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Principles of Language Assessment

This document discusses 5 key principles of language assessment: 1. Practicality - A test should not be overly expensive, time-consuming, or difficult to administer. 2. Reliability - A reliable test consistently measures the intended skills and produces similar results over time. Factors like student performance, scoring, administration conditions, and test design impact reliability. 3. Validity - A valid test accurately measures the intended language skills rather than other factors like prior knowledge. Validity considers content, criteria, constructs, consequences, and face validity. 4. Authenticity - An authentic test uses realistic language and tasks that represent real-world applications of skills rather than isolated questions.

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Muhammad Jauhari Sofi
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174 views14 pages

Principles of Language Assessment

This document discusses 5 key principles of language assessment: 1. Practicality - A test should not be overly expensive, time-consuming, or difficult to administer. 2. Reliability - A reliable test consistently measures the intended skills and produces similar results over time. Factors like student performance, scoring, administration conditions, and test design impact reliability. 3. Validity - A valid test accurately measures the intended language skills rather than other factors like prior knowledge. Validity considers content, criteria, constructs, consequences, and face validity. 4. Authenticity - An authentic test uses realistic language and tasks that represent real-world applications of skills rather than isolated questions.

Uploaded by

Muhammad Jauhari Sofi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Principles of Language Assessment

Muhammad Jauhari Sofi, M.A.


Principles of Language Assessment
1) Practicality
2) Reliability
3) Validity
4) Authenticity
5) Wash-back
Practicability

 A practical test is the one that is easy to be done


(put into action).
1) It is not excessively expensive;
2) It stays within appropriate time constrains;
3) It is relatively easy to administer; and
4) It has a specific and time-efficient evaluation
procedure.
Next ...

 A test that is prohibitively expensive is impractical;


 A test of language proficiency that takes a student
five hours to complete is impractical;
 A test that requires individual one-on-one proctoring
is impractical for a group of several hundred test-
takers and only a handful of examiners; and
 A test that takes a few minutes for a student to do
but several hours for an examiner to evaluate is
impractical.
Reliability

 A reliable test is a consistent and dependable


test. That is, we can trust the result as it is
believed to represent the students’ competence.
 If we give the same test to the same group of
students or matched students on two different
occasions, the test should yield similar result.
 Reliability of a test is addressed by considering a
number of factors: fluctuations in the students,
scoring, test administration, and the test itself.
Next ...

 Student-related reliability
It deals with temporary physical or psychological
factors that may make an observed score
deviate from one’s true score.
 Rater reliability
It deals with human error, subjectivity, or bias in
the scoring process. This may be caused by lack
of attention to scoring criteria, inexperience,
inattention, or preconceived biases.
Next ...

 Test administration reliability


It deals with the conditions in which the test is
administered. Things like noise, cleanliness,
room temperature, quality of paper, and chairs
may cause a test unreliable.
 Test reliability
It deals with the nature of the test itself. A too
long test and ambiguous items of the correct
answer may cause a test unreliable.
Validity

 A valid test is a test where inferences made from


assessment result are appropriate, meaningful,
and useful for the assessment purpose.
 For example, a valid test of reading should
measure reading ability of a given passage, not
previous knowledge in a subject; a valid test of
writing should consider rhetorical discourse,
comprehensibility, and the organization of ideas,
not the standing position of the writer.
Next ...

Validity of a test considers the following grounds:


 Content validity, the subject matter
 Criterion validity, the expected levels of
performance
 Construct validity, the logical arguments in scoring.
 Consequential validity, the social consequences of
a test
 Face validity, the learners’ perspective on the test
validity of a test
Authenticity

 An authentic test is a test where students are


asked to demonstrate meaningful application of
essential knowledge and skills in the real-world
tasks -- Jon Mueller
 Authenticity is the degree of correspondence
between the features of a given language test
and the features of a target language tasks --
Bachman and Palmer
Next ...

In a language testing, authenticity may be present


in the following ways:
 The language in the test is as natural as
possible; not artificial;
 Items are contextualized through a story line
rather than isolated; they also should bear
relationship to one another among choices;
 Topics are relevant or interesting for the learners;
 Tasks represent real-world tasks.
Wash-back

 Wash-back is the effects that the tests have on


teaching and learning. It can be positive
(meaningful) and negative (harmful).
 Students’ responses to the test (the result) is big
data for the teacher; they may become useful
windows of insight for further work.
 Therefore, teachers should not return test to
students with a single letter grade or numerical
score as they give no information of intrinsic
interest to the students.
Next ...

 Wash-back may enhance a number of basic


principles of language acquisition, such as
intrinsic motivation, autonomy, self-confidence,
language ego, inter-language, and so on. In this
sense, teachers are expected to comment on
test performance generously and specifically as
their feedback.
 It also implies that students have ready access
to the teachers to discuss the feedback and
evaluation they have given.
Thank You

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