Language Assessment

DESIGNING CLASSROOM LANGUAGE TESTS A. TEST TYPES The first task you will face in designing a test for your students is to determine the purpose for the test. Defining your purpose will help you choose the right kind of test, and it will also help you to focus on the specific objectives of the test.We will look first at two test types that you will probably not have many opportunities to create·as a classroom teacher-language aptitude tests and language profiCiency tests-and three types that you will almost certainly need to create-placement tests, diagnostic tests, and achievement tests. 1. Language Aptitude Tests A language aptitude test is designed to measure capacity or general ability to learn a foreign language and ultimate success in that undertaking. Language aptitude tests are ostensibly designed to apply to the classroom learning of any language. Instead, attempts to measure language aptitude more often provide learners with information about their preferred styles and...

PRINCIPLES OF LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT PRACTICALITY An effective test is practical. This means A test that is prohibitively expensive is impractical. A test of  language proficiency that takes a students five hours to complete is impractical-it consumes more time (and money) than necessary to accomplish its objective. A test that requires individual one-on-one proctocoring is impractical for a group of several hudred tet-takers and only a handful of examiners. A test that takwes a few minutes for student to take and several hours for an examiner to evaluate is impractical for most classroom situations. A test that can be scored only by computer is impractical if the test takes place a thousand miles away from the nearest computers. RELIABILITY A reliable test is consistent and dependable. If you give the same test to the same student or matched students on two different occasions, the test should yield similar results. The issue of reliability of a test may best be addressed by c...