Chapter 1

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KEY CONCEPTS OF LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT

I. Confusing terms
Test  Measurement  Assessment  Evaluation
1. Test:
An instrument designed to measure a language ability, a performance, or
knowledge based on explicit procedures/ rules

A specific type of assessment

A well-constructed method to accurately measure a person’s ability, knowledge, or


performance on a given domain
 Method: An instrument, set of techniques, procedures, or items.. that
require performance on the part of the test-taker
Explicit and structured
o Multiple-choice questions with prescribed answers
o Writing prompt with a scoring rubric
o Oral interview based on question script
o Checklist of expected responses to be completed by the
administrator
 Measure  Results
 forms of reporting measurement/ results
o Measure general ability or specific competencies or objectives
o Specify a form of reporting measurement – a means to offer the
test-taker some kind of result (Letter grade accompanied by
marginal comments from the instructor, numerical score, a
percentile rank, and some subscores)
o Matched to the test-taker's ability  understand who the test-
taker is, how they interpret their scores
o Measure performances
o Within a particular given domain
 Performance infers test takers’ ability or competence
 based on this, T, test designers, and testers make inferences
about learners' ability
 Triangulation (n)/ Triangulate (v): using many different data to make
decisions abt something or interpret sthg
 Domain (n): specific skills/ knowledge or overall proficiency  what the
assessment focuses on testing
 Constructive alignment (n): khung?

2. Measurement
A process quantifying a S’s observed performance
 Quantitative: using scores  assigning numbers (rankings + letter grades)
 Qualitative: written descriptions, oral feedback

3. Assessment
Appraising or estimating the level or magnitude of an attribute of a person
An ongoing process to observe or appraise Ss’ performance/abilities
Could be intended or incidental, with or without results

4. Evaluation
Using results of assessment instruments for decision-making (judgment included)

Conveying the meaning results

Interpretation of information/data

With or without measurement


EX: Not getting 50% of test results  failure to pass the course

II. Types of assessment


1. Informal vs Formal Assessment
Informal assessment
Informal assessment can take many forms, starting from incidental, unplanned
comments and responses, along with coaching and other impromptu feedback to
the student.
 Design to elicit performance without recording results and making fixed
judgments about the learner’s competence
 Embedded in class-tasks
 Example
o Incidential, unplanned comments and responses
o Marginal comments
o Advice
o Suggestion

Formal Assessment
Exercises or procedures specifically designed to tap into storehouse of skills and
knowledge.

 Systematic, planned techniques to give judgments of students' achievement


 Exercises or procedures abt a specific set of skills or knowledge
 Examples
o Tests
o Journals
o Portfolios

2. Formative vs Summative Assessment


Formative assessment  support Ss’s learning journey
 Used for checking Ss’ progress, see how far they have mastered what they
should’ve learned
 Use this info to modify their (future) taking
 Support the delivery (by T) and internalization of feedback on performance
(by Ss)
 Support the continuation (formative) of learning
 An informal assessment should be formative
 Focusing on the ongoing development of learner’s language abilities
Ex: Comments, suggestions, error identification, feedback
 Feedback
o Relevant to the learning outcomes of the lesson, relevent to the
learning process (not obeying the rules of class, behaving well,
obedient, being active, working hard…)

Summative assessment
 Measuring or summarizing what a Ss has acquired
 Occurring at the end of a unit of instruction
 Focusing on how well a student has accomplished the objectives of units of
instruction
 Often, not always, involves evaluation (decision-making)
EX: final exam, proficiency exams
 Problems:
o Students: “Whew, I’m glad that’s over. Now I don’t need to
remember that stuff anymore.”
o Can you instill a more formative quality to what your students might
otherwise view as summative tests?
 Giving feedback  Making it more formative
o Can you offer an opportunity for students to convert tests into
“learning experiences”?

3. Norm-referenced vs Criterion-referenced Assessment


Norm-referenced
 Purpose: put test-takers in rank order along a mathematical continuum.
 To be administered to large audiences, with results efficiently disseminated
to test-takers.
 Must have fixed, predetermined responses in a format that can be scored
mechanically at minimum expense.
 Cost and efficiency are primary concerns in these tests
 Ss may not know exactly what content will be on the test
 Testing a person’s general English skills  their English ability in general,
not specific objectives
 Cut-off score (điểm chuẩn)
EX: IELTS, VSTEP, STANDARDIZED TESTS
 Only 10% of Ss can get an A score
Criterion-referenced (Criteria là plural form của Criterion)
 EX: 75 scores  pass the exam
 Classroom-test
 Ss should know what content will be tested
 Measuring specific language objectives
 Anyone scoring 90% or higher gets an A

Comparision
4. Direct and Indirect Assessment
Direct Assessment
 Asking test-takers to actually perform the target tasks
 Should be used more

