All Types of Language test

Types of Language test Based on the Criteria of Administration.

1. Selection test
-

Chose the candidate that has fulfilled in the certain condition.

The candidate will be accepted or rejected. Ex: SPMB
2.
Placement test
The test just intended to place who tests takes

Commonly, its giving before the program is begun

The objective is to take place the candidate based on the group or the level of their ability.
Its giving if the candidates too much to be in one group.
3.
Achievement test
Is a test which is giving to know how much the material that the students have already achieved after joining the learning
process/instruction.
4.

proficiency test
Proficiency test is a test to know the ability or proficiency of the participants. Proficiency tests are designed to measure peoples
ability in language, regardless of any training they may have had in that language. Ex: TOEFL.
5.
6.

Diagnostic test
The objective is to know the strength and weaknesses of the students.
To know the difficulty study of the students, so the teacher can decide the material or planning that will suppose to do.
Try out
Is a test that normally conducted before the real test is doing.

To know weather the real test that giving is suitable with the time allocation option, instruction, etc.). And have a good
characteristic such as.
a. Valid
b.
Reliable
c.
Practicality
Types of Language Test Based on the Criteria of Admission-Time/Steps
1.

Admission test
Admission test (entrance test) is the test that held before a program is begun. The objective of the test is to decide whether
someone will be accepted or rejected. This test is also used as selecting test. For example: As a guide
2.

Formative test

Formative test is the test that held to know whether or not the program is run a way. It gives to the students or participants in
order to plan what is should to do after doing the test.
3.

Summative test
Summative test is the attempt to summarize students learning at some point in time, in the end of the course.

4.

Pre-test
Pre-test is preliminary test administered to determine a students baseline knowledge or preparedness for an educational
experience or course of the study.

5.

Post-test
Post-test is a test given after a lesson or a period of instruction to determine what the students have learned.
Types of Language Test Based on the Criteria of Doing/Answering the Test
1.

Written-test
Written-test is tests that usually do in written. For example,Reading comprehension test and Writing test.

2.

Spoken-test
Spoken test is tests that usually do orally. It usually uses to measure the speaking ability of the students. For example: testing
speaking.
Types of Language Test Based on the number of candidate
1.

2.

Individual Test
The test given to a candidate each candidate gets its own test. This kind of test intent to measure language skill that needs to
measure effectively. So that usually this kind of test applied in speaking test which needs to measure it achievement directly. Ex:
interview
Group test

The test administered for a certain candidates. The aim of this kind of test is to make the test more efficient in term of time
and energy but not only that this kind of test is also good to test speaking ability in term of interaction.
Types of Language Test Based on the way of answering
1.

Essay test
Test that requires candidates to answer questions in writing. Responses can be brief or extensive. Test for recall, ability to
apply knowledge of a subject to questions about the subject, rather than ability to choose the least incorrect answer from a menu of
options.

2.

Short answer
In a short answer question, the candidate types in a word or phrase in response to a question. The answer could be a word or a
phrase, but it must match one of your acceptable answers exactly.

3.

Multiple choices
Test in which students are presented with a question or an incomplete sentences or idea. The students are expected to choose
the correct or best answer/completion from a menu of alternatives, Option that consist of a key and destructors.
Types of Language Test Based on the way of scoring

1.

Subjective Test
Test in which the impression or opinion of the scorer determine the score or evaluation of performance.

2.

Objective test
A test for which the scoring procedure is completely specified enabling agreement among different scorers. It means that we
can make answer key in advance and the correct answer must be the same with the one in answer key.
Types of Language Test Criterion of Reference Score

1.

Norm reference test.

In held the Norm reference test, interpret to change the rough score become the final score, it can be done based on the level
of the average from one group of the candidates that doing the test.

2.

Criterion reference test.

In the Criterion reference test, the result of the final test doesnt has correlate with the result from the another candidates that
do the same test. The final score on the criterion reference test, based on the result of low languages capability level that can be
accepted as the standard of language capability.

3.

Mixed both of Norm reference test and Criterion reference test.

In applying on daily test, result of the final score cant based only one from two references. There are the final score built by
combine both of them.
Types of Language Test Criterion Aspects of Language

1.

Languages Talent tests.

Languages talent test it means to know and measure the talent and ability potentially that someone has for learn languages.

2.

Languages Skill tests.

With languages skill test, we can get information about level of ability by using languages to the process of something.
Information that had from the languages skill test its about level of real ability at that time. Example languages skill test are reading
skill test, speaking skill test, and writing skill test.

3.

Languages Component test.

Languages can be dividing in many components and each component is different. The components are pronunciation,
vocabulary and grammatical. In structural approach, teach languages means teach how to mastering the components of languages.
Based on this approach, language component can be measured with pronunciation test, vocabulary test and grammatical test.
Kinds of tests
There are many kinds of tests, each with a specific purpose, a particular criterion to be measured.
Proficiency Tests
If your aim in a test is to tap global competence in a language, then you are, in conventional terminology, testing proficiency. A
proficiency test is not intended to be limited to any one course, curriculum, or single skill in the language. Proficiency tests have
traditionally consisted of standardized multiple-choice items on grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, aural comprehension,
and sometimes of a sample of writing.

