Testing, Assessing, and Teaching

TESTING
TEST = a method of measuring a person’s ability,
knowledge, or performance in a given domain
a WAY.., HOW TO DO…Techniques, Strategy,
method Process, Procedures, …with characteristics of
Structured, Explicit
Instruments/tool to grade…, Specific
measure
Student’s Level of Competence
Individual Skill, Competence
individual ability, knowledge
Background experience
performance Ability in performing language
Specific area, -Reading,
given domain
Speaking, Listening, Writing,…
ASSESSING
 TEST= is prepared administrative procedures that
occurs at identifiable times.
 ASSESSMENT= is an ongoing process.
example:
-student responds to a question assessed by:
-offers a comment -teacher
-tries out a new word -himself
-tries out a structure -other students
- makes essay, listens to recorder
TEACHING
-Teacher-students interaction
-Students must have the freedom to experiment
-Students try out their own hypotheses
-Freedom to practice their skills in a classroom without
being formally graded
-No teacher’s judgment in terms of their trials and errors

TEACHING=the opportunities for learners to listen, think,

take risk, set goals, process feedback from the teacher
and then recycle through the skills that they are trying to
master.
DIAGRAM teaching goal skill,
competence,
interaction
performance

TEACHING
assessing goal improvement
feedback

reflection
(more informal tool)
ASSESSING
evaluation
(analytical tool
resulted values for
feedback)

TEST
testing goal level/grade
measure
(formal tool)
goal judgment
(passed or
failed)
PROPOSED DIAGRAM

TEACHING

ASSESSING

EVALUATION

TEST
DIAGRAM
Class “A”
Class “B”

TEACHING TEACHING

ASSESSING ASSESSING
compare

TEST
TEST

EVALUATION
INFORMAL AND FORMAL ASSESSMENT
 INFORMAL ASSESSMENT:
- It is designed to elicit performance without recording
results and making a fixed judgments about a student’s
competence.
- Example:
- At the end of continuum are marginal comments on
paper, responding to draft of an essay, advice of how to
better pronounce a word, suggestion for strategy,
showing how to modify a better note-taking to better
remember of the lecture contents.
INFORMAL AND FORMAL ASSESSMENT
 FORMAL ASSESSMENT
-exercise specifically designed to tap into storehouse of
skill and knowledge.
-constructed to give an appraisal of students’
achievements.
Is a formal assessment always a test?
ALL TESTS ARE FORMAL ASSESSMENTS
NOT ALL FORMAL ASSESSMENTS ARE TESTS
FORMATIVE AND SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
 FORMATIVE
it deals with the function.
- evaluating students in the process of ‘forming’ their
competencies and skills with the goal of helping them
to continue the growth process
CHARACTERISTICS:
- delivered by the teacher
- feedbacks are internalized by the students
- eyed toward the future continuation
- informal
FORMATIVE AND SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
 SUMMATIVE
It aims to measure or to summarize what a student has grasped.
- A summation of what a student has learned implies
looking back and taking stock of how well that student
has accomplished objectives.
NORM-REFERENCED AND CRITERION-REFERENCED TEST
 Norm-Referenced Tests
Each test-taker’s score is interpreted in relation to a mean
(average score), median (middle score), standard
deviation (extend of variance in scores), and/or percentile
rank.
The purpose is to place test-takers along a mathematical
continuum in rank order.
Scores are usually reported back to the test-taker in the form of
a numerical score. (230 out of 300, 84%, etc.)
Typical of these tests are standardized tests like SAT or TOEFL.
These tests are intended to be administered to large audiences,
with results efficiently disseminated to test takers.
They must have fixed, predetermined responses in a format
that can be scored quickly at minimum expense.
Money and efficiency are primary concerns in these tests.
 Criterion-Referenced Tests
 They are designed to give test-takers feedback, usually in
the form of grades, on specific course or lesson objectives.
Tests that involve the students in only one class, and are
connected to a curriculum, are Criterion-Referenced
Tests.
Much time and effort on the part of the teacher are
required to deliver useful, appropriate feedback to
students.
 The distribution of students’ scores across a continuum
may be of little concern as long as the instrument
assesses appropriate objectives.
As opposed to standardized, large scale testing with its
emphasis on classroom-based testing, Criterion-
Referenced
 Testing is of more prominent interest than Norm-
Referenced Testing.
APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE TESTING
 1950’s an era of behaviorism-----testing focused on
linguistic elements such as the phonological,
grammatical, and lexical contrast between two
languages
 1970-1980’s era of communicative theories----testing
focused on the whole communicative event.
 Today-----testing focused on authentic and valid
instruments that stimulate real world interaction.
DISCRETE-POINT AND INTEGRATIVE
TESTING
 DISCRETE-POINT TESTING
constructed on the assumption that language can
be broken down into its component parts and
those parts can be tested successfully.
e.g. of skill components:
listening, speaking, reading, writing
e.g. of unit of language:
phonology, graphology, morphology,
lexicon, syntax, discourse
DISCRETE-POINT AND INTEGRATIVE
TESTING
INTEGRATIVE TESTING
(Oller, 1979) argued that language competence is
unified set of interacting abilities that can not be
tested separately.

