Lesson No.

& Title Lesson 3: LANGUAGE TESTING: Approaches and Techniques

Learning Outcomes At the end of the term students must have;

1. explored the different definitions of concepts related to

language and literature
assessment.
2. identified the types of assessment and evaluation tools.
3. discussed the various language test techniques.
4. described test construction, test items and how they are
constructed.
5. explained the meaning of a good tests’ criteria.

Time Frame 3 days

Introduction Language Testing is the practice and study of evaluating the proficiency of
an individual in using a particular language effectively.

In the context of language teaching and learning, 'assessment' refers to

the act of collecting information and making judgments about a language
learner's knowledge of a language and ability to use it.
Activity

Analysis

A.) Approaches to Language Testing

Approximately, language tests can be categorized according to
four main approaches to testing. They are the essay-translation approach,
the structuralist approach, the integrative approach and the
communicative approach.

1.) The Essay-Translation Approach

a.) Characteristics and types of Tests
1.) This approach is commonly referred to as the pre- scientific
stage of language testing.
2.) No special skill or expertise in testing is required.
3.) Tests usually consist of essay writing, translation, and grammatical
analysis.
4.) Tests have a heavy literary and cultural bias.
5.) Public examinations resulting from the tests using this approach
sometimes have an oral component at the upper intermediate and
advance levels.
b.) Strengths
1.) This approach is easy to follow because teachers will simply use their
subjective judgment.
2.) The essay-translation approach may be used for testing any level of
examinees.
3.) The model of tester can easily be modified based on the essentials of
the tests.
c.) Weaknesses
1.) Subjective judgment of teachers tends to be biased.
2.) As mentioned, the tests have a heavy literary and cultural bias.

2.) The Structural Approach

a.) Characteristics and types of Tests
1.) This approach views that language learning is chiefly concerned with a
systematic acquisition of a set of habits.
2.) The structuralist approach involves structural linguistics which stresses
the importance of constructive analysis and the need to identify and
measure the learner’s mastery of the separate elements of the target
language such as phonology, vocabulary and grammar.
3.) Testing the skills of listening, speaking,, reading, and writing is
separate from another as much as possible.
4.) The psychometric approach to measurement with its emphasis on
reliability and objectivity forms an integral part of structural testing.
b.) Strengths
1.) In testing students’ capability, this approach may objectively and
surely be used by testers.
2.) Many forms of tests can be covered in the test in a short time.
3.) Using this approach in testing will help students find their strengths
and weaknesses in every skill they study.
c.) Weaknesses
1.) It tends to be a complicated job for teachers to prepare questionnaires
using this approach.
2.) This approach considers measuring non-integrated skills more than
integrated skills.

3.) The Integrative Approach

a.) Characteristics and types of Tests.
1.) This approach involves the testing of language in context and is thus
concerned primarily with meaning and the total communicative effect of
discourse.
2.) Integrative tests are concerned with a global view of proficiency.
3.) Integrative testing involves functional language but not the use of
functional language.
4.) The use of cloze test, dictation, oral interview, translation and essay
writing are included in many integrated tests.
b.) Strengths
1.) The approach to meaning and the total communicative effect of
discourse will be very useful for students in testing.
2.) This approach can view students’ proficiency with a global view.
3.) A model cloze test used in this approach measures the reader’s ability
to decode interrupted or mutilated messages by making the most
acceptable substitutions from all the contextual clues available.
4.) Dictation, another type using this approach, was regarded solely as a
means of measuring students’ skills of listening comprehension.
c. Weaknesses
Even if many think that measuring integrated skills is better, sometimes
there is a need to consider the importance of measuring skills based on
students, need, such as writing only, speaking only, etc.

4.) The Communicative Approach

a.) Characteristics and types of Tests.
1.) Communicative tests are concerned primarily with how language is
used in communication.
2.) Language use is often emphasized to the exclusion of language usage.
3.) The attempt to measure different language skills in communicative
tests is based on a view of language referred to as the divisibility
hypothesis.
4.) The test content should totally be relevant for a particular group of
examinees and the tests set should relate to real-life situation.
5.) Communicative testing introduces the concept of qualitative modes of
assessment in preference to quantitative modes of assessment.
b.) Strengths
1.) Communicative tests are able to measure all integrated skills of
students.
2.) The tests using this approach face students in real life so it will be very
useful for them.

3.) Because a communicative test can measure all language skills, it can
help students in getting the score.
4.) Detailed statements of each performance level serve to increase the
reliability of the scoring by enabling the examiner to make decisions
according to carefully drawn-up and well-established criteria.
c.) Weaknesses
1.) Unlike the structuralist approach, this approach does not emphasize
learning structural grammar, yet it may be difficult to achieve
communicative competence without a considerable mastery of the
grammar of a language.
2.) It is possible for cultural bias to affect the reliability of the tests being
administered.

