes toward instruction by giving students a sense of accomplishment and a feeling that the teacher‟s evaluation of them matches what he has taught them Good English tests also help students learn the language by requiring them to study hard, emphasizing course objectives, and showing them where they need to improve” (Davies, 1996:5)

Mc Namara (2000) presented three main roles of language testing, which is applied not only in education but in other fields as well Firstly, language testing is considered as a key to succeed as language testing is a decisive way in recruitment Secondly, it serves educational goals According

to Mc Namara, tests are used to place learners in a suitable course The third role of language testing is for the grant of research Every researcher who wishes to do a research on a language need to evaluate standard tests or to design tests in that language

From Henning‟s view, he suggested six purposes of language testing as follow:

 Diagnosis and feedback: to explore strengths and weaknesses of the learners

 Screening and selection: to assist in the decision of who should be allowed to participate in a particular program of instruction

 Placement: to identify a particular performance level of the student and

to place him at an appropriate level of instruction

 Program evaluation: to provide information about the effectiveness of programs of instruction

 Providing research criteria: to provide a standard of judgment in a variety of other research context based on language test scores

 Assessment of attitudes and socio-psychological differences: to determine the nature, direction, and intensity of attitudes related to language acquisition

(Henning, 1987: 1)

2.3 Major characteristics of a good language test

In order to make a well-designed test, teachers have to take into account a variety of factors such as the purpose of the test, the content of the syllabus, the pupils‟ background, the goal of administrators Moreover, test characteristics play a very important role in constructing a good test

The most important consideration in determining whether a test is good

or not is the use for which it is intended That is to say, the most important quality of a test is its usefulness It is believed that test usefulness provides a kind of metric by which test developers can evaluate not only the tests that they develop and use, but also all aspects of test development and use Generally speaking, usefulness quality includes six components: reliability, construct validity, authenticity, interactiveness, impact and practicality

Bachman and Palmer (1996) (Harrison A , 1983) consider the criteria

as qualities of test usefulness rather than individual factors Their idea of usefulness can be visually presented as in Figure 2.1 below:

Usefulness = reliability + construct validity + authenticity+ interactiveness + impact + practicality

Test Usefulness

(Bachman & Palmer,1996)

Henning (1987) added more test characteristics and he summarized in the form of table call “A checklist for Test Evaluation” The checklist is for rating of the adequacy of a test for any given purpose

Table 2.1 A checklist for test evaluation

Name of test………

Purpose Intended………

Test characteristic 1 Validity 2 Difficulty 3 Reliability 4 Applicability 5 Relevance 6 Replicability 7 Interpretability 8 Economy 9 Availability 10 Acceptability Rating (0 = highly inadequate, 10 = highly adequate ………

………

………

………

………

………

………

………

………

………

Total ………

Adapted from Henning, 1987: 14

To make a good test, teachers have to take considerations the various factors such as the purposes of test, the content of the syllabus, the students‟ background and so on Following a number of leading scholars in testing by Harrison (1983) and Brown (1994), all the good tests have four typical

characteristics First and foremost, testing need having reliability Any good

test needs to have reliability There are three aspects of reliability are used taken into account The first concern the consistency of scoring among different makers The second is the concern of the tester how to enhance the

agreement between makers The third aspect of reliability is parallel-forms reliability Reliability is the first essential for any test (Davies, 1968)

Another feature of a test is discrimination that means its capacity to

discriminate among the different candidates and to reflect the differences in the performances of the individuals in the group Next, a test must be

practical The most obvious practical considerations concerning the tests

overlook Another practical concerns the answer sheets and the stationary used A final point concerns the presentation of the test paper itself Finally,

validity of a test always plays an important role The test must aim to provide

a true measure of the particular skill which it is supposed to measure (Hughes, 1989)

In term of content in any test, validity has five typical types The first one is content validity A test is said to have content validity if its content constitutes a representative sample of the language skills, structures with which is meant to be concerned (Hughes, 1989) “Content validity seems an almost and completely overlapping concept” (Kelly, 1978) The second one is construct validity With construct validity, a test can measure a theoretical construct of trait Each construct is developed to explain and organize observed response consistencies (Anastasi, Quantifying Construct Validity: Two Simple Measures , 2003) Construct validity is seen as a matter of the posterior statistical validation of whether a test has measured a construct that has a reality independence of other constructs (Bachman,L.F and Palmer, A.S, 1996) The third one is criterion- related validity Information about criterion relatedness- concurrent or predictive by itself so it is insufficient evidence for validation (Bachman L , 1990) The fifth one is face validity A test has face validity if it looks as if it measures what is supposed to measure (Anastasi A , 1984) And the last one is backwash validity which refers to

how tests affect the learning on a students and the teaching of the subject, for example, we can trust exams as a learning tool, the test preparation, the good

or bad comments to the student, the advice to the student during and after the test, etc