Indirect Assessment

 Asking test-takers to perform a task related to/ embedded in the target


tasks

III. Types of tests


Test purposes
1. Language aptitude test
 Aptitude: natural ability or skill
 To predict a person’s success prior to exposure to the second language
 To measure capacity or general ability to learn a foreign language and
ultimate success in such learning
 Measuring processes of mimicry, memorization and puzzle-solving
 Not able to predict communicative success in a language
=> Preferred learning styles, strengths, and weaknesses
2. Proficiency test
 To test global competence in a language
 Not limited to one course, curriculum, single skill => overall ability
 Consisting of standardized multiple-choice items on
o Grammar
o Vocabulary
o Reading comprehension
o Listening comprehension
o Written production
o Oral production
 Summative
 Norm-referenced
 Results: a single score (and subscores)
 Having a gate-keeping role (accepting/denying someone passage)
 Not usually providing diagnostic feedback
Examples: TOEFL, TOEIC, IELTS
 How the constructs of language ability are specified
 Test tasks: legitimate samples of English language use in a defined context
=> time-consuming and costly process
=> not practical for language teachers to create proficiency tests themselves
3. Placement test
 To correctly place a student into a particular level of a language curriculum
(course or level)
 Face validity, diagnostic information, authenticity
 Usually including a sampling of material to be used in various courses in a
curriculum
 Students finding material appropriately challenging
 Varieties of format depending on a program and its needs
 Comprehension and production
 Written and oral performance
 Selection and gap-filling formats
 Existing standardized proficiency tests (cost, speed in scoring, and efficient
results reporting)
4. Diagnostic test
 To diagnose specified aspects of a language
 Offering a checklist of features to use in pinpointing difficulties
 To see what aspects/features to focus on in a course
 To see what aspects/features students need to work on in the future
 Sometimes indistinguishable from placement tests
 Placement tests not just offering information to decide a course level =>
diagnostic purposes
5. Achievement test  focused in this course
 Directly related to classroom lessons, units or a whole curriculum
 Deciding whether or not course objectives have been met (knowledge and
skills acquired or not)
 Limited to
o particular curriculum materials
o course-end time
o course learning outcomes
 Having diagnostic purposes - showing students what to work on in the
future
 Summative
 Playing a formative role: offering washback about learners’ performance in
unit/course subsets
SELF-NOTETAKING
ASSESSMENT VS TESTING

ASSESSMENT  Appraising or estimating the level or magnitude of some attribute to a person

 Appraising or estimating the level or magnitude of some attribute of a person


 Ongoing process
 Encompass a wide range of methodological techniques
 By self, teachers, other students
 A good teacher never ceases to assess students, whether those assessments are incidental
or intended
 Peripheral that appraisal may be?

TEST A process of quantifying a test-taker’s performance according to explicit procedures or rules

 Subset of assessment, a genre of assessment techniques


 Prepared administrative procedures
 Occur at identifiable times in a curriculum
 Learners muster all their faculties to offer peak performance, knowing that their
performances are being measured and evaluated
 A method of measuring a person’s ability, knowledge, or performance
 A test
o Is a method
 An instrument, set of techniques, procedures, or items.. that require
performance on the part of the test-taker
 Must be explicit and structured
 Multiple-choice questions with prescribed answers
 Writing prompt with a scoring rubric
 Oral interview based on question script
 Checklist of expected responses to be completed by the
administrator
o Must measure
 Measure general ability or specific competencies or objectives
 Specify a form of reporting measurement – a means to offer the test-taker
some kind of result (Letter grade accompanied by marginal comments from
the instructor, numerical score, a percentile rank, and some subscores)
 Matched to test-taker’s ability  understand who the test-taker, how they
interpret their scores
 Measure performances
 Within a particular given domain

MEASUREMENT AND EVALUATION

MEASUREMENT

 The process of quantifying the observed performance of classroom learners


 Quantitative vs Qualitative
o Quantification: assigning numbers (ranking, letter grade) to observed performance
 easier to provide exact descriptions of students performance and to compare one
with another
 However, masking nuances of performance or giving ann air of certainty when
scoring rubrics may actually be quite vague
o Verbal or qualitative descriptions offer an opportunity for an teacher to individualize
feedback for a student

EVALUATION

o Is involved when the result of a test (or other assessment procedure) are used to
make decisions
o Involves the interpretation of information  convey the worth of the performance
to the test-taker

EXAMPLE: Test scores are an example of measurement, and conveying the “meaning” of those score
is evaluation.

ASSESSMENT AND LEARNING

For optimal learning to take place, students in the classroom must have the freedom to experiment,
to try out their own hypotheses and language without feeling their overall competence í judged in
terms of those trials and errors.

INFORMAL AND FORMAL ASSESSMENT

Formal assessment:

FORMATIVE AND SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT

FORMATIVE

 Evaluating students in the process of “forming” their competencies and skills with the goal of
helping them to continue that growth process.
 Focus the “ongoing” development of the learner’s language
 Give comment, suggestion, call attention to an error, offer feedbacks  improve learner’s
language ability
 All informal assessments should be formative

SUMMATIVE

 Aims to measure, or summarize what a student has grasped and typically occurs at the end
of a course or unit of instruction.
 A summation of what a student has accomplished objectives, but it does not necessarily
point to future progress.
 Often, not always, involves evaluation (decision making)
 Ex: final exam, general proficiency exams
 Problems:
o Students: “Whew, I’m glad that’s over. Now I don’t need to remember that stuff
anymore.”
o Can you instill a more formative quality to what your students might otherwise view
as summative tests?
o Can you offer an opportunity for students to convert tests into “learning
experiences”?

NOM – REFERENCED AND CRITERION – REFERENCED TEST

NOM – REFERENCED TESTS

 Purpose: put test-takers in rank order along a mathematical continuum.


 To be administered to large audiences, with results efficiently disseminated to test-takers.
 Must have fixed, predetermined responses in a format that can be scored mechanically at
minimum expense.
 Cost and efficiency are primary concerns in these tests

CRITERION – REFERENCED TESTS (Criteria is plural form of criterion)

TYPES AND PURPOSE OF ASSESSMENT

ACHIEVEMENT TESTS

DIAGNOSTIC TESTS

PLACEMENT TESTS

PROFICIENCY TESTS

APTITUDE TESTS

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