B. Test Techniques

1.) Direct versus Indirect Testing

Direct Testing- it requires the candidate to perform precisely the skill that
the test wishes to measure.
§ To know how well candidates can write compositions, get them to
write compositions.
§ To know how well they pronounce a language, get them to speak.
§ Is easier to carry out when it is intended to measure the productive
skills of speaking and writing.

*Direct testing has a number of attractions. 1.) Provide the

abilities that should be assessed is clear, it is relatively straightforward to
create the conditions which will elicit the behavior on which judgment
will be based. 2.) The assessment and interpretation of students’
performance are also quite straightforward and; there is likely to be a
helpful backwash effect.

Indirect Testing
§ Attempts to measure the abilities that underlie the skills in which the
test is interested.
§ It contains underlined items which the student needs to identify as
erroneous or inappropriate in formal Standard English.

* It is worth mentioning that some tests are referred to as semi-

direct. The most obvious examples of these are speaking tests where
candidates respond to tape-recorded stimuli, with their own responses
being recorded and later scored. These tests are semi-direct in the sense
that, although not direct, they stimulate direct testing.

2. Discrete Point versus Integrative Testing

Discrete- a completely discrete-point item would test simply one point or
objective such as testing for the meaning of a word in isolation.
Discrete Point Testing- refers to the testing of one element at a time, item
by item.

Integrative Testing- by contrast, requires the candidate to combine many

language elements in the completion of a task. This might involve writing
a composition, making notes while listening to a lecture, taking a
dictation, or completing a cloze passage.

-Integrative Test refers to an integrative item that would test more than
one point or objective at a time. (e.g., comprehension of words, and
ability to use them correctly in context).
*Sometimes an integrative item is really more a procedure than
an item, as in the case of a free composition, which could test a number
of objectives; for example, use of appropriate vocabulary, use of
sentences level discourse, organization, statement of thesis and supporting
evidence.

3. Norm-referenced versus Criterion-referenced Testing

Norm-referenced Test- student’s scores are interpreted relative to each
other in a normal distribution scheme (bell curve). The idea is to spread
the students out on a continuum of knowledge/ability in order to
facilitate proficiency and placement decisions.
Criterion-referenced Test- measure student ability against a
predetermined standard, e.g. the learning objectives of a specific course
or unit of a course.
- This test is by-far the most commonly used by teachers in language
courses, as they are used to measure achievement and to diagnose
strengths and weaknesses.

4. Objective versus Subjective Testing

Objective Testing
§ No judgment is required on the part of the scorer
§ Objective test-is objective in that there is only one right answer.
Subjective Testing
§ Judgment is required.
§ Refers to a free composition which may be more subjective in nature if
the scorer is not looking for any one right answer, but rather for a series
of factors (creativity, style, cohesion, and coherence, grammar, and
mechanics).

* Objectivity in scoring is sought after by many testers, not for itself, but
 for the greater reliability it brings. In general, the less subjective the
scoring, the greater agreement there will be between two different
scorers.

Application

Conclusion
"It's not about how bad you want it, it's about how hard you are
willing to work for it."
Lesson No. & Title Lesson 4: TEST CONSTRUCTION
Learning Objectives

Time Frame 2 days

Introduction Most tests are a form of summative assessment; that is, they measure
students’ performance on a given task. (For more information on
summative assessment, see the CITL resource on formative and
summative assessment.)
McKeachie (2010) only half-jokes that “Unfortunately, it appears to be
generally true that the examinations that are the easiest to construct are
the most difficult to grade.” The inverse is also true: time spent
constructing a clear exam will save time in the grading of it.
Application

Conclusion “The harder you work for something, the greater you’ll feel when you
achieve it.”
Lesson No. & Title Lesson 5: QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
Learning Objectives

Time Frame 3 days

Introduction Quantitative analysis (QA) is a technique that uses mathematical
and statistical modeling, measurement, and research to understand
behavior. Quantitative analysts represent a given reality in terms of a
numerical value.
Application

Conclusion “ It’s going to be hard, but hard does not mean impossible.”
 References

A. Book/s

Go, M., and Posecion, O. (2010) Language and Literature Assessment: A Comprehensive Guide

B. Internet Sources

http://ziajoycortez.blogspot.com/2014/09/language-testing-approaches-and.html

https://citl.indiana.edu/teaching-resources/assessing-student-learning/test-construction/index.html

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/q/quantitativeanalysis