To summarize, in this chapter, I have presented a brief literature review that sets the ground for the topic Due to the limited time, I wish to focus only

on evaluating the validity of some chosen achievement test

Test validity

It should be noticed that different scholars have thought of validity in different ways Heaton J., (1998:159) provided a simple but complete definition of validity as “the validity of a test is the extent to which it measures what it is supposed to measure” Also Hughes claimed that “A test

is said to be valid if measures accurately what it is intended to measure” According to the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (Association, 1985) that “Validity is the most important consideration in test evaluation The concept refers to the appropriateness, meaningfulness, and usefulness of the specific inferences from the test scores Test validation is the process of accumulating evidence to support such inferences” Thus, to be valid, a test needs to assess learners‟ ability of a specific area that is proposed

on the basis of the aim of the test For instance, a listening test with written multiple- choice options may lack validity if the printed choices are so difficult to read that the exam actually measures reading comprehension as much as it does listening comprehension

Validity is classified into these such subtypes as below:

 Content validity

This is a non-statistical type of validity that involvers “the systematic examination of the test content to determine whether it covers a representative

sample of the behavior domain to be measured” (Anastasi A., & Urbina, 1997: 114) A test has content validity built into it by careful selection of which items to include Items are chosen so that they comply with the test specification which is drawn up through a thorough examination of the subject domain Content validity is very important in evaluating the validity

of the test in terms of that “the greater a test‟s content validity, the more likely

it is to be an accurate measure of what is supposed to measure” (Hughes, 1989: 22)

 Construct validity

A test has construct validity if it demonstrates an association between the test scores and the prediction of a theoretical trait Intelligence tests are one example of measurement instruments that should have construct validity Construct validity is viewed from a purely statistical perspective in much of the recent American literature Bachman and Palmer (1981a) It is seen principle as a matter of the posterior statistical validation of whether a test has measured a construct that has a reality independence of other constructs

To understand whether a piece of research has construct validity, three steps should be followed First, the theoretical relationships must be specified Second, the empirical relationships between the measures of the concepts must be examined Third, the empirical evidence must be interpreted in terms

of how it clarifies the construct validity of the particular measure being tested (Carmines, E.G & Zeller, R.A, 1991:23)

 Face validity

A test is said to have face validity if it looks as if it measures what it is supposed to measure Anastasi(1982: 136) pointed out that face validity is not validity in technical sense, it refers, not to what the test actually measures, but

to what it appears superficially measure

Face validity is very closely related to content validity While content validity depends on a theoretical basis for assuming if a test is assessing all domains of a certain criterion, face validity relates to whether a test appears to

be good measure or not

2.4 Achievement test and its types

All 45-minute English tests for year 11 students in a Vietnamese public school are achievement tests, therefore, in this part, definitions as well as

kinds of achievement tests are presented

According to Hughes (1990: 10), achievement tests are related to the course, and are carried out after a course Brown (1994:259) suggests that achievement tests are related to classroom lessons, units Moreover, Harrison (1983:5) demonstrates that “an achievement test can look back a period of learning” In short, achievement tests are directly related to language courses and they play a crucial role in the school programs

There are exactly two main kinds of achievement tests The first one is final achievement tests which are administered at the end of a course It is used for measuring the achievement of the course as a whole The second one

is progress achievement tests which are intended to measure the progress students are making in order to plan future work They are administered at the end of a specific unit or lesson

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter is the main part of the study It provides practical background for the study and it is an overview of English teaching, learning and testing at a Vietnamese public high school in the North East area of Vietnam More importantly, it presents data analysis of the chosen test and findings drawn from the analysis

3.1 English learning and teaching at a Vietnamese public high school in the North East area of Vietnam

3.1.1 Students and their backgrounds

Students who have been learning at a Vietnamese public high school in the North East area of Vietnam are of different levels of English because of their own background It is common that those who are from gifted secondary schools or from cities have greater ability of English than those from other secondary schools or from villages where foreign language learning is not paid much attention to In addition, there are some students who have had some years of learning English at centers before entering high school, some have just learnt in text book at school, and others have never taken care of English before Moreover, their entry into high school is rather low because English is not a main subject in the exam As a result, their attitude towards learning English is not very highly appreciated

3.1.2 The English staffs

The English section of a Vietnamese public high school in the North East area of Vietnam is a compulsory section with thirteen teachers They take over teaching both gifted classes and normal classes All the English teachers here have been well trained in Vietnam with six teachers have graduated from universities of English and others from colleges, and none of

them has studied abroad One of them obtained Master Degree of English; four are doing an MA course They prefer using Vietnamese in class, as they found it is easy to explain lessons in Vietnamese due to the limitation of students‟ English ability Furthermore, they are always fully aware of adapting suitable methods of teaching homogenous classes and they have been applying technology in their class

3.3.3 Syllabus and its objectives

The English syllabus for a Vietnamese public high school in the North East area of Vietnam is designed by teachers of English section, and this school has been applied for over ten years At this school, students have been following four typical types of class according to educational classes in Vietnam With different classes, students will learn different subjects and take only three results of three different subjects in the high school graduated examination to resister and submit the results to universities