A rather typical example of a standardized proficiency test is the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) produced by the
Educational Testing Service. It is used by nearly 1000 institutions of higher education in the United States as an indicator of a
prospective student's ability to undertake academic work in an English medium. The TOEFL consists of the following three sections:
Section 1, Listening Comprehension, measures the ability to understand English as it is spoken in the United States. The oral aspects
of the language are stressed. The problems tested include vocabulary that is more frequently used in spoken English, structures that are
primarily peculiar to spoken English, and sound and intonation distinctions that have proven to be difficult for nonnative speakers. The
stimulus material is recorded in standard American English; the response options are printed in the test books.
Section 2, Structure and Written Expression, measures mastery of important structural and grammatical points in standard written
English. The language tested is formal, rather than conversational. The topics of the sentences are of a general academic nature so that
individuals in specific fields of study or from specific national or linguistic groups have no particular advantage. When topics have a
national context, they refer to United States history, culture, art, or literature.
Section 3, Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension, tests the ability to understand the meanings and uses of words in written English
as well as the ability to understand a variety of reading materials. So that there is no advantage to individuals in any one field of study,
the questions based on reading materials do not require outside knowledge of the subject matter.
Proficiency tests sometimes add sections that involve free writing (e.g., ETS's Test of Written English) and/or oral production (e.g.,
ETS's Test of Spoken English), but these responses diminish the practicality of scoring on a high-volume basis. The TOEFL and
virtually every other large-scale proficiency test is machine scorable; when scorers must either read writing samples or judge
audiotapes of spoken proficiency, a great deal of administrative cost and time are involved.
Diagnostic and Placement Tests
A diagnostic test is designed to diagnose a particular aspect of a particular language. A diagnostic test in pronunciation might have the
purpose of determining which particular phonological features of the language pose difficulty for a learner. Prator's (1972) Diagnostic
Passage, for example, is a short written passage that a student of English as a second language reads orally; the teacher or tester then
examines a tape recording of that reading against a very detailed checklist of pronunciation errors. The checklist serves to diagnose
certain problems in pronunciation. Some proficiency tests can serve as diagnostic tests by isolating and analyzing certain sets of items
within the test. An achievement test on a particular module in a curriculum might include a number of items on modal auxiliaries;
these particular items could serve to diagnose difficulty on modals.Certain proficiency tests and diagnostic tests can act in the
role of placement tests whose purpose is to place a student in a particular level or section of a language curriculum or school. A
placement test typically includes a sampling of material to be covered in the curriculum (that is, it has content validity), and it thereby
provides an indication of the point at which the student will find a level or class to be neither too easy nor too difficult but to be appropriately challenging.
Achievement Tests
An achievement test is related directly to classroom lessons, units, or even a total curriculum. Achievement tests are limited to
particular material covered in a curriculum within a particular time frame.
Aptitude Tests
Finally, we need to consider the type of test that is given to a person prior to any exposure to the second language, a test that predicts a
person's future success. A foreign language aptitude test is designed to measure a person's capacity or general ability to learn a foreign
language and to be successful in that undertaking. Aptitude tests are considered to be independent of a particular foreign language,
predicting success in the acquisition of any foreign language. Two standardized aptitude tests have been used in the United Statesthe
Modern Language Aptitude Test (Carroll and Sapon 1958) and the Pimsleur Language Aptitude Battery (Pimsleur 1966). Both of these
are English language tests and require students to perform such tasks as learning numbers, listening, detecting spelling clues and
grammatical patterns, and memorizing.
The importance of these four different kinds of language tests lies in the fact that different tests serve different purposes. In order to
select tests adequately and to interpret their results accurately, teachers need to be aware of the ultimate purpose of the testing context.
Within each category of test above there is a variety of different possible techniques and procedures. These range from objective to
subjective techniques, open-ended to structured, multiple-choice to fill-in-the-blank, written to oral. Moreover, language has been
viewed traditionally as consisting of four separate skills; therefore language tests have attempted to measure differential ability in
speaking, listening, reading, and writing. It is not uncommon to be quite proficient in reading a foreign language but not in speaking,
or of course for aural comprehension to outstrip speaking ability.
Beyond such considerations, tests of each of the modes of performance can be focused on a continuum of linguistic units, from
smaller to larger: phonology and orthography, words, sentences, and discourse. In interpreting a test it is important to note which
linguistic units are being tested. Oral production tests can be tests of overall conversational fluency or pronunciation of a particular
subset of phonology, and can take the form of imitation, structured responses, or free responses. Similarly, listening-comprehension
tests can concentrate on a particular feature of language or on overall listening for general meaning. Tests of reading can cover the
range of language units and can aim to test comprehension of long or short passages, single sentences, or even phrases and words.
Writing tests can take on an open-ended form with free composition, or be structured to elicit anything from correct spelling to
discourse-level competence.