CHAPTER 1

ASSESSMENT CONCEPTS AND ISSUES

Made by
Rahila Khan
SBK Women’s University
Assessment and Testing
 Assessment and Testing

Testing :
prepared administrative procedure that
occur at identifiable times in a curriculum

Assessment:
“appraising or estimating the level or
magnitude of some attribute of a person”
Mousavi
Measurement and Evaluation
 Measurement and Evaluation

Measurement : Measuring the observed performance of

classroom learners
•Quantitative measurement involves assigning numbers
•Qualitative involves written description and oral feedback .

Evaluation: It involves interpretation of information.It

doesn’t necessarily entail testing rather evaluation is
involved when results of test are used for decision making.
For e.g. :40 % is measurement and if u tell the student that
score resulted in failure its evaluation.
Assessment and Learning
 Assessment and Learning

They are interrelated and they go side

by side.
Teacher keeps giving feedback to the
learner in light of which learning is
improved.
Informal and Formal assessment
 Formative and Summative assessment

• Throughout
the year,
Formative allows teacher
to follow up

• At the end of
year to check
Summative learners
mastery
 Assessment and Learning

Formative: Evaluating students in the process of

developing skills with an aim to help them to
continue the growth.

Summative : It occurs at end of course.It aims to

measure what student has learned. And how well
have the accomplished the aims.
Criterion-Referenced and Norm-Referenced
test
Kinds of Test
 Proficiency Test

•The purpose of proficiency test is to test

global competence in a language.

•It tests overall ability regardless of any

training they previously had in the language.

For e.g. Cambridge IELTS and the American

TOEFL
 Diagnostic Test

•The purpose is to diagnose specific aspects

of a language.
•These tests offer a checklist of features for
the teacher to use in discovering difficulties.
•Based on that identifying, teacher would
know the needs of students that should have
special focus.
 Placement Test

•The purpose of placement test is to place a student

into a particular level or section of a language
curriculum .
•It usually includes a sampling of the material to be
covered in the various courses in a curriculum.
•Placement tests come in many varieties: assessing
comprehension and production, responding through
written and oral performance, multiple choice, and gap
filling formats.
For e.g :(ESLPT) English as a Second Language
Placement Test.
 Aptitude Test

•The purpose of language aptitude test is to

predict a person’s success to exposure to the
foreign language.
•Language aptitude tests does not refer to
whether or not an individual can learn a foreign
language; but it refers to how well an individual
can learn a foreign language in a given amount
of time and under given conditions.
(John Carrol and Stanley Sapon)
 Achievement Test

•The purpose of achievement tests is to

determine whether course objectives have
been met with skills acquired by the end of a
period of instruction.

•Achievement tests are summative because

they are administered at the end on a unit/term
of study. It analyzes the extent to which
students have acquired language that have
already been taught.
Issues in Language Assessment :
Then and Now

1. Behavioral Approaches
2. Integrative Approaches
3. Communicative Approaches
 1.Behavioral Approach

•In the middle of 20th century , teaching and

testing were influenced by behaviorism.

•Testing focused sentence structure,

translation from L1 to L2 , grammar and
vocabulary items.
 2.Integrative Approach

•In last quarter of 20th Century it was supposed

that communicative competence is global and
integrated ,thus it cannot be captured in
additive tests of grammar, reading , vocabulary
and other discrete points of languages.

•Cloze test and dictation was introduced .

 3.Communicative Approach

•In this type of testing focus was on

communicative language-testing tasks and
learners were required to perform real world
tasks designed by test designer.
•Test designer believed that tasks designed,
needed to include strategic and pragmatic
abilities in the construction of language testing.
Current “ Hot Topics” in Classroom – Based
Assessment

1. Multiple Intelligence
2. Traditional and alternative Assessment
3. Computer- Based testing
1.Multiple Intelligences
 1.Multiple Intelligences

Howard Gardner divided intelligence in to

eight different components,
1. Spatial intelligence
2. Musical intelligence
3. Kinesthetic intelligence
4. Naturalistic intelligence
5. linguistic intelligence
6. logical intelligence
7. Interpersonal intelligence
8. Intrapersonal intelligence
2.Traditional and Alternative Assessment
2.Traditional and Alternative Assessment

Traditional Alternative

•One shot standardized •Continuous long term

•Timed, multiple choice •Untimed, free response
format format
•Norm referred •Criterion referred
•Summative •Formative
•Oriented to product •Oriented to process
•Non interactive •Interactive
•Fosters extrinsic •Fosters intrinsic
motivation •motivation
 3. Computer-Based Testing
.

Advantages Disadvantages

•Easily administered test •Lack of security

•Self directed •Possibility of cheating
•Helps in practicing for •Open ended response
standardized test less likely Oral
•Can be scored rapidly production is absent
 CHAPTER 2
PRINCIPLES OF LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
Five cardinal criteria of
“testing a test”

 Practicality
 Reliability
 Validity
 Authenticity
 Wash back
A PRACTICAL TEST . . .

•stays with in budgetary limits

•can be completed with in appropriate time constraint
• has clear directions for administration thus done
smoothly
•appropriately utilizes available human resources
•does not exceed available material resources
•all materials are per – checked
•considers the time and effort involved for both design
and scoring
A RELIABLE TEST . . .

•Is consistent in its conditions across two or more

administrations
• provides cleanly photocopied test sheets
•provides sounds clearly audible to everyone
•provides videos clearly visible to every one
•provides lighting , temperature , extraneous noise equal
for all
•gives clear direction for scoring / evaluation
•has uniform rubrics for scoring / evaluation
•contains items/ tasks that are unambiguous to the test
takers
A VALID TEST . . .

•measures exactly what it proposes to measure

•does not measure irrelevant material
•relies as much as possible on empirical evidence
•involves performance that samples the test
criterion
•offers useful , meaningful information about a test
takers ability
•Is supported by a theoretical rationale or argument
AN AUTHENTIC TEST . . .

•contains language that is as natural as

possible
•has items that are contextualized rather than
isolated
•includes meaningful, relevant , interesting
topics
•provides thematic organization
•offers task that imitate real world test
A BENEFICIAL WASHBACK TEST . . .
• positively influences what and how teacher
teaches
•positively influences what and how learners
learn
•offers learners a chance to adequately prepare
• gives learner feedback that enhances their
language development
• is more formative in nature than summative
•provides conditions for peak performance by
the learner
THANKYOU FOR LISTENING