Below is a table about detail names of class and its subjects which students have been paying best attention to when they learn at high school

Table 3.1 Detail subjects for each class

Despite the classes A, A1, B, C, and D The syllabus at a Vietnamese public high school in the North East area of Vietnam is divided into two phases: English for Class D (1) and English for other classes (2) Both phases last two semesters with 111 forty-five-minute periods and students in both

phases have learnt textbook named “Tiếng anh 11” ; however, there are some differences in two phases Phase 1, students have been learning five periods per week with three textbook periods which means three periods with knowledge in textbook and two selective periods with knowledge outside textbook Also, all students in phase 1 have had at least one afternoon lesson with two hours for learning English knowledge outside textbook Phase 2, students who have been learning four periods per week with three textbook periods and only one selective period with knowledge outside textbook have never had any afternoon lesson because they always pay more attention to other subjects

Table 3.2 Number of English periods in two semesters

Semester

minute periods

45-Teaching content Textbook

1 57 Reading, speaking, listening,

writing and language focus Tiếng anh 11

2 54 Reading, speaking, listening,

writing and language focus Tiếng anh 11

Table 3.3 Syllabus goal and Objectives Common goals

 To equip students a communicative tool with basic level under listening, speaking, reading and writing

 To equip students with basic knowledge

 To equip students with an overview about some countries, people and culture of places where using English

Specific goals

Listening Understanding specific content of monologue/dialogue with

the lengths from 150-180 words

Speaking

Question- answer, present about topic in the textbook Present the satisfactory or unsatisfactory, approval or disapproval, the subjective opinions or the objective opinions

Writing Writing follow samples with the lengths from 120-130 words

about topic in the textbook

Table 3.4 Topics of English 11

Unit 14 Recreation Unit 15 Space Conquest Unit 16 The Wonders of the World

Applying teaching methods encounter a variety of difficulties such as students‟ habits of passive learning, low motivation, big size classes, etc A

clear goal is set up by the teaching staff for the whole syllabus The goal is realized by the specific objectives for each semester

3.1.4 The textbook: “Tiếng Anh 11”

The book was written by Hoang Van Van and published by Vietnam Education Publishing House with eight key features:

 The textbook “ Tiếng Anh 11” is compiled basing on communicative language teaching

 The textbook is compiled according to the topic with principle of

“digging deeply”

 All skills are separated but interacting together

 Book uses tasks as mainstream teaching method

 Pronunciation is one of the main parts in textbook

 New teaching process

 Using new teaching methods- Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

 Testing regularly and in terms

The book was designed to cover all four skills and followed by language focus However, teaching and learning work only focus on reading and grammar The detail content of the book can be found at Appendix The book appears good with authentic and meaningful texts The final achievement tests are often based closely on the content of the textbook

3.2 English testing at a Vietnamese public high school in the North East area of Vietnam

3.2.1 Testing situation

English tests for students at a Vietnamese public high school in the North East area of Vietnam are designed by the Department of Education and Training in the North East area of Vietnam Each staff of English department

is responsible for test items for each semester and then, all materials will be fed into a common item bank that is controlled by a kind of software in a server Before examinations, the person who is in charge of preparing the tests will use the software to mix the test items bank and print out the test All the tests are designed under the light of syllabus-content approach All in all, the students are required to take two final-term tests throughout their year of learning Within the limited scope of the study and the testing specification is the same as the tests in at least five nearest years, the writer would like to focus on only four final-term tests in school year: 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 Current English testing situation at a Vietnamese public high school in the North East area of Vietnam has several worth-nothing points as follows:

 Students are often instructed with the test format long before the actual test, which leads to the test-oriented learning

 Students do not have test papers returned with feedbacks and corrections, so they hardly know which their strong and weak points are

 Students can copy answers from one another during the tests in spite of examiner supervision because there are two big size candidates in a testing room (28-29 candidates), thus their true abilities are not always reflected

 Sometimes, the tests still contain basic errors such as spelling errors, extremely easy or difficult items, badly-designed appearance, etc

 Testing items are not pre-tested before live tests

3.2.2 The current final year-11 achievement tests

General information:

 Final achievement test, semester 1 and 2, English 11

 Time allowance: 45 minutes

 Testees: all students in year 11 in two school year: 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 at a Vietnamese public high school in the North East area of Vietnam

 Supervisors: Teachers from a Vietnamese public high school in the North East area of Vietnam

The four final achievement tests cover a wide range of knowledge in

phonetics, vocabulary, grammar, reading, and writing Table 3.5 describes

one sample of the final achievement tests for year 11 in semester 1 with the parts and marking and Table 3.6 shows one sample of the final achievement tests for year 11 in semester 2 as below:

Table 3.5 Specification of the first end-term test for year 11

X4, answer the questions in sentences