Communicative competence is so global and requires

such integration that it can not be captured in additive
tests of grammar, reading, vocabulary, etc.
Examples: cloze test, dictation
COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TESTING
 In order for a particular language test to be useful for
its intended purposes, test performance must correspond
in demonstrable ways to language use in non-test situations.
 Integrative tests such as cloze only tell us about a candidate’s
linguistic competence. They do not tell us anything directly
about a student’s performance ability (Knowledge about a
language, not the use of language)
 Communicative Language testing presented challenges to
test designers because they began to identify the real-world
tasks that language learners were called upon to perform.
 COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TESTING
 But, it was clear that the contexts for those tasks were
extraordinarily widely varied and that the sampling
of tasks for any one assessment procedure needed to be
validated by what language users actually do with
language.
 As a result, the assessment field became more and
more concerned with the authenticity of tasks and the
genuineness of texts.
PERFORMANCE-BASED ASSESSMENT
 In language courses and programs around the world,
test designers are now tackling this new and more
student-centered agenda (Anderson, 2001, 2002).
 Instead of just offering paper-and pencil selective
response tests of a plethora of separate items,
performance-based assessment of language typically
involves oral production, written production,
open-ended responses, integrated performance
(across skill areas), group performance, and other
interactive tasks.
 PERFORMANCE-BASED ASSESSMENT

 Such assessment is time-consuming and therefore

expensive, but those extra efforts are paying off in the
form of more direct testing because students are
assessed as they perform actual or simulated real-
world tasks
 Computer-based testing
 Some computer-based tests are small-scale. Others
are standardized, large scale tests (e.g. TOEFL) in
which thousands of test-takers are involved.
 A type of computer-based test (Computer-
Adaptive Test / CAT) is available.
 In CAT, the test-taker sees only one question at a
time, and the computer scores each question
before selecting the next one.
 Test-takers cannot skip questions, and, once they
have entered and confirmed their answers, they
cannot return to questions.
 Computer-based testing
 Advantages of Computer-Based Testing
Classroom-based testing
Self-directed testing on various aspects of a
language (vocabulary, grammar, discourse, etc)
Practice for upcoming high-stakes standardized
tests
 Some individualization, in the case of CATs.
Scored electronically for rapid reporting of
results.
 Computer-based testing
 Disadvantages of Computer-Based Testing
Lack of security and the possibility of cheating in
unsupervised computerized tests.
Home-grown quizzes may be mistaken for
validates assessments.
Open-ended responses are less likely to appear
because of need for human scorers.
The human interactive element is absent.
 An overall summary
Tests
Assessment is an integral part of the teaching-
learning cycle.
In an interactive, communicative curriculum,
assessment is almost constant.
Tests can provide authenticity, motivation, and
feedback to the learner.
Tests are essential components of a successful
curriculum and learning process.
 An Overall summary
Assessments
 Periodic assessments can increase motivation as
milestones of student progress
 Appropriate assessments aid in the reinforcement and
retention of information.
 Assessments can confirm strength and pinpoint areas
needing further work.
 Assessments provide a sense of periodic closure to
modules within a curriculum.
 Assessments promote student autonomy by
encouraging students’ self-evaluation of their
progress.
 Assessment can aid in evaluating teaching
effectiveness.