Lesson Three Kinds of Test and Testing

Yun-Pi Yuan 2 Contents Kinds of Tests: Based on Purposes  Classroom use Classroom use  External examination Kinds of Testing: Three Contrasting Paris of Test ConceptsThree Contrasting Paris of Test Concepts Norm-Referenced Test vs. Criterion- Referenced Test Differences between NRT & CRT

Yun-Pi Yuan 3 Classroom Use To find out students’ difficulties:  Diagnostic tests Diagnostic tests To ascertain students’ progress:  Progress tests Progress tests To assess students’ mastery of the course content and their potential for the next grade level:  Achievement tests Achievement tests Language dominance test (Bailey 37)

Yun-Pi Yuan 4 Diagnostic Test To identify both the learner’s strengths and weaknesses. To help to understand the student and provide necessary help or avoid repetition. Can be combined with progress tests. May sometimes be indistinguishable from placement tests

Yun-Pi Yuan 5 Progress Test To find out how well the learners are doing with the course content/material As part of an ongoing assessment procedure during the course of instruction Must be very closely tied to the course content E.g., tests, quizzes

Yun-Pi Yuan 6 Achievement Test (Attainment Test) Directly related to lang. courses; to determine how successful individual students or courses have been in achieving objectives (also Brown 48; Bailey 39) Test content: based on the course content, syllabus, textbooks and course objectives. Can be further divided into:  Final achievement test: final examination  Progress achievement test: midterm examination or quizzes

Yun-Pi Yuan 7 External Examination To select people:  Screening/admissions tests To assign students to classes at different levels:  Placement tests To find out about language ability:  Proficiency tests To find out about potential talent or capacity for learning:  Aptitude tests

Yun-Pi Yuan 8 Screening/Admissions Test To provide info. about whether a candidate is likely to succeed in a particular program (Bailey 38) A proficiency test is sometimes used as an admissions test.  E.g., TOEFL

Yun-Pi Yuan 9 Placement Test To correctly place a student into an appropriate class/course or level. Group students according to their ability.

Yun-Pi Yuan 10 Proficiency Test Definition of proficiency: (Bailey 37; Br0wn 44) Test on general overall language ability: not focused on one particular course. Almost always summative and norm- referenced. Language proficiency test: TOEFL  To see if the test taker has sufficient command of the language.  Regardless of any previous training.

Yun-Pi Yuan 11 Aptitude Test To determine a learner’s potential talent or capacity for learning languages Does not test one’s skill in a particular language—rather it is intended to assess a person’s ability to learn any language

Yun-Pi Yuan 12 Three Contrasting Pairs of Testing Concepts Direct vs. Indirect Testing Discrete-Point vs. Integrative Testing Discrete-Point vs. Integrative Testing Subjective vs. Objective Testing

Yun-Pi Yuan 13 Direct vs. Indirect Testing Direct Testing  Requiring testees to perform precisely the skill which we wish to measure; straight forward testing of a particular ability (e.g., using a composition test to measure the test taker’s writing ability). Indirect Testing  Testing one ability indirectly (e.g. testing a person’s writing ability by using an error identification test).

Yun-Pi Yuan 14 Discrete-Point vs. Integrative Testing Discrete-Point Testing  Testing only one element at a time, item by item.  Almost all the discrete-point tests are also indirect tests.  e.g., mutlitple-choice test on a grammatical point Integrative Testing  Testing several fields/skills at the same time; requiring testees to combine many language elements in the completion of a task (and tend to be a direct test)  e.g., cloze, dictation

Yun-Pi Yuan 15 Subjective vs. Objective Based on the SCORING method of a test Objective  Answers are decided and set prior to test taking; no human judgment required  e.g., multiple-choice questions Subjective  Human judgment involved  e.g., composition tests