Chapter 2

Principles of Language
Assessment

by:
Debi Annisa ‖ Anang Yunianto W
 Assessment is …

Assessment is one component of teaching and activities.

By doing assessment, teachers can hopefully gain information about every
aspects of their students especially their achievement.

An aspect that plays crucial role in assessment is a tests.

 A good test is constructed by considering the principles of language

Taken from Brown, H.D. 2004. Language
Assessment: Principles and Classroom assessment.
Practices. New York: Pearson Education p. 5)
Five Cardinal
Criteria for 01. Practically
Testing Test
02. Reliability
03. Validity

04. Authenticity

05. Washback
 1. Practically

According to Brown (2004:19) an effective test is practical

when it fits the following requirements:

 Not expensive,
 Within appropriate time constraint,
 Relatively easy to administer,
 A scoring/evaluation procedure is
specific and time-efficient.
 2. Reliability

 Reliability refers to the consistency of the scores obtained (Gronlund,

1977:138).
 It means that if the test is administered to the same students on different
occasions (with no language practice work taking place between these
occasions) then it produces (almost) the same results.
 Reliability actually does not really deal with the test itself. It deals with the
results of the test. The test results should be consistent
According to Brown, ( 2004:21-22).
Reliability falls into 4 types. They are:

A. Students-related reliability

Students- related reliability is refers to

temporary illness, a bad day, anxiety and
other physical or psychological factors of
the students. Thus, the score obtained of
the student maybe not his/her actual score.
 B. Rater-reliability

There are two kinds Rater-reliability.

Rater reliability deals with the scoring process. Factors they are:
that can affect the reliability might be human error,
subjectively, and bias in scoring process.

It occurs when two or more scorers yield inconsistent Inter-rater reliability

scores of the same test, possibility for lack of attention to
scoring criteria, inexperience, inattention, or even biases
01

It is a common occurrence for classroom teacher because

of unclear scoring criteria, fatigue, and bias toward
Intra-rater reliability
particular “good” or “bad” students or simple carelessness.
02
C. Test Administration Reliability

 Test administration reliability concerns with

the condition and situation in which the test is
administered. e.g. noisy from outside,
photocopying variations, room condition,
even condition of desks and chair

 To increase the degree of this kind of reliability test,

teachers as the administrators should consider all
the things related to the test administration.
D. Test Reliability

 Tests reliability refers to the test itself.

Whether the test fits into the time constraints.

 It means that the test should not be too long

or short.
 The items of the test should be crystal clear
that it will not end with ambiguity.
 3. Validity

Validity is the most complex and

important criterion of an effective test.

Validity is when the assessment results are

appropriate, meaningful, and useful in terms
of purpose of the assessment (Gronlund,
1998, p.226).

For example: if a student is given a reading test about the

metamorphosis of a butterfly, a valid test will measure the reading
ability (such as identifying general or specific information of the
text)
 Brown (2004:22-27) proposed five ways to establish validity. They are:

A B Criterion validity can be established through two ways:

Criterion-related Evidence / a. Concurrent Validity

Content-related Evidence /
Criterion validity: A test is said to have concurrent validity if its result is
Content validity: supported by other concurrent performance beyond the
 This kind of validity emphasizes assessment itself (Brown, 2004:24).
 It is the correlation between the on the relationship between the For example, the validity of a high score on the final
contents of the test and the test score and the outcome. examination of a foreign language course will be verified by the
language skills, structures, etc.  The test score should really actual proficiency in the language.
with which it is meant to be represent the criterion that is
measured has to be crystal intended to measure in the test. b. Predictive Validity
clear. The predictive validity tends to assess and predict a student’s
 The test items should really possible future success (Alderson et al.,1995:180-183).
represent the course objective. 03
For example, TOEFL or IELTS tests are intended to know how
well somebody will perform the capability of his/her English
in the future.
 C
D
Construct-related Evidence /
Construct validity: Consequential-related Evidence /
Consequential validity:
Construct validity shows that the
result of the test really represents  Consequential validity to refer to
the same construct with the ability the social consequences of using
of the students which is being a particular test for a particular
measured (Djiwandono, 1996:96). purpose.

 It includes all the consequences of

the test, including accuracy in
measuring criteria, its impact on
preparation of test-takers, its
effect on the learner and its
interpretation etc.
 E. Face Validity:

 A test is said to have face validity if it looks to other testers, teachers, moderators, and
students as if it measures what it is supposed to measure (Heaton, 1990:159).

 In speaking test, for instance face validity can be shown by speaking activities as the
main activities in the test. The test should focus on students activities in speaking, not
anything else.

 Face validity refers to the degree to which a test looks right, and appears to measure the
knowledge or ability it claims to measure.
 • Infographic
4. Authenticity
Style5 5. Washback
 The effect or influents of testing on teaching and
 Authenticity in a test in when a task is learning
likely to be enacted or represented in the
 It refers to effects the tests have on instruction in
“real world”.
terms of how students prepare for the test. It is
also about how students can identify their
 In a test, authenticity may be present in strengths and weakness.
the following way:  The influence itself can be positive or negative
(Cheng et al. (Eds.), 2008:7-11)
a. The language in a test is as natural as possible.
b. Contextualized items Not in isolation.
c. Meaningful topics (relevant & interesting) for the
learner
d. Tasks represent, or closely approximate, real-
world tasks.
 Positive Washback Negative Washback
 Positive washback has beneficial  Negative washback does not give any
influence on teaching and learning. It beneficial influence on teaching and
means teachers and students have a learning (Cheng and Curtis, 2008:9).
There are positive attitude toward the examination
or test, and work willingly and
 Tests which have negative washback is
considered to have negative influence on
collaboratively towards its objective. teaching and learning.
two kind of (Cheng & Curtis, 2008:10).
 A good test should have a good effect  For example, if the UN affects teachers to

Washback:  For Example, UN (National Exam) will

require students to pay attention to the
give more focus on the UN lessons then
they tend to ignore other lessons that do
not contribute directly to pass the exam,
lessons more attentively, prepare the UN can be considered having
everything dealing with UN more negative washback. Moreover, if the UN
thoroughly. And also require teachers to threatens the students in facing the
teach the lessons harder than before, exam, the students will feel a lot of
give their students extra lessons, and anxiety about the exam. Thus, it will affect
give tips and tricks to study effectively the students’ performance. So it can be
and efficiently. To the extent that these inferred that if the UN has this kind of
activities increase such activity and effect, it has negative washback.
motivation, the UN can be said it has
positive backwash.
 Conclusions

 test is good if it contains practicality, good validity, high reliability, authenticity, and positive
washback.
 The five principles provides guidelines for both constructing and evaluating the tests.
 Teachers should apply these five principles in constructing or evaluating tests which will be
used in assessment activities.
Thank You